[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(28)

“Lying dead in space.

Karrde shook his head. “Actually, they weren’t, which was what threw me for those first few days. From all appearances, the ships seemed to be fully functional, with both interior and running lights showing and even a standby sensor scan in operation. Naturally, we assumed it was part of the group we’d just tangled with, and the captain made an emergency jump to lightspeed to get us out of there.”

“Not a good idea,” Mara murmured.

“It seemed the lesser of two evils at the time,” Karrde said grimly. “As it turned out, we came close to being fatally wrong on that account. The ship hit the mass shadow of a large comet on the way out, blowing the main hyperdrive and nearly wrecking the rest of the ship on the spot. Five of our crew were killed in the collision, and another three died of injuries before we could limp back to civilization on the backup hyperdrive.”

There was a moment of silence. “How many of you were left?” Mara asked at last.

Karrde focused on her, his usual sardonic smile back on his face. “Or in other words, who else might know about the fleet?”

“If you want to put it that way.

“There were six of us left. As I said, though, I don’t think any of the others realized what it was we’d found. It was only when I went back to the sensor records and discovered that there were considerably more than just the two Dreadnaughts in the area that I began to have my own suspicions.”

“And the records themselves?”

“I erased them. After memorizing the coordinates, of course.”

Mara nodded. “You said this was fifteen years ago?”

“That’s right,” Karrde nodded back. “I’ve thought about going back and doing something with the ships, but I never had the time to do it properly. Unloading two hundred Dreadnaughts on the open market isn’t something you rush into without a good deal of prior preparation. Even if you have markets for all of them, which has always been problematic.”

“Until now.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting I sell them to the Empire?”

“They’re in the market for capital ships,”’ she reminded him.

“And they’re offering value plus twenty percent.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I thought you didn’t much care for the Empire.”

“I don’t,” she retorted. “What’s the other option give them to the New Republic?”

He held her gaze. “That might be more profitable in the long run.

Mara’s left hand curled into a tight fist, her stomach churning with mixed feelings. To let the Dreadnaughts fall into the hands of the New Republic, successor to the Rebel Alliance that had destroyed her life, was a hateful thought. But on the other hand, the Empire without the Emperor was only a pale shadow of its former self, hardly even worthy of the name anymore. It would be pearls before swine to give the Dark Force to them.

Or would it? With a Grand Admiral in charge of the Imperial Fleet again, perhaps there was now a chance for the Empire to gain some of its old glory. And if there was:”What are you going to do?” she asked Karrde.

“At the moment, nothing,” Karrde said. “It’s the same problem we faced with Skywalker, after all: the Empire will be swifter to exact vengeance if we go against them, but the New Republic looks more likely to win in the end. Giving Thrawn the Katana fleet would only delay the inevitable. The most prudent course right now is to stay neutral.”

“Except that giving Thrawn the Dreadnaughts might get him off our exhaust trail,” Mara pointed out. “That would be worth the trade right there.”

Karrde smiled faintly. “Oh, come now, Mara. The Grand Admiral may be a tactical genius, but he’s hardly omniscient. He can’t possibly have any idea where we are. And he certainly has more important things to do than spend his resources chasing us down.”

“I’m sure he does,” Mara agreed reluctantly. But she couldn’t help remembering how, even at the height of his power and with a thousand other concerns, the Emperor had still frequently taken the time to exact vengeance on someone who’d crossed him.

Beside her the comm board buzzed, and Mara reached over to key the channel. “Yes?”

“Lachton,” a familiar voice came from the speaker. “Is Karrde around?”

“Right here,” Karrde called, stepping to Mara’s side.

“How’s the camouflage work going?”

“We’re about done,” Lachton said. “We ran short of flash-netting, though. Do we have any more?”

“There’s some at one of the dumps,” Karrde told him.