After Leia leaves, Pellaeon heads off to investigate Moff Disra’s potential treason. Upon their meeting Disra, of course, denies playing any part in the attacks.  Inside Disra’s office, Pellaeon uncovers several hidden data cards that incriminate Disra in countless acts of wrong doing.  He takes them with him for later use.

Karrde and Shada land on Exocron in hopes of speaking with Jorj Car'das.  They are lead into a very shabby home that is actually a front for Car’das’s magnificent underground palace.  Car’das proclaims he is no longer the man he used to be.  He leads them into a huge library filled with thousands of data cards that he has amassed throughout his lifetime, but says he does not have a copy of the Caamas document.  Discouraged, Karrde wants to leave, but is convinced to spend the night.  Car’das tells the tale of his kidnapping at the hands of a Dark Jedi.  After killing the rest of his crew, Car’das is taken to Dagobah.  They encountered Yoda who, after a long battle, destroyed the Dark Jedi, then using the Force he healed Car’das.  Car’das felt that he had picked up some abilities of the Force and used it to vastly expand his smuggling empire.  Unfortunately his health began to fail and he returned to Yoda demanding to be healed.  Yoda told him that he would die for his selfishness and that he could no longer help him as he was preparing for a new student to arrive.  He did point him towards a group of monks that were able to help him survive.

R2D2, Mara and Luke are being carried by Qom Jha towards the palace.  From the aerial view they realize that it appears to be giant hand sticking out of the earth – The Hand of the Thrawn!  They are dropped off near a tunnel that allows them to enter the fortress.  Once inside they see a hologram that shows a vast area of space that is labeled as Imperial territory.  Luke has never seen this area, but knows that if is many times larger than the current Imperial territory.  In fact, they realize, no one knows it exists at all otherwise it would have been used before.  They also discover a huge cloning facility, inside of which is a nearly completed clone of Grand Admiral Thrawn.  He had left this area hidden for his triumphant return. They notice that one wall is nearly ruined from the lake pressing against the other side.  R2 attempts to download all the information for them, when suddenly they are attacked by two sentinel droids.

While on the Errant Adventure, Bel Iblis tells everyone that their task is to get the Caamas document and transmit the information to the New Republic.  Their survival is secondary.

In the middle of the night, Shada creeps into Car’das’s database room looking for information about her people and the destruction of her planet, Emberlene.   Car’das interrupts her and tells her that what she seeks is vengeance not justice.  He tells her that, in fact, her people had spent two years conquering all the nearby planets.  Those planets then banded together to hire a mercenary group to destroy her world.  She is emotionally wrecked.   She has no clue where to go with her life saying only that she needs a higher cause to work on.  Karrde walks in and Car’das thanks them for staying with him.  He offers them a choice between the history of Emberlene or information that will be critical to the entire galaxy.  Karrde allows Shada to choose and she chooses wisely.  The information they receive is indeed astounding.  Karrde decides not to take it directly to Coruscant, but somewhere even more effective.

Pellaeon learns that Disra, Tierce, and Thrawn are headed towards Yaga Minor.  He is also contacted by Talon Karrde who is looking to make a deal with some important information.

Bel Iblis tells his troops that the main fleet will be a diversion while they pilot the Errant Adventure into Yaga Minor using phony identification posing as an Imperial ship fleeing the New Republic ships.  As they make their approach, Moff Disra learns of the incoming ship and realizes what Bel Iblis is up to and prepares to trap them within the perimeter of the planet.  Thrawn contacts Bel Iblis and tells them their plan is hopeless.  While Bel Iblis tries to break through the tractor beam, Admiral Pellaeon arrives onto the ship to speak with Disra and the others.  He accuses all of them of treason and identifies Thrawn as an imposter named Flim.  He also reveals that the real Major Tierce died ten years earlier.  The new Tierce is a hybrid clone of Thrawn and Tierce.  Clone Tierce mocks Disra for allowing him to pull his strings throughout this entire mission.  When they try to arrest him, he attacks violently.  From nowhere, Shada appears and kills him.  Pellaeon tells Flim to order all Imperial ships to stand down, he then asks Bel Iblis to do the same thing.  Karrde arrives and Pellaeon thanks him and tells him a treaty with the New Republic is close at hand.

Mara and Luke are still in a fierce battle with the sentinel droids.  During the attack, the two fight back to back and Mara realizes her soul is open to Luke, just as his is open to hers.  She has never felt such a connection.  She races passed the droid and uses her saber to destroy a portion of the wall allowing water to pour in knocking the droids out of commission.  Mara and Luke eventually make it up to a railing with R2.  They are almost of out options.  They share a brief moment together, and with water rushing in to seal their fates, Luke Skywalker asks Mara Jade to marry him.  Luke suggests blowing up the cloning facility and riding the blast to safety.  Mara, using a lightsaber technique she learned from the Emperor, succeeds and they escape the now destroyed fortress.  Once off the planet, they turn to R2 regarding the information he was collecting.  The droid tells them that among the information retrieved is Thrawn’s copy of the Caamas document!

Two weeks later, Pellaeon and Gavrisom sign the treaty between the Empire and the New Republic.  Talon Karrde convinces both sides to share his talents and he becomes the central intelligence agency for each.  He has asked Shada to join this new venture.

Luke and Mara discuss their future together.  They will both teach the more advanced Jedi students as they travel the galaxy defending the New Republic from whatever evil it faces.