So instead Thrawn was going to attempt the kind of close-in flying normally associated with air shows.
The problem being that he was attempting it with a cruiser and a Nightdragon instead of the smaller and far more maneuverable missile boats.
“Pitch shift on one,” Thrawn called. “Stand by countdown: Three, two, one.”
Samakro tensed, waiting for the inevitable collision. To his relief and mild surprise, the inevitable didn’t happen. Both bows tilted upward at precisely the same time, and to precisely the same angle, and the ships continued on.
“Blockades One and Two are reacting,” came a voice from someone on the Vigilant. “Increasing speed and moving onto intercept vectors.”
“Time to intercept?” Ar’alani asked.
“Projected intercept…three minutes after Springhawk disengages.”
“Thrawn?” Ar’alani asked.
Thrawn didn’t answer. Samakro looked over at the command station, to see his commander working his questis. “I suggest a two percent increase in speed, Admiral,” he said.
“Two percent, confirmed,” Ar’alani said. “Course changes?”
“The next two can run as scheduled,” Thrawn said. “I’ll need to recompute the others.”
“Understood,” Ar’alani said. “Speed increase and starboard turn ready.”
“Acknowledged,” Thrawn said. “Stand ready speed increase. Three, two, one.”
There was a slight sensation, as much imagined as felt, as the Springhawk increased its speed. “Stand ready starboard turn,” Thrawn continued as the two ships settled into their new vectors. “Three, two, one.”
This turn was larger than the earlier pitch maneuver, shifting them a full seven degrees. Once again, the two ships stayed in perfect formation.
“Get busy on those revisions,” Ar’alani warned. “The portside change is scheduled for three minutes from now.”
“Acknowledged,” Thrawn said, his fingers skipping over his questis. “They’ll be ready when we need them.”
Samakro peered out through the canopy, feeling sweat gathering beneath his tunic collar. The more course changes they made, the higher the odds that one of the ships would make a mistake and the whole illusion would pop like a bubble.
But Thrawn had insisted on piling complexity onto their incursion, arguing that a steady, straight-in vector might raise suspicions of a second intruder, while multiple course changes should allay any such concerns.
The other option being the conclusion that whoever was in charge of the mission was crazy. That was certainly the one Samakro himself was going with at the moment.
The minutes ticked by. One by one the course shifts were recalculated and factored in. Samakro watched the tactical as the two ships continued inward, listening to the sensor officer’s running commentary on the status of the pursuing blockade ships. A third had joined the party now, angling in from a direction that would bring it into clear view of the Springhawk nearly a minute before the cruiser was scheduled to break off. Thrawn and Ar’alani discussed the situation, and once again the Chiss ships increased their speed a few percent. Samakro continued to watch and listen, keeping a close eye on the Springhawk’s weapon and defense monitors, just in case Thrawn’s plan degenerated into a battle.
And then, suddenly, they were there.
“Stand ready to break off,” Thrawn said. “Admiral?”
“Standing ready,” Ar’alani said. “Blockades One and Two now four and a half minutes from intercept, Blockade Three ninety seconds from visual. We’ll continue on for three minutes, then head for Shadow Two and hyperspace. That should give you enough time to settle in.”
“Acknowledged,” Thrawn said. “We can make do with two minutes if you need to break early.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Ar’alani said. “We’ll wait for you at the rendezvous. Good luck.”
“Helm?” Thrawn called.
“Standing ready, sir,” Azmordi confirmed.
“Prepare to veer off,” Thrawn said. “Stand ready: Three, two, one.”
With multiple puffs of compressed gas the Springhawk angled to portside, moving away from the Vigilant on a vector that would take it across the edge of the nearest asteroid cluster. Samakro held his breath, focusing his attention on the tactical display. If the blockade ships spotted them, the charade would be over.
He twitched reflexively as the Vigilant, now pulled ahead of them, put on a sudden burst of speed, shifting its angle as if Ar’alani was trying one last maneuver to try to get to the planet in the distance before her pursuers reached combat range. If she was able to keep the blockaders’ attention on her for a few more seconds, they might pull this off. The slowly wobbling asteroid that was their goal loomed ahead of them—
With another blast of cold gas the Springhawk braked to a halt beside the asteroid. Another carefully tuned pulse, and the cruiser had matched itself to the asteroid’s slow spin. Samakro looked at the tactical, noting that the blockade ships were still fully invested with chasing down the Vigilant.
“Full stealth mode,” Thrawn ordered.
All around them, the bridge displays and monitor boards winked red and then went dark. “We appear to have arrived undetected,” Thrawn added calmly.
Samakro took a deep breath, making one more visual sweep to make sure all nonessential systems had been locked down. “So it would appear,” he said, matching his commander’s tone. “How long do we wait?”
Thrawn looked past him at the stars now tracking slowly across the sky. “We need to allow the Vigilant to escape and the blockade ships to return to their picket positions. A few hours, no more.”
Samakro nodded. And then it would be time for Thrawn to slip over to the abandoned mining station floating halfway across the asteroid cluster.
Where they would find out if this whole gamble had been worth the effort.
* * *
—
The Vigilant’s sky-walker was named Ab’begh, and she was only eight.
But she had some interesting moldable play figures and some really nice colored graph markers. And she had a lot of building snaps. Way more than Che’ri had.
They were starting to play with them when Ab’begh’s momish told them to stop.
“It’s reading time, girls,” the woman said. “Put away the snaps and get your questises. Come, come, come. Toys away; questises out.”
“Do we have to?” Ab’begh asked in a whiny voice. “We want to play.”