Vision of the future

'And there they were, busily setting up their ambush, when Thrawn found them.' He shook his head. 'You have to understand the situation, Mara, to truly appreciate it. On one side were handpicked units of Palpatine's own private army, equipped with fifteen top-line combat ships. On the other side were Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo of the Chiss Expansionary Defense and perhaps twelve small and insignificant border patrol ships.'

'I appreciate it just fine,' Mara said, suppressing a shudder. 'How badly did Thrawn slaughter them?'

'Utterly,' Parck said, the ghost of a smile creasing his face. 'I believe only a single one of Palpatine's ships remained capable of flight, and that only because Thrawn wanted some of the invaders left alive to interrogate.

'Fortunately for that remnant, and perhaps one day for the galaxy as a whole, among the survivors was the leader of the task force, one of Palpatine's advisers. A man named Kinman Doriana.' Mara swallowed. That name she most certainly did remember. He'd been Palpatine's right-hand man, supposedly one of the grand architects of his rise to power. 'I've heard it, yes,' she said.

'I thought you would have,' Parck said, nodding. 'Very much a shadow adviser—few people ever even heard his name, let alone knew his true position and power. But among those who did it was sometimes speculated that his untimely death left a gap which Palpatine ultimately tried to fill with three other people: Darth Vader, Grand Admiral Thrawn—' He smiled again. 'And you.'

'You're too kind,' Mara said evenly, not even a whisper of pride rising within her at such a statement. So she had indeed had position and authority in Palpatine's eyes, perhaps more than even she had realized.

But it didn't matter. That part of her life had died, unmourned, a long time ago. 'You're very well informed, too.'

'This was Thrawn's personal base,' Parck said, waving a hand around him. 'And information, as you may have noticed, was one of his few obsessions. The databases in the fortress core below us are possibly the most extensive in the galaxy.'

'Magnificent, I'm sure,' Mara said. 'Too bad all his knowledge couldn't keep him from getting killed.'

She had hoped to spark some kind of reaction from them. To her surprise, though, none of them so much as blinked. Parck, in fact, actually smiled. 'Never assume, Mara,' he warned. 'But that's getting ahead of the story. Where were we?'

'Doriana and Outbound Flight,' Mara said.

'Thank you,' Parck said. 'At any rate, Doriana explained the entire situation to Thrawn and convinced him that Outbound Flight had to be destroyed. Two weeks later, when the ship arrived in Chiss space, Thrawn was waiting.'

'Good-bye, Outbound Flight,' Mara murmured.

'Yes,' Parck agreed. 'But though that was the end of that, it was the beginning of trouble for Thrawn himself. The Chiss military philosophy, you see, did not recognize the morality of preemptive strikes. What Thrawn did was, in their minds, equivalent to murder.' Mara snorted gently. 'No offense, Admiral, but it sounds to me like it's your perceptions that need an overhaul. How can the slaughter of a bunch of Jedi Masters minding their own business be anything but murder?'

Parck looked at her gravely. 'You'll understand, Mara,' he said, his voice almost trembling. 'In time, you'll understand.'

Mara frowned. The man was either a terrific actor or there was something buried in all of this that had him well and truly terrified. Again, she stretched out with the Force; again, she couldn't seem to touch him at all.

With an obvious effort, Parck pulled himself together. 'But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. As I said, Thrawn's action did not sit well with the ruling Chiss families. He was able to talk his way clear and retain his position, but from that point on they watched him very carefully.

'And eventually, as he dealt with some of the Chiss's enemies, he pushed things just a little too far. He was brought up on charges, stripped of all rank, and sent into exile on an uninhabited world at the edge of Imperial space.'

'Where who should show up but a Victory Star Destroyer,' Mara said. 'Captained by a man willing to take the risk of bringing him back to Coruscant.' She raised her eyebrows. 'Only it wasn't nearly as much of a risk as everyone thought, was it?'

Parck smiled. 'It most certainly wasn't,' he said. 'In fact, I learned later that Palpatine had made at least two unsuccessful attempts over the years to contact the Chiss and offer Thrawn a position with his soon-to-be Empire. No, he was most pleased with my gift, though because of the political realities of the court he had to keep that pleasure hidden.'

'So Thrawn went into private military training and eventually rose to the highest rank Palpatine could offer,' Mara said. 'And then, what, arranged to have himself sent back here so he could make the Chiss ruling families pay for what they'd done to him?'