Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(16)
Vader shifted his attention to the petrified tree remnant Thrawn had tagged on the display. At first glance it looked like all the others, but as a scanner overlay appeared he saw the complex electronics that had been invisibly woven into the stone bark and along the branches. “I believe it is part of a communications triad,” Thrawn continued. “It is a system for sending signals over long distances throughout the Unknown Regions.”
Vader eyed the display, a whisper of interest tugging at him despite himself. Though unlikely to have a direct bearing on their search, it echoed back to The Jedi’s memories of his time here. “The term triad suggests there are two other poles.”
“Indeed,” Thrawn said. “The likely position of the first is in one of the new houses.”
Vader looked at the main display. Assuming the triad’s poles formed an equilateral triangle…“The ship at the far end of the landing area will be the other,” he said. “Faded gray paint and a broken landing skid.”
“An abandoned derelict, clearly of no use to anyone,” Thrawn said. “A perfect hiding place.”
Vader eyed the six other light freighters jammed together in the cramped space. “For a planet that is supposed to host few visitors, there are an unusual number of waiting ships.”
“I agree,” Thrawn said. “Interesting. Unfortunately, it leaves us no room.”
Vader pursed his lips. Only two spots were still available: one at the outpost end of the field, the other right beside the derelict ship. Both would be tight for a vessel their size, but he could do it. “I can land us there,” he said.
“There is insufficient space,” Thrawn insisted.
“The space is sufficient for a pilot of sufficient skill.”
For a moment Thrawn remained silent. Vader could feel the flow of his thoughts and emotions, the orderly mix of what seemed to be calculation and caution. There might have been some annoyance, as well, but the Chiss’s mind was still maddeningly closed to Vader’s understanding. “You are certain you can land without mishap?”
In answer, Vader swung the freighter’s nose toward the landing area. The sooner they searched the outpost and found the source of the Emperor’s disturbance, the sooner they would be done with this place.
“What about our goal?” Thrawn asked. “Have you been able to gather any further information?”
Vader glared out the viewport. For someone with no Force sensitivity, Thrawn had a disconcerting knack for reading or anticipating people’s thoughts. “Nothing of significance,” he said. “The disturbance feels distant, yet somehow also close at hand.”
“As if attempting to conceal itself?”
“Perhaps,” Vader said, stretching out to the Force again. The disturbance…there it was.
But it was flickering, barely there. The thought of the Emperor picking up something this weak all the way from Coruscant bordered on the unbelievable. Yet somehow, he’d done it.
“We shall soon know,” Thrawn said. “Perhaps a closer investigation will reveal the truth.”
* * *
—
“We think they dropped from lightspeed about fifteen minutes ago,” Sensor Officer Hammerly said, pointing at the overlay she’d sent to the Chimaera’s tactical display. “It wasn’t until they turned toward Batuu that we were able to pick up their drive emissions on passive sensors.”
Faro gazed at the display, stroking her lip gently. For a system that wasn’t supposed to get much traffic, Batuu certainly seemed popular today. Counting the six ships on the ground that Admiral Thrawn’s tight-beam transmission had mentioned, this new set of four made ten. “Maybe they’re having a party down there,” she said. “What else do you have on the newcomers?”
“Not much,” Hammerly admitted. “We can’t get configuration or markings at this distance, not on passive sensors. If they’re running ID beacons, they’re too weak to pick up out of the noise.”
Faro looked at the sensor displays, found the line that indicated the background electromagnetic radiation level. It wasn’t unusually high for a star of this magnitude and spectrum; the Chimaera was just too far out. “Did you do an emission/acceleration profile?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Hammerly said. “They read as small freighters. But of course, they could also be small warships running at low power. They’re flying in loose formation, so they’re definitely together. Near as we can tell from their current vector, they seem to be aiming for the same general area where Admiral Thrawn and Lord Vader landed.”
Faro nodded. Before Thrawn and Vader left, the admiral had made it clear that Faro wasn’t to signal him except in an extreme emergency, given that a transmission would betray the Chimaera’s presence to anyone listening in. And if these ships were just more merchants joining the sales event the admiral had suggested might be happening, it hardly qualified as an emergency.
But if they were warships…
“Contact!” the officer at the secondary sensor station snapped. “Straight ahead; distance four hundred thousand kilometers. Two ships.”
“On it,” Hammerly said coolly, swiveling back to her board. “Two ships—similar sizes; long-range heavy freighters at the least—bearing straight toward Batuu.”