Thalias winced. Two gunboats destroyed. Two more partially disabled. Fourteen still alive, armed, and heading for the Springhawk.
“Did you see it, Mid Captain Samakro?” Thrawn asked.
“Yes, sir, I did,” Samakro confirmed. “I suggest we finish it before they get in range.”
“Agreed,” Thrawn said. “Senior Commander Kharill, five more spheres, targeted on the Watith freighter.”
Thalias frowned. On the freighter?
“Yes, sir,” Kharill said. “Laknym?”
“Already set, Senior Commander,” Laknym said.
“At my command,” Thrawn said. “Brisch, give the word.”
“Yes, sir,” the comm officer said briskly. On the bridge monitor, Thalias saw him key a single switch …
And suddenly another warship flashed into view behind and above the gunboats. Thalias heard Che’ri gasp in surprise—
“This is Mid Captain Apros, commanding the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet warship Grayshrike,” Apros said over the speaker. “Enemy gunboats, surrender or be destroyed.”
“Launch spheres,” Thrawn said quietly.
Again, Laknym’s fingers tapped the controls. Thalias looked at the tactical.
To see the Watith freighter pitching up and away from the Springhawk, its thrusters abruptly blazing at full power, apparently and inexplicably making a run for it.
But it was too late. The freighter was barely into its turn when Laknym’s plasma spheres slammed into it, impacting with brilliant splashes of released ionic energy. The thrusters abruptly failed, and the running lights went dark, and the entire vessel began drifting along its last vector.
“Watith freighter is down,” Dalvu announced.
“So are the gunboats,” Afpriuh said.
Thalias frowned at the tactical. He was right. Every one of the fighters had gone as silent and dark as the freighter, drifting in exactly the same way. Even the two that had been racing toward the planet seemed to be dead in space.
“You were right, Senior Captain,” Samakro said, and on the bridge monitor Thalias saw him shaking his head. “I forthrightly admit I didn’t believe it. But you were right.”
“Thank you, Mid Captain,” Thrawn said, tapping his comm key. “Boarding party: Go. Make sure all personnel are secured before you shut down their remote piloting systems.”
Thalias blinked. Remote piloting systems?
“And the day may not yet be over,” Thrawn continued. “Grayshrike, we were told there was a weapons platform currently in the planetary shadow. Did you have a view of that area while you were setting up your jump?”
“We did, Senior Captain,” Apros said, “and you were misinformed. There’s nothing at all in orbit over there, weapons platform or otherwise.”
“Good,” Thrawn said. “I expected that would be the case, but there was always a chance.” He turned to Samakro. “In that case, Mid Captain, the day is over.”
“Perhaps not, sir,” Apros said before Samakro could reply. “There’s a matter I urgently need to discuss with you. Request permission to come aboard.”
“Of course, Mid Captain,” Thrawn said. “At your convenience. Before you leave, I’d appreciate you instructing your officers to assist us in gathering up the gunboats. I want to examine as many as I can, and I don’t want them drifting out of convenient reach.”
“Understood, sir,” Apros said. “The orders are given.”
“Thank you,” Thrawn said. “I’ll await your arrival.”
The comm keyed off. Listening with half an ear as Thrawn began giving orders to the Springhawk’s shuttle crews and tractor beam operators, Thalias gave Che’ri a smile. “And now,” she said, “I think it’s time we both got some sleep. Some real sleep.”
“It’s all over?” Che’ri asked, not sounding like she believed it.
“It’s all over,” Thalias said. She looked past the girl and raised her eyebrows at Laknym. “It is, right?”
“Yes,” Laknym said, giving her a tight smile. Whatever he’d been hoping to prove today, he was clearly satisfied with the outcome.
“But I don’t understand,” Che’ri said as she started to unstrap. “Senior Commander Kharill? What happened out there?”
Thalias turned around. Kharill was busy with his questis. “Senior Commander?” she prompted.
He looked up long enough to scowl at her, then returned his attention to his questis. “Lieutenant Commander Laknym will fill you in,” he said.
“Yes, sir.” Laknym turned to Thalias. “We always expected this would be a trap. Well, Senior Captain Thrawn and the other senior officers did, anyway. From their analysis of our earlier battle, they suspected that the whole thing was staged and that the Watith were actually controlling the gunboats from the freighter.”
“You mean like people playing a game?” Che’ri asked.
“Exactly,” Laknym said. “When Senior Captain Thrawn visited the freighter, he counted twenty Watith who Fsir called passengers, plus what looked like twenty control consoles. When we arrived here and saw twenty gunboats waiting for us, it looked like he was right.”
“Which was why there were no bodies or body parts on those other gunboats,” Thalias murmured. And, she realized now, why Kharill had been smiling right there at the beginning. He’d seen that the gunboat count matched with Thrawn’s, and realized his commander’s analysis had been right.
“Right,” Laknym said. “The clincher was when Senior Commander Afpriuh blew up two of the gunboats and put a debris cloud in front of the others. You saw me launch my spheres; but you also saw that the gunboats were moving to evade them before they could possibly see them coming.”
“Because the operators were on the freighter,” Thalias said, nodding, “and they could see the spheres.”
“Exactly,” Laknym said. “We’d already made contact with the Grayshrike before we left the last system—I guess it had been sent out to assist us and was following the search pattern Senior Captain Thrawn had sent Csilla—and Senior Captain Thrawn had them shadow us here. Once we knew the freighter was controlling the gunboats, he brought them in to keep Fsir distracted while our spheres disabled it.”
“And they were trying to get away,” Che’ri said eagerly. “I saw them trying to get away.”
“Yes, they were,” Laknym agreed, smiling at the girl. “Which all by itself would have shown they were part of the trap.”
“I see,” Thalias said. “Thank you, Lieutenant Commander. We’ll get out of your way now. Come on, Che’ri.”
“We get to sleep now?” Che’ri asked as she unstrapped from her seat.
“Yes,” Thalias said. “Unless you want some dinner first.”
“I don’t know,” Che’ri said, her forehead wrinkling with concentration.
“When will you know?”
Che’ri stood up and stretched. “When I know what you’re thinking about making.”
“Another small town coming up,” Senior Warrior Yopring’s voice came over the Vigilant’s bridge speaker. As usual, the words were hard to understand through the roar of the airflow buffeting the shuttle as it flew across the planetary surface far below. “Or it could be another industrial complex.”
“Great,” Wutroow muttered from Ar’alani’s side. “One more of either and we’ll have completed yet another double zigzig card.”