Outbound Flight

"Probably not," Jinzler said. "But I might be able to. There are Jedi navigational techniques that should be good enough to take us through even a star cluster."

"So what happens if she can?" Car'das asked Thrass. "They set up shop and wait for all this to blow over?"

"Or I return after they're hidden and negotiate in secret with the Council of Families for their safe passage home," Thrass said.

"Even if such negotiations take a few months, the survivors will at least have a habitable world to live on." He looked at Jinzler. "There are other hypercapable vessels aboard that I could use, are there not?"

"Just one, a two-passenger Delta-Twelve Skysprite," Jinzler said. "But it should have the range you need."

"So that's it?" Car'das asked, not quite believing they'd hammered out something workable so quickly. "We hide Outbound Flight in this cluster, negotiate a deal with the Chiss-all the Chiss-and everyone gets what they want?"

"Basically." Jinzler hesitated. "But thenwe won't include you. I have something else I need you to do for me." Her lips compressed. "A personal favor."

"Like what?" Car'das asked cautiously. Doing a personal favor for a Jedi didn't sound very appetizing.

"I want you to find my brother when you return to the Republic," she said. "Dean Jinzler, probably working with Senate Support Services on Coruscant. Tell him-" She hesitated. "Just tell him that his sister was thinking about him, hoping that someday he'll be able to let go of his anger. His anger at me, at our parents, and at himself."

"All right," Car'das said, the hairs on the back of his neck tingling. The fact that she was sending him on such an errand implied she wasn't at all sure she'd be coming back. Given the shape Outbound Flight was in, he wouldn't have bet on it, either. "I'll do my best."

For a long moment she held his eyes. Then she nodded. "You'd better go, then," she said. She looked down at her still-glowing lightsaber, as if suddenly realizing it was still active, and closed it down. "Please don't forget."

"I won't," he promised. "Good luck." He looked at Thrass. "To both of you."

Ten minutes later, Car'das eased the Chiss shuttle out of the Dreadnaught's hangar and flew it clear. Turning the nose toward the waiting Fifth Family ships, he looked back over his shoulder at the magnificent failure that had been Outbound Flight.

He wondered if anyone would ever see it again.

Doriana was gazing out the bridge canopy, listening with half an ear to the argument still going on between Chaf'orm'bintrano, Mitth'raw'nuruodo, and the female Chiss, when Outbound Flight abruptly made the jump to lightspeed.

For a moment he stared in disbelief. . and then, slowly, he felt a smile tug at his lips. So that was what Mitth'raw'nuruodo had been up to with this confrontation. He'd been stalling for time while some of his people stole the Dreadnaughts right out from under Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano's nose.

And even Doriana's own attempt to muddy the Chiss waters had apparently been part of that scheme. Had Mitth'raw'nuruodo anticipated Doriana's efforts? Or had he simply incorporated them into his own plan as they occurred? Either way, it was artfully done. "Excuse me?" he spoke up, lifting a finger. "I believe the discussion is over." He waited until he had their attention, then angled the upraised finger to point out the canopy. "Your prize is gone."

Chapter 24

The shimmering hyperspace sky flowed past the Dreadnaught's canopy as Outbound Flight drove onward into the unknown. Lorana knew the sky was there, but had no time to actually focus on the sight. Every bit of her attention was tied up with D-1's systems as she used the Force to both sense the equipment status and keep the controls in proper adjustment.

It was hard work. It was hideously hard work.

Vaguely, she felt a whisper of movement at her side. "Lorana?" Thrass asked, his voice distant in her overstretched consciousness.

"Did you get to them?" she asked. The moment of distraction was too much; even as she finished her question one of the reactor feeds began to surge. Clamping down hard on her lower lip, she stretched out and cased the flow back to its proper level.

"I'm sorry," Thrass said. "I can't even find a way off this ship. All the pylon turbolift tu

"No," Lorana said. The word came out tartly and impolitely, she suspected, but she didn't have the concentration to spare for courtesy. "Hyperdrive not good."

In point of fact, the hyperdrive was very much not good. It was ru

On the other hand, with the extra speed the runaway had given them, the edge of the cluster was now only a few standard hours away. If she could continue to fly the ship and use the Jedi navigation techniques at the same time to get them safely between the tightly packed stars, they had a good chance of reaching one of Thrass's target systems before that happened.

"I understand," Thrass said. "I'll keep trying to find a communication line that'll get me through to them."

He moved away, and Lorana felt a pang of guilt. If the survivors were still waiting down there like she'd told them to, they would certainly be wondering where she was. They might even conclude that she'd run off and abandoned them.

Across the bridge, a flashing red light warned that the alluvial dampers were drifting. Frowning in concentration, trying to maintain her Force grip on all the myriad other controls she was simultaneously juggling, she reached out a hand and carefully adjusted the dampers back into proper alignment. Once they reached their destination and she could finally let the systems ease down to standby, she and Thrass could make their way back to Uliar and the rest and explain what had happened.

And they would understand. Surely they would understand.

At the other side of the bridge, another red light was flashing. Taking a deep breath, wondering how long she'd be able to keep this up, she stretched out with the Force.

"You will pay for this," Chaf'orm'bintrano ground out, pacing back and forth across the conference room in front of the three prisoners standing silently in front of him. There was a cushioned chair behind the narrow desk, but he was apparently too angry even to sit down. "You hear me? Youwill pay." He leveled his glare first at Doriana, then at Car'das, and finally at Thrawn. "And the charge will be high treason."