At which point…what? Ar’alani had no idea what Ba’kif’s plans were once Thrawn located the origin of the destroyed ship.

But figuring that out was his job, not Ar’alani’s. Her job was to work with Thrawn to get the proof Ba’kif needed.

“All right,” she said. “But only if Thalias is willing. If not, she stays with the Vigilant and you choose someone else.”

“Understood,” Thrawn said. “Whenever you’re ready, Admiral, I have the coordinates for our rendezvous prepared.”

The Springhawk was ready. Or at least it was as ready as Samakro could make it.

Samakro himself, not so much.

He could appreciate that the Council thought this mission was important. He could also appreciate that Thrawn’s plan was probably their best chance of slipping into the alien system and gaining that data without having to engage either the inhabitants or the ships riding herd on them.

That last point was crucial. Ascendancy policy was to do whatever was necessary to avoid preemptive combat against potential adversaries. An incursion into someone else’s territory, even just to gather data, drifted perilously close to the line. The faster Ar’alani could get the Vigilant in and out, the less chance either Chiss ship would need to fire its weapons.

“Vigilant?” Thrawn called.

“We’re ready,” Ar’alani’s voice came back. “Vector locked; maneuvering jets charged. Let me know when to go.”

“One moment,” Thrawn said, leaning forward a bit in his command chair as he gazed at the tactical display. “I need Blockade Four to move a little farther in its orbit…there. Stand by countdown: Three, two, one.”

There was the subtle shift in the deck vibrations as the Springhawk moved forward. Samakro peered up through the bridge canopy, confirming that the Vigilant was also in motion and staying in perfect sync with the smaller cruiser.

In perfect sync, and way too close for comfort.

Samakro scowled. In theory, the plan was simple: The Springhawk would fly alongside the Vigilant, staying close to its hull and hiding in the bigger ship’s sensor shadow, until they reached the point where the cruiser would slip away and duck inside one of the asteroid clusters. The Springhawk would go dark, hopefully undetected, and let the Vigilant lead away any pursuit.

In practice, the whole thing was a disaster crouched to spring. Thrawn had opted not to use tie cables to connect the ships, pointing out that a small error in either ship’s vector would create a visible ripple that an alert sensor operator might spot. Tractor beams were impractical for the same reason, plus the added disadvantage of generating a possibly detectable energy signature. Connecting the two ships with maglocks, allowing the larger ship to simply carry the smaller one, would show a blatant mass/thrust discrepancy.

So instead Thrawn was going to attempt the kind of close-in flying normally associated with air shows.