And certainly getting Thrawn out of the way would be a good thing. The Nikardun were ultimately unstoppable, and the less death and destruction they left in their wake the better for everyone.
Yes, Qilori decided. Whatever Yiv wanted him to do, he could certainly handle it.
Ar’alani had seldom known General Ba’kif to be angry. At least, she’d seldom known him to be angry with her.
He was more than making up for it now.
“What in hell’s name were you thinking?” he snapped, glaring as if he was trying to melt her into slag by eyeflame and willpower alone. “Allowing a sky-walker to be separated from her caregiver is bad enough; actually engineering that separation takes matters to an entirely new level of illegality.”
“Never mind that,” Syndic Zistalmu ground out, doing his best to aid in Ba’kif’s fire-starting efforts. In contrast with the general, Ar’alani was quite familiar with Zistalmu’s anger. “Those are minor military matters, and they’re not why Syndic Thurfian and I are here. What we want to know is how you could let Senior Captain Thrawn insert himself—again—into Garwian politics.”
“Indeed,” Thurfian seconded. Unlike the heat radiating from Ar’alani’s other two interrogators, his tone and face were the frozen shell of Csilla. “Did the Aristocra somehow fail to make ourselves clear?”
“Captain Thrawn wasn’t inserting himself into politics,” Ar’alani said, keeping her voice even. She’d never found much credence in the old saying that soft words eroded hard ones, but she certainly didn’t want to make Ba’kif or Zistalmu any angrier than they already were.
Especially with Zistalmu a nanosecond away from demanding that the entire Syndicure convene to consider charges against her. Unlike her first officer, Ar’alani didn’t have a conduit into the sort of family intrigues that could provide her with a counterattack or an exit strategy.
“Really,” Zistalmu said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “He travels aboard a Garwian diplomatic ship, in the company of a Garwian envoy, to a world we ourselves have no political ties to; and that has nothing to do with politics? Have the Garwians converted their diplomatic corps into a knitting club?”
“The mission was one of reconnaissance,” Ar’alani said. “Captain Thrawn is trying to determine where else the Nikardun may have established themselves—”
“Have these Nikardun attacked the Ascendancy?” Thurfian interrupted. “Have they shown any indication that they might attack the Ascendancy?”
“They destroyed a refugee ship within one of our systems.”
“So you claim,” Zistalmu said. “The Syndicure has yet to see solid evidence that the Nikardun are the ones responsible.”
“All of which is irrelevant anyway,” Thurfian said. “If there’s neither attack nor imminent attack, it’s not a military matter but, as Syndic Zistalmu has already stated, a political one.” He turned his glare onto Ba’kif. “Unless you’re prepared to claim that General Ba’kif personally authorized this mission.”
“Not at all,” Ar’alani said quickly. This tactic, at least, she knew: Zistalmu throwing his net wide in the hope of sweeping in as many people as he could. She and Thrawn were already tangled in the mesh, and she had no intention of letting Ba’kif be drawn in alongside them. “But as I’m sure you’re aware, Syndic, situations sometimes arise where events proceed too quickly for consultation with superiors.”
“An interesting assertion,” Thurfian said, the temperature in his voice dropping a few more degrees. “Tell me, has Solitair then lost every one of its triads? Has the Ascendancy lost every one of its triads? A ship in deep space may have only one-way communication, but once Thrawn landed on Solitair that excuse disappeared. If he didn’t report to Csilla or Naporar and ask for orders, it was because he chose not to.”
“Or because the Garwians chose not to let him,” Ba’kif said. He was still angry, Ar’alani could tell, but he could see the two syndics edging their way into military affairs, and he clearly had no intention of ceding any of that territory. “The Syndicure is right to question Captain Thrawn’s decisions—”
“To question them?” Zistalmu bit out.
“—but that discussion can wait until he’s returned and able to properly defend himself,” Ba’kif continued. “The immediate issue at hand is how to extract him safely from his reconnaissance.”
“Why should we?” Zistalmu demanded. “His activities are completely unauthorized. He got himself into this. He can get himself out.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want, Syndic?” Ba’kif asked.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s Thrawn we’re talking about,” Thurfian said sourly. “The general is suggesting there may be worse political and diplomatic consequences if we let him have his way than if we just go in and pluck him out.”
“Well, at least he’d no longer be an embarrassment to us,” Zistalmu grumbled.
“Don’t be so sure,” Thurfian said, his gaze shifting to Ar’alani. “How exactly would you do it, Admiral?”
“Straightforwardly,” Ar’alani said. “I’d take the Vigilant to the Primea system, contact them, and arrange to pick him up. If I leave immediately, I should be within the time frame he specified.”
“And if they refuse to give him up?”
“Why would they?” Ba’kif asked. “We have no quarrel with the Vaks.”
Ar’alani kept her expression steady. That was true…unless the Vaks were already under Nikardun control. In that case, the simple pickup mission she was pitching could get very ugly very fast.
“Doesn’t mean they won’t have a quarrel with us,” Zistalmu said. “Particularly if they see Thrawn as a spy. But never mind them. What if these Nikardun of yours have taken over?”
“We’ve already seen they aren’t yet ready to engage the Ascendancy,” Ar’alani reminded him.
Thurfian snorted. “No need to engage us when they could simply vaporize the Garwian ship with Thrawn aboard and claim it was an accident.”
“All the more reason for the Vigilant to get there before that happens,” Ba’kif said grimly. “If you’ll excuse us, we need to get this mission under way.”
“Of course,” Thurfian said. “Just as soon as we resolve the issue of the Vigilant’s sky-walker.”
Ar’alani grimaced. She’d hoped they’d forgotten about that. “I promised Che’ri’s caregiver I’d take care of her,” she said. “I see no reason why I can’t continue to do that.”