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:
And he should know. At Speaker Thyklo’s request, he’d spent much of his final three months in the Syndicure running profiles and assessments of all Nine Ruling Families, watching in particular for signs of dissension, overt clashes, and possible upcoming realignments. He hadn’t quite finished his analysis of the Forty Great Families when Patriarch Thooraki’s death unexpectedly raised him into his new position, but he’d completed enough to conclude that the current political web was remarkably stable.
No. The Clarr might believe monster stories about the Dasklo, but the Mitth weren’t going to fall for such nonsense. If the Ascendancy fell into crisis, it would be because individuals like Senior Captain Thrawn did something that pushed it over the edge.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have the homestead techs take a look at the vid and see if any additional information could be teased out of it. He logged the order, then put the whole thing out of his mind. There were plenty of more urgent family issues to attend to.
And later, when he found himself in need of a break from Patriels, Councilors, and interfamily maneuverings, he would see if there was any news on where Thrawn and the Springhawk had apparently disappeared to.
Ar’alani finished reading through the report and looked up at Supreme General Ba’kif, waiting silently behind his desk. “Well, we were half right,” she said.
“More than half, I’d say,” Ba’kif said. “You’d tagged the station as a repair and refurbishing site. You just didn’t know the kind of refurbishing work it was doing.”
“And they’re sure it’s nyix hull work?” Ar’alani asked. “We looked at what the team collected on our way back, and I didn’t see any nyix there.”
“The analysts are sure,” Ba’kif said. “Of course, they’re basing much of that on the misfire burns in the decks, so they could be wrong.”
“Not likely,” Ar’alani conceded, looking at the relevant part of the report. “They’re right—class six cutting torches are the tool of choice for working nyix alloy. I think we can take their word that the depth and width suggests that the plates or enhancements were relatively thin. So our friends with the Battle Dreadnought are upgrading their hull armor.”
“Or else adding armor to a ship that normally doesn’t have it,” Ba’kif said. “A scout, perhaps, or a freighter or civilian transport.”
“Hard to see what kind of advantage they think that’ll give them,” Ar’alani said. “A nyix-alloy hull is pretty obvious even before you get into full combat range, so it’s not going to be a surprise to anyone. And something as thin as the analysts are talking about won’t provide much protection.”
“Perhaps the plan is to add to an existing hull,” Ba’kif suggested. “Or they were armoring a freighter or transport and then adding another layer of standard hull metal on top of it as camouflage.”
Ar’alani made a face. “Either way, it looks like that freighter-sized ship wasn’t the mobile dock that we thought it was. The mounting nodes we spotted were for attaching new hull segments. And the analysts don’t think that was the first job they’d done there?”
“That’s what they conclude from the number and placement of the torch burns,” Ba’kif said. “No way of knowing how many ships had already passed through, and it was obviously not yet working at full capacity. But it does indeed appear to have been up and running.”
And alien freighters and other transports visited the Ascendancy all the time. “I presume we’re going to make sure it’s shut down permanently?”
“I’ve recommended that action to the Council,” Ba’kif said. “Whether they and the Syndicure approve is another question.” He shrugged slightly. “Though now that you’ve caught the Battle Dreadnought’s friends in the middle of a job, I’m guessing the Council will assume they’ll write it off.”
“We can hope.” Ar’alani shook her head. “So Yiv builds a station out in the middle of nowhere. Our mystery people let him do it, then wreck it, kill all the Nikardun there, and move in. I’m still not getting the why of it.”
“Maybe the middle of nowhere is exactly where they wanted to be,” Ba’kif pointed out. “I’ll also point out that this particular patch of emptiness is conveniently positioned between Sunrise and the Ascendancy.”
“Yes, we’d noticed that.”
“Good.” Ba’kif gestured to her. “Let’s run through the time line, shall we?”
“Yes, sir.” Ar’alani paused, collecting her thoughts. “General Yiv and the Nikardun move into this region, conquering small nations and threatening the Ascendancy. At roughly the same time, someone discovers that Sunrise has massive nyix deposits and starts a civil war there to give them free access to the ore.”
“Two questions,” Ba’kif said, lifting a finger. “First, do we know that an outsider started that war, as opposed to it being something homegrown? Second, has it been confirmed that Sunrise was the source of the nyix that the Agbui were waving under Councilor Lakuviv’s nose on Celwis?”
“I don’t think we know for sure about the war,” Ar’alani said. “Though the timing is a strong indicator, especially since some of Yiv’s forces were quick to chase the Sunrise refugee group to Rapacc.”
“Also especially since the asteroid missile technique we’ve seen ties the Battle Dreadnought to the attack on the Nikardun bases,” Ba’kif said. “And the nyix?”
“Thrawn’s report says the Magys identified the Celwis jewelry as being made on Sunrise,” Ar’alani said. “But of course her assessment is hardly proof.”
“Agreed,” Ba’kif said. “Now add in a few other points. The Battle Dreadnought aliens apparently persuaded Yiv to build that base, knowing full well they were going to attack it and kill all the Nikardun there. The asteroid attack alone shows that it was a long-term plan. That means that not only did Yiv trust them, but also that he was ignorant of their overall strategies.”
“Yes, I see,” Ar’alani said slowly. “And since the Agbui used some of that same nyix in whatever their plan was at Hoxim, that suggests the Agbui and Battle Dreadnought are working together.”
“Which further suggests a coordinated operation,” Ba’kif said grimly. “An attack from the outside by the Nikardun; an attack from the inside by the Agbui. And now—” He tapped his questis, sending her a report. “—we have this. I gather from your lack of any comment when you first arrived that you were unaware of it?”
Ar’alani felt her eyes narrow as she skimmed through the report. An alien ship—an alien warship—had entered the Ascendancy? “Yes, sir, completely,” she gritted out, pulling out her comm. “When did this happen?”
“The ship arrived at Avidich four hours ago,” Ba’kif told her. “You were probably testifying about Sunrise in front of the Syndicure hearing committee at the time.”
“Yes, I was,” Ar’alani said, swallowing a curse as she pulled up her comm’s message listing. Senior flag officers were supposed to receive automatic alerts when there was any kind of threat against the Ascendancy. Most Syndicure committees, unfortunately, insisted witnesses turn off their comms during questioning.
But she’d checked her messages after leaving the chamber, and there’d been nothing there about an alien warship. As she skimmed through them now, there still wasn’t.