“Me,” Thrawn confirmed. “He nevertheless withheld his fire and let us leave in peace.”

“It could simply have been a matter of time and place,” Ar’alani said. “But let’s assume you’re right. Continue.”

“We also know that Yiv is still working on bringing the Vaks under his control,” Thrawn said. “That caution is evidenced by the fact that, again with Vak forces presumably available to him, he instead brought in Lioaoin warships to handle the fighting when you came to extract Thalias and me from Primea.”

“I agree,” Ar’alani said. “And given your reading of the Vak passion for exploring all thought lines, it may be proving harder than he expected to get the entire leadership, let alone the entire planet, to follow him.”

“Exactly,” Thrawn said. “And therein lies our opportunity. If we can draw some of the Vaks to our side and show the rest that Yiv’s intentions aren’t to build them up in prestige but merely to use them to fight and die in his battles, we may drive a wedge between them. If that doesn’t halt his plan completely, it should at least buy us enough time to convince the Syndicure that the Nikardun are a threat that needs to be dealt with.”

“Excuse me,” Che’ri spoke up hesitantly, half lifting a hand.

Thrawn and Ar’alani looked at her. “Yes?” Thrawn invited.

“What if he just leaves Primea and goes somewhere else?” the girl asked. “There are a lot of other aliens in the area.”

“He could do that, yes,” Thrawn said. “But he’s put a lot of time and effort into winning over the Vaks. I don’t think he’ll give up without serious persuasion.”

“It’s not just the Vaks themselves, either,” Ar’alani added. “Primea is a center of diplomacy and trade for that entire region, a place where people from all those other alien species you mentioned come to talk and do business. If Yiv can get the Vak leaders to endorse him, or at least let him hang around and meet visitors, he’ll have vectors into all those other nations.”

“We’ve already seen that he likes a mixture of conquest by force and conquest by persuasion,” Thrawn said. “Even his title, General Yiv the Benevolent, tries to have it both ways. No, I think that if we try to move him off Primea he’ll choose to stand and fight.”

“Or bring the fight to us,” Ar’alani warned. “Even if it’s not his preferred timing, he might decide he needs to hit the Ascendancy.”

“He won’t do it directly,” Thrawn said. “He’s more likely to send the Paataatus against us again.”

“And that’s better how?”

“Better for him because he doesn’t waste his own forces,” Thrawn said. “Better for us because we already know how to beat them.”