The Springhawk was waiting precisely where Thrawn had said he would be. A quick shuttle ride across, and within an hour of arriving in the system, Ar’alani and Wutroow were sitting in the briefing room with Thrawn and Samakro, reading through Thrawn’s data and proposal.

Ar’alani took her time looking through the material. She read it a second time, as she always did such things. Then, just to make sure it really said what she thought it said, she read it a third time.

By the time she lifted her eyes from the questis, she saw that Wutroow and Samakro had made it through, as well. The two officers were gazing at the sections of table in front of them, their expressions a mixture of surprise, disbelief, and apprehension.

She shifted her gaze to the end of the table. Thrawn was waiting patiently, trying to hide his own anxiety. “Well,” she said, setting down her questis. “It’s inventive, I’ll give it that.”

Some of Thrawn’s anxiety faded away. Apparently, a lot of his concern had been centered on how she would react. “Thank you,” he said.

“With all due respect, Senior Captain, I’m not sure that was a compliment,” Samakro spoke up. “The plan may be inventive, but I don’t think it’s physically possible.”

“Actually, Mid Captain, I’ve seen it done,” Ar’alani said. “Back at the Academy, Captain Thrawn pulled off this same maneuver.” She raised her eyebrows. “On the other hand, that was a patrol ship. This time you’re talking about a heavy cruiser. Big difference.”

“Not as big as it might seem,” Thrawn said. “True, the Springhawk’s mass is greater, but its thrusters and maneuvering jets are correspondingly more powerful. With proper care and preparation, I believe it can be done.”

“And you’re sure this is the right system?”

“The indications are there,” Thrawn said. “I won’t know for certain until I’ve examined the mining station.”

Ar’alani pursed her lips and picked up her questis again. It certainly wasn’t going to be easy. The place Thrawn proposed to infiltrate was what was colloquially known as a box system: unusually strong electromagnetic fluxes wrapped around the outer edges, interacting with the solar wind to create even more obstruction to hyperspace travel than usual. Unless a ship was willing to come out of hyperspace outside the cometary belt and spend days or weeks traveling through space-normal to the inner system, there were only a dozen reasonably safe inward pathways.

Even more intimidating was the fact that some cataclysm millennia ago had seeded the inner system and much of the outer system with large meteors, making the entire area a sort of miniature version of the Chaos itself. Taking those additional navigational hazards into account, the number of safe lanes to the inhabited planet dropped to exactly three.