And it was time for Thrawn to stand to judgment.

“You lied to me,” Vader said when they were once again alone in the admiral’s office.

“I did not lie, my lord,” Thrawn said, inclining his head.

“You withheld some of the truth,” Vader countered, keeping a firm grip on his anger as he stretched out with the Force. The sand bridge Thrawn had been continually walking since they first arrived at Batuu had been steadily blown away by the admiral’s words and actions. Now it had eroded to something perilously thin. One more misstep, one more evasion or lie, and Vader would forget that the Emperor still had use of this person. “That is the same as a lie.”

“I told you what I could,” Thrawn said. “What I deemed the Emperor would permit me to reveal.”

“The Emperor knows the whole truth, then?”

Thrawn hesitated, the orderly array of his mind bending a bit under the strain of Vader’s glare and presence. “I have not told him,” the admiral conceded. “But I have no doubt that he does indeed know.”

Vader felt his thumbs tighten in his belt. In that, the Chiss was probably right. “You will tell me all of it,” he said. “Now.”

“As I promised,” Thrawn said, again inclining his head. The deference was real, Vader could sense, as was the caution behind it. The admiral knew exactly where he stood, and recognized that his life was hanging by a thread.

Good.

“You will first appreciate that this is among the most closely guarded secrets of the Chiss Ascendancy,” he said. “As I noted when we first reached this region of space, there are few stable hyperlanes into and through the Unknown Regions. Because of this, most species stay close to their own systems, preferring to travel along shorter lanes and unwilling to take the time necessary for the much slower jump-by-jump travel.”

“But the Chiss do not wish to be so limited?”

“Indeed not,” Thrawn said, a hint of contempt creeping into his voice. “For all their pronouncements of non-interference in others’ activities, the Aristocras have a deep desire to know what those activities consist of. Our scouts range far and wide, entering even into the parts of space once claimed by the Republic and now claimed by the Empire.” He gestured. “As you well know.”

“I have been so informed by the Emperor,” Vader said stiffly. Again, Thrawn was poking uncomfortably close to the edge. “Tell me about the children.”

“We do not have nav computers able to plot safe paths through the chaos of the Unknown Regions hyperspace,” Thrawn said. “Nor do the Chiss produce appreciable numbers of Force-sensitives, though we call their gift Third Sight. But when such rare individuals are born, they come to us with but one ability, that of precognition.”

And suddenly Vader understood. The same ability that allowed him to peer into the future far enough to know when and where an attack was coming was being used by the Chiss to sense dangers looming ahead of a ship in time to avoid them. “They navigate and pilot your ships,” he said. “Finding and mapping temporary hyperlanes even as they steer new paths along them.”

“Why did the Grysk do this?” Vader asked. “What did they hope to gain by blocking the route to Batuu?”

“I do not yet know if Batuu itself is of any significance to them,” Thrawn said. “Sealing the Batuu corridor could be a test project, the first step in closing this part of the Unknown Regions to Imperial incursion.”

“So they wish to avoid the might of the Empire.”

“They wish to block Imperial incursion,” Thrawn said. “That is not necessarily the same thing.”

“How is it not?”

“The hyperlanes are not the only way to move in and out of the Unknown Regions,” Thrawn said. “A jump-by-jump method is also able to breach the boundary. But that method is far slower. More significantly, it does not lend itself to the passage of an armada.”

Now, finally, there it was. “No, it does not,” he agreed. “So you fear that when these Grysk attack your people, you will be unable to bring Imperial forces to their defense?”

“That is one consideration,” Thrawn conceded. “There are others.”

“You said you would tell me who they are.”

“If we take them alive, I will tell you,” Thrawn said. “If not, there is no reason for you to ever know.”

“I disagree,” Vader said. “The matter is of interest to the Emperor. It is therefore of interest to me.”

“I will reveal the secret if we free them,” Thrawn said. “That is all I can do.”

“All you can do?” Vader’s voice holds perhaps warning, perhaps outright threat. “You have sworn loyalty to the Emperor, Admiral. Is your loyalty to him, or to your own interests?”

“The two are not incompatible, my lord.”

“So you say,” Vader countered. His voice holds impatience and growing anger. His hand reaches to hook into his belt near his lightsaber. “But you have offered no proof.”

“The Emperor has great interest in the Unknown Regions, my lord,” Thrawn said. “This secret is strongly connected to that interest, and to his ultimate goals in this part of space.”

Vader tightens his grip on his belt. “Is that to always be your excuse, Admiral?” Vader demanded “The Emperor and his goals? The Emperor is my master, as he is yours. Do you suggest I would betray him?”

“Not at all, my lord,” Thrawn assured him.

“Then you will tell me,” Vader said. “All of it.”