Ahead, just off the Springhawk’s starboard bow, two Vak patrol ships were on the move, heading toward the supposedly crippled ship. “So do we continue to play dead?” Kharill asked. “Somehow, I can’t see the Nikardun standing off and courteously letting us recover before trying to stomp us again.”
“I assume Ar’alani’s got a plan—”
An instant later the sky lit up as one of the two Vak ships disintegrated in a blaze of Nikardun laserfire. “Nikardun!” Ar’alani snapped again. “Do not attack! Do not attack!”
She might as well have saved her breath. There was a second laser barrage, and the other patrol ship was gone as well. “Nikardun, those were not combatants,” Ar’alani ground out.
“Maybe they weren’t before,” Kharill said, an odd tone to his voice. “But I do believe they are now.”
Samakro frowned. He was right. All around them, the Vak patrol ships that had been studiously staying away from the combat zone were suddenly on the move. In groups of three and four they were converging on the Battle Dreadnought, their missiles blazing toward the huge ship, their lasers flashing against its electrostatic barriers and digging into its hull.
“Lesson for today,” Kharill continued. “Don’t get so focused on one enemy that you end up making another one. Ready to come back to life?”
“Let’s not,” Samakro said. “Ar’alani said we were teetering on the edge of disaster. It wouldn’t look very good if we suddenly showed we weren’t.”
“Yes, I doubt the Vaks would be happy to know they were betrayed by one side and manipulated by the other,” Kharill agreed. “Then…?”
“We sit back,” Samakro said. “Try to avoid any obvious attacks.
“And watch the show.”
“What is his plan?” Yiv shouted, leaning over to slap Thalias across the back of her head. “What is his plan?”
“I don’t know,” Thalias said.
“He brings in Chiss warships to attack me,” Yiv snarled as if she hadn’t spoken. “He goads the Vaks into conspiring with them against me. What is his purpose? What is his goal?”
He reached down and dug his fingers into her hair, twisting her head around to face him. “What is his plan?”
“I don’t—” Thalias winced back as his hand slapped at her face, managing to turn just far enough to take the blow on her ear instead of her cheek. The concussion sent a spear of pain and dizziness through her whole head.
“There’s no need for that, General,” Thrawn’s calm voice said over the bridge speaker. “My plan is to put you in a box. And so you are.”
“I can destroy you whenever I choose,” Yiv bit out.
“Once you’ve moved within weapons range,” Thrawn amended. “A position I’ll note you don’t seem that eager to achieve.”
“Would you like to see your death coming more quickly?” Yiv retorted. “Helm: Increase speed.”
“I thought you wanted to bring me aboard the Deathless so that you could kill me yourself.”
“You invited me yourself to come get you,” Yiv said. “Make up your mind.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Thrawn said. “It’s already too late. You’ve spent too long here for the Vaks and your own people not to conclude you don’t wish to join the battle over Primea. Leaving now will be interpreted as an attempt to escape from me. Either way, your reputation is permanently damaged.”
“Only if there are any witnesses left to tell a tale other than my own,” Yiv said.
“Interestingly enough, I’ve had that same thought,” Thrawn said. “You have only one move left, only one way to salvage your name and position. You’ll come within tractor beam range and bring my ship aboard. I’ll disembark, you’ll transfer my companions aboard, and they’ll leave in peace.”
Yiv gave a contemptuous snort. “A long way to go, Chiss, just to take me where I planned to go in the first place. As I think about it, perhaps it would be just as satisfying to destroy you where you sit.”
“And what of my companions?”
“I told you I’d use them to show what I intended for the entire Chiss species,” Yiv said. “You’re right, it would be more impressive if you were aboard to watch their dismemberment instead of watching from your freighter.”
Che’ri gave a little whimper. It’s all right, Thalias thought urgently in her direction. It’s all right. Just hold on a little longer.
“Very well, General,” Thrawn said calmly. “If you’ve chosen to face me, so be it. I await your tractor beam.”
For a moment, Yiv remained silent. Testing Thrawn’s words for flaws or betrayal, no doubt.
But he wouldn’t find any, Thalias knew. More important, Thrawn had twisted the situation to where Yiv was angry and frustrated, and where revenge was the most important thing on his mind. The chance to bring Thrawn aboard alive and personally kill him would drive away any other considerations.
Yiv barked a command. On the main display a hazy blue line appeared, connecting the images of the Deathless and Thrawn’s freighter. Some numbers shifted, and the freighter began moving forward.
And it was time.
Thalias looked sideways, catching Che’ri’s eye. “Hostages no more,” she murmured. Turning back forward, watching the freighter moving toward the Nikardun warship, she reached her hands to her face and dug her fingers beneath the edges of her hostage makeup.
For a moment, the thick material resisted. Thalias kept at it, shifting her grip to use her fingernails as claws, noting out of the corner of her eye that Che’ri was doing likewise. Abruptly, the hard crust gave way, breaking and shredding into tiny pieces and leaving throbbing weals on the skin behind.
And with a brief rush of cool and moisture, the compressed tava mist that had been concealed inside the ridges and plateaus blasted into the air.
Thalias’s first impulse was to hold her breath. But that didn’t really do any good. The mist seeped instantly into her nostrils, the initial honey-scent quickly changing to something more like burnt sugar as the drug began to play with her senses. As the aroma changed again, this time to that of fresh leather, she could hear the sudden flurry of conversation around her growing slower, the pitch of the alien voices going deeper. The bridge itself began darkening even as, paradoxically, the indicator lights and the stars outside the viewport seemed to grow brighter.
And she could feel her mind fading.
It wasn’t like the way it felt to fall asleep, with stray thoughts and memories drifting across as she slipped into darkness. This was quicker and more complete, dulling her reason and her self-awareness even as it clouded over her thoughts. And yet, through it all, she was able to hold on to enough to see that it was all working exactly the way Thrawn had said it would.
The bridge was big, and the amount of mist the techs had been able to pack inside the makeup was limited. But even a small amount of the sleepwalking drug was enough to cause confusion and disorientation, and that was all Thrawn needed. As the mist settled around the bridge crew, Thalias saw—both on the displays and through the viewport—that Thrawn’s freighter was twisting around, breaking itself free of the tractor beam. A second later the freighter leapt forward, driving at full acceleration straight toward the Deathless’s bridge.
The Nikardun were hardly helpless, of course. Even as Thrawn sped toward them Yiv gave a slightly slurred order, and the Battle Dreadnought’s spectrum lasers blasted outward toward this threat suddenly bearing down on them. Their aim was tentative, and many of the shots flashed harmlessly into space. However, the Deathless’s bridge defenses were strong and the Nikardun only slightly impaired, and many of the shots hit straight and true.