if it hadn't, in its death throes, taken the Super Star Destroyer Executor with it.Д®ven after five years Pellaeon couldn't help but wince at the memory of that image: the Executor, out of control, colliding with the unfinished Death Star and then disintegrating completely in the battle station's massive explosion. There would have been few in the Fleet's upper echelons who would have genuinely mourned its loss. The fact that he'd ignored the battle station's proven vulnerability and gone ahead with a second Death Star had merely reinforced that suspicion. There had been many commanders in the Fleet, he knew, who had seen the Emperor's original Death Star as a blatant attempt to bring the Empire's vast military power more tightly under his direct control, just as he'd already done with the Empire's political power. Slowly, Pellaeon let his eyes sweep across the bridge, feeling the echoes of old anger and hatred twist through his stomach. Now, in contrast, the Chimaera had virtually no one aboard except young men and women.

He looked down at the equally young man at the engineering monitor. In the old days-at the height of the Empire's power-it would have been inconceivable for a man as young as Tschel to serve as a bridge officer aboard a ship like the Chimaera. which was, Pellaeon thought with a trace of old bitterness, where the problem really lay. 'Yes, sir.' Spinning around with a reasonably good imitation of a proper military turn, the lieutenant headed back toward the communications console. 'And have the sentry line go to yellow alert. 'Have the wing commander report to the bridge ready room with his report as soon as the ships are aboard,' he told Tschel. If they'd had armed emissary ships there at the time of the raid. Obroa-skai held a strategic position in the borderland regions, and intelligence reports indicated that the New Republic was making a strong bid for its membership and support. The wing commander said there was some attempt at pursuit, but that he lost them.' 'Only a little, sir-the natives apparently took exception to them pulling a dump of their central library system. 'We've just received word from the sentry ships, sir: the scouts have returned from their scan raid on the Obroa-skai system.' Pellaeon held his eyes a few seconds longer, then lowered his head in a slight nod. Routine information is not-repeat, not-simply shouted in the general direction of its intended recipient. 'This is the bridge of an Imperial Star Destroyer. 'This is not a cattle market in Shaum Hii, Lieutenant Tschel,' he said at last, keeping his voice calm but icy cold. Pellaeon let the silence hang in the air for a handful of heartbeats, long enough for those nearest to notice. 'Uh, sir-' He looked into Pellaeon's eyes and his voice faded away. The young duty officer's brisk walk faltered came to an abrupt halt. Then, with all the regal weight that fifty years spent in the Imperial Fleet gave to a man, he straightened up and turned. Keeping his eyes on the engineering display, Pellaeon waited until he could hear the sound of the approaching footsteps. 'Captain Pellaeon?' the voice repeated, closer this time.

'Yes, sir,' the other said carefully, and keyed for the trace. The engineer threw a questioning glance up at him. 'Trace this line for me,' he ordered, tapping a light pen at the schematic on the display. Pellaeon, leaning over the shoulder of the man at the Chimaera's bridge engineering monitor, ignored the shout. 'Message from the sentry line: the scoutships have just come out of lightspeed.' 'Captain Pellaeon?' a voice called down the portside crew pit through the hum of background conversation.

Star wars heir to the empire pdf