The fourth body, in stark contrast, was tall and thin, with enlarged shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. Its skin was a pale gray, and across its temples was a crosshatch of green, red, and blue tattoo scars. It was dressed in a dark-red, totally utilitarian jumpsuit.
“There’s nothing like these in our records,” Thrawn said, gesturing to the three pink bodies. “But the fourth…do you recognize it, Mid Captain?”
“Yes,” Samakro said, stepping close and peering at its stony face. “I don’t know the species, but those temple scars mark him as a Void Guide.”
He looked over at Thalias. “They’re one of the groups who hire themselves out as navigators for long-range travel through the Chaos,” he added.
“I know,” Thalias said. She’d been aboard a warship once that had been escorting a diplomatic mission, and both ships had hired aliens from the Navigators’ Guild to help reinforce the carefully designed illusion that the Chiss had no navigators of their own. She and her caregiver had been kept out of sight in their suite, but she’d seen some vid views of the navigator at his job.
She didn’t remember that navigator looking anything like this dead Void Guide. But then, the guild was made up of a lot of different groups and species.
“Actually, I’d have been surprised if you did know his species,” Thrawn commented. “The Navigators’ Guild goes to great lengths not to identify the species or the systems of its members. At any rate, his presence is a stroke of luck.”
“Why?” Thalias asked.
“Because some of the bridge recordings survived the death of the crew and passengers,” Thrawn said. “Naturally, those records are in the inhabitants’ language.”
“Which I assume we don’t know?” Samakro asked.
“Correct,” Thrawn said. “The analyzers might be able to do something with it, but without a linguistic basis to start from they’re unlikely to make much progress.”
“But they also had to talk to their navigator,” Thalias said as she suddenly saw where Thrawn was going with this. “And unless he could speak their language, they would have used a trade language.”
“Exactly,” Thrawn said, inclining his head toward her. “And because the Void Guides’ main operational area overlaps with ours, there’s a reasonable chance it’ll be a language we know.”
“You said some of the recordings survived,” Samakro said. “Any navigational records among them?”
“An excellent question, Mid Captain,” Thrawn said, his voice going grim. “The answer is no. It appears the navigator was the last to die, and erased as many records as he could before the end. The only reason we have the audio recordings is that they were stored in a different location than the others and he apparently missed them.”
Thalias stared at the Void Guide body, a creepy feeling seeping through her. “He didn’t want anyone to know where they’d come from,” she said. “He was working with their enemies.”
“Or was working to keep their enemies from backtracking them,” Samakro suggested.
“No,” Thrawn said. “If that was the situation, the captain would have deleted the records himself. The timestamp indicates that wasn’t the case.”
He turned back to Samakro. “I’ll be here for the next few hours, observing the dissection. I want you to make two copies of the audio records: one for the analyzers and one for my personal examination.”
“Yes, sir,” Samakro said. “With your permission, I’d like to also make an extra copy for myself. Senior Commander Kharill takes over the watch in half an hour, and I can begin listening to it while you watch things down here.”
“Excellent idea, Mid Captain,” Thrawn said. “Thank you.”
He looked at the Void Guide’s body. “He went to some trouble to hide these people and their home from us. Let’s see what we can learn of them despite his efforts.”
* * *
—
Thalias watched as Thrawn examined the bodies, noting the special attention he gave to their clothing and adornments. But once that part was over, and the medics stepped forward with their surgical equipment, she decided she’d had enough.
The suite was dark and quiet as she slipped inside and locked the hatch behind her. She tiptoed across the dayroom, wondering if a hot bath would feel good or if she was too tired to do anything except curl up in bed—
“Thalias?” a tentative voice came from Che’ri’s room.
“I’m here,” Thalias called back softly, changing direction toward the half-open hatchway. “Did I wake you?”
“No, I was already awake,” Che’ri said.
“Sorry,” Thalias said. “Are you hungry? Can I get you something to eat?”
“No.” Che’ri hesitated. “I had a nightmare.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said again, opening the hatch all the way and stepping inside. In the faint glow from the luminous escape pod markers, she saw that Che’ri was sitting up in bed, hunched over with her arms hugging one of her pillows to her chest. So much for that hot bath. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, I guess not,” Che’ri said. “It’s okay.”
But she was still clutching that pillow. “Come on,” Thalias encouraged as she sat down at the end of the girl’s bed. “Tell me yours, and I’ll tell you one of mine.”
“You had nightmares, too?”
“We all did,” Thalias said. “Just like the overload spells. I don’t know if those things are part of Third Sight itself or if it’s just all the pressure sky-walkers are under. But we all had them.” She patted Che’ri’s knee through the blanket. “Let me guess. You were lost and everyone was mad at you?”
“Almost,” Che’ri said. “I was lost, but they weren’t mad. At least they didn’t say anything. But they kept looking at me. Just…looking.”
“Yes, I had that one, too,” Thalias said ruefully. “No one would talk to me, and they wouldn’t listen. Sometimes they couldn’t even hear me.”
“I remember thinking it was like being stuck in a big soap bubble,” Che’ri said.
Thalias smiled. “That part’s from your bath.”
“What?”
“Your bath,” Thalias repeated. “The soothement bubbles. Your brain picked up on that memory and slapped it into your dream.”