Pellaeon was in his thinking spot, or so he began calling it, a personnel walkway 4 decks below the bridge, with 7 triangular view ports facing out, to the front of the ship. No one ever used it, except for Pellaeon. He walked back and forth, every step filled with the anger of a Rankor.
'Who does Thrawn think he is? How dare he play me like that!!' Pellaeon said to himself over and over. The Grand Admiral was sure as hell not welcome here anymore. Pellaeon looked straight out into Hyperspace. He always caught himself doing it. On the bridge, in his quarters, and here. There was something soothing about it. The textures, the light, the closest thing to meditation Pellaeon ever did. These times were dark, and filled with betrayal. Every Imperial Commander out there was in it for his own gain, for greed, and power. Pellaeon believed himself to be the only one who was in it for the good of the Empire. And Thrawn. What were Thrawns intentions? He wants to rally the remaining forces, and to command them to what? Certainly not victory, no that had been lost long ago. Coruscant was lost not, completely overtaken by the New Republic. This galaxy was a political domain, as well as a tactical. Wars seem to be raging constantly, as constant as the force itself. Pellaeon still knew little about the force, but it had served great people. The Jedi were great, on the wrong side, but great nonetheless. And the Emperor, he was the greatest of them all, the greatest on all fields. A great leader, a great Jedi, a great politician. And in the end he was still driven by greed, by lust for power. It always destroyed great people. And really what good would fighting the Republic gain us? The Imperials have been out of the political playing field for years now. The planets controlled by us were only inhabited by us. No people follow us, nothing except a militia. Pellaeon stared deeply into the swirl of Hyperspace. The word militia rang in his ear. Is it this really what we have fallen to? A great officer Pellaeon was, but in the end, he only held himself this high. And Thrawn, his place had yet to be seen.
With a final glance out the view port, Pellaeon turned on his heel and left the walkway.
Pellaeon hadn't been sleeping well the past few weeks. He had considered going down to sickbay and ordering a sanative. He waited on the bridge for Thrawn to issue his next orders. In the meantime he had taken it upon himself to give the go ahead for re-supply from the command center down on the surface. He looked at his tactical readout, 4 cargo ships were already on their way, with 2 shuttles behind them. He heard footsteps entering the bridge, he had been good at identifying his officer's footsteps, each walked differently, but these were unfamiliar. He turned and saw one of Thrawns personnel arriving late for his duty shift.
"You there, sergeant!" Pellaeon said.
"Yes sir!" The young man said, he straightened up, and saluted.
"You're late, what explanation do you have for this?" Pellaeon said. It had been a long while since he ripped into one of the bridge crew for being 2 minutes late. But this was one of Thrawns crewmembers; it was necessary to let them know who the boss was.
"Sorry sir, I have no viable excuse for my tardiness. My sleeping habits are the cause, forgive me sir, it will not happen again!" The sergeant said. The response was indeed interesting. He took the blame and said himself he had no excuse for being late. Pellaeon was shocked to say the least. He almost stood there with a dumbfound look on his face but quickly responded.
"Well it had better not happen again, or you will be reprimanded, is that clear?" Pellaeon said back, still amazed how Thrawn kept his men in line. , even when he wasn't present.
"Sir yes sir!" The sergeant said saluted then scuttled to his post.
Pellaeon strolled back to the front of the bridge. He looked about; half the crew was of Thrawns staff, and the other half his own. Why he called them "Thrawns" was beyond him, they were imperials, they were on his side, or were they. Pellaeon still wasn't sure if he really liked Thrawn. His intentional deceit had seared deep into Pellaeon. The was no really reason he needed to do it. Sure he says he was testing Pellaeon, maybe perhaps he was merely making an example of Pellaeon. Showing Pellaeon who the boss was.
He didn't even hear the Admiral enter the bridge, but he did hear him take his seat.
Pellaeon quickly turned around and saw the Admiral seated at his command chair, reading the nightly report.
"Good morning Admiral." Pellaeon said.
"Good morning Captain, I see you ordered a re-supply, very good. Where is the Deaths Head? I don't see it in orbit?" Thrawn asked.
"The Death's Head was stationed to patrol the Norak sector, it probably returned there." Pellaeon said back.
"Ah I see, well I suppose that will do. After the re-supply ships have finished, I want to hold a briefing for all the department heads in the War Room." Thrawn said, now taking his eyes off his display to look at Pellaeon.
"Yes sir, have you decided a proper course of action?" Pellaeon asked.
"I have indeed Captain." Thrawn said.
The re-supply ships were quick in their tasks and were completed in less than 20 minutes. The briefing had not started yet, only 3 of the department heads had arrived and Thrawn and Pellaeon were seated at the front of the conference table.
"Well I suppose we can begin without them," Thrawn said.
"Are you sure that's wise sir?" Pellaeon asked.
"They are late, and I do not tolerate tardiness." Thrawn snapped back.
He certainly did not tolerate tardiness; he had trained his bridge crew on it well.
Thrawn got up and walked over to the door leading into the room. He switched the keypad and locked the door.
"Let this be a lesson to the rest of you" Thrawn said signaling to the rest of the Head Staff. " You three can fill the others in after the meeting."
Pellaeon had never done that before, the staff leads were pricks if anything, they thought the ship would stop and wait for them. Thrawn proved them wrong.
"I have made a plan, after much thinking and much research, I have decided to locate this man." Thrawn switch on the briefing monitor.
Pellaeon quickly recognized the man. It was General Veers.
"He is one of the remaining commanders of a reasonable Imperial fleet, my plans are simple, we locate him, and discuss a merger." Thrawn said.
'A merger?' this is now commercial business, we were not invested in some form of trading and need to merge with him. This is ridiculous. Pellaeon thought to himself.
" I though he was dead sir." One of the department heads spoke up." I mean, I thought he was stationed aboard the Executor."
Pellaeon looked up, it was true he was stationed aboard the Executor, but he had-
'He had not been on the bridge when it was disabled" Thrawn said, the very same words ready to exit Pellaeons mouth " when he discovered the bridge had been taken out he ordered as many of his men to board the shuttles in the Hangar, and they left the ship and headed for the nearest Star Destroyer. He now commands a fleet in the Farfin Sector, consisting of 7 Imperial Class Star Destroyers and 1 half constructed Super Class Star Destroyer." Thrawn said.
Pellaeon thought to himself ' great, Veers of all the people out there Thrawn had chosen Veers, that man was a pompous ignorant sonofabitch.
"How do you plan to sway him to our side sir?" another of the Staff heads asked.
"Well it's simple, we take 1 of our ships to meet him, we discuss it, I am a higher ranking officer, from that we will determine how to do it." Thrawn said.
"Begging your pardon sir, he might not be happy to see us. These days a lot of the remaining commanders are in it for themselves, and aren't quick to turn over their command. " The Staff Head responded, throwing a quick glance at Pellaeon.
"Yes I am aware of that, no worry, that is what we're going to find out isn't it?" Thrawn said " dismissed, I will inform you the rest later, we have much preparation to do."
And with that the meeting was over. Pellaeon stood up and waited for the Department Heads to leave the room, out side the 6 other Staff Heads who had just missed the meeting were waiting, and begun asking the others about the meeting.
"Sir I don't think it's wise to hunt down remaining Imperials and ask them to just give up their command.' Pellaeon said.
"Do not worry Captain, I have met Maximillian Veers before, he is rude, but intelligent. We will see what happens when it happens." Thrawn said, and with that was on his way out of the room.
"May I join you in your quarters sir, I do have matters to discuss." Pellaeon asked.
"Certainly Captain." Thrawn said.
Thrawn and Pellaeon walked to Thrawns Command Chamber. When they entered, it was still a very dim gloomy room. Pellaeon looked to the wall and saw new paintings, they weren't even real they were Holo-Paintings. He recognized the artwork as Huttese.
"That's a Hutt painting right?" Pellaeon asked.
"No, it's a painting from Nal Hutta. I've been studying it a lot recently, Veers was from Nal Hutta. I've found that studying artwork from my enemies origin makes it easier to know what type of person he is, and thus what kind of commander he is." Thrawn said.
"So, Veers is our enemy?" Pellaeon asked.
Thrawn sat there, and though about the question.
"Most definitely, we don't know him, or what his reasons for assuming command of a fleet are. I do believe he is a good General, but not a good Fleet leader." Thrawn said.
That was the very same though Pellaeon had on Veers.
"What did you want to talk about?" Thrawn asked.
"Well sir, I have to know, are we going to fight Veers? Or just talk with him?"Pellaeon asked.
"Well we're going to talk with him, and if he makes it necessary to fight him, then we will." Thrawn answered.
"Yes but just sending the Chimaera .Is that a wise thing to do?" Pellaeon asked.
"You have no trust in me do you Captain?" Thrawn asked, staring into Pellaeons eyes.
"No sir, not really. I don't know you, and you did purposely deceive me back on the Noghri home world." Pellaeon said.
"Deceive? That's what you think it was? Look I've already told you, it was a test, a simple way to discover what kind of man you are. I had to develop a trust in your loyalty, I wanted to know weather or not your loyalties lay in yourself, or in the Empire." Thrawn said.
"Why didn't you just look at some artwork from my home world?" Pellaeon asked.
"Are you my enemy?" Thrawn asked back.
And with that Pellaeon decided it was just the Admirals way of doing things. It had angered Pellaeon because it was unnecessary in his eyes, but the truth was they didn't trust each other yet, it would take time.
"Well then, I think I'll return to the bridge. Good day Admiral." Pellaeon said as he left Thrawns quarters.
The next day the Star Destroyer Chimaera left Yarstoss for the Farfin sector.
