by Timothy Zahn
Che’ri crinkled her nose. She’d never met this person. She’d barely even heard him speak.
Yet she could sense confidence in him, and strength, and commitment. “Yes,” she said. “I do.”
Thrawn nodded and unmuted the comm. “Yes, I could continue on my way,” he said. “But it might be more useful for me to assist you in your quest.”
“I already told you I was on a Republic mission. It’s not a quest.”
“Yes, I recall your words,” Thrawn said. “But I find it hard to believe that a Republic at war would send a lone man in a lone fighter craft on a mission. I find it more likely that you travel on a personal quest.”
“I’m on a mission,” the pilot insisted. “Directly ordered here by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine himself. And I don’t have time for this.”
“Agreed,” Thrawn said. “Perhaps it would be best if I were to simply show you the location of the ship you seek.”
There was a short pause. “Explain,” the pilot said quietly.
“I know where the Nubian ship landed,” Thrawn told him. “I know the pilot is missing.”
“So you intercepted a private transmission?”
“I have my own sources of information. Like you, I seek information, on that and other matters. Also like you I’m alone, without the resources to successfully investigate. Perhaps in alliance we may find the answers both of us seek.”
“Interesting offer. You say it’s just the two of us?”
“Yes,” Thrawn said. He glanced at Che’ri. “Plus my pilot and your droid, of course.”
“You didn’t mention your pilot.”
“Neither did you mention your droid. Since neither will be joining us in our investigation, I didn’t think they entered into the discussion.”
“Artoo usually comes with me on missions.”
“Indeed?” Thrawn said, cocking an eyebrow. “Interesting. I was unaware that navigational machines had other uses. Do we have an alliance?”
The pilot hesitated. Che’ri motioned, and Thrawn touched MUTE. “The pilot of the other ship is missing?”
“I don’t know for certain,” Thrawn said. “But the lack of activity suggests that may be the case.” He shrugged slightly. “Besides, General Skywalker clearly cares about him or her. Raising the level of urgency should help him make up his mind.”
“So what answers are you looking for?” Skywalker said.
Thrawn touched the key. “I wish to more fully understand this conflict in which you’re embroiled. I wish answers of right and wrong, of order and chaos, of strength and weakness, of purpose and reaction.” Again, Thrawn looked at Che’ri; and then, suddenly, he straightened up a bit in his seat. “You asked my identity. I am now prepared to give it. I am Commander Mitth’raw’nuruodo, officer of the Expansionary Defense Fleet, servant of the Chiss Ascendancy. On behalf of my people, I ask your assistance in learning of this war before it sweeps its disaster over our own worlds.”
Che’ri frowned. Commander? She thought he was a senior captain. Had he been demoted?
Probably not. More likely he was just downplaying his rank for some reason, maybe so General Skywalker wouldn’t feel threatened by Thrawn’s more extensive military experience. Certainly Skywalker sounded a lot younger than Thrawn.
“I see,” Skywalker said. “Very well. On behalf of Chancellor Palpatine and the Galactic Republic, I accept your offer.”
“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.
&nbs
p; 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.
Thalias found her voice. “Yes,” she said. “All my other dealings with the family were at their compound on Avidich. The pictures don’t do this place justice.”
“Of course not,” Thurfian said. “Fully accurate, fine-grain pictures might contain clues to the homestead’s precise location. We certainly can’t have that.”
“I thought this was the Mitth family’s old land.”
“It is,” Thurfian said. “But that land covers over six thousand square kilometers and includes many other caverns like this one, all of which have tube car access. Trust me: No one arrives at the Mitth homestead without Mitth family permission. This is your last chance to change your mind about the Trials.”
Thalias braced herself. “I’m ready.”
“Maybe. We’ll find out, won’t we?”
The car came to a stop a hundred meters from the front of the house, beside a large mosaic design set into the ground. “Your first Trial,” Thurfian said as the canopy slid back. “Find your path. If you succeed, you’ll be invited inside. If you fail, get back in the car and you’ll be taken back to the spaceport.” He climbed out, walking along the edge of the mosaic, and headed toward the mansion.
Gingerly, Thalias stepped out of the car, frowning at the mosaic. It seemed familiar…
And then she got it. The whole thing was a stylized map of the Ascendancy.
Find your path, Thurfian had said. Did that mean she was supposed to trace out her hopes for the future?
No, of course not, she realized suddenly. The whole existence of this homestead was a grand gesture to Mitth family history. She wasn’t supposed to trace out her future; she was supposed to trace out the path that had brought her here.
She took a deep breath. She barely remembered her life before the sky-walker corps, but she knew she’d been born on Colonial Station Camco. That was…there. Walking gingerly across the map, making sure she didn’t touch any other planets along the way, she stepped onto the Camco mark.
For a moment nothing happened. She was wondering if she needed to lean over and touch it with her hand when the area around the planet lit up briefly with a green glow.
She huffed out a relieved breath as the glow faded away. Okay. From there she’d traveled to the Expansionary Fleet complex on Naporar, where she’d received her sky-walker training. Again being careful not to touch any of the other planets, she walked over to Naporar and stood on it. Again, she was rewarded by a green glow. Next…
She froze. Next had been a series of voyages outside the Ascendancy in her role as a sky-walker, guiding military and diplomatic ships to alien worlds and nations.
Only none of those worlds were on the map. Should she go to whichever Chiss system had been closest to those?
No, that couldn’t be right. The mosaic was a flat projection of a three-dimensional region of space, and there was no way to know from here which Chiss planet was closest to a given alien nation. But then what was she supposed to do?
She looked up at the house. History…but the history of the Ascendancy.
She looked back at the map. The last trip she’d taken as a sky-walker, the one where she’d met Thrawn, had been from Rentor to Naporar. She crossed to Rentor and gingerly stepped on it.
To her relief, the mosaic again glowed green around her feet. She crossed to Naporar, and was again rewarded.
All right. Next had been a trip to Avidich to meet with the Mitth Aristocra who’d brought her into the family. Then off to Jamiron for her formal schooling…
There were three more worlds after that, and each green glow brought back memories of sights and sounds and aromas she’d almost forgotten. By the time she stepped on Csilla, it was almost as if she’d actually revisited those places.
The ground again glowed green. “Welcome, Mitth’ali’astov,” a disembodied voice rose from the mosaic. “Proceed to the ancient home to begin your next Trial.”
Thalias took a deep breath. “I obey,” she said. Walking across the mosaic, her mind still swirling with memories, she stepped onto the soft swish grass and headed toward the house.
* * *
—
There were a lot of Trials.
The first four or five were relatively easy: written tests involving general knowledge, logic, problem solving, and Ascendancy history. It was like being in school again, and while Thalias had only been a fair student she’d always loved learning. She breezed through them with relative ease, wondering if the rest of the Trials would be as straightforward.
They weren’t.
Next came a test to see if she could cross a three-meter-wide water channel without getting wet, using only boards that were two and a half meters long each. After that she had to climb a smooth-barked tree to reach a sight line that would reveal the answer to an ancient Mitth riddle. Another family riddle required her to find a subtle pattern in the flower arcs surrounding the mansion.
More than once, as she worked through the puzzles, she wondered if these Trials had been devised since the homestead was moved under the Csilla surface or if they predated that time. If it was the latter, it meant everything that had once been up there had been duplicated in meticulous detail.
Somehow, that degree of commitment didn’t surprise her.
She’d assumed the Trials would end with the setting of the cavern’s artificial sun. Again, she was wrong. A short six-hour sleep interval, and it was back to another battery of written tests and a couple more outdoor logic problems.
During the entire time, from the moment Thurfian left her at the mosaic map, she hadn’t seen another living being. All her instructions had come via the same disembodied voice she’d heard when she’d first arrived, while her meals and room were waiting when she arrived at the designated places.
Finally, two hours past her small noontime meal, she was sent on the final Trial: to climb to the top of the mountain she’d seen rising up behind the mansion.
At first it di
dn’t look too challenging. There was a clearly marked trail, the initial slope was only a few degrees, and the frequent clumps and lines of trees promised lots of shade against the blazing sunlight. Making a private bet with herself that she would be back down in time for an early dinner, she started up.
The nice shallow slope didn’t last much past the first line of trees. Fortunately, as the mountain steepened, the path switched to an almost horizontal switchback-type arrangement that would angle her along the side of the mountain instead of straight up it.
A less rigorous climb, but now also considerably longer. Mentally revising her estimate as to how long this would take, she kept going.
She’d been on the path for perhaps an hour, and had made the third switchback turn, when she began seeing tall spikes sticking out of the ground beside the path. There were six in the first group, one of them about a meter tall and five centimeters in diameter, the other five half or a third that height and proportionally thinner. Thalias studied them as she walked past, wondering if this was the lead-in to another puzzle. The taller spike seemed to have a textured or carved surface, and for a moment she considered leaving the path for a closer look.
But while her orders hadn’t said she couldn’t look at the spikes, they hadn’t specifically said she could, either. At this late stage in the Trials, she decided, it would be best to err on the side of caution.
Unless this was supposed to be a test of initiative?
Thalias scowled. Mind games inside mind games.
Still, she could see through the trees that there were more groups of spikes upslope of her current position. She’d keep going and watch for some pattern that would hopefully indicate how exactly she was supposed to jump on this one.
She’d assumed the cluster she’d seen through the tree would be the next one. To her mild surprise, she found a trail of much shorter spikes laid out along the path immediately after the first group. Some of the spikes seemed to be alone, while others formed small groups. Usually there was a slightly taller spike at the center, though none of these had the height or elaborate texturing of the first one she’d encountered. Frowning at each spike as she passed, looking for the still-elusive pattern she knew had to be there, she continued.
