Chapter 173 · The Meeting

The journey to Porus Vida gave them very little to complain about. Their small freight contract proved exactly as uncomplicated as it had looked on Epikonia: they collected the shipment, carried it along a route they would have taken anyway and spent less than two hours at the receiving station before continuing Coreward. The customer signed the delivery without argument, the payment arrived before they cleared the system, and nothing attempted to break, explode or involve them in somebody else’s political problems.

Eli considered it an exceptionally successful job.

Nine days after leaving Epikonia, Porus Vida appeared ahead of them.

The planet had a reputation Eli knew even before the navigational database began filling the display with tourist information. Porus Vida was one of those Inner Rim worlds that appeared disproportionately often in travel advertisements: beautiful, peaceful and sufficiently proud of its cultural heritage that half the recommended destinations seemed to be museums. Its cities were known for galleries, gardens and old architecture rather than factories or military installations, and the local authorities had apparently spent considerable effort ensuring that visitors noticed.

From orbit, it looked almost offensively serene.

“Faro could have picked worse,” Eli said.

Stent studied the traffic information. “That was presumably the intention.”

Their final instructions had arrived during the last leg of the journey, still through the encrypted text channel. Faro had not given them a precise establishment, only a district and an arrival window: a heavily visited cultural quarter adjoining several museums, public gardens and a broad commercial promenade. There would be enough tourists moving through the area that three people sitting together for an hour would mean nothing to anyone who happened to notice them.

It was also the sort of place where armed security patrols were unobtrusive but never particularly far away.

Very Faro.

They secured a berth at a commercial port outside the central tourist district and spent the remainder of the afternoon doing precisely what they had done on every ordinary stop for the past several weeks. They paused the freight contract, replenished a few consumables and registered the Faded Glory for a short stay without drawing any attention beyond the usual curiosity Stent inspired whenever someone looked at him for more than a few seconds.

By the following morning, their presence on Porus Vida was entirely unremarkable.

Which was exactly how they wanted it.

The contact point lay in a district built around one of the planet’s larger museum complexes.

Eli had expected something grand and formal. Instead, the area had been designed to encourage visitors to linger: pale stone buildings separated by broad pedestrian avenues, shaded courtyards, landscaped gardens and cafés with tables spilling beneath ornamental trees. Public sculptures occupied almost every open space, some abstract enough that Eli suspected half their purpose was to give tourists something to argue about.

As they crossed the museum district, Stent slowed briefly beside an abstract sculpture formed from interlocking sheets of polished metal. He studied the way the pieces balanced against one another, following the structure with the same concentration he usually reserved for machinery.

Eli noticed and smiled. “You can come back and analyze the art later.”

Stent glanced at him. “I was merely observing it.”

“You were two seconds away from working out how it was assembled.”

“Its balance is unusual.”

“Exactly.”

Stent gave the sculpture one final look before continuing toward the meeting point.

“Later.”

The Chiss allowed himself to be redirected.

They had dressed simply. Eli wore a civilian shirt and trousers appropriate for the mild weather, while Stent had chosen similarly unobtrusive clothing that did very little to make a blue-skinned Chiss with red eyes less noticeable. They had discussed that problem before leaving the ship and eventually decided that trying too hard to conceal him would attract more attention than simply allowing him to exist in public.

Faro knew a Chiss would be with Eli. She could use him as the marker. That had become part of the plan.

The coordinates she had finally transmitted led them to a broad pedestrian square between a museum devoted to galactic sculpture and a series of terraces overlooking ornamental gardens. A café occupied one side of the plaza, busy enough that no single customer drew attention but quiet enough that conversation did not require shouting.

Eli checked the location against the message. “This is it.”

Stent took in the surroundings with a single slow sweep. Two main exits from the square, several narrower passages between the museum buildings, public transit within easy walking distance and enough people coming and going that anyone attempting surveillance would have to work for it. “Suitable.”

“That sounded almost like approval.”

“It is an efficient choice.”

“Definitely approval.”

They walked the area once before taking their positions. Faro had not specified how she intended to approach, only that Eli should not be standing in the open when she arrived. Stent therefore took a table at the edge of the café terrace, visible from most approaches, while Eli settled inside near a wide window with a drink and a datapad open in front of him.

From there he could see Stent reflected in the glass without staring directly at him. He could also see most of the square.

The arrangement made sense tactically, but it did absolutely nothing for his nerves.

For the first twenty minutes he found himself reading the same paragraph of a freight bulletin without absorbing a word. Tour groups crossed the plaza in loose clusters, guides leading them toward the museum entrances while local vendors offered maps, refreshments and reproductions of artwork at prices that suggested Porus Vida understood tourism perfectly well.

Stent sat outside with the patience of someone who could apparently remain motionless indefinitely.

Eli hated him a little for that.

His comm clicked softly. “Your drink is untouched.”

Eli kept his eyes on the datapad. “Are you monitoring my beverage now?”

“It has been in the same position for seventeen minutes.”

“Maybe I’m savoring it.”

“You have not tasted it.”

“Focus on our guest.”

“I am.”

“Good.”

The connection went quiet again.

Faro arrived eleven minutes before the agreed time. Eli recognized her walk before he properly registered her face.

She wore civilian clothes, but there was no disguising the economy of movement or the habit of scanning a space before entering it. Her hair was shorter than he remembered and there were changes in her face that a couple years and responsibility had put there, but the woman crossing the square was unmistakably Karyn Faro.

Two people accompanied her at a distance. Not obviously. Not unless one knew what to look for.

Eli did. Pik and Waffle.The two troopers Thrawn had taken for some crazy missions at times back on the Chimaera. For a moment he forgot about the drink, the datapad and the careful little arrangement they had constructed around the meeting. They were alive too.

Faro’s gaze passed over the café terrace, cataloguing faces without appearing to do so. When she saw Stent, her stride altered by perhaps half a beat.

That was all. But Eli saw it.

The Chiss was seated with one hand resting beside his cup, posture relaxed by his standards but still unmistakably military to anyone familiar with that kind of thing. Faro looked at him for several seconds before changing direction and approaching the table.

Stent rose.

“A Chiss,” Faro said quietly once she was close enough not to be overheard. Her eyes moved over him with open professional assessment. “You do stand out.”

“That was the intention.”

Her mouth shifted very slightly. “Commander Stent?”

“Yes.”

Faro nodded once. “Admiral Faro.”

“I am aware.”

That almost earned him a smile. Almost.

Her gaze moved briefly across the café windows. Eli knew the exact moment she found him.

Nothing obvious changed in her expression, but she looked away again with the deliberate casualness of someone who had just confirmed something important.

“Inside,” she said to Stent. “I’ve spent enough time standing around museums for one morning.”

Stent followed.

Eli waited another half minute before closing his datapad and leaving enough credits on the table to cover a drink he had barely touched. By the time he crossed the room, Faro had chosen a corner table with a clear view of the entrance.

Pik and Waffle settled elsewhere in the café, dressed like ordinary visitors and failing completely to convince Eli of it.

Stent remained standing until Eli approached.

Faro looked up.

For the first time since she entered the square, the discipline in her expression cracked. Only slightly. But it was there.

Eli stopped beside the table. “Admiral.”

“Lieutenant Commander.” Her eyes moved over him as though checking the evidence against a memory. Then she added, “Or should I say former?”

“Titles have a way of not keeping up.”

He took the chair opposite her.

For several seconds neither of them spoke. Around them, the café continued operating with complete indifference. Cups touched saucers, chairs scraped lightly against stone and somewhere outside a museum guide was explaining something in an amplified voice to a group of visitors.

Faro studied him. “You look alive.”

Eli smiled faintly. “I try to keep it a habit.”

“That is more than I could confirm for several years.”

There it was. No accusation yet, but close.

Eli rested his forearms on the table. “I know.”

“When you disappeared, I assumed one of two things. You had defected, or you were dead.” She paused. “Thrawn behaved as though you had simply ceased to exist. No explanation, no replacement for weeks, nothing I could get out of him without receiving one of those answers that technically contained words but no useful information.”

“That sounds like him.”

“It was extremely irritating.”

“That also sounds like him.”

For the first time, something approaching genuine amusement appeared in her expression, although it disappeared quickly.

“Then, years later, I receive two jars of Lysatran quince accompanied by a message from someone who should not have known where to send them.”

Eli glanced toward Stent. “Getting the quince was harder than expected.”

“I suspected there was a story.”

“There is.”

“Later.”

“Probably wise.”

Faro leaned back slightly. “And now you appear on Porus Vida with a Chiss commander.” Her gaze shifted to Stent, who had taken the seat beside Eli. “You were rather economical with that detail in your message.”

“I thought ‘I am traveling with a Chiss officer’ might create more questions than it answered.”

“It did anyway.”

“I noticed.”

Faro folded her hands on the table. “You have a great deal to explain, Vanto.”

“Yes.”

“Good. At least we agree on that.”

She looked at Stent again. “Commander.”

“Admiral.”

“Should I assume you are the reason he is here?”

Stent considered the question. “In part.”

Faro’s eyes narrowed. “That is not a reassuring answer.”

“It was not intended to be reassuring.”

Eli rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Oh, you two are going to get along wonderfully.” Neither of them acknowledged him.

Faro returned her attention to Eli. “Start with the obvious one. Where have you been?”

He had spent most of the journey deciding how to answer that question. Now that it had arrived, the answer felt strangely simple. “The Chiss Ascendancy.” Faro went very still. Eli continued before she could interrupt. “Thrawn sent me there.”

Her expression changed again. “He sent you.”

“Yes.”

“To the Chiss.”

“Yes. As a liaison.”

“And nobody thought that warranted inclusion in any official transfer record I was allowed to see?”

“Apparently not.”

Faro sat back. For several seconds she simply looked at him. Then she glanced at Stent, as though the Chiss sitting beside Eli had abruptly become evidence rather than an additional mystery. “That explains one thing.”

“Only one?”

“Do not get ambitious.”

Eli smiled.

Faro did not. “Why?”

That question was harder.

“Because Thrawn had a reason for being in the Empire in the first place, and it wasn’t the one most people believed.”

Faro’s gaze sharpened. Eli lowered his voice. “This is the part I didn’t want on a communications network.” That seemed to satisfy her.

She leaned forward slightly. “Then talk.”

Eli took a breath. “Thrawn was never simply an exile who happened to become useful to the Empire. The Ascendancy sent him into known space because they needed information, contacts and eventually allies. There was a threat developing beyond their borders, something they believed would become larger than they could manage alone.” Faro said nothing. Eli continued. “The Grysks.”

That produced a reaction. Small, but unmistakable. Eli saw it.

“You’ve heard the name.”

Faro’s expression tightened. “Not officially.”

Stent turned toward her. “What have you heard?”

Faro looked between them before answering. “I served aboard the Chimaera when Admiral Ar’alani appeared in Imperial space. Officially, it was a limited joint operation involving a foreign military force whose intentions were not to be discussed outside the command staff.” Her mouth twisted faintly. “Which naturally meant everyone on the bridge knew there was more to it within twenty minutes.”

Eli smiled. “That sounds about right.”

“I never had the full picture. Thrawn and Ar’alani were hunting something. Whatever it was, they both considered it serious enough to cooperate while pretending half the cooperation wasn’t happening.”

“Grysks,” Eli said.

Faro absorbed that. “And the Ascendancy sent Thrawn to find help against them.”

“Yes.”

She looked toward Stent. The Chiss inclined his head. “That was among his objectives.”

“Among.”

Stent did not elaborate. Faro gave a quiet breath through her nose. “I see he learned conversational habits from the same person.”

Eli laughed.

That finally earned Faro the faintest smile. Then it was gone again. “So Thrawn sends you to the Ascendancy. You vanish from every Imperial record I can access, spend years there, and eventually come back with Commander Stent. Why?”

Eli exchanged a glance with the Chiss. “Because Thrawn disappeared.”

“I am aware.”

“No. I mean we came back because he disappeared.”

Faro’s expression hardened. “You’re looking for him?”

“Yes.”

The answer was enough to change the entire shape of the conversation. Faro sat back slowly. “A rescue mission.”

“That was the idea.”

Her eyes moved from Eli to Stent and back again. “With the two of you.”

Eli raised a hand. “Before you say anything, there were circumstances.”

“I sincerely hope so.”

“There were a lot of circumstances.”

“I’m sure.”

Stent remained perfectly composed.

Faro looked at him. “And the Ascendancy considered this sufficient?”

“No.”

That stopped her.

Eli closed his eyes briefly. “Stent.”

“It is accurate.”

Faro’s eyebrows rose.

Eli sighed. “The official response was more complicated.”

“I cannot imagine why.”

Despite himself, Eli laughed. The tension around the table eased by a fraction.

Only then did Faro seem to allow herself to really look at him again, not as a security problem or a source of intelligence, but as someone she had once known well enough to be angry with for disappearing. “You really are alive.”

Eli’s expression softened. “Yeah.”

“And apparently still incapable of doing anything straightforward.”

“That part may be permanent.”

“I feared as much.”

For several seconds the old familiarity sat between them more comfortably than either seemed willing to acknowledge.

Then Faro reached for her drink. “All right,” she said. “You found me. You crossed nine days of space, smuggled fruit through Imperial logistics and brought a Chiss commander to Porus Vida.” Eli opened his mouth. She raised one finger. “Do not correct any part of that sentence.” He closed it again. Faro took a sip. “Now tell me what you actually need.”