## Chapter 20

1 Thanksgiving weekend 1989, a couple of weeks after I’d been given the Thrawn Trilogy, was the local Chambanacon SF convention, which as usual we were attending. On Saturday evening we went out to dinner at a nearby Sizzler with four close friends, friends to whom I’d entrusted the still-secret project I’d just been handed. And not just entrusted with the knowledge: I’d let them read the first-draft outline I’d written up for the trilogy.

Naturally, I wanted to discuss the story with them and get whatever feedback they’d come up with. But as we sat there, we realized we had a problem. All around us were other SF fans from the convention, and at the first utterance of the names “Han,” “Luke,” or “Leia” ears would rotate like radar dishes, and I would be in big trouble with Lucasfilm.

So we did exactly what I had Han and Winter do here: we came up with a code on the fly. Luke and Leia became Brother and Sister; Han became Friend, Chewie became Copilot, and so on. Names like Mara and Thrawn weren’t a problem, of course, since they would be meaningless to anyone else.

I was actually surprised at how well we all pulled it off, especially without any prior consultation.

They say “write what you know.” In this case, I definitely did.

—TZ

2 Another Tuckerism: more friends from Tampa.

—TZ

3 Mike LoBue plays bagpipes, and plays them very well. So I’m sure this “annoying music” wasn’t bagpipes. Certainly not his.

—TZ

4 Tuckerism: Necronomicon, mushed together with their traditional Ygor/Igor party.

—TZ

5 The numbers here don’t fit with any of the various Star Wars dating schemes, but are references to the local planetary dating system. Another subtle indication that the New Republic’s hold on these systems isn’t as strong as they might like.

—TZ

6 Once again, I’m indebted to West End Games for the rules and subtleties of sabacc.

—TZ

7 Another code created on the fly. One of Han’s many hidden talents.

—TZ

8 The established rules of sabacc included the random shifting of the cards’ values. The skifter itself, though, was my creation.

—TZ

9 Just one more indication that Karrde has an ethical core lurking under the surface.

Also another indication of how many of Lando’s contacts are of the somewhat dubious sort.

—TZ