It began as the ultimate voyage of discovery-only to become the stuff of lost Republic legend .
. . and a dark chapter in Jedi history. Now at last acclaimed author Timothy Zahn returns to
tell the whole extraordinary story of the remarkable-and doomed-Outbound Flight Project. The
Clone Wars have yet to erupt when Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth petitions the Senate for support of
a singularly ambitious undertaking. Six Jedi Masters twelve Jedi Knights and fifty thousand
men women and children will embark-aboard a gargantuan vessel equipped for years of
travel-on a mission to contact intelligent life and colonize undiscovered worlds beyond the
known galaxy. The government bureaucracy threatens to scuttle the expedition before it can even
start-until Master C'baoth foils a murderous conspiracy plot winning him the political capital
he needs to set in motion the dream of Outbound Flight. Or so it would seem. For unknown to the
famed Jedi Master the successful launch of the mission is secretly being orchestrated by an
unlikely ally: the evil Sith Lord Darth Sidious who has his own reasons for wanting Outbound
Flight to move forward . . . and ultimately to fail. Yet Darth Sidious is not the mission's
most dangerous challenge. Once underway the starship crosses paths at the edge of Unknown
Space with the forces of the alien Chiss Ascendancy and the brilliant mastermind best known as
Thrawn.” Even Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi aboard Outbound Flight with his young Padawan student
Anakin Skywalker cannot help avert disaster. Thus what begins as a peaceful Jedi mission is
violently transformed into an all-out war for survival against staggering odds-and the most
diabolical of adversaries. Timothy Zahn's unique mix of espionage political gamesmanship and
deadly interstellar combat breathes electrifying life into a Star Wars legend.
