[Hand Of Thrawn] - 01(81)

“Overshot the command superstructure, cut around behind the drive nozzles where we couldn’t see it, then jumped to lightspeed,” she told him. “Same trick as the one Luke spooked.”

Karrde frowned out the viewports. “This was the same type as that one?”

“It looked like it,” Mara told him. “Torve’s doing a scrub of the sensor data now.”

Booster and Corran were back on their feet by the time Karrde reached them. “Did you see that?” Booster demanded, shaking his head as he brushed himself off. “Of all the stupid, cherfer-brained stunts-“

“Captain, this is Torve,” the young man’s voice cut him off. “It’s confirmed: same type of ship as before.”

“Where did you see this other ship?” Booster asked.

“In the asteroids near the Cavrilhu’s Kauron base,” Karrde told him. “Mara, what about that transmission?”

“We’re running it now,” she said. “It consists of what seems to be a short message, followed by a pause, followed by a repeat of the message. So far we’re not coming up with a match to any known language, code, or encrypt.”

“Probably something useless like that Qella ship Calrissian chased halfway across the galaxy,” Booster said with a scornful sniff.

“That’s what we thought at first,” Mara said. “I don’t think so anymore.”

“Why?” Booster asked. “Just because it was transmitting something?”

“Because it was transmitting specifically toward this ship,” Karrde said. “And the fact that it paused and then repeated itself implies it was expecting an answer.”

Booster scratched his cheek. “Does kind of sound that way, doesn’t it? Mara, you’re running Imperial codes against it, too, aren’t you?”

“First thing we tried,” she told him. “Nothing came even close.”

“Yet they came in for a close look at an Imperial Star Destroyer,” Karrde mused. “And before that they were poking around a pirate base with suspected Imperial ties.”

“Sounds like they’re either already involved with the Empire or else want to be,” Mara said.

“Or maybe it’s something else entirely,” Faughn put in, her voice suddenly tight. “I’ve just run a phoneme analysis on that transmission; and I think I’ve found the name Thrawn’ in there.”

Karrde frowned. “Let’s hear it.”

There was a brief pause; and then over the comlink came a sputter of alien language.

Squarely in the middle of the gibberish&mdash

“I heard it,” Booster said. “It was kind of broken up, like he was stuttering or something.”

“That’s because you were getting his full name there,” Mara said, her voice suddenly grim. “Mitth’raw’nuruodo. Thrawn was what he called his core name.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Karrde saw something flash across Corran’s expression. “So you were on a full-name basis with the guy?” Booster asked with forced casualness.

“Hardly,” Mara said. “But I did know his full name. And there weren’t a lot of people in the Empire who did.”

Karrde chewed his lower lip. “You know anything about his history? His early history with the Empire, I mean?”

“Not really,” she said. “Some Imperial commander ran into him on a deserted world just inside the Unknown Regions while chasing smugglers. He was impressed by his tactical ability, and brought him back to Coruscant. Rumor was his own people had exiled him there, incidentally.”

“Why?” Booster asked.

“I don’t know,” Mara said. “But it could be that ship was someone who’s finally figured out where he went and has come looking for him.”

Booster snorted. “They’re going to be real disappointed when they find out they’re ten years too late.”

“Maybe not,” Corran muttered. “It could be it’s not Thrawn they’re looking for.”

Karrde studied the other’s face. There was something there, all right. “I take it that’s not an idle guess,” he said mildly. “Would you care to share it with the rest of us ?”

Corran’s lip twitched. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything about this to anyone but Booster,” he said reluctantly. “But under the circumstances … That Devaronian you got the Caamas Document from, Karrde? He found some other datacards in the same batch. One of them was labeled The Hand of Thrawn.’”

Karrde nodded slowly. So that was the secret Leia had been holding out on him at Wayland. And the reason she’d been giving Mara such a strange look.