Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [218]
Nom Anor glanced from the first lock to the second, then forced a relieved sigh. “Thank you for catching my error, Jacen Solo. What with leading the Shamed Ones in rebellion and witnessing Onimi’s death, I was momentarily confused—”
Han drew his blaster. “Save it.”
Nom Anor raised his hands in surrender. “It was an innocent mistake! Now isn’t the time to argue!” He risked a step toward Han. “We must board the escape craft before this vessel—”
Nom Anor lunged forward.
“His eye!” Jaina yelled.
Poison spewed from the plaeryin bol. Han was too encumbered to twist himself or Jaina out of its path. In a blur, Jacen interposed himself between Nom Anor and his father, and took the lethal gush full in the face.
Even better than hoped for! Nom Anor thought. With Jacen out of the way, he could easily incapacitate the others. With his right hand, he reached for the little finger of his left. At the same time, he steeled himself for a dash across the grotto. It would take a moment for the knockout gas released by the false digit to reach full effect, and that moment constituted all the time he had to reach the escape craft lock and seal it behind him.
In the instant his hands met, he heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber.
And in the interminable instant that followed, he watched Leia’s energy blade sever his left hand at the wrist, and watched himself falling to his knees in shock and searing pain. Worse, it was Jacen who came to his side, weakened by the plaeryin bol’s venom, but very much alive.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” the young Jedi said.
Nom Anor clasped his stump of forearm in his right hand. “Didn’t it, Jeedai?” He smirked. “Even if words from you kept me from execution or life imprisonment, what course was left to me? Just as my atheism renders me unfit for Yuuzhan Vong society, my utter contempt for the Force makes me unfit to live among any species that recognize it. I’ve been a stranger to all worlds. Even Yu’shaa, leader of the Shamed Ones, was just another role for me—another lie.” A rueful laugh escaped him. “Ooglith masquers can’t hide everything, Jeedai.”
On the other side of the grotto, Jaina was pressing her hand against the lock’s sensor organ, to no apparent effect.
“It responds only to the flesh of Yuuzhan Vong,” Nom Anor said. He felt Jacen’s eyes on him.
“Then we’ll use your severed hand,” Jacen said.
Nom Anor blew out his breath and rose to his feet. Crossing the grotto, he pressed the palm of his right hand to the bulkhead sensor. “Get inside,” he said when the lock dilated. “The landing craft will scarcely outlive the vessel that birthed it.”
Han and Leia helped their daughter into the yorik-trema; then Han reappeared, blaster in hand, to usher his son aboard. He stood at the lock for a long moment, coming to his own decision. Nom Anor watched Han’s jaw bunch with fury, then relax. In the end, Han lowered his blaster and gestured for Nom Anor to enter the craft.
Instead, Nom Anor took a backward step and shook his head. “If I’m clear on one point, it’s this: I want no part of whatever new order is in the making. I will die here with Onimi, for we have been two of a kind from the start.”
With that, he shoved Han back through the lock and pressed his right hand to the bulkhead, launching the craft into space.
* * *
Nas Choka paced back and forth in front of Yammka’s transparency, his troubled gaze fixed on Shimrra’s vessel as it climbed out of Yuuzhan’tar’s reach in fits and starts.
“Ralroost wallows in our sights,” the tactician reported.
“Shimrra approaches,” the Supreme Commander said from beneath his cognition hood, “though he still refrains from communicating with us.”
Nas Choka traded glances with the tactician before replying. “Give him time.”
He had no sooner swung back to the transparency to track the vessel’s course than it began to stutter in flight and enter into an end-over-end roll.
“The dovin basal has failed!” the