Reading Heir to the Empire

[Sapphire Guard]

I believe he said he wasn't sure if he wanted to hand Luke over to C'Baoth or not, but wanted to leave the option open to him.

CH16:

Lando and Han go back to the lounge, where they can find proof of the Katana fleet theory. Lando knows a lot about the fleet because he got scammed with a fake map once upon a time and studied up so he could pull the same trick.

Han asks the bartender to get something from the backroom and follows him out to keep him occupied. When he comes back, Lando's at gunpoint. Good omen.

Sena drives them around and they talk for a bit. Apparently she came to ask a favour, which makes the gunpoint approach slightly unnecessary. She wants Han to ask Mon Mothma to invite the Senator back onboard the Alliance. He defected in the early days, after being influential early on but being gradually sidelined by Mon Mothma. So the Senator is stuck because he can't swallow his pride and go back to her.

Han tries to strike a deal re Katana fleet in trade for the assist on re-entry, but Sena doesn't know about it. But they haven't promised them to Fey'lya either, he's politically minded, not military, he's just trying to talk the Senator back for the prestige. But he's probably not behind the bank transfer, as he's more of an opportunist than an active plotter.

Anyway, Han figures that sooner or later the 'Grand Admiral' will come to scoop up their ships. At least they don't know where the ships are, because they bought them from Karrde on a gambling ship. Sena agrees to let them leave.

Ibliss is waiting by their ship by coincidence, initially suspecting betrayal when he sees Sena. He would like to go back to the Alliance, but doesn't have 'anything to bring'. Although his military record is respectable.

Anyway he agrees to send them back to Bel Cov, certain that the Imperials won't still be there. Making assumptions about Thrawn seldom works out well, but we'll see. They say their farewells as well as the usual 'Betray him, and you deal with me' threat from Sena.

Thrawn reads a report noting that the Falcon is on Endor. He's confused by this, and it actually leads him to believe that Khabarakh was deliberately released as a distraction, and so won't bother interrogating him, so that first mistake has snowballed a bit. If the Noghri do interrogate Khabarakh, maybe Leia will get to make her speech after all. Thrawn thinks she might be looking for the location of Mount Tantiss, which is taking a long time to do whatever it is it's doing.

Just before they jump to Lightspeed, they get a report that one of Talon Karrde's freighters has been captured, and Thrawn reads the interrogation report as they leave.

So this politics is getting more interesting, this Senator has an interesting story assuming he's telling the truth. Fey'lya is probably exonerated of actually framing Ackbar. The more people know Karrde has the fleet, the more likely he is to get hunted down, and the Empire has already picked up his trail. Thrawn makes his first true mistake, although whether this just wastes his time or costs him the Noghri remains to be determined.

Edit: That modified probe droid is still in the village, right? So he'll find out eventually.