Deep in Imperial space, a lone star destroyer slipped quietly through the inky void.
Its captain stood proudly on the bridge, surveying the work of the crew.
"Captain Pelleaon? The task force at Yn'chon just reported in." A young Ensign said quietly from the side.
The captain nodded.
"Good. That's the last of them. I want a full report upon their arrival."
"Yes, sir!"
Pelleaon stood for a moment then turned and headed for the turbo lifts.
The Admiral would be in his command room about now and Pelleaon had never disturbed his superior by intercom. So, he would go tell the Admiral in person.
To the captain's surprise the doors to the command room slid open as he approached them. The antechamber was dark, as usual. Pelleaon made deliberate steps to the inner door. A mewling voice in his ear made him jump and spin around. But the Admiral's deadly bodyguard was nowhere to be seen.
Captain Pelleaon growled under his breath about how annoying these stupid Noghri tricks were. He finally turned back toward the door and it opened at his request.
In the center of the circular room sat the Admiral. A few display rings were wrapped around his command chair. He was quite a specimen, this commander. His pale blue skin and glowing red eyes were quite alien but his build was human. He was Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Pelleaon cautiously stepped up to the outer ring and waited.
"Good Afternoon, Captain. I trust all the task forces have reported in?" said the Admiral in a cool, clear voice.
"Yes, sir. Yn'chon just came through."
"Statistics?"
"A full report should be coming in any minute, Admiral."
"Excellent! Any headway on that rebound signal we picked up?"
"No, sir. Comm-scan thinks it was just an anomaly of some sort. Probably caused by a gamma burst."
Thrawn considered this. "Hmm. An interesting phenomenon, I agree. Very unlikely, though."
Pelleaon was a little confused.
"I'm not sure that I follow, sir."
"Simple, Captain. That signal was not caused by a gamma burst, though an accident it may be. I came across a similar thing in the Unkown Regions. The rebound signal was caused by the 'echo' of an incredibly fast hyper drive."
"Hyper drive?! Just how fast is this?"
Thrawn took a deep breath and looked thoughtfully at the captain.
"Oh, I'd say about point three or lower."
"That's impossible! There's no ship capable of that speed." Pelleaon scoffed.
"Actually, I captured such a ship once but before we could send a boarding party it self destructed, killing half of my crew. No, it does exist. The only problem is getting an accurate reading so as to track it."
"You want to capture the ship?"
Thrawn looked at Pelleaon, a cunning smile on his face. "Of course. With our ships equipped with faster hyper drives, it will be easy to stay ahead of the Rebellion. I want all commands to be on the look out for more 'echos'. Dismissed."