"I still don't see how this is a viable spot for a Rebel base," Slavin said as Sola entered the command shelter.
Uriellien let the comment out before he could stop it. "That's why you're losing."
A slight blush shone on Slavin's cheeks. "Of course, sir," he muttered.
He had a difficult time keeping his annoyance, no if Uriellien was honest, fear reined in. He had not seen where Sola had touched the map when Slavin had fussed at her, which seemed to be the Captain's preferred way to venting his own frustration at Viita. But, Thrawn was now concentrating on a wholly different section of the province to the north. It was unnecessary, his tactics had been marvelous the way they were, working up from the south toward the northern reaches of the dry and dusty ancient mountains. He had the dreadful feeling that was the spot Sola had indicated.
Why the hell did she do that in front of everyone? And why did Thrawn now concentrate on that little area? Did he suspect? Or worse, did he know?
Sola glanced at him and then at the map, uncertainty written on her face. She'd never been good at hiding her emotions, even when they were kids. It was something that had hindered her in their youth, but she now used to her advantage in high society. She was hailed as being honest and forthright. What you saw was what you got, from elation to terror-inducing anger, no matter what end of the passionate spectrum she was on the time. Then, she was always surprising people with a part of her personality that she kept to herself, the observations, the knowing. Right now, her brows were drawn together in an upside down V.
"We will attack them from the north," Thrawn had been saying, "and bottleneck them here at the pass." He shifted his gaze from the map to the doorway, locking eyes with his sister. There seemed to be a terribly long moment of silence between them before he asked, "Do you have something to add, Lady Luxsolaria?"
Uriellien didn't detect any malice in the question, but it filled him with horror. He felt his throat tighten and his mouth go dry. He swallowed, having a hard time completing the action. He tried to keep his face a neutral mask. Whether he did or not, he wasn't sure.
Sola smiled, not the bright sunny thing that shined from her face, but a small, dim caricature. "Only to be careful." Her tone was light. "It looks to be inhospitable territory."
"This entire place is inhospitable territory," Slavn muttered.
"I don't know that, Captain," Sola said pleasantly in her sing-song voice. "It has a kind of harsh beauty to it, all awash with red and orange."
Slavin looked at her like she was crazy.
Uriellien wanted to punch him in his face.
Sola walked up to her brother, standing beside him regarding the map. "Will I be helping?" she asked softly, obviously just to him.
"I'm sure triage will appreciate your help," Uriellien replied.
"I do not expect there to be many soldiers to triage," Thrawn said. He turned his attention to Sola, the look on his face predatory, like an animal stalking a kill. Uriellien reached out and touched her shoulder, more for his own reassurance than for hers. "I think Lady Luxsolaria would be more helpful with us…conferring."
The look on Slavin's face, though, was almost worth fear.
Sola was half-hoping she'd been wrong about the small place she'd touched on the map. Unfortunately for her, the aching in her arms to reach out, the tingling in her fingers to gently tap that particular place on the map was right. It was always right, so why she ever hoped otherwise, she didn't know.
Why had she given in to touching it in the first place?
When scouts came back to report that there was a large dwelling close by, housing twenty to thirty Twi'lek, her heart sank into her stomach. On the entire way there, the heat of the day rose, covering her body in sweat. She knew that under the battle armor, which she did not wear, Uriellien, Thrawn, and Slavin must have been boiling. There were times when she found it hard to breathe, though whether it was from the heat or anticipation of the pending fight, she didn't know.
Urilien had insisted she wear a helmet, even if she only wore a simple tunic and leggings with boots instead of armor. "At least your noggin won't get hurt," he had muttered, stuffing the helmet forcefully on her head. It hadn't fit, due to her hair being piled up, so he had made her take it down and braid it. She sat on it to keep it from flapping around on the speeder as they made their way there.
The sun was going down when they arrived at a bluff north of the dwelling, where they unloaded. It was a long wait as the stormtroopers made their way up to the summit of the pass. The unbearable heat turned to the frigid desert cold, Sola's short coat doing nothing to warm her legs. When the wind blew, it bit into her thighs and kicked up swirls of orange sand.
Finally chatter began on the coms, signaling people in place. It was dark now, no lights shone on the pass. If Sola couldn't feel them, she wouldn't have known any people were up there. They started up the bluff to their observation post, where Uriellien and Thrawn would watch the battle play out, sending Slavin in for actual fighting.
She hated this kind of waiting, heavy with expectancy and tension, almost making the air crackle. It reminded her too much of her youth on Astarrax when she fought the Separatists. At least when she did that, she knew the battle plan, was part of the battle plan. Right now, she was just clinging on the ride.
A scouttrooper returned with a makeshift layout of the dwelling, a large complex surrounded by a wall. Thrawn examined the small image on the datapad as it downloaded to a mobile holoprojector.
"I want it intact," he said decisively.
"Yes, sir," the scouttrooper's synthesized voice said with a salute. Then, his white armor disappeared into the darkness as he descended the bluff.
Then there was the silent waiting. Pregnant with anxiety, the night seemed to close in on them, like a monster surrounding the small group and creeping ever closer and closer. It sucked in all the light, so that Uriellien was nothing more than a dark upon dark. She reached out her hand to where Uriellien had been standing and felt the smooth armor beneath her fingertips.
Then she heard Thrawn's voice in the dark, along with the static of a com. "Now."
She expected there to be a big explosion, to have to duck from incoming fire, to have to grab some fallen soldiers blaser and start shooting at the enemy, but none of that happened. In the distance, the sound of laserfire carried off to them, breaking the electric sense of the silence.
The holoprojector flared into life, showing the rough hewn image of the dwelling and the surrounding area. Thrawn was looking in the direction of it, his lips tight and a line between his brows. Sola followed his gaze, but the light of the holoprojector made the darkness even more inky. Could he see them in the distance? The coms from the soldiers around flared into life, as if the Grand Admiral had conjured them up from the dark.
"Northwest perimeter secure."
"Clear."
"Engaging enemy."
Familiar words penetrated her ears, words she hadn't heard in a lifetime, and she was suddenly aware she was surrounded by fear. Every person on the bluff was ripe with it and it reached out to her with its skeletal fingers.
This isn't mine, she told herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out very slowly. She went inside of herself, the voices from the coms, Uriellien and Thrawn talking, faded into background noise where she couldn't catch what they were saying. She searched for the white light at her core, near her solar plexus, just as she had been taught all those years ago. Once she found it, the fear faded away. She felt her shoulders physically drop, her breathing easier.
She opened her eyes. They had adjusted to the low light level and she could make out the shapes of the soldiers and equipment. She looked out from the bluff, but the night kept any other sights from her.
"Lady Luxsolaria." Thrawn's voice was smooth and unruffled, as if there was no fight going on at all, as if the chatter around them didn't exist. "Would you be so kind as to indicate where the Twi'lek forces will be exiting the house to engage our stormtroopers?"
Terror grabbed her heart and squeezed, so that the white light at her core could not even losen its grip. This fear was hers, she knew, coming from the recesses of her brain. She and Thrawn locked eyes, she knew hers were round showing the whites all around her sky blue irises. The look on his face was that a predator, observing her with an intensity that was almost animalistic, a stark contrast to his cultured voice. Was this the same man with whom she had played Snooks, who complimented her on her poetry reading?
Thrawn's gaze shifted from hers to the holoprojector and she felt compelled to follow them to the source of light. He said nothing.
She stared at the map, her fingers itching to touch places on it, places where groups were gathered, where fear and anger congregated. It was a familiar feeling, one she could identify anywhere. Dissidents. The unsatisfied feeling pulsed like waves from sections of the map, the feeling of people who couldn't understand progress, couldn't understand unity. All they understood was their own false belief that they would be better off without the Empire, without its hospitals, its schools, its protection.
"My lady," Thrawn prompted.
Somewhere in the back of her brain, the part that functioned free from emotion, noted that she liked the way he said my lady. It was immediately followed by, What an odd thought.
"I don't know," she whispered, her eyes still on the map. She could barely get the words out. She wanted to swallow, but her mouth was dry and she couldn't make her throat work.
He knew. Why did she tell him?
He stepped closer to her and bent down so his lips were near her ear. "You need not say how, my lady," his voice was quiet. She could feel his breath touch her face where the helmet stopped. The part of her brain free from emotion noted that she liked the smell of him. "Simply where."
Her fingers, curled into fists at her sides, almost hurt with the desire to raise them. She took a deep breath to try to calm herself, to say again that she didn't know, to touch the white light at her core once more. But when she did, it engulfed her, and there wasn't any more emotion. Only that part of her that observed the world around her and cataloged things about it remained.
That part saw only the map, throbbing in places, as if the people who were there physically moved the holo in front of her. There was a type of physical relief, if not emotional, when she uncurled her hands, lifted her arms to press one of the pulsating places.
"They're here," she said, her finger following the pulse in the northern part of the house. Her voice sounded far away to her, as if it belonged to someone else. "And here," she lifted her other hand went to the south portion. Her hands felt immediately better, like an itch that desperately needed scratching finally got what it wanted. It felt good.
She followed the southern pulse until it was off of the map, dropping her right arm to her side. The northern spot has stopped at the perimeter and seemed to hold there. Then, it, too, began to move south, stopping in places, before it, too, fell from the map. It's empty now, she thought, staring at the projected image. That made her feel satisfied in her body, light and weightless. She felt she could go into the map if she wanted to, peek at the things inside the house that the cartographer hadn't drawn but she knew were there.
"Sola!"
She blinked, realized she was being shaken. Uriellien's face was close to her, brows drawn together in worry, both hands on her shoulders. The map was gone and she could see beyond him, the red of the rising sun blending in with the red of the sand in the distance.
"Yes?" she said, her voice still sounding far away.
Relief washed over his face, and he stood up and pulled her into a tight embrace. She felt him exhale. He cradled her head, what had happened to the helmet she had been wearing?, into his chest. She smelled the scent of sweat and dirt and him, the scent that was her brother. The fear grabbed at her again, and she wrapped her arms around him and held on as if she would fall if she let go.
"It's ok," he said soothingly. He kissed the top of her head.
The action brought her back to her senses, fully back into her body and out of her mind. Feel the ground below you, she told herself, smell the air. She took a deep breath and released him, looking around.
The equipment was being packed up. There were many more soldiers on the bluff than there had been when it was dark. Thrawn had his back to her, speaking to someone. "Captain Slavin will meet us at the house," he said as he turned. He caught her eye and smiled a tiny, satisfied smile, inclining his head in her direction. "Welcome back, my lady."