Operation Darkness: Expectation, Anticipation, Preparation 
By Durandir


The turns life takes in its course: No-one, perhaps, has better cause 
to wonder at them than have I. Life has taken a most extraordinary 
course for me, and all the more so since I reclaimed my father's 
throne. And particularly since I married my Queen and put a Batcave 
in my Palace.

In general, I do not frown on wonders and surprises, for without them 
life would be most dull. So it was that I readily welcomed the pilots 
of the New Republic as our allies in the war against my uncle; so it 
was that I welcomed Terra Group, with its extraterrestrial chain of 
command, as a permanent resident in the Palace. Not in all my years 
of stargazing could I have imagined such an intersection between my 
own life, my Mendellia, and these worlds beyond our Sun; but it came 
to pass, and I welcomed the surprise.

Finding friends and comrades-at-arms in the people of a distant 
galaxy: that was a good surprise. Finding a soulmate in a girl not 
Mendellian-born, nor noble-born, and as thoroughly unlike Kirret as 
could be: a most joyful surprise. And then, the first time that I 
held in my arms our son, my heir: It seems odd that there should be 
surprise in this, when we had near nine months to prepare for it, yet 
nothing could ever quite prepare me for that wonder.

With Terra Group in the Palace wonders sometimes begin to be 
commonplace, for nothing is ordinary where they are involved. I had 
thought myself quite accustomed to the unexpected, prepared for any 
such bizarre mission as might come up, for any of Becki's stories of 
the curious customs and beings of the far-away New Republic that 
employed her now in its missions. But the news Sharon had for us that 
night gave the lie to that assumption. The Yuuzhan Vong were a 
surprise for which I could never be prepared, and to which I should 
never grow accustomed.

At our first sight of them--or of their image: I wish I had never had 
more sight of them than that--I heard my wife's gasp as I bent down 
beside her and reached for her hand. After that there was only 
silence as we stared, unable to tear our eyes away, while Sharon 
cycled through several more images of this new surprise, this enemy, 
this threat to all we knew and loved.

Becki broke the silence at last. "Sharon," said she, "what do you 
know about these . . ." She trailed off, unable or unwilling to name 
the enemy again.

"More than I'd like," Sharon muttered.

"Tell me," Becki said. "Sci was right; I haven't read the reports. 
And I'd just as soon not know, even now. But if these things are 
going to invade our home, then we need to know everything we can."

Sharon nodded dismally and turned back to the controls of the 
communications equipment. "You're right. Okay, I'll start from the 
beginning--everything I've got from NRI about the Vong." She glanced 
hesitantly towards us. "There's a lot of it, and none of it's pretty."

~

Night wore on towards morning as Sharon's briefing proceeded. Hunger 
soon chipped away at the edges of our horror. But the invaders would 
soon finish with our moon and be on their way to Terra itself, and we 
would need all our strength to fight them. So while Becki went on 
with her crash course in Vong lore, I went back upstairs to our room, 
to find my comlink and call in Chef Boyd for an early breakfast.

Before I reached our door it was plain that I wasn't the only one 
concerned about breakfast: Riehn was awake and, judging by the 
volume, he was beginning to take offense at the lack of response to 
his cries.

I tucked the comlink in my pocket and lifted the baby out of his 
crib. "Hush now, little one," I soothed. "Papa's here now, it's all 
right." Ah, the things we will say--as parents, of course, but I find 
it is little different no matter the position of leadership, of 
influence; just as I spoke to my son at that moment, I have oft had 
need to speak to my countrymen--the words we will use to snatch 
comfort out of the air, to draw up an image of hope where no hope may 
in fact be. Yet there is this level of truth to such words: though in 
my mind I saw little hope against the enemy that had invaded us, yet 
I believed, somehow, in my words of comfort. All was not right: but 
in saying otherwise, I declared that we would make it right. So it 
was that, there with my son, I declared war on the Yuuzhan Vong.

Riehn took more comfort in my voice than in my grasping at hopes, I 
do not doubt; but either way, his crying quieted a little as I held 
him. "Come on," I said. "Rich won't be much use to you. Let's go find 
your mother."

~

When I returned to the Batcave, Sharon had finished with the NRI 
messages: Becki was now, so to speak, the leading expert on the 
Yuuzhan Vong among the government of Mendellia, and she didn't look 
at all happy about it. Perhaps out of relief at a change of subject, 
she looked wildly pleased to see us and embraced me over the 
whimpering baby for a moment before I handed him off to her.

"Someone's hungry," I explained.

"And he's not the only one," she said. "Scaring ourselves silly with 
information we'd much rather not know is hungry work, as it turns 
out."

"I'm calling Rich," I said, "as soon as I put out the alert."

"Good plan," she said with a smile. Then she moved off to find a 
corner out of the way to nurse the baby, and I pulled out the comlink 
again.

My first call put the Palace on alert, and with it, the country's 
defenses. Reth and Kirret, Fir and Fenya, the Graces and our other 
fighter squadrons, yes, even the Council of Lords: in minutes the 
people on whom Mendellia's defense depended would begin converging 
upon the Palace. After that I called Chef Boyd, to make sure the 
defenders would be well fed before the battle began.

It occurred to me somewhere between calls that we might be beyond 
defending Mendellia, now. In the Battle of Terra over a year ago, my 
country had allied with New Republic forces to defend all of Terra: 
but few of Earth's people outside of Mendellia even knew that that 
battle had taken place. Yet from what we knew of the Yuuzhan Vong, it 
began to seem doubtful that the whole of Terra would remain so 
blissfully unaware of these invaders as they had been of Thraawn's 
threat to them. More was at stake than ever before. If Terra was to 
turn back the Vong invasion, it would take the concentrated efforts 
of every nation on our planet.

And to the best of my knowledge, our nation alone knew what we faced. 
I was the only sovereign or head of state aware of the Vong--in fact, 
only a few leaders outside Mendellia were even aware of the New 
Republic and the Empire.

Perhaps the time had come for that to change.