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Nem Yim's consciousness floated within the depths of the Eighth Cortex.
She watched the few concepts and processes as they floated by her, arcane designs that had long ago been stored within the Cortex. Things that had not seen the light of existence in thousands, if not millions, of years.
And for how empty these depths were, the complexities and and sheer brilliance in the few designs that lingered were amazing to her.
Then she reached the theoretical edges of the Cortex; the realm where her own designs were filling the uncharted depths.
And she found herself once again frowning--concerned about the lack of knowledge. For she knew that given enough time, the infidels would even out-innovate the realm of the Eighth Cortex, and that no matter how fast she filled it up, no matter how many new creatures and living artifacts she brought into existence, the infidels technological prowess would out-match and out-pace her.
She was only a single heretic amongst the billions of Yuuzhan Vong Shapers, while the infidels had billions of scientists working against her and the Elect.
There had to be something beyond this. Something which would allow the Master Shapers of the Yuuzhan Vong to create new things without the taint of Heresy.
Even as she thought these things, the Qang Qahsa wavered around her, and she felt pain blister through her mind, ripping at the delicate neurons that had been prepared for the sharing of knowledge with the Qang Qahsa.
Slowly, she realized that this was a pain she had felt before, that once more, she was the focus of the intelligence which governed the Qang Qahsa and the protocols as a whole.
Begone.
The word reverberated throughout her brain, more terrible than even the voice of Shimrra.
"No," Nem Yim said in a hiss. "I am the Master Shaper of the Yuuzhan Vong, you will show me your knowledge."
The pain flared and grew more terrible, attempting to burn away her iron will.
But she held fast, and remained.
Then, the pain disappeared and the icy-coldness of the Cortex once again flowed through her awareness.
She looked around her, and realized that she had transcended the Eighth Cortex and found herself still deeper within the forbidden, ancient knowledge.
Here she found two things.
Two protocols hidden deeper within the Qang Qahsa than any had ever dared travel before. Two protocols hidden two levels further than all the other Master Shapers alive today knew existed. It was possible that this level was even beyond the keen of Lord Shimrra.
The first protocol was the Protocol of Yun-Harla. She reached for it, and there she found the way that Yun-Harla had stolen the secrets which were stored in the Cortexes. It was the steps, a process, to create knowledge--to refine it and make it better.
She knew she had found the concept that would help her race survive, prosper and prevail over the Infidels.
Then she focused on the second protocol. She noticed that is was defined as the Protocol of Yun-Yuuzhan.
The very thought of a protocol named such bothered her; it smelled and tasted of blasphemy.
So of course she retrieved it.
The protocol resembled a dhuryam or a yammosk. A massive floating brain creature. What it did or was suppose to do, was not defined.
As she burned the knowledge into the space created by her last session with the Vaa-tumor, she felt the awareness of the Qang Qahsa focus on her.
Be wary of the Protocol of Yun-Yuuzhan.
She blinked. "Why?"
The Protocol is destructive to the very concepts of space-time. It creates a... it does not matter. Do not shape it. Such has been the command for eons. Such shall be the commands for eons more.
"Is it a weapon?"
Yes. And No.
Nem Yim frowned for a moment. "I shall consider things."
The commands of old are to purge this knowledge when you leave the Qang Qahsa.
Then she found herself once again in her real body. The Protocol of Yun-Yuuzhan burning in her brain as she struggled to grasp what such a creature would be used for.
For two days she struggled with the knowledge, wondering if she could or should purge it.
Finally, she decided that she must know what this creature was capable of. What it could do. And how.
So, she ordered a dhuryam birth-chamber, and created the few embryonic cells which would grow into whatever the creature was. The Qang Qahsa had refused to name it, and Nem Yim did not wish to until she knew what it would be capable of.
For weeks, she watched it develop and grow. Finally, she had it moved to a yammosk pool, where it continued to grow.
Finally, it reached what she assumed to be its full growth. The creature was slightly larger than a standard rikyam but smaller than a yammosk. She stared at the creature, amazed at the... beauty inherent in its form.
Now, if she only knew what its function was.
That night she was woke by a strange dream. It had felt like something primal had been speaking to her from the depths of her brain.
Standing, she stepped out into the hall and glanced around. Feeling a subtle, telepathic pull, she walked down the hallway to where the yammosk pull was.
Once there, she descended the steps, and walked through the thigh-high water until she stood before the creature.
A thin tendril reached up, and caressed her cheek, and concepts and thoughts slashed through her brain. Knowledge was ripped from it. Primarily, the ways of communications, but she also felt large portions of her own personal history transfer as well.
It spoke directly to her brain. Do you wish for your former Master to return from beyond the veil?
Nem Yim frowned as she considered the words, even as she found herself responding. "Yes."
So be it.
And then Nem Yim felt it.
A subtle warping in the pit of her stomach, that transcended everything; a jagged rip in the very concept of herself, and before her eyes, or rather the enhanced creatures with which she had replaced her eyes, creatures which allowed her to see below the microscopic level, she watched as the very building blocks of existence wavered and flickered.
She tasted tachyons and other exotic particles exiting from the creature. Things that she had no name for, but she knew, instinctively, that they traveled faster than light, and backwards through time.
And in that instant, she saw that if you accessed a high-enough dimension, time curved in upon itself the same way space curved and folded within the realm of Darkspace. That every moment in time was the exact same as right now.
And that every tachyon released touched upon all times and no times. They flickered out, racing through those high-order dimensions, searching for something.
Or someone.
Searching, to bring them back to the here and now.
At the epicenter of this disturbance, she knew all of this. For the first time in existence, she was aware of all things.
If she had been a Jedi, she would know that she was accessing a fundamental aspect of the Universe: the Force.
But she was not a Jedi, and had no concept or framework upon which to base the feeling. Nothing with which she could organize the near constant stream of feelings and information that flooded through her.
Thousands upon millions of tachyons raced past her, through her, while at the same time, they had yet to be released from the creature.
The concept raged through her brain, the Vaa-tumor struggled to keep up with the flow of information.
Before finally succumbing.
In a heartbeat the Vaa-tumor, a symbiotic organism that had replaced large portions of Nem Yim's brain, died.
The effect was startling, and worked exactly as if Nem Yim had had a massive aneurysm.
Her death was instantaneous.
So fast, so sudden, that she did not even have time to disable her revenge mechanisms. As her body recognized the fact that it was dying, it released a dozen different retro-viruses. Things designed to kill anything native to the Yuuzhan Vong or native to the Infidel galaxy.
Before Nem Yim's body even had the chance to slip beneath the waters of the yammosk pool, the creature she had shaped was in its death throws.
And with its death, those billions of tachyons that had already raced through time were released.
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