Towards the future I see

Chapter 57 Part 3

I stayed with Vah'nya for a long time. I did take a rest as suggested. But not for too long. When I came to the bridge with Vah'nya, everyone was witnessing a sight of something outside. I walked towards the viewport where Thrawn, Ar'alani, and Faro stood looking outside. The joined ships that were the Grysks base were separated now. And for some reason, there were signs of explosions.

“What happened?” I asked the officers.

“Ah, milady. You missed quite a show here,” Faro said with a small hint of pride.

“Will someone explain what it was?” I asked.

“The Grysks had prepared yet another surprise for us,” Thrawn explained in Sy Bisti. “But we managed to give them an even bigger one.”

“Another trap?” I asked in Sy Bisti.

“Actually, a clean-up maneuver,” Thrawn said. “They had set explosives that slowly drifted to the joint ships, and would then destroy all traces of them.”

“But you managed to defuse them?” I asked.

“Actually, we simply made the Grysk ship disappear,” Faro said.

“How?” I asked curiously.

“That is the thing you missed,” Faro said.

“There better be holo-records of it then,” I said. When I looked outside I did note that the joint ship was now separated. Was that part of the trick? Seeing that record would be very interesting. I also noted another ship, a familiar one. It was the Chiss ship Steadfast. Thrawn gave instructions for the com-officer to let Ar'alani make contact with the ship and give orders to her crew.

I also received a ping to my datapad. There were only two people who sent me any messages. And one of them stood in front of me. It has to be Vader. I braced myself and opened the message. When I finished reading it, I was shocked. When I read it the second time, I was angry. When I’ll see Ronan again, I will… I will… Let’s wait till he gets back with Vanto. I'll decide then. Now, we need to prepare for the coming Grysk forces that will surely come to get their ships back. Thrawn has surely made plans for them.
When Ar'alani ended her conversation with her ship, she came to us with a serious look.

“Lieutenant Commander Vanto says there is a slight problem,” Ar'alani said in Sy Bisti. “I instructed him to come here to deliver the explanation.”

Vanto was on his way here? Looks like I have to decide what to do to Ronan faster than I thought. I really would like to punch him. Or maybe I should probe him to see if he had anything to do with the message I just got. I was mentally preparing my moves to confront Ronan, but when the shuttle came only Vanto walked out.

“Where is assistant director Ronan?” Thrawn asked when he too didn’t see him.

“That is the problem,” Vanto said. “He took the cargo ship with him. Probably, thinking that that way he would bring the evidence to the authorities, leaving us behind.”

Ronan had the guts to pull something that daring? Well, if it was just Vanto, I would call it petty. But also to the two Death troopers? Talk about paranoia. Which brings to me the question, what did they find out?

We all gathered in a conference room to hear what Vanto had discovered with Ronan. The more I heard, the more I understood Ronan's excuse to take the ship and leave Vanto and the troopers. The cargo-ship disappearing act was already well planned but it also went even to the harbor and the shipping. This plan was more well calculated that it couldn’t work without someone in the High Command to aid in the process. What I heard and understood; the ship’s cargo was manipulated and prepared so that even canons could be smuggled out in pieces. Then the ships themselves were tampered with so that Grallocs would be lured close to the ships and to a spot that was close to hyperdrives. Then the crew could “disappear” when they made a jump to hyperspace. But to control so much to keep all this hidden. Someone must have taken notes after Bistebo was arrested. He tried to steal some cargo too but he was quickly discovered. It made me wonder. Was he working for the same mastermind, who now had leveled up their plans? Then it couldn’t be Governor Havenland. She and Bistebo never had contact. In fact, they were rivals in this shipping business. But then the only one who had contact with both of them who wasn’t involved with Stardust…