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:
“Wait a minute.” Ar’alani fixed Ba’kif with a hard stare as one more part of this insanity suddenly became clear. “This was your idea?”
“It was,” Ba’kif said, holding her glare calmly. “The Grysk threat isn’t over, Admiral. You know that. We need you and the others—the people who’ve seen Thrawn in action and learned from him—to continue in your positions of authority if the Ascendancy is to be protected.”
“And so you sacrifice him to the Aristocra?” Ar’alani demanded. “You send the Ascendancy’s best protector to uselessly waste the rest of his life on some lost planet?”
“Well … not exactly.” Ba’kif gestured to Thrawn. “Senior Captain? This part was your idea.”
“As I’m sure you know,” Thrawn said, “after the Sunrise confrontation the Council sent the Springhawk to the edge of Lesser Space to see if we could gather any clues as to the Grysks’ location.”
“And to look into those other names you got from General Yiv,” Ba’kif added.
Ar’alani nodded. To search for Grysks and other threats, and probably also to get Thrawn out of sight while they figured out what to do with him. Again. “Did you find anything?” she asked.
“Not about the Grysks or Yiv’s other names, no,” Thrawn said. “But we did learn one bit of potentially disturbing news.”
“I know you read Senior Captain Thrawn’s earlier report after his encounter with General Anakin Skywalker of the Galactic Republic,” Ba’kif said. “At the time, the Republic was embroiled in a war with a faction calling themselves the Separatists. According to a group of refugees the Springhawk encountered—aliens calling themselves Neimoidians—that war has ended.”
“Congratulations to them all,” Ar’alani said. “Which side won?”
“To hear the Neimoidians tell it, neither,” Thrawn said. “The Separatist forces were apparently crushed, or perhaps simply collapsed when their leadership was destroyed. But the Republic also disappeared, with a new government rising in its place that calls itself the Galactic Empire.”
“Congratulations on that, too, I suppose,” Ar’alani said. “What does that mean for us?”
“It was clear from my conversations with General Skywalker that the Republic was weak and fragmented,” Thrawn said. “Its leadership included many different factions and alien viewpoints, and it was continually being pulled in different directions. The Empire, in contrast, is unified under a single man and a single vision.”
“Sounds like General Yiv and the Nikardun,” Ar’alani said with a shiver. “Are we thinking the Empire could be a problem down the road?”
“It could,” Ba’kif said. “But it could also be a solution.” He waved a hand toward the sky. “The Grysks are out there somewhere, Admiral, and they’re an enemy like none we’ve ever faced before. Warships and weapons we can deal with, but alien races who can subtly strike at the Ascendancy’s very heart and turn us against one another are something new. We’ve turned back this assault, but we know there will be more to follow.”
“And so Senior Captain Thrawn pretends to go into exile,” Ar’alani said, finally seeing the whole picture. “But instead, he travels to this Empire to consult with its leader?”
“That’s our hope,” Thrawn said. “Though it naturally can’t be quite so obvious. The Syndicure would never permit direct contact with an alien government.” He smiled faintly. “Certainly not from a diplomatically useless agent such as myself.”
“You saw how violently they reacted to a simple onetime battleground alliance with the Paccosh, Vaks, and Garwians,” Ba’kif reminded her. “This would send them into a hyperbolic trajectory.”
“Yes,” Ar’alani murmured. That part, at least, didn’t require additional explanation. “So what’s the plan? Thrawn sits around on some deserted planet until this Empire bumps into him?”
“Basically, yes,” Ba’kif said.
“Really?” Ar’alani asked, frowning. That had mostly been a joke. “Out of all the systems and habitable planets out there, you’re just going to pick one and hope for the best?”
“It won’t be quite that random,” Thrawn assured her with a smile. “We were able to find and map out a few trade routes and communications networks that have given us insight as to the most likely places.”
“And we’ll have someone watching from a discreet distance,” Ba’kif said. “If no one appears within a few weeks, we’ll pack him up, pick another planet, and try again.”
“Sounds a bit iffy to me,” Ar’alani said. “And if the Empire does find you? What then?”
“If General Skywalker survived the war, I’m quite sure he’ll remember me,” Thrawn said. “If not, surely someone will recall him fondly enough to grant me a hearing.”
“And then?”
“I’ll gather whatever information I can about the Empire, then return and discuss my findings—quietly, of course—with Supreme General Ba’kif and the Council,” Thrawn said. “Between all of it, I don’t expect to be gone from the Ascendancy more than a few months. A year, perhaps, at the most.”
“I hope it works,” Ar’alani said. “Regardless, I appreciate you both letting me know what’s really going on.”
“You’re welcome,” Ba’kif said. “But don’t fool yourself into thinking it was entirely altruistic. You’re one of the most prominent and celebrated members of the Expansionary Defense Fleet right now. We couldn’t have you running around making noise and demanding that Thrawn be brought back from exile.”
Ar’alani gave him an innocent look. “Would I do something like that?”
“Absolutely,” Ba’kif assured her. “And now, Thrawn and I need a few minutes to finalize the last details. He’ll be traveling aboard the Parala; I’ll let you know his departure time in case you wish to see him off.”
“Thank you. I would.” Ar’alani looked at Thrawn as she stood up. “I’ll say my goodbyes then, Thrawn. Don’t you dare leave before I get that chance.”
“I won’t,” Thrawn promised. “That’s not what friends do.”
And so at the end, as it had been at the beginning, it was just the two of them. Ba’kif and Thrawn: contemplating the past, looking to an uncertain future.
Ba’kif watched silently as Thrawn scrolled through the Council’s final equipment checklist, nodding in satisfaction at each item. It was just as well, Ba’kif thought distantly, that Ar’alani’s deal for General Yiv’s own exile had given them some experience in codifying the resources a castaway needed to survive.
Unlike Yiv, of course, Thrawn wouldn’t be gone forever. But it had to look to any prying Aristocra eyes that he was.
Finally, Thrawn looked up. “This will do nicely,” he said, handing back the questis. “Thank you.”
“I think the thanks should all be going in your direction,” Ba’kif said.
Thrawn shrugged. “I did what was necessary. As do we all.”
“Yes,” Ba’kif murmured. “An odd thought. When you first contacted Patriarch Lamiov about taking an item from Vault Four, we both assumed you meant the item. You can imagine my relief when it turned out to be the gravity-well generator and not the Starflash.”
“Though it might have been,” Thrawn said evenly. “If I’d thought Starflash was necessary to destroy Jixtus and the Grysk threat, I would have used it without a second thought.”
“Even if it meant the destruction of Sunrise?”
Thrawn’s eyes seemed to focus on something in the distance behind Ba’kif. “My job is to protect the Ascendancy and the Chiss people, sir,” he said quietly. “Whatever it costs to achieve that goal, I will pay it.”