Luke frowned at her. "I thought you didn't want him waiting for us."

"I didn't want his fighters waiting for us," Mara corrected. "But the complete lack of a welcoming committee implies that the message he sent was complete in and of itself. He may be annoyed to find he has visitors."

"Well, there's one way to find out," Luke said, adjusting the comm for one of the frequencies the Imperials and Chiss had been using the last time they were here. "Let's knock and see if anyone's home."

He tapped the key. "This is Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master of the New Republic, to Admiral Voss Parck. Repeat; this is Luke Skywalker calling Admiral Parck. Please respond."

He leaned back in his seat. "Now, I guess we wait until—"

Abruptly, the comm display came on, revealing the blue face and glowing red eyes of a Chiss. "Hello, Skywalker," the alien said. His eyes seemed to burn into Luke's face. "And Jade is here, too, I see," he added, his face turning slightly to gaze at Mara. "This is Kres'ten'tarthi, commander of Mitth'raw'nuruodo's household phalanx for the Empire of the Hand. This is certainly a surprise."

"I don't know why it should be," Luke said evenly. "Or didn't you know Admiral Parck had sent me a message?"

"Yes, I knew," Kres'ten'tarthi said. "The admiral will be here in a moment. In the meantime, would you care to land and join us?" His face seemed to tighten slightly. "Don't worry, the docking bay has been completely repaired since your last visit."

"Thanks for your hospitality," Mara said before Luke could answer. "I think we'll stay here."

The Chiss inclined his head. "As you wish."

The display blanked. "You know him?" Luke asked.

"Yes, though I'd only heard his core name, Stent," Mara said. "He was one of the Chiss on guard duty when Parck and Fel were talking to me. I think he took it personally when you came charging to the rescue."

Luke shook his head. "We have friends all over this planet, don't we?"

"We have friends all over this whole region of space," Mara retorted. "Don't forget, the rest of Thrawn's people are out there somewhere. Whole star systems full of Chiss, whom I notice haven't exactly been eager to make their presence known to the New Republic."

"Maybe they've got enough troubles of their own, and figure they don't need to share ours," Luke offered.

"Maybe," Mara said. "Interesting term Stent used. Did you notice?"

"Empire of the Hand," Luke said, nodding. "Probably relates to the Hand of Thrawn."

"Obviously," Mara said. "I was wondering more about the Empire part. You and your Rebel friends certainly had plenty of trouble with Palpatine's Empire. You suppose the Chiss might be having similar problems with Thrawn's?"

"Could be," Luke said doubtfully. Grand Admiral Thrawn—Mitth'raw'nuruodo, to give his full Chiss name—had been arguably the greatest military genius the galaxy had ever known, certainly the greatest the Empire had ever had in its ranks. Palpatine had sent him and a task force out into the Unknown Regions before the Rebel Alliance had been formed, ostensibly in punishment for a breach of palace politics, but in reality with the secret mission of exploring and conquering new systems for future Imperial expansion.

On their last visit to Nirauan, Luke and Mara had learned just how well he had succeeded at that task. In just those few short years he had opened up huge expanses of territory, putting them under the control of his Imperial forces and the handful of Chiss such as Stent who had remained loyal to him. The original secrecy of the project had also been maintained, with the leaders of the Imperial Remnant on Bastion having never even heard of the project up to that point.

Now, three years later, Supreme Commander Pellaeon and a handful of trusted advisers had had some limited contact with Parck and the Nirauan offshoot of their former regime. Leia and some of the other top people in the New Republic also knew of its existence, though Luke suspected neither government had any idea how extensive the new territory actually was. Only he and Mara knew that, and for the moment they had decided to keep it private.

The designation Empire of the Hand for the region, however, was a new one on them. "I can't see Thrawn becoming that kind of tyrant, though," he went on, thinking back over the New Republic's own struggles against the Grand Admiral. "He never struck me as the sort to rule by terror or suppression."

"Doesn't mean he couldn't have learned," Mara pointed out. "Palpatine was an excellent teacher. Or if not Thrawn himself, maybe those who succeeded him went in that direction. Happens all the time."

"I suppose," Luke conceded. "Still—"

He broke off as the comm display came on again, this time revealing a gray-haired human with a lined face and quick, shrewd eyes. "Hello, Mara," he said. "Master Skywalker. This is a surprise, I must say. I assumed you'd be well on your way to Crustai by now."

Luke frowned. "Crustai?"

"The rendezvous point," Parck said, his forehead furrowing as he frowned in turn. "Didn't you get my message?"

"Unfortunately, it took a wrong turn," Mara told him. "Someone named Dean Jinzler made off with it before anyone else could see the contents."

"Really," Parck murmured, looking back and forth between them. "You know this man?"

"Never heard of him before," Mara said. "I take it this message was worth stealing?"

"In the proper hands, it could very well be," Parck said, his lips compressing briefly. "This is not good at all."

"Yes, that's basically the conclusion we came to," Mara agreed. "You want to fill us in?"

"Of course," Parck said, his thoughts clearly still on the wayward message. "Though if the Chiss..." He seemed to shake himself. "Well, what's done is done," he said briskly. "Reality must always be dealt with, whether we like it or not. Tell me, Skywalker, have you ever heard of something called Outbound Flight?"

"Yes, I think so," Luke said slowly, thinking hard. "I came across a reference to it when I was searching for information on Jorus C'baoth, back when his clone was working with—was trying to kidnap Leia's twins," he corrected himself quickly. C'baoth's former connection with Thrawn, and especially his connection with Thrawn's death, might not be a wise subject to bring up. "Wasn't it some grand effort a few years before the Clone Wars to send an expedition to another galaxy?"

"Very good," Parck said. "Yes, that was basically it. The project consisted of six brand-new Dreadnaughts, clustered together in a hexagonal pattern around a central storage core. The personnel consisted of six Jedi Masters and a dozen Jedi Knights, including C'baoth himself, plus some fifty thousand others, crewers and their families."

Luke blinked. "And their families?"

"Traveling to another galaxy would take time," Parck reminded him. "Especially at the low speeds Dreadnaughts were capable of making. In addition, since they would be passing through the Unknown Regions on the way, there was some suggestion of planting a few colonies as they went."

"Ah," Luke said, nodding. "Hence the design."

"Correct," Parck said. "If a colony was indeed formed, one of the Dreadnaughts could be easily detached from the cluster to provide the colonists with protection and mobility."

"Yes," Luke said. "Aside from that, about all I know is that the expedition never returned. Did they make it to another galaxy?"

Beside him, Mara stirred. "They didn't even make it out of ours," she said quietly. "Thrawn intercepted the mission at the edge of Chiss space and destroyed it."

"Yes," Parck said. "The rest of the Chiss were not pleased, to say the least. Thrawn was nearly exiled on the spot, though he apparently was able to talk his way out of it somehow."