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She nodded, then took a deep breath. “I’ll try. It’s hard.”

“The Yuuzhan Vong belief in revenge is very strong,” Harrar said.

“I’m aware of that,” Tahiri said. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel right to fight it.”

“Anger always makes you feel good at the time,” Corran said. “Makes you feel bigger than yourself, makes you feel that everything you do is justified. But it’s a trap.”

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she looked calmer. “Thank you,” she said.

“Good.” He scratched his beard. It was no longer neatly trimmed, but sprawling all over his face. “We didn’t see the Prophet or anyone else at the hyperdrive assembly.”

“He might have easily slipped past us,” Harrar said. “While we were searching for a communications device.”

“You’re right. We’d better go back.”

It was beginning to rain as they swept the area around the vanes, and then entered the repair complex, lightsabers ready. They didn’t find anyone at the entry level.

But they did find the turbolifts jammed.

“He’s down there,” Corran said.

“Well, we can’t wait for him to come back up,” Tahiri said. “By then, it’ll be too late.”

“Do you have any idea what he intends to do?” Corran asked.

“None,” Tahiri said.

“Nen Yim once spoke of protocols already in the possession of shapers that seemed intended for use against the biology of this planet,” Harrar said. “I’ve no doubt she developed weapons of her own, as well.”

“Are you saying Nen Yim planned to destroy Sekot?” Corran asked.

“I think she initially believed, like Shimrra, that Zonama Sekot was a threat to our people,” the priest said. “As did I. But I believe that both of us came to a different conclusion.” He sighed. “I wish I could have spoken to her about her new discovery.”

“She said she had the solution to all our problems,” Tahiri said.

Corran noticed her eyes were damp. “Maybe she thought that solution was killing Sekot,” he ventured.

Tahiri shook her head. “I don’t think so, Master.”

“Right, well, there’s only one way to really find out, isn’t there?” Corran peered down the shaft. “There ought to be a manual way down, in case the power cuts out, but I don’t see anything.”

“They probably use some sort of flitter or hoverlift,” Tahiri pointed out. “That’s too far down to go by ladder.”

“Yes, it is,” Corran said, eyes still searching. “But I think I do see a way. It’s just not one I like.”

To Nom Anor’s delight, the search was not nearly as long as he feared it would be. In fact, the object of his search was so large and obvious that he overlooked it at first.

In the center of the chamber was a knob about twice as tall as he was, and about the same in diameter. At first glance, it seemed to be wrapped in some sort of rough fabric, but a closer inspection showed that it was heavily wound in very fine threads. At the base of the thing, the threads spread out like fine roots and dug into the damp, exposed stone of the floor.

He’d found it, as easily as that. The threads were precisely like the filaments of the neural net on the ship. There were just more of them—many more.

He quickly unpacked the incubator, a wet, fleshy device about the size of his hand. He linked it to the qahsa and accessed a protocol that was both a genetic and developmental blueprint. A stream of chemical and telepathic data moved from the qahsa to the incubator. The latter quivered and began to vibrate ever so slightly. Nom Anor allowed himself a smile. The incubator was already transforming genetic blueprints into living organisms. The result would be a soldier virus that would invade the neural integuments and corrupt their ability to carry data. The result should be a feedback explosion in the core. That would not only render the planet unable to travel, but sear a third of the biosphere away, as well. If that did not kill Sekot, it should at least distract it long enough for him to get away. Shimrra could send a small number of ships to finish the job.

He had only to hide the incubator and leave.

He pushed experimentally at the filaments. They were too tough to break, but they pushed readily