Star Wars - [Thrawn Trilogy 02] - Dark Force Rising (by Timothy Zahn)

Timothy Zahn

Dark Force Rising

Book 1 of the "Thrawn" trilogy

CHAPTER

1

Directly ahead, the star was a marble-sized yellow orange ball, its intensity moderated by its distance

and by the viewports' automatic sunscreens. Surrounding it and the ship itself were the stars, a spattering

of blazing white pinpricks in the deep blackness of space. Directly beneath the ship, in the western part of

the Great Northern Forest of the planet Myrkr, dawn was approaching.

The last dawn that some in that forest would ever see.

Standing at one of the side bridge viewports of the Imperial Star DestroyerChimaera , Captain Pellaeon

watched as the fuzzy terminator line crept toward the target zone on the planet below. Ten minutes ago,

the ground forces surrounding the target had reported themselves ready; theChimaera itself had been

holding blockade position for nearly an hour. All that was missing now was the order to attack.

Slowly, feeling almost furtive about it, Pellaeon turned his head a couple of centimeters to the side.

Behind him and to his right, Grand Admiral Thrawn was seated at his command station, his blue-skinned

face expressionless, his glowing red eyes focused on the bank of status readouts wrapped around his

chair. He hadn't spoken or moved from that position since the last of the ground forces had reported in,

and Pellaeon could tell the bridge crew was beginning to get restless.

For his own part, Pellaeon had long since stopped trying to second-guess Thrawn's actions. The fact

that the late Emperor had seen fit to make Thrawn one of his twelve Grand Admirals was evidence of his

own confidence in the man—all the more so given Thrawn's not entirely-human heritage and the

Emperor's well-known prejudices in sub matters. Moreover, in the year since Thrawn had taken

command of theChimaera and had begun the task of rebuilding the Imperial Fleet, Pellaeon had seen the

Grand Admiral's military genius demonstrated time and again. Whatever his reason for holding off the

attack, Pellaeon knew it was a good one.

As slowly as he'd turned away, he turned back to the viewport. But his movements had apparently not

gone unnoticed. "A question, Captain?" Thrawn's smoothly modulated voice cut through the low hum of

bridge conversation.

"No, sir," Pellaeon assured him, turning again to face his superior.

For a moment those glowing eyes studied him, and Pellaeon unconsciously braced himself for a

reprimand, or worse. But Thrawn, as Pellaeon still had a tendency to forget, did not have the legendary

and lethal temper that had been the hallmark of the Lord Darth Vader.

"You're perhaps wondering why we haven't yet attacked?" the Grand Admiral suggested in that same

courteous tone.

"Yes, sir, I was," Pellaeon admitted. "All our forces appear to be in position.

"Our military forces are, yes," Thrawn agreed. "But not the observers I sent into Hyllyard City."

Pellaeon blinked. "Hyllyard City?"

"Yes. I find it unlikely that a man of Talon Karrde's cunning would set up a base in the middle of a forest

without also setting up security contacts with others outside the immediate area. Hyllyard City is too far

from Karrde's base for anyone there to directly witness our attack; hence, any sudden flurries of activity

in the city will imply the existence of a more subtle line of communication. From that we'll be able to

identify Karrde's contacts and put them under long-term surveillance. Eventually, they'll lead us to him."

"Yes, sir," Pellaeon said, feeling a frown crease his forehead. "Then you're not expecting to take any of

Karrde's own people alive.

The Grand Admiral's smile turned brittle. "On the contrary. I fully expect our forces to find an empty and

abandoned base."

Pellaeon threw a glance out the viewport at the partly lit planet below. "In that case, sir… why are we

attacking it?"

"Three reasons, Captain. First, even men like Talon Karrde occasionally make mistakes. It could well be

that in the rush to evacuate his base he left some crucial bit of information behind. Second, as I've already

mentioned, an attack on the base may lead us to his contacts in Hyllyard City. And third, it provides our

ground forces with some badly needed field experience."

The glowing eyes bored into Pellaeon's face. "Never forget, Captain, that our goal is no longer merely

the pitiful rear-guard harassment of the past five years. With Mount Tantiss and our late Emperor's

collection of Spaarti Cylinders in our hands, the initiative is once again ours. Very soon now we'll begin

the process of taking planets back from the Rebellion; and for that we'll need an army every bit as well

trained as the officers and crew of the Fleet."

"Understood, Admiral," Pellaeon said.

"Good." Thrawn lowered his gaze to his displays. "It's time. Signal General Covell that he may begin."

"Yes, sir," Pellaeon said, leaving the viewport and returning to his station. He gave the readouts a quick

check and tapped his comm switch, peripherally aware as he did so that Thrawn had likewise activated

his own comm. Some private message to his spies in Hyllyard City? "This is theChimaera ," Pellaeon

said. "Launch the attack."

"Acknowledged,Chimaera ," General Covell said into his helmet comlink, careful to keep the quiet

scorn in his gut from getting through to his voice. It was typical—and disgustingly predictable. You

scrambled around like mad hellions, got your troops and vehicles on the ground and set up and then you

stood around waiting for those strutting Fleet people in their spotless uniforms and nice clean ships to

finish sipping their tea and finally get around to letting you loose.

Well, get yourselves on the table,he thought sardonically in the direction of the Star Destroyer

overhead. Because whether Grand Admiral Thrawn was interested in real results or just a good rousing

show, he was going to get his money's worth. Reaching to the board in front of him, he keyed for local

command frequency. "General Covell to all units: we've got the light. Let's go."

The acknowledgments came in; and with a shiver from the steel deck beneath him, the huge AT-AT

walker was off lumbering its deceptively awkward-looking way through the forest toward the

encampment a kilometer away. Ahead of the AT-AT, occasionally visible through the armored

transparisteel viewport, a pair of AT-ST scout walkers ran in twin-point formation, tracking along the

AT-AT's path and watching for enemy positions or booby traps.

Not that such futile gestures would do Karrde any good. Covell had directed literally hundreds of assault

campaigns in his years of Imperial service, and he knew full well the awesome capabilities of the fighting

machines under his command.

Beneath the viewport, the holographic tactical display was lit up like a decorative disk, the winking red,

white, and green lights showing the positions of Covell's circle of AT-ATs, AT-STs, and hoverscout

attack vehicles, all closing on Karrde's encampment in good order.

Good, but not perfect. The north-flank AT-AT and its support vehicles were lagging noticeably behind

the rest of the armored noose. "Unit Two, bring it up," he said into his comlink.

"Trying, sir," the voice came back, tinny and distant through the strange dampening effects of Myrkr's

metalrich flora. "We're encountering some thick vine clusters that are slowing down our scout walkers."

"Is it bothering your AT-AT any?"

"No, sir, but I wanted to keep the flank together—"

"Pattern coherence is a fine goal during academy maneuvers, Major," Covell cut him off. "But not at the

expense of an overall battle plan. If the AT-STs can't keep up, leave them behind."

"Yes, sir."

Covell broke the connection with a snort. The Grand Admiral was right about one thing, at least: his

troops were going to need a lot more battle seasoning before they would be up to real Imperial

standards. Still, the raw material was there. Even as he watched, the north flank reformed itself, with the

hoverscouts spreading forward to take up the AT-STs' former point positions while the lagging AT-STs

themselves fell back into rear-guard deployment.

The energy sensor beeped a proximity warning: they were coming up on the encampment. "Status?" he

asked his crew.

"All weapons charged and ready," the gunner reported, his eyes on the targeting displays.

"No indications of resistance, active or passive," the driver added.

"Stay alert," Covell ordered keying for command frequency again. "All units: move in."

And with a final crash of mangled vegetation, the AT-AT broke through into the clearing.

It was an impressive sight. From all four sides of the open area, in nearly perfect parade-ground unison,

the other three AT-ATs appeared from the forest cover in the predawn gloom, the AT-STs and

hoverscouts clustered around their feet quickly fanning out on all sides to encircle the darkened buildings.

Covell gave the sensors a quick but complete check. Two energy sources were still functioning, one in

the central building, the other in one of the outer barracks-style structures. There was no evidence of

operating sensors, or of weapons or energy fields. The life-form analyzer ran through its complicated

algorithms and concluded that the outer buildings were devoid of life.

The large main building, on the other hand —

"I'm getting approximately twenty life-form readings from the main building, General," the number four

AT-AT commander reported. "All in the central section."

"They don't register as human, though," Covell's driver murmured.

"Maybe they're being shielded," Covell grunted, looking out the viewport. Still no movement from the

encampment. "Let's find out. Assault squads: go."

The hoverscouts popped their aft hatchways, and from each came a squad of eight soldiers, laser rifles

held tautly across battle-armored chests as they dropped to the ground. Half of each squad took up

backstop position, their rifles trained on the encampment from the partial cover of their hoverscout, while

the other half sprinted across the open ground to the outer line of buildings and sheds. There, they

assumed covering positions, allowing their comrades in the rear to similarly advance. It was a

centuries-old military tactic, executed with the kind of squeamish determination that Covell would have

expected of green troops. Still, the raw material was definitely there.

The soldiers continued their leap-frog approach to the main building, with small groups breaking off the

main encirclement to check out each of the outer structures as they passed. The point men reached the

central building—a brilliant flash lit up the forest as they blasted down the door—a slightly confused

scramble as the rest of the troops piled through.

And then, silence.

For a handful of minutes the silence continued, punctuated only by occasional short commands from the

troop commanders. Covell listened, watching the sensors… and finally the report came through. "General

Covell, this is Lieutenant Barse. We've secured the target zone, sir. There's no one here."

Covell nodded. "Very good, Lieutenant. How does it look?"

"Like they pulled out in a hurry, sir," the other said. "They left a fair amount of stuff behind, but it all

looks pretty much like junk."

"That'll be for the scanning crew to decide," Covell told him.

"Any indication of booby traps or other unpleasant surprises?"

"None at all, sir. Oh—and those life-forms we picked up are nothing but these long furry animals living

on the tree growing up through the center of the roof."

Covell nodded again. Ysalamiri, he believed they were called. Thrawn had been making a big deal about

the stupid creatures for a couple of months now, though what use they could possibly be to the war effort

he couldn't guess. Eventually, he supposed, the Fleet people would get around to letting him in on the big

secret. "Set up a defensive honeycomb," he ordered the lieutenant. "Signal the scanning crew when you're

ready. And get comfortable. The Grand Admiral wants this place taken apart, and that's exactly what

we're going to do."

"Very good, General," the voice said, almost too faint to hear despite the heavy amplification and

computer scrubbing. "Proceed with the dismantling."

Seated at theWild Karrde 's helm, Mara Jade half turned to face the man standing behind her. "I

suppose that's it, then," she said.

For a moment Talon Karrde didn't seem to hear her. He just stood there, gazing through the viewport at

the distant planet, a tiny bluish-white crescent shape visible around the jagged edge of the sun-skimmer

asteroid the Wild Karr was snuggled up against. Mara was just about to repeat the comment when he

stirred. "Yes," he said, that calm voice showing no hint of the emotion he was obviously feeling. "I

suppose it is."

Mara exchanged glances with Aves, at the copilot station, then looked back up at Karrde. "Shouldn't

we be going, then?" she prompted.

Karrde took a deep breath… and as she watched him, Mara caught in his expression a glimmer of what

the Myrkr base had meant to him. More than just a base, it had been his home.

With an effort, she suppressed the thought. So Karrde had lost his home. Big deal. She'd lost far more

than that in her lifetime and had survived Just fine. He'd get over it.

"I asked if we should get going."

"I heard you," Karrde said, the flicker of emotion vanishing again into that slightly sardonic facade of his.

"I think perhaps we ought to wait a little longer. See if we left anything behind that might point in the

direction of our Rishi base."

Mara looked at Aves again. "We were pretty thorough," Aves said. "I don't think there was any mention

of Rishi anywhere except the main computer, and that left with the first group out."

"I agree," Karrde said. "Are you willing to stake your life on that assessment?"

Aves's lip twitched. "Not really."

"Nor am I. So we wait."

"What if they spot us?" Mara persisted. "Skulking behind asteroids is the oldest trick on the list."

"They won't spot us." Karrde was quietly positive. "Actually, I doubt the possibility will even occur to

them. The average man running from the likes of Grand Admiral Thrawn is unlikely to stop running until

he's a good deal farther away than this."

Are you willing to stake your life on that assessment?Mara thought sourly. But she kept the retort to

herself. He was probably right; and anyway, if theChimaera or any of its TIE fighters started toward

Wild Karrde , they would have no trouble punching the engines up to power and going to lightspeed well

ahead of the attack.

The logic and tactics seemed clean. But still, Mara could feel something nagging at the back of her mind.

Something that didn't feel good about all this.

Gritting her teeth, she adjusted the ship's sensors to their highest sensitivity and checked once more that

the engine prestart sequence was keyed in and ready. And then settled in to wait.

The scanning crew was fast, efficient, and thorough; and it took them just over thirty minutes to come up

completely dry.

"Well, so much for that." Pellaeon grimaced as he watched the negative reports scroll up his display. A

good practice session for the ground forces, perhaps, but otherwise the whole exercise seemed to have

been pretty useless. "Unless your observers have picked up any reactions in Hyllyard City," he added,

turning to face Thrawn.

The Grand Admiral's glowing red eyes were on his displays. "There was a small twitch, as a matter of

fact," he said. "Cut off almost before it began, but I think the implications are clear."

Well, that was something, anyway. "Yes, sir. Shall I have Surveillance begin equipping a long-term

ground team?"

"Patience, Captain," Thrawn said. "It may not be necessary, after all. Key for a midrange scan, and tell

me what you see.

Pellaeon swiveled back to his command board and tapped for the appropriate readout. There was

Myrkr itself of course, and the standard TIE fighter defense cloud ranged around theChimaera . The

only other object anywhere within midrange distance—"You mean that little asteroid out there?"

"That's the one," Thrawn nodded. "Nothing remarkable about it, is there? No, don't do a sensor focus,"

he added, almost before the thought of doing one had even occurred to Pellaeon. "We wouldn't want to

prematurely flush our quarry, would we?"

"Our quarry?" Pellaeon repeated, frowning at the sensor data again. The routine sensor scans that had

been done of the asteroid three hours earlier had come up negative, and nothing could have sneaked up

on it since then without being detected. "With all due respect, sir, I don't see any indication that anything's

out there.

"I don't either," Thrawn agreed. "But it's the only sizable cover available for nearly ten million kilometers

around Myrkr. There's really no other place for Karrde to watch our operation from."

Pellaeon pursed his lips. "Your permission, Admiral, but I doubt Karrde is foolish enough to just sit

around waiting for us to arive.

The glowing red eyes narrowed, just a bit. "You forget, Captain," he said softly, "that I've met the man.

More important, I've seen the sort of artwork he collects." He turned back to his displays. "No; he's out

there. I'm sure of it. Talon Karrde is not merely a smuggler, you see. Perhaps not even primarily a

smuggler. His real love is not goods or money but information. More than anything else in the galaxy, he

craves knowledge…and the knowledge of what we have or have not found here is too valuable a gem

for him to pass up."

Pellaeon studied the Grand Admiral's profile. It was, in his opinion, a pritty tenuous leap of logic. But on

the other hand, he'd seen too many similar leaps borne out not to take this one seriously. "Shall I order a

TIE fighter squad to investigate, sir?"

"As I said, Captain, patience," Thrawn said. "Even in sensor stealth mode with all engines shut down,

he'll have made sure he can power up and escape before any attack force could reach him." He smiled at

Pellaeon. "Or rather, any attack force from theChimaera ."

A stray memory clicked: Thrawn, reaching for his comm just as Pellaeon was giving the ground forces

the order to attack. "You sent a message to the rest of the fleet," he said. "Timing it against my attack

order to mask the transmission.

Thrawn's blue-black eyebrows lifted a fraction. "Very good, Captain. Very good, indeed."

Pellaeon felt a touch of warmth on his cheeks. The Grand Admiral's compliments were few and far

between. "Thank you, sir."

Thrawn nodded. "More precisely, my message was to a single ship, theConstrainer . It will arrive in

approximately ten minutes. At which point"—his eyes glittered—"we'll see just how accurate my reading

of Karrde has been."

Over theWild Karrde 's bridge speakers, the reports from the scanning crew were beginning to taper

off. "Doesn't sound like they've found anything," Aves commented.

"Like you said, we were thorough," Mara reminded him, hardly hearing her own words. The nameless

thing nagging at the back of her mind seemed to be getting stronger. "Can we get out of here now?" she

asked, turning to look at Karrde.

He frowned down at her. "Try to relax, Mara. They can't possibly know we're here. There's been no

sensorfocus probe of the asteroid, and without one there's no way for them to detect this ship."

"Unless a Star Destroyer's sensors are better than you think," Mara retorted.

"We know all about their sensors," Aves soothed. "Ease up, Mara, Karrde knows what he's doing. The

Wild Karrde has probably the tightest sensor stealth mode this side of—"

He broke off as the bridge door opened behind them; and Mara turned just as Karrde's two pet

vornskrs bounded into the room.

Dragging, very literally, their handler behind them.

"What are you doing here, Chin?" Karrde asked.

"Sorry, Capt'," Chin puffed, digging his heels into the deck and leaning back against the taut leashes. The

effort was only partially successful; the predators were still pulling him slowly forward. "I couldn't stop

them. I thought maybe, they wanted to see you, hee?"

"What's the matter with you two, anyway?" Karrde chided the animals, squatting down in front of them.

"Don't you know we're busy?"

The vornskrs didn't look at him. Didn't even seem to notice his presence, for that matter. They continued

staring straight ahead as if he wasn't even there.

Staring directly at Mara.

"Hey," Karrde said, reaching over to slap one of the animals lightly across the muzzle. "I'm talking to

you, Sturm. What's gotten into you, anyway?" He glanced along their unblinking line of sight—

Paused for a second and longer look. "Are you doing something, Mara?"

Mara shook her head, a cold shiver tingling up her back. She'd seen that look before, on many of the

wild vornskrs she'd run into during that long three-day trek through the Myrkr's forest with Luke

Skywalker.

Except that those vornskr stares hadn't been directed at her. They'd been reserved instead for

Skywalker. Usually just before they attacked him.

"That's Mara, Sturm," Karrde told the animal, speaking to it as he might a child. "Mara. Come on,

now—you saw her all the time back home."

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Sturm stopped his forward pull and turned his attention to his master. "Mara,"

Karrde repeated, looking th'e vornskr firmly in the eye. "A friend. You hear that, Drang?" he added,

reaching over to grip the other vornskr's muzzle. "She's a friend. Understand?"

Drang seemed to consider that. Then, as reluctantly as Sturm had, he lowered his head and stopped

pulling. "That's better," Karrde said, scratching both voruslo's briefly behind their ears and standing up

again. "Better take them back down, Chin. Maybe walk them around the main hold—give them some

exercise.

"If I can find a clear track through all the stuff in there, hee?" Chin grunted, twitching back on the leashes.

"Come on, littles — we go now."

With only a slight hesitation the two vornskrs allowed him to take them off the bridge. Karrde watched

as the door shut behind them. "I wonder what that was all about," he said, giving Mara a thoughtful look.

"I don't know," she told him, hearing the tightness in her voice.

With the temporary distraction now gone, the strange dread she'd been feeling was back again in full

force. She swiveled back to her board, half expecting to see a squadron of TIE fighters bearing down on

them.

But there was nothing. Only theChimaera , still sitting harmlessly out there in orbit around Myrkr. No

threat any of theWild Karrde 's instruments could detect. But the tingling was getting stronger and

stronger…

And suddenly she could sit still no longer. Reaching out to the control board, she keyed for engine

prestart.

"Mara!" Aves yelped, jumping in his seat as if he'd been stung. "What in—?"

"They're coming," Mara snarled back, hearing the strain of a half dozen tangled emotions in her voice.

The die was irrevocably cast—her activation of theWild Karrde 's engines would have set sensors

screaming all over theChimaera . Now there was nowhere to go but out.

She looked up at Karrde, suddenly afraid of what his expression might be saying. But he was just

standing there looking down at her, a slightly quizzical frown on his face. "They don't appear to be

coming," he pointed out mildly.

She shook her head, feeling the pleading in her eyes. "You have to believe me," she said, uncomfortably

aware that she didn't really believe it herself. "They're getting ready to attack."

"I believe you," he said soothingly. Or perhaps he, too, recognized that there weren't any other choices

left. "Aves: lightspeed calculation. Take the easiest course setting that's not anywhere toward Rishi; we'll

stop and reset later."

"Karrde—"

"Mara is second in command," Karrde cut him off. "As such, she has the right and the duty to make

important decisions.

"Yeah, but—" Aves stopped, the last word coming out pinched as he strangled it off. "Yeah," he said

between clenched teeth. Throwing a glower at Mara, he turned to the nav computer and got to work.

"You might as well get us moving, Mara," Karrde continued, stepping over to the vacant

communications chair and sitting down. "Keep the asteroid between us and theChimaera as long as you

can.

"Yes, sir," Mara said. Her tangle of emotions was starting to dissolve now, leaving a mixture of anger

and profound embarrassment in its wake. She'd done it again. Listened to her inner feelings—tried to do

things she knew full well she couldn't do—and in the process had once again wound up clutching the

sharp end of the bayonet.

And it was probably the last she'd hear of being Karrde's second in command, too. Command unity in

front of Aves was one thing, but once they were out of here and he could get her alone there was going

to be hell to pay. She'd be lucky if he didn't bounce her out of his organization altogether. Jabbing

viciously at her board, she swung theWild Karrde around, turning its nose away from the asteroid and

starting to drive toward deep space—

And with a flicker of pseudomotion, something big shot in from lightspeed, dropping neatly into normal

space not twenty kilometers away.

An Imperial Interdictor Cruiser.

Aves yelped a startled-sounding curse. "We got company," he barked.

"I see it," Karrde said. As cool as ever… but Mara could hear the tinge of surprise in his voice, too.

"What's our time to lightspeed?"

"It'll be another minute," Aves said tautly. "There's a lot of junk in the outer system for the computer to

work through."

"We have a race, then," Karrde said. "Mara?"

"Up to point seven three," she said, nursing as much power as she could out of the still-sluggish engines.

He was right; it was indeed going to be a race. With their four huge gravity-wave generators capable of

simulating planet-sized masses, Interdictor Cruisers were the Empire's weapon of choice for trapping an

enemy ship in normal space while TIE fighters pounded it to rubble. But coming in fresh out of lightspeed

itself, the Interdictor would need another minute before it could power up those generators. If she could

get theWild Karrde out of range by then…

"More visitors," Aves announced. "A couple, squadrons of TIE fighters coming from theChimaera .

"We're up to point eight six power," Mara reported. "We'll be ready for lightspeed as soon as the nav

computer gives me a course.

"Interdictor status?"

"Grav generators are powering up," Aves said. On Mara's tactical display a ghostly cone appeared,

Star Wars - [Thrawn Trilogy 02] - Dark Force Rising (by Timothy Zahn)

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