Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [100]
Corran climbed off the stairs and headed up the ramp, his lightsaber still lit. Wedge came close on his heels, with a blaster in his right hand. Save for some bioluminescent lighting, the shuttle remained dark, with the lightsaber’s blaze deepening shadows and stretching them into grotesques as Corran waved it about.
Throughout, the shuttle panels had been pulled open and smashed. Weird Yuuzhan Vong growths, some like roots, others just coral spikes, decorated the interior hull. They spread out in an ivylike pattern, but even as the two men entered the ship, the growths began to wither and sag. The external sheath on the long tendrils split, allowing black fluid to ooze out.
Corran shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“I do. All that stuff was probably scanning us while we were scanning the shuttle. It was sending back information for as long as it took for the hull to be opened. Then it started dying, and dying so fast we aren’t going to get anything useful out of analysis.” Wedge pulled a piece of root from a wall, and it dissolved in his hand. “Something is metabolizing this stuff very fast. It’s like having a compost pile decaying at light speed.”
“Well, if that’s the message Shedao Shai wants to send me, I don’t know how to take it. I mean, I’m not the Jedi who was a farm boy, and I’m not planning on dying that fast, thanks.” Corran held his lightsaber high to spread the light out. “Wait, what’s this?”
Up toward the front of the passenger compartment, flush against the bulkhead that backed up to the pilot’s compartment, sat a large and semiovoid shape, lying on its side. It had a seam running around the middle parallel to the deck and looked very much to Corran like the shell of a sea creature. It had a rough tan exterior, with stripes running from the spine to fan out along the front edge. Another of the stony growths with spines sealed the seam at the front.
As the two men approached it down the aisle between banks of seats, the villip perched on top of it took on the features of Elegos. Though the protoplasmic ball lacked his golden down, it did take on a yellow hue and even had purple streaks around the eyes. It looked much akin to a static holograph where the lasers had been misaligned—recognizable, but only barely.
The villip began to speak in Elegos’s voice. “There is much I would tell you about the Yuuzhan Vong, but I have little time. Shedao Shai has taught me much. The Yuuzhan Vong are not mindless predators, but a complex species whose philosophy is much the antithesis of ours. I have not discovered the origin of their hatred for machines, but in other things I believe there is room for compromise. My mission to the Yuuzhan Vong has been difficult, but not fruitless, and I have hopes for continued progress.”
The image molded onto the villip smiled. “In our many discussions, Shedao Shai was especially intrigued by the tale of Grand Admiral Thrawn studying the art of the enemy and gleaning understanding from it. For you, Corran Horn, Shedao Shai has great respect. He knows you were at Bimmiel. The two warriors slain there were kin of his. He knows you were at Garqi. He believes the two of you will meet in the future, so he has prepared for you the enclosed, so you may study his handiwork as he has studied yours.”
“Every day here, my understanding of the Yuuzhan Vong grows, as does their understanding of us.” Elegos’s eyes softened. “It is my hope that I will be again with you, soon, in a time of peace. Please give my love to my daughter and friends. Fear not for me, Corran. Though difficult, this mission is vital if there is to be any chance at peace at all.”
At the message’s conclusion, the villip condensed back down into a ball, then rolled off to the left and dropped to the decking.
Corran looked over at Wedge and shivered. “I don’t think I like Shedao Shai thinking the folks on this side of the firing line