Traitor - Matthew Stover (iphone ebook reader .txt) 📗

“This has been attempted before,” Tsavong Lah growled. “The Jeedai Wurth Skidder, and the Jeedai Tahiri on Yavin Four. The results were less than satisfactory.”

“Shapers,” Nom Anor snorted derisively.

“Mind your tongue, if you would keep it in your mouth. The shaper caste is holy unto Yun-Yuuzhan.”

“Of course, of course. No disrespect intended, naturally. I only mean to point out, with the warmaster’s permission, that the methods used in the Tahiri disaster were crude physical alterations—possibly heretical.” Nom Anor leaned on the word.

Tsavong Lah’s face darkened.

“They were performing sacrilegious research,” Nom Anor went on. “They tried to make her into a Yuuzhan Vong—as though a slave can be altered into one of the Chosen Race. Is this not blasphemy? The ensuing slaughter was far kinder than they deserved, as the warmaster will no doubt agree.”

“Not at all,” Tsavong Lah countered. “It was precisely what they deserved. Whatever the Gods decree is the definition of justice.”

“As you say,” Nom Anor conceded easily. “No such heresy will take place in the Solo Project. The process with Jacen Solo is precisely the opposite: he will remain fully human, yet acknowledge and proclaim the Truth. We will not have to alter or destroy him in any way. We merely demonstrate; he will do the rest himself.”

The warmaster’s image chilled over with calculation. “You still have not made clear why I should desire this. Everything you have told me implies that he would make an even greater sacrifice than I had dreamed. Explain why I should await this promised conversion. Should he die in the process, I will have broken an oath to the True Gods: cheated them of their due sacrifice. The True Gods are unforgiving to oathbreakers, Nom Anor.”

You couldn’t prove it by me, Nom Anor thought smugly, but he spoke with utmost respect. “The symbolic importance of Jacen Solo cannot be overestimated, Warmaster. First, he is Jedi—and the Jedi stand in place of gods in the New Republic. They are looked to as surrogate parents, gifted with vast abilities that legend further magnifies beyond all reason; their purpose is to fight and die for the New Republic’s debased, infidel perversions of truth and justice. Jacen Solo is already a legendary hero. His exploits, even as a child and a youth, are known throughout the galaxy; together with those of his sister—his twin sister—they rival even those of Yun-Harla and Yun-Yammka—”

“You utter such blasphemies too easily,” Tsavong Lah grated.

“Do I?” Nom Anor smiled. “And yet the True Gods do not see fit to strike me down; perhaps what I say is not blasphemy at all—as you shall see.”

The warmaster only glared at him stonily.

“Jacen Solo is also the eldest son of the galaxy’s leading clan. His mother was, for a time, the New Republic’s Supreme Overlord—”

“For a time? How is this possible? Why would her successor let her live?”

“Does the warmaster truly wish a disquisition upon the New Republic’s perverse system of government? It has to do with a bizarre concept called democracy, in which ruling power is given to whoever is most skillful at directing the herd instincts of the largest masses of their most ignorant citizens—”

“Their politics are your concern,” Tsavong Lah growled. “Their fighting strength is mine.”

“The two are, in this case, more closely related than the warmaster might suspect. For a quarter of a standard century, the Solo family has dominated galactic affairs of all kinds. Even the warmaster of the Jedi is none other than Jacen Solo’s uncle. This uncle, Luke Skywalker, is popularly considered to have singlehandedly created the New Republic by defeating an older, much more rational government called the Empire. And, I might add, it is fortunate for us that he did; the Empire was vastly more organized, powerful, and potently militaristic. Lacking the internal divisions we have exploited so successfully in the New Republic, the Empire could have crushed our people utterly in their first encounter.”

Tsavong Lah bristled. “The True Gods would never have allowed such a defeat!”

“Precisely my point,” Nom Anor countered. “They didn’t. Instead, Luke Skywalker, the Solos, and the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Empire, leaving the galaxy in a state of disarray, a power vacuum that we could exploit—for even then, the Solo clan served the True Gods without ever knowing it!”

For the first time, Tsavong Lah began to look interested.

“Now, imagine,” Nom Anor said, scenting blood, “the effect on the morale of the remaining New Republic forces when this Jedi, this hero, this scion of the greatest clan of their entire civilization, announces to all his people that they have been deceived by their leaders: that the True Gods are the only gods—that the True Way is the only way!”

The villip conveyed perfectly a spark kindling in the warmaster’s eyes. “We hurt them when we took their capital, but we did not kill their spirit,” he murmured. “This would be gangrene in the wound of Coruscant.”

“Yes.”

“The New Republic could sicken, and finally die.”

“Yes.”

“You are certain that you can make Jacen Solo submit to the Truth?”

“Warmaster,” Nom Anor said intensely, “it is already happening. Jacen and Jaina Solo are twins, yet male and female, complementary opposites. Don’t you see it? Yun-Yammka and Yun-Harla. Warrior and Trickster. Jacen Solo will become one half of the Twin Gods—to fight in service of the God he is! He will be proof no creature of the New Republic could ever refute.”

“This may have value,” Tsavong Lah admitted.

“May?” Nom Anor said. “May? Warmaster, you have personally performed every sacrifice the True Gods demand for victory—every sacrifice save one—”

The spark in the warmaster’s eyes suddenly blazed into a fusion furnace. “The Great Sacrifice—you speak of the Sacrifice of the Twins!”

“Yes. You yourself, Warmaster, must have wondered in your heart of hearts, must have doubted the True Gods’ promise of victory, when the final sacrifice could not be performed.”

“The True Gods do not mock, and They do not promise in vain,” the warmaster intoned piously.

“But Their gifts are not given,” Nom Anor said. “You know this. They require that