A Shadow at Dusk

Chapter 5

Taisao Naadu carefully stroked the transparent worm-like creature lying over the opening of the bulb of thin, clear liquid and watched it stretch tightly over the neck of the cylinder, creating a leak-proof seal. He turned and put his hand on a pearlescent orb located in the yorik coral wall behind him. A soft humming noise preceded a cavity opening in the wall. He placed the bulb of liquid in the cavity and ran his hand soothingly over the orb again. The wall undulated in response and then the cavity filled with a freezing breath, turning the liquid inside the bulb to a crystallized substance similar to ice.

Taisao Naadu smiled. His master would be most pleased, and perhaps would honor him for his work as a result. Taisao was ambitious and wanted one day to be able to head his own research facility. He hoped to create a spore that could spread an infection that would allow them to conquer alien races without the loss of a single Yuuzhan Vong life. The gods would be inordinately pleased if such an event could occur, and Taisao Naadu would bring great honor and reverence to his family.

The priests had said that the gods were giving this new galaxy to the Yuuzhan Vong and it was their appointed mission to rid it of all infidels before moving the people of the Yuuzhan Vong into what was destined to be their new homes.

The new batch of spores had taken weeks to form, but were the most effective yet. He was still working on the problem of transporting the spores. He hoped to store them in the bodies of the Yuuzhan Vong soldiers to be released against the enemy. All attempts to set warriors up as carriers up to this point had resulted in their death. The Yuuzhan Vong soldiers willingly gave their lives for the advancement of their cause. Still, no army could spread a disease to conquer their enemy if the disease wiped out the army at the same time. But they still had plenty of time to solve that minor drawback.

Taisao Naadu's tattooed chest swelled with pride. To be chosen as part of the advance guard, among the ones who would infiltrate the galaxy the godless infidels called the New Republic, was a matter of extreme distinction for his family. He was the first of his generation to have such an honor bestowed upon him, and he was determined that his actions would only bring respect and tribute to his family's great name.

He was not a soldier who would gain respect on the battlefield; he was a botanist who spent his life in teaching all life its responsibility as servants to the Yuuzhan Vong who, in turn, were servants to the gods. He had come with the advance guard to test the different disease spores that had been developed by himself and his immediate commander, the executor Nom Anor, first among the advance scouts for the Praetorite Vong invasion force. Several planets in the outer reaches of the New Republic galaxy were selected as testing grounds for the diseases. Some creations had been very successful while others had failed miserably. But testing was the reason they were here, in advance of the great ships that would follow. They needed to field test and perfect the spores that would spread disease and pestilence throughout the home worlds of the alien beings of the New Republic.

The newest batch of spores was being tested on a small planet near the Outer Rim of the galaxy of infidels. Placed on the planet by a group of volunteers, the spores had been quite effective on the populace, eliminating large numbers. Unfortunately, it had also eliminated the volunteers and, stranger still, it seemed to affect only adults of the species, leaving children disease free.

This frustrating situation was consuming Taisao and his superior, Nom Anor. They were determined to solve these issues, because this spore seemed the most promising of all they had developed, at least for the elimination of large numbers. They just needed more time to perfect it.

*************

Talon Karrde stopped briefly to look upon the prone figure of Luke Skywalker, lying on the narrow cot. The Jedi Master had been in a healing trance for almost thirty standard hours and the wound on his leg was already beginning to close. It shouldn't be much longer before he was back on his feet again. Once the arrow had been removed, the open wound had been cleaned to prevent infection. Then Skywalker had immediately settled into his trance, saying the sooner he was healed, the sooner he could get back to helping the sick people in the communal hut.

Karrde walked out of the small cabin and lifted his face to the cooling breeze coming off the mountains in the distance. The air lifted his shoulder-length black hair and ruffled it behind him. He looked past the village into what seemed like endless kilometers of flatlands. The region's fertile soil was perfect for growing the crops, which the villagers depended on for sustenance. It was quite a beautiful planet, untamed and unspoiled, as near to its original state as it could be with the advent of humans. The lack of modern technology had forced the people here to live as one with the nature of the planet, taking from the planet only what they needed to survive. It was as different from a place like Coruscant as the light side was from the dark.

When Talon and Luke had arrived in the Ten Tempest system, the coordinates given in the cryptic distress message had led them directly to Vortav, a tiny planet with shallow oceans and three moderately large, grassy continents. A long, rugged mountain range split the largest continent in half, leaving long, fertile grasslands on one side and heavy forestlands on the other.

Talon sighed, feeling the weariness in his body. He and Luke had landed out in the grasslands in one of Talon's small cruisers over two weeks before and spent several days exploring the immediate area. In the middle of the first week on the planet, they had been gone for most of one day away from their small ship. When they had returned, they were horrified to find that the ship had been broken into, its interior completely destroyed.

The destruction was random, but thorough, as if the beings responsible had some sort of personal grudge against the ship itself. All instrumentation had been destroyed, ripped apart and shattered into tiny pieces. The damage had not been limited to only the ship's primary systems. Even the tiny automatic caf-maker in the ship's small galley had received the same treatment, as if the very sight of it had driven its attackers to violence that bordered on insanity.

It had been sheer luck that they had decided to take Skywalker's astromech droid with them that day, wishing to test some of the soil samples as soon as they were collected instead of taking them back to the ship for processing. Since it appeared that the ship's technology had been the focus of the destruction, the droid would have probably suffered the same fate as the caf-maker.

Now, they had virtually nothing left. The droid, plus their personal comm-links, Talon's blaster, and Luke's lightsaber were about the only items of technology they had been able to salvage.

It had taken them several days of hiking over moderately flat yet, at times, difficult terrain before they reached the dusty outskirts of the village that had been their home for the past few weeks. They had surprised a small group of children collecting some sort of vegetation that they were stuffing into small packs on their backs. The children had run screaming at the sight of them, but it hadn't been long before an older boy, along with some other children, armed with arrows and bows, had come out to them.

Skywalker had done the talking, his calm voice seeming to soothe the children. To this day, Talon didn't know if he had used the Force to persuade them but they were soon escorted into the village and introduced to the rest of the children by their slender leader, Vashi.

Talon rubbed his tired, red-stained eyes. The next week had been a blur as first he and then Skywalker had fallen ill. Vashi had warned them about the disease that was running rampant through the region. It had affected the elders in their village as it had in all the other small villages along the grassy, flat plains. Without Skywalker, Talon knew he would be dead now. The unknown disease worked fast, attacking multiple parts of the body simultaneously. Yet Skywalker had managed to hold it at bay until he was able to purge the spores from his own body, and hopefully, now from Talon's. He had also managed to save several of the younger adults of the village, but had been too late for the many elders.

Talon took a colorful bandana from his pocket and twirled it between his hands until he had a tight, round band. He tied it around his head to hold his long hair back from his face and then turned to go into the communal hut. He planned on spending most of the day caring for the individuals from the village who were still recovering from the effects of the spores. These people had taken care of him and Skywalker both. It was the least he could do in return.

A few hours later, Talon was helping Enee prepare some small, simple meals when a beeping noise caught his attention. He looked down at his hip in shock and then snatched his personal commlink from the clip on his belt.

"Karrde here," he all but shouted into the tiny communication device.

Several hundred kilometers above the planet, Mara sat back in surprise, relief running through her body like rain after a long drought. She glanced at Shada to see that she was having an almost identical response and she nodded at her, motioning for the other woman to answer the call.

"Karrde?" Shada said hoarsely, and then cleared her throat. "Talon, is that you?"

"Shada?"

There was another stunned silence as both absorbed the shock and the sheer relief. Finally, Karrde murmured softly, "Oh, Shada." Then after another moment, he asked with a stronger voice, "Where are you?"

Shada pushed her long, dark hair back from her forehead, trying to get her emotions under control. "We are in orbit above the planet. You need to give us some coordinates so we can come down and pick you up."

"We?" Talon asked.

Shada glanced over at Mara. "I'm aboard the Jade Sabre with Mara. We've been looking for you and Skywalker for over a week now."

Karrde smiled at his commlink, a deep feeling of gratitude easing through him. "I should have known you would come. You two don't have any idea how welcome you are."

Mara couldn't stand it any longer and she leaned toward the commlink station. "Karrde, where's Luke? I've been trying to reach him for days through our Jedi bond, and I've been unable to sense him. Is he hurt?" Mara did her best to keep the tremor out of her voice, but she knew she wasn't completely successful.

"He's fine, Mara. He suffered a minor leg injury from being struck by an arrow, and he's been in a healing trance. Maybe that's why you haven't been able to reach him." Talon walked out of the huge hut and stared up at the clear, blue sky above him. Somewhere up there...

"Both of us have been ill and were out of it for awhile, but we're fine now," he told them. "We are on the largest continent, northeast of the mountain range. But listen, it's risky to bring the Jade Sabre down here. Our ship was destroyed once we were on the ground."

"Destroyed? How?" Mara leaned back in her chair, frowning. Why wasn't anything ever easy? She wanted to see Luke with every fiber in her, and it looked as if something was going to delay their reunion.

"What happened to your ship, Talon?" Shada asked, in a calmer tone.

"We landed on the planet's surface and were fine for several days. We spent the time looking for some sort of sentient life, but also testing soil and plant samples. While we were gone on one of our day trips, our ship was completely destroyed by what appears to be vandals. It was just simple random destruction."

"They didn't steal anything?" Shada asked in astonishment.

"No, nothing. Just destroyed everything of any use, including the sublight engines," Talon informed her.

"Look, Karrde," Mara interrupted. "We're coming down anyway. We'll just have to be careful and hide the Sabre someplace where it can't be found."

Talon frowned. "We're in the flatlands, Mara. There's no place that you can hide a ship that size." He thought furiously for a moment. "There are some hills at the base of the mountains. They are heavily wooded and if you use camouflage, there's a good chance the Sabre would be safe there. But Mara, those hills are kilometers away from this village. It would take you days to walk it on foot."

Mara grinned. "We won't have to do any walking, Karrde. I brought a landspeeder with me."

Talon felt his lips twitch and he was tempted again to say that he should have known, but he didn't.

"Just give us the coordinates on those foothills and the coordinates to this village you're in, and we should be there in a few hours," Mara continued, taking control.

Talon's forehead creased with worry. There were so many reasons to not let them land on the planet, the disease the most prominent one. But he also knew both women well and there wouldn't be anyway to stop them if they were determined to come. So he gave them the coordinates.

Talon had not noticed that Vashi had joined him outside the circular hut so he was startled when the young man spoke. "Was that your woman, Talon Karrde?"

Talon smiled faintly at Vashi's use of his full name. It seemed to be a custom of the villagers to address anyone older that way, and since Talon was now the oldest person in the village...maybe the whole flatlands, Talon thought ruefully, he definitely deserved the honor.

"No, not my woman," he explained, smiling at that quaint term also. "It was Master Skywalker's...eh...woman...wife." Vashi nodded, assuming then that the other woman must be Talon Karrde's wife.

"Will they be here soon?"

Talon nodded. "A few hours, I would think."

"I will have Enee prepare then," Vashi said and started to walk away.

"Vashi?" Talon stopped him. He motioned with the commlink, puzzled that Vashi had shown no interest in the piece of higher technology. "You are not surprised at this communication device?"

Vashi shook his head. "No, I have seen something similar. The wisemen have them."

Talon moved closer to him and asked, somewhat confused. "Wisemen? What wisemen? You haven't mentioned them before."

Vashi sighed. "I am not sure they are still alive." He waved his hand toward the distance hills. "They lived there, and they had many machines similar to yours."

Talon stared at the foothills. So, that explained how the distress message had made its way into space. "Why do you think they aren't alive?" he asked Vashi.

The boy shrugged. "They were all elders. Some of the flatlanders fleeing from the area around the hills said they had been the first to become ill with the disease. They said they had all died."

Talon turned his attention back to the hills. Perhaps once Shada and Mara were there, they all should visit the place where Vashi's wisemen were. Maybe some clue to the mysterious disease attacking the planet could be found there. After watching Talon Karrde head off to the hut he shared with Master Skywalker, Vashi reentered the huge communal building. He looked about until he saw Enee near the back, feeding one of the recovering patients.

Walking over to her, he placed his hand on her slender shoulder. "Enee?"

She turned quickly on the small stool and smiled up at him. "Vashi!"

He returned her smile and then asked, "Can you come with me for a moment?"

A slight flush warmed her cheeks, but she nodded and then handed the bowl of food she held to another girl who had been helping her. Then she rose from her stool and followed Vashi from the hut.

As younger children, Vashi and Enee had been forced to grow up much too early. They suffered through the deaths of their parents and so many others that they had cared for in their village. But they were the children of the two male tribal leaders and all the others had looked to them for guidance. It had forced them into roles neither had felt ready for. But both had managed quite well, perhaps to their own amazement. They were the undisputed leaders of the village now, responsible for the well being of all the others. Only when they were alone with each other, could they let down their guards and be themselves.

The two young people walked until Vashi stopped at the edge of the village and pointed toward the mountains. "Two women are coming."

Enee looked at him in shock. "Women?"

He nodded. "They have come in a great airship. They are here to be with Master Skywalker and Talon Karrde."

"But who are they, Vashi?" Enee asked, still puzzled.

"They are the women of Master Skywalker and Talon Karrde. They have come to be with their men."

Enee looked toward the mountains and her mouth opened and then closed again.

Vashi smiled slightly and tentatively took her hand, squeezing it gently. He knew what she was thinking.

"It will be wonderful, Vashi, to have women in the village again," she whispered softly.

He squeezed her hand again. "I know it has been hard for you, Enee." At fourteen, she was considered the female leader of the tribe, but with some facets of that role she had felt quite inadequate.

She turned to him and took his other hand. "It has been hard for us both, Vashi."

They stood looking at each other for a moment and then Vashi leaned and kissed her gently on the cheek. "Two more summers, Enee, and then we can be matched."

He watched the color flood into her cheeks, knowing the little kiss had embarrassed her. But he was pleased when she squeezed his hands. "Yes, I know," she said gently and then she straightened, all business again. "We will need two huts, will we not? One for Master Skywalker and his woman, and one for Talon Karrde and his?"

Vashi seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then said quietly, "I was thinking that Master Skywalker could have my parents' hut."

Enee glanced at him quickly and then surprised him by putting her hand against his cheek. Although their parents had chosen them for each other when they were only a few years old, they very rarely initiated any affectionate contact. They were still far too young to consider that type of behavior. "Are you sure you want to do this, Vashi?" she asked softly.

He nodded slowly. "For what he has done for us, for our village, he deserves a chieftain's hut."

"Then Talon Karrde can have the hut of my parents," Enee said. "He has done much for the village, also."

Vashi shook his head. "Enee, no, you do not have to."

"Yes," she whispered and surprised him again by leaning against him. "You are right. It is best. My father was a wise chief; he would wish it."

He slid his arms around her thin waist and held her gently if a bit awkwardly, both lost in their own separate memories.

******************

Mara was tugging the last corner of the camo-net over the Jade Sabre when a rush of emotions invaded her senses - excitement, joy and an overwhelming sense of love. *Luke?* she sent quickly through the Force, straightening and turning in the direction of the coordinates that Talon had given them for the village. Her heart began to pound in her chest.

*Mara...Mara, my love,* Luke entered her mind, caressing her with his shining love.

After the emptiness that she had been feeling since their last contact, this intimacy was almost overwhelming. Her legs went weak and she had to sit down in the sandy soil near the Sabre. *Luke, I've been so worried. Are you all right? I've tried to reach you so many times.*

*I'm fine, Mara. I was in a healing trance for a couple of days because of a leg injury, but everything's fine now. We must have been just missing each other. I've tried to reach you several times too. Where are you?*

Mara reached deep within herself and then sent a series of images to him. *Can you see?*

There was a pause and then Luke filled her mind again. *A forest? Near the mountains?*

*Yes, I think we're about a hundred and fifty kilometers from your village, if I'm judging the distance correctly from the coordinates. If we leave in the next few minutes, we should be there in a little over a couple of hours.*

*Be careful, Mara,* Luke warned. *There are some roving bands of teenagers out on the flatlands, and they can be aggressive. They aren't armed with anything more serious than bows and arrows, but they are very good with them.*

Then Luke's mental tone changed and she could feel his amusement along with his thoughts. *Talon said Shada D'ukal is with you. He's thrilled about that.*

*Yes, I asked her to come with me to look for you both. Luke, are you sure you're all right?*

She could feel his mental chuckle as he reassured her. *I'm fine, Mara. Why don't you get here, and I'll show you how good I really am.*

Mara laughed softly. *Is that a threat or a promise, Farmboy?*

*Oh, it's a promise, my beloved companion. Hurry, Mara, I love you and I've missed you so much.* He sent her a wave of emotion, overpowering her with his longing.

Shada was a bit shocked at the haste with which Mara came around the Jade Sabre and toward the landspeeder that she was readying for their trip across the Flatlands.

"How much longer before you're finished, Shada?" Mara demanded.

Shada blinked in surprise. "Just need to start the engine and let it warm up. Why?"

"Well, get it started. I was able to reach Luke through our bond, and he's anxious for us to get to the village," Mara told her, picking up some bags from the ground and throwing them into the back of the landspeeder.

Shada sat up straighter and then started the engine of the landspeeder. "He's alright, isn't he? Or is something wrong with Karrde?" Shada's gray eyes searched Mara's face anxiously.

Mara shook her head determinedly. "No, they're fine. I just want to get there. Let's go."

Shada lifted her eyebrows and smiled a bit wryly. "All right. Climb in. I think we've got everything."

Mara put a hand on the side of the landspeeder and jumped into the seat next to Shada.

It took them a good quarter of an hour to work their way through the huge trees, but once they reached the flatlands, Shada opened the engine to almost top speed, and they moved like the wind across the grassy surface.

On to Chapter 6