Chapter 10

It is continually challenged, and must continually prove itself anew against fresh obstacles.

The same drawbacks also applied to Thrawn, of course, plus the added one of being a nonhuman in a society like that.

"Now we're not sure," Yularen said, his eyes darting back and forth as he skimmed the report.

"Now we're not sure," Yularen said, his eyes darting back and forth as he skimmed the report.

"I daresay you'd look good in white."

"You Excellency, please," Arihnda said carefully, backing toward the door, her lungs alternately burning and icing with the bits of spice she'd accidentally inhaled.

"I'm talking about planting false data in a senior Imperial official's computer," Ghandi said, his voice going soft and menacing.

"I don't want to escape your bonfire just to get dropped into his."

Besides, her lungs and vision were still showing the effects of the spice, and there were probably other visual cues that would tag her to anyone who knew what to look at.

She arrived at Renking's office to find most of the local staff already assembled, whispering urgently and apprehensively among themselves.

"Some allegations have recently arisen of financial and corporate discrepancies coming from my office."

"I didn't have any choice," Arihnda said, silently cursing the shaking that had suddenly afflicted her voice.

"Whatever you were trying to do, you must not have disguised it very well."

Ruthlessly, she forced it down.

Now it was ominous.

A little cramped, but we'll make do.

The court-martial panel had taken the full details of the Dromedar incident into account, specifically made note of Captain Rossi's pettiness, and render the correct answer.

As he'd long suspected, his position as Thrawn's aide was having a dampening effect on his own advancement.

The lost tibanna still rankled him.

Or a path where he nearly always felt like a fish flopping on the shore, but where he got to see true genius in action?

He'd been mulling that question over since Royal Imperial.

He sent the newcomer a brief look, then continued on toward the door he'd indicated.

Thrawn had long since become fluent in Basic, but his ability to phrase his comments in polite or diplomatic ways was still sometimes woefully lacking.

Thrawn had long since become fluent in Basic, but his ability to phrase his comments in polite or diplomatic ways was still sometimes woefully lacking.

I mean that for a Wild Space person like yourself, the Inner Rim is an incredible move upward."

"If you don't wish to avail yourself of this opportunity--" "It's because of Thrawn, isn't it?"

"Forty percent," Culper said frostily.

Eli felt his skin prickle.

He was nothing more than a tool with which Ghadi and his friends hoped to topple the non-elite, nonhuman threat to their comfortable little universe.

Eli watched her go, the emotional tangle emerging again as the disgust receded.

Eli watched her go, the emotional tangle emerging again as the disgust receded.

Thrawn inclined his head, his glowing eyes narrowing slightly.

The obvious corollary was that the ones who were here would be the ones who couldn't get time off, which likely meant the newest and least competent.

Eli winced.

Nariba puckered her lips in a condescending smile.

"Really," he said, a bit lamely.

"You are brash, aren't you?"