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:
Actually, Nakirre didn’t have much doubt that it was the latter. Jixtus had never yet withdrawn into himself like this with good news. Always before he had immediately shared it or boasted about it. No, something had gone wrong.
Inevitable, really, though Jixtus still didn’t recognize that. Only with true enlightenment did anyone achieve full wisdom and ability, and Jixtus’s refusal to even consider the Kilji path meant his plans would always be bumpy and tangled. Perhaps the Grysk would someday learn that lesson. Nakirre rather doubted it.
The big question now was how this news would impact the Kiljis and their attempts to bring enlightenment to the Chiss and the other peoples of the Chaos.
Finally, Jixtus stirred. “Generalirius Nakirre, we are taking a new direction,” he said. “Have your servants calculate a course for the Chiss world of Ornfra.”
“As you wish,” Nakirre said. Jixtus had mentioned that system, but it had figured into one of the later stages of the Grysk plan. “Vassal One: Compute course to Ornfra.”
“I obey,” Vassal One said, and turned to his board.
“So we’re no longer going to Sharb?” Nakirre asked, eyeing Jixtus closely. “You said earlier that you wanted to draw more attention to the Xodlak.”
“That was earlier,” Jixtus said. “As I said, a new direction. The Xodlak are only minor players, as befits their status as one of the Forty. The Clarr and Dasklo are the focal points, and the key to inciting the Nine to civil war. When their simmering resentments have been forced into full combat, the rest of the Ascendancy will inevitably follow. Vassal, are you ready?”
There was no response. “My vassals take orders only from me,” Nakirre said calmly. “Vassal One: Execute course.”
“I obey.” The stars turned and melted, and the Whetstone was again in hyperspace.
“You enjoy being master of your ship and your servants,” Jixtus commented. “Perhaps you enjoy it too much.”
“I enjoy it purely because it was through my efforts that these vassals became enlightened,” Nakirre said. “You said when the Chiss have been forced into combat, the Ascendancy would fall. Would not the correct term be if?”
Jixtus stirred again, the veiled face shifting a fraction to point directly at Nakirre. “Do you question my words and my skill, Kilji?” he asked. “Or do you mock me? Because you should think long and deep before you step onto that path. You have no concept of the true power of the Grysks. We can crush the Illumine like boulders that can be turned to fine sand, or we can twist your culture, your lives, and your very souls to do our bidding. Do not force me to choose which of those fates would be the more satisfying.”
Nakirre’s skin again stretched. “No,” he said flatly.
Jixtus seemed taken aback. “What do you mean, no?”
“I mean you cannot twist us,” Nakirre said. “We are the enlightened. No falsehood of yours can lure us away from truth.”
“You may believe that if it comforts you,” Jixtus said. “Do you then choose for the Kiljis to be crushed to sand?”
“Perhaps even that is no longer within your power,” Nakirre said, his skin stretching with daring. The inner turmoil he’d witnessed in Jixtus after the conversation with his fellow Grysks had left him at his lowest point yet. If he was like most species whom the Kiljis had encountered, this was the point where he would be most vulnerable to enlightenment.
But that was not the immediate goal here. Enlightenment would come once the Grysks were comfortable with the Illumine and their emotional defenses had been lowered. Now was the time to start down the road to that ultimate end. “Tell me, what was the news just now that so upset you?”
“I never said I was upset.”
“Your silence and subdued attitude said it for you,” Nakirre said. “Your problem, Jixtus, is that you see the Kiljis as minor tools to be used at the edges of your ambition. You stated that yourself: We were merely to conquer small nations so as to close them off to Chiss retreat.”
“And you would then be free to meddle in their culture and bring them enlightenment,” Jixtus said. “That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“It was and still is,” Nakirre agreed. “But it’s not all we want.”
For a moment Jixtus was silent. “Very well,” he said. “Tell me of this new ambition.”
“You look only to destroy the Chiss,” Nakirre said with cautious anticipation. Jixtus was listening to him. For the first time, he was actually listening to him. “I look instead to put them alongside us as your allies.”
“That attempt has already been made,” Jixtus growled. “We selected the most malleable of their leaders and inflamed their desires past the abilities of rational thought. It failed.”
“Because you misunderstood them,” Nakirre said. “You inflamed their desires, and now you inflame their fears and rivalries. What if, instead of fear, they could be induced to work cooperatively for the glory of the Grysks?”
“Through the enlightenment of the Kiljis?” Jixtus gave a sort of low snorting sound. “You reach now beyond your abilities, Generalirius.”
“Not at all,” Nakirre said. “All beings secretly dream of having someone to give them order and purpose, who will allow them to serve without the need for burdensome thought or uncertain decision. That is the enlightenment we offer.”
“No,” Jixtus said firmly. “You may have the remnant once we have broken the Ascendancy’s back. But its back will be broken. Even now, the fuse is lit, and the first explosion of their civil war is set.” He gestured toward the viewport. “Would you like to see the beginning of their end?”
Nakirre stretched with deep frustration. Jixtus was listening, but he wasn’t hearing. He still didn’t understand what the Kilji Illumine offered, or what the Kilji enlightenment could do to a people like the Chiss.
No matter. There were other nations besides the Chiss in the Chaos, nations the Grysks surely hoped to turn into that fine sand Jixtus had threatened him with. And once that was accomplished, there was all of Lesser Space and the beings inhabiting it.
There would be time for Nakirre to show Jixtus the full scope of what the enlightened could do. And if not Jixtus himself, then perhaps his successor. Even Grysks, after all, presumably didn’t live forever.
And then the Kiljis’ would-be masters would finally accept the Illumine as full partners in their dominion of the galaxy.
“I would like to see that, yes,” he told Jixtus. “It is to be at Ornfra?”
“It is,” Jixtus said. “We will travel one more hour, then you will return the ship to star-space so that I may make one final call.”
“Of course,” Nakirre said with sudden doubt. If he’d pressed his petition too hard, that call might be to that terrible Grysk warship. In the shadow of his thoughts, he saw boulders being reduced to dust …
“Have no fear, Generalirius,” Jixtus said in a voice that was both soothing and mocking. “Truthfully, I was impressed by your passion for joining the Grysks as equals. It’s a topic we shall revisit when the Chiss lie dead at our feet.” He gestured. “And this call you will be welcome to listen in on. It will be to the Clarr family warship Orisson.”
Nakirre felt a stretch of annoyance. He should have guessed Jixtus’s call would be to his tame Chiss. “I dislike having to tie our travels to this person and her schedule,” he said. “When will we be done with her?”
“When she has served her full purpose,” Jixtus said. “Tell me, Generalirius Nakirre of the enlightened: When do you think that will be?”