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"Heir to the Empire"


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In our summaries, we’ve covered quite a few books written after the release of Return of the Jedi, but this was the first one. This book begins a long stretch of novels that were written from 1991-1999. The authors that wrote during this time did their best to create a cohesive universe that referenced each others’ works. But the release of the prequels, starting in 1999, started creating problems.

 

We will continue to see some timeline problems as we have with previous books. Further, we are going to run into situations where characters that made first appearances in the 1991-1999 novels have actually been inserted into books we’ve already covered earlier in the timeline. As a result, some of the characters we’ve already encountered in our chronological timeline actually made their first publication appearances in upcoming works.

 

chapter 1:

 

Aboard the Star Destroyer Chimaera, Lieutenant Tschel is taken to task by Captain Gilad Pellaeon for shouting information across the bridge at him. The young man reports that the scout ships have returned from the Obroa-skai system where they’d attempted a dump of the central computer system. They got at least a partial dump before the natives discovered them and began pursuit. The wing commander believes he lost them.

 

Pellaeon is angered that the Empire is reduced to forcibly conscripting young men and women now that its territory is a mere quarter of what it once was. Though these recruits are trained, they have no experience. There is only the late Emperor to blame for this as his blatant attempt to bring the military under his control resulted in the loss of two Death Stars. The upper echelons of the fleet don’t really mourn those so much as they do the loss of ships and the personnel aboard them that died with the second Death Star, particularly the Super Star Destroyer Executor.

 

Once that ship died on the hull of the Death Star, chaos reigned in the battle. Pellaeon himself took command of Chimaera when the captain was killed. Now he finds himself woefully staffed under the greatest military mind in the Empire.

 

He approaches the meditation chamber of Grand Admiral Thrawn where the alien officer has set up a holographic art display of exhibits from all over the galaxy. After a brief confrontation with the Grand Admiral’s Noghri bodyguard, Rukh, Pellaeon reports the data raid on Obroa-skai and the likelihood that the pursuers have been lost.

 

Thrawn doesn’t think so, especially if the pursuers are from the Rebellion. He is more interested in getting Pellaeon’s opinion about the artwork displayed here. The captain tries to be polite while thinking that there really are more important topics to discuss right now when Lt. Tschel interrupts to report three wings of X-Wing fighters and four New Republic Assault Frigates attacking.

 

Pellaeon, believing them to be outgunned, orders a jump to lightspeed, but Thrawn has him belay the order. He shows Pellaeon a tactical readout display and gives Tschel orders that neither the lieutenant nor the captain understand. It seems that he has been able to determine that an Elom is commanding the Rebel forces and Elomin cannot handle the unstructured strategy he is utilizing. He has learned this from studying Elomin art and urges the captain to do the same.

 

After the attack is repulsed, they discuss the inability to take Obroa-skai for now, but the computer dump has given Thrawn a piece he’s been searching for. He orders the Chimaera to leave, putting the Fleet under the command of Captain Harbid of Death’s Head.

 

For now, the Chimaera is going to Myrkr, a planet normally populated by smugglers and other malcontents. About seven years ago, Thrawn had encountered the name and noted that both the Old Republic and the Jedi had left it alone. That is highly unusual for a planet within the boundaries of the Republic. The answer to that puzzle is in the form of an animal native to the planet. The second piece of the puzzle is on a world called Wayland. The Obroa-skai dump has finally given him the location.

 

These pieces will help them solve the puzzle that will result in the destruction of the Rebellion.
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  • This was the first appearance of Pellaeon in terms of actual publication order. However, we’ve obviously met him many times before, going as far back as the Clone Wars-era novels and as recently as Tatooine Ghost. He has, in those novels, seemed to be a level-headed and decent person. To read about him remembering the Battle of Endor with hatred is rather odd now.
  • Publication-wise, it is also the first appearance of Thrawn. However, he’s been put into many books taking place prior in the chronology we’ve been following. His earliest chronological appearance was in Outbound Flight. He later appeared briefly in Rebel Force #1: Target and in Choices of One. It is also strongly implied that he was the new admiral referred to in Tatooine Ghost.
  • I had thought that Pellaeon assumed command of the Chimaera at the end of Choices of One when the captain died. However, this chapter implies that the assumption of command occurred during the Battle of Endor. It also refers to when Pellaeon met Thrawn which we know probably happened during Choices of One which took place almost a year before the Battle of Endor. This chapter implies that the meeting took place after the battle. And, of course, we know that Pellaeon at least knew of Thrawn prior to that even if they hadn’t met.
  • Further, the chapter also indicates that Pellaeon has 50 years of Imperial service behind him. We all know that the Empire was created approximately 28 years ago, so, technically, Pellaeon has only served the Empire that long. However, I’m sure that his service for the Republic during the Clone Wars counts, as well. Since there was no Republic military before that time, I’m not sure where the remaining 20 years comes from, unless he worked for those Republic Space Corps people we read about in Shadow Games or the Republic Judicials who were always being name-checked in the prequel-era books. That’s my retconning. Because this was written prior to the release of the prequels, my belief is that the original intent was to imply that the Empire had lasted much longer than we now know it did which puts it in line with what other authors at the time began doing with regards to the Clone Wars/Rise of the Empire era.
  • Thrawn is said here to have been given the title Grand Admiral by Palpatine. This had to have happened within the time between Choices of One when he was a Group Captain and Return of the Jedi.
  • The idea that the military had not been under the authority of the Emperor until around the time of the Death Star is kind of silly. We know that Palpatine controlled the military long before that.
  • The time is now 9 years ABY. Luke and Leia are 29; Han is about 39.
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Thanks!

 

chapter 2:

 

On Coruscant, Luke Skywalker has a vision of Ben Kenobi who comes to him one last time. The distance between their consciousnesses is becoming too great and he will not be able to appear anymore.

 

Luke insists he still needs Ben who can only tell him that he is strong in the Force and has no need for a teacher anymore. Besides, the journey is not Ben’s choice to make. Luke himself will make that journey someday. Until then, he must remain cautious because the dark side is always powerful. Though Luke will continue to face dangers, he will find new allies when he least expects them.

 

Luke is not the last of the Jedi, but the first of the new.

 

That does not prevent him from feeling orphaned once again.

 

He sips hot chocolate on the balcony of his suite in the Imperial palace where he contemplates the foolishness of moving the headquarters of the New Republic here. The symbolism of replacing the Empire with a new government on the same world is all wrong and the New Republic already places too much emphasis on symbols.

 

C-3PO arrives, having been sent by Leia to check on Luke. Luke chuckles at his sister’s newfound Jedi skills of picking up on Luke’s mood. He tells 3PO to have Leia concentrate more on sleeping. She really shouldn’t be focusing at all on building up a New Republic at the site of the Emperor’s former home at all, much less while three month’s pregnant.

 

He remembers his experience in the cave on Dagobah and wonders if something strong in the dark side of the Force lives here. He hasn’t found anything specifically evil about the place now, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t here. Leia’s unborn children are strong in the Force, he believes. It’s something he’d wanted to ask Ben about.

 

And there are billions of others waiting for the freedom the New Republic offers. As the lone Jedi, there’s only so much he can do.

 

 

After Winter suggests Captain Solo might be able to help, Leia starts feeling angry at being left alone again.

 

Sitting in the Mos Eisley Cantina, Han and Chewie meet with Dravis, a smuggler who thinks that Solo is here representing the New Republic to urge the smugglers to stop their illegal activities.

 

Han tells him that the government is actually hoping to hire them instead to ferry cargo. He assures Dravis that tariffs won’t be set so high that it makes smuggling attractive to their regular customers. Dravis might work with him, but others won’t. Smuggling is about profits and excitement. Han reminds him that working for the Empire isn’t going to be much better as their territory is shrinking. Dravis has heard about someone new in charge that cost the New Republic an entire task force recently.

 

When Solo asks, Dravis tells him that, with the death of Jabba, the biggest smuggling operation is probably the one run by Talon Karrde. He isn’t telling where Karrde can be found, but, before he leaves, he lets Han know to tell his backup man that he’s the worst Dravis has ever seen.

 

The backup man is Wedge Antilles who is definitely not inconspicuous. Fortunately, Wedge isn’t the official backup man. That honor belongs to Lt. Page of New Republic Intelligence who didn’t see any problems.

 

Han tells them he’s headed out now, but wants to swing by Obroa-skai first and see what he can find out about the destruction of the task force.
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  • Apparently, whatever secret to retaining one’s consciousness in the Force after death does not allow for it to be a permanent thing. That makes sense, I guess, as we haven’t heard from Qui-Gon Jinn for a long time.
  • This whole idea of the New Republic moving the seat of government here recently doesn’t really fit. The liberation of Coruscant took place during Wedge’s Gamble which occurred 6.5 years ABY. This means the Provisional Council has been on Coruscant for about 2 ½ years, hardly a recent development. Further, we know from the Old Republic books we’ve discussed going back to the time of Revan how important Coruscant is to the galaxy in terms of government. Surely Luke realizes the importance of that symbolism even if he rejects symbolism in other matters.
  • And, if Leia has been pregnant for three months, that’s a little longer than the nine weeks they’ve been discussing. However, it’s only a difference of about three weeks anyway. So, without being crude here, I’m guessing it’s been three months since Tatooine Ghost?
  • Luke mentions that Leia is showing off her new Jedi skills. No offense, but Leia’s always kind of been able to sense Luke’s mood so this isn’t really a new skill. On the other hand, is this an indicator that Leia is at least trying to learn how to use the Force? Because we’ve never really gotten the impression she’s all that interested.
  • Publication-wise, this was the first mention and appearance of Winter (who we’ve seen previously in Rebel Dawn and in the X-Wing books, for example), Talon Karrde (who we learned took over Jorj Car’das’s smuggling operation in Choices of One and we met in X-Wing: The Bacta War) and Dravis who was mentioned in The Bacta War.
  • Dravis asks Han about his being a general. Han confirms he resigned the commission months ago. Despite his ability to look past the problems the Provisional Council gave Leia about marrying Prince Isolder, it would appear that Han is on the non-officer swing of his life’s pendulum right now!
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chapter 3:

 

Talon Karrde invites Mara Jade to join him for dinner, assuring her it’s just business. His pet vornskrs - Sturm and Drang – are ushered out. He is offering Mara a promotion which surprises her as she’s only been with his organization for six months.

 

She has demonstrated some very valuable skills in that time that makes Karrde believe that she shouldn’t be wasted on minor jobs. He wants to groom her to be his second-in-command.

 

He is interrupted by a comm. from Aves – one of his associates – who reports that an Imperial Star Destroyer is in orbit and has dispatched two shuttles that will land near their location in the jungle. Aves reports that Torve thinks it’s the Chimaera.

 

Karrde contacts the ship and offers to assist them in whatever they need. Captain Pellaeon will not confirm or deny Karrde’s mention of Grand Admiral Thrawn as valid. Karrde assumes they are after the ysalamiri, so he warns Pellaeon to make sure his shuttle crews know about the dangerous predators in the jungle, the metallic content of the vegetation that will interfere with sensors and that the ysalamiri creatures require a specific procedure for safely removing them from the tree branches.

 

Pellaeon accepts the offer which Karrde extends at no charge. He sends a couple of his people out to demonstrate the procedure to the Imperial crewers before returning to Mara. She can’t believe he’s not charging, but Karrde wants the opportunity to watch them. He isn’t really sure what they’re up to, especially since one Jedi is hardly enough trouble to collect the creatures for. Mara wonders if they’ve found another one. Karrde isn’t so sure, but thinks they might have found another Darth Vader. She is adamant that both Vader and the Emperor died on the Death Star.

 

Karrde has learned, by watching her over the last few months, that certain subjects create emotional responses from Mara. The Emperor and the Empire he ruled over is one; Luke Skywalker is another.

 

However, Karrde thinks that it might be wise to bring some of the creatures around his headquarters, too, just to take precautions, especially if a Grand Admiral thinks it’s wise.

 

They return to the subject of her promotion and, while talking, Karrde determines he will someday find out where she came from and who she really was, along with what Luke Skywalker has done to make her hate him so much.
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  • The chapter refers to her only as Mara, but we know that this is Mara Jade, the former skilled, yet naïve, Emperor’s Hand whom we met in Allegiance and followed up with in Choices of One. As with many of the other characters in this book, Mara’s first publication appearance in a novel was here.
  • We’ve had the name ysalamiri name checked in a couple of books here and there, but this was the first time they appeared.
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chapter 4:

 

Five days after retrieving the ysalamiri, the Chimaera arrives at Wayland where Pellaeon doesn’t understand why they have to be careful. According to Thrawn, the Emperor himself placed the Guardian here. Thrawn would rather take precautions as the Guardian may not believe they are who they say they are.

 

After all, they are meeting with a Dark Jedi who is guarding the Emperor’s personal storehouse. He will certainly be careful, notwithstanding the egotistical pride his kind are known for having. However, if he’s actually an Imperial agent, the presence of Rukh will persuade him of the truth of their words.

 

They land near Mount Tantiss near a city comprised of human and two distinct alien-styles of architecture. Thrawn shouts for someone who can take him to the Guardian of the mountain and threatens severe consequences if no one complies.

 

After an arrow is shot at them, Rukh destroys a building which brings an old man with long flowing white hair and beard. The man offers to take them to the Guardian, but leads them into a crypt instead. The Guardian is dead as are the people who’ve come in search for him since then. The old man killed them and prepares to launch Force lightning to do the same to Thrawn and Pellaeon.

 

However, the lightning doesn’t get very far before it dissipates. This perplexes the man who claims to be Jedi Master Joruus C’baoth. Pellaeon recognizes the name, but cannot go any further.

 

C’baoth ushers them out of the crypt to talk, preventing Thrawn from having one of the guards executed after the man tries to shoot him for destroying his building. These people are C’baoth’s, not Thrawn’s.

 

Thrawn explains that the creature on his shoulders is an ysalamir which projects a bubble that pushes back the Force. Several of the creatures together can create huge bubbles. He brought it here so that he could persuade the Emperor’s Guardian to at least give him the chance to present his offer. Additionally, he has other uses for the animals.

 

He is here because he wants some equipment from the mountain. Rumors were that the Empire had developed a practical cloaking shield which he would like to take, along with some other minor technology.

 

However, he also wants to partner with a Jedi Master such as C’baoth because he’s seen how the Force can assist those in battle. As an example, he points to the disastrous defeat at Endor after the death of the Emperor. Palpatine had tried to control the military so completely that his death caused a lack of fighting spirit that resulted in their destruction. Thrawn wants C’baoth to merely enhance coordination between fighting groups. The end result being the destruction of the Rebellion, the conquering of worlds and the reestablishment of the New Order.

 

C’baoth doesn’t think he understands power. The Jedi Master himself holds power over this entire city and everyone in it. Holding authority over worlds he’ll never visit or beings he’ll never see holds no appeal for him. He prefers they leave now. He cannot be threateneded by either the Noghri, which he knows have served as the Emperor’s private commandos, or by the thought of the Star Destroyer in orbit. Thrawn appeals to his desire for a challenge.

 

After all, a Jedi Master should have lesser Jedi to serve him. While C’baoth thinks that all of the Jedi are gone, Thrawn informs him that two new Jedi have emerged in the last few years: Luke Skywalker and his sister, Leia Organa Solo. He promises to deliver both to C’baoth which is even more sweetened by the fact that the sister is pregnant with twins.

 

C’baoth agrees to assist Thrawn who searches the mountain, finding both the cloaking shield and the minor bit of technology he’d hoped to find.

 

Back on the ship, Pellaeon asks for a word with Thrawn who asks about any updates from the Imperial Palace. There's nothing new, but Thrawn thinks he knows what he needs to about the Bimmisaari trip anyway. He assigns a commando group to grab the Jedi.

 

Pellaeon expresses his concern that this C’baoth character isn’t sane. Thrawn agrees and also reveals that it’s not really C’baoth either. Thrawn explains that C’baoth was one of six Jedi Masters aboard the Outbound Flight project which was launched shortly before the Clone Wars. The ship was destroyed by a task force commanded by Thrawn just outside of Republic space.

 

The Emperor would not have passed up the chance of eliminating six Jedi Masters at one time. This person they’ve brought aboard the Chimaera is a clone created from a tissue sample right before the real C’baoth’s death. Pellaeon knows this means a clone among those created early in the war which were unstable. Thrawn assures him that C’baoth is predictable enough to control and the ysalamiri will take care of the rest.
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  • The misspelling of Jorus C’baoth is deliberate, probably to distinguish in print the difference between the real C’baoth and the clone.
  • However, let’s address this issue of C’baoth being cloned. Thrawn said it was from tissue taken before the real C’baoth’s death. This would have been about 5 years before AOTC so we are talking around 36 years ago, 8 years before ROTS. This guy is an old man so did they grow him normally or was he flash-grown on Kamino the way the Jango clones were? He obviously has aged so was he allowed to age normally once he was removed from the vat or does he not have the same rapid aging problem as the Jango clones? We have to ask these questions now because this book was written before AoTC came out and the specific details regarding the Clone Wars and what they entailed were not known. My guess is that the author again believed the Clone Wars were around 50 years ago and set C’baoth’s age accordingly.
  • As for the early clones being unstable, we really didn’t get that from the Jango clones. Perhaps the early cloning techniques produced unstable clones, but the Kamino-grown Jango clones were neither mentally nor emotionally unstable (and those that were the Kaminoans destroyed). Pellaeon worked with them so he should have known this. However, again, this book was written nearly ten years before AoTC was released and the author couldn’t have known.
  • Odd that Thrawn refers to Leia as a Jedi when, as I pointed out in chapter two, Leia has not expressed much interest in being trained, Force-sensitivity notwithstanding.
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Guest El Chalupacabra

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• The misspelling of Jorus C’baoth is deliberate, probably to distinguish in print the difference between the real C’baoth and the clone.

 

• However, let’s address this issue of C’baoth being cloned. Thrawn said it was from tissue taken before the real C’baoth’s death. This would have been about 5 years before AOTC so we are talking around 36 years ago, 8 years before ROTS. This guy is an old man so did they grow him normally or was he flash-grown on Kamino the way the Jango clones were? He obviously has aged so was he allowed to age normally once he was removed from the vat or does he not have the same rapid aging problem as the Jango clones? We have to ask these questions now because this book was written before AoTC came out and the specific details regarding the Clone Wars and what they entailed were not known. My guess is that the author again believed the Clone Wars were around 50 years ago and set C’baoth’s age accordingly.

 

• As for the early clones being unstable, we really didn’t get that from the Jango clones. Perhaps the early cloning techniques produced unstable clones, but the Kamino-grown Jango clones were neither mentally nor emotionally unstable (and those that were the Kaminoans destroyed). Pellaeon worked with them so he should have known this. However, again, this book was written nearly ten years before AoTC was released and the author couldn’t have known.

 

• Odd that Thrawn refers to Leia as a Jedi when, as I pointed out in chapter two, Leia has not expressed much interest in being trained, Force-sensitivity notwithstanding.

If memory serves, later in Heir, references to Sparti cloning are made.

 

In AOTC, its stated that Kaminoans are "damned good cloners," so perhaps the Kamino clones weren't the first or the only methods the Republic used to clone people. Maybe Sparti clones are less perfect.

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chapter 5:

 

Admiral Ackbar hadn’t thought the idea of approaching smuggler groups was fruitful in the first place and Han’s report doesn’t convince him otherwise. Han tries to explain that the issue is a matter of both the profitability of working with the New Republic and trusting that this isn’t just a trick to get them out into the open.

 

Borsk Fey’lya seizes upon the latter as Ackbar is known for his strong anti-smuggling sentiments.

 

The two Councilors have really not been friends as Ackbar considers Fey’lya’s constant jockeying for greater power within the Provisional Council to be a waste of time. However, despite the considerable regard with which Ackbar is held, Fey’lya has some pull as well owing to his faction of Bothan spies being the ones which found the location of the second Death Star and died doing it.

 

Mon Mothma intervenes before another argument erupts and explains that the smugglers are waiting for the same thing the rest of the galaxy is waiting for: the reestablishment of the Old Republic. The Provisional Council must make their New Republic a reality.

 

After the meeting ends, Leia confirms with Han that he only missed more tension between Ackbar and Fey’lya who thinks that the loss of the Elomin task force means the former isn’t up to the challenge of Supreme Commander.

 

Mon Mothma appears quickly to ask if Leia’s had a chance to speak with Luke. The Bimms are hero-oriented so it’s felt that having Luke along might be beneficial. Han agrees, but thinks that, if a Jedi is so important, it would also be beneficial to give Leia time to concentrate on her own development in the Force rather than stick her with constant diplomatic assignments.

 

But, with Luke, the droids and Chewbacca on this mission, Leia reminds him that this will be just like old times.
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  • So, I guess Leia really is interested in learning how to become a Jedi? Is she?
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chapter 6:

 

After the Falcon lands on Bimmisaari, Han chastises Luke and Leia for doing half of their communication through the Force. Leia kids Han for putting his comlink on his collar which turns out to be a good idea in case some serruptitious communication is needed.

 

The Bimms greet them warmly but insist that Han return his blaster to the ship as no weapons are allowed here. They do not seem to notice Luke’s lightsaber on his belt and no one thinks it’s necessary to remind them.

 

As they are escorted to the Tower of Law, 3PO explains that the Bimms are apologetic about a delay in the talks as the chief negotiator became very ill within the last few moments. However, their guide has offered them a tour of the marketplace while a replacement is arranged.

 

He suggests that Han and Luke might prefer to check out the Tower’s upper chambers where there are Old Republic relics on display. Worrying that this is an attempt to separate them, Leia looks to Luke. He doesn’t think there’s any duplicity here. Leia decides the guide probably wants to have her alone long enough to present some issue of his own to her.

 

Han and Leia are guided through the market accompanied by C-3PO who translates for the guide. When they are distracted by a street vendor, however, the guide disappears. Leia senses danger and suggests they get back to the Tower.

 

They find three aliens armed with stokhli sticks in their path.

 

There are eight more surrounding the group. Neither Han nor Leia recognize the species which is apparently quite alert as Han is prevented from touching his comlink. He suggests Leia use the Force to contact Luke. She tells him that Luke can’t help them because he’s in trouble, too.

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  • Well, Luke has never really been good at determining whether or not someone can be trusted, has he?
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chapter 7:

 

Luke senses a cry for help through the Force and turns around in the upper chambers of the Tower. He runs into another room toward a staircase where he is confronted by seven gray figures who want him to go back where he was.

 

He humors the figures until one of them is distracted enough that his weapon is pointed toward two of his companions. That’s when Luke uses the Force to ignite the weapon and uses the distraction to pull his lightsaber.

 

Then he pulls a tapestry down top of them, but they are quick enough to jump out of the way. The spray coming from their weapons is all over the place and Luke doesn’t quite know what it does. He regrets having to resort to violence, but finally has to cut through them with his lightsaber before rushing out to find Leia.

 

Han tells Leia to grab a jewelry box on a vendor’s table nearby. She strains to grab it before it lurches toward Han and into his hands. This causes a problem with the vendor himself which results in several Bimms knocking Han over. Han uses the opportunity to comm Chewie.

 

Luke hears another cry for help, but cannot jump through a fifth story window safely. He grabs one of the alien’s weapons to create a rope extending from the roof and climbs down it.

 

That’s when the Falcon flies by overhead. Between Luke’s lightsaber and the ship’s swivel blaster, they are able to eliminate the attackers.

 

On the ship, Luke tells Leia that Han had told him the stoklhi sticks are generally used to bring down exotic animals by big game hunters. Leia suggests they ask the Bimms about it when the go back. They are still on a diplomatic mission, after all.

 

She’s already spoken with officials who explain the guide was bribed to take the group to the marketplace. There’s no evidence the chief negotiator was poisoned, but it’s certainly possible. However, Han is not willing to risk his ship or their lives going back down. He’s already made the jump to lightspeed back to Coruscant. This creates some tension between him and Leia which quickly dissipates. The Bimms do not know anything about the strange beings who attacked them. It was most certainly the Empire behind it, though, and Han is not taking chances.

 

Luke teases him about that, but Han points out that he’s protecting Luke’s sister and her children, too. He also wants to know when Leia will get her own lightsaber. Leia has never been comfortable with such a weapon but supposes she should at least try to practice. But only after her work load lightens. Han insists it happen before the Empire captures and tries to interrogate her.

 

She agrees and refers to Luke as her teacher now which doesn’t get the reaction she’d expected. She reminds him he’ll have to teach all this to the twins someday, too.

 

Luke knows this, but privately remembers how even Ben Kenobi had failed as a teacher. Luke can’t afford to be wrong.
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  • The gray beings are Noghri and they’ve been around for a long time. I’m surprised there’s nothing in the records about their species. However, this is their first publication appearance, so we’ll let it pass.
  • So, all of a sudden, Leia is not only able to use the Force to call things to her, but she is ready to have a lightsaber built? That’s awfully quick considering her attitude up to this point!
  • Oh and speaking of Jedi skills, in The Courtship of Princess Leia, Luke ejected from his X-Wing, floated down to the surface of Dathomir, while bringing both Isolder and his X-Wing down for a safe landing, too. I cannot believe that five stories are too big of a jump for him!
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chapter 8:

 

Pellaeon reports that all but one of the Noghri died during the mission. Thrawn keeps an eye on C’baoth and asks about Wayland quietly. But, C’baoth overheard the first conversation and chastises Thrawn about the failure of his commandos.

 

Thrawn reiterates his promise to get the Jedi for the master and turns back to Pellaeon about the Wayland report. They have analyzed the schematics for the cloaking shield and find it to be workable, but will be expensive and time-consuming for a ship the size of Chimaera.

 

Thrawn has something else in mind anyway and gives the captain the specs for what they’ll need to attack the Sluis Van shipyards. He also sets Pellaeon to finding about 40 advanced mining machines called Mole Miners.

 

Pellaeon adds that the engineering team has advised that about 80% of the Spaarti cylinders are functional or can be repaired to functional. Thrawn brushes off C’baoth’s questions regarding the cylinders and shoots Pellaeon a look that warns him this topic shouldn’t be discussed in the Jedi Master’s presence.

 

Mount Tantiss’s defense systems are still in place, too. In the meantime, Thrawn has Pellaeon contact another Noghri team to take on the task of getting Skywalker and his sister. C’baoth isn’t convinced they’ll be able to handle it, but Thrawn feels that one team will eventually do the job. Besides, they are not so rare a resource that losing a few teams will matter.

 

Pellaeon warns them that the Rebels will be on guard now that there has been one attack. Thrawn suggests they concentrate on getting the sister first. C’baoth agrees that he should be the one to contact the young Jedi anyway as Skywalker will certainly come to him if he calls. Thrawn reminds him that he is needed for the Sluis Van operation and had been warned that getting the Jedi might take time.

 

Pellaeon suggests putting plans into motion for both. He thinks they should start rumors of C’baoth’s presence on some small world. Those rumors will eventually make their way back to Skywalker who will have to come to check it out. In the meantime, C’baoth can stay here and help them with the attack plans.

 

That should distract Skywalker from following the rumors too quickly. C’baoth accepts this suggestion and goes to search for an appropriate world. Pellaeon apologizes for speaking out of turn, but Thrawn reminds him that he is not Lord Vader. Unlike the Dark Lord, Thrawn’s ego does not demand that his own ideas be the only acceptable ones.

 

The private Inner Council meeting doesn’t go any better than a formal Provisional Council one does. Borsk Fey’lya takes Han to task for taking it upon himself to cancel the Bimmisaari mission.

 

Ackbar, on the other hand, believes Solo’s responsibility was to protect the ambassador and that was done. Fey’lya doesn’t think a significant threat exists as the Old Republic Senate didn’t think these strange beings were important enough to catalogue, much less be aggressive enough to attack.

 

Leia and Luke suggest that the significance of the race may not be the reason. There could be gaps or damages to the records or they could have been deliberately erased. There could be many reasons for that, too. The aliens might have orchestrated the erasure themselves to keep out of Imperial sight.

 

Fey’lya suggests that, if that’s the case, they may have feared being noticed again and so launched this attack to protect themselves. He doesn’t see a reason to investigate the matter further.

 

Leia points out that no one has mentioned the fact that the aliens were ready for them on Bimmisaari. Ackbar and Mon Mothma agree that it’s important for their negotiators to be protected so there will be a force accompanying Leia back to Bimmisaari tomorrow.

 

Han starts to protest this, but Mon Mothma reminds him the Bimms are still waiting. Leia interjects to explain that she had wanted to ask for a leave of absence to focus on Jedi training. Mon Mothma appreciates the need for more Jedi. The New Republic lacks experienced diplomats right now to give Leia time off. She hopes that there will be time within the next year that will allow her to focus on her studies instead.

 

After the meeting is adjourned, Han is nostalgic about fighting the Empire because, at least then, they knew who their enemies were.
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  • I’m surprised that Leia did not point out her belief that the Empire was behind the attack. If they were, it might mean that the Empire itself erased the Senate records.
  • There was some mention of Spaarti cylinders in the Republic Commando series when Kal Skirata was looking for alternative cloning techniques that might provide insight into prolonging the lives of the clone troopers.
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chapter 9:

 

The Imperial task force emerges from hyperspace in the Bpfassh system. Pellaeon moves the Inexorable and the Judicator to take the twin planets. Through the Force, C’baoth is controlling task forces in two other systems, as well.

 

Pellaeon expresses concern over the man’s appearance but he realizes that this is a test of C’baoth’s abilities and his willingness to take orders. It’s paying off as the Chimaera’s crew is running 40% more effective than normal.

 

After Thrawn is satisfied, he orders the attack broken off and asks Pellaeon about the Mole Miners. The captain hasn’t had much luck in terms of quantity, suggesting the Athega system is the best choice though they will have problems with direct sunlight.

 

Thrawn thinks the Judicator can handle it with some precautions taken first, before once again dealing with C’baoth’s demand for Jedi.

 

Aboard the freighter Wild Karrde, Mara and Talon Karrde watch the battle. Karrde himself is surprised at a Star Destroyer conducting what amounts to a hit-and-fade. He wonders what Thrawn is up to.

 

Mara mentions that Thrawn stood out even in the golden days of the Empire as being capable of style. Karrde notes that she seems familiar with the Grand Admiral. She brushes him off and is surprised they aren’t going through with the delivery.

 

Karrde doesn’t want to take the chance when New Republic reinforcements arrive. She tells him they won’t arrive in time to do anything, but he reminds her that the New Republic will want to at least show up and assure the locals that they have it all under control.

 

In the meantime, Leia is struggling battling a remote with her new lightsaber when Han arrives and tells them about the attacks in the Sluis sector. Leia knows there’s something big coming up but can’t put her finger on it. Of course, Mon Mothma is sending her to provide moral support to those living there.

 

Han tells them that there is a twenty-ship convoy going out with them, plus Rogue Squadron. Luke doesn’t feel comfortable with it and wants to come along. Han and Leia explain that the Bpfasshi don’t like Jedi because some who were present in the system during the Clone Wars went bad and caused a lot of trouble before they were caught. Leia was still getting echoes of it in the Imperial Senate when she served. Some of the Jedi were never caught and made trouble throughout the entire sector, one getting as far as Dagobah.

 

That gets Luke’s attention and he asks when. She tells him about 30 or 35 years ago.

 

As she goes to pack, Han reminds him that she has to be able to look after herself. Luke knows this but is still unhappy at the thought of being a teacher. He spends some time with the remote before losing track of time. Since the same thing had happened on Dagobah, he decides to go there in the hopes that something will be able to provide him some insight.

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  • Luke apparently does not know that a Jedi built his own weapon. In the last chapter, Luke had offered to build one for Leia and, now that she has one, I can only assume Luke did so. Of course, he’s found tons of information about Jedi and their history, such as the records available at the Galactic Museum, to say nothing of what he retrieved from the Chu’unthor in The Courtship of Princess Leia. None of them mentioned a Jedi builds his own weapon as a test?
  • However, I would have to say that Leia’s 30-35 year time span would be very close to the actual date for the Clone Wars which actually ended about 29 years ago. Unless, of course, she’s referring to the aftermath of the Wars being that long ago, which we know is incorrect.
  • While we know that there were some Jedi who left the Order to follow Count Dooku, such as Sora Bulq, would they be categorized as Dark Jedi? What about Depa Billaba whose fate seems to be unknown? She fell into darkness in Shatterpoint, was imprisoned at the end and wasn’t heard from again (until the timeline got redone with “Rebels” and she was re-booted as Caleb Dume’s Master). They weren’t Sith, so to speak. And, if Vader was going around hunting the Jedi down post-Clone Wars, would he have hunted Dark Jedi or would he be trying to recruit them to become inquisitors or other dark side minions?
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chapter 10:

 

Wedge escorts Leia and the other representatives around. The damage isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been which bodes the question why. Additionally, Bpfassh is a pretty strange target when Sluis Van or Praesitlyn are nearby.

 

Leia mentions that Sluis Van is heavily defended while other systems are deeper in Republic space. They may not have wanted to push their luck. Han wonders if they just wanted to test their new communications system.

 

Wedge reminds him that coordinated attacks don’t mean the Empire has a new communications system. Han knows this but thinks they do anyway. Leia has a more uncomfortable idea. Luke can sense things through the Force even from light years away and there were rumors that Vader and the Emperor could, too. She wonders if the Imperials have found a Dark Jedi to use.

 

Wedge asks if she’s talking about Joruus C’baoth, the Jedi Master, who disappeared before the Clone Wars started. Wedge has heard that he has appeared on Jomark.

 

Leia makes a note to ask Luke about it and prepares to move on before they are attacked again by a group of the same kind of gray-skinned aliens. This time, communications are jammed. Leia pulls her lightsaber before Chewie brings the Falcon around. Han urges her to rush toward the ship, but she cannot sense Chewie’s presence aboard it. Han realizes that the swivel blaster isn’t being used. This is a strong indicator that they are not looking at the Falcon.

 

They can’t stay here and they can’t board the ship, so Leia decides to disable it with the lightsaber. They all have to go at the same time as it’s apparent at least one of them is wanted alive.

 

They run for the cover of the ramp where Han cuts the coolant line to the main drive. This sends unbreathable gas into the decoy and sends a signal up that brings three X-Wings to their rescue.

 

Four days later, Han is irritated that no one on Coruscant has been able to determine where the leak was that caused them to be attacked again. He is not convinced that Coruscant is any safer. Leia reminds him that Ackbar is under a lot of pressure lately, especially with Fey’lya constantly on his back. Some of the military already think Fey’lya would be a better Supreme Commander.

 

As it is, she gets the feeling that the Bothan Councilor is after more than just Ackbar’s job.

 

For the time being, she’s done all she can do here. Han suggests that going back to Coruscant would be what their attackers want. He thinks she should hide someplace for the time being. Leia reminds him that she has commitments and cannot be out of the New Republic communications loop for long. They will not be able to trust a local ambassador not to let something slip.

 

He believes they can find a way to do this. They will find someone who has a list of slicer contacts. The slicer will be able to break New Republic encryption codes so Leia can use the Falcon’s diplomatic receiver to continue to get information. They can leave any local authorities out of the equation.

 

Wedge offers to give them a couple of escorts but they would rather handle everything quietly. Leia asks where they are going now. Han points out an honest businessman and war hero he knows who will have his own list of slicer contacts: Lando Calrissian.

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  • Praesitlyn was the locale of the book Jedi Trial.
  • Ironic that Han used a decoy of the Falcon to fool Warlord Zsinj in Solo Command and nearly falls for one himself now.
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chapter 11:

 

Luke notices that he hasn’t had the same problem landing on Dagobah the way he had the first time. He wonders if Yoda had something to do with that. He looks for the house and realizes he’s managed to set down next to the cave where he’d battled his demons while training here.

 

He and R2 head toward the house instead where he finds the swamp has largely grown up around it. He had been hoping that Yoda had left Jedi instructional manuals or something behind here. R2 finds an electronic signal and leads Luke back the way they came.

 

Unfortunately, he leads Luke to the cave. Luke is certain Yoda would not have left anything in there. However, Leia had mentioned the possibility of a Dark Jedi coming here so he goes to check.

 

He remembers fighting a figment of Darth Vader here, but no Dark Lord confronts him now. What he experiences instead is a vision of him being prodded off the ramp of Jabba’s Sail Barge, watching R2 launch his lightsaber and seeing it caught by a woman standing alone at the top of the barge.

 

He wakes up, trying to orient himself again. The device R2 finds is a small flat cylinder with rusty keys on one side and alien script on the other. It’s nothing Luke recognizes at all. R2 doesn’t know what it is either. However, he remembers Lando with a similar device while talking with General Madine while Luke was being fitted for his prosthetic hand.

 

Since Han and Leia’s mission will take a couple of weeks, Luke decides to visit Lando on Nkllon in the Athega system.
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  • One would think that Yoda would have found such an object if he was familiar with the cave area.
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chapter 12:

 

Han struggles with the control tower on Nkllon, trying to get clearance to land. He tells Leia he doesn’t want to publicly announce their names. They are given a special waiver, indicating Lando knows who’s coming, and are escorted to the superhot planet by shieldships meant to protect incoming vessels from harm.

 

The shieldship will have to bring them in slowly since Han will not allow a slave circuit to be attached to the Falcon, but he is uncomfortable when told another ship is coming in with them.

 

Han is about to fire up the quads in case it’s a TIE fighter when Leia spots the X-Wing. Luke comms them and explains he came here to see if Lando could identify something. Han is afraid this may be a decoy like what they encountered on Bpfassh, but Leia has an idea. She puts 3PO on the line and the droid immediately begins a conversation with R2 that turns into an argument.

 

After landing, they marvel at this new scheme of Lando’s. Lando welcomes them to Nomad City. Han doesn’t have time to warn Luke or Lando about using names over the open frequency. He explains that they need help and to make sure the reception committee is trustworthy.

 

Lando starts to respond before the comm. is jammed. Han finds a clear frequency in enough time to determine Lando has the same problem. Lando says it could be a solar flare which is very common here, but is told that there is an Imperial Star Destroyer coming in.
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  • As far as I can recall, this is Lando’s first appearance since Return of the Jedi. He’s been mentioned a couple of times, but not been seen.
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chapter 13:

 

Luke tries to find a way around the jamming while calling out through the Force to Leia. He’s not worried about the Star Destroyer since it will not last long in direct sunlight without the shieldship. But the TIEs would be free to launch once the ship cleared Nkllon’s shadow.

 

Han gets ahold of him and they both confirm they have no plan. Lando’s scrambling fighters, but they aren’t experienced pilots and he needs to protect his complex.

 

Once the TIEs launch, Luke flies out first and reaches out through the Force to confuse the minds of the pilots. He wonders why Ben or Yoda never taught him this and considers that the Jedi of the Old Republic may have thought this was too close to the dark side.

 

He hears a voice in his head that he thinks is Ben, but realizes it’s someone else. The voice calls to him, telling him that he will come and the Jedi will rise again. So focused on this communication, Luke doesn’t noticed the fighters gone. Two shieldships belatedly arrive as the Star Destroyer prepares to leap into hyperspace.

 

No one knows what they wanted.

 

Thrawn turns to C’baoth as the Judicator makes its jump. C’baoth confirms that 51 Mole Miners were taken. Thrawn is pleased at this, but unhappy when he learns that C’baoth also had a conversation with Luke Skywalker. The master reminds Thrawn that Skywalker is his to deal with. He wants to go to Jomark now as Skywalker will follow. Thrawn agrees to do so after the Judicator is repaired.

 

Thrawn wants to know how long it will take an X-Wing to get from Nkllon to Jomark. He plans to drop C’baoth off on Jomark and then come back to intercept Skywalker. They could either capture or kill him. C’baoth is becoming too enamored of the idea that he’s indispensible to Thrawn. Besides, Skywalker is becoming dangerous. He suspects that C’baoth will settle for Leia Organa Solo and her children.

 

Pellaeon recommends they do their best to keep Skywalker alive, lest the mercurial C’boath return to Wayland and compromise the work they are doing there. Thrawn agrees and has them keep a lookout for the X-Wing as the Millennium Falcon often accompanies it.

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  • So Luke was trying to influence the minds of the other pilots, then? No, that’s not something we saw Old Republic Jedi do. Although they did practice a form of battle meditation as we saw the real C’baoth trying to do in Outbound Flight.
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chapter 14:

 

Lando is furious that he’s lost almost half his mole miners, but recovers to welcome his friends to Nkllon. He’d found plans for this type of mining operation back when he was on Cloud City. The idea for a rolling mining center that stayed out of direct sunlight was designed by the city’s designer, Lord Ecclessis Figg.

 

While Han comms Luke, Lando asks Leia how bad it is. She tells him the Star Destroyer may have come for her. They need help and Lando has been on the receiving end of the danger that exists when the Empire comes looking for Leia.

 

When they are all together, Lando explains that no leak came from here. His people have some bad elements among them but they are profiteers. No one would help the Empire for the fun of it and there’s been no bounty offered for her. Besides, he doesn’t see the point of stealing the Mole Miners if they were after Leia.

 

He is contacted by his control center which has picked up a transmission coming from their room. Luke thinks it’s the device he brought with him from Dagobah. He was hoping Lando would be able to tell him what it is.

 

Lando tells him it’s a pre-Clone Wars vintage beckon call and it’s still active. It can call a ship directly to you if you had fully-rigged slave system on it. Han points out that didn’t help the Katana fleet at all.

 

Lando had something like it for his personal ship on Bespin but it must have been disabled because it didn’t come when he called it during their attempt to escape. This isn’t his, though, as he certainly didn’t leave it in a swamp.

 

Luke tells him it was Dagobah and Leia asks about the Dark Jedi. Lando reminds him it could have been lost by someone else, but Luke knows that it was the Jedi’s and thinks he might have died in the cave where it was found.

 

He turns the subject to Lando’s slicer contacts. When Han tells him that they need someone they can trust with Leia’s life, Lando isn’t certain he knows someone he can trust that much. There are smuggler groups out there, such as Talon Karrde’s, which would have a couple. He’s never met Karrde but he’s got a reputation for being very honest.

 

Han’s been trying to contact Karrde’s group for some time but no one knows where he is. He keeps a low profile. Lando would offer to shelter Han and Leia here but Nkllon doesn’t have the defenses necessary to protect them. They could try burying a living module underground, but they would be out of contact with Coruscant.

 

Han tells them Chewie has offered to take her to Kashyyyk. While the Wookiees do not encourage visitors to their home after being enslaved by the Empire, she would be protected by Chewbacca and only two or three others would know about it. Wookiees will not betray someone under their personal protection.

 

Han is concerned about the safety of the world, living in trees hundreds of meters above ground. He would go with them but Chewie thinks that splitting up would make sense. That way Han can fly around in the ship and pretend Leia’s still with him.

 

Lando offers his personal ship to Leia and Chewie for the journey and has an idea as to how to simulate Leia being on the Falcon. He sends his chief programmer to begin work on 3PO.

 

Leia knows something is upsetting Luke. She had wanted to ask him if he would come with her to Kashyyyk but has a feeling that won’t work. He explains about the contact he received from another Jedi.

 

Leia reminds him that Yoda told him there weren’t anymore. Luke thinks Yoda could have been wrong or misled him in some way. Sometimes Jedi teachers do that and they aren’t omniscient anyway.

 

He thinks he’s getting some insight into why Yoda lived on Dagobah. Vader and the Emperor should have known he was still alive, but didn’t because they didn’t sense his presence in the Force. That Dark Jedi may have arrived and Yoda defeated him without much time to spare since the beckon had been activated. Leia wonders if the cave shielded Yoda.

 

Luke agrees and believes another Jedi could have done the same. Leia doesn’t think the C’baoth rumor is significant enough to warrant a search, though. Luke hasn’t heard the rumor. Leia fears that this could be an Imperial trap with a Dark Jedi waiting to ambush him by dangling stories of a living Jedi to bait Luke.

 

However, she does tell him the rumor puts C’baoth on Jomark.

 

C-3PO is distressed about what is planned for him, but Lando reminds him that protocol droids do translate for people after all. All they are doing is making it a little more direct by having him speak with Leia’s voice.
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  • While this is the first time the Katana fleet was mentioned in terms of publication date, the X-Wing series has brought it up a couple of times. The fleet was slaved together, jumped into lightspeed suddenly and was never heard from again.
  • Luke does not know that Yoda came to Dagobah to live in exile following his failure to kill the Emperor, not that he decided to stay because he’d battled a Dark Jedi there. However, I suppose one could have shown up afterwards.
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I'm enjoying re-"reading" this. I think my first novel EU experience was Darksaber or Shadows of the Empire, but in 8th grade in my English class someone in one of the classes before me left a copy of Heir to the Empire under the desk. After it stayed there a couple days, I snagged it. I figured if someone left it there for an extended period of time they were clearly done with it or didn't want it (this is how I've rationalized that decision). I read it and really liked it, and that's how I really got into the EU.

 

I took "my" copy of the book with me to Celebration III and had Tim Zahn sign it. I relayed the story to him that it was a total chance encounter that I read his book, but I was glad I did. He laughed and said he was glad it happened too.

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chapter 15:

 

When they are not attacked during the shieldship journey out, Lando hands his ship, the Lady Luck, over to Leia and Chewbacca before joining Han aboard the Falcon. Luke takes off from there on his own journey.

 

Lando suggests they go on a sightseeing expedition, sending messages from Leia along the way so that the Imperials will think she’s still with them. Han suspects Lando wants to drag him along and search for replacement mole miners. However, Lando thinks this is good time to get in touch with Talon Karrde.

 

They can present the cargo ship offer to him and negotiate for the services of a slicer in case a non-Wookiee trader happens to recognizes Leia on Kashyyyk. Besides, they might be able to find out more information about who is running the Empire these days.

 

Pellaeon reports to Thrawn that Skywalker and his companions were spotted in the Athega system. Thrawn looks over the data and asks about the third ship linking with the Millennium Falcon. Pellaeon identifies it as Lando Calrissian’s personal ship, the Lady Luck. Transmissions indicate Calrissian is headed on a purchasing trip.

 

Thrawn isn’t so sure he is on the Lady Luck, though. He thinks that Calrissian is involved in a switch. He times the duration of the link between ships and determines that three people transferred between the two ships.

 

Pellaeon doesn’t understand how Thrawn came up with that, but he does point out that transmissions coming from the Falcon indicate that Leia Organa Solo at least was on that ship.

 

Thrawn thinks they used a recording or, better yet, the 3PO unit. He believes Leia moved to the Lady Luck. After all, one person must be left aboard each ship since neither Solo nor Calrissian is likely to let his ship be handled by a droid.

 

This means either the Solos are aboard the Lady Luck or the princess and the Wookiee are. Pellaeon mentioned one could be a droid, but Thrawn dismisses it as Solo doesn’t allow droids on his ship except under extenuating circumstances. It seems he makes exceptions for Skywalker’s droids.

 

He doesn’t bother with an alert for the Luck. After all, the Solos together should remain aboard the faster Millennium Falcon. Splitting up only makes sense if she and the Wookiee are aboard Calrissian’s ship which means they must be headed to Kashyyyk where she’ll be surrounded by Wookiees.

 

Pellaeon warns him the Kashyyyk’s ecology is dangerous and the Wookiees are formidable fighters. Thrawn points out that the Noghri are, too.

 

As for Skywalker, his course was consistent with a trip to Jomark. The Chimaera will head there to drop off C’baoth and then come back for Skywalker. They’ll need an Interdiction Cruiser to bring him out of hyperspace.

 

The Grand Admiral also wants an expendable freighter to make it look like he came out of lightspeed by accident. That way they reserve the option to hand him over to C’baoth alive without him realizing he was ambushed.

 

Pellaeon makes arrangements to take the ship out and stops amid the holograms to stare at a sculpture. Thrawn confirms that one piece of artwork is real. It represents Thrawn’s one failure in the Fringe worlds where he could not gain insight into a species by studying their art. He thinks he understands them now.

 

Pellaeon comments that it should be useful in the future. Thrawn doubts it as he ended up destroying the world.
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  • Ah, so Thrawn is not infallible after all. Good, because I was thinking how he really shouldn’t dismiss Wookiee Warriors. Doing so seems very inconsistent with what we know of Thrawn up til this point.
  • In addition, Thrawn must not know about Bollux and Blue Max or Leebo and Oto traveling aboard the Falcon. There’ve been plenty of times droids have been ferried on Han’s ship with virtually no issues.
  • Thrawn mentions Luke won’t make any stopovers as Jedi use a hibernation trance for long journeys. Well, Jedi may have done that in the past, but can Thrawn be certain that Luke Skywalker can do that, too? After all, it’s not like Luke has access to the full gamut of Jedi training. Just how much information does Thrawn have about what Luke can and cannot do?
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chapter 16:

 

The Jedi hibernation trance does not involve dreaming but Luke is still able to retain his sense of timing. He wakes up just as his ship is pulled from hyperspace 20 lightyears from Jomark.

 

He finds an Imperial Star Destroyer attacking a light freighter. Hoping that they don’t notice him, Luke tries to get away when he’s hailed by the Chimaera. He notes the Interdictor Cruiser and extends his senses to the freighter, finding no life aboard it.

 

He has R2 find the nearest edge of the Interdictor’s gravity-wave cone, leaves the deflector shields down to keep speed up and reprograms a proton torpedo to go out cold.

 

The missle hits the freighter which blows up but doesn’t give him the time he needs to escape the gravity well. Luke makes a sudden right turn which causes the Interdictor to need time to grab him again. That’s when the SD’s tractor beam gets the X-Wing.

 

He drops shields, throws full power to the drive and is grabbed by a second tractor beam.

 

Finally, he has R2 reverse trigger the acceleration compensator. The X-Wing comes to a dead stop before he’s thrown against his harness. He pulls up the ship after launching two torpedoes which are pulled in by the tractor beam.

 

The full battery is launched against Luke as he dodges the fire before being hit. He has R2 jump to hyperspace.

 

Thawn watches the darkness of space before having Pellaeon accompany him to the crew pit to confront the young man at the tractor beam station. The conscript explains he was never trained on recognizing the maneuver with the acceleration compensator. He had not realized that, when the lock reestablished, he had the proton torpedoes instead.

 

Thrawn speaks with the ensign in charge of the training of the young man. The ensign confirms he was not trained on that scenario. Thrawn demonstrates the difference between an error and a mistake. Rukh kills the young conscript which corrects the error and gives the ensign a chance to train a replacement.

 

In the meantime, Thrawn knows that Skywalker’s maneuver will cause the hyperdrive to fail due to a side-effect he probably isn’t aware of. He wants Pellaeon to contact some of the smuggler groups in the area to ask for help finding Skywalker.

 

Pellaeon starts to ask why kill the young tractor beam controller if Thrawn knew Skywalker had only temporarily escaped. Thrawn explains that, it times of war, they cannot afford men who cannot adapt to unexpected situations.
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  • You know, with the Empire reduced to conscripts, I’m not certain that Thrawn can afford to have one indiscriminately killed just because he wasn’t trained properly either.
  • Oh, yeah…and I guess Luke does know the hibernation trance, but I’m still surprised Thrawn was right in assuming that he did.
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chapter 17:

 

Luke and R2 are stranded in the middle of nowhere with no suns, planets, asteroids or other bodies anywhere. He starts to work trying to cobble one functional engine out of both dead ones.

 

Unfortunately both hyperdrive motivators’ casings are cracked. He tries to remind himself that there is no emotion, there is peace, while wondering if Leia would ever find out what happened to him. Then he decides to try to fix the subspace radio antenna.

 

After rigging it, he puts himself in a hibernation trance with R2 on the lookout. He sends to Leia through the Force and gets the odd feeling that someone has heard him.

 

Leia wakes up in Lady Luck’s main cabin, thinking of Luke. The ship is making a landing on Kashyyyk where she is still not comfortable being a human among Wookiees still resentful for being held as slaves, to say nothing of not being able to understand the language.

 

She is astounded by the size of wroshyr trees. The city appears out of nowhere, looking nothing like the primitive villages the Ewoks use. The whole landing platform is build on the remains of a huge limb. She is greeted by a Wookiee welcoming her to Rwookrrorrro and calling himself Ralrracheeen who offers a shorter version of Ralrra to her. Ralrra speaks almost perfect Basic due to a speech impediment he’s had since childhood. It happens to allow humans to understand him and which his Imperial masters found useful in having him interpret for other Wookiees.

 

She turns to find Chewie embracing one of his closest friends, Salporin, whom he’s not seen in years. Ralrra assures her that they owe the New Republic a life debt for freeing them from Imperial slavery.

 

Ralrra takes her on a tour of the village which is held up by branches, showing her the native plants and animals before returning to Chewbacca. They will be staying with Salporin’s family.

 

Along the way, Leia spots a face in a window that she recognizes as one of the gray-skinned aliens. The Wookiees stop and search the house but find nothing there.

 

They decide to take her to safety first before continuing the hunt. She isn’t sure there is a safe place anymore.
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  • Salporin appeared in Revenge of the Sith and mentioned in Rebel Dawn. This book was written before either.
  • "There is no emotion, there is peace" is the first part of the Jedi code.
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chapter 18:


Artoo wakes up Luke who finds another ship bearing down on them. He cannot cold start these engines if it’s an unfriendly. He wonders if it is a pirate ship but finds it is the freighter Wild Karrde asking if he needs assistance.


He negotiates for his X-Wing to be towed with a female voice that doesn’t mention their reason for being out here. Luke can’t think of a legitimate reason for that, but he really can’t refuse the offer.


Aboard the ship, he is taken to the captain, Talon Karrde, who knows he’s Commander Luke Skywalker. Luke admits he resigned his commission four years ago. He explains he was attacked by a Star Destroyer and thanks Karrde for coming to his rescue.


However, he doesn’t know how Karrde came to be here or how he knows who Luke is. Karrde points to the lightsaber on his belt and that Luke wasn’t likely to be anyone else. Besides, it was one of his associates, Mara Jade, who led him to this point for the pickup. She’s on the bridge.


Luke stretches out with the Force and is so stunned to find such a presence on the bridge that Karrde notices his reaction. The captain explains that he had to observe her for several months before determining that she had such feelings about him. Luke admits he’s never met her.


Karrde was hoping Luke might be able to give him some insight into her, so he’s rather sorry to to end their conversation this way. Luke is stunned from behind with some kind of weapon, wondering how Karrde was able to have someone sneak up on him.

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chapter 19:

 

When he wakes up, Luke tries running through Jedi techniques but finds nothing happening.

 

Luke’s in a small room that doesn’t look like a prison cell but has one woman in it. He realizes he cannot sense her, droids or forest or anything else. She seems to be aware of this and asks how it feels to lose what made him special. Luke identifies this slender woman with red hair as Mara Jade. She isn’t interested in his gratitude. She would rather turn him over to the Imperials or kill him now. The latter will happen if he tries to escape.

 

He can sense anger from her along with an underlying sense of pain. She marches him to Karrde’s office where he finds a room with a tree growing through the middle of it. It reminds him of evil fortresses in stories he’d read as a child.

 

Talon Karrde greets him and apologizes for keeping him drugged as he’d wanted Luke to stay where he was for the time being. R2 is being held in an equipment shed nearby; Luke will be able to see him later. For now, they need to figure out what to do with him.

 

Luke suggests sending him home where the New Republic will pay double the compensation for him. Karrde notes he’s generous with other people’s money, but the real problem is that the smuggling operations conducted on this world extend into both Imperial and Republic space. Neither side will be happy if he placates the other. However, the New Republic doesn’t know what happened to Luke; whereas the Empire does.

 

They’ve offered a bounty of 30000 which is enough to get dozens of operators out there to hunt for him even though they have no idea how to hold a Jedi should they manage to capture him. Luke is interested in how Karrde is able to do that.

 

Karrde hopes to exchange that information for what the Empire wants with Luke. Luke, however, doesn’t know. He wonders if Karrde could just ask them. Karrde explains he doesn’t want their interest picqued as his organization pled prior commitments when they were asked to help. Letting Luke go won’t help either as the new commander of the Imperial Fleet is very good at piecing together bits of data. Karrde would prefer they give the Imperials what they want while finding a way to let Luke go.

 

Luke explains that all he knows about the Empire’s interest in him is that it’s probably related to a couple of kidnapping attempts on his sister Leia. Karrde finds this interesting. He had thought that the Empire just wanted intel on the Provisional Council. If that had been the case, he could have just turned R2 over to them instead.

 

But the fact that the target has been Jedi means they’re not just after information.

 

He will have his agent on Bpfassh look into the attack there. For now, Luke will have to be his guest while he determines whether to risk swift Imperial retribution in the present over the gratitude of the New Republic in the long run.

 

He warns Luke that the forest is filled with predators and his Jedi skills won’t help him because of the ysalamiri. Luke has never heard of the creatures which Karrde explains push back the Force.

 

They briefly discuss the abilities of the ysalamiri before Mara is ready to take him back to his quarters. Luke offers another option, as well. Put Luke and R2 back where they were found and he will take his chances, even with the Imperials. Karrde will consider it.

 

Luke tries to speak with Mara Jade along the way, but she’s not interested in conversation. She dares him to try to escape.
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  • Is thirty thousand credits a lot? It really doesn’t seem like it.
  • And, while we know there is a specific reason Grand Admiral Thrawn wants Luke, I don’t understand why there’s all of this confusion about why the Empire would want to capture Luke Skywalker. I mean, he is the Jedi who blew up the first Death Star, was instrumental in the deaths of both Vader and the Emperor and constantly interferes in Imperial plans. Doesn’t he already have a high Imperial bounty on him anyway?
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chapter 20:


It is clear that Winter isn’t buying C-3PO as Leia. After the subspace chat, she asks to speak with Han. She asks when they are returning as Ackbar has been asking about them.


It seems there’s some trouble in Ackbar’s family, the children squabbling with each other over minor things. She hasn’t heard of any problems with the neighbors, though. She does tell them that the Admiral has converted some Cruisers and Frigates into cargo ships to help Bpfassh.


Han and Lando talk about how it’s very likely Fey’lya’s pushing more aggressively at home, but they can’t be sure of what’s really going on. If Winter knows nothing about their Imperial neighbors, it means the leak’s not plugged either. Han wants to make a couple of stops and then pick up Leia. It will be dangerous to have her back on Coruscant but she is needed to play peacemaker within the Council.


They land at the Abregado-rae Spaceport where it’s clear the government has cleaned things up. In fact, it looks like security has impounded a ship at the docking bay they were told their contact’s ship would be at. They head to a cantina where they’re to await their contact. Han thinks he recognizes Fynn Torve sitting at a table.


They banter about the Falcon ownership until Han points out that, if Lando had won, they wouldn’t be sitting here. The Death Star would have blown up the Rebel base at Yavin. Lando thinks Leia and Ackbar would have worked something out. Han reminds him that Leia was aboard the Death Star and slated for execution. He could have lost her then without even knowing what he would have been missing.


Lando wonders what the Imperials want with her now. Han tells him they want the twins. The Imps would have used stun weapons otherwise. They don’t want to cause a miscarriage so they used the spray sticks instead.


When security enters the cantina, Han heads over to Torve’s table and insists on being dealt into a sabaac game. During the game, a distraction is caused when an anti-gambling advocate accuses Han of using a planted card. This gives Torve the chance to get away and Han to react in outrage and storm out.


Torve thanks him for the distraction and isn’t too worried about his ship as it’s hauling food for some local peasants who are being cut off by the government. He gauges Han and Lando’s honesty by asking them some of their history and finding them truthful.


Han pitches the cargo job which Torve already knows about and that most smugglers are dismissing as a trick. Han asks to speak directly with Karrde. Torve tells him Karrde is at the main base and he can’t just take them there. However, they work out a deal where Han and Lando will take him to the main base with a coded erasable navigation module set up by Torve. That way, he won’t have to worry about his impounded ship.


They can leave at any time unless Han wants to play his unused chips first. The outraged gambling opponent was one of Torve’s peasant friends. The planted card was his, but it got Han what he wanted, after all.

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chapter 21:


Karrde summons Mara to tell her that they’ve run into a minor problem. Fynn Torve is on his way with Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. The two men helped him out of a scrape on Abregado-rae and he feels indebted. Since his associate’s debts are the organization’s, as well, Karrde will not just ignore them.


He has Mara move Skywalker to the shed where the droid is being kept but in the other room. He also advises her to take Skywalker’s lightsaber off her belt as it’s not likely that Solo will fail to recognize it. She will also have to move the X-Wing deeper into the forest.


Beyond that, everyone else who knows Skywalker is here has been sent to prep the Starry Ice. With any luck, Solo and Calrissian will leave without ever knowing their friend was here.


She finds the Jedi in his room wearing the same clothing he wore at Jabba’s palace the day he ruined her life. She tells him to grab his stuff because he’s moving and takes him to a shed where she locks him in.


Luke looks around and considers that there’s at least no rancor here. Then he wonders why he should think of Jabba’s palace right now. The speed at which he was moved and the fact there’s nothing here for a prisoner means he was probably put here on short notice. Karrde may have visitors he doesn’t want to know about Luke.


So there may have been time for a mistake to be made. He tries to find a power supply that might help open the door. After searching, he finds a power socket. While working on it, he hears a beep in the next room and discovers it’s R2.


He tells the droid he’s trying to get a power outlet open. He pulls wire out of it and tries to pull it toward the door when he realizes the power has been cut to the outlet. Then he remembers his artificial hand and asks R2 to walk him through removing one of the power supplies.

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  • We saw the Starry Ice in The Bacta War.

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