Ten years, four months, and twenty-five days after the Battle of Yavin...
Or the forty-fifth year, fourth month, and twenty-fifth day after the Great Resynchronization.
(One year, one month, and five days since the Arrival.)
The Pentastar Alignment consists of several large, industrially developed sectors located on the edge of the galaxy, where the inhabitants of hundreds of large and thousands of small planets remained loyal to the New Order.
Once, these planets were part of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, as were worlds such as Jemus, Kantras Gola, Gabredor III, Beskain, and a planet known as Kriton Point.
The latter, like a few other worlds, was generally closed to any visitors except for a group of scientists who worked on its surface, conducting excavations and studying the Library of Xera, built over twenty-six thousand years ago.
It was built by order of the Tion nobleman Xera VIII, who in ancient times conquered thousands upon thousands of worlds.
Furthermore, he was also the father of another conqueror, no less famous among the Tions — Xim the Despot.
"As I recall, the Alignment used to be smaller," Freymis stated, watching as Grand Moff Ferrus thoughtfully examined a holographic map.
"Obviously, you were undercover for a long time," the man said, looking at the Inquisitor who was keeping him company on the bridge of the flagship. "Some sectors from Imperial Space have come under the Alignment's jurisdiction."
Freymis's eyes ran over the names of the sectors that made up the Alignment.
Albarrio, Attrivis, Braxant, Carrion, Cassanded, Clasis, Dinali, Obtrexta, Mayto, Perinn, Prefsbelt, Rayoballo, Relgim, Velkar...
Fourteen sectors...
A map of the Pentastar Alignment, including the future Imperial Remnant.
"According to our data, the sectors of Veragi, Chopani, Spinward, and Dalonbian will soon join the Alignment," Ferrus continued. "At least, Alignment forces are already active in them..."
"Your intelligence is quite well-informed," the Inquisitor noted, observing that with the addition of these four sectors, the Alignment's eastern border would effectively press up against Dominion territories, such as the sectors of Mieru'kar, Kanz...
And the sectors of Lahara, Korosi, and others along the Dominion's southern border would come into contact with Imperial Space.
The girl cast an interested glance at the Grand Moff.
I wonder, does he even understand that the Emperor, by his territorial relocations (and who else would dare do such a thing?), has effectively created two fronts for an offensive against the Dominion?
Just as with the New Republic — the Pentastar Alignment will operate on one front, and Imperial Space on the other.
A double strike, a breakthrough, the capture of the most important hyperspace arteries and routes within the Dominion, leading to swift strikes against key regions...
Yes, a splendid invasion.
One that will be reinforced by strikes from the east by Cronal's forces and the "Zann Consortium."..
Fast, precise, and an almost guaranteed victory for the government forces over a bunch of renegades.
Using the New Republic as an example, the Emperor clearly concluded that strikes should be made from multiple fronts at once, to force the enemy to disperse their forces.
Considering that the Dominion, while having no shortage of ships, is critically short on personnel (otherwise, would the Grand Moff himself be playing chauffeur for a simple Inquisitor?), the lord's strategic plan is truly magnificent and unique.
"Our intelligence... Yes, they are working," Ferrus answered vaguely. "And you, by any chance, haven't changed your mind?"
"Betray the Emperor?" Freymis clarified. "No, Grand Moff. I am loyal to him and the New Order."
Especially now that the Emperor Palpatine's schemes were becoming clear to her, doing so would be doubly unwise.
"Well, I won't insist," Ferrus said modestly. "The Dominion doesn't force anyone to join..."
"Yeah, right," the Inquisitor thought. "And you gathered your territories together solely through diplomacy and Thrawn's cunning plans. What utter nonsense..."
"All the better," she declared. "That'll be fewer points for the tribunal to read from your indictment when you're all caught and executed as traitors as a warning to the rest."
"Maybe," Ferrus shrugged. "And maybe not. I'm not a Jedi, I can't see the future..."
"Neither am I, but you don't need the Force to predict that the Dominion will fall," Freymis said haughtily. "And the fact that you decided to spare my life won't save you from the Emperor's wrath."
"As you say," the Grand Moff replied with the same indifference. "But executing you just because our points of view differ, I also consider a great folly..."
"What a fool. Enemies who will never join you must be eliminated."
"Don't you have anything better to do than escort me to the Dominion's borders?" she decided to inquire about the circumstances of Ferrus's personal involvement in her deportation.
"I have my hands full," the Grand Moff admitted. "But I couldn't afford to refuse one last attempt to turn you."
"Good thing you at least had the sense not to try recruiting me as a double agent," Freymis smirked. "Otherwise, your head would have become my top priority."
"As you wish."
The glowing tunnel of hyperspace dissolved into its components, revealing a myriad of stars and the blackness of space before them.
"We are at the border of the Kanz and Relgim sectors," Ferrus explained. "Our defensive lines are here."
"The very same ones that make you hated by all Imperials whose transport along the known hyperspace routes you've blocked?" the Inquisitor clarified.
"Yes," the Grand Moff didn't bother with flowery thoughts or slogans. "It's not our problem that currently no one can be trusted in principle. That's why we sealed the Dominion's borders."
"Though I heard rumors that you made an exception for Grand Moff Kaine and allowed his robotic transport ships through," Freymis decided to try and lift the veil of secrecy.
"Well, if the Inquisitorius's work is now based solely on rumors, then the Dominion has nothing to fear," Ferrus smiled.
The woman ignored the remark, deciding it was better to keep staring out the viewport ahead.
The scene before her, however, wasn't adorned with anything exquisite or noteworthy.
A rather gloomy and clearly uninhabited planetoid, whose orbit the Procursator was currently matching.
Just ordinary space, an ordinary edge of the galaxy.
"Thank you, Captain," the Grand Admiral said, having listened to the quiet report from his flagship's commander.
Who had whispered something to one of the Dominion's three rulers, clearly not wanting the Inquisitor to hear.
Yes, if she had her Force abilities right now, that would have happened, but those damn Dominion troops were still blocking her.
"Your transport is ready," the Grand Moff announced. "And since you have no intention of changing your point of view..."
"I don't," Freymis said sharply.
These clumsy conversations were starting to annoy her.
Ferrus was clearly a fool if he thought such a simple method could recruit her.
A stupid, stupid son of a bitch.
"Let's get this over with quickly," she said irritably, turning toward the exit from the bridge. "Or have you decided to detain me here a while longer in the hope that I'll break?"
"Absolutely not," the Grand Moff smirked. "It's just... We've run into some difficulties."
The Lady Inquisitor tensed.
What was that supposed to mean?
"If you're up to something, Grand Moff, I'll kill you even without the Force," she snarled. "Mind tricks won't work on me."
She was thoroughly angry now.
After all these boring and frankly useless days spent in confinement, the endless interrogations where even the most sophisticated investigators and interrogators couldn't get anything out of her, had bred a deep aversion to the Dominion within her.
She was one step away from freedom, and the completely unexpected appearance of any obstacles was unacceptable to her.
"My plans haven't changed," the Grand Moff stated coldly, as if his words — the words of a traitor to the Empire — could convince her of anything. "But you'll have to remain aboard my ship for a little while longer..."
"How dare you?"
"Only as long as it takes to identify the... uh..." the Grand Moff's eyes darted from side to side. ."..intruder."
His face was an open book.
He might as well have it written all over him.
An intruder, huh?
He made up another fairy tale to keep her from going home.
Maybe that was his goal?
To give her hope of escape, then take that chance away, lock her up again, and continue the monotonous brainwashing?
She herself had broken prisoners that way many times, so the Grand Moff had nothing to gain here.
"Well, well," she curled her lip. "And what kind of intruder is it who managed to break through the Dominion's insurmountable barriers?"
"We're curious about that ourselves," the Grand Moff's voice was frankly false, only confirming her opinion of his insincerity. "The Perimeter is impenetrable. But someone, according to our tracking system data, got in here at the moment a sector of the barrier was deactivated."
"The one you turned off to let me fly out unhindered?" she clarified.
"There's no other way to cross the Dominion's borders," Ferrus said thoughtfully, looking somewhere behind her.
Apparently at something visible through the bridge viewport.
The girl turned to see what he was looking at.
"An Imperial cargo ship?" she was surprised, seeing the target identifier on the tactical monitor.
"I'm just as puzzled," the Grand Moff spread his hands. "I haven't seen one of these in a long time, Lady Freymis."
"Because almost all of them were at the disposal of the Pentastar Alignment!" she forced out. "At least after Endor, for sure — most fell into Kaine's hands!"
She looked at the Grand Moff.
"What game are you playing here, Ferrus?" she hissed.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he tried to portray bewilderment talentedly, but he was a lousy actor. "This is the first time I've seen this ship. And besides, would I bring you here, where our border gets breached by a starship that's so easily recognized? Captain," he addressed the commander of the Procursator. "Immediately dispatch the duty flight. Have them stop the intruder and force them to surrender."
"At once, sir!"
"Is the Perimeter restored?" the Grand Moff inquired.
"Yes, sir!"
"Did the grav-acoustics register anyone else moving?"
"No, sir. Otherwise, they would have been pulled out of hyperspace at the third defensive line, just like this ship."
"Find out who they are, quickly!" the Grand Moff barked, his entire demeanor showing he was so troubled by the situation that he was beside himself.
So troubled, so troubled, that he was barely masking his indifference to everything happening.
As if he wasn't considering that this ship could carry an entire invasion army, or that it might be carrying some kind of superweapon in its capacious holds.
And this ship, once seen, was unforgettable.
After the end of hostilities between the Galactic Empire and the remaining Separatist Alliance, a number of Acclamator-class vessels were modified to serve as cargo and supply ships.
This followed the Empire's policy of adapting and modifying equipment for its new post-war peacekeeping duties.
They were fitted with additional sublight engines, had their hyperdrives reclassified from class one to class two, as was standard on Republic and Imperial Acclamators during and after the Clone Wars, their internal space was redesigned, and their armament was reduced, leaving only two turbolaser batteries and four point-defense laser cannon batteries, on which the entire mission of guarding the ship fell.
The crew was reduced as much as possible, to about a hundred people, like on some corvette.
No, automation wasn't used here; they just added more droids.
They usually traveled as part of convoys or with escort starships for greater security.
But this ship was alone.
Which already raised a lot of suspicion.
An Imperial cargo ship.
As soon as two patrol fighters — which Freymis didn't recognize as standard TIE models — approached the "intruder's" stern and fired several salvos at its thick armor, the starship dropped speed and clearly went adrift.
A show.
It seemed her assumption that the Alignment was secretly cooperating with the Dominion wasn't just a guess.
Ferrus was putting on a cheap show for her.
Was he really so incompetent that he brought her to an area through which secret convoys passed?
Yes, this worthless bureaucrat could easily have made such a blunder.
"Well, did you identify the ship?" she mocked, looking at Ferrus and the Procursator's commander, who were quietly conferring.
"Yes," Ferrus said absently, chewing his lip. "It really is an Imperial cargo ship..."
"Were you doubting it or something?" Freymis mentally snorted, looking at the intruder's "hull."
No, this design was impossible not to recognize immediately.
Well, if you were a complete nobody who betrayed the Emperor, then yes, why not?
"And what is an Imperial cargo ship doing here?" she asked, realizing that the more absurd the version the Grand Moff came up with, the more opportunity she'd have to figure out what was really going on.
"It was captured by New Republic military," the Grand Moff spread his hands. "They say they fled from the Alignment's forces. And decided to throw themselves on our mercy to save their lives."
"Ha. Ha. Ha," Freymis thought.
A story as absurd as the Grand Moff himself and his plan to recruit her.
She'd expected a tearful tale about defectors from the Alignment who couldn't live under the New Order, but this...
"So I take it you're not planning to hand them over to the Empire?" she asked with a chuckle.
The Lady Inquisitor knew perfectly well what this ridiculous official's answer would be.
"Of course not!" he waved his hands. "These are defectors from the Republic! We can use them for the benefit of the Dominion!"
"The Alignment will be interested in them," Freymis warned.
"Just like other requests from the Empire, we'll ignore them," the Grand Moff smiled, as if he'd just managed to get one over on her with a single phrase.
"Force, what an idiot he is!" Freymis mentally slapped her own face to avoid seeing this farce.
"Well, since you've sorted it out, would you do me the honor of letting me board my ship and leave you?" she asked.
"Well... I was just about to offer you a deal," Ferrus licked his lips. "You swear an oath of loyalty to the Dominion, and I hand this ship, its entire crew, cargo, and everything else over to the Empire..."
Seriously?!
That was his plan?
"Force, I beg you, let this cretin live long enough for me to storm into the Dominion at the head of Imperial forces and kill him personally," Freymis prayed.
"I'm not interested."
"Perhaps...?"
"No."
"What if...?"
"No 'what ifs.'"
"Well," the Grand Moff sagged, "then I won't keep you, Lady Freymis. Just one small request."
"And what would that be?"
"When you get to the Emperor, tell him the Dominion is not an enemy of the Empire. We just want to live the way we've grown accustomed to..."
"He's a complete idiot."
"I'll be sure to pass that along," Freymis said with a fake smile, mentally picturing how she would tear this ridiculous idiot in a Grand Moff's tunic limb from limb.
Slowly roasting him with Force Lightning.
All traitors to the Empire would be destroyed!
* * *
"Your companion is recovering, Guard Obscuro," I said, studying the former Imperial Inquisitor sitting across from me.
"Yes, sir. Thank you for allowing us to use the Guard's bacta tank," he replied.
Since we'd acquired it on the black market, for most cases of treating the wounded (unless they faced mortal danger, disability, or disfigurement) we used kolto.
Which also reached us through contraband channels, but for the same money we acquired a hundred times the volume of medicinal substance.
Kolto is roughly ten times less effective than bacta.
But from a cost-optimization standpoint along the supply line, it was more economical to treat various non-critical injuries and wounds with kolto.
The procedure customary across the galaxy — using bacta for everything from penetrating wounds and post-surgical tissue healing to runny noses and paper cuts — would have cost the budget an astronomical sum.
The inhabitants of the planet Manaan, the Selkath, had no objection to trading kolto with our intermediaries, turning a blind eye to the fact that purchase volumes clearly indicated the supply of healing substance to a vast number of sentients.
And not at all for "personal use," as stated in our suppliers' bills of lading.
Manaan maintained a position of neutrality on matters of galactic conflicts, and so, given the demand for bacta, their kolto trade had long ceased to be profitable.
The reason was obvious: for most of the galaxy's inhabitants, after Isard's expulsion from Thyferra, bacta was a perfectly accessible product.
And not many were eager to deal with the Selkath.
Mostly poor regional governments from the outer rim.
The Dominion, however, could not afford to purchase the necessary volumes of bacta at prices five times above market rates.
So a compromise option was used for routine interventions, reserving bacta for serious cases.
"It's the least we could do to thank you for the operation against Mi-Ha Hutt," I replied.
Reynar didn't argue.
Because it's not every day that a small group, even of gifted sentients, wipes out nearly fifteen hundred enemy fighters and captures valuable intelligence.
"Are you ready for the next mission?" I inquired.
They were generally owed a prolonged rest to recuperate — even Obscuro himself currently looked more like a ghost.
But I needed the rest of their comrades for tasks in another part of the galaxy.
And as a commander, I had no right to fulfill the promise I'd made without backup.
Especially since combat operations weren't expected.
"Always ready, sir," Obscuro said hoarsely.
"In that case, you and your partner are to covertly land on the planet Ryloth," Reynar couldn't hide his surprise upon hearing the name of his beloved's homeworld. "You must depart immediately to arrive before our officer — the commander of the air group aboard the Star Superdestroyer Guard, Major Kreb — reaches the planet. Your primary task is to ensure his safety and prevent any disclosure of information about his identity. You will be provided with all data on his cover identity and the ship he'll be traveling on, as well as access to the tracking and detection system. He must not know you're accompanying him. Nor should anyone else know about your mission."
The last part went without saying — these were the basic tenets of the Shadow Guard.
And anyone who had ever encountered them and heard or seen them was not left alive.
But repeating it once more meant emphasizing the importance of adhering to these conditions.
"Yes, sir. Will there be another task?"
"Indeed," I confirmed, handing him an information crystal. "This contains the names of Ryloth residents who may be potentially Force-sensitive. Your task is to find them, confirm or refute the data on their ability to become Jedi, and recruit them for service to the Dominion."
"What should be done in case of refusal?"
"It's not an option. You will receive support from the same Death Commandos who assisted in the operation in the Allied Tion sector."
I was referring to the Noghri veterans who had been sent to Yalara by Darth Vader and later joined the Dominion, becoming something of a punitive elite among their kind.
An elite that had until recently been tasked with finding and eliminating those Noghri who had voluntarily sided with the Zann Consortium.
Fortunately, all of them had been eliminated one way or another.
"Yes, sir."
It had taken me considerable time to dredge up from memory the names of all the Jedi and Sith from Ryloth who would in some way be known in future events.
At least, those who were known in the history I was familiar with.
I could not allow the strengthening of the Jedi Order — any of those currently being formed in the galaxy.
Recruiting children and adolescents shouldn't be much of a problem, given the humanitarian situation on Ryloth.
"Permission to ask a clarifying question, sir."
"Permission granted, Guard."
"What is Major Kreb's purpose for flying to Ryloth?"
"To fulfill a promise made by his former wingman, who died in one of the battles against the Zann Consortium. That promise was received from a wounded mercenary, who in exchange gave the major's former wingman information that helped save the Chimaera and her crew from possible destruction or heavy damage."
"What exactly is the promise?"
"He is to find and meet with this mercenary's daughters to tell them a lie about his fate."
"Could unforeseen circumstances arise?"
Even setting aside what that meeting implied, Ryloth was a supporter of the New Republic.
And more recently, part of its population had also come to sympathize with the Alliance.
We conducted operations to recruit and relocate the most talented sentients from there, but compared to the numbers of those voluntarily selling themselves into slavery, our volumes were as plentiful as the lakes on the surface of Tatooine.
And replacing the slavers in this part of the galaxy wasn't profitable for us — this was the New Republic's rear, and showing our presence there was not in our interest at the moment.
"They won't just arise; they are guaranteed," I clarified. "It all comes down to the identity of those the major is tasked with meeting."
Our intelligence network had done excellent work...
And it was a shame I'd received the results only after giving my approval.
But backtracking on the situation would undermine my authority and faith in my word.
"Do you have specific information, sir?"
"Yes," I didn't conceal it. "One of this mercenary's daughters is Dia Passik. She was a pilot in the New Republic's Wraith Squadron during the campaign against Dominator Zsinj, but then, due to a romantic relationship with one of the unit's pilots, left the squadron, after which they parted ways."
"And the essence of the problem is...?"
"The essence of the problem is that the New Republic passed off the Wraith Squadron as General Antilles's unit when they were prisoners of Ysanne Isard. And Major Kreb directly participated in the complete annihilation of that unit."
From the expression on Reynar's face, he understood the vast depth of the problem.
But that wasn't all.
"The situation is further complicated by the fact that Dia Passik's sister was for a long time a member of one of the criminal gangs in the eastern galaxy," I continued. "After the gang's destruction, she was recruited and transferred to government service."
"Also a New Republic pilot?"
"No," I shook my head. "Ours. Dia Passik's sister was named Tia. And she was the wingman, as well as the romantic interest, of Major Kreb."
"Was, sir?"
"Was, Guard. She was killed by Rogue Squadron pilots while covering the major at the Battle of Mustafar. As a result, Kreb developed 'survivor's guilt.' Your third and final task, Guard, is to ensure this entire set of information becomes known to both of them. And Dia Passik must return to the Dominion with Kreb. Of her own free will."
Reynar Obscuro's eye twitched.
And again...
Well, who has it easy right now?
* * *
Once, during the first training sessions on the planet Praktik, when the Inquisitorius headquarters was stationed there, she was told a simple but memorable thought.
"If a person is an idiot, no past merits or uniforms will save them from the Emperor's wrath."
Piloting a rather battered Lambda-class shuttle, Freymis was approaching the boundary of the artificial gravity field, which, according to the commander of Grand Moff Ferrus's flagship, was the third line of defense protecting the Dominion's border from unwanted guests.
Left behind were both the Proclamator and the Imperial transport starship on which the rebels had supposedly arrived.
The Lady Inquisitor watched the hologram onto which data from her shuttle's sensors was being fed.
There was no reason not to trust the equipment, so it was quite curious to observe how two ships that had supposedly arrived at this place at this time purely by chance had docked with each other.
They hung motionless in orbit around the planetoid, like distant relatives embracing after a long separation.
A pitiful sight.
Was Ferrus so arrogantly foolish that he thought this charade could be considered convincing in any way?
Fool, what a fool he was.
If earlier, when Thrawn's death and Pellaeon's rise were announced, she had assumed the aging officer was pushed into the leading role because no one would mind feeding him to the bureaucratic meat grinder, now, having become better acquainted with the second representative of the Triumvirate...
She wasn't impressed.
Complete utter idiots.
And if no one had thrown Ferrus out of the Dominion's highest governing body or removed him, then his co-rulers of the state Thrawn had created were the same kind of fools.
She could only shake her head and wonder how they had managed to destroy the Zann Consortium's battle wing and set up such clever traps.
Either they had competent subordinates, like that "Butcher of Atoa," Shohashi, or the Dominion was using Thrawn's developments.
The same trap on the second moon of Tiraggi was clearly not conceived in a day or two, or even a month.
Consequently, these traitors were using the developments of the deceased traitor-alien, who had received Grand Admiral command plaques from the Emperor's hands only because of a moment of weakness and humanity.
Well, so much the worse for them.
The onboard computer reported that the shuttle had left the artificial gravity zone and was perfectly capable of accelerating for a jump into hyperspace to leave this land of traitors forever.
The pair of those same fighters that had supposedly "stopped the intruder" accompanying her also turned away.
Then they settled on an intercept course with the Procursator.
And thereby provided yet another confirmation of the complete farce of what was happening.
There had been no "border violation" here.
If there had been, the duty fighters would have remained at their post, continuing patrol in case the violating ship had dropped some cargo or a transmitter.
In an inactive state, of course.
Such things are always used so that, after a prolonged period, when the border patrol clears out, they activate and begin gathering information.
Or simply serve as a beacon for plotting a safe course for invasion forces.
The onboard electronics of any starfighter should have been sufficient to detect such a "surprise" at close range.
And, since the local pilots were so thoroughly spitting on the provisions of the Imperial Charter, either they too were idiots, like their commander, and the local band of morons was run by the Grand Moff.
Or there were no intruders on that transport ship, and it was yet another secret shipment from the Pentastar Alignment to the Dominion.
Or a ship that was passing through the traitors' territory by agreement.
Quite interesting...
Because, if that were really the case, then it turned out that with the death of Grand Moff Kaine, his secret dealings with the Dominion — about which rumors circulated and which Cronal had asked his Inquisitor agents to look into — were continuing, but under the control of other sentients.
A very interesting situation.
One she should report to the Emperor as quickly as possible so he could resolve the issue.
Or better yet, assign Freymis to handle it.
She had spent too long undercover among the criminals, preparing the ground for their destruction in case they amassed too much power and authority.
The Emperor was far-sighted: not only had he created a third force, subjugating (indirectly, of course) the remnants of numerous criminal organizations, but he had also thought about how to get rid of them with maximum benefit for himself and the Empire.
The navigation computer reported that the course to Yaga Minor, from where she planned to contact the Inquisitorius command in the Pentastar Alignment, was calculated.
She could push the throttle lever all the way forward and leave the territory of the traitors.
But Freymis wouldn't be a Lady Inquisitor if she didn't know how to make a graceful and memorable exit.
Her shuttle had undoubtedly been stripped of all weaponry, even the defensive laser cannons on the stern.
Only the deflectors remained.
Quite strong ones, if she needed to repel an attack.
And there were also the scanners.
Standard ones, of course, but they would do.
The young woman redistributed power to reduce the output of the main engines and heightened the sensitivity of the scanners to the maximum.
She was now outside the communication and scanning range of the Grand Moff's flagship, meaning she could begin gathering reconnaissance data on this part of the Dominion's defensive perimeter.
Something told her that a patchwork state, assembled from dozens of other such patchwork states, couldn't possibly plug all the holes in its borders at once.
Only the hyperspace routes, perhaps.
But one could also arrive in sectors directly, through interstellar void and the cold of space.
A rather lengthy journey that not every sentient would undertake, because uncharted paths in space are always deadly traps of the universe.
Black holes, gravitational anomalies, rogue comets, radioactive radiation, gas emissions, young or supernova stars, pulsars...
On unexplored roads, one could find plenty of trouble for one's reckless head.
That's precisely why no one really used them — life and a ship were always more valuable.
Yes, there were professional pathfinders for new hyperspace routes, but with each passing year, they became fewer.
For various reasons.
However, the key problem in this case was that there were always plenty willing to chart a new route.
But only a handful achieved results.
The rest were either lost in space or died.
Yet there was another category of hyperspace explorers whose probability of discovering a stable and safe course through unknown space was almost always guaranteed.
Or rather, there used to be.
Jedi explorers.
Using the Force, they charted their path among the stars and almost never made mistakes.
The Force could foresee the slightest threat, reveal what was inaccessible to other senses.
And it was to the Force that Freymis was now resorting, bypassing that supposedly impassable defensive barrier that was said to protect the Dominion from uninvited guests.
Two hours later, having moved nearly a thousand units from the starting point and calculating the remaining fuel in the tank, the Inquisitor, deadly tired, finally allowed herself to smile.
As she had suspected, in this Force-forsaken patch of space there wasn't the slightest hint of deadly mines, traps, or any other toys.
Once again, she was convinced of how perfect and dangerous she was to her enemies when the Force was with her.
And no idiot in a Grand Moff's uniform could ruin her mood and subsequent triumph.
But with what she had obtained, Freymis would ruin the mood and sleep not only of Felix Ferrus but of the entire Dominion.
When she returned here.
Obviously, the gravity station that had pulled the Imperial transport ship out of hyperspace was not the third, but the only line of defense.
Well...
That was extremely valuable information.
A pity the HoloNet wasn't responding to her requests and she couldn't transmit this data.
Well, she would deliver it in person.
But first, having set the ship on course with acceleration and leaving only the threat warning system, life support, and heaters operational, the young woman decided to get some rest.
When she woke up, she would plot a course through hyperspace and deliver to her command the data on which side they could strike the Dominion without leaving anyone in doubt about the destructive power of the Empire's punishing fist.
* * *
Grand Moff Felix Ferrus calmly listened to the report from the commander of his flagship.
"At what distance from us is her ship currently?" he inquired after the officer finished his report.
"The last transmission from the pulse beacon came from a distance of one thousand one hundred thirty units from the starting point," the subordinate reported.
"And she covered all that distance at sublight," the Grand Moff summarized.
"The onboard computer reported increased sensor sensitivity," the captain explained. "I assume reconnaissance of our defensive lines."
"Which is precisely why she was let go," the Grand Moff reminded him. "Was the reason for cutting the main engines and moving on impulse determined?"
"Power consumption on the ship has dropped. Meanwhile, the fuel supply is sufficient for a long jump. She can easily reach any of the Alignment's bases if she wishes."
"She can," the Grand Moff agreed. "But she's not doing that. And I'd like to know why."
"The analysts are working on it, sir."
"I want their results immediately," Felix ordered, massaging his stiff neck.
"It will be done, sir."
"Notify our transports and mine-layers to begin preparations for laying minefields," he ordered. "We've already delayed closing this gap too long."
"Should we wait until the Inquisitor makes the jump into hyperspace?" the flagship commander clarified.
"As far as I recall, the pulse beacon is supposed to detach when she gives the command to jump?"
"Exactly, sir. After that, the beacon's sensors will verify whether the jump was actually made, and we'll receive the final data packet, after which the device will self-destruct."
"We proceed only after she makes the faster-than-light jump," Ferrus decreed. "Until then, all transports, mine-layers, escorts, and construction droids are to remain one hundred light-years from this system. Once we receive the report, we begin installing the defensive structures. We must be certain that she has left and cannot possibly verify that her information no longer matches reality."
"Orders understood, sir. Permission to return to duties?"
"Carry on, Captain."
"Yes, sir."
The commander of the Procursator left his quarters, leaving the Grand Moff alone with his thoughts.
Only after the door closed did he allow himself to relax, slumping back in his chair.
He was tired...
If only anyone knew how tired he was.
But Felix didn't let anyone see that he was exhausted by his endless work.
After all, who exactly was he supposed to complain to about the fact that the plan he had devised, approved, and pushed through with Grand Admiral Thrawn had turned out to be so difficult to implement?
No one.
His creation.
And the credit for its implementation would belong to him.
Just as the consequences of failure would also be his.
Ah, who knew that playing the dumb fool who fusses over recruiting an Inquisitor and doesn't notice being walked all over would be so hard?
Several times he had nearly given the order to throw this shrew out the airlock, or, as Gilad liked to say, "Tie her by the neck to the long-range antenna and feed power to the sublight drives."
But he pulled himself together and continued implementing his plan.
Yes, the Dominion's borders were not perfectly blocked by the Perimeter.
Here and there, holes remained that were being patched day by day.
The industry producing space mines and cloaking generators could barely keep up with the demands of the Defense Forces.
The insectoid species within the Dominion barely had time to strip asteroids of useful minerals, reinforce them where necessary, and install the required equipment.
It was a good thing that a considerable number of asteroids filled with unstable fuel were well-suited for these purposes.
All thanks to control over the Peragus system, where one planet had been rich in such chemicals and, as a result of an unfortunate accident, had turned into a vast asteroid field packed with fuel.
Such asteroids required minimal preparation compared to what was needed for other space rocks that didn't have explosive fillings.
The fuel on Peragus II was, of course, garbage, so it was shameful to even use it in junkyards.
But as an explosive, it worked perfectly.
And yet, Peragus had been captured precisely to obtain fuel for the growing fleet of space vessels.
But, based on confirmed data from the inspection at the Chiloon Rift, Ferrus was convinced that within that nebula there was a planet with inexhaustible reserves of better-quality fuel.
Which was precisely what had been allocated to supply various civilian space vessels.
Soon, construction in the Chiloon Rift would begin not just of extraction and processing facilities, but of actual production plants.
And then the nebula would supply not enriched and purified raw materials, but product blanks or high-quality materials.
However, what interested Ferrus far more was the project launched at the galaxy's edge to obtain antimatter.
The substance was dangerous, expensive to produce, but undoubtedly promising for future application.
Especially since Pellaeon would soon eat away at him completely with reminders to solve the problem of the dying planet Eol Sha, which a black hole was creeping up on.
Some backwater world on the fringe, but the gravitational waves from the black hole were tearing it apart.
A volcanic planet rich in minerals was potential wealth for the mining industry.
But Ferrus had no intention of pouring a huge pile of money into it only for the black hole's tidal forces to destroy everything.
So he was funding an antimatter production project.
How was all of this connected?
Well, at first glance, the Chiloon Rift, antimatter production, the black hole, and Eol Sha had nothing to do with each other.
Unless you knew how the planet Carida had lost one of its moons in the recent past.
It was simple.
One idiot cadet decided to remove the symbol of the Caridan Military Academy from the moon's surface.
Using antimatter.
He did.
And the planet broke apart.
Ferrus intended to do roughly the same thing to the black hole near Eol Sha.
And if the scientists' projections proved correct, and the planet survived such a cataclysm (which Felix personally had serious doubts about), then the theory was that the Dominion would have another ultimate weapon for preparing against the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.
Even worse than the "Death Star."
Granted, unbelievably expensive.
And money...
Money was melting away.
The resources tied up in maintaining the "Perimeter" system drained money like a dim-witted wife draining the wallet of an uncontentious husband.
But it couldn't be stopped.
At this point, it was the "Perimeter" and operations of that kind, like the one Felix had just conducted, that guaranteed (and even then, not one hundred percent) that a border violation of the Dominion would not occur without damage to the enemy and attention from the observers.
The "Perimeter" had changed since the first minefields and invisible space rocks from the "Asteroid" project had been laid.
Captain Akrey Dobramu had been in charge of that, and he, tail tucked between his legs, taking with him similarly dim-witted young officers with brains thoroughly washed by human-centric ideas, had fled the Dominion, grabbing "valuable information about the traitors' combat capability."
Now it was a completely different system.
Deeper.
Wider.
With numerous "layers."
However, in most cases, the "layers," consisting of billions of space mines, invisible asteroids, disguised defense stations, and gravity stations filling space, were turned "outward."
This was done so that an enemy trying to fly uninvited into Dominion territory would enter a zone of artificial gravity generated by the stations.
And this zone was completely and utterly packed with explosive objects — mines and disguised asteroids.
In this particular case of the "breach" in the defenses, Ferrus had done the exact opposite.
He had placed the gravity stations as the first line, and behind them would be the minefields and other layers, including additional gravity generators.
Why?
Because the released Inquisitor would return here.
And she would bring an enemy fleet with her.
In this uninhabited system, packed with mines, disguised asteroids, gravity generators, and battle stations, a separate "Surprise" for the enemy would be a planetary shield on an uninhabited asteroid, an underground base, and an indecent number of planetary ion cannons and turbolasers.
The latter were necessary so that any enemy ships that invaded the system and survived the minefield would have the "pleasure" of meeting energy artillery and lose as many ships as possible at this line before the Rapid Reaction Force of the Defense Forces or the "regulars" could deploy here.
"Sir," the comlink crackled with the voice of the duty guardsman. "Officers from the detained ship are here to see you."
"Send them in," Ferrus looked at the cage with the ysalamiri standing under his desk.
The brown lizard was shamelessly dozing and didn't even think to be embarrassed that work was in full swing right next to it.
Well, at least it was protecting him from the Force.
The metal door swung open, and three human men entered.
But at least based on documents and access codes, Felix only had a record of one of them.
The other two were rather colorful characters.
However, he had information on them too.
It had come through a secure channel just as the Imperial transport approached the border.
And only because of the code's high access level, three Gladiator-class Star Destroyers hadn't jumped into the system to destroy the potential invasion force.
Ferrus had no intention of interfering in the affairs of high-ranking Dominion Intelligence agents, but he was interested in only one question.
The very one that had forced him to urgently concoct a "cover story," hoping to plant the necessary seeds of doubt in an Inquisitor fanatically loyal to the Emperor and to throw a little more fuel on the fire of the internal contradictions of the Imperial Remnants.
"Welcome to the Dominion, Agent Cross, Master Windu, and Knight Korr," he rose to meet the trio, who had arrived with a hundred refugees from Coruscant in the Dominion. For some reason, the Korunnai's name seemed familiar, but Felix couldn't quite remember where he'd heard it maybe twenty or thirty years ago. "My name is Grand Moff Felix Ferrus. I am one of the three members of the Triumvirate, the ruling body of the Dominion, on whose territory you now find yourselves. Illegally. We have little time, so I will ask only once and request an honest answer. Who told you that the 'Perimeter' system was not operational in this sector of the border?"
The Agent couldn't have known — it was above his clearance level.
The Jedi, even less so.
But his answer stunned him.
"Grand Moff," the Korunnai spoke. "I apologize for disturbing your peace. But we," he gestured to himself and the young Jedi, came here to join the ranks of the Jensaarai. By the will of the Force."
"The question was different."
"Through the Force," answered the Korunnai named (or was that a surname?) Windu. "It took a lot of time and patience to plot a hyperspace course from Coruscant to the nearest safe place on the border with the Dominion. As you can see, we managed it. And we are ready to serve."
A path through the stars, plotted with the Force...
Well, now it was clear what that Inquisitor woman was up to.
"And you grabbed an Imperial transport ship because it was the most inconspicuous?" Felix inquired.
"To be honest, yes, sir," said Agent Cross. "Transports like this, carrying ammunition and supplies, are very common visitors to Coruscant at this time. Sneaking aboard, bypassing the perimeter, leaving the system, then disarming the crew and escaping was far easier than using a shuttle."
"The DSB and the Jensaarai will deal with that," Intelligence agents were definitely tough guys and clones, but that much... "Wait. You said — ammunition and supplies?"
"That's correct, sir," Cross confirmed. "Enough to equip a dozen assault and infantry legions. I falsified the identifiers so the ship would pass through the documents as unloaded, not as one that had just arrived on the planet."
"That's a lot of equipment," Ferrus muttered.
Such a ship could carry up to half a million metric tons of cargo, or sixteen thousand men with a full combat loadout for several years' standard supply.
But why would the Commonwealth, which controlled Coruscant at that moment, pack it all with supplies for nearly a hundred thousand soldiers?
That's what he asked the trio.
"I'm afraid there are far more of them, sir," Cross said. "We stole one ship out of ten in a convoy. And they arrive every day."
"Apparently, the Imperials have acquired a whole army of conscripts from somewhere and intend to deploy it right on Coruscant," Knight Korr spoke up. "Unfortunately, we were being hunted and couldn't find out more."
"That's not necessary," the Korunnai said calmly, meeting the office owner's gaze. "The last time such volumes of military property were delivered to the capital, the Old Republic acquired a clone army."
Felix, who had had the same thought, just sighed heavily.
"And you haven't tried coming back from a deep-penetration raid behind enemy lines with more pleasant news?" he inquired.
"Well..." the gray-haired agent looked at his companions. "Actually, I did drag along a Master of the Old Jedi Order ready to serve the Dominion, who nearly killed Palpatine thirty years ago..."
Ferrus froze, processing the information.
Ah, well, that made sense now...
A chill ran down his spine.
Wait.
What?!
Master Windu?!
That Master Mace Windu?!
"Thrawn won't be pleased," the Grand Moff thought, sincerely thanking the Chiss for the advice to keep the ysalamiri close.
Because if the lizard weren't there, the Korunnai would have sensed his emotions and...
"I believe the Grand Moff is not very happy with this news," Windu stated calmly.
It seemed the ysalamiri had gone bad.
Or maybe it was just written all over his face?