The Bridge
The Chimaera
In orbit around Tatooine
Captain Pallaeon glanced around the bridge uneasily. All stations were operating normally and there had been no further alarms since Admiral Thrawn had urgently sent for a squad a few minutes ago.
Pallaeon had a deep and abiding respect for Admiral Thrawn. The Chiss had shown himself wise beyond the captain's understanding, with an ability to see not just around corners, but apparently through temporal black holes as well. The captain found it hard to believe that his superior could be in any kind of serious trouble on board his own flagship. Furthermore, while Pallaeon didn't particularly like the Noghri bodyguard Rukh, he trusted him to protect Thrawn with his life. Loyalty was a benchmark belief of the primitive Noghri.
Nevertheless, Pallaeon felt anxious enough that he decided to risk a reprimand from his superior for 'checking up on him.' Summoning a squad to his personal quarters was profoundly unusual. He was almost certainly concerned about nothing, but at least Thrawn wouldn't choke him. Just one reason the Chiss was preferable to the vanished, and presumably deceased, Darth Vader.
The captain retreated into a small room and picked up his comlink. After staring at it for a long moment, he punched in the necessary code and waited, his throat slightly dry. Thrawn wouldn't strangle him, but his superior's icily courteous reprimands weren't much fun.
There was a long pause, long enough for Pallaeon's worry to tick up another notch, and then a voice answered. It was not Thrawn's voice, of that the captain was certain.
"Yes?" a male voice inquired.
"This is Captain Pallaeon," the captain said cautiously, "is there a significant problem there?"
Another pause.
"Everything is under control. Situation normal."
Pallaeon stiffened, his hand drifting to his waist where a 'hot button' alarm would send alarms ringing throughout the ship. This didn't feel right.
"May I inquire what the issue was?"
"We had a ... a slight weapons malfunction. But everything is perfectly all right now..."
The voice stopped speaking, and more quietly, in the near distance, Pallaeon heard Admiral Thrawn speak.
"Inform the captain that I am personally analyzing a hitherto unknown power fluctuation observed in certain blasters ..."
The voice trailed away, as if Thrawn had moved into another part of his quarters.
"Understood. Very well, Pallaeon out," Pallaeon said, heaving a deep sigh of relief. Thrawn was notorious for keeping careful tabs on everything. A power fluctuation in blasters was the sort of thing that the engineers should deal with, but Thrawn was ... well, Thrawn.
Pallaeon turned off his comlink and walked back onto the bridge, his shoulders relaxed. Everything was as it should be.
/-
In Thrawn's quarters, Anakin and company stood very still, waiting.
After a long moment, during which no alarms sounded and the Force sensitives discerned no uptick in distress on the ship, they finally relaxed.
"I'm surprised, and delighted, that worked," Kenobi said with an air of relief, even as he leaned down to help Anakin carefully prepare Thrawn's unconscious body for transport off the Chimarea.
Solo was staring wide-eyed at Luke
"That was incredible, Kid!" he exclaimed.
Luke blushed slightly, and Leia smiled, "Luke is amazing at imitating voices. You should hear him imitating Jabba the Hutt!"
"Cha boska!" Luke roared in a voice approximately an octave below his normal voice.
Anakin cringed slightly, "It does not please me that you were close enough to that Hutt scum to even hear his voice."
Luke sighed, "It was only for a week."
"A week of what?" Han demanded, even as he grabbed one of the still living guards preparatory to hauling the man into a nearby room where he could be secured.
"Slavery," Luke said softly, his eyes darkening, "I managed to escape within a week, but it wasn't a good week."
Solo shot an incredulous look at the boy, then dragged his prone captive into the nearby office.
When he got back, he looked at Anakin with new respect, "The word was that Darth Vader had taken out Jabba. I guess I know why now."
Anakin Skywalker straightened to his full height and nodded, "I was myself a slave until I was nine years old, then a slave to Palpatine for another 15 years. It was my task, and my pleasure, to free the galaxy of that giant slug."
/-
Docking Bay #4
The Chimaera
In orbit around Endor
Ensign Mort wobbled, steadied himself, then quickly passed a hand over his face, making sure that any drool was wiped off. He was so stinking bored! And last night he had stayed up way too late playing sabacc. In addition to losing credits he could ill afford, he was nearly dead on his feet now. At least his shift would end in a little more than an hour.
Ensign Mort perked up as a group of stormtroopers plus one officer stepped into the docking bay. Ah, something to do! It had been ridiculously quiet this shift, which didn't help anything.
The officer, a tall, middle aged man with dark hair and a look of irritable boredom, handed Mort a datapad.
Mort glanced at it, checking the destination. Naboo. Various supplies were being delivered to the local garrison there, including three large boxes of high tech blasters.
The boxes in question were hovering in mid air on repulsors. Mort grabbed his scanner from his belt and wandered over to check that the boxes were what they were supposed to be. Occasionally the idiots in supply messed up, and after a full load of nerf meat was accidentally sent in non-refrigerated containers to the Imperial Palace in place of a shipment of Corellian wine, all outgoing supplies had to be checked before liftoff.
(The rumor mill claimed that the Palace storeroom had stunk for more than a week, and the now deceased Emperor Palpatine had caused a mini explosion in his rage, resulting in the death of a number of hapless troops.)
The tall officer touched him on the arm, "You don't need to scan the boxes."
Mort lifted his face up and frowned, "I don't?"
"No, you don't," the officer said, even as the man gazed directly into his eyes, "They are exactly what is on the manifest."
The ensign blinked, "Ok, that's good."
He frowned, "But sir, I'm supposed to check everything, just in case it's nerf meat. I don't want to be responsible for stinking anything up."
The officer looked startled, "There would hardly be nerf meat, Ensign. Tatooine is a desert planet. Banthas yes, nerfs no."
Mort shook his slightly, "Still, there might be bantha meat. Which would be even fouler, probably. So yes, I need to scan the boxes, sir."
"You don't need to scan the boxes."
Now Mort was getting both irritated and suspicious, "Who are you? What's your operating number?"
The stormtrooper behind the ensign lifted his blaster and stunned the hapless ensign, who fell to the hanger door without a groan.
"Boring conversation anyway," Solo said, his voice filtered by the helmet.
"Well, that went well," the Senator commented in a mocking tone to Anakin.
Anakin shook his head in disbelief, "Thank you, Solo. I appear to be losing my edge. Let us board."
Kenobi nodded, even as he gestured to the prone ensign, "Let's bring the ensign along. You aren't losing your edge, Anakin, he's just more resistant then most to Jedi mind control. We might find him useful on the Death Star."
Five minutes later, they were all on board the shuttle. Anakin headed for the cockpit with R2D2 in tow, as the droid had the proper departure codes. In the main shuttle bay, Luke carefully opened one of the boxes, and Leia popped out as quickly as possible.
"That was ghastly," she said in a grumpy tone, "It was like a coffin, except it smelled of nerf meat."
"You're projecting," Luke said in a superior tone, "They were filled with blasters before we emptied them ..."
"Nerf meat!" she snapped back, poking her brother's stormtrooper chest plate with an angry finger.
"Like you'd know nerf meat if it bit you," Luke riposted, "I doubt a fancy pancy princess ever ate it on Alderaan, and we ate bantha on Tatooine ..."
Kenobi and Solo were carefully extracting Rukh from his box, but Solo found time to shoot an incredulous glance at the twins.
"Yeah, they are brother and sister all right," he muttered.
"I believe they banter to relieve stress," Obi-Wan said in an amused tone, even as he reached over to assist the Noghri to his feet.
Rukh took the offered hand with the polite air of a mother humoring a child, rolled gracefully to his feet, then leaped past the twins and headed toward the cockpit.
"His place is with Anakin," Kenobi explained, even as he turned toward the last box.
"So could this be a problem?" Solo demanded.
Obi-Wan shook his head, "Thrawn is still unconscious. We will remove him from the box and temporarily lock him and the ensign in the left storage room."
Han nodded, and glanced again at Leia, this time with a smile.
"And you are ridiculously short for a stormtrooper!" Leia pointed out to her brother.
/-
Captain Pallaeon's quarters
The Chimaera
In Orbit Around Tatooine
6 hours later
"Yellow alert, Captain to the bridge, yellow alert!"
Pallaeon woke, sat up so suddenly that his neck twinged, and groaned aloud.
He rubbed his hand across his face and grabbed his com from the bedstand.
"Captain Pallaeon speaking. What is the nature of the yellow alert?"
If this was something to do with a trooper brawl over a sabacc game, or reports of insect infestation of food stores, heads would roll. Pallaeon had been putting in extra hours of late, this was his sleep cycle, and he was tired.
"Sir, do you know where Admiral Thrawn is? He's missed a scheduled meeting with his intelligence chief."
Pallaeon sat up slowly and frowned, "He was investigating a blaster malfunction a little more than six hours ago in his quarters. I assume you've checked there?"
"Yes, sir, we've checked there. No one is answering. And oddly enough, the squad sent to his quarters more than six hours ago is missing as well. And the bodyguard Rukh and the admiral's guards are not at the door."
Pallaeon, who had still been half asleep, felt a surge of adrenalin which propelled him to his feet.
"What?"
His memory flashed back to that disquieting feeling during his conversation with the unknown man in Thrawn's quarters.
Pallaeon groaned. He should have trusted that feeling.
/-
Storage Shed
Shuttle
En Route to the Death Star
Ensign Mort stiffened as the door to his prison opened.
Finally. The waiting had been getting on his nerves. Even worse was that he was sharing this storage room/prison with Grand Admiral Thrawn. He had seen the Chiss a few times from a distance, during reviews, but had never dreamed he would be captured with him by unknown assailants. So on top of being scared out of his mind at an uncertain future, he was scared out of his mind every time Thrawn fixed his red eyes on him.
"Relax, Ensign," Thrawn said, his intent gaze fixed on the man stepping through the door into their makeshift cell.
Mort stared in surprise. The individual in question was dressed in a robe as opposed to a military uniform, and was quite elderly. Mort noted, absently, that the man had a weird handle hanging from his waist, though no other weapons were in evidence.
"General Kenobi," Thrawn stated, a slight wrinkle marring the formerly smooth forehead.
(General Who?)
"Admiral Thrawn," the Other said with a slight smile. "It's been a long time."
"Twenty-two years, I believe," Thrawn said, getting to his feet. Their captors at least had the courtesy to provide two chairs for the prisoners, though Mort had only managed to sit down for a couple of hours. The rest of the time, he had paced with nervous intensity.
Kenobi turned to stare at Mort, who swallowed nervously. The old face smiled gently, "Do not be anxious, Ensign. We mean you no harm."
Mort glanced nervously at Thrawn, "You abducted the Admiral and I'm a witness. From where I'm standing, that's not a healthy place to be."
"We mean no harm to Admiral Thrawn either," Kenobi responded courteously, "though we may, reluctantly, lock him up in a prison cell for some time if we can't come to some kind of an agreement."
Mort shot his superior an anguished look, and was impressed at the Chiss's apparent calm.
"You obviously have me at a disadvantage, General Kenobi," Thrawn said in a bland tone, "and therefore I am willing to discuss your demands, though I don't promise to submit to them."
"I prefer not to think of them as 'demands', General Thrawn," Kenobi responded, "but rather possible options. However, I'm sure both you and the ensign are in need of refreshment, so I invite you to join us in the main cabin for a discussion."
Thrawn nodded and strode boldly out of the room. Kenobi smiled encouragingly toward Mort, who hesitatingly followed his superior out of the room.
To his relief, Thrawn led him into an open area with a large table, several chairs, and occupied by miscellaneous people who seemed to be arguing, eating, or both.
No death droids, no torture droids, no pits full of engine fluid in which a hapless ensign could be dangled. All to the good.
For a heady moment, Mort considered trying to overpower someone and heroically grab a blaster. But only for a moment. There were many adversaries, and they were all armed. And hand to hand combat wasn't at all his specialty, anyway.
Thrawn walked boldly forward to meet the officer who had tried to convince Mort not to inspect the boxes back on the Chimaera.
"And General Anakin Skywalker," the Chiss said in an interested tone, "Kenobi and Skywalker once again. While I am not pleased with the events of the last few hours, I am willing to admit that they are interesting indeed. I thought you had both died long ago."
Skywalker (?) stared down at the Chiss for a long moment, before saying calmly, "You were mistaken, obviously. Obi-Wan has been in exile on Tatooine for the last decades, watching over my son."
The man gestured slightly, toward a very young man who was standing against the wall, "I believe you and Luke have already met, Admiral?"
Mort observed something he hadn't believed possible – a stunned Admiral Thrawn. The blue skin paled, the mouth hung open for a long moment before closing with a click.
"Darth Vader," Thrawn hissed.
Author Note: Mark Hamill has a remarkable ability to 'do voices'. I remember reading once that he did a great Miss Piggy, and he voices one of the villains in Riders of Berk from the How To Train Your Dragon franchise. I thought it would be fun if Luke could imitate voices, including Thrawn's. Oh, and I'm not sure if Thrawn and Kenobi ever met but I'm saying they did, in the Clone Wars era. And Thrawn and Anakin met in canon, I believe, again in the Clone Wars era.