Jedi Dawn – Chapter 17
By Sienn (2001)
Rating (for chapter): NC-17
Protagonists: Luke/Mara
Category: Drama/Action/Angst
Time Frame: 26 A.Y.
Spoilers:
See Chapter 1
Disclaimer:
See Chapter 1
Deep Space, Mezhan Kwaad's Escape Craft
"Liin Kwaad."
Luke's words felt like blaster bolts to Mara. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Leia shaking her head frantically, unconsciously retreating towards her husband. At least the Princess's lightsaber and blaster were still aimed at the two Yuuzhan Vong women.
"What have you done to him?" Han's voice was rough and trembled slightly; whether from shock or from anger Mara couldn't tell. She, for her part, was not able to move, or to get a word out of her mouth.
"You wouldn't understand anyway," the tall Vong woman spat, then smiled. "Now what, infidels? Do you want to stand there all day, aiming your abominable weapons at us?"
"Not at all. We will take him with us and if you're a good girl, we'll not kill you and just give you to your fellows who, I bet, are just now approaching your little vessel." Han smiled amiably, though his eyes, Mara noted, were as cold as Hoth's winter.
His comment caused two totally different reactions on the part of the alien women - while Mezhan Kwaad's eyes widened and she looked as if she was ready to run away, Elan's dark orbs exploded in rage when she jumped to her feet, stepping before her hostage. Luke, for his part, crouched behind her legs, staring at them with big, questioning eyes, his face witness to the fact that he obviously didn't understand a word that was spoken here.
"You won't take him from me. He is my familiar, he belongs to me. You have NO right to take him with you!" the Priestess spat.
"He is not your familiar!" Finally, although it was incredibly difficult, Mara had found her voice again. "He is Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master and MY husband. I have EVERY right to take him with me!" Taking her lightsaber and activating it, Mara stepped closer to Elan. "If you don't step aside NOW, I will have to cut my way free," she said, her voice emotionless.
Han lifted his blaster a little bit more, trying to keep an eye on both Yuuzhan Vong - though, if he had had to guess, he would have said that Kwaad was no danger at the moment. Her forehead furrowed, she seemed to be thinking thoroughly about something and not all too interested in what was going on.
Elan's handsome, exotic face was contorted in an ugly grimace of fear and rage while her eyes were fixed on the shimmering blue blade of energy that came dangerously close to her throat with every moment she hesitated. But she couldn't, WOULDN'T, lose her familiar - not now. She hadn't even had the opportunity to have some time off with him, to explore what he was capable of and how he would get along with fulfilling her wishes. Just before the blade touched her skin, Elan decided to buy herself time and hastily made a step to the side. Liin gave a low squeal and tried to follow her, but the Jedi woman stepped between them, cutting him off from her.
"Good girl," Jade Skywalker murmured towards her before she concentrated on her familiar.
Elan slipped beside Kwaad, shaking her rather rudely. "Get us out of here!"
The Shaper didn't reply, her eyes focused on the Jedi woman who now kneeled down before Skywalker. In Kwaad's head, the thoughts raced. Out there, on the way to them, was a Yuuzhan Vong ship with orders from Tsavong Lah in person. If they were taken, they would be executed, there was no doubt of it. The Priestess might have probably been crazy enough about the shaped Jedi to risk that, but Kwaad knew no such emotions. The only question was how to get them out of this mess without the human man that aimed his weapon at her firing her out of the universe. Now, more than ever, Kwaad would have to use her intelligence....
*~~
Mara felt herself tremble when she kneeled down before Luke's crouching form. His small cry of terror and more than obvious attempt to follow the Yuuzhan Vong priestess had been like a sharp needle pushing straight into her heart.
Now he was pressing himself against the wall, his eyes never leaving her, tracing every movement. His entire body showed his readiness to use the smallest room she'd give him to slip away and return to Elan.
"What have they done to you?" she whispered, shutting her lightsaber off. Trying to suppress the tears that threatened to come, she extended once again a hand, but avoided to touch him, recognising that it frightened him to no end.
"Luke... " she began, her voice failing her when her brain didn't come up with anything she could say. Her husband frowned, giving up his intention to flee and focussing instead on her.
"Liin," he repeated, his gaze searching Elan's who stood some half a meter beside Mara, anxiously following the scene.
Mara was not able to do more than shake her head - her eyes were unsteady, searching his well known, loved features, his eyes, for any sign of HER Luke, but finding none.
"You see?" Elan purred, contentment sounding all too clearly through her voice. Mara's head snapped around, her tear-filled eyes piercing the alien's ones. The Priestess didn't even bother to hide her big grin: "Liin doesn't want to come with you. I'm his Mistress, thus he will stay with me." She added some words in her own tongue and Luke hesitantly pushed his way towards her, Mara giving him room unconsciously. At this very moment, all the hope she had had still left evaporated at once and desperation overcame her. Luke hadn't recognised her. Whatever they'd done to him, it had been successful. He was not Luke Skywalker anymore - he was Liin Kwaad and did WANT to stay with this alien.
"My brother is NO ONE'S slave!" Leia suddenly cried out, her voice as shrill as neither Han nor Mara had ever heard it. Han's finger twitched even more, meanwhile aimed straight at Elan's eyes instead of her stomach. He was not Force-sensitive; he couldn't tell whether there was still something left of his best friend in the being that stood now beside the petite Yuuzhan Vong priestess, uncertainly following the exchanges, his forehead furrowed, the light of the Millennium Falcon playing on the shimmering tattoo. But he would NEVER let him be with her.
"It is too late, Leia," Mara's voice made Han, as well as Leia, gape in surprise and horror. It was tired, defeated - lifeless.
"But..... but you felt it, TOO." Leia stammered, now a desperate edge to her voice. "You FELT his cry for help. I know you felt it. He is still there and he's waiting for our help. You have HEARD how he called for me!"
Mara's eyes rested dubiously on Leia's big, brown ones. She opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by the hissing voice of Elan. "Stop dreaming, Princess. He doesn't remember you." Furious, she took Luke's chin, averting his stare, which had been resting on her since she had begun speaking again, towards the three humans. "Look into his eyes. He doesn't recognise any of you. And how should he? Liin Kwaad has never seen you - he has never seen a human."
"If Leia says he is still in there," Han replied shakily, shivering when Luke's eyes met his but seemed to look straight through him, as if he weren't there, "then he IS still in there."
Again, the scene was immersed in silence, all frozen in shock, rage or their own musings. Mara, for example, hadn't paid that close an attention towards the latest exchange. Something Leia had said had taken root in her brain and her instinct kept telling her that it was the solution. Something Leia had said was the key to getting Luke back. Yes, she had felt him crying for help - she had felt his strong mind still alive and fighting against whatever tried to erase it. Luke's voice had been all too clear when he had called for Leia, though it had been filled with the most intense fear she had ever felt coming from her husband. He HAD called for his sister and.... Mara froze. He had called for his SISTER, but had not called for her. Not for his wife. All the time, she had wondered which angle the Yuuzhan Vong brainwashing had had to overcome in him - Luke had withstood many attempts to turn him, again and again. His will and mind were strong and the mightiest beings in the galaxy, Palpatine being only one of them, had come to see that it was almost impossible to break him. And now, an alien researcher, that had never been in contact with humans, should have been able to do just that?
No. There must have been an angle point to overcome him and Mara had just found it. SHE was this weak spot. Only SHE. He hadn't called for her help, because he didn't even think she WOULD help. Because Luke Skywalker, in his stupid farm boy brain, had long decided that he had LOST her. Perhaps he hadn't given in consciously, but his subconscious had and that was everything Kwaad or whatever means she had used had needed to bring him under their control.
"Liin," she said aloud, clear, her voice calm. His head turned, his eyes staring at her, slightly curious, but particularly attentive. They had him well trained, she thought frightened. The entire time ready to follow orders, to obey. Drawing on the Force, she slowly entered his mind. Immediately, she was assaulted by this black entity again, wondering for the thousandth time WHAT this was. Then she managed to get a weak, but steady contact with his mind. Concentrating, she accessed information and memories that WEREN'T really those of her husband, but would now serve her the better.
Clearing her throat, she said: "Do you remember me? Do you know who I am?" She heard the multiple gasps as these words left her mouth in Yuuzhan Vong, not in Basic, and Liin's eyes widened. Surprised that she spoke the tongue he had learned as the one and only, he made a step towards her, his mind automatically drawing the conclusion that he had to obey everyone able to speak the holy language.
Honestly answering the question, he shook his head, not noticing that, behind a shining, slowly weakening wall of Force energy deep down in his awareness, the interest of another presence was piqued - a presence that couldn't help but think that the voice speaking the words sounded familiar. All too familiar.
Mara had hoped to FEEL a reaction from him, but the only result she got was that the black entity that tried to push her out of Luke's mind became much more agitated. Curiously though, it turned its attention not towards her, but deeper into Luke, as it seemed. Frowning, she decided to ignore this for the moment and concentrated on reality.
"My name is Mara Jade." she said softly. "I'm Mara. Mara!"
It was only a slight flicker of an emotion she couldn't place, but for a second it was visible in these crystal blue eyes that faced her and Mara almost jumped with joy. She, though, wasn't the only one who had seen it.
"Don't listen to her, Liin!" Elan cried, her voice suddenly a little bit more worried, as Mara noted contentedly. So the honoured Vong-Priestess wasn't so sure about the obedience of her new pet. Fine.
Luke turned his head, staring at Elan and beginning slowly to go back to her. "Yes, Mistress," he murmured, though it sounded irritated enough.
"Liin, I...." the Priestess fell silent when Leia shot her a warning glance and Han tightened the hold on the trigger. Swallowing, her eyes widened with helplessness, Elan once again addressed Kwaad. "Help me!" But the Shaper just shook her head and went on watching, while she still tried to find a possibility to get out of the danger she was in. "Kwaad!" Elan hissed. She didn't answer.
"Liin, you know me. I'm Mara. Don't you remember my name? Doesn't it sound familiar to you?" Mara tried to give her voice a soothing sound, slowly approaching him and demonstratively clipping her lightsaber back onto her belt again.
"I.... I'm not sure..." he answered, his eyes darting between her and his suddenly silent Mistress. Deep down, a presence had begun pushing against the membrane, with newfound energy. Liin felt dizzy and distant, not even guessing that this was due to the membrane being more and more focussed on keeping the Force presence at bay - keeping Luke Skywalker at bay.
"Think about it - you KNOW me, don't you? You DO know me."
His mouth opened and closed, he tried to say something, but no words came to him. His eyes had stopped darting and were now nailed on the face of the human woman that approached him. Her features seemed vaguely known to him, indeed - and they were beautiful, oh so beautiful....
Mara, seeing that she had gotten through to him more than she had ever hoped for, decided to go for it now, not knowing why she felt she had to hurry, but acting due to this premonition.
"I'm your wife, LUKE," she stressed the last word, deliberately using his real name and speaking in Basic again.
"You're my...wife....?" he repeated, irritation abundantly clear in his voice.
"By the Force, Mara, you..." Han began cheering, but Mara shook her head furiously towards him, though she felt as happy as he. Luke had repeated what she had said - and he had repeated it in BASIC.
"Yes, Luke, I'm your wife. I'm sorry for what I did. I promise I'll never leave you again," she extended her hand once again, holding it out for him to grasp.
His bewildered gaze halted at her ring - the ring he had given her for their wedding. Reflexively, he lifted his right hand, gazing at his fingers. When he found nothing, his forehead wrinkled in another frown. He bit his lower lip. Mara could almost feel the memories fighting to come back to him. "....wife..." he mumbled, tasting the word on his tongue, still staring at his hand where there was no ring. It felt wrong that there was no ring.
Mara could barely hold herself together. He was so close. Elan, behind him, trembled, fury in her eyes, and obviously wanted nothing more than to say something, to cast him again under her control, but she didn't want to die for it. Han's stare was not to misunderstand. A tone and she would be history. Clenching her hands into fists, the Priestess followed every move of Mara and Luke.
Mara smiled. The Vong had lost. Luke belonged to her and he would recognise that soon. As if a curtain had lifted suddenly, Luke's features relaxed in total surprise. Lifting his head and staring Mara straight into the eyes, he began his way towards her. "Where have you been?" he whispered, stumbling a little bit. No wonder, Mara mused. He looked deathly pale and so weak, it was a miracle that he'd been able to be on his feet for so long.
"Later," she replied, swallowing to once again suppress her tears. Luke nodded, bewilderment and surprise still reining his features, then hastened his steps.
"Mar....AHHH!" It was an understatement to say Mara was shocked when Luke cried out in unbelievable pain, crumpled to the floor and grasped his head with his hands, writhing on the cold yorik-coral.
"Luke!" Mara, Leia and Han cried out at the same time, but only the Jedi Master jumped forward and kneeled down beside him. "Luke? Luke, what's wrong?"
"Don't let him escape!" Elan hissed, startling Han that much that he didn't trigger his blaster. "Who are you talking to, crazy-one?" he asked flabbergasted, but Elan ignored him. "Take him back!" she insisted instead, seemingly talking to Luke, but it made just no sense.
"Luke, please, hold still!" Mara demanded, trying to get a grip on him. But he trembled uncontrolled, twitching now and then, moaning and yelling shrill in pain. He didn't answer her and didn't comply. Groaning and huffing, Mara finally managed to pry his hands away from his forehead and couldn't help but shriek in absolute horror. What she had thought to be a tattoo had suddenly begun to have a life of its own. It moved like a wave, then constricted, moved again... an endless cycle.
Her husband's eyes were filled with tears and his cries became shriller and shriller. Fear gripped Mara, fear that this was no simple torment, of whichever sort, but something else. Something that could very well be deadly. When Luke's hands once again flew towards his forehead and his fingers buried themselves into the strange tattoo, she became aware that this thing was indeed the reason for his pain. Afraid to hurt him even more, she didn't dare to touch it - besides, Luke's fingers didn't have the slightest success in preventing it from doing what it did, so she mused it was useless anyway.
She already wanted to yell at Elan that she should make the thing stop, convinced that it had something to do with her, when Luke fell silent and his body sagged onto the floor, slight shivers running through it now and then. Mara lost her grip on him because he suddenly went from being stiff and rigid to almost jelly like. That second was everything Elan needed to act.
With a cry of rage, she jumped forward. Han, his instincts not diminished even by age, shot immediately, but Luke's torment had shaken him visibly. He missed, the shot went into the wall and a huge part of it was converted into stinking, dense steam. Coughing, he tried to get a view of everything, to find something to shoot at, vaguely realising Leia doing the same and Mara trying to pick herself up from the floor.
When the steam vanished, the first thing Han could see was Mezhan Kwaad standing before an opening in the wall that hadn't been there before, ready to jump into it. "Hold it!" he shouted, his blaster once again finding a secure aim on her gut. The Shaper froze, slowly lowering her arms and turning back to him. When she had done so, she suddenly smiled.
"What the..?"
"Lower this abomination, human. At once!" Han spun around, his blaster never leaving the Shaper, though, and almost cried out loud in frustration.
Elan grinned at him, holding a vicious and really sharp looking coral blade at Luke's throat; he didn't fight her in any way. He seemed totally dazed, blood trickling out of his mouth down his chin. He moaned quietly, his eyes blinking slowly open and shut.
"You would hurt your familiar?" Mara asked with a sharp voice, having picked up herself and crouching battle-ready before the Priestess. One of her hands, though, rested on her stomach. Elan had probably kicked her, Han mused. Leia stood there, her blaster aiming at Elan, but her lips pressed into a thin line. Even Han had to admit that he probably wasn't fast enough to prevent Elan from cutting Luke's throat before she died from his shot.
The petite Yuuzhan Vong grinned even more broadly: "Rather that than give him back to you. Now retreat!" she barked, and cackled when Mara slowly took a few steps back, her eyes on the blade that dug into Luke's skin.
"I'm impressed," Mezhan Kwaad said, smiling over to the Priestess.
"Many thanks. We will have a talk later," Elan hissed back, backhanding Luke a few times roughly, and rose, dragging him to his feet in the process. He swayed, and the Priestess supported him.
"Say goodbye to your precious Jedi Master," she laughed towards the group of humans that stood back in helpless fury.
"Luke!" Mara said intently - he had to free himself. He had to.
"I'm.... I'm Liin Kwaad," he stammered weakly, his eyes still on the verge of falling closed. And everything fell together in Mara's head. Whatever it was that was in Luke's head, Kwaad and Elan had used it and the pain it caused to suppress his will.
"Fight the pain, Luke!" she advanced a step, keeping her eyes still on the blade, ready to back off as soon as Elan buried it deeper into his vein.
"I'm Liin.... Skywalker... I'm..." he mumbled, twitching - immediately, the strange tattoo constricted softly, causing him to moan in agony.
"You see, Jedi? Your husband is history. I will take Liin with me and... " her voice went over to a pain-filled, muffled sound, when Luke buried his elbow in her stomach and stumbled away from her. "Jedi...husband...." he panted.
"No! Come back, you..." Elan cried, her voice still strained with pain. Before she could pursue him, though, an arm shot out of the opening beside her.
Han shot, but the Shaper had already dragged the Priestess into the escape craft and sealed the opening. Swearing, Han ran over and began pounding on it, trying to find the hidden button, or lever, or anything.
Only when he heard a "whoosh" from the other side, he decided it would be more intelligent not to open it. Vacuum death was nothing cosy.
*~~
"Why did you do that!? He is MINE - I can't leave him behind!" Hysterically, Elan pounded against the hatch of the escape craft, totally oblivious to the fact that they were long in vacuum - looming behind the Moota and the abomination ship, a large Yuuzhan Vong vessel began pursuing them, but it had been too slow to react. It would be close, but they'd get away.
"He was lost to you. Skywalker has recognised his wife - better we are alive and without him than dead and still without him." Kwaad just growled, dodging a weak plasma shot coming from the ship that chased them.
"But he was my familiar!" Elan whined, giving up pounding and sinking into her chair, tears of fury and regret stinging in her eyes.
"You will find yourself another one," the Shaper simply stated, waiting for the small singing sound that would announce that they were ready to jump into the hyperspace-equivalent.
"I wanted HIM," Elan pouted, then added. "I wanted him to be my familiar or to die."
That brought an evil smile to Kwaad's face: "With a little bit of luck, Priestess, he WILL die."
The petite woman's eyes widened: "What?" she asked dumbfounded.
"I have made sure that, without my tending, the drev-membranes in his body will wither soon."
"What? You false..." Elan began, but was cut off AGAIN.
"I needed a guarantee that you'd keep me alive once you had what you wanted. Anyway, if we are lucky, the membranes will take him with them when they die."
Elan didn't know what to reply to this, just sat back and was silent for a while. They had gained on the approaching bigger ship and the shots that reached them were harmless. When the singing sound appeared, Elan stated gruffly: "Take me to the meeting point with the late Admiral's fleet. We have to go on with my plans."
"Of course," Kwaad said, sending their ship into "hyperspace".
*~~
After a few steps on jelly-like legs, Luke had collapsed into Mara's arms. Burying his head at her shoulder and in her spicy hair, he trembled again uncontrollable.
"It hurts.. it hurts so much..." he whimpered, gripping Mara's tunic in agony. "We will make it stop... somehow we will make it stop," Mara whispered, rocking him back and forth, feeling the constrictions of the strange tattoo at her skin. She'd have loved to tear it out, but only the Force knew what she'd do to Luke then.
Luke didn't seem to have heard her, for he continued whimpering: "Please make it stop, Mara.... please... it hurts so much..." She laid him back, staring at his eyes that were widened in terror, pleading with her for help she couldn't give. Sobbing quietly, she caressed his cheek, her gaze nailed on the shimmering, black mass that caused her love so much pain. "If I only knew how," she murmured.
"I'm going to tell Commander Lah that we need this Shaper assistant as soon as possible," Leia murmured, squeezing Mara's shoulder and vanishing. Han still stood there, blaster ready, not having forgotten Buune Lah's warnings about surprises in this ship.
"Did you hear this, Luke? Help is on its way. Luke? Luke! - Oh Force!"
The constricting tattoo had stopped moving, but what had happened now was NOT better. The shimmering black it had been before had begun to become a pale grey - it took Mara a few seconds to understand that it DIED. Luke had gone absolutely rigid, his body caught in a terrible cramp that made him as flexile as durasteel. His eyes, suddenly as clear as she had remembered them, stared at her - filled with the most terrified expression she had ever seen.
"M-m-m-mara....help-p-p" he stammered between stiff lips before, without a warning, his eyes rolled inward and he went once again limp.
"Luke!" Mara cried, hugging him close - now, strangely, she noticed for the first time how thin he was. His head lolled backwards and his arms hung lifelessly onto the floor. Frantically, she laid him down and sought for a pulse. Relieved, she found a slow, more or less steady one at his left wrist, though she also noted that he began to get hot... already now, his pale cheeks showed red, flushed points.
Han, who had gone exploring around the edge of the corridor, came racing back, slithering to a halt and falling onto hands and knees before his inert friend.
"What happened?" he asked, already pushing his arms under Luke's shoulders and knees and lifting him gently from the floor. "He's so light..." he murmured.
"I don't know. But we have to hurry." Mara was pale like a ghost, her stare nailed on Luke's serene, but more and more flushed face.
Together they ran back into the Falcon and only a minute later, they disengaged from the escape craft.
*~~
By the time they had docked at Ideen and gotten into its hangar bay, Luke was caught in a high fever, mumbling strange things that brought horrifying visions into Mara's head.
"Pincer..." he whispered. "Pincer finger.... no...please... not head...."
At one point, he even cried for Elan and left Mara shaken by tears: "I'm Liin... Liin Kwaad....Mistress! Mistress!"
A tall Yuuzhan Vong Shaper, a male this time, took Luke's form into his arms, holding the much smaller human for a moment, then giving him to two of his helpers who held Luke upright while the Shaper assistant took a look at him.
"Drev-membrane," he murmured, lifting Luke's chin and eyeing what Mara still took as tattoo attentively.
"What?" Leia demanded, putting a thin blanket around the redhead's shoulders. Han was there, too, supporting her as well as Leia herself.
The Shaper assistant turned to them. "They used a drev-membrane. It's an animal. They have planted it into his head and it has connected with his brain, sealing off parts and acting as replacement. That.." He gestured at the now almost white "tattoo", "is drev-membrane."
All three humans gaped and the Shaper assistant continued. "They must have carved a tunnel for it just up to his brain tissue.... though I don't know how ONE drev-membrane should have sufficed if you say he is so strong...." He examined Luke a bit more, then gave a satisfied: "Aha." Turning Luke's limp head slightly, he showed them a paling, round blotch at the base of his skull that had the same colour as the thing on his forehead. Mara had no difficulties imagining it being black and constricting only half an hour before.
"Can you help him?" she asked, feeling Luke's Force-presence slip away from her, once again blocked, but this time by a fever that raged on in his weakened body.
"We will try to take the membranes out of him - if we succeed, he will probably survive. You will have to tend him yourself, though. We have no means for humans."
They all nodded, then Han cleared his throat: "It is not certain that you can take these... these things out of him?"
"Drev-membranes," the Shaper assistant corrected him annoyed, then shook his head. "If they have connected too closely with his brain, we can't. Otherwise we would destroy enough tissue to give him a life blissfully unaware of everything."
Three pale humans shook their head at that. "Wait here and we will see what we can do." With this, he and his underlings vanished, carrying Luke with them.
*~~
Four hours later, the wait had an end. When they saw the Shaper assistant return to the bay, Mara, Han and Leia, who had crouched on the lowered ramp of the Falcon, waiting, went over to him. On a strange creature with multiple legs and a back that looked very table-like, Luke was laying, sprawled there like a broken doll and still unconscious. His face was still flushed, but not as much as when he had been brought here.
They immediately went over to him, only to shy away terrified. "Oh gods.." Han mumbled, embracing Leia who buried her head at his chest. Mara just shook her head, her hand hovering over the forehead of her husband that she had wanted to caress. Where the curious membrane had been, a deep carving was left that looked still delicate, but the more horrifying when they became aware that it had been IN his skin and not just ON his skin. In the centre of the carving was a small, round hole, not bleeding, but showing all too clearly what had happened to him.
Mara didn't even want to see the base of his skull.
"Come on... " Han finally murmured, once again lifting his brother-in-law in the air, strangely aware that he was not much heavier than Leia.
Luke gave a low sigh, his face curiously relaxed. For the first time, Han became aware that his brother-in-law had to have been in constant pain since the moment he had been kidnapped. "She will pay for it," he mumbled into Luke's ears, pressing him gently at his chest. The Jedi Master didn't react, just remained in his state of merciful unconsciousness.
Aboard the Falcon, they strapped him into the medical bunk and made their way back towards Coruscant.
1 Day Later, Light-Years Away
"I hope you have understood your orders?" Priestess Elan asked, standing in the gathering room on the Yuuzhan Vong warship Ookin, facing six Yuuzhan Vong Commanders, all loyal to her cause.
Multiple nods.
"Perfect. This attack must be fast and deadly. We are outnumbered, so we have to use surprise. We must overcome them as soon as possible or we will lose."
Again she received nods. Contented, she dismissed the warriors.
Going over to Mezhan Kwaad, who sat in one corner of the room, eating her dinner, she grinned.
"Soon, we will wipe Tsavong Lah and his fleet out of space. And as soon as he is taken care of, I will cancel the negotiations with the infidels."
"And?" Kwaad queried.
"And then the sect of Yun-Harla will have a new High-Priestess and a lot more influence."