The past week has been twitchy, the Almanians in their gratitude now worked with actual desire to help the Empire, the clone operations on Iridonia were going at full speed, and when the convoy first showed up Thrawn had the feeling his troops would first blast it out of space then check the ashes for identity, but fearlessly he calmly dissuaded them from that wish, and the convoy delivered its cargo without incidents. Now all there was to be done was to find out more about this... Barrayaran Imperium the fascinatingly small Lord Auditor Vorkosigan represented.
He fully opened his eyes and glanced around the meeting chamber, everything was in tip top shape. Soon, they will arrive.
A minute later, the door opened, as Captain Cayel followed by Lieutenant Lomeir entered the room, they saluted and took their respective places to Thrawn's left and right side. After them, Admiral Torroro along with Captain Frey and Captain Thompson entered, they settled to the far right and far left of Thrawn, right beside Cayel and Lomeir. Finally, the star of the meeting arrived, as the little Lord Auditor entered the chamber along with his handsome cousin. They settled themselves at the end of the table, Miles facing Thrawn, and Ivan sitting to his right, across Frey.
"Gentlemen, the point of this meeting is to determine what should we do about Lord Vorkosigan and the Barrayaran Imperium." Thrawn started.
"A point if I may Admiral, there is no need for you to do anything." Miles piped in.
"Your point is noted Lord Auditor. Alas, you fail to percieve the true strenght of the Yuuzhan Vong. The invasion fleet whose destruction you witnessed, whose destruction was payed at a high price," he nodded to Thompson, "is just a minor fleet the Yuuzhan Vong can direct against us. Ultimately, when the New Republic falls, either to the Yuuzhan Vong or due to internal unrest, the invaders will turn upon the Imperial Remnant, and ultimately, upon us. Once they finish with us, they will move torwards Barrayar." Thrawn said cooly.
"So youre suggesting Barrayar supplies military aid to you." Miles belted out, his accent beginning to change slightly, Ivan started murmoring:
"Not the maniacal Betan again..."
"Shut up Ivan." Miles spat at him in sotto voce.
"To be blunt, I would prefer if you supplied us with the technology." Thrawn said.
"That might work. If you divulge your hyperspace technology to us." Miles tapped back.
"That sounds like a good bargain. Anything you would want to offer? It is in your interest that we stop the invaders." Thrawn reminded him.
"I was thinking of the Imploder lance and the electronic orbit randomizator for your starships, and space battle armor and nerve distruptors for your troops. And maybe we might throw in a little extra." Miles said, Ivan accompanied this with a whistle of suprise.
"Im afraid Im unfamiliar with that technology, so I am unable to determine its value." Thrawn said.
"There might be a way for you to try it out." Miles hesitated, giving his ship to this man, however brilliant, wasnt something he wanted to do unless it was his last option. Thrawn seemed to read this from his face. He smiled and continued:
"Nothing so unconventional, if you would allow Lomeir to scan your mind, we would be able to determine the value of this technology you offer."
"Scan my mind?" Miles echoed.
"Through the Force." Lomeir said simply, and gestured with his hand torward Ivan, who began to raise from his chair, after a minute of Ivan's yelping Lomeir finally dropped his finger and Ivan dropped into the chair.
"How did you do that?" Ivan said.
"Through the Force. Do you wish me to scan your mind Lord Auditor?" Lomeir asked.
"Oh what the heck, do it." Miles said back after a few seconds of thinking. Lomeir didnt need to be told twice, he streched out with the Force, and gazed into the little man's eyes, and beyond.
* * *
He was on another battleship, people dressed in grey uniforms were running around, infront of him strange ships were assaulting his own ship.
"Whatinhell is that?" the man who looked alot like Admiral Torroro, but with obvious Asian ancestory said, as something huge and indecipherable appeared in the throat of the wormhole on the tactical readout, and the thing began to accelerate. The asian punched up the read-outs.
"Its too big to be that fast. Its too fast to be that big."
He somehow recognized the ship, and words not his own flew from his tongue.
"Our Barrayaran Imperial Reinforcements have just arrived." He took a dizzy breath. "Did I not promise you..."
The ripple in the unknown assailants formation was like a silent cry of dismay, one of their ships made a run on the big ship Lomeir recognized as 'Prince Serg', but was sliced in half by some weapon unknown to him.
* * *
The little man's companion shoke him out of his trance, as both he and Miles returned to conciousness.
"You entered my memories." Miles stated.
"Yes." Lomeir said.
"What did you see?"
"Ships incoming, Man in grey uniform which looked like Admiral Torroro, then something I called Barrayaran Imperial Reinforcements came, one of the incoming ships made a run on the leading ship... 'Prince Serg' I think, but was sliced in half by some unknown weapon. Then I woke from the trance." Lomeir replied.
"You recognize the situation Lord Auditor?" Thrawn asked.
"Yes. War of the Hegen Hub. I stopped the Cetagandan approach with my fleet long enough for my father to arrange for Barrayaran reinforcements to arrive. What Lomeir saw was near the finish, and I belive he saw the imploder lance at work." Miles said thoughtfully.
"Thoughts Lomeir?" Thrawn asked.
"Definitly worthy to trade for. Ive seen other things before, mainly in clips. The other things he offered are interesting, and will probably be useful to us. But there is something which would be invaluable to us, something he didnt offer." Lomeir said.
"What is that?" Miles said.
"Plasma Mirrors. Sword-Swallowers." Lomeir said.
"Sword-Swallowers? That is anti-laser defense, noone uses lasers since Betans invented the Sword-Swallowers." Miles said lightly, then almost choked on his words. Thrawn's fleet was using lasers. Probably along with all other people in this sector.
"Lasers... Alright, I'll throw in Sword-Swallower and Plasma Mirror schematics." Miles said, and made adjustments to his datapad. In reply, Thrawn entered some codes into his own datapad, and then casually layed it on the table. Miles followed his example, and they exchanged datapads. Thrawn inserted his into his comsole, and the hologram projector blurted out the schematics for the imploder lance.
"Captain, notify the shipyards that their main priority is to integrate this into the 'Reaper's weapons arsenal. Also notify the Imperial II-class star destroyer 'Stormlord' that from now on it will serve as my flagship as long as the 'Reaper' is in dry dock." Thrawn murmored, Cayel nodded and dispatched the schematics and the orders via his comconsole.
"Now Lord Auditor, do you want my technicians to install the hyperdrive aboard your ship, or do you want us to return you to your ship?" Thrawn asked politely.
"I belive I should report as soon as possible to my superior, before getting drawed into a conflict which could be politically embarassing should the Yuuzhan Vong offer peace to the Barrayaran Imperium." Miles mused.
"Oh they usually offer peace. When they want to lull their opposition into beliving they are going to stop. But in fact, they wont stop. Not as long as they have a single ship to throw at us." Cayel said.
"Now now captain." Thrawn thoughtfully murmored, not disagreeing, Miles noted.
"Ouch. Fanatics eh?" Ivan winced.
"Correct captain. Now lord Auditor, would you accompany me to the bridge?" Thrawn said, politely turned his hand palm upwards as he raised from his chair.
"Ofcourse Admiral." Miles said, raising himself.
* * *
Cayel and Thrawn watched from the viewport of the 'Stormlord' as Vorkosigan's ship came torward the wormhole, then dissapeared as the Necklin rods were set in motion, creating a fifth dimension needle through the wormhole.
"Well, we certainly made the most out of this." Cayel commented.
"Not nearly enough captain. You saw their reaction to the fact we use lasers. We discovered our weakness, while finding none of our opponents." Thrawn mused.
"With all respect sir, I highly doubt the man has the wits to make such an observation. He mentioned his father conquered a planet, that clearly means his father has some power, probably an admiral in their starfleet. This Vorkosigan probably served in his father's fleet, and in my opinion his position is entirely based on nepotism." Cayel observed Vorkosigan's position.
"I dont agree captain. If anything, his rank was not earned by privilege." Thrawn said blandly.
"Really?" Cayel said in an encouraging tone, hoping to draw more out of Thrawn, who in return smiled at his attempt.
"Medical scans. I had Vorkosigan scanned on our return to Almania, I considered feeding him drugs like Lomeir, but then thought better." Thrawn belted out.
"You have been feeding Lomeir drugs?" Cayel said under breath.
"Mixed with the air in his room. The gas is a delicate and very artistical combination of intelligence and physical enhancing drugs." Thrawn smiled, making Cayel gulp.
"And Vorkosigan's scan?"
"Synthetic bones. Scars upon scars of scars. Other minor complications indicate to prenatal damage, though I cannot be shure how or is it the correct answer to our puzzle. Lomeir's report on this man's mind indicates that his IQ is rather high." Thrawn sighed in return.
"Well Admiral, what is our next move?" Cayel said, firmly determined to keep his attention on the here and now, not the past or the future. The future will be defeated once it arrives, no need to ponder over things that cannot be done.
"I belive we should calm down a bit, gather resourses, support, establish firmer shipping routes between our three planets, and slowly build up our forces." Thrawn pointed out.
"Very well Admiral. What should I relay to our shipyards to build?" Cayel unclipped his datapad from his belt, ready to transmit orders.
"We need something armored and reasonably fast, not too expensive... I belive three Dreadnoughts should be enough for our future plans. Also, notify the shipyards that I want every star destroyer and other ships capable of carrying starfighters fully equiped with five squadrons of TIE Interceptors, a TIE Bomber squadron, and a TIE Vanguard squadron for scouting purposes. Also, notify the Research Center on Iridonia that I will be expecting a report about their study on the V-38." Thrawn said, and Cayel relayed the information.
Together, they made their way torward the turbolifts, and ultimately torward Fate itself, which was racing across time and space to claim its prize. Indeed, Fate had much in store for the Chiss warrior.
~THE END~
NOTE: Sequel to 'Fury of the Admiral' will be released soon, I am halfway done with first 4-5 chapters, but I was forced to format my HDD and now I have to start anew. The sequel is titled 'Before the Storm', and I certainly hope I'll write it better then this piece-of-junk's early chapters. :)
He fully opened his eyes and glanced around the meeting chamber, everything was in tip top shape. Soon, they will arrive.
A minute later, the door opened, as Captain Cayel followed by Lieutenant Lomeir entered the room, they saluted and took their respective places to Thrawn's left and right side. After them, Admiral Torroro along with Captain Frey and Captain Thompson entered, they settled to the far right and far left of Thrawn, right beside Cayel and Lomeir. Finally, the star of the meeting arrived, as the little Lord Auditor entered the chamber along with his handsome cousin. They settled themselves at the end of the table, Miles facing Thrawn, and Ivan sitting to his right, across Frey.
"Gentlemen, the point of this meeting is to determine what should we do about Lord Vorkosigan and the Barrayaran Imperium." Thrawn started.
"A point if I may Admiral, there is no need for you to do anything." Miles piped in.
"Your point is noted Lord Auditor. Alas, you fail to percieve the true strenght of the Yuuzhan Vong. The invasion fleet whose destruction you witnessed, whose destruction was payed at a high price," he nodded to Thompson, "is just a minor fleet the Yuuzhan Vong can direct against us. Ultimately, when the New Republic falls, either to the Yuuzhan Vong or due to internal unrest, the invaders will turn upon the Imperial Remnant, and ultimately, upon us. Once they finish with us, they will move torwards Barrayar." Thrawn said cooly.
"So youre suggesting Barrayar supplies military aid to you." Miles belted out, his accent beginning to change slightly, Ivan started murmoring:
"Not the maniacal Betan again..."
"Shut up Ivan." Miles spat at him in sotto voce.
"To be blunt, I would prefer if you supplied us with the technology." Thrawn said.
"That might work. If you divulge your hyperspace technology to us." Miles tapped back.
"That sounds like a good bargain. Anything you would want to offer? It is in your interest that we stop the invaders." Thrawn reminded him.
"I was thinking of the Imploder lance and the electronic orbit randomizator for your starships, and space battle armor and nerve distruptors for your troops. And maybe we might throw in a little extra." Miles said, Ivan accompanied this with a whistle of suprise.
"Im afraid Im unfamiliar with that technology, so I am unable to determine its value." Thrawn said.
"There might be a way for you to try it out." Miles hesitated, giving his ship to this man, however brilliant, wasnt something he wanted to do unless it was his last option. Thrawn seemed to read this from his face. He smiled and continued:
"Nothing so unconventional, if you would allow Lomeir to scan your mind, we would be able to determine the value of this technology you offer."
"Scan my mind?" Miles echoed.
"Through the Force." Lomeir said simply, and gestured with his hand torward Ivan, who began to raise from his chair, after a minute of Ivan's yelping Lomeir finally dropped his finger and Ivan dropped into the chair.
"How did you do that?" Ivan said.
"Through the Force. Do you wish me to scan your mind Lord Auditor?" Lomeir asked.
"Oh what the heck, do it." Miles said back after a few seconds of thinking. Lomeir didnt need to be told twice, he streched out with the Force, and gazed into the little man's eyes, and beyond.
* * *
He was on another battleship, people dressed in grey uniforms were running around, infront of him strange ships were assaulting his own ship.
"Whatinhell is that?" the man who looked alot like Admiral Torroro, but with obvious Asian ancestory said, as something huge and indecipherable appeared in the throat of the wormhole on the tactical readout, and the thing began to accelerate. The asian punched up the read-outs.
"Its too big to be that fast. Its too fast to be that big."
He somehow recognized the ship, and words not his own flew from his tongue.
"Our Barrayaran Imperial Reinforcements have just arrived." He took a dizzy breath. "Did I not promise you..."
The ripple in the unknown assailants formation was like a silent cry of dismay, one of their ships made a run on the big ship Lomeir recognized as 'Prince Serg', but was sliced in half by some weapon unknown to him.
* * *
The little man's companion shoke him out of his trance, as both he and Miles returned to conciousness.
"You entered my memories." Miles stated.
"Yes." Lomeir said.
"What did you see?"
"Ships incoming, Man in grey uniform which looked like Admiral Torroro, then something I called Barrayaran Imperial Reinforcements came, one of the incoming ships made a run on the leading ship... 'Prince Serg' I think, but was sliced in half by some unknown weapon. Then I woke from the trance." Lomeir replied.
"You recognize the situation Lord Auditor?" Thrawn asked.
"Yes. War of the Hegen Hub. I stopped the Cetagandan approach with my fleet long enough for my father to arrange for Barrayaran reinforcements to arrive. What Lomeir saw was near the finish, and I belive he saw the imploder lance at work." Miles said thoughtfully.
"Thoughts Lomeir?" Thrawn asked.
"Definitly worthy to trade for. Ive seen other things before, mainly in clips. The other things he offered are interesting, and will probably be useful to us. But there is something which would be invaluable to us, something he didnt offer." Lomeir said.
"What is that?" Miles said.
"Plasma Mirrors. Sword-Swallowers." Lomeir said.
"Sword-Swallowers? That is anti-laser defense, noone uses lasers since Betans invented the Sword-Swallowers." Miles said lightly, then almost choked on his words. Thrawn's fleet was using lasers. Probably along with all other people in this sector.
"Lasers... Alright, I'll throw in Sword-Swallower and Plasma Mirror schematics." Miles said, and made adjustments to his datapad. In reply, Thrawn entered some codes into his own datapad, and then casually layed it on the table. Miles followed his example, and they exchanged datapads. Thrawn inserted his into his comsole, and the hologram projector blurted out the schematics for the imploder lance.
"Captain, notify the shipyards that their main priority is to integrate this into the 'Reaper's weapons arsenal. Also notify the Imperial II-class star destroyer 'Stormlord' that from now on it will serve as my flagship as long as the 'Reaper' is in dry dock." Thrawn murmored, Cayel nodded and dispatched the schematics and the orders via his comconsole.
"Now Lord Auditor, do you want my technicians to install the hyperdrive aboard your ship, or do you want us to return you to your ship?" Thrawn asked politely.
"I belive I should report as soon as possible to my superior, before getting drawed into a conflict which could be politically embarassing should the Yuuzhan Vong offer peace to the Barrayaran Imperium." Miles mused.
"Oh they usually offer peace. When they want to lull their opposition into beliving they are going to stop. But in fact, they wont stop. Not as long as they have a single ship to throw at us." Cayel said.
"Now now captain." Thrawn thoughtfully murmored, not disagreeing, Miles noted.
"Ouch. Fanatics eh?" Ivan winced.
"Correct captain. Now lord Auditor, would you accompany me to the bridge?" Thrawn said, politely turned his hand palm upwards as he raised from his chair.
"Ofcourse Admiral." Miles said, raising himself.
* * *
Cayel and Thrawn watched from the viewport of the 'Stormlord' as Vorkosigan's ship came torward the wormhole, then dissapeared as the Necklin rods were set in motion, creating a fifth dimension needle through the wormhole.
"Well, we certainly made the most out of this." Cayel commented.
"Not nearly enough captain. You saw their reaction to the fact we use lasers. We discovered our weakness, while finding none of our opponents." Thrawn mused.
"With all respect sir, I highly doubt the man has the wits to make such an observation. He mentioned his father conquered a planet, that clearly means his father has some power, probably an admiral in their starfleet. This Vorkosigan probably served in his father's fleet, and in my opinion his position is entirely based on nepotism." Cayel observed Vorkosigan's position.
"I dont agree captain. If anything, his rank was not earned by privilege." Thrawn said blandly.
"Really?" Cayel said in an encouraging tone, hoping to draw more out of Thrawn, who in return smiled at his attempt.
"Medical scans. I had Vorkosigan scanned on our return to Almania, I considered feeding him drugs like Lomeir, but then thought better." Thrawn belted out.
"You have been feeding Lomeir drugs?" Cayel said under breath.
"Mixed with the air in his room. The gas is a delicate and very artistical combination of intelligence and physical enhancing drugs." Thrawn smiled, making Cayel gulp.
"And Vorkosigan's scan?"
"Synthetic bones. Scars upon scars of scars. Other minor complications indicate to prenatal damage, though I cannot be shure how or is it the correct answer to our puzzle. Lomeir's report on this man's mind indicates that his IQ is rather high." Thrawn sighed in return.
"Well Admiral, what is our next move?" Cayel said, firmly determined to keep his attention on the here and now, not the past or the future. The future will be defeated once it arrives, no need to ponder over things that cannot be done.
"I belive we should calm down a bit, gather resourses, support, establish firmer shipping routes between our three planets, and slowly build up our forces." Thrawn pointed out.
"Very well Admiral. What should I relay to our shipyards to build?" Cayel unclipped his datapad from his belt, ready to transmit orders.
"We need something armored and reasonably fast, not too expensive... I belive three Dreadnoughts should be enough for our future plans. Also, notify the shipyards that I want every star destroyer and other ships capable of carrying starfighters fully equiped with five squadrons of TIE Interceptors, a TIE Bomber squadron, and a TIE Vanguard squadron for scouting purposes. Also, notify the Research Center on Iridonia that I will be expecting a report about their study on the V-38." Thrawn said, and Cayel relayed the information.
Together, they made their way torward the turbolifts, and ultimately torward Fate itself, which was racing across time and space to claim its prize. Indeed, Fate had much in store for the Chiss warrior.
~THE END~
NOTE: Sequel to 'Fury of the Admiral' will be released soon, I am halfway done with first 4-5 chapters, but I was forced to format my HDD and now I have to start anew. The sequel is titled 'Before the Storm', and I certainly hope I'll write it better then this piece-of-junk's early chapters. :)
