Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(12)

Thrawn.

For a long moment, no one spoke or moved, except for those who were writhing silently in their transports as they clutched their self-inflicted blaster wounds. Thrawn’s eyes swept slowly across the men and machines, then he spoke again in a language Anakin didn’t recognize.

“Artoo?” Anakin prompted quietly.

The droid made a negative sound. So he couldn’t translate the language, either.

Not really surprising. Briefly, Anakin wished there’d been enough room in the Actis to bring C-3PO along.

One of the men at the ship spoke. Thrawn replied. The other spoke again, this time gesturing with the hand holding his blaster. Anakin lifted his lightsaber again in warning, but the man made no attempt to open fire. For a minute the two of them continued to converse in the same language. Then Thrawn said something, the man called out to the rest of the group, and all of them reluctantly holstered their blasters. Thrawn shifted his eyes to Anakin and beckoned to him. Anakin gave the clearing one final scan, then closed down his lightsaber and walked across to the Chiss.

“General Skywalker, I assume,” Thrawn said in Meese Caulf as Anakin reached him.

“Yes,” Anakin confirmed. “What’s going on? Who are they?”

“They claim to be simple merchants,” Thrawn said.

“Armed merchants?”

“Most travelers in this part of space are armed,” Thrawn said. “They claim this landing area is normally reserved for their ship, and that they were dismayed to find it occupied by another. When their attempts to communicate with those aboard failed, they resolved to force an entry to render any aid the crew might require.”

“I’m sure they did,” Anakin said, watching the men by the hatch. They were clearly unhappy with the situation, but at the moment none of them seemed inclined to continue their attack. “Do you believe them?”

“Partially,” Thrawn said. “They’re surely smugglers, not simple merchants. I’m furthermore not convinced that they attempted communication before attempting to force their way aboard. But I do believe they expected to find an open landing area and were upset to discover that was not the case.”

Anakin eyed the crates stacked on the cargo carriers. There wasn’t much reason to haul all of that out here unless they were planning to load it onto another ship.

Or maybe to load it onto this ship? “Or else they knew Padmé’s ship was here and were planning to steal it,” he growled.

“No,” Thrawn said. “Note the number of crates on each vehicle, and how low those vehicles lie upon their lift fields. Each crate is far too heavy for the beings here to transfer by hand.”

“Unless they have loadlifters.”

“There’s no room for lifters of sufficient size to be aboard the vehicles.”

Anakin nodded sourly. “Which means the lifters are aboard their ship. And since there’s no way of knowing if there would be anything like that aboard this one, there’s no point in trying to steal it.”

“I would put it more strongly,” Thrawn said. “The design of this ship is that of a diplomatic or passenger craft. It’s highly unlikely that it would have the necessary loading equipment aboard.”

“Or enough cargo space for all that,” Anakin conceded, the taste of defeat in his mouth. “So if they didn’t do anything to Padmé, who did?”

“A question for which we do not yet have an answer,” Thrawn said. “Nor do I believe have they. What do you wish done with them?”

Anakin frowned. “What?”

“You are a general,” Thrawn reminded him. “I am a commander. You stand higher in military hierarchy.”

Anakin looked sharply at him. Was the Chiss mocking him? “You seem to be the expert on things that happen in this region,” he said. “You also know their language.” He nodded toward the smugglers. “Not to mention that they know you. Or at least, they recognize the uniform.”

“They don’t know me,” Thrawn said. “I also doubt they’ve ever seen this uniform. But they recognize that it is a uniform, and deduce therefore that I’m a person of authority. It’s also likely they’ve heard of the Chiss.” He smiled slightly. “Though perhaps only as myths.”

Anakin thought about all the places he’d been, all the small backwoods worlds he’d visited while chasing down Separatists. Some of the people there had only distant memories—or none at all—of the Jedi. “Not necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “It can be useful for people to underestimate you.”

“It can be equally useful for them to overestimate you,” Thrawn said. “What do you wish done with them?”

“Tell them to get themselves and their cargo out of here,” Anakin said. “We’ll move the ship when we’re ready to do so. Until then, they stay away.”

Thrawn nodded and spoke again.

The smuggler chief replied, his tone clearly indicating a protest. But he nodded and gestured to his crew. The ones still standing beside the ship headed to the vehicles, some of them shoving the injured drivers roughly across the wide seats and taking the controls.

Two minutes later, Anakin and Thrawn were alone.

“I presume you can get us into the ship?” the Chiss asked.

“I think so,” Anakin said, looking over at the hatch. He needed to check on Padmé, but the last thing he wanted was to let an untested alien into her ship. “It normally opens to a transponder, but there’s also a key code I can punch in. I’ll go see if she’s inside while you look around out here for clues.”