Star Wars - Hand of Thrawn 2 - Vision of the Future

by Timothy Zahn

  Pellaeon smiled mirthlessly. "Any considerations of career moves are far in my distant past," he said. "More to the point, there's always the slim chance that Thrawn is somehow unaware of the worst of Disra's offenses against the Empire. If so, it's my sworn duty as an Imperial officer to bring them to his attention"

  "Admiral!" a voice snapped from the sensor station. "Ship incomingfifty-five degrees by forty. Unknown configuration, sir."

  "Stand by defenses," Pellaeon replied calmly, eyes searching along the specified vector as he strode down the command walkway toward the viewport. Unknown ships, in his experience, were nearly always false alarms an unfamiliar angle or modification, or else some obscure design that that particular sensor officer had never run into before. He caught a glimpse of the craft out the side viewport

  And stopped in midstride, staring out at it in disbelief. What in the name of the Empire?

  "Admiral?" the comm officer called tentatively, his voice unnaturally high-pitched. "Sir, they're hailing us. Rather, they're hailing you."

  Pellaeon frowned. "Me personally?"

  "Yes, sir. He asked specifically for Admiral Pellaeon"

  "Then you'd better put it on for the Admiral, hadn't you?" Ardiff interrupted brusquely.

  "Yes, sir," the boy gulped. "Transmission on, sir."

  "Hello, Admiral Pellaeon," a voice boomed from the bridge speakers. A male voice, speaking Basic, with none of the more obvious accents or inflections usually associated with nonhuman vocal equipment.

  And a voice that seemed oddly familiar, Pellaeon realized with a sudden shiver. In fact, disturbingly familiar. Like an echo out of the distant past...

  "You won't remember me, I'm sure," the voice continued, "but I believe we did meet once or twice."

  "I'll take your word for it," Pellaeon replied, keeping his voice steady. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

  "I'm here to make you an offer," the voice said. "To give you something you very much want."

  "Really." Pellaeon looked at Ardiff, now standing in taut readiness behind the starboard turbolaser command station. "I was unaware I was weighed down by any such unfulfilled desires."

  "Oh, you don't know yet that you want this," the voice assured him. "But you do. Trust me."

  "I'll admit to being intrigued," Pellaeon said. "How do you suggest we proceed?"

  "I'd like to come aboard and meet with you. Once you see what I have to offer, I think you'll understand the need for a certain degree of secrecy."

  "I don't like it," Vermel murmured from beside him. "It could be some kind of trick."

  Pellaeon shook his head. "With an unknown alien ship as bait?" he countered, gesturing at the vessel hanging motionlessly against the starry background off their starboard bow. "If it's a trick, Colonel, it's an extremely good one."

  He cleared his throat. "Captain Ardiff?" he called. "Make preparations to bring our guest aboard."

  CHAPTER

  35

  There had been no attacks against the Lady Luck along the last leg of their trip, as Han had half expected there to be. Nor did any of the nearly two hundred warships eyeing each other warily over Bothawui seem all that interested in the yacht as it picked its way carefully across to where the three New Republic Corvettes orbited, huddled together as if terrified of the awesome firepower stretched out across the sky around them.

  Which, Han decided sourly, they probably were. Gavrisom, and Calibops in general, were a lot bigger on words than they were on action.

  The duty officer on Gavrisom's ship had initially been disinclined to honor their docking request, but a few minutes of arguingand probably a back-scene discussion or twohad finally changed his attitude.

  And as he and Lando ducked aboard through the Lady Luck's docking hatch, and the waiting Leia melted into his arms, the whole annoying hassle suddenly seemed worth it.

  "I'm so glad you're back," Leia murmured, her voice muffled by his chest as she clung to him. "I was so worried about you."

  "Hey, hon, you know me," Han said, trying for a casual tone but hanging on to her as tightly as she was to him. Suddenly, now that it was all over, it was as if he was finally able to admit to himself what their reckless jaunt to Bastion might have cost. What he might have lost...

  "Yes, I know you," Leia said, looking up at him and trying a smile that didn't fool him for a second. Maybe she was seeing what they'd almost lost, too. "And I know you've never been able to stay out of trouble in your life. I'm just so glad you got through this one."

  "Me, too," Han said honestly, giving her a closer look. "You look tired."

  "I'm just up a little early," she explained. "Gavrisom has us on Drev'starn time, and it's just after dawn down there."

  "Oh," Han said. It hadn't even occurred to him to ask the duty officer what ship's time was. "Sorry."

  "No problem," she said. "Believe me, this was well worth getting up early for." She hesitated, just noticeably. "Did you bring it with you?"

  Han glanced over her head at Lando. "Sort of," he said. "Is there somewhere we can go and talk?"

  He felt her muscles tighten beneath his hands. "Of course," she said, her voice not betraying any of her sudden concern. "There's a meeting room just down the corridor."

  A few minutes later they were seated in deeply comfortable chairs behind a sealed door. "The room's not monitored," Leia said. "I've already checked. What's wrong?"

  Han braced himself. "We got the Caamas Document, like I told you," he said. "What I didn't know at the time was thatwell, look, let me give you the whole story."

  With occasional side comments from Lando, he ran a summary of their trip to Bastion, ending with Moegid's discovery that the document had been altered. "I guess I should have figured he had some con going," he growled, glaring at the datacard on the low central table. Going through the events again had rekindled his embarrassed anger at himself for falling for the whole stupid trick in the first place. "I should have waited until Lando and Moegid had completely cleared the thing before I even said anything to you."

  Leia squeezed his hand reassuringly. "It's all right," she said, the set of her mouth making it clear that it wasn't all right at all. "It's as much my fault as yours. I knew Thrawn was back on the scene, too. I should have realized this had been too easy."

  "Yeah, but you didn't know he was the one who'd given us the datacard," Han argued, obscurely determined not to let her take any of the blame for this. "All you knew was"

  Across the table, Lando cleared his throat. "Whenever you two have finished figuring out whose fault it is," he said, just a bit dryly, "maybe we can move on to what we're going to do about it."

  Han looked at Leia, saw her mouth relax slightly into a wry smile. "Point taken," she said, matching his tone. "And it may not be as bad as it looks. There's still a chance we'll be able to get hold of a copy of the document from somewhere else."

  "You mean Karrde?" Han asked.

  "No, there's another possibility." Leia hesitated. "I really shouldn't say anything more about it right now, except that if it works it'll probably take a few more days."

  "The point is still that we've got to stall everyone off for a while," Lando said briskly. "Now, Han and I had a couple of days to deal all this around the table, and we think we may have a way to at least buy us a little time."

  "Right." Han nodded, glad to change subjects. "First off, I'm going to tell Gavrisom he can't have the Caamas Document yet."

  Leia's eyes widened. "How in the worlds are you going to justify that?"

  "On the grounds that the situation over Bothawui is too tense for my taste," Han said loftily. "I'm going to demand that everyone break it up and go home before I turn the document over to anyone."

  Leia's face was a study in stunned astonishment. "Han, you can't possibly get away with that."

  "Why not?" Han countered, shrugging. "This is me, remember? Everyone expects me to do crazy things."

  "Yes, but" With clear effort, Leia strangled down h
er objections. "All right, let's assume Gavrisom lets you get away with that one. What then?"

  Han glanced at Lando. "Actually, we hadn't gotten much past that part," he conceded. "Moegid says there's an outside chance he can reconstruct the datadepends on how expert the guy was who changed it. And now that we've actually got the document, we might be able to bluff the Bothans into telling us what they know."

  "Assuming they actually do know something," Leia pointed out. "If they don't, we're no better off than we were. Worse, really, because someone's bound to accuse the New Republic of making a deal with them to withhold the names."

  "I know," Han said, trying to hide his sudden surge of frustration. "But if we just go out and tell them we haven't got anything, they're going to say the same thing, aren't they?"

  Leia squeezed his hand again. "Probably," she said, her eyes taking on that faraway look that meant she was thinking furiously. "All right," she said. "The two biggest instigators out there are the Diamala and Ishori. If we can get them to back down, even temporarily, a lot of the others should follow along. That's why Gavrisom came out here, in fact, to try talking to them."

  Han grimaced, remembering his own less than successful try at getting the two species to agree. And that had just been shipping details. "Just keep them out of the same room," he warned.

  "Exactly," Leia said, looking over at Lando. "Lando, are you and Senator Miatamia still on good terms?"

  Lando eyed her suspiciously. "I don't know if we were ever on good terms, exactly," he said cautiously. "Especially not after that ride I gave him ended with an invitation for High Day drinks with Thrawn aboard his personal Star Destroyer. What exactly did you have in mind?"

  "Miatamia arrived here yesterday evening to look the situation over," Leia said. "He's staying over on one of the big Diamalan warships, the Industrious Thoughts. I'd like you to go over there and talk to him."

  Lando's jaw sagged. "Me? Leia"

  "You have to do it," Leia said firmly. "Diamala have a strong sense of personal pride, and Miatamia still owes you for that ride. You can use that."

  "Look, I don't know what you think my hospitality is worth on the open market," Lando protested. "But" He took another look at her face and sighed. "All right. I'll try."

  "Thank you," Leia said. "Gavrisom and I are already scheduled to go meet with the Ishori leaders over on the Predominance later this morning. Maybe together we can come up with something."

  There was a beep from the table comm. "Councilor Organa Solo?" the duty officer's voice called.

  Leia reached over and touched the switch. "Yes?"

  "There's a diplomatic envoy here to see you, Councilor. Are you available?"

  Han felt a flash of irritation. Couldn't they ever leave her alone? "This is Solo," he called toward the comm. "The Councilor is otherwise engaged"

  He cut off at Leia's sudden squeeze on his arm. There was something in her face... "Yes, I'll see him," she said. "Send him here."

  She switched off the comm. "Leia" Han began.

  "No, it's all right," she said, that odd look still on her face. "I have a strange feeling"

  She broke off as the room door slid open. Han stood up, automatically dropping his hand to his blaster.

  "Councilor Organa Solo," Carib Devist said gravely, stepping into the room. His eyes shifted to Han"And Solo, too," he added, stepping toward him and extending his hand. "I'm glad to see you made it through Bastion safely."

  "We didn't," Han said shortly, making no move to take the other's hand. "We got caught."

  Carib froze, his hand still outstretched. His eyes flicked to the still seated Lando, as if noticing him for the first time; then, slowly, he lowered his hand. "What happened?" he asked, his face taut.

  "Like I said, we got caught," Han told him. "They chased us around the city for a while, then were sitting there waiting when we hit the ship." He lifted his eyebrows. "Apparently, we rate pretty high over there. Thrawn himself came out to meet us."

  He'd thought Carib's face was as tight as it got. He'd been wrong. "Thrawn was there?" the other repeated, his voice barely above a whisper. "It was really him?"

  "It sure wasn't a quarter-size holo," Han bit out. "Of course it was him. We had a nice little chat, and then he gave us the Caamas Document." He jabbed a finger at the datacard on the table. "There it is."

  Carib looked down at the datacard. "And?" he asked warily.

  "It's been altered," Leia said, her voice almost gentle.

  Han threw an irritated look at her. What was she doing being nice to this man? "I don't suppose you'd know how they caught on to us or anything?" he growled, turning his glare back on Carib.

  The other took it without flinching. "No, I don't," he said. "But given that you weren't picked up the second you stepped off your ship, I'd guess you simply got spotted. And may I also point out," he added with a new edge to his voice, "that tumbling to you means they've also tumbled to me, which means our families on Pakrik Minor are now in danger of Imperial reprisal. For whatever little that means to you."

  Han grimaced. "Yeah," he muttered. "I'm... well, I'm sorry."

  "Forget it," Carib said, the anger still lingering. "We knew what we were getting into."

  Deliberately, he turned back to Leia. "Which is why we're here, in fact. We've decided"

  "Just a minute," Lando put in. "The duty officer said you were a diplomatic envoy. How'd you con your way through that one?"

  "No con involved," Carib said. "The Directorate wanted someone to come offer our support to President Gavrisom and the New Republic over the Caamas situation. We volunteered. Simple as that."

  "And you got all the way up to Gavrisom on your first try?"

  Carib shrugged. "We pulled a few strings. But not too many were needed." He smiled sadly. "I get the impression that there aren't a lot of people around these days flocking to offer Gavrisom their unconditional support. We'll probably make for a welcome change."

  He looked back at Leia. "The point is, we've discussed it among ourselves, and we've decided that we can't just sit back and watch this play itself out." He straightened into a probably unconscious attention. "So we've come to offer you our help."

  Han glanced across at Lando. A bunch of Imperial clones, volunteering to get involved in the Caamas dispute. Just exactly what they needed. "And how do you propose to do that?" he asked.

  "Any way we can," Carib said. "And maybe in ways you wouldn't even think of. For instance, are you aware that your mass of ships out there includes at least three Imperials?"

  Han felt his eyes narrow. "What are you talking about?"

  "I'm talking about three Imperial ships," Carib repeated. "Small ones, barely starfighter class, probably with no more than three or four men aboard each. But they're Imperials, all right."

  "You're sure of that?" Leia asked.

  Han frowned down at her. There was a strange look behind her eyes, an unexpected tension in her throat.

  "Absolutely," Carib said. "We picked up the edge of a transmission on our way in that was using the latest in encrypts from Bastion."

  Leia's lip twitched. "I see."

  "I presume you got IDs on them," Lando said.

  "On the ones we spotted, yes," Carib said, digging out a datacard and offering it to Han. "Of course, there might be more of them out there keeping quiet."

  "Of course," Lando said.

  Carib shot him a look, then turned back to Han. For a moment he held Han's gaze, studying his face... "Look, Solo," he said quietly. "I know you don't exactly trust me. I suppose in your boots, under the circumstances, I wouldn't particularly trust us, either. But whether you believe it or not, we're on your side."

  "It's not a matter of mistrust, Carib," Leia spoke up. "It's the whole question of what's real about this and what isn't. With Thrawn pulling the strings, we're not sure even whether we can trust our own eyes anymore, let alone our judgment."

  "Which may well be his most powerful weapon," Carib countered impatiently.
"The fact that no one's willing to trust their allies or their circumstances or even themselves. You can't live that way, Councilor. You certainly can't fight that way."

  Leia shook her head. "You misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting we capitulate to uncertainty, but only explaining our hesitation. On the contrary, we have a plan and will be attempting to carry it out."

  "Good," Carib said, and Han thought he could detect a faint note of relief in his voice. "What do you want us to do?"

  "I'd like you to go back to your ship and start wandering leisurely around the area," Leia told him, slipping a datacard into her datapad and doing some keying. "Try to find and identify every Imperial ship that's out there."

  "What if they don't transmit anymore?" Lando asked.

  "Won't matter," Carib assured him. "There are certain ways Imperial pilots tend to do things that makes them stand out of a crowd. If there are any more out there, we'll find them."

  "Good," Leia said, sliding the datacard out of her datapad and handing it to Carib. "Be sure to stay in touch with Han or Lando or mehere are our personal comlink and ship's comm frequencies. Other than that, just stand ready."

  "We will," Carib promised, fingering the datacard. "Thank you, Councilor. We won't let you down."

  "I know," Leia said gravely. "We'll speak more later."

  With a short nod, Carib turned and strode from the room. "I hope you know what you're doing, Leia," Han muttered, gazing darkly at the closed door. "I'm still not sure I trust him."

  "Only history will be able to judge his actions today," Leia said tiredly. "Or those of any of the rest of us." She took a deep breath and seemed to shake off her weariness. "But we can only do what we can. I need to go talk with Gavrisom about our meeting with the Ishori; and you, Lando, need to call Senator Miatamia and try to get in to see him."

  "Right," Lando said, hauling himself with clear reluctance out of the comfort of his chair. "See you later."

  He left. "What about me?" Han asked. "What do I do?"

  "You give me another hug," Leia said, standing up and moving close to him. "No, seriously, you'd better stay completely out of it," she added soberly. "You're the one holding the Caamas Document, the one standing on the high moral ground. You can't be seen dealing directly with either side."