“General Bel Iblis?” an officer at one of the monitor stations spoke up. “We’re getting a funny reading from the Chimaera’s hangar bay.”
“What is it?” Bel Iblis asked, stepping over to the console.
“It reads like the launching tractor beams being activated,” the officer said, indicating one of the multicolored spots on the Star Destroyer silhouette centered in his display. “But it’s pulling far too much power.”
“Could they be launching a whole TIE squadron together?” Leia suggested.
“I don’t think so,” the officer said. “That’s the other thing: near as we can tell, nothing at all left the bay.”
Beside Leia, Bel Iblis stiffened. “Calculate the exit vector,” he ordered. “All ships: sensor focus along that path for drive emissions. I think the Chimaera’s just launched a cloaked ship.”
Someone nearby swore feelingly. Leia looked up at the master visual display, her throat suddenly tight as the memory of that brief conversation she and Han had had with Admiral Ackbar flashed back to mind. Ackbar had been solidly convinced-and had convinced her-that the double-blind properties of the cloaking shield made it too user-dangerous to be an effective weapon. If Thrawn had found a way around that problem …
“They’re firing again,” the sensor officer reported. “And again.”
“Same from the Death’s Head,” another officer put in. “-firing again.”
“Signal the battle stations to track and fire along those vectors,” Bel Iblis ordered. “As close to the Star Destroyers as possible. We’ve got to find out what Thrawn’s up to.”
The word was barely out of his mouth when there was a flash of light from the visual display. One of the Escort Frigates along the first projected vector was suddenly ablaze, its aft section trailing fiery drive gases as the whole ship spun wildly about its transverse axis. “Collision!” someone barked. “Escort Frigate Evanrue—-mpact with unknown object.”
“Impact?” Bel Iblis echoed. “Not a turbolaser shot?”
“Telemetry indicates physical impact,” the other shook his head.
Leia looked back at the visual, where the Evanrue was now wreathed in burning gas as it fought to get its spin under control. “Cloaking shields are supposed to be double-blind,” Leia said. “How are they maneuvering?”
“Maybe they’re not,” Bel Iblis said, his voice dark with suspicion. “Tactical: give me a new track from point of impact with the Evanrue. Assume inert object; calculate impact velocity by distance to the Chimaera, and don’t forget to factor in the local gravitational field. Feed probable location to the Harrier; order it to open fire as soon as it has the coordinates.”
 “Yes, sir,” one of the lieutenants spoke up. “Feeding to the Harrier now.”
“On second thought, belay that last,” Bel Iblis said, holding up a hand. “Order the Harrier to use its ion cannon only—repeat, ion cannon only. No turbolasers.”
Leia frowned at him. “You’re trying to take the ship intact?”
“I’m trying to take it intact, yes,” Bel Iblis said slowly. “But I don’t think it’s a ship.”
He fell silent. On the visual, the Harrier’s ion cannon began to fire.
The Dreadnaught opened fire, as indeed Thrawn had predicted it would. But only, Pellaeon noted with some surprise, with its ion cannon. “Admiral?”
“Yes, I see,” Thrawn said. “Interesting. I was right, Captain—our old Corellian adversary is indeed in command below. But he’s allowed us to lead him by the nose only so far.”
Pellaeon nodded as understanding suddenly came. “He’s trying to knock out the asteroid’s cloaking shield.”
“Hoping to take it intact.” Thrawn touched his control board. “Forward turbolaser batteries: track and target asteroid number one. Fire on my command only.”
Pellaeon looked down at his magnified visual display. The Dreadnaught had found its target, its ion beams vanishing in midspace as they flooded down into the cloaking shield. It shouldn’t be able to take much more of that… .
Abruptly, the stars in that empty region vanished. For a couple of heartbeats there was complete blackness as the cloaking shield collapsed in on itself; then, just as abruptly, the newly uncloaked asteroid was visible.
The ion beams cut off. “Turbolasers, stand by,” Thrawn said. “We want them to have a good look first… . Turbolasers: fire.”
Pellaeon shifted his attention to the viewport. The green fire lanced out, disappearing into the distance as they converged on their target. A second later, there was a faint flash from that direction, a flash that was repeated more strongly from his visual display. Another salvo-another-and another-
“Cease fire,” Thrawn said with clear satisfaction. “They’re welcome to whatever’s left. Hangar bay: firing status.”
“We’re up to seventy-two, sir,” the engineering officer reported, his voice sounding a little strained. “But the power feedback shunt’s starting to glow white. We can’t keep up these dry firings much longer without burning out either the shunt or the tractor projector itself.”
“Close down dry firing,” Thrawn ordered, “and signal the other ships to do likewise. How many total firings have there been, Captain?”
Pellaeon checked the figures. “Two hundred eighty-seven,” he told the Grand Admiral.
“I presume all twenty-two actual asteroids are out?”
“Yes, sir,” Pellaeon confirmed. “Most of them in the first two minutes. Though there’s no way of knowing if they’ve taken up their prescribed orbits.”
“The specific orbits are irrelevant,” Thrawn assured him. “All that matters is that the asteroids are somewhere in the space around Coruscant.”
Pellaeon smiled. Yes, they were … except that there were only a fraction of the number the Rebels thought were there. “And now we leave, sir?”
“Now we leave,” Thrawn confirmed. “For the moment, at least, Coruscant is effectively out of the war.”