Vision of the future

'Which is perfectly true,' Car'das agreed, gesturing them back out of the library. 'But come sit down. I know you have so many questions.'

'Let me start with the most important one,' Karrde said, not moving. 'The reason we came here was to look for a vitally important historical document. It involves—'

'Yes, I know,' Car'das said with a sigh. 'The Caamas Document.'

'You know about that?' Shada asked.

'I'm not the frail bedridden old man you met a few hours ago,' Car'das reminded her mildly. 'I still have a few sources of information, and I try to keep in touch with what's happening back home.' He shook his head. 'Unfortunately, I can't help you. As soon as the Caamas matter first broke I checked through all my files to see if I had a copy. But I'm afraid I don't.' Karrde felt his heart sink. 'You're absolutely sure?'

Car'das nodded. 'Yes. I'm sorry.'

Karrde nodded back. After all the work and danger in getting here, there it was. The end of the road; and at its finish, an empty hand.

Shada wasn't ready to let it go quite that easily. 'And what if you had found a copy?' she demanded. 'You can talk all you want about keeping in touch, but the fact is that for the past twenty years you've been taking it easy out here and letting everyone else do all the work.' Car'das lifted his eyebrows. 'Suspicious and unforgiving both,' he commented. 'That's rather sad. Isn't there anyone or anything you trust?'

'I'm a professional bodyguard,' Shada bit out. 'Trust isn't part of the job. And don't try to change the subject. You sat out the whole Rebellion, not to mention Thrawn's first bid for power. Why?' Something unreadable flicked across Car'das's face. 'Thrawn,' he murmured, his eyes sweeping slowly around his library. 'A most interesting person, indeed. I have most of his history with the Empire on file here—pulled it all out recently, reading through it. There's more to his story than meets the eye—I'm convinced of it. Far more.'

'You still haven't answered my question,' Shada said.

Car'das lifted his eyebrows. 'I wasn't aware you'd asked one,' he said. 'All I heard were accusations that I'd been letting others do all the work. But if that was intended as a question...' He smiled. 'I suppose it's true, in a way. But only in a way. I've merely let others do their work, while I've been doing mine. But come—Entoo Nee's rusc'te will be getting cold.' He led the way across the conversation room to the sunken circle. Entoo Nee was waiting patiently there, his now loaded tray set on a pillar table. 'What have you told the lady about me, Talon?' Car'das asked as he gestured the two of them to seats on one side of the circle. 'Just to avoid repeating things.'

'I've told her the basics,' Karrde said, gingerly sitting down. Despite all of the geniality and surface friendliness, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more going on beneath the surface. 'How you started the organization, then abruptly left twenty years ago.'

'And did you tell her about my kidnapping by the Bpfasshi Dark Jedi?' Car'das asked, his tone suddenly odd. 'That's where it all really began.'

Karrde threw a glance at Shada. 'I mentioned it, yes.'

Car'das sighed, not looking up at Entoo Nee as the latter put a steaming cup into his hands. 'It was a terrible experience,' he said quietly, gazing into the cup. 'Possibly the first time in my life I'd felt truly and genuinely terrified. He was half mad with rage—maybe more than half mad—with all of Darth Vader's power and none of his self-control. One of my crewmen he physically ripped to shreds, literally tearing his body apart. The other three he took over mentally, twisting and searing their minds and turning them into little more than living extensions of himself. Me—' He took a careful sip of his drink. 'Me, he left mostly alone,' he continued. 'I'm still not sure why, unless he thought he might need my knowledge of ports and spacelanes to make his escape. Or perhaps he simply wanted an intact mind left aboard who could recognize his power and greatness and be properly frightened by it.'

He sipped again. 'We headed across the spacelanes, dodging or avoiding the forces gathering against him. I thought up scheme after scheme to defeat him as we traveled, none of which ever made it past the planning stage for the simple reason that he knew about each of them almost before I did. I got the feeling that my pitiful efforts greatly amused him.

'Finally, for reasons I still don't entirely understand, we made for a little backwater system not even important enough to make it onto most of the charts. A planet with nothing but swamps and dank forests and frozen slush.

'A planet named Dagobah.'

There was a whiff of some exotic spice from Karrde's side, and he looked up to see Entoo Nee hand him his cup. The little man's usual cheerful expression had vanished, replaced by a profound seriousness Karrde had never seen in him before.

'I don't know if the Dark Jedi expected to be all alone down there,' Car'das went on. 'But if he did, he was quickly disappointed. We'd barely stepped outside the ship when we spotted a funny-looking little creature with big, pointed ears standing at the edge of the clearing where we'd put down.