Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [10]
Borsk Fey’lya, leader of the New Republic, screwed his face up into a snarl. “It is to be expected that some people cower and cling to the strongest force around. We saw plenty of that under the Empire.”
Leia shook her head. “The Yuuzhan Vong are much worse than the Empire ever was.”
“From your perspective, Leia. The Empire dealt with nonhumans as dispassionately as you describe these Yuuzhan Vong doing with humans. Now you know what we faced.”
She let one quick guffaw contract her belly, then gave the Bothan a smile full of teeth. “They destroyed my homeworld, Borsk.”
“Ah, yes, we are yet again reminded . . .”
Borsk Fey’lya’s remark died as Elegos A’Kla, a Caamasi, reached out with a hand and settled it over the Bothan leader’s forearm. Leia saw muscles bunch in Elegos’s arm, and the resulting start from Fey’lya.
The Caamasi’s voice remained even. “While our fatigue may shorten our tempers, we must be mindful of our duty here.” He inclined his head toward the other human in the room. “I notice that General Antilles seems to have a datapad full of notes.”
Wedge Antilles looked up and blinked his brown eyes, then smiled. “I’ve been looking at things the same way I used to look at Imperial installations and moves, and I’ve got some basic questions that need answering.”
Borsk Fey’lya rubbed at his freed forearm. “Such as?”
“Well, first, Sernpidal. They drew a moon down into the planet, setting off a hideous cataclysm. We know we didn’t get all the people off the world. If you check with planetary physicists, civilization would be completely disrupted, and if all living creatures haven’t been killed off completely, they’d be reduced to scavenging for whatever they could find.”
Fey’lya sniffed. “The Empire destroyed Alderaan, as Leia has pointed out a time or two. Sernpidal was meant to be a message to us.”
Wedge shook his head. “Doesn’t make any sense that way. Remember, they used some sort of creature to pull the moon from orbit. The resources that must have gone into growing a beast of that size and power have to be incredible.”
Elegos raised a gold-furred finger. “How can you be certain of that, General?”
“We’ve had reports of the sort of ships and weapons they use. While their propulsion and defenses rely on creatures that can manipulate gravity in some form or another, none of them have but a fraction of the power that it would have taken to pull a moon from orbit. If creating that sort of creature was easy, the ships and defenses we’ve seen would have been vastly more powerful than they have been.”
Elbows on the table, Wedge pressed his hands together, fingertip to fingertip. “We know the creature on Sernpidal was killed before the moon crashed down. It did not escape before the moon hit; and since disrupting the orbit made the crash inevitable, it’s safe to suggest the Yuuzhan Vong never intended to recover the thing. They considered the result worth the cost of the means necessary to create it. This tells me that they have something else going on at Sernpidal.”
Traest frowned. “I understand your reasoning, Wedge, but your model is based on a profitable return on an investment. What if they don’t think that way? What if such a creature was considered, um, unclean because of what it did? Perhaps they didn’t recover it because they would have been tainted by it.”
“That’s possible.” Wedge shrugged. “If it is, if their thought patterns are so alien to what we know, then anticipating them and countering their movements is going to be impossible.”
Leia scratched at the back of her neck. “While I think the point about expanding our view of the Yuuzhan Vong is important, the sort of facilities my brother found on Belkadan suggests that they actually do need to use the resources of the worlds they’ve taken to replenish or reinforce the things we’ve destroyed. Toward that end I do wonder what they’re doing with Sernpidal’s