Thrawn Ascendancy Book 3: Lesser Evil
- Автор: Зан Тимоти
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Random House
- ISBN: 9781473596580
- Жанр: Боевая фантастика
Электронная книга - «Thrawn Ascendancy Book 3: Lesser Evil». Краткое содержание книги:
“How far in the future are we talking about?” Rivlex asked, his eyes narrowed. “Days? Weeks? Months?”
“That, too, is a bit unclear,” Thurfian said. “What we know for certain is that one of the aliens, known as the Magys, interacted twice with the Springhawk’s sky-walker and was able to see several hours ahead. The key seems to be that the sky-walker and alien together can only see future events that are completely outside their control.”
“So it wouldn’t be useful for investments or organizing a construction job,” the Boadil said thoughtfully. “But it might help in planting crops, where weather is a major factor.”
“Or in warfare,” the Dasklo said darkly, his eyes on the Clarr. Behind Zififerenc, Thurfian noted, Zistalmu had leaned forward and was whispering into his Patriarch’s ear. “It might allow a defender to anticipate the enemies’ moves.”
“Indeed it might,” Thurfian agreed. “And therein lies its greatest value, as well as its greatest threat.”
“Why are you telling us all this?” Zififerenc asked as Zistalmu leaned back in his chair again. “A resource like this would greatly benefit the Mitth. If Thrawn is the one identifying and collecting these aliens, why aren’t you keeping it to yourself?”
“Because he doesn’t plan to give the Sunrise aliens to us,” Thurfian said. “He plans to give them to another group of aliens called the Paccosh.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. “That’s outrageous,” the Ufsa said.
“It’s not just outrageous,” the Plikh countered, his face rigid. “It’s treason.”
“How do you know all this?” Zififerenc asked.
“One of his companions came to me with a request,” Thurfian said. “She was concerned that—”
“What companion?” Zififerenc interrupted. “What’s her name?”
“Mitth’ali’astov,” Thurfian supplied. “She’s the caregiver aboard the Springhawk.”
“What was her request?” Zififerenc asked.
“Basically, that we give him more time,” Thurfian said. “She was concerned that the Syndicure might send a force to Sunrise to bring him back before he’d finished collecting all the prescient aliens. She wanted me to persuade them to wait until he was finished. If I did that, she said he’d be willing to bring some of the prescient aliens back to the Ascendancy with him.”
“Some of them?” the Ufsa bit out. “Not all of them?”
“Completely unacceptable,” the Dasklo said firmly.
“I can only tell you what she said,” Thurfian told him. “He would collect some of the aliens, leave the rest and the planet to the Paccosh, and return to the Ascendancy.”
“I presume you refused?” the Ufsa bit out.
“On the contrary, I thought it was an excellent idea,” Thurfian said, giving her a thin smile. “Not the part about giving him extra time, of course, or accepting only part of what’s due to us. But I agreed with the part about sending a force to haul him and the aliens—all of them—back to Csilla. Which is why I placed an immediate call to Supreme General Ba’kif.” He tapped his questis. “Here’s the result.”
He watched, trying to look calm and nonchalant as they began reading through the document he and Ba’kif had come up with. If he couldn’t get them to agree to this …
“I’m counting fourteen ships here,” the Plikh said. “What percentage is that of the entire Expansionary Defense Fleet?”
“A bit under a third,” Thurfian said. “Six of them are the smaller patrol cruisers, the rest light and heavy cruisers. You’ll also note that Ba’kif is keeping the Firewolf man-of-war Bellicose here in the Ascendancy.”
“You said Thrawn persuaded some of his colleagues to join him,” Rivlex said. “Which ones?”
“Ba’kif thinks the Springhawk and Grayshrike may be with him,” Thurfian said. “Both ships are commanded by friends of his, and neither has responded to communication requests for over a day.”
“They could just be in hyperspace,” the Ufsa said.
“Going where?” the Chaf countered.
“Any number of places,” the Ufsa said. “Even a warship can take a couple of days to cross the Ascendancy.”
“What about the Vigilant?” Zififerenc put in. “It’s the Expansionary Defense Fleet’s largest ship, and its commander is also one of Thrawn’s friends. Where is it right now?”
“Supreme General Ba’kif said he sent Admiral Ar’alani to guard the triad transmitter at Schesa,” Thurfian said. “There was apparently some alien activity in the region that concerned him.”
The Chaf grunted. “So Ba’kif wants to send a third of his ships to Sunrise to bring back this upstart. Where does that leave the Ascendancy’s own internal security needs?”
“Relatively unaffected,” Thurfian assured him. “The supreme general told me the Syndicure has already ordered him to pull his ships back to Naporar while their proper role within the Ascendancy is discussed and defined. And the trip to Sunrise would be only a few days each way.”
“And once Thrawn is back?” Rivlex asked. “What happens to the aliens?”
“That would be up to the Circle or the Syndicure,” Thurfian told him. “My recommendation would be to send them to one of the Shadehouses, or else create a new one especially for them, where we can learn how their ability interacts with our sky-walkers.”
“And if Thrawn refuses to come back?”
“Refusal wouldn’t be an option,” Thurfian said flatly. “That’s why Ba’kif wants to send an overwhelming number of ships. Even Thrawn would hesitate to take on that many opponents.”
“Especially when they’re members of his own fleet,” the Obbic murmured.
“Yes,” Thurfian said.
“Question,” the Dasklo said, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I received a report that Thrawn had been seen on Sposia, having possibly visited the UAG vaults. Did you happen to ask your source what he was doing there?”
“I did,” Thurfian said. “She told me he’d borrowed an alien device he recently brought back from Hoxim, a system for anticipating the arrival of a ship just before it emerges from hyperspace.”
“I thought these Sunrise aliens were supposed to do that for him,” Zififerenc pointed out.
“Thalias said he was going to use the device as a baseline to calibrate their abilities,” Thurfian said. “He hoped he could learn how much better—or how much worse—the aliens’ own prescience was.”
“I don’t know,” the Boadil said pensively as he worked his questis. “It looks like the ships would be gone at least a week, maybe longer. I’m not sure I like having that many warships out of contact that long. Especially when there’s so much turmoil going on here.”
“Those particular ships would normally be out of the Ascendancy anyway,” the Plikh reminded him.
“Personally, I’d be just as happy to have them out of the way where they aren’t going to ruffle any more feathers,” the Chaf added. “I suspect other families would agree on that.”
“I think we would also agree that an officer openly defying the Ascendancy and threatening to give away potentially vital resources is unacceptable,” Thurfian said. “And though this may be an overly cynical way of looking at things, sometimes it takes a crisis of this magnitude to draw our families together and remind us that we’re all Chiss.”