Vision of the future

'Sure we have,' Tierce said, his voice grimly satisfied. 'Don't forget, they've got records of Thrawn's victories, too. The Relentless moved into a Tron Boral maneuver... and that was all they needed to know.'

'Yes,' Flim murmured as, across the room, the Marauders' marks winked out as they jumped to hyperspace. 'With ships that weren't even registered to them, we responded with exactly the right move.'

He tapped the comm again. 'Secure from battle configuration, Captain,' he instructed Dorja.

'And inform the Ruurian governments that the threatened attack on their world has been frightened away.'

'At once, Admiral,' Dorja's voice came. 'I'm sure they'll be pleased. Shall we continue course preparation for Bastion?'

'Yes,' the con man said. 'You may leave the system when ready. I shall be meditating if you require me.'

'Yes, sir. Have a good rest, Admiral.'

Flim keyed off. 'And that,' he added to Disra and Tierce, 'is indeed that. If the Diamala weren't convinced before, five gets the sabacc pot they are now.'

'Good for them,' Disra said sourly. 'You realize, of course, that all this little exercise accomplished was to bring us one step closer to scaring Coruscant into coming down on us.'

'Patience, Your Excellency,' Tierce said, keying off the tactical and getting up from the command chair. 'I'm sure it also helped convince the Ruurians they've chosen the winning side.'

'Yes,' Disra said. 'And perhaps brought us one step closer to the Hand of Thrawn.' Flim frowned. 'The Hand of Thrawn?' he asked cautiously. 'What's a Hand of Thrawn?' Tierce pursed his lips, clearly annoyed. 'Your Excellency...'

'What's a Hand of Thrawn?' Flim repeated.

'No, no, go ahead,' Disra said to Tierce, waving a languid hand and preparing to enjoy this moment, too, to its fullest. Tierce and Flim got along together far too well for his liking. It was about time they both got a taste of some of the misgivings and suspicions about this arrangement that Disra himself had been feeling since it started. 'It's your story. You tell him.'

'I'm listening,' Flim said, his voice suddenly dark. 'What is this you haven't bothered to tell me?' Tierce cleared his throat. 'Calm down, Admiral,' he said. 'It's like this...' It was, Disra reflected later, a good thing that the secondary command room was totally soundproofed. As it was, with all the shouting, he completely missed the characteristic deck vibration that marked the Star Destroyer's return to hyperspace.

CHAPTER

10

The first hundred meters were reasonably easy, even with Artoo's usual problems with uneven terrain. Mara had explored some of this section of the cave, and had studied most of the rest with glow rod and macrobinoculars, and she was able to pick out the best route. But at that point the floor dropped off abruptly for perhaps ten meters; and when they reached the chamber at the bottom of the passageway, they were in new territory.

'How's it look?' Luke called to Mara as he used the Force to ease Artoo over one last boulder at the foot of their descent path.

'About like you'd expect,' Mara called back. She had her glow rod out in front of her, her body silhouetted as the light was scattered into a hazy nimbus by the dust in the air. 'You know, just once it would be nice to go on one of these little jaunts where we didn't wind up having to drag that astromech droid through rocks and bushes and sand and all.'

Artoo beeped indignantly. 'Artoo's usually done a good job of earning his keep,' Luke reminded her, brushing the grit off his hands as he stepped to her side. 'Anyway, when did we have to pull him through sand?'

'I'm sure we'll hit some sooner or later.' Mara gestured ahead. 'What do you think?' Luke peered out through the haze. The chamber was short, no more than fifteen meters from where they stood to the far end, but it was indeed a mess. A maze of rocks and boulders littered the area, with the jagged blades of stalactites and stalagmites jutting randomly from ceiling and floor blocking their way. At the far end, the chamber closed down again to a narrow crack that looked barely wide enough to squeeze through. 'Doesn't look too bad,' he told her. 'We can handle the stalactites with our lightsabers. The big question's whether that crack's too narrow to get Artoo through.'

There was a rustling in the air and Keeper Of Promises fluttered to an upside-down perch on one of the stalactites. Are you troubled, Master Walker Of Sky? the thought formed in Luke's mind. Is the path ahead too difficult for you?

No path is too difficult for Jedi Sky Walker, Child Of Winds jumped indignantly to Luke's defense, flapping his way to a rock beside Mara. I have seen him do great deeds in the outside