Book 21 - The Unifying Force by James Luceno

Author:James Luceno [Luceno, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780345428530
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2001-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SEVEN

“Alpha Red,” Kyp said, as if having trouble believing his own words.

He walked distractedly to the yammosk basin, his boots leaving prints in the liquefied blorash jelly. There, he gestured to the gruesome scene: Malik Carr, the priest, and eight warriors, bleeding from mouths, eyes, ears; amphistaffs, villips, and yammosk, dead; yorik coral bleached of color.

“Alpha Red.”

Han and Leia traded questioning glances with each other and with Page. Lando, Talon, and Shada did the same.

“Is that some sort of curse I’m not familiar with?” Lando asked Kyp.

“You could say that.” Kyp sat down on the basin’s curved step. “Alpha Red is the name of a Yuuzhan Vong-specific poison developed by Chiss scientists and Dif Scaur’s Intelligence gang. From what I know about it—and I don’t know a lot—the starting point was bafforr tree pollen, and the bio-weapon just kept growing from there.”

“Kyp, how do you even know anything about this?” Leia asked.

“A dubious privilege of being a member of Cal Omas’s Advisory Council,” he said. “The first batch—the trial batch—was refined about a year ago, and tested in secret. It might have been deployed full scale at the time, if not for two things: our victory at Ebaq Nine and Vergere.”

“A Fosh Jedi of the Old Republic,” Leia explained for the benefit of Page, Meloque, and some of the others. “Vergere lived as a spy among the Yuuzhan Vong for fifty years. She helped rescue our son Jacen at Myrkr, and died at Ebaq.”

“A month or so before Ebaq,” Kyp added, “Vergere stole the sample batch of Alpha Red and destroyed it, or somehow transformed it into something harmless.” He glanced at Leia, and she nodded for him to continue. “Alliance command ruled it an act of treason, but not much has been said about Alpha Red since then, in part because it’s been rumored that Jacen had something to do with Vergere’s escaping the military cordon set up at Kashyyyk. I thought the project had been scuttled. Obviously I’ve been kept out of the loop.”

“This stuff doesn’t only kill individual Yuuzhan Vong,” Han said, looking around the chamber.

Kyp nodded. “You’re right about that. It targets some genetic or cellular component that the Yuuzhan Vong share with all their biots—from the smallest right up to the largest. Even their war vessels.”

“The crashed coralskipper,” Leia said.

Han regarded Page with suspicion.

The captain raised his hands in innocence. “Han, I swear, this is the first I’ve heard of Alpha Red.”

Han looked at tall Meloque, who shook her head.

“If I knew about Alpha Red, I’m certain I would have done what the Jedi did.”

All heads turned to Wraw, whose head fur stirred. Then the Bothan Intelligence agent shrugged nonchalantly.

“Alliance command wanted field assurance that Alpha Red would work outside a laboratory setting. It’s been used effectively on captives, but we couldn’t be sure what would happen in an uncontrolled environment. When Intelligence learned that Caluula had been targeted by the Vong for occupation, it was chosen to be planet zero—step one in winning the war.

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