The hatch slid open and Thrawn stepped onto the bridge. “My apologies, Admiral,” he said as he crossed to Ar’alani and Ilparg. “Apologies, Ambassador. My studies took longer than expected.”
“What studies were those, Senior Captain?” Ilparg asked suspiciously.
“Tactical data,” Ar’alani put in.
“Tactical data?” Ilparg repeated scornfully. “Is that what the Expansionary Fleet calls art these days?”
Ar’alani clenched her teeth. “The first rule of strategy is to know your enemy, Ambassador,” she said. “That includes their battle tactics; but also their history, their philosophy, and, yes, sometimes even their art.”
“I accept the first two,” Ilparg said, the disdain still in his voice. “The third is of little to no value. However, now that Senior Captain Thrawn has graced us with his presence, perhaps you’d be good enough to contact the diplomatic office as I requested?”
“Certainly, Ambassador,” Wutroow said, stepping to Ilparg’s side and deftly easing him away from Ar’alani and Thrawn. “We can hail them better from the comm station. This way, please.”
“Thank you for trying,” Thrawn said softly as he came up beside Ar’alani.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ar’alani advised. “Sometimes it’s good to have your talents underestimated.” Though not when your career is being evaluated, she added silently to herself. “What did you find?”
“Our Lioaoi art files are extremely limited,” Thrawn said. “But they should be adequate to our needs.”
“Glad to hear it.” Ar’alani waved toward the viewport. “There’s your canvas. Paint me something.”
For a moment, Thrawn stood silently, his eyes tracking across the scene in front of them. Ar’alani shifted her attention between him and the tactical display, wondering when the Lioaoi were going to make their move. If the Nikardun were here, this group must have heard about the Urch incident by now.
Could the Urchiv-ki have somehow failed to identify the Vigilant before it escaped from their encirclement? Impossible. Could they perhaps not have at least one communications triad on the entire Urchiv-ki capital planet capable of transmitting a message this far? Even more unlikely.
So what were the Nikardun waiting for?
Unless the whole thing was just a product of paranoia and imagination. The alien nations out here were always fighting among themselves—Ar’alani knew that all too well. If the Nikardun were just some small-time species the Chiss hadn’t run across, and their battles were purely local ones—
“Those nine fighters,” Thrawn said, pointing to a group of small ships just coming around the planetary disk. “The craft themselves are a variant of Lioaoin design, but their formation and flight pattern aren’t typical.”
“Maybe they’ve updated their tactics since the last time you saw them,” Ar’alani suggested.
“No,” Thrawn said slowly. “Lioaoi like vertical formations. Their artwork clearly shows that. They would normally put nine ships like that in a three-stack wedge. This formation is planar and far more spread out.”
Ar’alani nodded. That was definitely not a stacked-wedge formation. “Looks like it’s designed for a pincer maneuver, too.”
“Indeed,” Thrawn said. “Attack, not defense. Again, contrary to the usual Lioaoin predisposition. But it’s not just the formation. The pilots seem…hesitant, somehow. As if this formation is new to them.”
“Maybe they’re fresh recruits.”
“All nine of them?” Thrawn shook his head. “No. Those are one-person gunboats. The Lioaoi would never put that many untried pilots alone without a more experienced ship and crew nearby in case of trouble. Certainly not that deep in the gravity well.”
“I agree that’s how they did things before,” Ar’alani said. “But fleets change doctrine all the time. Maybe not this drastically, but they do adjust and adapt to new tech or situations.”
“This is Lioaoin Orbital Command,” a voice came over the speaker.
Ar’alani blinked. She’d been so focused on the distant ships and Thrawn’s analysis that she’d almost forgotten their ostensible purpose for being here.
“This is Ambassador Boadil’par’gasoi of the Chiss Ascendancy,” Ilparg replied with all the dignity and arrogance Ar’alani had come to expect from the diplomatic corps in general and Ilparg in particular. “I wish to speak to someone in the diplomatic office concerning the aggressive treatment we received a few days ago at the Urchiv-ki capital of Urch.”
“What makes you think the Lioaoin Regime has anything to do with the Urchiv-ki?” the voice came back.
“There was a Lioaoin ship present when the Urchiv-ki attempted to capture our ship,” Ilparg said.
Ar’alani hissed out a breath. What the hell did Ilparg think he was doing? Handing over information like that, especially without getting anything in return, was the height of foolishness. “Ambassador—”
“No, let him go,” Thrawn said, closing a warning hand over her arm. “Let’s see their reaction to who we are.”
Ar’alani scowled. Yes, that would be Thrawn’s plan, giving the Lioaoi a nudge and seeing how they reacted. All well and good, provided the reaction wasn’t to throw everything they had at the intruders.
Still, the Vigilant was a fully armed Nightdragon, and they weren’t yet too deep into the heartworld’s gravity well. No matter what the Lioaoi had, Ar’alani had no doubt she could get them out with only minimal damage to her ship. Around the side of one of the bluedocks she saw something move into view…
And felt her eyes widen.
“Uh-oh,” someone across the bridge breathed.
Ar’alani’s hands closed involuntarily into tight fists. It was a warship.
A huge warship—Battle Dreadnought class at least, half again the Vigilant’s size. Its flanks bristled with weapons clusters, angular lines marked sections of heavy armor, tight-spaced patterns of nodes proclaimed the existence of a strong electrostatic barrier.
And the overly large bridge viewport—the arrogantly, invitingly, overly large viewport—marked it as Nikardun.
“Admiral?” Wutroow asked, a hint of urgency in her voice.
Ar’alani eyed the Nikardun warship, noting particularly the vectors and positions of the ships around it, then gave the tactical display a long, careful look. “Hold course,” she ordered Octrimo. “They’re not making any threatening moves.”