“I should think that was obvious,” Ba’kif said. “The danger inherent in teaching via simulator is that if the simulation diverges from reality, we may not notice until too late.” He waved a hand at Thrawn. “We have here an opportunity to compare the simulation with reality, and we’re going to take advantage of it.”
“Taharim Academy is under Colonel Wevary’s authority,” the Irizi insisted.
“Indeed it is.” Ba’kif turned to Wevary. “Colonel?”
“I concur, General,” Wevary said without hesitation. “I’m looking forward to the exercise.”
The Irizi glared at him. But he merely compressed his lips and inclined his head.
“Good.” Ba’kif turned back to the board. “Gentlemen, I have four patrol craft prepped and waiting at the platform, plus an observation launch for the six of us to watch from.” He stood up and gestured toward the door. “Shall we go?”
* * *
—
The four patrollers were in their starting positions: Thrawn in one, three of General Ba’kif’s pilots in the others. The test area had been cordoned off, and the initial points for the exercise mapped out. The observation launch was in position, outside the combat area but close enough to see and record everything.
Ziara sat beside Ba’kif in the second seating tier, staring out the canopy past the heads of the other three officers and the Irizi. She’d pitched this to the general as an unfair charge against Thrawn, wrapping her concerns in the glow of the younger cadet’s academic record. And in all honesty, Ba’kif hadn’t seemed to need a lot of persuasion.
But that didn’t change the fact that Ziara had stuck her neck out, and there was now a fresh target painted on her forehead. Before her call to Ba’kif, she’d been peripheral to the situation, with little danger to her or the Irizi name. Now, if Thrawn failed to prove his case, her name would be right up there with his.
“Patrols One and Three: Go,” Ba’kif said into the comm. “Patrol Four: Go. Patrol Two: Go. Make sure your vectors stay precisely on track.”
In the distance in front of them, the three patrol ships began to move. Beneath them, Thrawn’s Patrol Four headed toward them. “Steady,” Ba’kif warned. “Two, increase thrust a couple of degrees. One and Three, running true. Cadet Thrawn?”
“Ready, sir,” Thrawn’s measured voice came.
Ziara felt her lip twist. Now, when her stomach was tied up in knots, was naturally the moment he picked to be cool and calm.
Or maybe it was just that space and combat were a more comfortable environment for him than a courtroom filled with officers, regulations, and family politics.
“Stand by,” Ba’kif said. “Exercise begins…now.”
The four patrol ships leapt toward each other, precisely matching the exercise’s original parameters. Thrawn cut to starboard, heading toward Three. One and Two angled toward him, closing the distance. Thrawn opened fire, raking One and Three with low-power, exercise-level spectrum laser shots. The two ships veered apart, moving out of the lines of fire, as Two headed toward Thrawn’s flank, all three targeting Thrawn with their own fire. For a few seconds, Thrawn ignored the theoretical destruction hammering at his ship’s hull and continued toward One and Three. Then, abruptly, he spun his ship around in a 180-yaw, turning his thrusters toward One and Three as if preparing to escape.
But instead of firing his aft thrusters, he threw full power to the forward ones, continuing his drive toward One and Three.
The maneuver caught all three attackers off guard. One and Three veered even farther apart, reflexively shying away from the threat of being rammed. Two, which had been intent on a flanking close-fire position, instead shot past Thrawn’s bow.
And as Two passed in front of him, Thrawn fired his lasers at its stern, simultaneously firing his rear thrusters full-power toward One and Three.
Someone swore softly. Somehow, Thrawn’s attack had killed Two’s acceleration and sent it into a slow tumble. Thrawn’s own thruster burst sent him past Two’s stern, once again leaving him a clear path for escape.
But to Ziara’s astonishment, instead of running he fired his forward thrusters, killing his speed and dropping beside Two, putting the tumbling ship between him and the more distant One and Three.
And somehow, right in the midst of that maneuver, his ship picked up the exact same tumble that his attack had given Two, precisely matching its speed and rotation as he settled in behind it.
Ziara huffed out a half laugh. “He did it,” she said under her breath. “He disappeared.”
“What are you talking about?” the Irizi asked, sounding confused. “He’s right there.”
“Not done,” Ba’kif warned.
A second later Thrawn broke his ship out of its wobble, and as Two rotated past him he fired his bow-flank and stern-flank lasers, catching One and Three squarely in their bows.
“Hold!” Ba’kif called. “The exercise is over. Thank you all; please return to the launch platform. Cadet Thrawn, are you comfortable with docking your ship by yourself?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll see you inside, then. Well done, Cadet.” He keyed off.
“What do you mean, well done?” the Irizi demanded. “What did that prove? It was a skillful enough maneuver, I’ll grant you, but we all saw it. He hardly disappeared the way he claimed.”
“On the contrary,” Ba’kif said, a mixture of admiration and amusement in his voice. “We only saw it because we were above the field of combat, and because we were using low-power lasers that skewed the real-world effects. The simulation, on the other hand, wasn’t so limited.” He looked at Wevary. “Colonel?”
“Yes,” Wevary said. He didn’t sound as amused as Ba’kif, but Ziara could hear the same admiration in his voice. “Well done, indeed.”
“General—” the Irizi began.
“Patience, Aristocra,” Ba’kif said.
And to Ziara’s surprise, he turned to her. “Senior Cadet Ziara, perhaps you’d be good enough to explain?”
“Yes, sir,” Ziara said, feeling like she’d suddenly been tossed into the deep end. The most junior person in the compartment, and he wanted her to give what amounted to a lecture?
Still, having an Irizi explain to another Irizi was probably the politically smart move.
“The first attack against Thrawn would have opened up his aft oxygen reserves and fuel tanks, spewing both gases into space behind him,” she said. “When he turned aft to One and Three and fired a thruster burst, those escaping gases would have ignited, temporarily blinding the attackers’ sensors.”