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Heir to the Empire

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Template:Infobox SW Books

Heir to the Empire is the first book in a trilogy of novels known as The Thrawn Trilogy, all written by Timothy Zahn.

Description

The book is set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. The Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, and driven out the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet to a distant corner of the galaxy. Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting twins. Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long-awaited line of Jedi Knights.

Thousands of light years away, Grand Admiral Thrawn, the last of the Emperor's Grand Admirals, has taken command of the shattered Imperial Fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the new Republic. Thrawn is searching for a Dark Jedi and is succeeding in restoring the Empire. The Republic will be forced to face this new threat with the utmost caution in order to end the Empire's threat to the galaxy.

Plot

Captain Gilad Pellaeon, a veteran of the old Empire, is on board the Chimaera and receives word from scout ships about a scan raid on the Obroa-skai system. On their mission they pulled a dump from a central library system.

While Luke is sleeping Obi-wan has come to say goodbye and relay one last message. Leia Organa Solo, using her Jedi powers, senses Luke's distress and sends Threepio to visit him even though it is the middle of the night. She is currently pregnant with twins and knows that Luke is depressed but does not know the reason why. Han is away on a contact mission that takes him far from Coruscant. He and Chewbacca are awaiting the arrival of a smuggler and old friend Dravis.

Talon Karrde prepares a business dinner for Mara Jade, a fellow smuggler who works for his organization. As he continues with his offer, they get word that the Chimaera has made orbit and is launching two shuttles, both heading their way. Karrde finally convinces them to let him send two men out to help them get the ysalamiri creatures that they are looking for.

The Imperial team with Thrawn, Palleon, and Thrawn's assistant land on Wayland with the intention of visiting the Emperor's storehouse. A man steps forward and agrees to take them to the mountain. The man, Joruus C'Baoth, turns out to be the Guardian of the Mountain. The ysalamiri that Thrawn brought with him to the planet prevents C'Baoth from using his powers.

The Council for the New Republic is meeting and Han Solo is delivering his report from the contact mission. Borsk Fey'lya, a Bothan, is arguing the futility of Han Solo seeking to hire smugglers to work for the New Republic. After the meeting ends, Han and Leia start to leave but are stopped by Mon Mothma. She asks Leia if Luke knows about the planned trip to Bimmisaari.

Han, Chewbacca, Luke and Leia arrive on the planet Bimmisaari for a diplomatic mission for the New Republic. They are informed that the chief negotiator is ill and they are encouraged to do some sightseeing until the Bimms are ready to conduct the talks. Han and Leia head to the marketplace with a guide while Luke goes to look around the Tower of Law where the planetary council is housed. After a brief interlude in the marketplace, Han and Leia discover that they are surrounded by mercenaries.

Luke hears Leia's call through the Force and answers her back. He quickly realizes however, that he surrounded by gray-skinned aliens with bizarre stick-weapons trained on him. Using his lightsaber he kills them. Han and Leia are trying to figure out a way to escape from the enemies surrounding them. Using a diversion, Han uses his comlink to call Chewbacca to bring the Falcon to save them.

Grand Admiral Thrawn receives news that the Noghri have failed in their attempt at capturing Luke and Leia on Bimmsaari. Thrawn convinces C'baoth that they will focus on capturing Leia while C'baoth will seek Luke out himself.

Back on Coruscant, Han is justifying his decision to leave Bimmisaari so quickly after the attack on them. Admiral Ackbar, commander in chief of the New Republic fleet, agrees with Han's decision while Borsk Fey'lya, a Bothan on the Inner Council of the New Republic, feels that their departure sends bad messeges.

Grand Admiral Thrawn, on board the Chimaera, prepares for a three-pronged attack on the New Republic. Before the New Republic has the chance to bring in reinforcements, Thrawn orders all the attacks off and calls back all the ships. Han pays a visit to Luke and Leia during her Jedi training.

While on Bpfassh, Leia and Han find it unusual that, with so much firepower, they did not push for more destruction. As they prepare to leave, the gray-skinned Noghri aliens once again converge on Leia but do not move to kill her.

Luke is making his approach to Dagobah and trying to find a good spot to land his X-wing. As he pokes around, he goes to a dark cave that he senses is strong with the Dark Side of the Force. Reluctant to go in, he finally moves forward and comes out with a metal cylinder. When he gets back to his X-wing, Artoo, his astromech droid, beeps a message to Luke that he had seen a cylinder just like it back during the time of the Rebellion.

Taking inventory of the attack, Lando Calrissian learns that he has lost fifty-one of his mole miners to the Empire. Leia feels that the attack may have been another attempt to capture her but Lando does not agree.

Leia and Chewbacca prepare to leave for Kashyyyk. On the Millenium Falcon Han and Lando discuss plans to pay a visit to Talon Karrde as part of Han's earlier mission to obtain cargo ships from smugglers. The Chimaera intercepts a message coming from the Falcon in Leia's voice, but Thrawn knows it is merely a recording of her voice.

When Luke comes out of hyperspace, he sees that he has not gotten as far away as he would have liked. In her sleep, Leia hears Luke call to her but then hears nothing else. The wookies Ralrra and Salporin welcome them as they disembark from the ship.

Artoo once again wakes Luke from his deep sleep to alert him to a ship that is fast approaching them. Luke guesses that the Wild Karrde is either a smuggler, a pirate, or a disguised warship. Still, he takes his chances and goes aboard as he has no other option.

Luke wakes up and realizes that he is no longer on the freighter. When he finally wakes up, he notices Mara Jade is in the room with him. Luke and Karrde discuss exactly what Karrde's intentions are for Luke. Karrde is undecided as to what he wants to do with Luke.

Han uses Threepio to transmit a message to Coruscant in Leia's voice. Han interprets the message to mean that Fey'lya is gathering forces to possibly push Ackbar out of the New Republic Council. In the meantime, Han and Lando leave the Falcon to meet with a fellow smuggler who is supposed to tell them the location of Talon Karrde's operations.

Karrde alerts Mara to the two visitors on their way in: Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. Since he is still holding Luke as a hostage, he tells Mara to move him into a storage area so that neither Han nor Lando notice anything suspicious when they arrive.

Karrde has the meeting with Han and Lando and is intrigued by the New Republic's offer. When Thrawn hails Karrde, he says he needs more ysalamiri and wants to have a talk. He tells Karrde that he is in the market for some new warships.

Not long after Luke and Artoo's escape, they notice that Mara is not far behind them. Thrawn insists on sending stormtroopers to aid in a search and rescue mission.

Karrde discovers that Han and Lando know about the Imperial visit to Myrkr. They sneak out to the storage sheds to snoop on the prisoner that Karrde is reportedly holding. When they get to the storage room Luke was in, they notice that the door opener was tampered with.

It is the middle of the night on Kashyyyk and Leia is awake. As she gets up she is attacked by a Noghri alien. She successfully defends herself but then the alien stops his attack. Chewbacca and Ralrra burst in immediately and Leia tells them not to kill the alien. Using her lightsaber she disables their ship so they are forced to leave.

As they get closer to the edge of the forest, Luke and Mara fight off predatory creatures. Mara decides to stop for the night and is then swiftly attacked by another predatory creature. Luke tries to scare it off but the tactic does not work. He manages to grab his lightsaber from Mara and he attacks the creature and kills it.

On board the Chimaera, Pallaeon confirms that there are a hundred and twelve transient warships available at the Sluis Van Shipyards. They activate the cloaking shield and set the decoyed freighter toward Sluis Van for their attack.

Threepio alerts Lando to the message that Luke has just sent to him. Aves is about to blow the rescue plan by beginning the attack and Lando threatens him with a blaster. As Han and Luke make their way across the archway, Luke signals to Artoo to propel his lightsaber toward him.

The New Republic's X-wing fleet, Rogue Squadron, is at the Sluis Van Shipyards. Wedge Antilles notices a bulk freighter passing through without an escort. The battle has begun and the New Republic is unprepared.

The Falcon makes its approach at the start of the battle. Immediately they jump into the fray. Han knows that the Empire has come to steal ships. He watches the battle unfold in disbelief as he notices many Imperial Star Destroyers are around.


Reception

Heir was extremely well-received, making it onto the New York Times best seller list. Its influence on the Star Wars Expanded Universe was considerable; the EU had previously been primarily elaborated in RPG games, comic strips and other esoteric media. Heir revitalized and opened large portions of the post-Empire EU (such as the very name of the former capital of the Empire, "Coruscant"), and also introduced some of the most beloved EU characters: Talon Karrde, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade and Gilad Pellaeon.

Characters

   

Dead characters mentioned:

  • Bill Slavicsek, Heir to the Empire Sourcebook (Star Wars RPG) (1992) ISBN 0-87431-179-9 (West End Games) (Hardcover)
  • Mike Baron, Olivier Vatine, Fred Blanchard, Star Wars: Heir To The Empire Limited Edition (1997) ISBN 1-56971-180-1 (Dark Horse) (Slipcase Hardcover)
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