Operation Darkness: That Good Night
By scifantasy

One minute I was in the control room of the Luna base that once was the 
Admonitor, the next a Yuuzhan Vong attack, the next I'm facing down a trio 
of Vong warriors. The Vong have beaten almost every enemy they've faced, 
barring Jedi. Noghri have fallen to their skills.

And I'm no Noghri. I'm a reasonable fighter against Imperial troops, or 
your average foot soldier. I'm a skilled pilot, with my custom shuttle 
_Gaia_. But when you get right down to it, the smart money was on the Vong. 
I managed to dispatch one with some lucky shots, but they were too much.

Now then, what the hell am I doing here?

I'm dead! I deserve some peace, don't I? Heaven, and alla that?

Suddenly a voice comes into my head. "Do not go gently into that good 
night..." Oh, wonderful. Not only am I dead, but not, as it were, sent to 
the Farplane, but I'm dead and I'm listening to Dylan Thomas. I don't even 
_like_ Dylan Thomas! Or that hack who took his name...

"To be, or not to be..." Oh, for crying out loud. It's too late. Hamlet was 
contemplating suicide. I didn't have the chance. I'm dead. Do you hear me? 
Dead!

"But are you gone?" Huh? That one wasn't like the others. It came from 
behind me, and it sounded like Alec Guinness...

I whirl around. Sure enough, Obi-Wan Kenobi is standing behind me, standing 
stock-still. I bow silghtly. "Knight Kenobi. It is an honor to make your 
formal acquaintance. What are you, my guide to the afterlife?"

He smiles. "Do you wish to go to the afterlife?"

I frown in response. "If I had my druthers I'd be fighting the Yuuzhan 
Vong. You see, I'm the only one from my team who knows anything about the 
Yuuzhan Vong, because I've been keeping up with NRI briefings, but the rest 
of my team doesn't. They're at a disadvantage; but I don't exactly have 
that option, do I?" A thought occurs to me. "Oh. Do you--does the Force, 
whatever it is--know about the Vong? They can't be sensed through the 
Force, so I was wondering..." I cut off. He's giving me one of those "some 
questions can't be asked" looks. Oh well.

"You wish to fight, still? You're not a bloodthirsty man by nature."

Wonderful. "No, I'm not. I'm a peaceful man by nature. But, no peace with 
the Shadow, and besides, I have a world to protect. But seeing as my body 
is lying on the floor, probably in many pieces, and my spirit is somewhere 
in Purgatory--" I look around. Sure looks like Purgatory to me. Does that 
mean the Catholics are right after all? Man, I'm going to have one helluva 
rant when I run into God. "--that's out of the question, isn't it?"

He sighs. "Normally, yes."

I smile. "But I'm not exactly normal, am I? That whole "human ysalamir" 
thing acting up again? You know, that's a lot like a Vong's abilities. Any 
idea where that--" Again, with the "no answers here" looks. Damn.

He nods, though. "Your spirit doesn't exactly fit anywhere. So, you'll 
probably end up unliving in the physical plane. Here." He waves, and a door 
opens. Well, maybe it was some metaphysical construct that my spirit 
interpreted as a door--in fact, that was a really simple explanation for 
what happened. Who cares?

I walk in the door, and smack into Brad Corletti, just leaving the hangar 
bay. Brad's an odd one, too--disciple of some forgotten sect of Force-ism. 
I shrug and grab on to his metaphysical arm. "Mind if I tag along?"