With his watershed trilogy of novels beginning in 1991, author Timothy Zahn created two of the most enduring characters of the expanded universe: Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Both will return in his forthcoming novels from Del Rey Books. The next one scheduled is Outbound Flight, due out this October, but as Zahn explained during a panel on Sunday, it was a long path before reaching this point.

In the year 2000, LucasBooks approached Zahn about finally telling the story of Outbound Flight, the ill-fated Jedi-led expedition to explore for intelligent life beyond the borders of the galaxy. "Of course, I said yes," recalled Zahn. During these initial discussions, the book was slated to come out just prior to the release of Episode II. This was roughly where it also happened to fall in the in-universe timeline, just prior to Attack of the Clones.

"I said 'this gets better and better,'" described Zahn. "I started on the outline, but word came down that for some reason, it would have to come late in '05. So I put it on the shelf for the moment. A year or two later, they came back to me and said, 'we're doing this book, Tatooine Ghost, which is kind of a Han and Leia story and we thought it'd be nice to do a Luke and Mara story. Would you be interested?'"

Zahn was interested, and while he was working on what would become Survivor's Quest, he saw the opportunity to link both the prequel-era Outbound Flight and the New Republic-era Survivor's Quest. "So, for those of you who think I left a bunch of plot threads lying around because I lost interest, no. They're all in [Outbound Flight]."

Zahn produced both outlines simultaneously. As Zahn described in his author's panel, the Chiss mastermind Thrawn will feature heavily in the book. "There's a certain amount of Jedi action," he said. "Jorus C'baoth is there. I also have Anakin and Obi-Wan for the first half of the book. A large amount of it, though, is Thrawn and tactics and how he's going to actually destroy Outbound Flight, defeating a whole bunch of Jedi in the process." Zahn also confirmed that Jorj Cardas would figure prominently in the story.

Zahn also gave a glimpse at another book in early development. "It's working title is Allegiance. I like that because we have three different people and groups with allegiance issues in the book." Zahn plans to begin writing the book in August and is currently making adjustments to his outline. "It is set right after A New Hope," he revealed. "So I have all the major characters. Han and Leia are still sniping at each other, Luke is not a Jedi (hopefully he's not whiny), I'm going to have to find a good role for Chewbacca, and Mara is at the height of her powers as the Emperor's Hand." Zahn also confirmed that Vader will have a minor role, Thrawn is not likely to appear (he's out in the fringes of the galaxy, after all) and stormtroopers will be featured.

Through the course of questions and answers with fans, Zahn answered two frequently asked questions. One was on the possibility of the Thrawn clones revealed in the Hand of Thrawn duology returning in the future. "To be honest, I hate the idea of bringing back a dead villain. It's so comic book," he said. "Unfortunately, with cloning technology I'm stuck with the possibility, because Thrawn is too good not to have considered the option. There is one scenario I would consider bringing back a clone, and that would be if we were in very serious danger yet again, as we always are in the GFFA, and the clone Thrawn has to come and save the day, except that he knows he is not Thrawn."

Zahn described his interest in the potential identity crisis and inferiority complex inherent in that scenario. "They're all sure he's capable of great things, only he's not sure that he can. I think that would be a very interesting character to write."

At the end of the panel, Zahn took time to clarify the origins of the planet Coruscant -- a planet whose name first appeared in 1991's Heir to the Empire, but wasn't seen on screen until 1997's Return of the Jedi Special Edition release.

"Just to make it clear, I did not invent the planet," he said. "George Lucas had invented the planet-wide city a long time ago. When I was starting the Thrawn Trilogy, they told me to coordinate with the West End Games source material, and they had it listed as the Imperial Planet. Well nobody names a planet 'Imperial Planet,' so I thought it needed a name, so I picked the word that means glittering: 'Coruscant.' Apparently, when it came time to choose a name [for the films], people persuaded George to go with Coruscant and be done with it. So I felt very vindicated -- the tail wagging the dog. It was an honor to be slipped into the movies this way."