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:
“He told you that, did he?” Jixtus asked. “Just came out and told you?”
“Yes,” Qilori said. “You don’t believe him?”
Jixtus gave a snort. “Of course not. He’s manipulating you, Pathfinder. Trying to deflect or diffuse my attention away from the Magys.”
“I don’t know,” Qilori said hesitantly. “He sounded sincere.”
“Nonsense,” Jixtus said. “I’ve investigated the matter thoroughly. The Magys is the only one. Thrawn is simply trying to make us think otherwise.”
“Or perhaps there’s only one at a time?” Qilori suggested.
There was a short pause. “An interesting thought,” Jixtus conceded, some of his contempt fading. “But if that’s even a possibility, why tell you? Why not keep it a secret?”
“Maybe because he doesn’t expect it to remain a secret much longer,” Qilori said, feeling the pieces starting to come together. “I spoke briefly with two soldiers who’d eluded the Paccian slaughter. They said—”
“What Paccian slaughter?”
“The Paccosh brought in a force to reclaim the mine you’d set your slaves to working,” Qilori said, the nervous twitching of his winglets starting up again. “They … all the Grysk overseers died in their attack.”
“I see,” Jixtus said. “Not unexpected, I suppose, under the circumstances. You were speaking of my two outriders?”
“The two soldiers who’d eluded the attack, yes,” Qilori said. “They wanted me to tell you that when you spoke the word they would sow chaos and reap death among your enemies. But they also said they would bring you the one.”
“The one? What one?”
“I don’t know,” Qilori admitted. “We were interrupted before they could finish. But I wonder if they might have learned about another like the Magys.”
“And so Thrawn gives you that same message,” Jixtus said thoughtfully. “Suspecting you would pass it on to me, and that I would automatically reject it.”
“Which would make you less likely to believe it even if it came from another source,” Qilori said.
“Yes. Interesting.” Jixtus muttered a word too softly for Qilori to catch. “Or possibly the outriders were referring to someone else entirely. Still, it’s worth considering. Did Thrawn say anything else?”
“Nothing of value,” Qilori said. If Jixtus was still on the Whetstone, it was likely that Generalirius Nakirre was listening in on the conversation. Definitely not the time to bring up Thrawn’s theory that the Kiljis were manipulating Jixtus and his entire plan. “But the fact that he wants testing equipment would suggest he has some idea who this other Magys candidate is.”
“If such truly exists,” Jixtus cautioned. “But I agree that the chance is too good to pass up, especially since it can be investigated without a major disruption of other plans. I’d intended to intercept and destroy Captain Roscu at Ornfra; now, I’ll hand over that task to the FateSpinner and travel to Csilla myself. I assume you’ll remain on the Schesa transfer station for the immediate future?”
“Certainly, if you want me to,” Qilori said.
“I do,” Jixtus said. “Tell me, what became of the other Pathfinder, the one on the Hammer?”
“Thrawn and the Paccosh took him with them,” Qilori said, his winglets setting up another flutter. “Thrawn wanted to get to Csilla as quickly as possible.”
“Before I could intercept him?”
“I don’t know, sir,” Qilori said. “He may be in a hurry for other reasons.”
“He may,” Jixtus agreed. “Remain where you are. After I’ve dealt with Thrawn, I’ll arrange for you to be picked up. It won’t be long.”
“Yes, sir,” Qilori said, his winglets calming. Waiting here meant more time spent among the blueskins, but at least there was an end in sight.
“And your other mission?” Jixtus added. “What is its status?”
Qilori’s winglets flattened. The mystery of how the Chiss navigated through the Chaos. “I’ve made some progress,” he said, keeping it vague. Fortunately, Jixtus was unlikely to ask for details, not with the Kiljis sitting there listening.
“Good,” Jixtus said. “Then I bid you farewell for now, Qilori of Uandualon. The next time we speak, Thrawn will have been eliminated.” He paused. “And then you can offer your explanation on how Pathfinder Sarsh survived the destruction of the Hammer at Sunrise.”
Qilori’s winglets twitched. “Of course,” was all he could think to say. “I look forward to that conversation.”
“Helm, stand by,” Roscu ordered, eyeing the nav display and the chrono. “Space-normaclass="underline" Three, two, one.”
The hyperspace swirl and star-flares went through their usual transformation, and the Orisson was once again in the Ornfra system.
And this time, Roscu promised herself, she would absolutely get that close look at the Krolling Sen shipyards that Patriarch Rivlex had ordered. Senior Captain Ziinda could talk all she wanted about Jixtus and alien threats, but that didn’t mean the Dasklo weren’t also creating a ghost fleet. Because that was exactly what the Dasklo would do in a situation like this.
“Approach vector, Captain?” Raamas asked, turning from where he was standing behind the pilot’s station.
“Straight in,” Roscu told him. “Full acceleration. The minute they see we’re back, they might try to close down and hide the evidence. We want to get there before they can do that.”
“Acknowledged,” Raamas said, turning back to the viewport and signaling the order to the pilot.
“Captain, we’ve got something coming up behind us,” the sensor officer warned. “No ID, but it’s big.”
Roscu frowned as the image appeared on the aft sensor display. Her first assumption had been that it was a Dasklo warship, maybe one of the destroyers that had harassed her during the Orisson’s last trip here.
But the vessel bearing down on them was way too big for that. It looked to be comparable to a Defense Fleet man-of-war, a Firewolf or maybe even a Groundlion.
She’d never heard of any of the Nine having warships larger than a heavy cruiser. Was this a Defense Force ship, then? But the bow configuration didn’t seem right for that. In fact, it wasn’t like any ship she’d ever seen.
Her blood froze. No, she was wrong; she had seen something like this. Back at Rhigal, floating silently amid the asteroids of the Junkyard.
One of the alien ships had followed them.
“Comms, let’s give them a hail—” Raamas was saying.
“Belay that!” Roscu snapped. “Emergency power to the drive—now! And go to battle stations.”
The alarm was just starting to sound when the alien warship opened fire.
“Evasive, Captain?” Raamas asked, grabbing for a handhold as the Orisson leapt forward.
“Negative,” Roscu said, looking at the tactical. Clarr family warships were built very tough in the stern in order to handle the extra heat and radiation of their overpowered drives. But the alien’s spectrum lasers were already starting to push those boundaries. Worse, any evasive maneuver would expose one of the Orisson’s flanks to that same withering fire, with disastrous results. “I need an in-system jump. How soon?”
“Captain, we’re just out of hyperspace—” the pilot began in a tight voice.
“How soon?”
“Forty seconds,” Raamas said, his head turning back and forth as he looked among the displays. “I’m not sure we can last that long.”