"And the boxes repacked exactly as they were?"

"To the millimeter," Niriz confirmed. "They'll have no way of knowing the boxes were even opened, let alone tampered with."

The Dark Lord nodded. "Excellent," he said.

The comm pinged again. "Captain, this is the bridge.

The Hopskip just jumped to lightspeed. Their vector's confirmed for the Shibric system."

"Thank you." Niriz looked at Thrawn, lifted his eyebrows.

The Grand Admiral nodded. "Have them prepare a course back to the Unknown Regions," he instructed.

"Our task here is finished."

"Yes, sir." Niriz gave the order and keyed off the comm.

"Unless," Thrawn added, looking at Vader, "you'd like me to deal with Prince Xizor directly for you."

"It is indeed a tempting thought," Vader said, his voice dark with veiled menace. "One alien against another? But no. Xizor is mine."

"As you wish," Thrawn said. "Incidentally, I doubt that Shibric is the final destination for those Rebel blasters.

From their vector, and other bits and pieces I gleaned along the trip, my guess is that their ultimate collection point will be somewhere in the Derra system."

"The homing devices will show us for certain," Vader said. "But the Derra system is rumored to have a strong Rebel presence. I'll make sure to have some forces waiting there."

"Very good," Thrawn said. "One final suggestion, and then I suspect we must both be on our separate ways. I understand the general in command of the Executor's ground forces resigned suddenly a month ago.

I was able to watch the battle outside Thyne's stronghold for a while as I waited to make sure the smugglers escaped; and in my opinion the Imperial officer in command is being wasted in a garrison assignment."

"Your opinion carries considerable weight," Vader said. "As I'm sure you know. The officer's name?"

"Colonel Veers," Thrawn said. "From the level of his tactical skill, I'd also say he's long overdue for a promotion.

Perhaps his political connections within the command structure leave something to be desired."

"Political connections do not concern me," Vader rumbled, stepping to the door. "I will see what I can do with this Colonel Veers. Thank you, Admiral."

"My pleasure, Lord Vader," Thrawn said with a respectful tilt of his head. "One favor for another. Perhaps we'll have the chance to work again together."

Once again, the hidden eyes seemed to probe the Grand Admiral's face.

"Perhaps," he said. "Farewell, Admiral."

And with a swirl of his long cloak he was gone. "An interesting exercise, " Thrawn commented, crossing to the R'alla bottle and refilling his and Niriz's glasses. "I don't know though. I sense that this Rebellion is more powerful and better organized than perhaps Lord Vader realizes. I hope our activities here will allow him to deliver a crushing blow against it."

His glowing red eyes glittered as he took a sip from his glass.

"But that's not our concern, at least for now. Our concern is the Unknown Regions; and it's time we were getting back."

"Yes, sir." Niriz hesitated. "If I may be so bold, Admiral... your last comment implied that you received something in return for helping Vader against Thyne and Black Sun. May I ask what that favor was?"

"A very personal gift, Captain," Thrawn said. "Which was why I felt the need to personally orchestrate Thyne's destruction. Lord Vader has turned over to me command of a group of alien commandos who have proven themselves highly valuable to him over the years. While I won't have much use for them in the Unknown Regions, I have no doubt I'll eventually be returning to the Empire proper. At that time-well, we shall see what they can do."

"I never heard of Vader employing aliens," Niriz said doubtfully.

"Are you sure he's telling-well-"

"The truth?" Thrawn smiled.

"Indeed he is. Mark their name well, Captain: the Noghri. I guarantee you'll be hearing more of them."

He drained his glass and set it down. "But now to the bridge.

The Unknown Regions are calling; and we have a great deal of work yet to do."

About the Authors

After nearly ten years as a newspaper reporter and editor, Laurie Burns combined hobby with profession to start a West Coast horse magazine, now in its seventh year of publication. Branching out into writing fiction, she's had several short stories published in the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal and is currently at work on her first novel. In her spare time, Laurie likes to ride horses, climb rocks, and belly dance-though not all at the same time.

Usually.

Erin Endore practices and teaches pediatric emergency medicine at a major Southwestern medical school. Most of her previous writing has been for medical journals. She took a break from writing about the infectious complications of animal bites and how to recognize child abuse to create "Do No Harm," her first story for the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal.

Patricia A. Jackson is an administrative assistant at Jackson (Really!) Elementary School in York, Pennsylvania. A veteran freelancer with nine published credits in the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal, she has learned much in the pursuit of the dark side. In the grip of a particular love/hate relationship with Jedi Knights-particularly dark Jedi-she enjoys exploring the sinister, less traveled roads of the Force with individuals who are no less heroic than their light-side counterparts. When not furthering the cause of the Empire, she rides and trains show horses.

With a master's degree in English, she enjoys the complexities of language and has invented Old Corellian, a rare dialect used among smugglers and Socorran pirates.

Her first game sourcebook, The Black Sands of Socorro, was published by West End Games in June.

Charlene Newcomb grew up in South Carolina, then joined the navy to "see the world." Working as a commu nications technician/interpreter, her "world" turned out to be Orlando, Monterey, San Angelo, and Fort Meade-her last assignment: working at the National Security Agency.

After a five-year stint in the navy, and one year as a civil servant, Char moved to North Carolina, where her linguistic abilities were clearly not in demand. But the move led her to her second profession: as a librarian.

Many years of procrastination (and three children and a move to Florida) later, she finally enrolled in graduate school. In 1996 she completed her master's degree at the University of South Florida in Tampa, and now works as a serials cataloger in Kansas. She began her freelance writing career while in grad school. Her first short story, "A Glimmer of Hope," appeared in the premiere issue of the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal. Since then she's written or cowritten ten stories for the Journal. The world she created for "Glimmer" Garos IV-will be featured in The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons, forthcoming from Del Rey in 1998.

Angela Phillips works as a substitute teacher in her hometown of Hampton, Virginia, but hopes eventually to make a living as a novelist.

She began studying writing at Duke University in the summer of 1982 at the age of thirteen.

"Slaying Dragons" was her first short story for the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal. Her subsequent story in Journal #9, "The Most Dangerous Foe," told the tale of Vici of Alderaan and her final test before becoming a Jedi Knight.

As a high-school student, Anthony Russo was writing Star Wars stories long before it was considered cool (or profitable enough to be claimed on IRS Form 1040). He was heading down the dark path as your typical computer consultant when he published his first short story in Aboriginal Science Fiction magazine. Looking for alternative markets to break into, a friend directed him to the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal. He has since appeared in the credits of a number of West End Game products, including the Star Wars Live Action Roleplaying System, where you can play Imperials or Dark Lords and still wake up in the morning not hating yourself. He is currently pounding away on his first full-length novel and trying really hard not to give in to his son's pleas for a full-sized Millennium Falcon for Christmas.

Michael A. Stackpole is The New York Times best-selling author of the first four Star Wars X-Wing novels in which he chronicled some of the later adventures of Corran Horn. "Missed Chance" embodied three firsts: the first story about Corran, the first published story about Corran, and the first of Mike's efforts sharing characters with Timothy Zahn. In addition to Star Wars novels, Mike has worked on and has been scripting the Dark Horse Star Wars X- Wing Rogue Squadron comic series.

In his spare time he writes BattleTech novels, fantasy novels, such as Once a Hero, Talion: Revertant, and A Hero Reborn, plays soccer, and still forces himself to ride his bicycle for exercise.

Kathy Tyers has contributed six short stories to the Star Wars universe, in addition to the novel Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura (Bantam Books, 1994), and several vignettes in The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook (West End Games, 1996).

Three stories follow Tinian and Daye after "Tinian on Trial," including "To Fight Another Day" and "Only Droids Serve the Maker" from the Official Star Wars Adventure Journal (May 1995 and May 1996), and "The Prize Pelt" in Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters (Bantam Books, 1996). In Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales from Jabba's Palace, she published "We Don't Do Weddings, the Band's Tale" and "A Time to Dance, a Time to Mourn, Oola's Tale. " Kathy's other Bantam Spectra novels include Firebird and her 1996 release, One Mind's Eye.

Kathy lives with her husband and son in Southwestern Montana, where she juggles science-fiction writing, vegetable gardening and orchard tending, Bible study performing folk music with her husband, an occasional pit-orchestra gig, and developing a contemporary novel for the Christian Booksellers Association market. Someday she'll get organized.

Timothy Zahn is the author of Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, all New York Times best-selling Star Wars novels.

The first book of his two-part Star Wars saga, Specter of the Past, is currently available in hardcover; the second part, Vision of the Future, will be published next year by Bantam Spectra. Tim has been an avid supporter of the Journal and West End Games-his contributions to The Official Star Wars Adventure Journal include "First Contact" in issue #1 and "Mist Encounter'' in issue #7. He also helped design and lend support to the DarkStryder game campaign.