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[Hand Of Thrawn] - 01(80)

By:Timothy Zahn


Booster rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “Oh, for-“

“Yo, Captain,” a voice called from one of the crew pits.

What is it, Shish?” Booster called back.

“Got a ship incoming-reads out as the Starry Ice,” Shish reported. “Pilot wants landing instructions. You want me to fix her up?”

“Key the transmission over to me,” Booster instructed him, pulling out his comlink. “She’ll probably be asking about you anyway,” he added to Karrde as he handed him the slender cylinder. “Might as well save ourselves a little time.”

“Thank you.” Karrde thumbed the comlink on. “Mara, this is Karrde. How are things?”

“Running quite smoothly, thank you,” Mara said. If she was surprised to hear his voice, she was hiding it well. Though now that he thought about it, there weren’t a lot of things that ever seemed to surprise her. “Afraid we didn’t have time to swing by Dronseen for that cargo.”

“That’s all right,” Karrde said. “Faughn can make the pickup after she drops you here. How did the pirate hunt go?”

“Complete washout,” she said. “We tracked their vector to Di’wor but then lost it completely. The traffic around there was fierce-Starspeeder 3000s all over the place.”

“It’s pollination season for the singfruit groves,” Booster murmured. “Peace breeds tourists.”

Karrde nodded. “Don’t worry about it,” he told Man. “I wasn’t really expecting them to leave a trail you could follow. Have Faughn bring the Starry Ice aboard and we’ll-“

“Jade!” Faughn’s voice cut in. “Over there-coming in from starboard.”

“I see it,” Mara said, her tone suddenly crisp. “Terrik, you’ve got company-coming in one-one-seven by fifteen, your vector.”

Booster was already running along the command walkway toward the forward viewport, Corran right behind him. “One-one-seven by fifteen, Bodwae,” he snapped. “What do you see?”

“Nothjing,” a bewildered Laerdocian voice said from one of the crew pits. “These shas’mink sensors-“

“It’s hard to see,” Mara put in, her voice coming now from the Errant Venture’s main bridge speaker system. “Small and dark-looks a little like a severely modified TIE fighter.”

“Doesn’t show up well on sensors, either,” Faughn added.

“Stjill see nothjing,” Bodwae insisted.

“Skip it,” Booster said tartly. He and Corran were standing together now by the forward viewports, Booster’s head turning slowly back and forth as he searched the sky. “Get the deflector shields up, and stand by turbolasers.”

“Shjields shortjing out agajin,” Bodwae said. “Turbolasers-“

“I’m getting a transmission now,” Shish barked. “Strong signal. It’s … well, stang it all, I don’t know what it is.”

“Mara?” Karrde asked.

“We’re picking up the edge of it,” Mara confirmed. “Pretty faint out here, though. So far the computer’s not making anything of it.”

“There it is,” Corran snapped, jabbing out a finger. “Coming straight at us.”

“Get that bridge deflector up!” Booster snapped. “Now!”

“Mara?” Karrde called.

“We’re still out of firing range,” she said tightly. “Better take cover.”

Karrde glanced around, belatedly wondering where Mirax was. He spotted her at once, heading at a dead run back toward the relative safety of the aft bridge, her bewildered-looking son Valin clutched in her arms. For a moment he considered joining her, realized it was already too late, and turned back instead toward the forward viewports. He could see the unknown intruder now, burning space directly toward them. Like no ship he’d ever seen …

“Brjidge deflector not comjing up,” Bodwae snarled. “Shjip gojing to hjit.”

“Hit the ground!” Booster snapped, grabbing Corran’s arm and dropping them both flat on the command walkway. Karrde took a long step toward the nearest crew pit, realized he wouldn’t have time to jump down into it, and stopped. The intruder was still coming&mdash

And then, at the last second, it made a strange corkscrewing maneuver to one, side and shot around and above past the viewport.

It took Karrde a second to find his voice. “Mara?”

“You all right?” she asked anxiously.

“Yes, we’re fine,” he assured her, breaking his paralysis and starting down the command walkway toward where Booster and Corran were still stretched out on the deck. “Where did it go?”