“To portside,” Che’ri corrected. She knew that one, anyway.
“To portside,” Thrawn agreed with a smile. “See how the positions of the stars changed?”
Che’ri nodded. Their ship had turned a little to the left, the same way she’d moved the handgrip. “Yes.”
“The display just above it—there—shows the precise angle of your turn. Now move the same lever forward a bit.”
This time, the changing stars showed the ship’s nose had dropped a little. “Aren’t we getting off course?”
“It’ll be easy enough to get back,” Thrawn assured her. “Now, the left-hand grip controls the thrusters. Right now it’s set at its most delicate level, so that a small movement translates to a small increase or decrease in thrust. Rotating the grip will change that; we won’t bother with that right now. Ease it forward—just a little—and note how our speed changes on that display—that one right there.”
By the time they finished the lesson, half an hour later, Che’ri’s head was spinning. But it was a strangely exciting kind of spin. She hardly noticed any strain over the next few hours as she used Third Sight to guide the ship toward the edge of the Chaos.
When she was done navigating for the day, after they ate dinner together, she asked if he would give her another lesson.
And that night, for the first time she could remember, she had a dream about flying that wasn’t a nightmare.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Thrawn had told Che’ri that there was an arc of systems a short distance into the Lesser Space regions outside the Chaos that should be promising. So far, though, the arc had turned out to be a bust.
One of the worlds had looked interesting, but aside from a local patrol force it didn’t seem to have any military presence at all. The next three worlds were only sparsely settled, though one of them was at least civilized enough to have a long-range triad transmitter.
But the fifth world…
“What are those?” Che’ri asked, staring at the small objects flitting back and forth across the long-range sensor display. They looked like shuttles or missiles or fighter craft, but they seemed hardly big enough for even a pilot, let alone a passenger or two.
“I believe those are robotic combat craft,” Thrawn said, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he gazed at the display. “Powered and operated by artificial intelligences called droids.”
“They run their warships with machines?”
“Some of them, yes,” Thrawn said. “Indeed, if the reports are true, one side of the massive war taking place in Lesser Space is largely being waged by such droids.”
Che’ri thought about that. “Seems kind of stupid,” she said. “What if someone gets into the controls and turns them off? Or gets into the factory and changes all the programming?”
“Or if their intended programming leaves errors and blind spots that can be exploited,” Thrawn said. “The desire to minimize warrior deaths is futile if the war is then lost. Increase the focus on Sensor Four, please.”
Che’ri nodded and keyed the correct control, a small part of her brain noting with satisfaction how comfortable she’d become in the cockpit over the past few days. Thrawn had turned out to be a much better teacher than she’d expected.
Or maybe she was just a really good learner.
“What do you see there?” Thrawn asked.
Che’ri frowned. There was something weird in the center of the display she’d just adjusted: perfectly round and giving off a strong but alien energy signature. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“I have,” Thrawn said thoughtfully. “But the energy shield I saw was aboard a ship. This one appears to be protecting a building.”
“It’s a shield?” Che’ri asked. Now that he mentioned it, it was shaped like the shields of the old-time warriors she’d seen pictures of. “Is that like our electrostatic barriers?”
“Same protective function, but much stronger and more versatile,” Thrawn said. “The Ascendancy would benefit greatly from that technology.”
Che’ri looked sideways at him. He wasn’t thinking of trying to go down there, was he? Not with all those robot things buzzing around.
He seemed to sense her look and her sudden fears. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to charge in on our own,” he assured her. “Though with a full complement of decoys aboard, getting through their sentry screen would be trivial. Still, an aerial force implies a similar ground force, and you and I are hardly equipped to deal with that degree of opposition.”
“Okay,” Che’ri said cautiously. He still had that intense look in his eyes. “So…what are we doing?”
“Our mission has always been to find allies,” Thrawn said, reaching forward and manipulating one of the sensor controls. “But perhaps we don’t need an entire army of them.”
“How many people do we need?”
He pointed at one of the other displays. “Let’s start with one.”
Che’ri blinked in surprise. Centered in the display was another ship, about the same size as theirs. It was floating all dark and silent and low-power, and was clearly watching the same buzzing robot ships she and Thrawn were. “Who’s that?”
“No idea,” Thrawn said. “But the appearance and energy profile don’t match any of the other ships we’ve seen since leaving the Chaos.”
“Doesn’t look like the robot ships, either,” Che’ri offered.
“Excellent observation,” Thrawn said, and Che’ri felt her face warm with satisfaction at the compliment. “It’s possible the pilot is scouting for the opposite side of the war. If so, we may have found an ally—there!”
Che’ri stiffened. The other ship’s energy profile had suddenly changed. Even as she opened her mouth to ask what was going on, the ship rotated a few degrees, and with a flicker it disappeared into hyperspace.
“Quickly, now,” Thrawn said, and Che’ri’s board went dark as he took control. “Get ready for Third Sight.”
“We’re going after it?”
“Actually, I’m hoping to get ahead of it,” Thrawn said, running power to the thrusters and hyperdrive. “The first world we visited was the most populous and therefore the most likely place from which to send a message or to rendezvous with allies.”
“Wouldn’t one of the more empty worlds be better for that?”
“In theory, yes,” Thrawn said. “But a scout would want to avoid drawing any more attention than necessary. The fewer the inhabitants, the more scrutiny is automatically attached to strangers.”
“Okay,” Che’ri said, making a face as she activated the navigator board. By the time they were ready, the other ship would have a good ten-minute lead on them. How did Thrawn think she could get ahead of it?
“It’ll be all right if we arrive second,” Thrawn said. “But even with their lead, I have no doubt we’ll arrive first. A ship that size is unlikely to have a hyperdrive and navigational system equal to a Chiss ship and a Chiss sky-walker.”
Che’ri hunched her shoulders once as she got a grip on the controls. Darn right. They were Chiss, and they were not going to lose a race. Not to anyone. “I’m ready,” she said. “Tell me when.”
Che’ri’s first thought when she came out of her Third Sight trance was that she’d lost. The other ship was nowhere to be seen: not approaching the planet, not in orbit around it. She sighed, pressing her hand to her throbbing head. She’d tried so hard, but—
“There,” Thrawn said.
Che’ri felt her eyes widen, her headache instantly forgotten. He was right. The ship they’d seen watching the robot craft had just emerged from hyperspace. “What do we do now?”