Outbound Flight (звёздные войны)

by Timothy Zahn

  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 tunnels are blocked to one degree or another. Perhaps if you brought us out of hyperspace I could find a vac suit and make my way across to the core that way."

  "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 running blazingly hot, and it was all she could do to keep the circuits from looping and ripping the thing completely out of her control. If she shut it down now, there was every chance it would never start up again. Even if she didn't, it would probably eventually collapse on its own.

  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."

  Standing behind the desk, well out of the way of the Aristocra's pacing, Admiral Ar'alani stirred. "I don't think such a charge will hold, Aristocra," she said. Her expression, Car'das noted, had maintained a careful neutrality as she listened to Chaf'orm'bintrano's rantings. Still, he thought he could detect a certain relief behind the aloofness.

  Small wonder. She'd gotten what she wanted: Outbound Flight was safely out of Chaf'orm'bintrano's grasping hands. What happened to a couple of prisoners was probably a matter of complete indifference to her.

  Or at least, what happened to the two non-Chiss prisoners. "You don't think the charge will hold?" Chaf'orm'bintrano snapped, shifting his glare to her.

  Ar'alani stood her ground. "No, I don't," she said. "Car'das has already stated that Syndic Mitth'ras'safis and the human Lorana Jinzler were the perpetrators."

  "Withhisassistance and advice."

  "Advice alone is only lesser treason," Ar'alani said. "And as a non-Chiss, he can't be charged with any level of treason anyway. As for Doriana, he clearly had nothing to do with it."

  "What are they going on about now?" Doriana murmured in Car'das's ear.

  "The Aristocra wants to roast us over a low fire," Car'das murmured back. "The admiral is suggesting he needs to rethink his charges."

  "Ah."

  The byplay hadn't gone unnoticed. "Do the prisoners wish to add to the proceedings?" Chaf'orm'bintrano asked acidly.

  "Actually, the prisoners will go free," Thrawn said, the first words he'd spoken since they'd all been herded into the conference room where Chaf'orm'bintrano could threaten them in private. "They've done nothing with which they can be charged. If you wish to blame someone, blame me."

  "I fully intend to," Chaf'orm'bintrano bit out. "AfterI've dealt with your accomplices."

  "They're not my accomplices," Thrawn said calmly. "Furthermore, they'remy prisoners, and as such fall under the legal authority of the Chiss Expansionary Fleet." He lifted his eyebrows. "As do I, for that matter."

  "Not anymore," Chaf'orm'bintrano said. "For the crime of unprovoked attack against sentient beings, I hereby revoke your military position."

  "Just a moment, Aristocra," Ar'alani said, taking a step forward. "You can't revoke his position for a crime for which he has yet to be convicted."

  "I suggest you reread the law, Admiral," Chaf'orm'bintrano said tartly. "Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo has pushed the limits for the last time-andthis time we have proof, scattered across the system before us."

  "The Vagaari were an imminent threat to the Ascendancy," Thrawn said. "And this systemiswithin Chiss space."

  "But this time you forgot to let your victim fire first," Chaf'orm'bintrano said, an edge of triumph in his voice. "Don't deny it-I have the records from your own vessels."

  "The Vagaari made threats against both us and Outbound Flight," Thrawn said. "I claim that such threats, backed up by their obvious firepower, were sufficient provocation for Chiss action."

  "You can claim anything you wish," Chaf'orm'bintrano said. "But the burden of proof is now on you, not me." He looked at Ar'alani. "And until his trial takes place, I can and will revoke both his position and the military protection you so clearly hope to shelter him beneath."

  Ar'alani didn't answer. For a moment Chaf'orm'bintrano continued to stare at her, then turned back to Thrawn. "And your fellow prisoners will likewise be taken to trial," he said. "These, along with the other two you have back at Crustai." He paused. "Unless, of course, you have enough concern for their well-being to make a bargain."

  Thrawn looked at Car'das and Doriana. "Such as?"

  "You will resign your position, completely and permanently," Chaf'orm'bintrano said. "You will likewise renounce your status as Trial-born of the Eighth Family and disappear back into the great mass of Chiss citizenry, never again to rise to a position where you may threaten law or custom."

  "You ask my entire life for the trade of a few alien prisoners," Thrawn pointed out calmly. "Are you certain you're willing to live with the consequences?"

  Chaf'orm'bintrano snorted. "What consequences?"

  "To begin with, the Eighth Family will not permit a Trial-born to simply renounce his affiliation," Thrawn said. "They'll insist on a hearing… and I don't believe they'll let me go. Not when they see the prize I'll be bringing them."

  Chaf'orm'bintrano stiffened. "You wouldn't dare," he rumbled, his voice dark with menace. "If Outbound Flight reappears at an Eighth Family stronghold-"

  "Outbound Flight is gone," Thrawn cut him off. "And I refer to another technology entirely." He waved a hand out at the stars. "To be specific, the device I used to bring both Outbound Flight and the Vagaari fleet out of hyperspace."

  Chaf'orm'bintrano sent a startled look at Ar'alani. "The-? Are you saying theydidn't come here of their own choosing?"

  "The choosing was mine alone," Thrawn assured him. "I can provide you a demonstration if you'd like."

  "That device is not your property," Ar'alani warned, her neutral expression suddenly gone. "It belongs to the Chiss Defense Fleet."

 
"And if I remain a member of the Expansionary Fleet, I will of course turn it over to you," Thrawn assured her. "But if my military position is revoked, I will no longer have any official loyalty except to my adoptive family. At that point…" He left the sentence unfinished.

  Chaf'orm'bintrano was clearly having no trouble connecting the dots. "Admiral, you can't permit him to manipulate you this way," he insisted. "This is nothing less than extortion."

  "This is nothing less than reality," Thrawn corrected. "And Admiral Ar'alani has nothing to say about it. You're the one threatening to revoke my position."

  For a long minute the two Chiss locked eyes. Then, abruptly, Chaf'orm'bintrano turned and stalked out of the conference room.

  "That didn't look good," Doriana murmured.

  "Actually, it was," Car'das said, looking at Thrawn. "At least, I think so."

  "Yes," Thrawn confirmed, his face and body sagging a little. "He's furious, but he doesn't dare revoke my position now." He looked at Ar'alani. "And once the Defense Fleet has the gravfield projector, I'm certain they'll protect me from any future efforts on his part."

  Ar'alani's lips twitched. "We'll do what we can," she said. "But understand this, Commander. If you continue to act outside the legal boundaries set by the Defense Fleet and the Nine Families, there may come a point where we can no longer stand with you."

  "I understand," Thrawn said. "Understand in turn that I will continue to protect my people in whatever way I deem necessary."

  "I would expect nothing less from you," Ar'alani said. Her eyes flicked once to Doriana and Car'das. "I release your prisoners to you. Return to Crustai, and leave me to deal with the rest of the Vagaari debris."

  "I obey," Thrawn said, bowing his head to her. "The gravfield projector will be waiting for you at Crustai whenever you wish to retrieve it."

  Ar'alani bowed in return and left the room.

  Thrawn took a deep breath. "And with that, I believe it's finally over," he said. "A shuttle is waiting to take us back to theSpringhawk." He gestured to Doriana. "And then I will return you and Vicelord Kav to your vessel."

  "Thank you," Doriana said. "We're looking forward to returning home."

  And as they filed out of the room, Car'das wondered at the odd stiffness in Doriana's back.

  They were passing through one of the systems midway through the star cluster when the hyperdrive finally died. "No chance of fixing it?" Thrass asked.

  Lorana shook her head. "Not by me," she said. "Possibly not by anyone, at least outside of a major shipyard."

  Thrass gazed out the canopy at the distant sun. "You have five other Dreadnaughts here, each with its own hyperdrive," he reminded her. "Could we move across to one of the others and use its systems?"

  Lorana rubbed her forehead, wincing as the pressure accentuated the throbbing pain behind her eyes. "According to the status readings back in ComOps, none of the other hyperdrives is operational," she said. "And all the control lines to the other Dreadnaughts are down, besides. Whatever your brother used to… to stop C'baoth's attack, it scorched a great deal of the delicate equipment aboard. It's going to take months, maybe even years, to tear them apart and fix them."

  Thrass tapped his fingers thoughtfully on the edge of the nearest console. "Then this system is where we stop," he said. "We'll shut down the drive, take the Delta-Twelve craft you spoke of, and go try to make a bargain for your people."

  "I don't think we should shut down the drive," Lorana said, trying to think. "The shape it's in, if we shut it down we might not be able to start it up again."

  "But if we don't shut it down, Outbound Flight won't take long to travel all the way through this system," Thrass pointed out. "We could be away for a month or more negotiating with the Defense Force and Nine Families. By that time, the vessel could have passed into interstellar space, where we would have difficulty locating it."

  And if the hyperdrives proved unfixable, interstellar space would be where Outbound Flight would remain. "Then we'd better find someplace here where we can park for a while," she said. "A nice, high orbit around one of the planets, say. Let's fire up what's left of the sensors and see what our choices are."

  The survey took most of two hours. In the end, there turned out to be only one viable alternative.

  "It's smaller than I'd hoped for," Thrass said as they leaned side by side over the main sensor console. "Less gravity means less stability to the orbit from the perturbations of passing objects."

  "But it also means less atmosphere that might cause the orbit to decay," Lorana pointed out. "And it's almost directly along our vector, which means no fancy maneuvering to get us there. I say we go for it."

  "Agreed," Thrass said. "Let's hope the drive holds out that long."

  They had reached the target planetoid and were on their final approach to orbit when the drive gave one final surge and shut down.

  "Report," Lorana bit out as she stretched out with the Force, trying unsuccessfully to coax the system back to life. "Thrass?"

  "The red curve bends too far inward," Thrass reported tightly from the nav console. "Fifteen orbits from now, it intersects the surface."

  A wave of despair rose like acid in Lorana's throat. Resolutely, she forced it down. After all they'd been through, Outbound Flight wasnot going to end up destroying itself. Not now. "Get to the sensor station," she ordered him. "See if there's a place-anyplace-where we might be able to land this thing."

  "This vessel was not designed with landing in mind," Thrass warned as he hurried to the proper console. "Could we possibly still make orbit?"

  "I'm working on it," Lorana said, crossing to the cluster of engineering monitors and searching among the red lights for something that might still be showing green. Two of the forward braking and maneuvering jets, she saw, were still operative. If they could somehow rotate Outbound Flight 180 degrees and then use those jets to give them a boost along their current vector…

  They had slipped into the planetoid's gravitational field and used up the first of their fifteen orbits before she reluctantly concluded that such a maneuver wouldn't be possible. There was simply too much mass to be moved, and too little time in which to move it. "No luck," she said, stepping to Thrass's side. "You find anything?"

  "Perhaps," he said hesitantly. "I've located a long, enclosed valley that I believe will be deep enough to hold us."

  "I don't see how that gains us anything," Lorana said. "Enclosed valleys imply valley walls, which imply a sudden stop somewhere along the line."

  "In this case, the stop would be somewhat less violent," Thrass said, pointing to the display. "This particular valley is full of small rocks."

  Lorana frowned, leaning over for a closer look. He was right: the whole valley was filled nearly to the top with what seemed to be gravel-sized stones. "I wonder howthat happened," she commented.

  "Multiple asteroid or meteor collisions, most likely," Thrass said. "It doesn't matter. This is the only place on the planetoid that offers a chance for survival."

  Lorana grimaced. But he was right. With the drive gone, coming down anywhere else on the planetoid would mean a full-bore collision at near-orbit speeds. With the gravel, at least they would have a slightly more gradual slowdown. "Can we reach it with the drive gone?" she asked, keying for an analysis.

  "The valley is not far off our current orbital path," Thrass said. "I believe the maneuvering systems will be adequate to move us into position, and to give us at least a little deceleration before impact."

  The analysis appeared on the display. "The computer agrees with you," she confirmed, looking out at the dark world rotating beneath them as she tried to think. "All right. We're here in D-One, the Delta-Twelve is in D-Three, and the rest of the survivors are in the core. If we want D-Three to end up on top of the gravel heap, we'll need to rotate Outbound Flight to put D-Six at the bottom. It'll hit first, taking the initial impact and hopefully slowing us down enough that the damage to the other ships will be minimal when they dig in
."

  "Including the damage to this one?" Thrass asked pointedly.

  Lorana made a face. "I know, but we have no choice. We need D-Three's hangar bay to stay above the surface if we're going to get the Delta-Twelve out. So we rotate D-Six to the bottom, as I say, then move the people out of the core to-"

  "Hello?" a voice came suddenly from the bridge speakers. "Jedi Jinzler? You there somewhere? This is Chas Uliar. We got tired of waiting, so we all came up to D-Four. Jinzler?"

  For a stretched-out second Lorana and Thrass stared at each other in horror. Then, snapping out of her paralysis, Lorana dived for the comm station. "This is Lorana Jinzler," she called urgently. "Uliar, get everyone back to the storage core right away. You hear me? Get everyone back to-"

  "Jinzler, are you there?" Uliar's voice came again. "Jedi, if you've cut out on us I'm going to bereally upset with you."