“Excellent,” Thrawn said. “Perhaps you will begin by telling me the true story of your quest.”
“I thought you already knew. You know about Padmé’s ship.”
“The Nubian?” Thrawn shrugged. “The design and power system were unlike anything else I’ve seen in this region. Your craft displays similar characteristics. It was logical that one visiting stranger was seeking the other.”
“Ah. You’re right, the Nubian is one of ours. It carried a Republic ambassador who came here to collect information from an informant. When she failed to contact us, I was sent to look for her.”
Che’ri frowned. Was Duja the informant Skywalker was talking about? In that case, shouldn’t they tell him that she’d already left Batuu?
“I see,” Thrawn said. “Was this informant trustworthy?”
“Yes.”
“You are certain of that?”
“The ambassador was.”
“Then betrayal is unlikely. Has the informant contacted you?”
“No.”
“In that case, the most likely scenarios are accident or capture. We need to travel to the surface to determine which it was.”
“That’s where I was heading when you barged in,” Skywalker said. “You said you knew where her ship was?”
“I can send you the location,” Thrawn told him. “But it might be more convenient for you to first come aboard. I have a two-passenger shuttle in which we can travel together.”
“Thanks, but I’ll take my own ship in. Like I said, we might need Artoo down there.”
“Very well,” Thrawn said. “I’ll lead the way.”
“Fine. Whenever you’re ready.”
“I’ll make preparations at once,” Thrawn said. “One additional thought. Chiss names are difficult for many species to properly pronounce. I suggest you address me by my core name: Thrawn.”
“That’s all right, Mitth’raw’nuruodo. I think I can handle it.”
“Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”
“That’s what I said: Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”
“It’s pronounced Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”
“Yes. Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”
“Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”
It was all Che’ri could do to not break out in giggles. She could hear the difference as well as Thrawn could. But Skywalker clearly didn’t get it.
But at least he wasn’t stubborn enough to keep kicking at the wall. “Fine,” he growled. “Thrawn.”
“Thank you. It will make things easier. My shuttle is prepared. Let us depart.”
He keyed off the comm and began to unstrap. “You’ll be all right here alone?” he asked, looking closely at Che’ri.
She swallowed hard. Did she have a choice?
Actually, yes, she realized suddenly, she did. Clearly, Thrawn was willing to back out of the agreement he’d just made if Che’ri asked him to stay with her.
But they’d come out here looking for allies against the Nikardun. Skywalker might be their best hope of that.
She squared her shoulders. “I’m fine,” she said. “Tell me what to do.”
“Go back to the system with the energy shield,” he said. “Stay well clear of the robot ships. When I signal, you’re to come down to the place with the energy shield, using decoys to keep the robots away from your course.”
“Okay,” Che’ri said. She’d only used the decoys in simulations, but it had looked pretty easy. “How many should I use?”
“As many as you need,” he said. “In fact, you might as well use them all. If this works as I hope it will, we’ll be heading straight back to the Ascendancy, without any need to face other potential threats.”
“All right.” She took a deep breath. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Of course,” he said, smiling confidently. “I’ll be armed, and I have every confidence that General Skywalker will be a powerful ally.” He looked out the canopy. “But I believe I’ll also put on my combat uniform. Just in case.”
Even in one of the extra-fast express tunnel cars reserved for Nine Families use, the trip to the Mitth homestead took nearly four hours. During that time Thalias and Thurfian spoke only once, midway through the trip, when Thurfian asked if she wanted anything to eat. She didn’t, not because she wasn’t a little hungry, but because she didn’t want to feel obligated to him. The rest of the trip was made in silence.
Thalias had never been to the vast cavern that housed the Mitth family’s Csilla homestead. But she’d seen pictures, and looked at maps, and as they approached the final checkpoint she was fully prepared to look upon the ancestral site of her adoptive family.
She was wrong. Completely and thoroughly wrong.
The cavern was larger than she’d expected. Way larger. Large enough that there were actual clouds drifting across the sky, a panoramic blue she would have been prepared to swear was an actual sky above an actual planetary surface. Peeking out from behind the clouds was the blazing disk of a sun she would also have sworn was real. On both sides of the tunnel car tracks were stream-fed lakes, the one on the right big enough that the light wind rustling through the orchards and gardens was able to churn up small waves across its surface.
A dozen buildings clustered around the lakes or nestled under the forest that stretched off past the lake to the left. Some of the structures were clearly equipment sheds, others seemed to be homes, the latter large enough to each house two or three families in comfort. In the distance near the cavern’s far end was a range of mountains shrouded in mist. Whether they were built into the wall or were freestanding, she couldn’t tell.
And in the center of the cavern, rising majestically from the grassland and garden arcs surrounding it, was a mansion.
It was huge, eight floors at least, with side wings that stretched out a couple hundred meters. It looked vaguely like one of the old fortresses that had been common in the days before the Chiss learned to travel the stars, but the design was somewhat more modern and lacked the bristling weapons clusters that had made those ancient structures so intimidating. The exterior was all patterned stone, glass, and burnished steel, with small angled observation turrets at the corners and an asymmetric tessellated roof that gleamed in the artificial sunlight.
“I assume this is the first time you’ve been here?” Thurfian asked.