Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(6)

Only to find the diminutive Noghri standing calmly on the deck five meters outside the vehicle under the watchful guard of Sergeant Drav and Trooper Morrtic. Morrtic, Kimmund noted, was holding an extra stormtrooper helmet at her side. “Where did you find him?” Kimmund asked.

“Right here, sir,” Drav said darkly. “Standing outside the hatch.”

“Pretending he was just out for a stroll,” Morrtic added.

Kimmund focused on the Noghri. Short and humanoid, with gray skin and a row of small horns running up from his forehead, he was looking back at the stormtrooper commander with his usual scowl. His arms were hanging casually at his sides, but Kimmund had seen him practice with the fighting staff strapped across his back and knew he could grab it with blinding speed.

With three stormtroopers standing in triangle array around him, Kimmund almost hoped he would try. Especially since there was a certain look on top of Rukh’s scowl that he was pretty sure was smugness. “Well?” he demanded.

“Well?” Rukh repeated in a grating voice.

“What are you doing here?”

“This is my master’s ship,” Rukh said. “I can go wherever I wish.”

“The Chimaera is Grand Admiral Thrawn’s ship,” Kimmund corrected acidly. “Lord Vader’s Lambda and the Darkhawk aren’t. You’ve been warned to stay out.”

“Your soldiers will tell you I haven’t been aboard,” Rukh said. “Speak to them. Ask them.”

Kimmund shifted his attention to Drav. “Well?”

“We were here ten seconds after the alarm sounded,” the sergeant conceded. “If he was inside, it couldn’t have been more than a ring-and-run.”

“Really,” Kimmund growled, looking back at Rukh. “Are we reduced to petty schoolchild pranks, then?”

“We are reduced to words,” Rukh said. “These are mine: The safety of my master is my task. I will not allow unknowns to threaten it.”

“We’re hardly unknowns,” Kimmund said stiffly. “We’re the First Legion, Lord Vader’s personal stormtroopers. The entire Empire knows us.”

“The entire Empire may,” Rukh said. “I don’t. But I will learn.”

“You do that,” Kimmund said. “Just remember that the next time we catch you in one of our transports, we will shoot to kill.”

“You may try,” Rukh said. “I bear you no ill will. But I will do my job.” Giving Kimmund a low, obviously sarcastic bow, he turned and strode on his short legs toward the hangar bay exit.

“Should we follow him, sir?” Drav asked.

“No,” Kimmund said. “Unfortunately, he’s right—Thrawn has given him full run of the Chimaera. Hopefully, Lord Vader’s had a chance to clarify things regarding our ships.” He gestured to the helmet in Morrtic’s hand. “What’s that?”

“It’s what he used to trigger the alarm,” Morrtic said, holding up the helmet for closer inspection. “He apparently stood out here and tossed it through the hatch into the sensor field.”

Kimmund frowned, keying his helmet’s optical enhancements. Was that—? “Is that Jid’s?”

“Yes, sir,” Morrtic confirmed sourly. “And yes, it was still in the aft electronics shop waiting for its comm upgrade.”

“So how did Rukh get in there and get it?”

Morrtic looked at Drav. “No idea, sir,” Drav admitted.

“No idea?”

“He didn’t use that electrostaff of his to short out the sensors,” Morrtic put in. “I checked them.”

“What about that damn personal cloaking trick?” Kimmund asked. “Did Sampa ever figure out how that thing worked?”

“Yeah, he got a look at the specs,” Drav said. “It’s a lot like a Sinrich optical dephaser, but it’s got a totally different design. Looks like it’s limited to three minutes on a charge, doesn’t work on humans—needs a Noghri’s double-layer skin conductivity or something—and doesn’t cover any added stuff once it’s been activated.”

“That last is the key,” Morrtic said. “Sampa’s rigged up a gadget that sprays a fine mist of microwave-reflective glitter when the floor weight sensors are triggered. Once Rukh’s got that on him, we should be able to track him anywhere he goes.”

“Great,” Kimmund said. “So that means he never got aboard. Congratulations.”

“Yeah,” Morrtic growled, wiggling Jid’s helmet in her hands. “We’ll go over the ship right now and find his diggery hole.”

“Yes, you will,” Kimmund bit out. He glared at the wayward helmet. “Because the next time he crosses me, someone’s going to die. Preferably Rukh; but if it’s not him, it’ll be whoever let him through. And it won’t be me who does it. It’ll be Lord Vader.”

He shifted his eyes across the hangar, fighting to keep from lifting his carbine and blasting the insolent Noghri in the back right there and then. “So pass the word, Sergeant. Pass it to everyone.”



* * *



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The Chimaera traveled two hours in realspace before Thrawn ordered Faro to try the hyperdrive again.