"The Last Command" Part 1 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Creating a special clone

C'Baoth had Pelleaon use his clearance to approve a special clone project without alerting Grand Admiral Thrawn. C'Baoth then made sure that Pelleaon would not remember authorizing the project.

Thrawn made sure that he was personally always in a ysalamir field, but obviously security leaks still happened when other high-ranking officers met C'Baoth outside of one.

Answer: Shooting through the planetary shield

Thrawn had Dreadnaughts equipped with cloaking devices sneak through the shield during normal traffic hours. Then, his Star Destroyer showed up. It bombarded the shield, with the Dreadnaughts hiding just beneath it. The Dreadnaughts fired in sync with the blasts, creating the illusion of firing unimpeded through the shield.

This coordination was only possible with the crews of the Dreadnaughts controlled by C'Baoth through the Force.

Answer: The TIE Fighters were close enough to pick up the transmission.

"The Last Command" was published in 1993, well before end-to-end encryption had become standard for data communication, which is why the heroes were worried about the nearby TIE Fighters picking up the transmission. Instead, they performed a manual pseudo-encryption. Han confirmed that Wedge had been at Xyquine and knew about the Cracken Twist.

He then had Leia add 2 to the second digit of each coordinate, and then send them. Wedge and the Rogues would know how to "decrypt" it. Their exit vector would look similar to any coordinates picked up by the Imperials, but their end point would be lightyears away.

Answer: Tracking Thrawn's supply of clones

The original lower estimate for growing a clone was a year, with three to five years being preferred. Thrawn was somehow able to supply a new batch every twenty days, and Luke was looking for their source.

Years later, "Attack of the Clones" would be released, establishing that growing a mature clone would take ten years. This was justified by having a clone's stability proportional to its growth time.

Answer: Talon Karrde

Karrde and Luke were both "just wandering around", but both seemed to be searching for Thrawn's clone supply. Karrde told Luke about the attack on Ukio, and the expected growth time for a stable clone. Luke told Karrde about Thrawn's accelerated growth rate.

Thrawn would spend the rest of the novel trying to get his smuggler friends to help him figure out where the supply of clones was coming from, with hopes of selling that information to the New Republic for a large sum.

Answer: No one had come to pick him up.

Ghent had been sent to Coruscant by Mara before the final battle in the previous novel to clear up the issue with Ackbar's arrest. He solved the mystery in the first two days after arriving. After that, no one from Karrde's organization came to get him, so he just stayed where he was.

Despite having a suite available, Ghent took up residence in the hospital's waiting room where he could keep an eye on Mara.

Answer: Working on the Delta source problem

Mara asked if the New Republic was paying him for his services. He wasn't sure, but suspected they may have offered. Getting lost in a difficult slicing problem was exactly how Ghent liked to pass the time.

Answer: A blaster

The blaster was hidden in a storage device meant to be so boring that no one would ever discover it ("The Complete History of Corvis Minor"). It was a hold-out blaster, which was smaller than most, and could be hidden in a forearm holster for quick access.

Answer: Kill Mara Jade

No one in the New Republic knew where Weyland or the Emperor's storehouse was, but Mara did, and she was their guest. If they ever thought to ask her, they might learn its location. Thrawn had trusted Mara in the previous novel, but that was a mistake. Now, he just wanted her silenced.

Answer: Thrawn promoted the operator.

A similar situation happened in the first novel of the "Thrawn Trilogy", "Heir to the Empire". Vader had been known to punish failure with executions. Timothy Zahn had wanted to spare the operator to show that Thrawn was different. However, Zahn was bound by a charity event. The winner of the event got to be in the novel, and the runner-up got to choose whether that character lived or died (so the character died). Zahn decided to include the runner-up in the novel as the operator's commanding officer.

This time around, the tractor beam operator had a very different attitude towards his job and failure. He was nervous when he'd failed, knowing what had happened the last time. Instead, Thrawn commended the operator for attempting something new (anything new) when an unknown situation presented itself, instead of passing the blame up the chain of command for not being trained correctly. Thrawn promoted the operator, and assigned him the task of researching novel tractor beam techniques to deal with new situations.

Answer: Honoghr, the Noghri home world

The Noghri had started cleaning up their planet in earnest, but had not revealed anything to the Empire. They were experimenting in a secluded valley with new farming and decontamination techniques.

When Luke was there, he had to stay a little longer when a Star Destroyer appeared in orbit. The Noghri offered to try to destroy it, but Luke declined, not wanting to bring the wrath of Empire down on the Noghri.

Answer: Jaina and Jacen

The baby girl Jaina was born first, followed soon by her brother, Jacen. Star Wars publishing would continue for the next twenty years, with both being major characters. Readers would see them grow from children, to teenagers, to adults, becoming Jedi Knights, and then Masters.

Han and Leia had a third child after the twins, Anakin Solo. Even later, Luke Skywalker would become a father, naming his son Ben. Interestingly, in the Disney reboot, it was Han and Leia's child who was named Ben.

Answer: A-wings hid behind X-wings during an attack run.

Wedge was flying to protect a Mon Calamari cruiser that was in trouble, but there was a screen of TIE Fighters in the way. Garm Bel Iblis ordered Rogue Squadron to break away. The TIE Fighters began following the Rogues, leaving a hole in their screen. The A-wings that had been hiding behind the X-wings' sensor profiles managed to speed through to help the distressed cruiser. When the TIEs turned to stop the A-wings, the Rogues were able to rejoin the battle behind them.

A decade later, during the "Hand of Thrawn" duology, also written by Timothy Zahn, Admiral Pelleaon used this maneuver himself against someone purported to be Garm Bel Iblis. He used Preybird fighters to mask missiles. When his opponent was caught off by the maneuver, Pelleaon knew he wasn't battling the real Bel Iblis.

Answer: Interdictors could pull reinforcements out of hyperspace close to New Republic targets.

Traveling through hyperspace was accurate enough to get close to planets, but coming out near smaller targets (like enemy ships) was a lot harder. What Thrawn did was have his Interdictor cruisers create gravity wells near New Republic ships, and then had his own Forces jump towards them.

Instead of the attacking ship having to make precise calculations, they would automatically be pulled out right where they needed to be.

Answer: A recording of Thrawn's attack on Ukio

Gillespee had tried to retire on Ukio, but then Thrawn showed up and ruined that plan. Gillespee was one of the few other smugglers who openly shared Karrde's dislike of Thrawn. When Thrawn showed up, Gillespee got out his macrobinoculars and recorded the attack.

The recording showed the discontinuity of the turbolaser blasts at the planetary shield, and would give the New Republic some insight into how Thrawn would have pulled off his illusion.

Answer: Thrawn stole them from Lando Calrissian.

Lando had been stockpiling the resources from his Nklon operation as far back as "Heir to the Empire". He was waiting for the market to be more favourable to the metals he had. Thrawn also knew what kind of businessman Lando was, and decided to take the lightly defended resources.

Thrawn's attack left Lando destitute, and his mobile city was no longer moving. He had 20 standard days until the his operation would be on the oppressive sunny side of the planet. He had to either get his base moving again, or evacuate all his employees. He decided to go back to Coruscant with Garm Bel Iblis to ask the New Republic for help.

Answer: Lando Calrissian was in the vision.

Luke thought Lando was on Nklon, and didn't know about Thrawn's attack. Lando was on his way to Coruscant to petition the New Republic for a ship to help him evacuate his stranded and injured miners.

The Noghri offered to let him leave earlier, but it might ruin the Noghri's facade. Luke decided he'd wait on Honoghr. He would end up being too late to fend off the attack.

Answer: The Palace Security personnel were absent.

The guards had been in place before the meeting. After seeing two halls without guards, Bel Iblis became suspicious. They thought it was probably nothing to worry about until Lando tried to use his comlink, and found all frequencies were being scrambled.

They moved to warn Palace Security and get Lando's blaster, and ran into Mara Jade sneaking around. They originally thought that she was the troublemaker, but she pointed them towards the Imperial commando team that had infiltrated the palace.

Answer: Mara used a secret passage to get behind them.

As the Emperor's Hand, Mara had grown up in the Imperial Palace, and knew its secrets better than the current occupants. The Imperial team had multiple guards set up to hold back any New Republic counter attack that might come while the main team broke into Leia's room to kidnap her and the new twins. Mara managed to get past two guard points (taking out some guards from behind), and was able to get to Leia's suite just as the commandos broke through.

Answer: Surrender.

The commandos had just broken through the heavy door when Mara told Leia to surrender. When Leia did, the blasters abruptly stopped, and they were momentarily confused by the changing situation. Mara used that moment to attack the team from behind. As they turned to her, Han also got off a few last shots, and the situation was finally secured.

Answer: Mara Jade

The commandos had originally been ordered to kill Mara, but they hadn't found her. Instead, even when incapacitated, Major Himron attempted to fulfill his mission in some way, by throwing doubt on Mara. Even though Mara had just helped fend off the Imperial attack, Admiral Drayson placed Mara under house arrest.

Answer: Jabba's Palace on Tatooine

Mara had been disguised as one of Jabba's dancers, and was present to make sure Luke Skywalker died when he met the Hutt. After Luke had survived the Rancor, she had begged Jabba to come on the sail barge, but was rejected. Lando had also been undercover at Jabba's palace, as a guard, seen in "Return of the Jedi".

Answer: Niles Ferrier

Karrde had asked Gillespee to invite their most prolific smuggler friends. He hadn't wanted Ferrier to show up, but he also hadn't told Gillespee that. Karrde was concerned that Ferrier was in too deep with the Empire. Gillespee noted that all smugglers took jobs for the Empire, but Karrde was insistent that Ferrier's relationship with Thrawn was more than a simple contract.

Answer: The local Imperial garrison attacked.

When speaking to members of the New Republic, Karrde was insistent that he was neutral. However, even his smuggling friends saw that he was a lot friendlier towards Luke and Leia than he was to Thrawn. Karrde said that he was concerned about Thrawn in particular, and just wanted to pass along information to the New Republic collected during regular operations.

Mazzic took the lead for the rest of the smugglers, and declined to go along with Karrde's plan. Then, a wall of the cafe was blown open, and the local Imperial garrison attacked the smugglers' meeting. The smugglers won the firefight, but Lishma, one of Mazzic's people who hadn't even fought, was killed. This was enough to push Mazzic and the rest of the smugglers to agree to Karrde's plan.

Answer: Thrawn had wanted to keep the smugglers neutral.

Ferrier had been impressed with his actions. He thought that he'd successfully infiltrated the smugglers' alliance and gained Karrde's trust. He would be able to start pulling it apart from the inside, and gain information.

However, Thrawn hadn't wanted that. He had given instructions to not attack the smugglers, knowing that they would want to stay neutral if they could. He had explicitly worked with each smuggler sometime recently to build rapport, and incentivize classic smuggler neutrality. Ferrier had undone that work.

More than thirty Imperial soldiers had also died in the attack, and Thrawn did not taking their deaths lightly.