IA: Twilight in Two Galaxies sneak preview
Posted: 2009-04-01 07:48pm
Since I'm finally getting around to wrapping the first book up, here's a sneak preview at the second.
Intergalactic Alliance: Twilight in Two Galaxies
Preview
They had been running for a long time, Jacen realized. Not running in the literal sense of the word, but the Jedi were now once again hunted thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong. He and Tenel Ka had been hopping from world to world until finally they decided to chance the crossing to the Milky Way.
So far, it had worked in their favor. The star maps of the Milky Way were so far still very incomplete, even with what the Federation had provided for the Republican cartographers to work with. Using the Force, they had navigated the Rock Dragon to an unexplored backwater in what the Federation referred to as the Delta Quadrant. The planet itself was pleasant, within the habitable norms of either the Republic or Federation, although the alien biology on the planet was a bit... well, odd would probably be the best way to put it. There was a definite food chain in place on the planet, with well established predators, but none of the creatures he'd seen so far came anywhere near sentience.
Their arrival had already upset the food chain pretty badly in the area they'd chosen to settle down in. There was a nearby cave that was just large enough to fit the Rock Dragon in, and the two had set to work building a shelter since they couldn't live in the ship forever. That was another thing he had never realized: just how effective lightsabers were at cutting wood. The shelter that had resulted, he figured, probably most resembled a log cabin from the frontier days of Earth.
With no Holonet entertainment, there was very little to do after they had finished gathering food and preparing things. So naturally it led that the two of them would wind up...
"Jacen?" Tenel Ka asked. He shook his head, and wanted to slap himself for drifting. She was lying beside him, having given up her lizard-hide suit for a simple cloth robe that gently accentuated her curves. Most importantly, she was staring at his face with an impatient look. "Well? What are you waiting for, an invitation?" She ripped off the robe and threw it in his face; he sputtered and blinked as he grabbed it. Before he had a chance to put it aside, she was already on top of him, pinning his arms down and nibbling at his ears.
"You know, I never realized just how strong your new arms are," he choked out.
THAT got her attention. She sat up quickly, covering her breasts with one arm. "What did you just say?"
He stammered. "I... uh, never realized just how strong your new arms are?"
"Are you trying to say that my arms weren't strong before?" She shoved him back down and mercilessly started tearing at his clothes.
"No, no," he managed to choke out in between having his shirt ripped up over his head. "It's just... these new ones are kind of deceptive, they don't look all that strong..."
She harrumphed and continued to work her way down. "Oooh, look what we have here..."
All of a sudden the world around them disappeared in a greenish flash, to be replaced by a hard, metal deck. There was some sort of murmuring in the background, and Jacen could hear metallic boots stomping in the distance.
"Oh shit..." they both exclaimed at the same time.
[ SEVERAL MONTHS LATER ]
Things had not been going very well for the Vong, Nom Anor reflected. First he had lost all contact with the advance strike force that had gone through the wormhole to the other galaxy. Then thousands of abominations started pouring through, massive cubes that were easily equal in size to the typical destroyers the Yuuzhan Vong used.
To make things worse, they spread some sort of virus, one that the shapers had no idea how to stop. Whenever direct contact was made with the abominations, strange metallic growths soon started sprouting up, almost like a yorik coral infection in a human. If the infected host wasn't killed fast enough, it would turn into a seemingly mindless drone.
Nom Anor swallowed as he heard the door behind him open. He was currently bound to a hard metal chair somewhere deep inside one of their ships. Why they hadn't turned him into a drone yet, he wasn't sure, but the thought didn't make him any more at ease. The metallic clanking drew closer, then stopped. He was about to turn his head when he heard a soft, gentle female voice speak—completely different from the harsh cacophony of voices they usually spoke in.
"I trust your stay has been pleasant?"
Shocked, he spun his head around and almost as fast wished he hadn't. The speaker appeared to be a human woman, in her mid 20s, with flowing red hair. Compared to the suits on most of the drones, her... he settled on armor for lack of a better word, armor was almost skin-tight and had the apperance of greenish-gray scales. He thought she looked vaguely familiar, and then when he saw the lightsaber at her side, it clicked.
"You're..."
"I am the first of legions," she replied in a suddenly cold, calculated voice. "The Queen, if that term is more understandable by your limited intellect."
"... Tenel Ka," he finished.
"That name no longer has any meaning to this being."
He would have licked his lips, but given that he no longer had any, it was a pointless exercise. "Why am I here?"
She regarded him with an eerily cool stare and her voice dropped an octave. "Since you were primarily responsible for orchestrating the invasion of this galaxy and indirectly caused intense pain and harm to this being, before it became one with us, we felt that the best outcome would be for you to simply watch as your empire came crashing down around you. After we have finished, your biological distinctiveness will not be added to our own. You will be the last surviving member of your species."
For the first time in his life, Nom Anor felt true fear.
Intergalactic Alliance: Twilight in Two Galaxies
Preview
They had been running for a long time, Jacen realized. Not running in the literal sense of the word, but the Jedi were now once again hunted thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong. He and Tenel Ka had been hopping from world to world until finally they decided to chance the crossing to the Milky Way.
So far, it had worked in their favor. The star maps of the Milky Way were so far still very incomplete, even with what the Federation had provided for the Republican cartographers to work with. Using the Force, they had navigated the Rock Dragon to an unexplored backwater in what the Federation referred to as the Delta Quadrant. The planet itself was pleasant, within the habitable norms of either the Republic or Federation, although the alien biology on the planet was a bit... well, odd would probably be the best way to put it. There was a definite food chain in place on the planet, with well established predators, but none of the creatures he'd seen so far came anywhere near sentience.
Their arrival had already upset the food chain pretty badly in the area they'd chosen to settle down in. There was a nearby cave that was just large enough to fit the Rock Dragon in, and the two had set to work building a shelter since they couldn't live in the ship forever. That was another thing he had never realized: just how effective lightsabers were at cutting wood. The shelter that had resulted, he figured, probably most resembled a log cabin from the frontier days of Earth.
With no Holonet entertainment, there was very little to do after they had finished gathering food and preparing things. So naturally it led that the two of them would wind up...
"Jacen?" Tenel Ka asked. He shook his head, and wanted to slap himself for drifting. She was lying beside him, having given up her lizard-hide suit for a simple cloth robe that gently accentuated her curves. Most importantly, she was staring at his face with an impatient look. "Well? What are you waiting for, an invitation?" She ripped off the robe and threw it in his face; he sputtered and blinked as he grabbed it. Before he had a chance to put it aside, she was already on top of him, pinning his arms down and nibbling at his ears.
"You know, I never realized just how strong your new arms are," he choked out.
THAT got her attention. She sat up quickly, covering her breasts with one arm. "What did you just say?"
He stammered. "I... uh, never realized just how strong your new arms are?"
"Are you trying to say that my arms weren't strong before?" She shoved him back down and mercilessly started tearing at his clothes.
"No, no," he managed to choke out in between having his shirt ripped up over his head. "It's just... these new ones are kind of deceptive, they don't look all that strong..."
She harrumphed and continued to work her way down. "Oooh, look what we have here..."
All of a sudden the world around them disappeared in a greenish flash, to be replaced by a hard, metal deck. There was some sort of murmuring in the background, and Jacen could hear metallic boots stomping in the distance.
"Oh shit..." they both exclaimed at the same time.
[ SEVERAL MONTHS LATER ]
Things had not been going very well for the Vong, Nom Anor reflected. First he had lost all contact with the advance strike force that had gone through the wormhole to the other galaxy. Then thousands of abominations started pouring through, massive cubes that were easily equal in size to the typical destroyers the Yuuzhan Vong used.
To make things worse, they spread some sort of virus, one that the shapers had no idea how to stop. Whenever direct contact was made with the abominations, strange metallic growths soon started sprouting up, almost like a yorik coral infection in a human. If the infected host wasn't killed fast enough, it would turn into a seemingly mindless drone.
Nom Anor swallowed as he heard the door behind him open. He was currently bound to a hard metal chair somewhere deep inside one of their ships. Why they hadn't turned him into a drone yet, he wasn't sure, but the thought didn't make him any more at ease. The metallic clanking drew closer, then stopped. He was about to turn his head when he heard a soft, gentle female voice speak—completely different from the harsh cacophony of voices they usually spoke in.
"I trust your stay has been pleasant?"
Shocked, he spun his head around and almost as fast wished he hadn't. The speaker appeared to be a human woman, in her mid 20s, with flowing red hair. Compared to the suits on most of the drones, her... he settled on armor for lack of a better word, armor was almost skin-tight and had the apperance of greenish-gray scales. He thought she looked vaguely familiar, and then when he saw the lightsaber at her side, it clicked.
"You're..."
"I am the first of legions," she replied in a suddenly cold, calculated voice. "The Queen, if that term is more understandable by your limited intellect."
"... Tenel Ka," he finished.
"That name no longer has any meaning to this being."
He would have licked his lips, but given that he no longer had any, it was a pointless exercise. "Why am I here?"
She regarded him with an eerily cool stare and her voice dropped an octave. "Since you were primarily responsible for orchestrating the invasion of this galaxy and indirectly caused intense pain and harm to this being, before it became one with us, we felt that the best outcome would be for you to simply watch as your empire came crashing down around you. After we have finished, your biological distinctiveness will not be added to our own. You will be the last surviving member of your species."
For the first time in his life, Nom Anor felt true fear.
