"Open."
Doriana reached over to Kav's station and keyed the control. "I greet you, Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo," he said, stumbling a bit over the unusual glottals at the section breaks. "This is Stratis, commanding Special Task Force One."
"My greetings in return, Commander Stratis," Mitth'raw'nuruodo's voice came back. "Please explain to me the purpose of your task force."
"We intend no harm to you or your people," Doriana said. "But I'm afraid the details of our mission must remain confidential."
"I'm afraid in turn that your reassurances are insufficient," Mitth'raw'nuruodo said.
Beside Doriana, Kav muttered something. "I'm sorry, Commander," Doriana said, throwing a warning look at the Neimoidian. "Unfortunately, I'm under orders."
"Why do you waste time this way?" Kav demanded.
Cursing under his breath, Doriana lunged for the mute control. "With all due respect, Vicelord, what do you think you're doing?"
"What do you thinkyou are doing?" Kav countered. "They are no more than a parasite fly fluttering against a window. Let us destroy them and be done with it."
"If you don't mind, I'd first like to find out who they are and where they come from," Doriana said, summoning every bit of patience he could muster.
"We can learn that from their charred remains," Kav said, drawing himself up to his fill height. "Andyou are not in command of this fleet, Stratis. I am."
"Yes, of course," Doriana said, shifting quickly to a more soothing tone.
But it was too late. The vicelord had decided to take offense at the unintentional slight, and had also concluded this was a quick and easy victory ripe for the plucking. With a Neimoidian, that was a bad combination. "The time for talk is over," Kav announced. With a decisive jab of his finger, he cut off the comm channel. "Order theKeeper to launch half its droid starfighters," he called across the bridge, gesturing toward the second Trade Federation battleship. "Three groups will attack the intruders, the rest forming a defense screen around the task force. And order a transfer of command; I will control all the starfighters from here."
"Yes, Vicelord," one of the Neimoidians said. "Do we launch our starfighters, as well?"
"We will hold them in reserve." Kav looked at Doriana. "In case they have reinforcements on the way," he added almost grudgingly.
Doriana sighed silently to himself. He would have liked to find out more about this Mitth'raw'nuruodo and his Chiss before they were slaughtered. He could only hope there would be enough wreckage left to examine.
"Here they come," Car'das said, pointing at the display. "Droid starfighters-you see them?"
"Yes, of course," Thrawn said calmly. "All vessels, pull back. Car'das, you said droids can think and act on their own. Do these droid starfighters also have that capability?"
"I don't think so," Car'das said, trying to unfreeze his mind and think as theSpringhawk began moving backward. The sight of this many incoming Trade Federation starfighters was enough to rattle anyone. "No, I'm sure they don't. They're remotely controlled in groups from one of the battleships."
"Comm?" Thrawn called. "Have you located and identified their control frequencies?"
"Yes, Commander," the comm officer reported. "The control appears to be secured with a rolling encryption system. I estimate maximum range to be ten thousandvisvia."
"Pull us back to eleven thousand," Thrawn ordered, turning back to Car'das. "Ten thousandvisvia is approximately sixteen thousand of your kilometers. Does that sound like the correct operating range?"
Car'das spread his hands helplessly. "I'm sorry, but I don't know."
"No apologies needed," Thrawn assured him. "At any rate, we'll know soon enough."
"Enemy fighters still approaching," one of the crewers warned. "Main group is holding back."
"Interesting," Thrawn said thoughtfully. "The main body appears to be forming a defensive screen around the larger vessels. Considering his numerical advantage, this Commander Stratis seems unusually cautious."
"That's typical of the Neimoidians who build and run these things," Car'das told him, feeling a frown creasing his forehead. Now that he thought about it, though, Stratis's voice had sounded human, not Neimoidian. Could the Trade Federation have started selling or leasing their battleships?
"Attackers pulling back," the sensor officer called. "Reforming into an outer screen between us and the fleet."
"Apparently, we were correct about the ten-thousand-visviarange," Thrawn concluded. "Excellent."
"So what do we do now?" Car'das asked, eyeing the swarming starfighters uneasily.
For a moment Thrawn sat silently, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at the displays. "We try an experiment," he said at last. "Whirlwind: move to deployment position. Fighter Four: probe attack, course one-one-five by three-eight-one."
There were two acknowledgments, and Car'das watched as one of the other twoSpringhawk — size ships broke away from the group, heading to starboard, while one of the nine fighters headed off the opposite direction. "What kind of experiment?" he asked.
"With so many fighters to control, I suspect the system designers didn't have room to be overly clever," Thrawn said. "Let's see just how clever they were."
"Incoming!" one of the Neimoidians in the control pits called sharply. "Single fighter, vector zero-four-two by zero eight-eight."
"The fool," Kav said with a snort. "Does he think us inattentive? Outer group: intercept and destroy."
Doriana watched the displays as the three groups of droid starfighters re-formed from their outer picket screen and swung to intercept the lone alien fighter. But they had barely settled into their attack vector when the intruder broke off, swinging around in a tight curve and hurrying back to the safety of distance. "Return them to patrol," Kav ordered. "Does this Mitthrawdo not realize how badly he is outmatched?"
"Maybe all he wants is to sit back there out of range and watch us," Doriana pointed out. "I don't need to remind you that we can't afford to have witnesses around when Outbound Flight gets here."
"Do you suggest they are Senate spies?"
"Or they might be from the Jedi, or from Palpatine, or from someone else," Doriana said. "All I know is that no one this far from the Republic should be speaking Basic."