He began walking again. A minute later he was out of sight behind the hills. A minute after that, the sound of an airspeeder whispered across the stillness of the night.
“Thank you for not killing him,” Thrawn said.
“Don’t thank me yet.” Colonel Yularen’s voice comes from behind. It holds anger and suspicion. “Tell me why I shouldn’t shoot you as a traitor to the Empire.”
—
Elainye was surprised to see her husband and daughter home so soon. But she wasn’t nearly as surprised as Talmoor.
“Are you all right?” he asked, enveloping her in a quick hug. “You sounded terrible. Has whatever it is passed?”
“Has whatever what is passed?” Elainye asked, frowning at him in confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That was me, I’m afraid,” Arihnda spoke up, pulling out her mother’s comm and holding it out to her. “I needed to get back here, and I needed to get away from Mattai. This was the simplest way to do it.”
“To get—what?” Elainye asked, her eyes on Arihnda as she mechanically took back the comm.
“There’s going to be a battle soon,” Arihnda said. “A big one. I need to get you out of here before it starts. So you need to start packing—”
“Arihnda, Arihnda,” Talmoor soothed. “It’s okay. They’re not going to attack the mine—really. The governor wouldn’t dare take any of his precious troops from their bodyguard duty to use against us.”
“He won’t have a choice,” Arihnda gritted out. “There’s an Imperial task force overhead, and their admiral has orders to neutralize the insurgents on Batonn. That means Creekpath, and he is going to take it. So you need to gather up everything you can’t live without—”
“Arihnda, please—”
“There’s no please, Mother,” Arihnda snarled at her. “There’s no please, and there’s no time. You need to go pack, and you need to pack now.”
She hadn’t intended to shout that final word. But she did, and she felt a flicker of guilt as her mother jumped at the unexpected vehemence.
But if that was what it took to get them moving, Arihnda could live with it.
“Come on, Elainye,” Talmoor said, squeezing his wife’s hand. “Do as she says.”
He started toward the stairs. Elainye didn’t move. “What about our friends?” she asked, pulling back against her husband’s grip, her voice under rigid control. “What about the men and women we work with in the mine?”
“I’m not here for them,” Arihnda said. “I’m here for you.”
There was another long silence. “I see,” Talmoor said. “All right. Come on, Elainye.”
“And make it fast,” Arihnda warned, glancing out the window at the lights of the mining complex in the distance.
Because Gudry didn’t know anything about this part. And if Gudry found out, she was damn sure he wouldn’t like it.
—
“I thought you said you had urgent business elsewhere,” Thrawn said as Colonel Yularen came down the hill, a blaster carbine in his hands. Like his voice, his body stance holds caution and suspicion.
“You asked if I’d be returning to the Chimaera,” Yularen reminded him. “I said I wouldn’t. And I didn’t.”
“You did not want Governor Pryce and Agent Gudry to know you were coming here to watch them from afar.”
“Correct,” Yularen said. “Both would have been insulted, though for different reasons. You can imagine my surprise when Commander Vanto informed me that you’d left the Chimaera in that freighter you took from Nightswan’s Nomad.”
“I see you asked Commander Vanto to be extra vigilant, as well.”
“And now you’re stalling,” Yularen said. He continues forward until he is four meters away. His blaster is pointed a few degrees to the side, not directly threatening but ready to be brought onto target. “I want to know what you’re doing here, and what your business was with Nightswan.”
“I am an admiral,” Thrawn said. “You are a colonel. I could order you to withdraw.”
“Theoretically, yes,” Yularen agreed. “As a practical matter, the ISB carries more weight with Coruscant than our respective ranks might suggest.” He hesitates a second, then lowers the carbine to point at the ground. “I don’t believe you’re a traitor, Admiral. But this meeting has the appearance of treason, and that’s all your enemies would need to bring you down. Bottom line: You talk to me now, or someday you face them. Which is it going to be?”
“I invited Nightswan here to offer him a position with my people,” Thrawn said. “Not only would that have benefited them, but the loss of the insurgents’ leader would have collapsed opposition on Batonn.”
“I see,” Yularen said. His voice holds uncertainty. “He turned you down, did he?”
“You saw him leave.”
“Maybe he just went for a change of clothes,” Yularen countered. “You sure he’s not coming back?”
“He is not.”
“Fine,” Yularen said. “Now tell me about your light cruisers. Specifically, why you’ve positioned them so far away from the Chimaera with those dog-ugly barge things you dragged in from somewhere wrapped around them.”
“The cruisers are under repairs and unable to fight,” Thrawn said. “I positioned them at a distance so they would be out of range of any attack from the surface.”
“Uh-huh,” Yularen said. “Sounds reasonable…except that where they are right now completely opens them up to an attack from space. You remember those ships that got away from Kinshara at Denash?”
“The existence of such ships has not been proven.”
“Proof is for jurists and politicians. I’m talking about tactics and strategies, subjects you suddenly seem to know nothing about. Those cruisers are far enough outside Batonn’s gravity well that someone could just swoop in, board them, and take them to hell and gone.” He raises his eyebrows, his expression holding a question. “Their hyperdrives are working, correct? That’s what Vanto deduced from the repair logs.”
“Commander Vanto is quite capable in the area of supplies and repairs,” Thrawn said. “If he states the hyperdrives are functional, you may rely on it.”
“Glad to hear that,” Yularen said. “You haven’t answered my question.”
“You are correct that a determined and quick attacker might be able to spirit the cruisers away,” Thrawn said. “But did you fail to notice the turn of that scenario?”
Yularen frowns. The frown vanishes into understanding. “That the cruisers can also jump if an attack is imminent?”
“Exactly,” Thrawn said. “That is why I placed them where I did. The repair barges are attached loosely enough that they will not be a hindrance.”
“And you separated them widely because…?” His expression holds anticipation.
Thrawn remained silent. Yularen’s expression changes to cautious understanding. “Because you don’t want any potential thieves to have all three of them lined up in a nice neat row ready for plucking.”
“Precisely,” Thrawn said. “You possess the same tactical abilities as Commander Vanto, Colonel. I do not know if you also possess his quality of leadership.”
“You really don’t have much political sense, do you? Never mind. I got a transmission from Gudry as Nightswan was leaving. He’s made it deep into the Creekpath base and has mined both the shield generator and an explosives cache he found. He’s keyed both of the triggers onto his comm’s remote.” His expression holds sudden frustration. “He also said that once he retrieves Pryce he’ll be ready to get out, and that he can trigger either or both of the mines at your command.”
“When he retrieves Governor Pryce?”
“That’s the part that has me worried, too,” Yularen said. Frustration and anger. “Apparently, she wandered off somewhere, possibly with her parents in tow, and he can’t raise her or locate her comm. He said he’ll try their house first. If she’s not there—” He shakes his head.
“We will find her,” Thrawn said. “I need to return to the Chimaera.”
“Go,” Yularen said. “Let’s just hope we don’t have to tell Grand Moff Tarkin that he needs to find Lothal yet another governor.”