Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [11]
Borsk Fey’lya sat back in his chair, letting the lights from the map dapple his fur with golden highlights. “I understand well the value of learning as much as we can about our foe, but my concern, as leader of the New Republic, is containment of this scourge. I assume, Admiral, that you have redeployed forces to adequately contain these Yuuzhan Vong?”
Traest and Wedge exchanged bemused glances, then the younger Bothan nodded. “As far as it is possible, I have done that, yes. We are staging from Agamar and sending patrols out along known transit routes to gather in any refugees. We organize them into convoys, which we bring to Agamar, load to capacity, and send to the Core. So far we’re not seeing any more Yuuzhan Vong aggression, but our patrols are heavily armed and should acquit themselves well. And we vary the nature of the patrols—their timing, composition, and the like—so planning an ambush would be difficult and very costly for the Yuuzhan Vong.”
Borsk’s violet eyes half lidded. “ ‘As far as it is possible,’ you said.”
“I did. We’re talking here about a vast amount of space. While a computer can draw a very comforting and pleasing map for us to study, this graphic representation really has nothing to do with the reality of space.” Traest punched a few buttons on his own datapad, and the map shifted radically.
The worlds remained in place and retained their color, but instead of the shading around them, each world sprouted tendrils that linked it to the other worlds. Some were long and looping, others short and direct. As Leia watched, some blinked out of existence, while others stretched and new ones were born. What amazed her the most is how interconnected the worlds were, and how the borders on the previous map stood for nothing.
Traest pointed to the new map. “These are the routes that link these worlds together. It’s shifting because as planetary bodies orbit, the transit times between worlds alter. Routes develop breaks that have to be worked around in realspace; and these are just the routes that lead from star to star. If someone wanted to jump into deep space and jump back out, they could hit almost any world from any other world—it would just take a long time, which is militarily impractical. So, setting our military to be able to intercept Yuuzhan Vong forces and drive them back is impossible.”
Borsk frowned darkly. “Then you are suggesting there is nothing we can do to stop them?”
Wedge shook his head vehemently. “No, Chief Fey’lya, not at all. What we are doing is organizing system defenses on the worlds we think they will hit. Our goal is to slow their attacks long enough that we can bring overwhelming forces to bear to drive them back. We all know that forces bent on taking a planet are most vulnerable as they transit from space to surface. If we can hold them up and slow this transition, we have far longer to bring firepower to bear on them. That’s how we’ll stop them.”
“You’re baiting traps for them.”
“Setting traps, yes, but not baiting. We don’t know what they want, so bait is not something we can offer.” Wedge sighed. “This brings us back to the earlier point about not knowing enough about them. I mean, we know they use slaves, we know they hate machines, we know their weapons are all organics, and we know they have a thing about pain; but the significance of any of this has not been assessed.”
“Easy, Wedge.” Leia patted his hand with hers. “I know your frustration. We can detail operations to go out and learn as much as we can. I’m sure Luke will lend us some Jedi for covert runs at worlds, just as they did on Belkadan and Bimmiel.”
“No, no Jedi.” Borsk Fey’lya shook his head. “I won’t have them involved in this.”
Leia looked at him. “What?”
Fey’lya’s face became an impassive mask. “Do not think I do not know the value of the Jedi, Leia. I do remember how