Outbound Flight

"Ready," Thrass called.

Stepping to the navigation console, Car'das gave it one final check. Course set and locked in, ready to take Outbound Flight on its final voyage. Crossing to the engineering console, he settled his fingers on the power-feed controls

"Watch out!" Thrass snapped.

Car'das spun around, expecting to see a whole squad of yellow-suited Chiss charging in on them.

But to his astonishment, he found himself facing a lone female human. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Thrass snatch a weapon out of concealment in his robe. In reply, the woman produced a short metal cylinder

And a green lightsaber blade blazed into existence.

"No!" he barked, waving a hand frantically at Thrass.

But it was too late. The other's weapon hissed out a blue bolt, which the woman sent ricocheting harmlessly into the ceiling. "I saidstop," Car'das called again. "She's a Jedi."

To his relief, Thrass didn't fire again. "What do you want?" the Chiss demanded instead, keeping his weapon aimed.

"He wants to know what you want," Car'das said, translating the Cheunh for her.

Her eyes flicked to him. "He doesn't speak Basic?"

"No, no one here does except Thrawn," Car'das said. "But he knows some Sy Bisti, if that helps."

"It does." She looked back at Thrass. "Who are you?" she asked, switching to that language.

"I am Syndic Mitth'ras'safis of the Eighth Ruling Family of the Chiss Ascendancy," Thrass identified himself

"And I'm Jorj Car'das," Car'das added. "Mostly an i

"Mostly?"

"I got here through a hyperdrive malfunction," he said. "Who are you?"

"Lorana Jinzler," she said. Lowering her lightsaber, but leaving it ignited, she crossed the threshold and continued on into the bridge, limping noticeably. Her eyes flicked across the dead bodies, and an edge of fresh pain crossed her face. "Who else is aboard?"

"At the moment, just us," Thrass said. He hesitated, then slipped his weapon back into his tunic. "But a member of one of the ruling families is trying to claim Outbound Flight for himself. We're trying to prevent that."

Jinzler's eyes narrowed. "How?"

"We're going to have to scuttle it," Car'das said, watching her face carefully. Even with nothing left but torn and broken metal, there was an even chance she would be attached enough to the hulk to object violently to its destruction. People went all weird like that sometimes.

Sure enough, her eyes widened. "No," she insisted. "You can't."

"Look, I'm sorry," Car'das said as soothingly as he could. "But there's nothing left but dead metal and droids-"

"Never mind the dead metal," she snapped. "There arepeople still aboard."

Car'das felt his heart catch. No-that was impossible. A Jedi might possibly have survived Thrawn's attack, but surely no one else could have. "Who?" he asked. "How many?"

"Fifty-seven," Jinzler said. "Including children."

Car'das looked at Thrass, seeing his own horror reflected in the other's face. "Where are they?" he asked. "Can we get them out of here?"

"In that shuttle?" Thrass countered before Jinzler could answer. "No. There isn't enough room for even ten."

"And it would take time to get them up here anyway," Jinzler said. "They're still in the storage core."

Car'das grimaced. The storage core. Of course-the one area Thrawn's attack had ignored. "What do we do?"

"I don't understand the problem," Jinzler said, looking back and forth between them. "Why don't we just leave?"

"For starters, we can't fly Outbound Flight very far, not just the two of us," Car'das said. "Not even if we had time to get your people up here to help us."

Lorana looked around the bridge. "We won't need them," she said, her voice tight but firm. "I can fly Outbound Flight."

"By yourself?" Thrass asked in clear disbelief. "One single person?"

"One single Jedi," Jinzler corrected him. "Master C'baoth insisted we all learn to handle all of the major systems. At least, under normal conditions."

"The conditions here are hardly normal," Car'das pointed out. "And it still leaves the question of where we go. We'll never make it back to the Republic, not with this much damage."

"We have to reach a Defense Fleet base, as my brother originally intended," Thrass said.

"And then what happens to my people?" Jinzler asked. "Would they be prisoners of war? Captives held for study?"

"The Chiss aren't like that," Car'das insisted.

"But the end result might be the same," Thrass conceded. "If the Fifth Ruling Family chooses to press its claim to Outbound Flight, even if we go to a military base they may demand that all aboard be placed in holding until the matter can be decided."

"A prison by any other name," Jinzler said grimly. "How long would this decision process take?"

Thrass snorted. "With a prize such as Outbound Flight? It could be years."

"So we can forget going anywhere in Chiss space," Car'das said. "Any idea what other habitable worlds there might be out here?"

"Even if I did, I would caution against anything nearby," Thrass said. "This region is dangerous, with pirates and privateers all around."

"Not to mention what's left of the Vagaari," Car'das agreed with a shiver. "Come on, Thrass, think. There has to besomething else we can do."

Thrass gazed out at the Fifth Family ships. "There's one other possibility," he said slowly. "Within two days' flight is a star cluster that the Defense Fleet has begun to fortify as an emergency refuge. I've seen the data, and there are at least ten habitable worlds within it that haven't yet been explored."

"Kind of an out-of-the-way homestead," Car'das pointed out doubtfully.

"Andstill in Chiss space," Jinzler added.

"But it's a place where vessels of the Fifth Family wouldn't accidentally discover you," Thrass said. "Only Defense Fleet perso

"So what's the catch?" Car'das asked.

Thrass made a face. "The catch is that I don't have the safe access routes into the cluster," he said. "Are your navigational systems capable of finding such routes on their own?"