Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order_ Dark Tide 02_ Ruin - Michael A. Stackpole [50]
Ganner scratched at the back of his neck. “You want a covert run to kidnap a couple of cadre members from their beds?”
“No, that will give them evidence that we’ve been here. I have another idea.” Corran smiled. “The next time they’re out there running a cadre through a war game, we’ll be there, too. We snag some of the cadre and get out, letting the warfare cover our escape and the fact that a couple of bodies are missing.”
“Are you just choosing to ignore the fact that we’ll be on the same killing ground with Yuuzhan Vong warriors and their little surrogates?” Jacen shook his head. “Kind of heightens our chance of discovery, doesn’t it?”
Ganner straightened up and rested a hand on Jacen’s shoulder. “He knows that, Jacen, but those chances are high no matter where we are on this rock. We know they’re there, but they won’t know we’re there until too late.”
“And if they figure it out, Ganner? What then?”
The handsome Jedi smiled coldly. “They’ll learn that as deadly as their experimental troops may seem, they’re nothing compared to a trio of Jedi.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Shedao Shai watched the gold-downed Caamasi from a high window. The New Republic’s envoy, clad only in a brief loincloth, struggled beneath the burden of carrying broken blocks of ferrocrete from one side of a courtyard to another. The task was mindless, providing for Elegos a perfect opportunity to think of nothing save the pain wracking his back and shoulders, knotting his thighs, making his feet burn. The alien had started the day standing tall, but now, as dusk came on, he hunched over his burdens and moved them along one staggered step at a time.
The Yuuzhan Vong leader turned from the window and nodded at his subordinate. “Yes, Deign Lian, I heard you. The New Republic’s forces were able to study our shipwomb at Sernpidal. I do not find this as great a concern as you do.”
“Master, I would ask you to reconsider all I have laid before you.” Deign Lian hid behind a mask and was bolder for it, this Shedao knew. He, too, wore a mask—one that was more terrible in aspect than that of his aide—but it concealed a face that could make Deign tremble. “Master, the ship we identified at Sernpidal was the same one that was at Garqi. Their scouting run there was aborted when we attacked, but not so at Sernpidal.”
“Not so because we did not attack.” Shedao Shai raised his clawed left hand and slowly curled it into a fist, driving his talons into his palm. Ligaments popped deliciously, and he perceived a slight shudder running through his aide’s shoulders. “Have we determined yet how their ship was able to jump into the heart of the system? There are limitations to their capabilities, are there not?”
“Shapers have analyzed patterns and have determined what we believe to be the parameters for their travel. We will be able to pinpoint these places in the future and defend them.”
Shedao’s hand opened, and he ran his thumb across his bloody fingertips. The wounds in his hand had already closed, so he smeared the blood on his right shoulder and down across his chest. “Would not it be more effective for our shapers to study the infidels’ machines than to guess about or work from information that might be incomplete?”
Deign’s eyes widened, expanding beyond the size of the mask’s holes. “Master, to do that would soil them. They would be sullied and tainted. They would have to atone for such blasphemy.”
“Then they atone.” Shedao Shai snarled and turned back to the window. “How is it that those who create the Embrace of Pain, modify and refine it, fail to use it? How is