On the other hand, this was hardly going to be a sleepwalk. Thrawn’s proposed course should get them in well ahead of any pursuit from the handful of patrol ships watching the outer system, but if the blockade’s commander detached some of his closer-in planetary forces he might catch the two Chiss ships in a pincer. “What about exit strategy?” she asked. “We’ll need one immediately, and you’ll need one eventually.”

“There we have two interesting options,” Thrawn said. As if, Ar’alani thought wryly, this whole thing didn’t come under the heading of interesting. “The typical box system is bounded for the most part by external flux patterns interacting with solar wind. These two points”—he tapped his questis—“mark the outer system’s two gas giant planets.”

Ar’alani smiled tightly as she saw it. “Planets which carve out small holes in the solar wind as they travel along their orbits.”

“Holes you can pop in and out of without confusing your hyperdrive or your sky-walker,” Wutroow said. “Huh. Hard to hit from the outside, though, unless you’ve got really good planetary data.”

“But not as difficult going from the inside,” Ar’alani said, “since you know right where the planets and the gaps are.” She looked at Thrawn with sudden realization. “That’s how the refugee ships got out past the patrols, isn’t it?”

“That’s my assumption,” Thrawn said.

“And now, of course, we’ve also got the planetary data we need,” Wutroow added. “So we go in through Shadow Number One and exit through Shadow Number Two?”

“Exactly,” Thrawn said. “And the Springhawk can subsequently leave through either. They’re close enough together for your purposes, but far enough apart that the blockaders won’t be able to sufficiently guard both, if they even wish to do so.”

“Unless, as we all keep saying, they’ve found more ships,” Wutroow pointed out.

Thrawn nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay, I’m confused,” Wutroow said, frowning at her questis. “You don’t blockade a place unless you want to take it over. I’m sure it’s a great place to live, but why would anyone else want it?”

“Box systems have some advantages,” Samakro said. “As we’ve already noted, they’re easy to defend and don’t get much random traffic passing through. As such, they’re ideal as supply depots, staging areas, and maintenance facilities.”

“But easy to defend also means easy to bottle up,” Wutroow pointed out.

“Our unknown opponents do display a certain degree of arrogance,” Thrawn said. “Something we’ll be able to use against them when the time comes.” He looked at Ar’alani. “If the time comes,” he amended. “Admiral?”