Thalias braced herself. She’d been with Thrawn when he first met the Paccosh people, with her life on the block right alongside his. She wanted to be here—she deserved to be here—to see what had become of them. If Samakro insisted on shunting her and Che’ri out of the action, he and Thrawn were both going to have an argument on their hands.
Thrawn looked at her again, and she had the eerie feeling that he knew exactly what was going on behind her eyes. “I think not,” he told Samakro. “Given the inherent difficulties of travel in and out of the Rapacc system, I’d like our sky-walker to be ready in case we need her for a quick exit.”
Samakro took a breath, and Thalias could see him lining up his own argument—
“But you’re right, they shouldn’t be on the bridge,” Thrawn continued, looking around. His gaze stopped at the weapons station, where Laknym was still consulting with Afpriuh. “Lieutenant Commander Laknym, do you feel qualified to handle secondary command weapons control?”
Laknym spun around to face him, his eyes widening. “Me, sir? I—ah—” His eyes flicked nervously to Samakro. “Sir, I’m just a plasma sphere specialist.”
“None of us was born into the command structure, Commander,” Thrawn said, a little drily. “Opinion, Senior Commander Afpriuh?”
“Yes, he’s qualified,” Afpriuh said, looking up at Laknym.
“Good,” Thrawn said. “Don’t be overly concerned, Commander. I’m not expecting serious trouble, and this would be useful experience for you. Please escort Sky-walker Che’ri and Caregiver Thalias to secondary command and take the weapons control station there.”
Laknym swallowed visibly but gave Thrawn a crisp nod. “Yes, sir. Sky-walker; Caregiver …?”
Thalias had been in the Springhawk’s secondary command room only once, back when she first came aboard and was given a tour of the ship. It was smaller than the bridge and located in the heart of the ship, the last stronghold of control should a battle go horribly wrong.
Between its size and its lack of viewports, it was also seriously claustrophobic, and she felt her skin itching as Laknym pointed her to the navigation station. With Che’ri in tow, she wove her way through the other warriors already on station. By the time she got the girl strapped into her seat, all of the displays had come to life, showing not only the status boards and the view outside the ship but also a view of the bridge itself.
The outside views helped the claustrophobia a little. But not much.
The Springhawk was already on its way, with Azmordi guiding them in a short jump-by-jump toward the Rapacc system. There wasn’t a spare seat for Thalias, so she stood behind Che’ri, pressed against the girl’s chair. Somehow, having her head closer to the ceiling made the claustrophobia worse. She kept her eyes moving to try to distract herself, shifting among the hyperspace swirl outside, the status monitors, Che’ri sitting in front of her, Thrawn standing motionless behind the bridge comm station. Azmordi called a warning—
The swirl vanished into star-flares, and they had arrived.
“Full sensor scan,” Thrawn ordered. “Focus especially on ships or battle debris—”
“Contact,” Samakro cut in. “Ship directly ahead, Captain. Looks like a Nikardun frigate.”
Thalias winced. She’d hoped that the Nikardun who’d been blockading Rapacc had run away and left the Paccosh in peace after Yiv’s defeat and capture. Clearly, they hadn’t.
On the bridge monitor, Thrawn leaned over the comm officer’s shoulder and touched a key. “Unidentified ship, this is Senior Captain Thrawn of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet warship Springhawk,” he announced in the Taarja trade language. “We come in friendship and peace.”
“We have no friends,” a voice came back, the harsh Taarja words sounding even harsher coming from him. “We will have peace when you are gone. Leave immediately or be destroyed.”
“Big talk coming from a half-sized ship,” someone behind Thalias muttered.
“Maybe he’s got friends nearby,” someone else warned.
“I would urge you to reconsider,” Thrawn said calmly. “The offer of friendship is not given lightly.”
“If you come in peace, prove it,” the voice said. On the main display, something broke away from the frigate—
“Missile incoming,” Samakro snapped.
“Not a missile, sir,” Mid Commander Dalvu corrected him from the sensor station. “It’s a single-passenger shuttle, heading …” On the display Thalias saw Dalvu lean closer to her board. “Heading thirty degrees off target,” she continued, sounding confused.
“A test,” the voice continued. “If you are truly Chiss, disable without destruction.”
“As you wish,” Thrawn said. “Senior Commander Afpriuh? At your convenience.”
“Yes, sir,” Afpriuh said. “Sphere launcher aligning … firing sphere.”
Thalias looked at the tactical display, watching as the mark indicating a plasma sphere raced away from the Springhawk toward the shuttle. The two marks intersected—
“Shuttle has been flickered,” Afpriuh reported. “All systems down.”
Thrawn nodded acknowledgment. “Have we proven our identity?” he called.
“What is your purpose here?”
“To assure ourselves that the Paccosh have regained the peace that was stolen from them by the Nikardun,” Thrawn said. “To eliminate the last of that enemy, if that goal has not yet been achieved.” He lifted up something and held it toward the comm station cam. “And to return this to its rightful owner.”
“What’s he holding?” Laknym muttered.
“It’s a ring,” Thalias told him. “One of the Paccosh we met on the mining station gave it to him for safekeeping.”
“And the name of that owner?” the Taarja words came.
“Uingali foar Marocsaa,” Thrawn said. “I trust you are well?”
There was a strange, almost chuckling sound from the speaker. “I am indeed well,” the voice said. The same voice, but with a subtle difference.
And now with the harshness gone, Thalias, too, could hear the voice of the Pacc from the mining station.
“You might have led with the ring,” Uingali continued, sounding much calmer now. “Others have come with false claims and statements, and we have necessarily grown wary. Showing the ring from the beginning would have saved us the task of retrieving the shuttle you disabled. But no matter. Follow us, Chiss Senior Captain Thrawn. My people are eager to meet you.” On the display the frigate’s bow angled up as it began a pitch turn.
Thalias felt her mouth drop open. Emblazoned on the underside of the Nikardun frigate was a familiar image: a nest of small stylized snakes with two larger ones curving up from among them. The same image as the ring Thrawn was still holding to the cam.
She huffed out a breath. “And you,” she muttered in the direction of the display, “might have led with that.”
The Rapacc capital city was named Boropacc, and from what Samakro had seen as the Springhawk’s shuttle flew over it the place had definitely been through the grinder. Apparently, whatever Nikardun forces had been on the ground at the time hadn’t been very tidy when they pulled out.
“Yes, they destroyed what they could as we drove them back to the void,” Uingali conceded, nodding out the window at the damaged city as he gestured his visitors to the meeting room’s comfortable-looking lounge chairs. The four charric-armed warriors who had accompanied Thrawn, Samakro, and Thalias from the Springhawk remained on guard at the door, as per Thrawn’s orders, where they’d be out of earshot of the conversation but close at hand should they be needed. “Most of the ships had already left, though why they left so quickly I could not say.”