Book Review: Outbound Flight

The novel begins five years after Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace with three smugglers, Captain Dubrak \"Rak\" Qennto, Maris Ferasi and Jorj Car'das, on board the ship known as the Bargain Hunter They are on the run from Progga the Hutt's ship. In their haste, Car'das punches in random coordinates for hyperspace to evade Progga, and the Bargain Hunter's crew find themselves in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. However, Progga happened to follow them, and he reveals through a comm call to the three smugglers that he believes that the Hunter is going to a secret place full of treasure. Before anything else can happen, the Hunter is captured by unknown ships, and Progga's ship fights with those ships for a quarter of an hour before he is destroyed by his opponents. Afterwards, the Bargain Hunter is taken on board one of the ships and Qennto, Maris and Car'das are introduced to Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo of the Chiss Ascendancy Fleet, who takes them further into the Unknown Regions to introduce them to the rest of the Chiss and to have the Bargain Hunter repaired from the damages it took against in the chase against Progga.

The story then shifts to Coruscant where Jedi Master Jorus C'boath and his Padawan Lorana Jinzler interrupt a meeting Chancellor Palpatine has with his aide, Kinman Doriana, so that C'boath can demand more funding for his Outbound Flight Project. Palpatine states it is not possible due to the problems currently plaguing the Republic. Doriana suggests that if C'boath can resolve a mining strike on the planet Barlok, he may get the funding to finish Outbound Flight. After C'boath and Lorana leave Palpatine and Doriana, Palpatine orders his aide to keep an eye on C'boath so he doesn't do anything foolish on Barlok since his arrogance is well known. Doriana complies and returns to his apartment with his things already packed and makes a call to his real master, Darth Sidious to inform him about the situation with C'boath. When C'boath goes to the Jedi Temple to demand permission from the Jedi Council to resolve the problems on Barlok, he and Lorana pass a strange man who works in the Temple and who has been staring at Lorana on a regular basis.

Later, after C'boath gains permission from the Council to go to Barlok, Jedi Master Mace Windu calls Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi to the Council Chamber and tells him to take hisPadawan, Anakin Skywalker, to Barlok so they can supervise C'boath's activities.

Meanwhile, back in the Unknown Regions, Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo is teaching Qennto, Maris and Car'das more about his language while the three smugglers in turn teach the commander theirs, while also telling Mitth'raw'nuruodo that they are actually profiteers rather than smugglers. Also, Mitth'raw'nuruodo spends more time with Car'das and they eventually bond so much that the commander allows Car'das to call the commander by his \"core name\" Thrawn. Car'das spends much of his free time studying the Chiss and learns that they have aggressive opponents known as the Vagaari. A battle against the Vagaari leaves Thrawn critically wounded, and the three smugglers are introduced to Thrawn's brother, Thrass, and Admiral Ar'alani of the Chiss Fleet. Thrawn's wounds are later treated and he and Qennto, Maris and Car'das resume their normal activities in the Unknown Regions. Also, Car'das informs Thrawn of the Trade Federation's battle droids as the two continue to study each other, and Thrawn begins to study the droids himself.

On Barlok, C'boath and Lorana meet up with Obi-Wan and Anakin. C'boath leaves Lorana with the other two Jedi to socialize in the city the four Jedi are in while C'boath goes to arrange the time and place of the meeting with the Barlok council members where they will attempt to resolve the mining problem. At a restaurant, Lorana, Obi-Wan and Anakin spot Jerv Riske, a bounty hunter, and intend to ask him what he's doing on Barlok. Instead, Obi-Wan and Anakin get into a tangle with an Aqualish while Lorana chases down Riske herself. Riske knows about her and corners her in an alley, asking her why she is on the planet. The two eventually leave each other alone after Riske agrees to help the Jedi out in the problem on the planet and Lorana reunites with Obi-Wan and Anakin. They then track down a child native of Barlok who stole a tool. Obi-Wan and Anakin confront the kid and ask him why he did this when the kid reunites with a group of adults. Anakin realizes that there is a human on the planet organizing natives in a sabotage attempt on C'boath's mission. Next, Lorana is kidnapped and brought into a warehouse and is rescued by Anakin and Obi-Wan who fight off her kidnappers. When C'boath's meeting finally comes along with the Barlok council members, the human behind the plot, who is actually Kinman Doriana using a disguised name to trick his employees so they wouldn't reveal anything if they came into contact with the four Jedi, launches a missile that Obi-Wan, Anakin, Lorana and Riske can't stop, but when it reaches the room C'boath is having his meeting in, he stops it with the Force and scares the council members to quickly resolve the conflict. However, unbeknownst to anyone other than Darth Sidious and Doriana, C'boath's stopping of the missile was actually set up...

When Outbound Flight is finally finished, Lorana finally meets the strange man, and finds out he is Dean Jinzler, her brother, who reveals that their parents used to work in the Jedi Temple, but when Lorana was born, the Jedi sensed her Force abilities and cast Lorana's family out of the Temple so they wouldnn't distract her from her Jedi teachings. After Lorana's parents found other jobs, Dean pretended he wasn't a relative of Lorana and got a job in the Temple so he could keep an eye on Lorana. Dean also reveals he is jealous of her since their parents always talked about Lorana after the Jedi took her.

Later, the Jedi Council grants C'boath permission to ready the Outbound Flight project to go outside the galaxy with thousands of passengers and a few Jedi, including Obi-Wan and Anakin for their acts on Barlok. Lorana is promoted to Jedi Knight thanks to C'boath and is also a passenger aboard Outbound Flight. When the titanic vessel is finally launched from Coruscant into space for its long journey toward the outside of the galaxy, as well as finding Jedi Vergere as a side mission, who was missing on the living planet of Zonama Sekot two years before and Obi-Wan and Anakin failed to find her there, Kinman Doriana goes over the passenger list. He informs Darth Sidious that Anakin Skywalker is aboard Outbound Flight, and then Sidious is angered by this and says he will bring Skywalker from the big vessel himself while Doriana should meet up with Vicelord Siv Kav of the Trade Federation in a raid that is strong enough to destroy Outbound Flight close to the edge of the galaxy.

On Outbound Flight, Lorana meets up with a little child named Jorad Pressor and his parents, and Jorad's dad, Dillian, happens to be an engineer aboard the vessel. Jorad wishes he can become a Jedi, but when it is learned he doesn't have enough midi-chlorians in his body to possess the Force, he wishes he can nurture enough, but even that wouldn't happen. Meanwhile, C'boath's arrogance grows as he deliberately tries to steal Force-potential children from their parents to train them as Jedi and makes unfair decisions to resolve conflicts, not to mention he is using many engineer rooms as classes for Jedi children, putting problems on the engineers themselves. Later, during Outbound Flight's journey, Chancellor Palpatine arrives on board Outbound Flight from one of his personal ships to collect Anakin and Obi-Wan for them to settle a problem on another planet.

Meanwhile, as the Trade Federation prepares its massive task force to wipe out Outbound Flight, the Chiss Ascendency Fleet locates the forces which happen to be near their space. Thrawn goes to investigate the situation with his own task force, as well as bringing the three smugglers along to have them watch, and in the ensuing battle between Thrawn's forces and the Trade Federation, the Federation's forces are almost completely wiped out as Thrawn happened to use a scramble code to confuse the battle droids and cancel out the orders the Federation leaders, such as Vicelord Siv Kav. With Kav's vessel the only remaining vessel of the Federation in the battle, Thrawn boards it and gains control over the battle droids stationed with Kav and Doriana and makes a truce with Kav. Doriana and Kav tell Thrawn and Car'das, who joined him, that they will destroy Outbound Flight because of the treacherous Jedi aboard. Thrawn learns about the Jedi, and while he and Car'das are visitors aboard Kav's ship, Thrawn deducts that the name Doriana is using to trick his employees and everyone else is not his real name, even sharing this information with Car'das. When Thrawn confronts Doriana about it, Doriana confirms Thrawn's suspicions and introduces Thrawn to Doriana's true master, Darth Sidious, via holocam feed. Doriana also tells Thrawn that Sidious is a Sith, the ancient enemy of the Jedi long thought dead. Thrawn then agrees to help Doriana and Kav destroy Outbound Flight.

Later, Car'das believes Thrawn is holding him hostage in the Chiss confines, and he escapes. However, he is captured by the Vagaari and agrees to be their prisoner so they won't harm him.

When Outbound Flight finally makes it to the edge of the galaxy, they confront Thrawn's forces, but he tells Doriana and Kav he won't destroy Outbound Flight yet until he meets up with Outbound Flight's leaders. He meets C'boath and Lorana Jinzler, and informs him that the Sith are behind the plan to destroy Outbound Flight, and he warns Outbound Flight to turn back to Coruscant. However, due to C'boath's arrogance, the Jedi Master disregards this warning and banishes Thrawn from the vessel. C'boath then prepares Outbound Flight for battle, but the Vagaari then arrive, thanks to Car'das's information, and the Jedi all band together through a telepathic link to confuse the Vagaari. However, Thrawn takes advantage of this distraction and orders his fighters and the Trade Federation's starfighters and begins destroying Outbound Flight and the Vagaari's forces. When Outbound Flight is severely wrecked and the Vagaari continue being defeated, C'boath, now disfigured from the near destruction, begins Force-choking Thrawn, thus completing his journey to the dark side. Lorana is there to witness it, and Doriana, who can't bear to see Thrawn die due to his intelligence and usefulness, turns the battle droids to place radiaion bombs on Outbound Flight, killing C'boath and several others aboard, including all the remaining Jedi, except for Lorana. Many survived the onslaught, including Lorana, and the Chiss begin to debate on Thrawn's actions on Outbound Flight's destrucction, also calling the attention of Aristocra Formbi, and as punishment, Thrawn is exiled from the Chiss to an unnamed planet. However, Thrass and Car'das investigate the still barely structural Outbound Flight for survivors, and they find Lorana. The trio knows Outbound Flight won't survive long in space, so Thrass orders Car'das back to Thrawn while his punishment has not been called yet and he and Lorana tend to drive Outbound Flight to a nearby, unnamed planet. There, Outbound Flight crashes, killing Lorana and Thrass and stranding the remaining survivors there. Meanwhile, Thrawn releases Car'das, Qennto and Maris and reveals to Car'das that he had been feeding his suspicions so that he would deliberately be captured by the Vagaari so the Chiss can destroy them, and he even considers Car'das a friend in the end. Meanwhile, when Thrawn meets with Doriana and Kav, Doriana is forced to kill Thrawn by shooting him since he knows too much about Sidious, but when Doriana reminds himself of Thrawn's usefulness, he refuses to kill Thrawn. Kav then takes the blaster from Doriana's hand and fires it at Thrawn. But Thrawn activates a shield he took from a destroyer droid and the shot reflects back to Kav, killing the Vicelord. Thrawn then reveals to Doriana that the Chiss had a run-in some time before with a group of aliens known as the |Far Outsiders.



The thing I like best about the EU is how they connect the whole story together in little ways. The best about this one is the appearace of Thrawn. This is before his time with the Empire, and he is every bit the genius he was then. His speech about the Far Outsiders is an obvious foreshadowing of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, of the New Jedi Order Series.

This book was so awesome, I loved it. It introduced Thrawn, of which I had already read the Thrawn trilogy, but it was awesome nonetheless. Probably one of my favorite books so far, I heard there was an Outbound Flight 2, but I have not attempted to verify that account just yet. This is a great read for anyone, and especially if you are just getting into the EU. Kieran, great review as always. Much detail, and enough \"spoilers\" to get people intrested enough to go and actually read it. I'm thinking of reading it again, after seeing this thread.

DK

Could there be another after the way this one ended? There is something in a book later on where Luke and Mara Jade find the wreckage, Survivors Quest is the name. That could be the sequel.