The Unifying Force

The Unifying Force
owes something to everyone who has helped give shape and continuity to the Expanded Universe—from Alan Dean Foster to Tim Zahn to Matt Stover; and from Bill Smith to Stephen Sansweet to the hundreds of fans who have devoted countless hours to detailing the esoteric. I would, though, like to single out a few people whose help and encouragement were invaluable: Shelly Shapiro and Sue Rostoni, for their editorial magic; Greg Bear, Greg Keyes, Sean Williams, and Shane Dix, for their commitment to keeping things consistent; Troy Denning, for his many suggestions; Dan Wallace, Rick Gonzolez, Mike Kogge, Helen Keier, Eelia Goldsmith Henderscheid, and Enrique Guerrero, for their tireless work on the entire New Jedi Order series. Most of all, thank you, George Lucas, for creating a universe that continues to expand …

Nom Anor; executor (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Wedge Antilles; general (male human)

Nas Choka; warmaster (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Kyp Durron; Jedi Master (male human)

Jagged Fel; pilot (male human)

Harrar; priest (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Traest Kre’fey; admiral (male Bothan)

Cal Omas; Chief of State (male human)

Onimi; Shamed One (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Danni Quee; scientist (female human)

Supreme Overlord Shimrra (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Luke Skywalker; Jedi Master (male human)

Mara Jade Skywalker; Jedi Master (female human)

Han Solo; captain,
Millennium Falcon
(male human)

Jacen Solo; Jedi Knight (male human)

Jaina Solo; Jedi Knight (female human)

Princess Leia Organa Solo; diplomat (female human)

PART ONE
ACROSS THE STARS

Selvaris, faintly green against a sweep of white-hot stars, and with only a tiny moon for companionship, looked like the loneliest of planets. Almost five years into a war that had seen the annihilation of peaceful worlds, the disruption of major hyperlanes, the fall and occupation of Coruscant itself, the fact that such a backwater place could rise to sudden significance was perhaps the clearest measure of the frightful shadow the Yuuzhan Vong had cast across the galaxy.

Immediate evidence of that significance was a prisoner-of-war compound that had been hollowed from the dense coastal jungle of Selvaris’s modest southern continent. The compound of wooden detention buildings and organic, hivelike structures known as grashals was enclosed by yorik-coral walls and watchtowers that might have been thrust from the planet’s aquamarine sea, or left exposed by a freakishly low tide. Beyond the tall scabrous perimeter, where the vegetation had been leveled or reduced to ash by plasma weapons, rigid blades of knee-high grass poked from the sandy soil, extending all the way to the vibrant green palisade that was the tree line. Whipped by a persistent salty wind, the fanlike leaves of the tallest trees flapped and snapped like war banners.

Standing between the prison camp and a brackish estuary that meandered finally to the sea, the jungle combined indigenous growth with exotic species bioengineered by the Yuuzhan Vong and soon to become dominant on Selvaris, as had already happened on countless other worlds.

Two charred yorik-trema landing craft, not yet fully healed from recent deep-space engagements with the enemy, sat in the spacious prison yard. Shuffling past them came a group
of humans, bald-domed Bith, and thick-horned Gotals, carrying three corpses wrapped in cloth.

His back pressed to one of the coralcraft, a Yuuzhan Vong guard watched the prisoners struggle with the dead.

“Be quick about it,” he ordered. “The maw luur doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

The camp’s prisoners had argued vehemently to be allowed to dispose of bodies according to the customs of the deceased, but graves or funeral pyres had been expressly forbidden by order of the Yuuzhan Vong priests who officiated at the nearby temple. Their ruling was that all organics had to be recycled. The dead could either be left to Selvaris’s ample and voracious flocks of carrion eaters, or be fed to the Yuuzhan Vong biot known as a maw luur, which some of the more well-traveled prisoners characterized as a mating of trash compactor and Sarlacc.

The guard was tall and long-limbed, with an elongated sloping forehead and bluish sacs underscoring his eyes. The light of Selvaris’s two suns had reddened his skin slightly, and the planet’s hothouse heat had turned him lean. Facial tattoos and scarifications marked him as an officer, but he lacked the deformations and implants peculiar to commanders. Bound by a ring of black coral, his dark hair fell in a sideknot to below his shoulders, and his uniform tunic was cinched by a narrow hide belt. A melee weapon coiled around his muscular right forearm, like a deadly vine.

What made Subaltern S’yito unusual was that he spoke Basic, though not nearly as fluently as his commander.

The prisoners paused briefly in response to S’yito’s order that they hurry.

“We’d sooner see their bones picked clean by scavengers than let them be a meal for your garbage eater,” the shortest of the humans said.

“Make the maw luur happy by throwing yourself in,” a second human added.

“You tell him, Commenor,” the Gotal beside him encouraged.