Qilori felt his winglets twitch. He’d thought—he’d hoped—all of that was finally past him. Clearly, it wasn’t. “I…don’t know what you mean.”

“He disappeared,” the voice said. “One rumor says he was killed in action. Another says he defected to the Chiss or someone else. Another says he deserted his forces and went to live in quiet luxury in the far reaches of the Chaos. What do you say?”

Qilori pressed his winglets against his cheeks, trying to get them to stop moving. Thrawn had warned that any word from him on the subject of Yiv’s fate would end with Qilori being thrown out of the Pathfinders and the Pathfinders being thrown out of the Navigators’ Guild. “I…don’t…”

“Do you see where you are?” the voice interrupted. “We’re between star systems, light-years from anywhere. If you were to step outside now, your body would float forever in the void, with no one ever knowing what became of you. Would you prefer that to answering my question?”

“No,” Qilori whispered. “Yiv was…captured. He was taken by the Chiss. By Senior Captain Thrawn.”

“And the Nikardun Destiny?”

Qilori waved a hand helplessly. “Yiv was the Nikardun Destiny,” he said. “He was the undisputed leader. When he vanished…there was no one else who could take his place. No one who could continue the relationships he’d built with alien governments. The uncertainty over what had happened to him—that all by itself froze everyone’s plans and thoughts. And when the Vaks started describing to everyone in the region how his ships had fired on them…” He shook his head. “It all just fell apart. Some of his chiefs are still talking about restarting their road of conquest, but no one believes it anymore. Even if they try, they’ll just end up fighting among themselves.”

“And Yiv’s map to that road of conquest?”

Qilori sighed. “The Chiss got Yiv. They probably got the map and all the rest, too.”

For a moment the voice was silent. “You had a bright future ahead of you. Do you wish that to resume?”

“I already told you the Nikardun are gone.”

There was a small snort. “The Nikardun were fools. Heavy-handed, destructive fools. Useful in their way, but we always knew they would break like an ocean wave if they ever encountered too firm a sea stack.”

“You were the Benevolent’s master then?” Qilori asked.

An instant later he regretted his impulsiveness. It was clear he was here to answer questions, not ask them. The deep, cold emptiness of space…