Thrawn Ascendancy Book I: Chaos Rising

CHAPTER FIVE

The Springhawk was waiting precisely where Thrawn had said he would be. A quick shuttle ride across, and within an hour of arriving in the system, Ar’alani and Wutroow were sitting in the briefing room with Thrawn and Samakro, reading through Thrawn’s data and proposal.

Ar’alani took her time looking through the material. She read it a second time, as she always did such things. Then, just to make sure it really said what she thought it said, she read it a third time.

By the time she lifted her eyes from the questis, she saw that Wutroow and Samakro had made it through, as well. The two officers were gazing at the sections of table in front of them, their expressions a mixture of surprise, disbelief, and apprehension.

She shifted her gaze to the end of the table. Thrawn was waiting patiently, trying to hide his own anxiety. “Well,” she said, setting down her questis. “It’s inventive, I’ll give it that.”

Some of Thrawn’s anxiety faded away. Apparently, a lot of his concern had been centered on how she would react. “Thank you,” he said.

“With all due respect, Senior Captain, I’m not sure that was a compliment,” Samakro spoke up. “The plan may be inventive, but I don’t think it’s physically possible.”

“Actually, Mid Captain, I’ve seen it done,” Ar’alani said. “Back at the Academy, Captain Thrawn pulled off this same maneuver.” She raised her eyebrows. “On the other hand, that was a patrol ship. This time you’re talking about a heavy cruiser. Big difference.”

“Not as big as it might seem,” Thrawn said. “True, the Springhawk’s mass is greater, but its thrusters and maneuvering jets are correspondingly more powerful. With proper care and preparation, I believe it can be done.”

“And you’re sure this is the right system?”

“The indications are there,” Thrawn said. “I won’t know for certain until I’ve examined the mining station.”

Ar’alani pursed her lips and picked up her questis again. It certainly wasn’t going to be easy. The place Thrawn proposed to infiltrate was what was colloquially known as a box system: unusually strong electromagnetic fluxes wrapped around the outer edges, interacting with the solar wind to create even more obstruction to hyperspace travel than usual. Unless a ship was willing to come out of hyperspace outside the cometary belt and spend days or weeks traveling through space-normal to the inner system, there were only a dozen reasonably safe inward pathways.

Even more intimidating was the fact that some cataclysm millennia ago had seeded the inner system and much of the outer system with large meteors, making the entire area a sort of miniature version of the Chaos itself. Taking those additional navigational hazards into account, the number of safe lanes to the inhabited planet dropped to exactly three.

Three routes to one single, isolated planet, unknown to the Ascendancy and apparently unconnected with any known species in the area. A somewhat larger selection of pathways to the outer asteroid belt, which consisted of several tightly packed clusters and a number of possibly abandoned mining space stations.

But while the mining stations might be abandoned, the rest of the system was active enough. Thrawn’s brief reconnaissance had picked up a fair amount of travel within the system, mostly between the planet and a handful of colony or manufacturing stations orbiting it. Unfortunately, the Springhawk had been too far out to tell whether or not those ships were similar to the destroyed refugee ships whose records Thrawn had now shared with her and Wutroow.

And just to add spice to the whole thing, all three of the entry routes were being patrolled by small warships of a completely different design.

“So you think this is the system the refugee ships came from,” she said, looking up at Thrawn again. “You further think they’re under blockade by these other ships.”

“Less a blockade than an interdiction,” Thrawn said. “You can see the patrol ships’ configuration is mainly designed to control access to the main planet. The asteroid stations aren’t as heavily guarded and are therefore more accessible.”

“But they are still guarded,” Wutroow pointed out. “And I’m only counting three good paths in and out of the system.”

“Only if you want the planet,” Thrawn said. “If you want the asteroid station I’ve indicated, there are several other workable vectors.”

“At least until the blockaders get a few more ships,” Ar’alani said.

“Indeed,” Thrawn agreed. “It therefore seems to me that if we want to do this, we have to do it soon.”

“How long did you sit out on the edge observing them?” Ar’alani asked.

“Only three days,” Samakro said.

“A full three days,” Thrawn corrected. “Long enough for me to analyze their patrol pattern and learn how to penetrate it.”

“Again, unless they’ve gotten more ships in the past fifteen hours,” Ar’alani said.

Thrawn’s lip twitched. “Yes.”

For a few moments, the conference room was quiet. Ar’alani gazed at her questis, pretending to study it, weighing the options. For anyone else, she knew, three days wouldn’t be nearly enough to analyze an alien patrol pattern, let alone figure out a way through it.

But for Thrawn, three days probably really was enough, Samakro’s doubts notwithstanding. Ar’alani couldn’t have come up with a plan herself this quickly, but she could see that Thrawn’s had a good chance of working.

On the other hand, this was hardly going to be a sleepwalk. Thrawn’s proposed course should get them in well ahead of any pursuit from the handful of patrol ships watching the outer system, but if the blockade’s commander detached some of his closer-in planetary forces he might catch the two Chiss ships in a pincer. “What about exit strategy?” she asked. “We’ll need one immediately, and you’ll need one eventually.”

“There we have two interesting options,” Thrawn said. As if, Ar’alani thought wryly, this whole thing didn’t come under the heading of interesting. “The typical box system is bounded for the most part by external flux patterns interacting with solar wind. These two points”—he tapped his questis—“mark the outer system’s two gas giant planets.”

Ar’alani smiled tightly as she saw it. “Planets which carve out small holes in the solar wind as they travel along their orbits.”

“Holes you can pop in and out of without confusing your hyperdrive or your sky-walker,” Wutroow said. “Huh. Hard to hit from the outside, though, unless you’ve got really good planetary data.”

“But not as difficult going from the inside,” Ar’alani said, “since you know right where the planets and the gaps are.” She looked at Thrawn with sudden realization. “That’s how the refugee ships got out past the patrols, isn’t it?”

“That’s my assumption,” Thrawn said.

“And now, of course, we’ve also got the planetary data we need,” Wutroow added. “So we go in through Shadow Number One and exit through Shadow Number Two?”

“Exactly,” Thrawn said. “And the Springhawk can subsequently leave through either. They’re close enough together for your purposes, but far enough apart that the blockaders won’t be able to sufficiently guard both, if they even wish to do so.”

“Unless, as we all keep saying, they’ve found more ships,” Wutroow pointed out.

Thrawn nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay, I’m confused,” Wutroow said, frowning at her questis. “You don’t blockade a place unless you want to take it over. I’m sure it’s a great place to live, but why would anyone else want it?”

“Box systems have some advantages,” Samakro said. “As we’ve already noted, they’re easy to defend and don’t get much random traffic passing through. As such, they’re ideal as supply depots, staging areas, and maintenance facilities.”

“But easy to defend also means easy to bottle up,” Wutroow pointed out.

“Our unknown opponents do display a certain degree of arrogance,” Thrawn said. “Something we’ll be able to use against them when the time comes.” He looked at Ar’alani. “If the time comes,” he amended. “Admiral?”

Ar’alani pursed her lips. It was a gamble. But then, so was all warfare. “All right, let’s do it,” she said. “Pick your spot, and we’ll rendezvous there.” She lifted a finger. “Two things first. Before we head out I want your sky-walker and her caregiver moved to the Vigilant. You’re going into danger, and I want them safe. You can do a jump-by-jump to get out and then rendezvous with us to get them back.”

“I agree that Sky-walker Che’ri should join you,” Thrawn said. “But I’ll need Thalias to remain with me.”

Ar’alani frowned. “Why?”

“The alien clothing and the positioning of the bodies suggests the males hold their females in high esteem,” Thrawn explained. “If I have a female with me—”

“A moment, Senior Captain?” Wutroow put in, frowning. “What do you mean, from their clothing and body positions?”

Thrawn shook his head. “I wish I could explain it, Senior Captain,” he said. “I can see it. I can understand it. But I can’t really put it into words. The point is that if I have a woman with me, I believe any guards we encounter will be less likely to attack before listening to our explanations.”

“I thought you said the mining stations were deserted.”

“I believe they were,” Thrawn said. “But as Admiral Ar’alani pointed out, it’s been fifteen hours since our last observation. It’s mostly a precaution.”

“And you really think a woman can talk them down?” Wutroow persisted. “How?”

“Let’s skip the how for a moment and focus on the who,” Ar’alani said. She could sympathize with Wutroow—she’d certainly had her share of trust-me moments with Thrawn—but she also knew there was a point at which he simply couldn’t put his analysis into words. “Thalias is a civilian, which limits what you can order her to do.”

“I believe she’ll be willing to volunteer.”

“That’s not the point,” Ar’alani said. “If you want a woman to accompany you, there are plenty of female officers to choose from.”

Thrawn shook his head. “I need the Springhawk to be at full combat capability in case something goes wrong. That means every officer and warrior at their posts.”

Ar’alani shifted her attention to Samakro. “Mid Captain?” she invited.

“Unfortunately, Senior Captain Thrawn is correct,” Samakro said reluctantly. “We’re not exactly shorthanded, but we have more than our fair share of inexperienced personnel aboard. If Thalias is willing, she’s probably the one who should go.”

Ar’alani looked back at Thrawn. “You really think you can prove this is where the refugees came from if you get aboard that station? Even if there are no people or bodies or anything else aboard?”

“Absolutely,” Thrawn said. “There’ll be designs and patterns that will quickly settle the question.”

At which point…what? Ar’alani had no idea what Ba’kif’s plans were once Thrawn located the origin of the destroyed ship.

But figuring that out was his job, not Ar’alani’s. Her job was to work with Thrawn to get the proof Ba’kif needed.

“All right,” she said. “But only if Thalias is willing. If not, she stays with the Vigilant and you choose someone else.”

“Understood,” Thrawn said. “Whenever you’re ready, Admiral, I have the coordinates for our rendezvous prepared.”

The Springhawk was ready. Or at least it was as ready as Samakro could make it.

Samakro himself, not so much.

He could appreciate that the Council thought this mission was important. He could also appreciate that Thrawn’s plan was probably their best chance of slipping into the alien system and gaining that data without having to engage either the inhabitants or the ships riding herd on them.

That last point was crucial. Ascendancy policy was to do whatever was necessary to avoid preemptive combat against potential adversaries. An incursion into someone else’s territory, even just to gather data, drifted perilously close to the line. The faster Ar’alani could get the Vigilant in and out, the less chance either Chiss ship would need to fire its weapons.

“Vigilant?” Thrawn called.

“We’re ready,” Ar’alani’s voice came back. “Vector locked; maneuvering jets charged. Let me know when to go.”

“One moment,” Thrawn said, leaning forward a bit in his command chair as he gazed at the tactical display. “I need Blockade Four to move a little farther in its orbit…there. Stand by countdown: Three, two, one.”

There was the subtle shift in the deck vibrations as the Springhawk moved forward. Samakro peered up through the bridge canopy, confirming that the Vigilant was also in motion and staying in perfect sync with the smaller cruiser.

In perfect sync, and way too close for comfort.

Samakro scowled. In theory, the plan was simple: The Springhawk would fly alongside the Vigilant, staying close to its hull and hiding in the bigger ship’s sensor shadow, until they reached the point where the cruiser would slip away and duck inside one of the asteroid clusters. The Springhawk would go dark, hopefully undetected, and let the Vigilant lead away any pursuit.

In practice, the whole thing was a disaster crouched to spring. Thrawn had opted not to use tie cables to connect the ships, pointing out that a small error in either ship’s vector would create a visible ripple that an alert sensor operator might spot. Tractor beams were impractical for the same reason, plus the added disadvantage of generating a possibly detectable energy signature. Connecting the two ships with maglocks, allowing the larger ship to simply carry the smaller one, would show a blatant mass/thrust discrepancy.

So instead Thrawn was going to attempt the kind of close-in flying normally associated with air shows.

The problem being that he was attempting it with a cruiser and a Nightdragon instead of the smaller and far more maneuverable missile boats.

“Pitch shift on one,” Thrawn called. “Stand by countdown: Three, two, one.”

Samakro tensed, waiting for the inevitable collision. To his relief and mild surprise, the inevitable didn’t happen. Both bows tilted upward at precisely the same time, and to precisely the same angle, and the ships continued on.

“Blockades One and Two are reacting,” came a voice from someone on the Vigilant. “Increasing speed and moving onto intercept vectors.”

“Time to intercept?” Ar’alani asked.

“Projected intercept…three minutes after Springhawk disengages.”

“Thrawn?” Ar’alani asked.

Thrawn didn’t answer. Samakro looked over at the command station, to see his commander working his questis. “I suggest a two percent increase in speed, Admiral,” he said.

“Two percent, confirmed,” Ar’alani said. “Course changes?”

“The next two can run as scheduled,” Thrawn said. “I’ll need to recompute the others.”

“Understood,” Ar’alani said. “Speed increase and starboard turn ready.”

“Acknowledged,” Thrawn said. “Stand ready speed increase. Three, two, one.”

There was a slight sensation, as much imagined as felt, as the Springhawk increased its speed. “Stand ready starboard turn,” Thrawn continued as the two ships settled into their new vectors. “Three, two, one.”

This turn was larger than the earlier pitch maneuver, shifting them a full seven degrees. Once again, the two ships stayed in perfect formation.

“Get busy on those revisions,” Ar’alani warned. “The portside change is scheduled for three minutes from now.”

“Acknowledged,” Thrawn said, his fingers skipping over his questis. “They’ll be ready when we need them.”

Samakro peered out through the canopy, feeling sweat gathering beneath his tunic collar. The more course changes they made, the higher the odds that one of the ships would make a mistake and the whole illusion would pop like a bubble.

But Thrawn had insisted on piling complexity onto their incursion, arguing that a steady, straight-in vector might raise suspicions of a second intruder, while multiple course changes should allay any such concerns.

The other option being the conclusion that whoever was in charge of the mission was crazy. That was certainly the one Samakro himself was going with at the moment.

The minutes ticked by. One by one the course shifts were recalculated and factored in. Samakro watched the tactical as the two ships continued inward, listening to the sensor officer’s running commentary on the status of the pursuing blockade ships. A third had joined the party now, angling in from a direction that would bring it into clear view of the Springhawk nearly a minute before the cruiser was scheduled to break off. Thrawn and Ar’alani discussed the situation, and once again the Chiss ships increased their speed a few percent. Samakro continued to watch and listen, keeping a close eye on the Springhawk’s weapon and defense monitors, just in case Thrawn’s plan degenerated into a battle.

And then, suddenly, they were there.

“Stand ready to break off,” Thrawn said. “Admiral?”

“Standing ready,” Ar’alani said. “Blockades One and Two now four and a half minutes from intercept, Blockade Three ninety seconds from visual. We’ll continue on for three minutes, then head for Shadow Two and hyperspace. That should give you enough time to settle in.”

“Acknowledged,” Thrawn said. “We can make do with two minutes if you need to break early.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Ar’alani said. “We’ll wait for you at the rendezvous. Good luck.”

“Helm?” Thrawn called.

“Standing ready, sir,” Azmordi confirmed.

“Prepare to veer off,” Thrawn said. “Stand ready: Three, two, one.”

With multiple puffs of compressed gas the Springhawk angled to portside, moving away from the Vigilant on a vector that would take it across the edge of the nearest asteroid cluster. Samakro held his breath, focusing his attention on the tactical display. If the blockade ships spotted them, the charade would be over.

He twitched reflexively as the Vigilant, now pulled ahead of them, put on a sudden burst of speed, shifting its angle as if Ar’alani was trying one last maneuver to try to get to the planet in the distance before her pursuers reached combat range. If she was able to keep the blockaders’ attention on her for a few more seconds, they might pull this off. The slowly wobbling asteroid that was their goal loomed ahead of them—

With another blast of cold gas the Springhawk braked to a halt beside the asteroid. Another carefully tuned pulse, and the cruiser had matched itself to the asteroid’s slow spin. Samakro looked at the tactical, noting that the blockade ships were still fully invested with chasing down the Vigilant.

“Full stealth mode,” Thrawn ordered.

All around them, the bridge displays and monitor boards winked red and then went dark. “We appear to have arrived undetected,” Thrawn added calmly.

Samakro took a deep breath, making one more visual sweep to make sure all nonessential systems had been locked down. “So it would appear,” he said, matching his commander’s tone. “How long do we wait?”

Thrawn looked past him at the stars now tracking slowly across the sky. “We need to allow the Vigilant to escape and the blockade ships to return to their picket positions. A few hours, no more.”

Samakro nodded. And then it would be time for Thrawn to slip over to the abandoned mining station floating halfway across the asteroid cluster.

Where they would find out if this whole gamble had been worth the effort.

The Vigilant’s sky-walker was named Ab’begh, and she was only eight.

But she had some interesting moldable play figures and some really nice colored graph markers. And she had a lot of building snaps. Way more than Che’ri had.

They were starting to play with them when Ab’begh’s momish told them to stop.

“It’s reading time, girls,” the woman said. “Put away the snaps and get your questises. Come, come, come. Toys away; questises out.”

“Do we have to?” Ab’begh asked in a whiny voice. “We want to play.”

Che’ri made a face. A whiner. Great. She hated being around whiners.

Still, Ab’begh had a point. “We just did some trips,” Che’ri spoke up. “We’re supposed to get to rest now.”

“Oh, fissis,” the momish said, wiggling her fingers like she was throwing away Che’ri’s words. “You did two trips, maybe two hours each. I’ve seen sky-walkers do ten hours at a stretch and come up smiling and ready for more.”

“But—” Ab’begh started.

“Besides, reading is resting,” the momish said. “Come on, come on—questises and chairs. Now.”

Che’ri looked at Ab’begh. If they both insisted, maybe they could talk themselves into at least another few minutes. Che’ri had started a really neat design with her snaps and wanted to finish it before she forgot where all the pieces were supposed to go.

But Ab’begh just sighed and put down her own snaps. She stood up tiredly and went to one of the chairs.

“Che’ri?” the momish said. “You, too.”

Che’ri looked at her snaps. This woman wasn’t Che’ri’s own momish. Maybe she wasn’t allowed to tell another momish’s sky-walker what she had to do.

But Che’ri had had a couple of momishes like her. Arguing with them hadn’t usually gotten her anywhere.

Besides, Ab’begh was looking at Che’ri with pleading in her eyes. Che’ri might get away with defying the momish, only to have that annoyance come back to dump on the little girl after Che’ri was gone. She’d had a couple of momishes like that, too.

Nothing to do but go along with it. Making a face, she went over to where she’d put her things, dug her questis out of her pack, and climbed into the chair next to Ab’begh’s.

She would never admit it to Thalias or anyone else, but she hated reading.

“There you go,” the momish said. Now that she’d gotten her way, she sounded a little more cheerful. They always did. “Reading is very important, you know. The more you practice, the better you get.”

“It’s not study time,” Ab’begh said. “We don’t have to study, do we?”

“It’s study time if I say it’s study time,” the momish said sternly. “Which you know perfectly well. When our ship is on a journey we never know when you’ll be called to the bridge, so we have to study when we have the chance.” She looked at Che’ri. “But since we have a guest, and her classes won’t be the same as yours, no, we’re not doing studies. But you still have to read,” she added as Ab’begh started to say something. “Whatever you want. Half an hour, and then you can play until dinnertime.”

There was a ping from the hatch. “Enter,” the momish called.

The hatch slid open, and Admiral Ar’alani stepped into the suite. “Everyone all right?” she asked.

“Do you need Ab’begh?” the momish asked.

“No, it’s all right,” Ar’alani said, holding up a hand and smiling at Ab’begh as the little girl put down her questis. “I expect the Vigilant to stay where we are for the rest of the night. If we have to go anywhere, we can do a short jump-by-jump. So, no, you girls can relax.”

She shifted her eyes to Che’ri. “I mostly came by to tell you, Che’ri, that Thrawn and the Springhawk have made it to the asteroid where they’ll be hiding for the next few hours. They’re safe, and it doesn’t look like anyone saw them.”

“Okay,” Che’ri said. She still wasn’t fully clear on what all the fancy flying had been about, but she was glad the Springhawk was safe. “Thalias is with him, right?”

“Yes, she is,” Ar’alani said, her voice sounding a little strange. “But I’m afraid you’ll have to sleep here tonight. I’ll have an extra bed brought in for you.”

“She can sleep in my bed,” Ab’begh said, sitting straight up in her chair. “It’s big enough.”

Che’ri cringed. She’d never ever had to share a bed. And with an eight-year-old? “I’d rather have my own,” she said. She looked at Ab’begh’s suddenly disappointed expression—“I kick a lot when I sleep,” she added.

“Can you put the bed in my room?” Ab’begh asked. “I—” She stopped and looked over at the momish. “I sometimes get scared,” she finished in a little voice.

Che’ri winced, feeling guilty. After talking with Thalias about nightmares…“That would work,” she said. “Sure. We can take some figures with us and play before we go to sleep.”

“Caregiver?” Ar’alani asked.

“If it’s all right with Ab’begh, it’s fine with me.” The woman actually smiled. “I remember having sleepovers when I was their age. Pretty sure I can whip up a few snacks for them, and we’ll make it an event.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Ar’alani said. “But.” She raised a warning finger. “When your caregiver says it’s time for lights-out, girls, it’s time for lights-out. If we need you, we don’t want you so tired you’ll accidentally steer us into a supernova.”

“Yes, ma’am, we will,” Ab’begh promised, her earlier excitement starting to bubble up again.

“Anything else we can do for you, Admiral?” the momish asked.

“No,” Ar’alani said. “I just wanted to let you all know what was happening. Have a good evening—” She gave both girls a pretend frown. “And get some sleep.”

The frown disappeared, she smiled again, and left.

“This is going to be fun,” Ab’begh said, bouncing a little on her chair. “It’ll be fun, right?”

“Sure,” Che’ri said.

“We’ll make sure of it,” the momish promised. “Right now, it’s still reading time. Half an hour, and the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be done.”

“You want to read a story about tree people?” Ab’begh asked, holding her questis toward Che’ri. “There are lots of good pictures.”

Che’ri wrinkled her nose. A picture book? She might not like to read, but she was way past picture books. “That’s okay,” she told the younger girl. “I’ve got something else I’m supposed to read.”

“She said we didn’t have to study.”

“This isn’t studies,” Che’ri assured her. “Go on, get busy. I want to get back to those snaps.”

“Okay.” Settling herself cross-legged in her chair, Ab’begh propped her questis on her knee and started to read.

Che’ri picked up her questis, her eyes straying over to the low table where Ab’begh’s colored graph markers were scattered. Her last momish had told her graph markers got all over everything and wouldn’t let her have them.

But that was her last momish. Maybe Thalias would let her get some. She’d ask her once they were back on the Springhawk. If she could get some graph markers, and some paper, she could do some real artwork.

Looking back at the questis, she punched up the list. Along with the familiar storybooks—some of which she’d read more than once—she spotted a longer one: some stories about Mitth’raw’nuruodo.

She frowned. She’d completely forgotten about the file Thalias had sent her. It was pretty long, and there were bound to be big complicated words.

But with Thrawn and Thalias and the Springhawk in danger, maybe reading some of it would help her feel better. Thalias had seemed to think it would, anyway.

And just because she started, it didn’t mean she had to read the whole thing.

Settling herself comfortably in the corner of her chair, she braced herself and opened to the first page.