orders or whether it came from above was impossible to tell, but at least it gave her time to do such limited planning as she could.
There was similarly no way of knowing where they were going, but from the labored sound of the engines, she could guess they were pushing uncomfortably far past a Victory Star Destroyer's normal flank speed of Point Four Five. Possibly even as high as Point Five, which would mean they were covering a hundred twenty-seven light-years per hour. For a while she kept her mind occupied by trying to guess which system they might be making for; but as the hours ticked by and the number of possibilities grew too unwieldy to keep track of, she abandoned the game.
Twenty-two hours after leaving Abregado, they arrived at the rendezvous. At the last place Mara would have expected. At the very last place in the galaxy she would have wanted to go. The place where her universe had died a sudden and violent death.
Endor.
'The Grand Admiral will see you now,' the stormtrooper squad leader said, stepping back from the opening door and motioning her ahead. Mara threw a glance at the silent Noghri bodyguard standing on the other side of the doorway and stepped through.
'Ah,' a well-remembered voice called quietly from the command center in the middle of the room. Grand Admiral Thrawn sat in the double display ring, his red eyes glowing at her above the glistening white uniform. 'Come in.
Mara stayed where she was. 'Why did you bring me to Endor?' she demanded.
The glowing eyes narrowed. 'I beg your pardon?'
'You heard me,' she said. 'Endor. Where the Emperor died. Why did you choose this place for the rendezvous?'
The other seemed to consider that. 'Come closer, Mara Jade.' The voice was rich with the overtones of command, and Mara found herself walking toward him before she realized what she was doing. 'If it's supposed to be a joke, it's in poor taste,' she bit out. 'If it's supposed to be a test, then get it over with.'
'It is neither,' Thrawn said as she came to the edge of the outer display ring and stopped. 'The choice was forced upon us by other, unconnected business.' One blue-black eyebrow raised slightly. 'Or perhaps not entirely unconnected. That still remains to be seen. Tell me, can you really sense the Emperor's presence here?'
Mara took a deep breath, feeling the air shuddering through her lungs with an ache as real as it was intangible. Could Thrawn see how much this place hurt her? she wondered. How thick with memories and sensations the whole Endor system still remained? Or would he even care about any of that if he did?
He saw, all right. She could tell that much from the way he was looking at her. What he thought of it she didn't much care. 'I can feel the evidence of his death,' she told him. 'It's not pleasant. Let's get this over with so I can get out of here.'
His lip quirked, perhaps at her assumption that she would in fact be leaving the Chimaera. 'Very well. Let's begin with some proof of who you were.'
'I gave the Adamant's captain a high-level recognition code,' she reminded him.
'Which is why you're here instead of in a detention cell,' Thrawn said. 'The code isn't proof in itself.'
'All right, then,' Mara said. 'We met once, during the public dedication of the new Assemblage wing of the Imperial Palace on Coruscant. At that ceremony the Emperor introduced me to you as Lianna, one of his favorite dancers. Later, during the more private ceremony that followed, he revealed to you my true identity.'
'And what was that private ceremony?'
'Your secret promotion to the rank of Grand Admiral.' Thrawn pursed his lips, his eyes never leaving her face. 'You wore a white dress to both ceremonies,' he said. 'Aside from the sash, the dress had only one decoration. Do you recall what that decoration was?' Mara had to think back. 'It was a small shouldersculp,' she said slowly. 'Left shoulder. A Xyquine design, as I remember.'
'It was indeed.' Thrawn reached to his control board, touched a switch; and abruptly, the room was filled with holos of shouldersculps on ornate pillars. 'The one you wore is somewhere in this room. Find it.' Mara swallowed, turning slowly as she looked around. She'd had literally hundreds of fancy dresses for her cover role as a member of the Emperor's entourage. To remember one particular shouldersculp out of all that...
She shook her head, trying to clear away the unpleasant buzzing sensation that hovered deep in her mind. She'd had an excellent memory once, one which the Emperor's training had made even better. Focusing her thoughts, fighting upstream against the disquieting aura of this place, she concentrated
... 'That's it,' she said, pointing to a delicate filigree of gold and blue. Thrawn's expression didn't change, but he seemed to relax a little in his seat. 'Welcome back, Emperor's Hand.' He touched the switch a second time, and the art gallery vanished. 'You've been a long time in returning.' The glowing eyes bored into her face, the question unspoken but obvious. 'What was here for me before?' she countered. 'Who but a Grand Admiral would have
