“You?” Ar’alani suggested.
“Me,” Thrawn confirmed. “He nevertheless withheld his fire and let us leave in peace.”
“It could simply have been a matter of time and place,” Ar’alani said. “But let’s assume you’re right. Continue.”
“We also know that Yiv is still working on bringing the Vaks under his control,” Thrawn said. “That caution is evidenced by the fact that, again with Vak forces presumably available to him, he instead brought in Lioaoin warships to handle the fighting when you came to extract Thalias and me from Primea.”
“I agree,” Ar’alani said. “And given your reading of the Vak passion for exploring all thought lines, it may be proving harder than he expected to get the entire leadership, let alone the entire planet, to follow him.”
“Exactly,” Thrawn said. “And therein lies our opportunity. If we can draw some of the Vaks to our side and show the rest that Yiv’s intentions aren’t to build them up in prestige but merely to use them to fight and die in his battles, we may drive a wedge between them. If that doesn’t halt his plan completely, it should at least buy us enough time to convince the Syndicure that the Nikardun are a threat that needs to be dealt with.”
“Excuse me,” Che’ri spoke up hesitantly, half lifting a hand.
Thrawn and Ar’alani looked at her. “Yes?” Thrawn invited.
“What if he just leaves Primea and goes somewhere else?” the girl asked. “There are a lot of other aliens in the area.”
“He could do that, yes,” Thrawn said. “But he’s put a lot of time and effort into winning over the Vaks. I don’t think he’ll give up without serious persuasion.”
“It’s not just the Vaks themselves, either,” Ar’alani added. “Primea is a center of diplomacy and trade for that entire region, a place where people from all those other alien species you mentioned come to talk and do business. If Yiv can get the Vak leaders to endorse him, or at least let him hang around and meet visitors, he’ll have vectors into all those other nations.”
“We’ve already seen that he likes a mixture of conquest by force and conquest by persuasion,” Thrawn said. “Even his title, General Yiv the Benevolent, tries to have it both ways. No, I think that if we try to move him off Primea he’ll choose to stand and fight.”
“Or bring the fight to us,” Ar’alani warned. “Even if it’s not his preferred timing, he might decide he needs to hit the Ascendancy.”
“He won’t do it directly,” Thrawn said. “He’s more likely to send the Paataatus against us again.”
“And that’s better how?”
“Better for him because he doesn’t waste his own forces,” Thrawn said. “Better for us because we already know how to beat them.”
“Well, you know how to beat them,” Ar’alani muttered. “Sometimes I’m not so sure about anyone else.”
“We can beat them,” Thrawn assured her. “But no, the crucial battle will be at Primea. If we can demonstrate Yiv’s weakness and his treachery in front of the Vaks, they may reconsider their choice of allies.”
“Sounds like a long shot,” Ar’alani said. “But barring any kind of direct intervention, I think it’s all we’ve got. So how do we do that?”
Thrawn seemed to brace himself. “We invite the Vaks to help us.”
And as he laid out his plan, Thalias discovered that he had one more surprise left to offer.
“You disapprove,” Thrawn said.
Ar’alani eyed him, her head still spinning from the idea he’d presented to her and the two younger women. “Of course I disapprove,” she said. “The whole thing is totally illegal in at least three directions. Not to mention insane.”
“Agreed,” Thrawn said. “The question is, are you willing to go through with it?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Of course,” Thrawn said. “If you don’t want to be part of this, say so now, and we’ll do it alone.”
“How?” Ar’alani retorted. “If Yiv behaves the way you expect, the three of you will end up alone against his entire Primea force.”
“The Vaks will come to our aid.”
“If the message gets to them and they don’t decide to ignore it.”
“There are clearly thought lines of distrust toward Yiv,” Thrawn said. “The message will offer another thought line, one I hope their culture will require them to at least consider. And if I’ve read Yiv correctly, he should soon find himself in deeper trouble than he expects.”
“If you’ve read him correctly,” Ar’alani said, leaning on the critical word. “Come on, Thrawn, this is crazy. Even for you.”
“Do you see an alternative?” Thrawn countered. “We can’t just sit back and let the Nikardun close in around us, gathering allies and biding their time until the Chaos closes around us and we stand alone against them. Yiv has to be stopped, and this is the best time and place to make our move.”
“Again, what if you’re wrong?” Ar’alani asked. “What if everything you’re reading in Yiv and the Vaks is wrong? You’ve been wrong before, you know.”
It wasn’t the most diplomatic thing she could have said, she realized, and instantly regretted it as a flicker of old pain crossed his face. “I’m sorry,” she apologized.
“No, you’re right,” he said. “My failure with the Garwians…but this is different. This is war, not politics.”
“Which are just two sides of the same coin,” Ar’alani said. “You’ve never understood that or been able to deal with it.”
“I know,” Thrawn said. “That’s why we need to flip this particular coin over to the war side.”
Ar’alani sighed. He’d been wrong once—spectacularly wrong—and it had cost him. But it was no use arguing about it.
Besides, he was right. Yiv and the Nikardun had to be challenged, and doing so in a system the enemy wanted to hold on to was their best chance. “I’m not sure the techs are entirely finished with the Vak fighter we brought back from Primea, but Ba’kif can probably talk Ja’fosk into letting us return it. You’re sure Che’ri can fly it?”
“Absolutely,” Thrawn said. “She proved quite adept at flying our scout ship, and the fighter has similar parameters. I’ll just need to relabel some of the controls and run her through an exercise or two and she’ll be ready.”
“I assume you aren’t going to let Ba’kif or Ja’fosk in on that part of the plan?”
“I’m not that crazy,” Thrawn said with a small smile.
“But they’re going to find out eventually,” Ar’alani said. “Have you thought about what they’ll do to you afterward?”
A muscle in Thrawn’s throat tightened. “If we’ve eliminated Yiv as a threat, it doesn’t matter what they do to me.” He cocked his head. “My real concern is you. What they’re going to do to you when it all comes out.”
“I’m an admiral,” Ar’alani reminded him. “Not nearly so easy to get rid of.”
“They’ll still try.”
“Only if we fail. If we succeed—” She shrugged. “But the future’s out of our hands. Let’s go with the present. So. First job: Retrieve the Vak fighter from the techs and get it prepped to fly. Second job: Teach Che’ri how to fly it. Third job: Get started on the customized freighter you want. Fourth job: Work out the message you want delivered to the Vaks. Fifth job: Get the Republic shield ready to go for our surprise attack. Sixth job: Get my fleet ready to go.”
“That one may be seventh,” Thrawn interjected. “Sixth job is probably to get Ba’kif and Ja’fosk to sign off on this.”
“I was thinking of waiting on that until after Che’ri and Thalias have left,” Ar’alani said. “That’s not going to be a pleasant conversation, and it’ll be safer if it’s too late to call the fighter back. Eighth job—” She braced herself. “Spin it all up, and turn it loose.”