Outbound Flight (звёздные войны)

  Outbound Flight

  ( Звёздные войны )

  Timothy Zahn

  It began as the ultimate voyage of discovery — only to become the stuff of lost Republic legend…and a dark chapter in Jedi history. Now, at last, acclaimed author Timothy Zahn returns to tell the whole extraordinary story of the remarkable — and doomed — Outbound Flight Project.

  The Clone Wars have yet to erupt when Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth petitions the Senate for support of a singularly ambitious undertaking. Six Jedi Masters, twelve Jedi Knights, and fifty thousand men, women, and children will embark — aboard a gargantuan vessel, equipped for years of travel — on a mission to contact intelligent life and colonize undiscovered worlds beyond the known galaxy. The government bureaucracy threatens to scuttle the expedition before it can even start — until Master C'baoth foils a murderous conspiracy plot, winning him the political capital he needs to set in motion the dream of Outbound Flight.

  Or so it would seem. For unknown to the famed Jedi Master, the successful launch of the mission is secretly being orchestrated by an unlikely ally: the evil Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, who has his own reasons for wanting Outbound Flight to move forward… and, ultimately, to fail.

  Yet Darth Sidious is not the mission's most dangerous challenge. Once underway, the starship crosses paths at the edge of Unknown Space with the forces of the alien Chiss Ascendancy and the brilliant mastermind best known as "Thrawn." Even Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, aboard Outbound Flight with his young Padawan student, Anakin Skywalker, cannot help avert disaster. Thus what begins as a peaceful Jedi mission is violently transformed into an all-out war for survival against staggering odds — and the most diabolical of adversaries.

  Timothy Zahn's unique mix of espionage, political gamesmanship, and deadly interstellar combat breathes electrifying life into a Star Warslegend.

  Outbound Flight

  Chapter 1

  The light freighterBargain Hunter moved through space, silver-gray against the blackness, the light of the distant stars reflecting from its hull. Its running lights were muted, its navigational beacons quiet, its viewports for the most part as dark as the space around it.

  Its drive gunning for all it was worth.

  "Hang on!" Dubrak Qennto barked over the straining roar of the engines. "Here he comes again!"

  Clenching his teeth firmly together to keep them from chattering, Jorj Car'das got a grip on his seat's armrest with one hand as he finished punching coordinates into the nav computer with the other. Just in time; theBargain Hunter jinked hard to the left as a pair of brilliant green blaster bolts burned past the bridge canopy. "Car'das?" Qennto called. "Snap it up, kid."

  "I'm snapping, I'm snapping," Car'das called back, resisting the urge to point out that the outmoded nav equipment was Qennto's property, not his. As was the lack of diplomacy and common sense that had gotten them into this mess in the first place. "Can't we just talk to them?"

  "Terrific idea," Qennto bit out. "Be sure to compliment Progga on his fairness and sound business sense. That always works on Hutts."

  The last word was punctuated by another cluster of blaster shots, this group closer than the last. "Rak, the engines can't hold this speed forever," Maris Ferasi warned from the copilot's seat, her dark hair flashing with green highlights every time a shot went past.

  "Doesn't have to be forever," Qennto said with a grunt. "Just till we have some numbers. Car'das?"

  On Car'das's board a light winked on. "Ready," he called, punching the numbers over to the pilot's station. "It's not a very long jump, though-"

  He was cut off by a screech from somewhere aft, and the flashing blaster bolts were replaced by flashing starlines as theBargain Hunter shot into hyperspace.

  Car'das took a deep breath, let it out silently. "This isnot what I signed up for," he muttered to himself Barely six standard months after signing on with Qennto and Maris, this was already the second time they'd had to run for their lives from someone.

  And this time it was aHutt they'd frizzled. Qennto, he thought darkly, had a genuine talent for picking his fights.

  "You okay, Jorj?"

  Car'das looked up, blinking away a drop of sweat that had somehow found its way into his eve. Maris was swiveled around in her chair, looking back at him with concern. "I'm fine," he said, wincing at the quavering in his voice.

  "Of course he is," Qennto assured Maris as he also turned around to look at their junior crewer. "Those shots never even got close."

  Car'das braced himself. "You know, Qennto, it may not be my place to say this-"

  "It isn't; and don't," Qennto said gruffly, turning back to his board.

  "Progga the Hutt isnot the sort of person you want mad at you," Car'das said anyway. "I mean, first there was that Rodian-"

  "A word about shipboard etiquette, kid," Qennto cut in, turning just far enough to send a single eye's worth of glower at Car'das. "You don't argue with your captain. Not ever. Not unless you want this to be your firstand last tour with us."

  "I'd settle for it not being the last tour of my life," Car'das muttered.

  "What was that?"

  Car'das grimaced. "Nothing."

  "Don't let Progga worry you," Maris soothed. "He has a rotten temper, but he'll cool off "

  "Before or after he racks the three of us and takes all the furs?" Car'das countered, eyeing the hyperdrive readings uneasily. That mauvine nullifier instability was definitely getting worse.

  "Oh, Progga wouldn't have racked us," Qennto scoffed. "He'd have leftthat to Drixo when we had to tell her he'd snatched her cargo. Youdo have that next jump ready, right?"

  "Working on it," Car'das said, checking the computer. "But the hyperdrive-"

  "Heads up," Qennto interrupted. "We're coming out."

  The starlines collapsed back into stars, and Car'das keyed for a full sensor scan.

  And jerked as a salvo of blaster shots sizzled past the canopy.

  Qennto barked a short expletive. "What thefrizz? "

  "He followed us," Maris said, sounding stunned.

  "And he's got the range," Qennto snarled as he threw theBargain Hunter into another series of stomach-twisting evasive maneuvers. "Car'das, get us out of here!"

  "Trying," Car'das called back, fighting to read the computer displays as they bounced and wobbled in front of his eyes. There was no way it was going to calculate the next jump before even Qennto's luck ran out and the fuming Hutt back there finally connected.

  But if Car'das couldn't find a place for them to go, maybe he could find all the places for themnot to go..

  The sky directly ahead was full of stars, but there was plenty of empty black between them. Picking the biggest of the gaps, he punched the vector into the computer. "Try this one," he called, keying it to Qennto.

  "What do you meantry? " Maris asked.

  The freighter rocked as a pair of shots caught it squarely on the aft deflector. "Never mind," Qennto said before Car'das could answer. He punched the board, and once again the star-lines lanced out and faded into the blotchy hyperspace sky.

  Maris exhaled in a huff. "That wastoo close."

  "Okay, so maybe heis mad at us," Qennto conceded. "Now. Like Maris said, kid, what do you mean, try this one?"

  "I didn't have time to calculate a proper jump," Car'das explained. "So I just aimed us into an empty spot with no stars."

  Qennto swiveled around. "You mean an empty spot with novisible stars?" he asked ominously. "An empty spot with no collapsed stars, or pre-star dark masses, or something hidden behind dust clouds? That kind of empty spot?" He waved a hand toward the canopy. "Andout toward the Unknown Regions on top of it?"
r />   "We don't have enough data in that direction for him to have done a proper calculation anyway," Maris said, coming unexpectedly to Car'das's defense.

  "That's not the point," Qennto insisted.

  "No, the point is that he got us away from Progga," Maris said. "I think that deserves at least a thank-you."

  Qennto rolled his eyes. "Thankyou," he said. "Such thanks to be rescinded if and when we run through a star you didn't see, of course."

  "I think it's more likely the hyperdrive will blow up first," Car'das warned. "Remember that nullifier problem I told you about? I think it's getting-"

  He was cut off by a wailing sound from beneath them, and with a lurch theBargain Hunter leapt forward like a giffa on a scent.

  "Running hot!" Qennto shouted, spinning back to his board. "Maris, shut 'er down!"

  "Trying," Maris called back over the wailing as her fingers danced across her board. "Control lines are looping-can't get a signal through."

  With a curse, Qennto popped his straps and heaved his bulk out of his seat. He sprinted down the narrow aisle, his elbow barely missing the back of Car'das's head as he passed. Poking uselessly at his own controls, Car'das popped his own strap release and started to follow.

  "Car'das, get up here," Maris called, gesturing him forward.

  "He might need me," Car'das said as he nevertheless reversed direction and headed forward.

  "Sit," she ordered, nodding sideways at Qennto's vacated pilot's seat. "Help me watch the tracker-if we veer off this vector before Rak figures out how to pull the plug, I need to know about it."

  "But Qennto-"

  "Word of advice, friend," she interrupted, her eyes still on her displays. "This is Rak's ship. If there are any tricky repairs to be made, he's the one who'll make them."

  "Even if I happen to know more about a particular system than he does?"

  "Especiallyif you happen to know more about it than he does," she said drily. "But in this case, you don't. Trust me."

  "Fine," Car'das said with a sigh. "Such trust to be rescinded if and when we blow up, of course."

  "You're learning," she said approvingly. "Now run a systems check on the scanners and see if the instability's bled over into them. Then do the same for the nav computer. Once we get through this, I want to make sure we can find our way home again."

  It took Qennto over four hours to find a way to shut down the runaway hyperdrive without slagging it. During that time Car'das offered his help three times, and Maris offered hers twice. All the offers were summarily refused.

  Sometime during the first hour, as near as Car'das could figure from the readings tumbling across the displays, they left the relatively well-known territory of the Outer Rim, passing into a shallow section of the far less well-known territory known as Wild Space. Sometime early in the fourth hour, they left even that behind and crossed the hazy line into the Unknown Regions.

  At which point, where they were or what exactly they were flying into was anyone's guess.

  But at last the wailing faded away, and a few minutes later the hyperspace sky collapsed into starlines and then into stars. "Maris?" Qennto's voice called from the comm panel.

  "We're out," she confirmed. "Running a location check now."

  "I'll be right there," Qennto said.

  "Wherever we are, we're a long way from home," Car'das murmured, gazing out at a small but brilliant globular star cluster in the distance. "I've never seen anything likethat from any of the Outer Rim worlds I've been to."

  "Me, neither," Maris agreed soberly. "Hopefully, the computer can sort it out."

  The computer was still sifting data when Qennto reappeared on the bridge. Car'das had made sure to be back at his own station by then. "Nice cluster," the big man commented as he dropped into his seat. "Any systems nearby?"

  "Closest one's about a quarter light-year directly ahead," Maris said, pointing.

  Qennto grunted and punched at his board. "Let's see if we can make it," he said. "Backup hyperdrive should still have enough juice for a jump that short."

  "Can't we work on the ship just as well out here?" Car'das asked.

  "I don't like interstellar space," Qennto said distractedly as he set up the jump. "It's dark and cold and lonely. Besides, that system up there might have a nice planet or two."

  "Which means a possible source of supplies, in case we end up staying longer than we expect," Maris explained.

  "Or a possible place to settle down away from the noise and fluster of the Republic for a while," Qennto added.

  Car'das felt his throat tighten. "You don't mean-?"

  "No, he doesn't," Maris assured him. "Rak always talks about getting away from it all whenever he's in trouble with someone."

  "He must talk that way a lot," Car'das muttered.

  "What was that?" Qennto asked.

  "Nothing."

  "Didn't think so. Here we go." There was a screech, more genteel than the sound from theBargain Hunter 's main hyper-drive, and the stars stretched out into starlines.

  Silently, Car'das counted off the seconds to himself, fully expecting the backup hyperdrive to crash at any time. But it didn't, and after a few tense minutes the starlines collapsed again to reveal a small yellow sun directly ahead.

  "There we go," Qennto said approvingly. "All the comforts of home. You figure out yet where we are, Maris?"

  "Computer's still working on it," Maris said. "But it looks like we're about two hundred fifty light-years into Unknown Space." She lifted her eyebrows at him. "I'm thinking we're going to have a stack of late-delivery penalties when we finally get to Comra."

  "Oh, you worry too much," Qennto chided. "It won't take more than a day or two to fix the hyperdrive. If we push it a little, we shouldn't be more than a week overdue."

  Car'das suppressed a grimace. Pushing the hyperdrive, if he recalled correctly, was what had wrecked the thing to begin with.

  There was a twitter from the comm. "We're being hailed," he reported, frowning as he keyed it on. He threw a look at the visual displays, searching for their unknown caller

  And felt his whole body go rigid. "Qennto!" he snapped. "It's-"

  He was cut off by a deep rumbling chuckle from the comm. "So, Dubrak Qennto," an all-too-familiar voice rumbled in Huttese. "You think to escape me so easily?"

  "You call thateasy? " Qennto muttered as he keyed his transmitter. "Oh, hi, Progga," he said. "Look, like I told you before, I can't let you have these furs. I've already contracted with Drixo-"

  "Ignore the furs," Progga cut in. "Show me your hidden treasure hoard."

  Qennto frowned at Maris. "Mywhat? "

  "Do not play the fool," Progga warned, his voice going an octave deeper. "I know your sort. You do not simply runfrom something, but run ratherto something else. This is the lone star system along this vector; and behold, you are here. What could you have run to but a secret base and treasure hoard?"

  Qennto muted the transmitter. "Car'das, where is he?"

  "A hundred kilometers off the starboard bow," Car'das told him, his hands shaking as he ran a full scan on the distant Hutt ship. "And he's coming up fast."

  "Maris?"

  "Whatever you did to shut down the hyperdrive, you did a great job," she said tightly. "It's completely locked. We've still got the backup, but if we try to run and he tracks us again-"

  "And he will," Qennto growled. Taking a deep breath, he switched the transmitter back on. "It wasn't like that, Progga," he said soothingly. "We were just trying to-"

  "Enough!" the Hutt bellowed. "Lead me to this base. Now."

  "There isn't any base," Qennto insisted. "This is the Unknown Regions. Why would I set up a base outhere? "

  A light flashed on Car'das's proximity sensor. "Incoming!" he snapped, his eyes darting back and forth among the displays as he searched for the source of the attack.

  "Where?" Qennto snapped back.

  Car'das had it now, coming from directly beneath theBargain Hunter: a long, dark missile
arrowing straight toward them. "There," he said, pointing a finger straight down as he stared at the display.

  It was only then that his brain caught up with the fact that this wasn't the vector a missile would take from the approaching Hutt ship. He was opening his mouth to point that out when the missile burst open, its nose ejecting a wad of some kind of material. The wad began to expand as it cleared the shards of its container, opening like a fast-blooming flower into a filmy wall stretching over a kilometer across.

  "Power off!" Qennto snapped, lunging across his board to the row of master power switches. "Hurry!"