But sometimes the smallest event can also drive a turn. In the case of Eli Vanto, that force was a single, overheard word.
Chiss. Where had Cadet Vanto heard that name? What did it mean to him? He had already spoken one reason, but there might well be others. Indeed, the full truth might have several layers. But what were they?
On a ship as large as this, there was only one practical way to find out.
Thus did my path take yet another turn. As, certainly, did his.
—
“Thrawn,” Parck repeated, as if trying out the name. “Very well. As I said, welcome. I want you to know that we didn’t intend to intrude on your privacy. We were looking for smugglers, and happened upon your home. One of our standing orders is to study all unknown species we come across.”
“Yes,” Thrawn said in Sy Bisti. “So also said the traders who first contacted my people.”
“He understands, sir,” Eli translated. “He knows about that order from traders who’ve contacted his people.”
“Then why didn’t you come out?” Barris demanded. “Why did you harass and kill my men?”
“It was necessary—” Thrawn began in Sy Bisti.
“Enough,” Barris cut in. “He understands Basic. That means he can speak it. So speak. Why did you harass and kill my men?”
For a moment Thrawn gazed thoughtfully at him. Eli looked at Parck, but the captain also remained silent.
“Very well,” Thrawn said in Basic. The words were heavily accented, but understandable. “It was necessary.”
“Why?” Parck asked. “What did you hope to accomplish here?”
“I hoped to return home.”
“You were shipwrecked?”
“I was—” He looked at Eli. “Xishu azwane.”
Eli blinked. He was—? “He says he was exiled,” he told the others.
The word seemed to hang in the fume-scented air of the hangar bay. Eli stared at Thrawn, thinking back to the campfire stories of his childhood. The tales had spoken of Chiss unity and military prowess.
Never once had the stories talked about them exiling one another.
“Why?” Parck asked.
Thrawn looked at Eli. “In Basic, if you can,” Eli said.
The Chiss looked back at Parck. “The leaders and I disagreed.”
“Disagreed to the point of exile?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting,” Parck murmured. “All right. So that’s why you ran Colonel Barris’s men in circles. Now tell us how.”
“It was undifficult,” Thrawn said. “Your spacecraft crashed near my place of exile. I had opportunity to examine before following soldiers arrived. The pilot was dead. I took his body and hid it away.”
“And filled his flight suit with grass,” Barris put in. “Hoping we wouldn’t notice you’d stolen his equipment.”
“Nor did you,” the Chiss said. “Important most was that you would take the flight suit and rotted pyussh berries with you.”
“The berries?” Barris echoed.
“Yes. Rotted crushed pyussh berries are lure for small animals of night.”
Eli nodded to himself. Rotted—fermented; animals of night—nocturnal. It was as if Thrawn had had a fairly good Basic dictionary to work with but was missing some of the more technical words and had to improvise. His grammar was a bit shaky, too, again suggesting that he’d learned it out of books instead of from practical conversational experience.
Did that imply the Chiss had had only limited recent contact with anyone outside Unknown Space?
“So you strapped the gimmicked blaster power packs to the animals,” Barris said. “That’s how you got them past our sentry perimeter.”
“Yes,” the Chiss said. “Also how I later attacked soldiers. With a sling I threw more berries to their armor.”
“You then crashed a starfighter,” Parck said. “How?”
“I knew spacecraft would come to search. In preparation I had strung some…” He paused. “Ohuludwu.”
“Monofilament line,” Eli supplied.
“…monofilament line between treetops. The spacecraft struck.”
“And at that altitude, the pilot wouldn’t have time to recover,” Parck said, nodding. “It wouldn’t have done you any good to capture the fighter intact, by the way. They don’t have hyperdrives.”
“I did not want the spacecraft,” Thrawn said. “I wanted the pilot’s…” Again a pause. “Ezenti ophu ocengi.”
“Equipment and comlink,” Eli said.
“But you didn’t take his comlink,” Barris objected. “We checked the suit at the encampment. It was still there.”
“No,” Thrawn said. “What was there was the comlink from the first pilot.”
Eli nodded to himself. Cleverness, tactics, and maintaining control of the situation. Those were indeed the hallmarks of the Chiss, at least according to the stories.
But still: Exile?
“Ingenious,” Parck said. “And we thought we knew what had happened, so we never bothered to check the serial number. So when we discovered the first comlink was missing and locked it out of the circuit, you still had one that functioned.”
“So you killed a man just to get his comlink,” Barris said harshly. Clearly, he wasn’t as impressed by the alien’s resourcefulness as the captain. “Why did you keep attacking my men? For the fun of it?”
“I regret the loss of life,” Thrawn said gravely. “But I needed soldiers with fuller armor to come.”
“With fuller—?” Barris broke off. “The stormtroopers? You wanted stormtroopers to come?”
“Your soldiers wear helmets,” the Chiss said, tracing an imaginary brim around his forehead. “No good for me.” He touched a hand to his face. “I needed cover of face.”
“The only way you could enter the encampment undetected,” Parck said, nodding.
“Yes,” Thrawn agreed. “I used explosive on one, to obtain armor I could study—”
“How did you do that without anyone hearing the explosion?” Barris interrupted.
“It was as I began feedback noise from comlink,” the Chiss said. “The noise enclosed the noise of explosive. From the armor I learned how to kill the soldier without noise or observable damage. I took a second soldier and his armor and walked to the ship.”
“While we were moving your equipment inside?” Barris asked.
“I selected a moment when no one was inside,” Thrawn said. “With small branches I stood the armor upright and set it outside the doorway. An explosive inside destroyed it.”
“A distraction so that we wouldn’t realize there were actually two missing stormtroopers,” Parck said. “Where did you hide during the trip up?”
“Inside the second power generator casing,” Thrawn told him. “It is nearly empty, as I have used its parts to maintain the first.”
“I gather you’ve been here for quite a while,” Parck said. “I can see why you wanted so desperately to leave.”
Thrawn drew himself up. “I was not desperate. But my people need me.”
“Why?”
“They are in danger. There are many dangers in the galaxy. Dangers to my people. Dangers to yours.” He made an odd gesture. “You would do well to learn of them.”
“Yet your people exiled you here,” Parck pointed out. “Do they disagree with you as to the magnitude of these threats?”
Thrawn looked at Eli. “Repeat?” he asked in Sy Bisti.
Eli translated the captain’s question. “We do not disagree on threat,” Thrawn answered in his accented Basic. “We disagree on process. They do not accept belief in…ezeboli hlusalu.”
Eli swallowed hard. “They don’t believe in preemptive strikes.”
“So your people need protection,” Parck said, his voice subtly changed. “How would you do this, alone and without ships or allies?”
Eli frowned. An odd question, in an odd tone of voice. Was the captain fishing for information on possible Chiss allies?
Thrawn didn’t seem to notice. “I do not know,” he said calmly. “I will find a way.”
“I’m sure you will,” Parck said. “In the meantime, you’ve had a busy day, and I’m sure you could use some rest. Commander?”
“Sir?” One of the stormtroopers stepped forward.
“You and your squad will escort our guest to the deck officer’s office while suitable accommodations and refreshments are prepared,” Parck ordered. “Thrawn, I take my leave now. We shall speak again later.”
“Thank you, Captain Parck,” the Chiss said. “I will look ahead to it.”