Thrawn_Alliances_Star Wars

by Timothy Zahn

  “Yet you still ask me to do this instead of using navigators of proven ability.”

  “Yes.”

  Vader stretched out to the Force. He had never attempted anything like this. In fact, the idea of navigating without a nav computer or an astromech droid had never even occurred to him.

  Thrawn was asking him to try it, with the Chimaera and every Imperial asset aboard at risk.

  The bridge was still silent. Did they think he would defy their admiral’s order and refuse? Did they think he wouldn’t do it?

  Did they think he couldn’t do it?

  He squared his shoulders beneath his armor. “How will I know our destination?”

  “You have touched the minds of the children who have been there,” Thrawn said. There was no gloating in his voice, no hint of satisfaction at having won out over Vader’s resistance. All Vader could sense was relief, perhaps even gratitude. “That knowledge, plus the guidance of the Force, should show you where the other children are being taken. For the rest, your skill and power in the Force will guide you along the quickest and safest path.”

  “Very well,” Vader said. Sweeping his cloak behind him, he walked back along the walkway to the stairs leading down into the crew pit.

  The crewers pressed themselves closer to their consoles as he passed by. The helmsman was already out of his chair, backing away to give the Dark Lord plenty of room. Vader reached the helm console and lowered himself into the chair.

  The chair that had already been adjusted for his height. Either the helmsman had reset it while Vader was on his way, or Thrawn had already had it preset for the taller soon-to-be occupant.

  Vader scowled. Yet more of the Chiss’s abundant self-confidence.

  Or maybe it was his confidence in Vader.

  He reached for the ship’s controls. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that Thrawn needed something, and Vader could supply it, and the Empire would benefit from his actions.

  At least, the Empire had better benefit by it.

  “Stand by to go to lightspeed,” Thrawn called from the command walkway. “Systems clear.”

  Vader listened to the familiar cadence as the various stations confirmed their readiness. It wasn’t much different from the countdowns The Jedi had heard aboard Republic attack cruisers during the Clone Wars. Capital warships were capital warships, no matter who commanded them.

  There was a flicker in Thrawn’s sense. Vader looked up, to see a small smile on his face. “Do you find this amusing, Admiral?” he challenged.

  “No, not at all, my lord,” Thrawn hastened to assure him. “I was simply recalling a memory. I told you the Chiss call this talent Third Sight. What I hadn’t yet spoken of is the title these navigators are given once they take their posts.”

  “Which is?”

  “The Cheunh word is ozyly-esehembo,” Thrawn said. “In Basic, it translates to ‘sky-walker.’ ” Another small smile. “You can imagine my momentary confusion when I first encountered General Anakin Skywalker.”

  Vader nodded. He’d forgotten that The Jedi, too, had wondered about Thrawn’s reaction at that meeting. A small mystery, now put to rest.

  The recitation ended. “Lord Vader, the Chimaera awaits your guidance,” Thrawn said.

  That one, at least, was new. Stretching out to the Force, Vader keyed the hyperdrive.

  Double vision: a cometary object approaching the starboard bow—

  Not seriously dangerous, but a tweak of the course heading avoided any potential trouble. Ahead, he sensed the boundary of the Mokivj system as the Chimaera once more entered interstellar space.

  Double vision: a large, star-sized object above the ship—

  Again, a small touch on the drive avoided the risk of collision. Two more stars flashed past, without triggering any warning.

  Double vision: the ship angling to portside—

  The correct direction to take them to the Grysk base? Vader let his mind sink deeper into the Force, seeking confirmation.

  Double vision: the ship angling to portside—

  He touched the controls again, realigning the Chimaera onto the vector in his vision.

  He’d never done this before. But it seemed he could indeed do it.

  Trust me, Thrawn had again pleaded with him. Have I ever failed you?

  Double vision: a white dwarf star directly ahead—

  Once again, he adjusted course, and settled in for the long journey ahead.

  B1 battle droids weren’t very smart, but they were reasonably quick to react to falling objects, thrown objects, and sudden changes in illumination or visibility. The bigger B2s were even dumber and slower, though they carried better firepower.

  Both types were equally persistent. And it didn’t help that Duke Solha and his two cohorts were there to shout them on to greater efforts.

  It had been only a few minutes, but the numerical superiority was already starting to tell. Without his lightsaber, Anakin’s options were dangerously limited. The only thing that had kept him alive this long was his mobility and the fact that the Serennians seemed extremely reluctant to damage their assembly-line setup.

  At least their little Jedi hunt should be keeping them too busy to bother with Padmé and Thrawn. That was the important part.

  Still, even given the logistics involved in getting to the rooftop, it seemed to Anakin that they should be back by now. Hopefully, they were just being cautious.

  The droids were closing in, and Anakin was looking for yet another good spot to move to, when he felt the distant thud.

  The Serennians and droids heard it, too. For a moment the blasterfire faltered a bit as everyone paused to listen. There was a second thud, and a third…

  Anakin caught his breath. Something—multiple somethings, now—were slamming into the courtyard side of the factory wing.

  Was the factory under attack? There was a fourth thud—

  Abruptly, the blasterfire ceased as Solha shouted some frantic-sounding orders. On the floor below, the droids turned and headed at top speed toward the room’s two exit doors. Another order, and the four B1s that had come up to the second floor to try to chase Anakin down turned and also waddled away.

  Anakin crouched lower behind his current bit of cover, staying alert. This could easily be a setup, with Solha planning to reverse the orders as soon as Anakin showed himself, turning the supposed exodus into a trap.

  The trap didn’t happen. A moment later the only ones left were the five techs still working on the B2’s programming, and the three B2s looming guard over them.

  Anakin eyed the droids. Three against one. Certainly better odds than he’d had so far today. But without his lightsaber—

  He froze, stretching out to the Force as a sudden breeze touched the side of his face. The door the droids had left through had just opened again. He turned in that direction, looking for something handy to throw—

  “Anakin?” Padmé’s soft voice came.

  “Here,” he stage-whispered back. Checking the B2s on the floor one last time, he made a low jump back to the area by the door where he’d first started this game. Padmé was at the edge of the platform, crouched in the partial cover of a rusty bin, her S-5 blaster in one hand and his lightsaber in the other. She looked over as his movement caught her eye, some of the tension lines smoothing from her face as she saw him. She started to stand up; he motioned her to stay where she was and hurried over.

  “You all right?” he asked as he crouched down beside her.

  “I’m fine,” she said, passing him the lightsaber.

  “Where’s Thrawn?” he asked, hefting the weapon. The weight felt good in his hand.

  “He’s gone,” she said shortly. “What’s going on here?”

  “Solha and most of the droids went charging off to deal with the other attack,” Anakin said, f
rowning. There was an edge of weary bitterness he’d seldom sensed in her before. “If you’d been half a minute sooner you’d probably have gotten run over.”

  “Yes, I had to hide from a group of B1s heading for the courtyard,” Padmé said, frowning. “What other attack?”

  “Didn’t you hear the thuds? I think someone’s shooting at the outer wall. What do you mean, he’s gone?”

  “He brought his ship in, stole the shield generator, and took off,” Padmé said. “I guess that’s all he came for.”

  Anakin felt his stomach tighten. He should have known the Chiss hadn’t teamed up with him out of the goodness of his heart. “Well, at least he was helpful enough to pop off a few shots as a diversion on his way out,” he said. “I’m heading down. Wait here until I clear out those droids and then you can help me figure out what this is all about.”

  “Right,” Padmé said, squeezing his hand briefly. “Be careful.”

  “Always.” Stretching out to the Force for strength, Anakin stood up and jumped off the platform, aiming for an empty spot on the control table that would put him in easy reach of all three B2s. A crouched landing, three quick slashes with his lightsaber, and it would be over.

  The techs, absorbed in their work, never saw him coming. All five of them jerked violently backward as he suddenly slammed down onto the table in front of them. The B2s, probably just as surprised, didn’t even twitch. As Anakin ignited his lightsaber they raised their arms, bringing up their wrist blasters. He slashed across the nearest droid’s upper torso—

  And the brilliant blue blade vanished.

  For half a second Anakin just stared at the empty space in confusion. There were a few weapons like electrostaffs that could block a lightsaber, but he’d never before had the weapon simply shut down.

  The droids were still bringing up their wrist blasters. Igniting the lightsaber again, Anakin slashed a second time. Again, the blade disappeared before it could do more than leave a scratch on the droid’s metallic skin.

  There was no time to figure out what was going on. The wrist blasters were almost on target; stretching out to the Force, Anakin leapt up and over the top of one of the droids, landing five meters away and again igniting his lightsaber.

  They turned to face him, their arms swinging around. The first to get his blasters lined up fired.

  Double vision: bolts coming at torso, at torso—

  Anakin swung the blade around, catching the two shots and bouncing them into the walls. At least that still worked. He dodged to the side as the second droid came on target and added its blasterfire to the first’s.

  Double vision: bolts coming at torso, at head, at torso, at torso—

  Letting the precognition and the Force guide his hands, Anakin deflected the salvo as he tried to think. All right. Somehow, something about the B2s’ armor was able to shut down his lightsaber.

  But maybe whatever it was wasn’t so good at blocking blaster bolts. Time to find out.

  Double vision: multiple bolts coming at torso, torso, head, torso, torso, torso, head—

  Again, Anakin blocked the salvo. Only this time, instead of sending the shots across the room, he turned them straight back at his attackers.

  No good. The impacts looked strange, the bolts hitting with a sort of shimmering splash instead of just digging into the surface. But there was no damage he could see. Certainly the droids weren’t slowing down.

  The blaster bolts were coming faster now as all three B2s came on target. Anakin dodged to the right, still blocking the shots. A pair of shots angled down from above as Padmé opened up with her S-5, her attacks leaving the same odd splash and the same lack of damage.

  Anakin continued to dodge, deflecting the bolts, trying to think. Blaster bolts didn’t affect Solha’s new brand of B2s. That was bad enough; but the fact that they could somehow shut down lightsabers was far worse.

  But the droids had to have some vulnerability. If they couldn’t be stopped, then the Separatists had won. Anakin wouldn’t accept that. He dodged again, leaping left this time, watching the droids’ slitted eyes as they again tracked their blasters toward him…

  Their blasters.

  It was a slim chance, he knew, not to mention a nearly impossible shot to make. But right now, it was all he had.

  Unfortunately, it would also require him to get a lot closer to at least one of his attackers. He dodged left again, still blocking their shots, then leapt up and over the droids, spinning in midair and landing again on the control table.

  Directly behind the motionless B2 still wired into the console.

  The five techs, he noted, had wisely fled the combat area. Anakin’s three attackers turned again toward him.

  But now, with Anakin partly shielded behind the blank B2, only one of them could bring its blasters to bear. It swung into range.

  Double vision: a blaster bolt at his torso—

  Anakin crouched down, putting his eyes on a level with the droid’s wrist.

  And as the bolt screamed across the gap at him he slashed his lightsaber across it, sending it directly back into the blaster’s muzzle.

  The pop of the impact was surprisingly quiet. But the result was all he could have hoped for. The entire wrist blaster shattered, sending a shower of small pieces cascading onto the floor. The droid itself didn’t seem to notice, but continued striding forward, its arm extended as if its blaster was still spitting death toward his target.

  Double vision: bolts coming from the other two droids at torso, at head—

  Anakin deflected and dodged, again doing his best to keep the stationary B2 between him and the still-functional attackers.

  Only now, it suddenly occurred to him, he had two shields available. Bouncing the latest salvo back toward the attackers’ blasters—missing with all of them—he leapt in front of the droid still trying to attack with its shattered weapon. The B2 loomed over him, its wrist blaster nearly bumping up against his chest—

  And on sudden impulse Anakin stabbed the tip of his lightsaber blade directly into the droid’s right photoreceptor eye.

  There were clone troopers in his 501st who claimed to have taken down B2s by shooting them in the eye. Anakin had never quite known whether those stories fell into the category of fact, boast, or wishful thinking. Now, for the first time, he knew that the stories could, at least, be true.

  Because he’d just done it.

  The B2 staggered back like a brawler punched in the jaw. Anakin twisted his wrists, hoping to slice further through the head and destroy more of the droid’s processor; once again, as the blade hit the edges of the eye socket the lightsaber shut down. Anakin took a long step backward as the droid’s knees buckled and it pitched forward to crash onto the floor.

  Double vision: bolts coming at torso, at head, at torso—

  Anakin swung around, igniting his lightsaber again as the other B2s came around the obstacles and back into range. One down; two to go. He moved to his right, getting into position to once again leap into the shadow of the blank B2, where he could hopefully take the remaining droids one at a time.

  He was three steps away from making his move when a lightning bolt ripped down from Padmé’s level directly into one of the droids.

  The effect was startling and vaguely comedic. Instead of merely falling over, the B2’s arms and legs snapped straight out to both sides, turning the droid into a bizarre caricature of a child making a sand angel. It held that pose for a second before, overbalanced, it toppled to the floor.

  It was still falling when a second lightning bolt blasted through the air, turning the last B2 into its own sand angel and dropping it to the floor.

  For a moment Anakin just stared at the droids, the acrid smell of burnt plastoid curling his nostrils. Then he looked up.

  Padmé was standing at the edge of the second-level platform, her S
-5 held loosely in two-handed sharpshooter stance, her mouth hanging slightly open in astonishment at the sight laid out below her. Two steps behind her and to the side stood Thrawn, holding a long, shoulder-slung rifle in the crook of his arm. As Anakin watched, the Chiss stepped forward, slinging the rifle behind his back, and casually plucked the S-5 from Padmé’s hands. He hooked the grapple around a nearby bracing strut, stepped off the platform, and dropped smoothly to the floor below. Resetting the ascension mode, he sent the blaster back up.

  “Well done,” he said, walking toward Anakin, his glowing red eyes looking back and forth. “Interesting variant on the Separatists’ usual combat machines.”

  “Glad you enjoyed the show,” Anakin said, eyeing the unfamiliar weapon as the other stopped in front of him. “Thanks for the assist. Next time, feel free to join the fight sooner.”

  “If I had, you wouldn’t have learned how to defeat them,” Thrawn pointed out. “Besides, this particular weapon carries only three shots.”

  Anakin felt his lip twitch. So the Chiss could have taken out all three B2s. Instead, he’d held back while Anakin ran around like crazy trying not to get his head blown off.

  Still, he had to admit that Thrawn had a point. If this whole factory was geared to making more of these invulnerable droids, the Republic needed to know how to fight them. “Well, thanks anyway.” He nodded at the droid he’d taken down. “You have any idea how they’re doing this?”

  “I have a thought,” Thrawn said. “Let us examine the bins.”

  Padmé caught up with them on the way. “I thought you were leaving,” she said to Thrawn, her eyes hostile, her voice not sure whether to be angry, relieved, or some combination of the two.

  “I never said I was leaving,” Thrawn told her calmly. “I merely said that I’d been sent for the shield generator, and that my first duty was to my people. Once that duty was fulfilled, I was free to return to General Skywalker’s aid.”

  “Hey!” a voice called from the side.

  Reflexively, Anakin spun around, igniting his lightsaber, peripherally aware that Thrawn had swung his own weapon back up to firing position.