Chapter 76 · The Ghost of an Admiral

They met later in the base’s central chamber — what had once been a mining control room, now a patchwork command post full of salvaged terminals and outdated star maps. The lighting was low, the air thick with the hum of overlapping power grids.

Marae stood by the largest display, hands clasped behind her back. Rinna hovered near one of the consoles, silent but watchful. Stent remained beside Eli, his presence alone enough to make the few nearby Rebels edge a step back.

Marae brought up a projection of the parsed data. “Fleet registries, ghost manifests, and project names — most of it nonsense, but some of it traces back to a real archive. A secure relay node, Imperial-class, still transmitting.”

Eli frowned. “Where?”

“Klyssos system. Mid Rim. One of the last relay bases still active after Scarif.”

“That’s a fortress,” Eli said. “You can’t just walk in.”

“I’m aware,” Marae said. “That’s why you’re here.”

Eli exchanged a look with Stent. “We’re not spies.”

“No,” Marae said. “But you used to work for the people who built it. You know their language. You might even know their codes.”

Stent’s tone was quiet, but carried a note of finality. “We are not joining your rebellion.”

“Didn’t ask you to,” Marae said. “Just asked you to help me rob the Empire.”

Marae paced the edge of the holotable, the projection of Klyssos flickering over her face — a cluster of satellites orbiting a gray world wrapped in Imperial code blocks.

“The Klyssos relay is one of the last Imperial nodes still running clean,” Marae said. “It holds fleet redeployments, convoy routes, command-level traffic—exactly the kind of intel we need if we’re going to stay ahead of whatever the Empire’s rebuilding.” She tapped the projection once. “You two can chase your missing fleet all you want. I’m here because this place is a goldmine, and cracking it benefits all of us.”

Eli leaned over the map, jaw tight. “That’s assuming we can even touch it. Those nodes were designed to ignore anyone below admiralty rank. You’d need someone with authority equal to a sector commander just to access the outer firewalls.”

The words hung in the air.

Across the table, Rinna stopped moving. Slowly, her gaze slid toward Stent.

Eli followed it, his stomach sinking. “No,” he said immediately. “No way.”

Rinna arched an eyebrow. “You don’t even know what I’m about to say.”

“I can see where you’re looking.”

“Then you already get it,” Rinna said. She turned to Marae. “The system’s blind to species. It responds to rank patterns — holographic profiles, voice print, command phrasing. All of it can be mimicked. If he”—she nodded toward Stent—“stood where a Grand Admiral once did, the system might not know the difference. He is not human, the system would have to rely on analog checks. We can make him pass for Grand Admiral Thrawn.”

Marae stared at her, incredulous. “You’re serious.”

“Completely.”

Marae let out a sharp laugh. “An alien? Passing for one of Palpatine’s Grand Admirals? Have you both lost your minds?”

“Just one of them,” Eli muttered.

Rinna didn’t flinch. “You weren’t in the Navy when he was active. Thrawn wasn’t just tolerated — he was one of them. An alien holding the highest rank. Commanded the Imperial Seventh Fleet.” She turned toward Eli. “You can confirm that, can’t you?”

Eli felt the heat crawl up the back of his neck. “I can confirm he existed,” he said carefully.

“You worked on the Chimaera,” Rinna pressed. “You told me that yourself. You were on the bridge. You know how he sounds.”

The room went still.

Marae’s eyes narrowed. “You’re telling me this one”—she pointed at Stent—“looks like that one?”

“Near enough,” Rinna said. “Close enough to make an Imperial sensor think it’s seeing a ghost.”

Marae folded her arms, studying Stent with open skepticism. “So the plan is to dress up your blue friend like some dead legend and hope the system salutes him?”

Stent spoke before Eli could. His voice was calm, precise. “The plan, Captain, would be to use the expectations of your enemy against them. The Empire believes Grand Admiral Thrawn vanished with his fleet. They built their systems to respond to his authority without question. That flaw can be exploited.”

Marae frowned. “And you’re volunteering?”

“I am acknowledging the practicality,” Stent said evenly.

Eli’s hand came down on the table. “Practical? It’s suicide. The moment the system cross-checks one detail—voice cadence, retinal pattern—it flags him. And once it does, it pings every Imperial listening post between here and Coruscant.”

Rinna said quietly, “Unless it doesn’t.”

Marae turned to her. “Explain.”

“The node’s still running on pre-Lothal protocols,” Rinna said. “If Thrawn’s file is still in its hierarchy — and it probably is — the system may not have had an update since he vanished. The computer wouldn’t question a direct code input from his command line.”

“So we walk in as a missing Grand Admiral,” Eli said. “No pressure.”

Marae exhaled through her nose. “This is insane.”

“Maybe,” Rinna said. “But it’s the only kind of plan that works these days.”

Eli slumped back, muttering, “I’m surrounded by lunatics.”

Stent didn’t rise to it. He only said, “It is efficient lunacy.”

That earned a dry snort from Marae despite herself. “You two might actually pull it off — or get us all killed trying.”

“Both outcomes are statistically possible,” Stent said.

Eli rubbed a hand over his face. “Great. We’ll call that optimism.”

Rinna straightened. “Then it’s settled. We move once the data’s prepped. I’ll get you the archive schematics.”

Marae sighed. “Settled isn’t the word I’d use. But fine. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it clean.”

Her gaze lingered on Stent, wary and assessing. “And you, Admiral, better start practicing your command tone.”

“I already have one,” Stent said, calm as ever.

Eli muttered under his breath, “Yeah. That’s the problem.”

The chamber emptied slowly — Marae firing off orders, techs scattering with datapads, Stent already scanning schematics like the entire plan were simply a mathematical exercise.

Eli stayed where he was, bracing his hands on the edge of the holotable. His pulse was still a little fast.

He didn’t hear Rinna approach, but he felt her presence beside him — the way the air thinned a little when someone with sharp instincts stepped close.

“Vanto,” she said quietly, “we’re done pretending now.”

Eli straightened. “About what?”

Rinna gave him a long, steady look.

“The Seventh Fleet. Why you care about it. And why a Chiss is walking around at your side like it’s the most normal thing in the galaxy.”

Eli’s throat tightened. “It’s complicated.”

“It usually is,” she said. “But you’re not here for random Rebel errands. You didn’t drag that droid across half the Rim because you like us. You’re looking for something — or someone.”

Eli looked away. “We’re… tracking a loose thread.”

“That thread has blue skin?”

He stiffened. “You know more than you’re saying.”

“I know what the Empire whispered after Lothal,” Rinna said. “I know the Seventh didn’t just die — it vanished. And I know the only Chiss the Empire ever trusted disappeared with it.”

Eli’s jaw worked. “And?”

“And you show up months later with another one.” Her gaze never wavered. “You want something from the ashes of that fleet. I need to know what.”

Eli hesitated, weighing how much of the truth could be spoken without shifting the ground beneath them. “We’re not here to resurrect anything,” he said finally. “Just to understand what happened. And maybe… to find the part of it that didn’t burn.”

Rinna’s eyes narrowed. “Thrawn.”

Eli didn’t confirm it. He didn’t deny it. He just held her gaze.

Rinna exhaled slowly. “I knew it. You don’t go chasing a dead fleet unless you think the admiral at the center of it might not be dead at all.”

Eli swallowed. “If there’s even a chance he’s alive… we have to follow it.”

Rinna’s expression tightened. Her voice dropped. “Then answer me something, and be straight about it.”

Eli braced himself. “Ask.”

“You working with the Empire?” she said. “Because chasing the Seventh, hauling around a Chiss, showing up with Imperial-grade data… that looks like someone following orders.”

Eli shook his head immediately. “No. We’re not with them. Not running for them, not feeding them intel. We want one thing — find Thrawn, and bring him home. Nothing more.”

Rinna held his gaze for a long, assessing moment, then nodded once — not agreement, not yet, but recognition.

“Then let’s hope Klyssos has something worth the trouble,” she murmured. “Because if you’re hunting ghosts, Vanto, you’ve stepped into a very long night.”