“Well, that’s the Chaos for you,” Thalias said. Thrawn had suspected this region would be trickier than the projections had suggested, she knew, which was why he’d wanted Che’ri to do the last leg instead of going jump-by-jump. “It’ll be easier on the way out—no time pressure,” she added. “Are you thirsty?”
“A little,” Che’ri said, looking uncertainly around the room. “Are you allowed to leave?”
“Don’t need to,” Thalias said, producing a grillig-juice packet from her pocket.
“Thank you,” Che’ri said, some of the tension fading into a tentative smile as she took the packet.
“You’re welcome,” Thalias said. “I have two more if you want them.”
“Just don’t spill it on the control board,” Laknym warned.
Che’ri rolled her eyes. Turning toward Laknym, she flipped out the packet’s sipper with exaggerated care. Laknym gave her an exaggerated pretend glower in return, changed it into a smile, then turned back to his board.
“Got it, sir,” Dalvu announced from the bridge sensor station. “Planetary coordinates sent.”
“Very good,” Thrawn said. “Lieutenant Commander Azmordi: In-system jump. Bring us in over the equator and forty thousand kilometers out.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Those in-system jumps always seem tricky,” Thalias said to Che’ri. “Did Senior Captain Thrawn show you how to do those when you were out in Lesser Space?”
“I did a couple,” Che’ri said. “They’re really hard to get right. On one of them I overshot and got us way too far from the planet he wanted to look at. The other one was okay. But we mostly just did long-range scans.” She scrunched up her nose. “Most of the places we went didn’t have much to look at, anyway.”
The forward visual display made an odd sort of twitch, and suddenly there was a planet centered in it. “Wow,” Che’ri said under her breath. “He’s good.”
“Years of practice, I imagine,” Thalias said, eyeing the distant image. Most of the habitable planets she’d seen presented a similar mixture of white clouds and mountain peaks, blue waters, brown or gray or red deserts, and mixtures of vegetation that usually ranged from dark red to vivid violet.
The planet in front of them was different. There were still decent-sized areas of white and blue, and a few ribbons with blended shades of blue-green.
But there were also patches of black. Big patches. Patches that dotted the entire sunlit side.
The Magys had been right. Her world had suffered a devastating, horrendous war.
The sensor officer a couple of stations down from Laknym muttered something shocked sounding. “What did she say?” Thalias asked him softly.
“Pattern bombing,” Laknym said, his voice grim. “You can see a lot of the black spots are along the larger rivers. Rivers are where most people build their cities.”
Thalias nodded, the taste of stomach acid in her mouth. So the damage hadn’t just been a warning, or a single reprisal against a single attack. The two sides of the civil war had each been hell-bent on wiping out the other.
“We’ve prepared a remote drone shuttle, Magys, with sensing and recording gear,” Thrawn said. “We’ll move closer, then launch it toward the surface for low-altitude studies.”
“There is no need,” the Magys said, her voice dull. “It is as I said. You can see the evidence. Our world is no more. Our people are no more.”
“There is still a great deal of vegetation,” Thrawn pointed out. “Where plant life remains, there is hope for the entire ecosystem.”
“All the more reason for us to touch the Beyond and strive for that healing,” the Magys said.
“But is not your first allegiance to your own people?” Thrawn countered. “If there are others alive, struggling and trying to rebuild, should you not add your group’s strength and numbers to aid them?”
“Our people are no more.”
“We have not yet proven that.”
“Our people are no more.” The Magys waved a hand at the viewport. “All can see that clearly.”
“We can see nothing clearly from this distance,” Thrawn insisted. “You must give us time to investigate. Thalias would want you to do that.”
“Yet she who has touched the Beyond is not here.”
“She has duties elsewhere,” Thrawn said.
Thalias winced. The proverbial unstoppable and immovable objects.
“Do you need to go talk to her?” Che’ri asked hesitantly. “I’ll be okay here.”
Thalias hesitated. Would her presence or her words really make a difference?
They might, she conceded. She should at least try. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered to Che’ri. Wondering what Kharill was going to say if she left, she got a grip on her restraints’ release—
“Captain, we have incoming,” Dalvu cut in. “Five ships, gunboat size, coming around portside planetary disk.”
“Never mind,” Thalias said, letting go of the release and reaching over for a quick reassuring squeeze of Che’ri’s arm. “I’m staying here.”
“Secondary command status?” Samakro called, looking at the bridge cam.
“Sensors?” Kharill prompted.
“Sensor repeaters confirm ready,” the secondary command room sensor officer a few stations down from Thalias said. “Pulling in both bridge and secondary feeds.”
“Weapons systems confirm ready,” Laknym added. “Repeater controls online.”
“Bridge: Secondary command is ready,” Kharill reported.
“Very good,” Samakro said. “Stand by.”
“Barriers,” Thrawn ordered. Thalias looked over at Laknym’s board, saw the indicators for the Springhawk’s electrostatic barriers go active.
“What are these ships?” the Magys asked.
“That is what we intend to learn,” Thrawn said. “Enhance image. Are these ships from your people?”
“I do not recognize them,” the Magys said. The words sounded mechanical, Thalias noted, as if neither the ships nor anything else mattered anymore. “Perhaps these are the people who have now come to take our lost world to themselves.”
“Perhaps,” Thrawn said. “Let us find out.” On the monitor, Thalias saw him key the mike control on his command chair. “Unidentified ships, this is Senior Captain Thrawn aboard the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet warship Springhawk,” he called in Taarja. “Please identify yourselves.”
There was no response. The five ships angled toward the Springhawk, shifting into a circular formation. “Well, well,” Laknym muttered.
“What?” Thalias asked.
“Civilians will be quiet,” Kharill bit out before Laknym could answer.
“What?” Thalias asked again, lowering her voice this time.
“That’s a rosette pattern,” Laknym murmured back. “Usually an attack formation.”
Thalias felt her stomach tighten. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“Not really,” he said. “Five gunboats are a decent enough battle force, but not against a heavy cruiser like the Springhawk.”
“More incoming,” Dalvu spoke up. “Two more groups of five, from portside planetary disk.”
Thalias felt her throat tighten. “Lieutenant Commander Laknym?” she whispered.
Laknym took a deep breath. “Yes,” he said quietly. “Fifteen gunboats is definitely a problem.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Thalias looked at the tactical display, her throat tightening even more. All fifteen gunboats had come from the same direction, she noted. Had they all been having a meeting somewhere on the other side of the planet?