Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(97)

“I have a long record of service to the Empire and the Emperor,” Thrawn said. “Have I ever failed you?”

“What about Atollon?” Vader countered. “You were unable to stop the rebels there. Now it will fall to me to find and destroy them.”

“My war with the rebels is not yet over,” Thrawn said softly. “I will defeat them.”

“Good,” Vader said. “Let us return to Coruscant, that your campaign may begin.”

Thrawn was silent another moment. “You spoke of proof,” he said. “If I could prove the Grysks are a threat to the Empire as well as the Chiss, would you assist me in retrieving the children and destroying their local center of operations?”

“What is this proof?”

“It lies aboard the Chimaera,” Thrawn said. “In time I hope the evidence will be sufficiently complete to establish conclusive proof. But if we wait until then I fear the children will be lost. I must ask you once again to trust me.”

Trust. It was something Thrawn continued to ask for. It was something The Jedi had valued greatly.

It was a quality Vader himself had little experience with.

“I was right about the gravity generators,” Thrawn continued. “I ask you to trust a little longer.”

Vader gazed at him. Trust. So little experience…

Still, the Emperor trusted Thrawn. Trusted him enough to promote him to Grand Admiral and give him the Seventh Fleet. If Vader’s master was willing to offer the Chiss that much authority, shouldn’t Vader be, as well?

Trust.

“Very well,” he said. “You may locate and attack this base, and attempt to rescue the children. But if the battle goes against you, you will pull back.”

“Agreed,” Thrawn said, inclining his head. “Thank you, my lord.” He hesitated. “But I will need more from you than merely your permission. I will need your direct assistance, as well.”

Vader frowned. “In what way?”

“Come to the bridge,” Thrawn said, standing up again. “I will show you.”



* * *



—

Vader looked down at the console from the command walkway. He listened to Thrawn’s explanation of what he wanted.

And he wondered if the grand admiral had gone insane.

“There is no other way,” Thrawn said. If he sensed Vader’s displeasure, he gave no sign of it. “The Grysks have a long lead on us. But they must rely on the Chiss children to navigate them back to their base.”

“Children who have done this many times before,” Vader reminded him. “We have such children aboard. Why can they not serve us as they served the Grysks?”

“Because those aboard the Chimaera are no stronger in the Force than the children currently in Grysk hands,” Thrawn said. “We must arrive at the base before the Grysks, and our Chiss navigators cannot achieve that.”

“Yet you believe I can?”

“The children are not as strong in the Force as you are,” Thrawn said. “You have their same precognition ability, but you have more strength and stamina.” He gestured at the crew pit. “You should be able to sufficiently outstrip the enemy’s speed.”

The bridge crew had gone very quiet. The helm was studiously not looking up at Vader and his admiral. Commodore Faro was carefully not joining into the conversation. The rest of the crew was looking like they would very much prefer to be elsewhere. “And if you are wrong?”

“Then we arrive behind the Grysks,” Thrawn said. “We will still engage them to the fullest, but we will have lost the element of surprise.”

“Or we shall arrive so late that they will have escaped?”

Thrawn’s glowing red eyes shifted to the viewport and the starfield glittering across the darkness. “Yes,” he said quietly.

“Yet you still ask me to do this instead of using navigators of proven ability.”

“Yes.”

Vader stretched out to the Force. He had never attempted anything like this. In fact, the idea of navigating without a nav computer or an astromech droid had never even occurred to him.

Thrawn was asking him to try it, with the Chimaera and every Imperial asset aboard at risk.

The bridge was still silent. Did they think he would defy their admiral’s order and refuse? Did they think he wouldn’t do it?

Did they think he couldn’t do it?

He squared his shoulders beneath his armor. “How will I know our destination?”

“You have touched the minds of the children who have been there,” Thrawn said. There was no gloating in his voice, no hint of satisfaction at having won out over Vader’s resistance. All Vader could sense was relief, perhaps even gratitude. “That knowledge, plus the guidance of the Force, should show you where the other children are being taken. For the rest, your skill and power in the Force will guide you along the quickest and safest path.”

“Very well,” Vader said. Sweeping his cloak behind him, he walked back along the walkway to the stairs leading down into the crew pit.

The crewers pressed themselves closer to their consoles as he passed by. The helmsman was already out of his chair, backing away to give the Dark Lord plenty of room. Vader reached the helm console and lowered himself into the chair.