“That’s not what I meant,” Thrawn shook his head. “He wouldn’t have brought anything incriminating back to Honoghr with him-you can’t hide anything for long in one of these close-knit villages. No, it’s something he’s not telling us about that missing month. The one where he claims he was off meditating by himself.”
“We might be able to learn something from his ship,” Pellaeon suggested.
“Agreed,” Thrawn nodded. “Have a scanning crew go over it before the techs get to work. Every cubic millimeter of it, interior and exterior both. And have Surveillance put someone on Khalarakh.”
“Ah-yes, sir,” Pellaeon said. “One of our people, or another Noghri?”
Thrawn cocked an eyebrow at him. “The ridiculously obvious or the heavily political, in other words?” he asked dryly. “Yes, you’re right, of course. Let’s try a third option: does the Chimaera carry any espionage droids?”
“I don’t believe so, sir,” Pellaeon said, punching up the question on the shuttle’s computer link. “No. We have some Arakyd Viper probe droids, but nothing of the more compact espionage class.”
“Then we’ll have to improvise,” Thrawn said. “Have Engineering put a Viper motivator into a decon droid and rig it with full-range optical and auditory sensors and a recorder. We’ll have it put in with the group working out of Khabarakh’s village.”
“Yes, sir,” Pellaeon said, keying in the order. “Do you want a transmitter installed, too?”
Thrawn shook his head. “No, a recorder should be sufficient. The antenna would be difficult to conceal from view. The last thing we want is for some curious Noghri to see it and wonder why this one was different.”
Pellaeon nodded his understanding. Especially since that might lead the aliens to start pulling decon droids apart for a look inside. “Yes, sir. I’ll have the order placed right away.”
Thrawn’s glowing eyes shifted to look out the viewport. “There’s no particular rush here,” he said thoughtfully. “Not now. This is the calm before the storm, Captain; and until the storm is ready to unleash, we might as well spend our time and energy making sure our illustrious Jedi Master will be willing to assist us when we want him.”
“Which means bringing Leia Organa Solo to him.”
“Exactly.” Thrawn looked at the forward blast door. And if my presence is what the Noghri need to inspire them, then my presence is what they’ll have.”
“For how long?” Pellaeon asked.
Thrawn smiled tightly. “For as long as it takes.”
Chapter 11
“Han?” Lando’s voice came from the cabin intercom beside the bunk. “Wake up.”
“Yeah, I’m awake” Han grunted, swiping at his eyes with one hand and swiveling the repeater displays toward him with the other. If there was one thing his years on the wrong side of the law had hammered into him, it was the knack of going from deep sleep to full alertness in the space between heartbeats. “What’s up?”
“We’re here,” Lando announced. “Wherever here is.”
“I’ll be right up.”
They were in sight of their target planet by the time he’d dressed and made his way to the Lady Luck’s cockpit. “Where’s Irenez?” he asked, peering out at the mottled blue-green crescent shape they were rapidly approaching. It looked pretty much like any of a thousand other planets he’d seen.
“She’s gone back to the aft control station,” Lando told her. “I got the impression she wanted to be able to send down some recognition codes without us looking over her shoulder.”
“Any idea where we are?”
“Not really,” Lando said. “Transit time was forty seven hours, but that doesn’t tell us a whole lot.”
Han nodded, searching his memory. “A Dreadnaught can pull, what, about Point Four?”
“About that,” Lando agreed. “When it’s really in a hurry, anyway.
“Means we aren’t any more than a hundred fifty lightyears from New Cov, then.”
“I’d guess we’re closer than that, myself,” Lando said. “It wouldn’t make much sense to use New Cov as a contact point if they were that far away.”
“Unless New Cov was Breil’lya’s idea and not theirs,” Han pointed out.
“Possible,” Lando said. “I still think we’re closer than a hundred fifty lightyears, though. They could have taken their time getting here just to mislead us.”
Han looked up at the Dreadnaught that had been hauling them through hyperspace for the past two days. “Or to have time to organize a reception committee.”