Car'das stared at him. The man was serious. "You can't blanket the whole area, Commander," he ground out between clenched teeth. "It's too big.

The minute you start, they'll know what you're doing and send a set of contingency orders to everything outside your jamming. Those droid starfighters may not be smart, but they're certainly capable of downloading enough general commands to keep them functioning until they've pounded us to dust."

"Only if there are any starfighters still outside the jamming," Thrawn pointed out. "But it seems our opponent has taken care of that problem for us." He pointed. "Even as we close the distance, he is converging all his starfighters into this one small area."

Car'das stared at the displays. Thrawn was right-the Trade Federation commander had abandoned the rest of his picket area to bring all his starfighters to the attack. Didn't he realize the possible implications of what he was doing? "What about your own communications?" he asked. "If you jam the whole spectrum, you'll be out of touch with your people, too."

"Fortunately, my warriors are capable of more than simply downloading general commands," Thrawn said. "Let's see which side's battle philosophy proves the more versatile." Leaning forward, he took a deep breath.

"Full-spectrum jamming: now."

For a long, horrifying second the Darkvenge's bridge was filled with a screech like something from the restless undead of ancient Coruscant legend. Then the Neimoidian at the comm slapped at the switch, cutting off the wail and leaving only a distant ringing in Doriana's ears. "What in the name of-?"

"Vicelord-we are being jammed!" the Neimoidian called, staring at his board in obvious disbelief. "All starfighters have gone dormant!"

Doriana stared out the viewports, his stomach tightening into a hard knot. The starfighters had indeed locked down, each of them now flying mindlessly in whatever direction it had last been pointed.

And swerving with ease through the drifting obstacle course, blasting away at the helpless starfighters as they went, Mitth'raw'nuruodo's alien ships were headed straight for them, the fighters in screening formation ahead of the two cruisers. "Get our starfighters back online," Kav ordered tautly, jabbing a hand toward the Neimoidians at the command board. "Get them back."

"We are trying," one of them called. "We have opened laser communications to as many as we can."

But those comm lasers were line of sight, Doriana knew, and with a sinking feeling he realized that this limitation was growing ever tighter as expanding clouds of dust and debris from the shattered starfighters began to block even this last-gasp communication method. A few of the starfighters were coming back to life, but they were targeted and destroyed by the aliens before they could organize into an effective fighting force. "What about the other ships?" he demanded. "Why aren't they attacking?"

"There!" someone called, and Doriana saw an arm point upward from one of the pits. "The Hardcells have launched their missiles."

"About time," Doriana muttered, feeling a cautious hope rising within him as five cl.u.s.ters of three missiles each shot toward the attackers.

The attackers reacted instantly, five of the fighters abandoning their thrust toward the battleships and curving toward the outside of the Trade Federation formation. The missiles, locking in on the movement, followed.

"Good," Kav said with satisfaction. "The next salvo will draw the rest of the fighters away and leave the cruisers undefended. Then our own quad laser batteries can destroy them with ease."

"Maybe," Doriana said cautiously, following the fleeing alien craft with his eyes. They were cutting in and out through the ma.s.ses of drifting starfighters, clearly trying to throw off the pursuing missiles' homing locks.

But to no avail. Techno Union hardware was among the best in the Republic, and the missiles maneuvered their own way through the clutter with case as they continued to close the gap. The aliens reached the edge of the starfighter cloud and curved tightly back into it again, driving inward toward the main ships. Again, the missiles matched the maneuver.

The fighters straightened out; and then, in near unison, each dropped a small object aft toward its pursuers.

And Doriana stiffened as a well-remembered hazy cloud erupted from each of them, unfolding directly in the path of the incoming missile cl.u.s.ters.

"More Connor nets!" he snapped.

But there was nothing the onlookers could do. The nets enveloped the missile cl.u.s.ters and flashed their killing jolts of high-voltage current, destroying homing electronics and drive systems alike and leaving the missiles as dead as the drifting starfighters around them.

Only once again, Mitth'raw'nuruodo hadn't been content to merely protect his own ships from attack. Even as Doriana's hands curled into helpless fists, their inertia sent the missiles slamming into the Techno Union ships. There were multiple blasts as sections of hull metal shattered outward into s.p.a.ce And then, like a minor sun going off at close range, one of the ships exploded completely.

"What-?" Kav gasped. "No! Not from a single missile cl.u.s.ter. This is impossible!"

"Everything Mitth'raw'nuruodo does is impossible," Doriana retorted bitterly. "The missiles must have hit a weak spot."

"What kind? Where could it be?"

Doriana snorted. "Just watch his ships. They'll be targeting the same spot on all the rest of them."

He was right. Within minutes the alien fighters and cruisers had successfully dodged the desperate flurry of missiles the Techno Union ships were now throwing at them and had efficiently destroyed every one of them. The spot, Doriana noted with morbid fascination, was the line junction to the ma.s.sive external fuel cells.

"We must escape," Kav said, his voice shaking. "Helm-prepare to jump to lightspeed."

"Wait a minute," Doriana protested, grabbing at his arm. The specter of defeat loomed before him, along with the fate of all those who failed Darth Sidious. "You can't just abandon the fleet."

"What fleet?" Kav snarled. "Look around you, Stratis. What fleet?"

Doriana felt his throat tighten. He was right, of course. All six of the Techno Union Hardcells were gone, half of them destroyed by their own missiles. The seven escort cruisers, never intended to operate against such enemies without capital ship support, were being systematically hunted down and eliminated. Only the two Trade Federation battleships were still in any condition to fight or run.

But with their communications still blocked, there was no way to order a general retreat. If the Darkvenge left, it would be leaving alone.

"Jump calculated," the helmsman called.

"Make the jump," Kav ordered, glaring at Doriana as if daring him to argue. "Do you hear me? Now."

"The hyperdrive does not respond!" the helmsman said, his voice bubbling with sudden panic. "It claims we are too close to a planetary ma.s.s."

Doriana twisted around to look at the row of status boards. That was what the readings said, all right.

But there were no planetary ma.s.ses nearby, or even any sizable asteroids.

"Malfunction?"

"No malfunction," Kav murmured, his voice dull and fatalistic. "Merely more Chiss wizardry."

A fresh flicker of light caught Doriana's eve, and he looked back out the viewports. Across the field of carnage, droid starfighters were starting to explode as too many minutes without communication pa.s.sed and they began to activate their self-destruct mechanisms. Through the scattered bursts of fire, Doriana saw the Keeper suddenly lurch as the upper surface of its starboard ring half erupted in a hundred small explosions.

"Vicelord!" someone called.

"I know," Kav said with a tired sigh. "The starfighters I ordered prepped are exploding."

Doriana nodded, his own bitterness long since faded into a deep sense of the inevitable. The reinforcements would have been flying through the hangar bays when Mitth'raw'nuruodo's jamming began and they went dormant.

Tumbling helplessly at high speed down a curved corridor, they would have slammed into bulkheads or storage racks or other equipment. There they'd lain, tangled and broken, while they waited for their own self-destruct chronos to run down.

"Then it is over," Kav said quietly. Lifting his hands, he carefully removed his five-cornered hat and set it with equal care on the floor in front of him. "We are all dead."

"It would seem so," Doriana agreed mechanically, feeling his forehead creasing as a strange fact suddenly struck him.

With all the death and debris and charred hulks of ships floating all around them, the Darkvenge itself had yet to be so much as scratched.

He took another, longer look at the status boards. Except for the inexplicably dormant hyperdrive, everything else seemed perfectly functional. "Or maybe not," he added. "I think Mitth'raw'nuruodo has something else in mind for us."

Kav snorted derisively. "And what precisely gave you that impression?"

Puzzled, Doriana turned back To find that one of the alien cruisers had suddenly appeared outside the viewports. It was hovering bare meters away from the transparisteel, its missile racks pointing in to the bridge in silent warning and clear command. "Close down the midline quad laser batteries, Vicelord," Doriana said quietly. "Then seal the main hangar exits and shut down all the droid starfighters." He took a careful breath. "And then," he said, "prepare for company."

17.

The final turbolift door slid open, and twenty meters down the corridor Car'das saw at last the open blast doors of the battleship's bridge.

Twenty meters of corridor lined on both sides with armed, tense-looking battle droids.

Thrawn didn't even hesitate. He strode forward calmly, his two warriors equally sedate as they walked at his sides. Swallowing hard, not wanting to walk that gauntlet but even less willing to cower in the turbolift car all alone, Car'das forced himself to follow.

There were dozens of droids on duty on the bridge, most of them service and monitor units seated or plugged into the various stations in the control pits. Standing in the center of the quiet activity were just two actual beings, waiting together beside the vacant helm chair: a tall Neimoidian in elaborate robes, and a more sedately dressed human male.

Again, Thrawn didn't pause, but headed down the walkway toward them. He stopped three meters away, and for a moment seemed to size them up. Then, deliberately, he swiveled to face the human. "Commander Stratis," he said, nodding his head in greeting. "I am Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo."

"Stratis does not command this vessel," the Neimoidian said stiffly before Stratis could answer. "I am Vicelord Kav of the Trade Federation.

And you, Commander Mitthrawdo, have committed an act of war."

"Vicelord, please," Stratis said. His voice was calm, but there was a warning edge to it. "Recriminations will serve no useful purpose."

"Do not think you have gained anything with your audacity," Kav continued, ignoring him. "Even now, I could destroy you where you stand."

He gestured, and from behind them came a sudden metallic racket. Car'das spun around, his heart freezing as a pair of droideka destroyer droids rolled into view and came to a halt just inside the bridge blast doors.

They unfolded into their tripod stance, and a second later Car'das found himself staring down the barrels of four pairs of high-energy blasters.

"Vicelord, you fool," Stratis bit out urgently. "What do you think-?"

"Calm yourself, Commander," Thrawn soothed him. "We're in no danger."

Carefully, hardly daring to breathe, Car'das turned his head. Stratis's eyes had gone wide, his throat muscles tight as he gripped the Neimoidian's arm. But Thrawn merely stood quietly, his face expressionless as he studied the droidekas. The Chiss warriors had their hands on their weapons, but following their commander's lead hadn't drawn them. "Interesting design," Thrawn went on. "That shimmering sphere-a small force shield?"

"Uh . . . yes," Stratis said cautiously. "I a.s.sure you, Commander-"

"Thank you for the demonstration, Vicelord," Thrawn interrupted, turning his glowing red eyes back to Kav. "But now you will send them away."

For a long, terrible moment Car'das thought the Neimoidian was going to defy Thrawn's order the way he'd ignored Stratis's rebuke. The Chiss and.

Neimoidian locked eyes, and for half a dozen heartbeats the bridge was silent.

And then Kav's entire body seemed to wilt, his eyes dropping away from Thrawn's stare as he half lifted a hand toward the droidekas. Looking back over his shoulder, Car'das watched in relief as the destroyers folded up again and rolled their way off the bridge.

"Thank you," Thrawn said. "Now. As I asked you before: please state your intentions and those of your task force."

"A task force that no longer exists," Kav put in, his voice hovering between anger and dejection.

"That loss was your doing," Thrawn countered. "All I wished was a civilized answer." He turned to Car'das. "Is that correct? Civilized?"

"Or just civil," Car'das told him, feeling his face warming at being suddenly dragged into the middle of the conversation. "Or polite."

"Civil," Thrawn said, as if testing the word against some unknown set of guidelines. "Yes. All I wished, Commander, was a civil answer."

"Yes, I know," Stratis said, his eyes on Car'das. "May I ask your companion's name and origin?"

"I'm just a visitor," Car'das said quickly. The last thing he wanted was for these people to know his name. "That's all."

"Not quite," Thrawn corrected. "Car'das was simply a visitor. Now he's my translator." His expression hardened. "And my prisoner."

Car'das felt his mouth drop open, and for the second time in two minutes felt his heart freeze. "I'm what?"

"You arrived uninvited in Chiss s.p.a.ce," Thrawn reminded him darkly. "Now, less than three months later, an invasion fleet from your people has appeared. Coincidence?"

"I had nothing to do with this," Car'das protested.

"And we're not an invasion fleet," Stratis added.

"Make me believe that," Thrawn said, his voice darkening even further.

"Both of you."

Car'das looked at Stratis. Suddenly, in the wink of an eye, this whole side trip had taken on a very bad taste. "Commander?" he entreated.

Stratis's eyes flicked to him, then back to Thrawn, a thoughtful expression suddenly appearing on his face. "Very well," he said, gesturing toward the side of the bridge. "There's an office back there where we'll have more privacy"

Thrawn inclined his head slightly. "Lead the way."

Doriana led them to Kav's command office, his skin p.r.i.c.kling with antic.i.p.ation and the stirrings of fresh hope. An hour ago it had been all over, the mission a failure, Doriana himself among the walking dead. Even if their attackers allowed them to return to the Republic, he knew the payment Darth Sidious would demand for his failure.

But now, suddenly, all that had changed. Maybe.

"Please make yourselves comfortable," Doriana invited, gesturing his guests to seats facing the desk as he circled around the ma.s.sive carved-wood structure and sat down in Kav's equally elaborate chair. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the vicelord glowering at him, but he had no time now for petty Neimoidian pride. "May I offer you some refreshment?"

"No thank you," Mitth'raw'nuruodo said as he and Car'das sat down. The two Chiss guards, as Doriana had expected, remained standing in the doorway where they could watch everyone in the room as well as keep an eve on what might be happening on the bridge proper.

"All right," Doriana said, focusing his full intellect on the task at hand. This was it. "Let me tell you about a project called Outbound Flight."

He started at the beginning, describing the project's origin and its mission and making sure to emphasize the Dreadnaughts' size and weaponry.

"Interesting," Mitth'raw'nuruodo said when he'd finished. "What does this have to do with us?"

"The fact that Outbound Flight is a danger to both the Republic and your own people," Doriana told him. "You remember my mentioning a group aboard called the Jedi? These are beings of great power, but who are also dangerous troublemakers."

"In what way?"