Thrawn Ascendancy Book 3: Lesser Evil

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Ornfra was an important economic and political hub of the Ascendancy’s northeast-zenith sector. All Nine Ruling Families had strongholds there, as did seventeen of the Forty Great Families. In normal times, it was a thriving and vibrant place, full of life and political intrigue.

Right now, it was a major explosion waiting to happen.

“Have you figured out what you’re going to say to her, Senior Captain?” Apros asked.

“I have most of it,” Ziinda said.

Which was mostly a lie. She actually didn’t have the foggiest idea of how she was going to approach Captain Roscu when the Orisson finally arrived. For that matter, given Roscu’s attitude during their last encounter, she wasn’t even sure the other wouldn’t simply order her comm officer to refuse any attempt at conversation.

But a ship’s captain was supposed to look competent to her officers and warriors, whether she felt like she was or not.

She scowled out the viewport. The space around Ornfra was buzzing with ships, the transports and merchants skittering around timidly, the patrol craft and warships taking a much more aggressive stand. Most of the general comm conversations the Grayshrike was picking up were terse and anxious.

She looked at the tactical, and the prominent icons marking the warships floating watchfully in their various orbits. All of them were from the Dasklo family’s private fleet, of course—Ornfra wasn’t exactly a private Dasklo province, but it was about as close to one as any planet in the Ascendancy got. The other eight Ruling Families had interests here, of course, but they were relatively small, certainly when compared with the Dasklo holdings. The biggest minority presence was probably the Clarr and their massive farming operations, which had themselves been a source of low-grade political tussling between the two families for decades. But despite that rivalry—or perhaps because of it—the Clarr didn’t have any of their own warships here.

The overall System Patrol was a shared force, as it was on all other Chiss worlds. But with the far more powerful Dasklo warships dominating the system it was Patriarch Dasklo’irv’ursimi who was calling the shots, and everyone knew it.

Normally, that somewhat lopsided arrangement seldom rose above the level of minor annoyance. Now, with tensions heightened and accusations and counter-accusations being thrown around, the whole system seemed poised like an air dancer preparing to launch herself off her chosen cliff.

It wasn’t just the civilian ships that were acting skittish, either. For all their outward confidence, the Dasklo were feeling the strain, too. The Grayshrike had already been challenged twice by Dasklo warships, both family commanders demanding to know what an Expansionary Defense Fleet ship was doing in their system. Ziinda had been able to ease their concerns, but from the continual pings of active sensors it was clear her ship was being watched closely.

What those other warships would do when she accosted an incoming Clarr warship wasn’t a question she wanted to think about.

“Basically, I’m just going to explain the situation,” she told Apros. “Hopefully, she’ll be willing to listen.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Apros hesitated. “May I ask you a question, Senior Captain?”

“About Captain Roscu?”

“No, ma’am,” Apros said. “Not directly, anyway.”

Ziinda gestured. “Go ahead.”

“I’ve been looking over the Jixtus vid,” Apros said, pulling it up on his questis, “and I was struck by something odd.”

He keyed it to play and handed it to her. “Is it my imagination, or is the cam that’s taking the vid moving?”

Ziinda studied the image. Unfortunately, five seconds wasn’t much time to establish any kind of baseline. “I assume you’ve run an analysis on it,” she said, handing the questis back.