[Thrawn Trilogy] - 01(129)
“I disagree, Admiral. Under normal circumstances, yes, careful timing would get them into position. But there’s no way to anticipate how long it’ll take to get clearance from Sluis Control.”
“On the contrary,” Thrawn countered coolly. “I’ve studied the Sluissi very carefully. I can anticipate exactly how long it will take them to clear the freighter.”
Pellaeon gritted his teeth. “If the controllers were all Sluissi, perhaps. But with the Rebellion funneling so much of their own material through the Sluis Van system, they’re bound to have some of their own people in Control, as well.”
“It’s of no consequence,” Thrawn told him. “The Sluissi will be in charge. Their timing will determine events.”
Pellaeon exhaled and conceded defeat. “Yes, sir,” he muttered.
Thrawn eyed him. “It’s not a question of bravado, Captain. Or of proving that the Imperial Fleet can function without him. The simple fact of the matter is that we can’t afford to use C’baoth too much or too often.”
“Because we’ll start depending on him,” Pellaeon growled. “As if we were all borg-implanted into a combat computer.”
Thrawn smiled. “That still bothers you, doesn’t it? No matter. That’s part of it, but only a very small part. What concerns me more is that we don’t give Master C’baoth too much of a taste for this kind of power.”
Pellaeon frowned at him. “He said he doesn’t want power.”
“Then he lies,” Thrawn returned coldly. “All men want power. And the more they have, the more they want.”
Pellaeon thought about that. “But if he’s a threat to us …” He broke off, suddenly aware of the other officers and men working all around them.
The Grand Admiral had no such reticence. “Why not dispose of him?” he finished the question. “It’s very simple. Because we’ll soon have the ability to fill his taste for power to the fullest … and once we’ve done so, he’ll be no more of a threat than any other tool.”
“Leia Organa Solo and her twins?”
“Exactly,” Thrawn nodded, his eyes glittering. “Once C’baoth has them in his hand, these little excursions with the Fleet will be no more to him than distracting interludes that take him away from his real work.”
Pellaeon found himself looking away from the intensity of that gaze. The theory seemed good enough; but in actual practice … “That assumes, of course, that the Noghri are ever able to connect with her.”
“They will.” Thrawn was quietly confident. “She and her guardians will eventually run out of tricks. Certainly long before we run out of Noghri.”
In front of Pellaeon, the display cleared. “They’re ready, sir,” he said.
Thrawn turned back to the freighter. “At your convenience, Captain.”
Pellaeon took a deep breath and tapped the comm switch. “Cloaking shield: activate.”
And outside the view window, the battered freighter—
Stayed exactly as it was.
Thrawn gazed hard at the freighter. Looked at his command displays, back at the freighter … and then turned to Pellaeon, a satisfied smile on his face. “Excellent, Captain. Precisely what I wanted. I congratulate you and your technicians.”
“Thank you, sir,” Pellaeon said, relaxing muscles he hadn’t realized were tense. “Then I take it the light is green?”
The Grand Admiral’s smile remained unchanged, his face hardening around it. “The light is green, Captain,” he said grimly. “Alert the task force; prepare to move to the rendezvous point.
“The Sluis Van shipyards are ours.”
Wedge Antilles looked up from the data pad with disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he told the dispatcher. “Escort duty?”
The other gave him an innocent look. “What’s the big deal?” he asked. “You guys are X-wings-you do escort all the time.”
“We escort people,” Wedge retorted. “We don’t watchdog cargo ships.”
The dispatcher’s innocent look collapsed into thinly veiled disgust, and Wedge got the sudden impression that he’d gone through this same argument a lot lately. “Look, Commander, don’t dump it on me,” he growled back. “It’s a standard Frigate escort-what’s the difference whether the Frigate’s got people or a break-down reactor aboard?”
Wedge looked back at the data pad. It was a matter of professional pride, that’s what the difference was. “Sluis Van’s a pretty long haul for X-wings,” he said instead.