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Eli followed the steadily moving Chiss in the uniform of the Expansionary Defense Fleet though the corridor and actively looked around. However, he had to admit that there was not much to look at. It was a military vessel after all, not an art museum on Coruscant and it was unlikely to see the decorated walls and bas-reliefs on the ceiling here. The inner space of the ship looked like the imperial ones, yet Eli felt that he was no longer in the Empire. He could feel the different culture and ways. And he needed to get used to it. He had to.
He went a similar way a few years ago when his life, as he had thought then, derailed. Everything went upside down and all because of one ma… chiss. Back then he considered it a punishment for something. Later he gradually began to understand that it was more like a prize. But as soon as he accepted the now already positive destiny and new ways, Thrawn gave him another one. Like he was not keen that Eli finally, after all these years, again had found his comfort zone. He only had settled down and again was tired to be thrown away to the cold. Moreover in this case it could be said both literally and figuratively.
He clearly remembered the day when Thrawn called him to his office. Quite an ordinary occasion, to which Eli did not pay much attention and so went to the meeting with the superior at once. Thrawn in dim lights of his grand-admirals’ apartments as usual watched the hologram of some far and very mysterious but so clear and open source of information for the Chiss. Eli froze not far from the other piece of art and placed his eyes on the image. Let Thrawn think that Eli was also studying and trying to find the important details. However, the hologram did not want to reveal any mysteries to him. As usual.
Having made his aide wait for quite enough time, Thrawn invited him to sit down with a nod. Eli slowly turned his gaze out from the extinguishing hologram and placed himself on the chair at the other part of the table from the Thrawn. He, having clenched his hands together, for some time pensively looked at them. Then slowly turned his gaze on the man sitting across from him.
“I have an important task for you, commander.”
Eli was a little bit surprised by the straightforwardness of the phrase. Thrawn liked at first to play a little with his prey having been distracted with tangential, as it seemed to the victim, questions. But in this case either he was not in the mood for this or the matter was really important. Or even crucial.
Eli answered with the nod, letting know that he was ready to accept the information further. However soon he understood that neither life nor Thrawn had prepared him for such kind of information. Neither for the information, nor for the task.
After the Chiss went quiet, it was Eli’s turn to study the tabletop. It was too much. There was so many emotions and thoughts that he did not know what to choose.
Thrawn had not been exiled, the Empire for him was not the only opportunity to escape the pointless existence on the unknown planet and he was there for a specific purpose. And Eli himself albeit indirectly served this purpose, helping and teaching Thrawn in this cruel to all living beings world. And now he asked him for even more participation in his great cause – to go to the Unknown Regions and join his people. To be the source of information and knowledge. To serve for the good of the Ascendancy. The place about which Eli knew almost nothing and cared in the same amount. Why would he care about all these Chiss if only one of them had changed his life so much? What would the whole bunch of the all-knowing proud warriors do to him?
Thrawn waited patiently until he would have processed all the thoughts in his head. Eli thought that he had to wait long enough and it would be better if he turned on one of his holograms to diminish the time.
Of course, Thrawn explained that all this had been planned for the greatest purpose – the protection from a potential menace from outside which by his words was not something ephemeral but quite real and deathly. Something against which the galaxy could stand against only as a whole. And their task was to provide this unity. And for that the informational exchange was needed at first.
Eli did not want to play a role of the datachip and so he asked Thrawn if it was possible just to send the necessary data to the Chiss. And he received the, of course logical, answer that it was much more rational to send the representative of the another government which would be able not only provide that information but to gather it together and explain what is what in the unfamiliar humans’ culture. As always it was all matched up neatly by Thrawn’s words. However these puzzles always lead to the right decisions, actions and victory. And what he was asking now seemed like the important part of this grand plan. In addition, the Chiss always kept themselves isolated, carefully protecting their borders and almost never allowed contact with the outer world. Sending Eli to them, Thrawn also demonstrated trust. He knew for sure that Eli would manage the role of emissary, perhaps the first in many hundreds of years. Nevertheless… despite that Thrawn had already calculate every detail, Eli had to make his own decision. This step would probably become the biggest in his life. However, you could never know for sure with Thrawn…
Back then, Thrawn did not receive an answer from him, only the promise to think about it. But even while exiting the office, Eli understood that deep inside he already knew the answer. Besides, if Thrawn needed something he would get it. And to oppose it meant only to prolong inevitable.
The travel to Chiss space did not take much time. The Chimaera, of course coincidentally, was on a mission not far away from the borders of the Unknown Regions. Thrawn also supplied Eli with his journal, which apparently he had kept the entire time since his appearance in the Empire. Eli even thought about beginning his own one as soon as he was in the similar situation. But then he changed his mind. There were many tasks he had to do and it was unlikely for him to have such genius thoughts as Thrawn had.
Having landed in the hangar of the Chiss vessel Eli expected to see Admiral Ar’Alani with whom he had spoken via holo before the landing. However there were only two Chiss expecting him, one of which greeted him briefly in Sy bisti and said to follow him. Well, perhaps it was stupid to expect that he would be met personally by the admiral.
His escort moved fast down the corridor and Eli desperately tried not to fall behind. Finally, having led him to most likely the farthest part of the ship, one of the Chiss pushed the button and nodded toward the entrance that appeared. There was no need in translating this motion so Eli stepped inside.
There were dim lights in the room and Eli for some time stood frozen on the threshold, letting his eyes adjust. The big chair near the furthest wall was turned away from him. The Chiss sitting in it watched something on the screen, the projection of which displayed on the opposite wall from him. Eli took a few steps.
“Admiral Ar’Alani?”
The Chiss turned the projection off slightly touching the panel on one of armrest and slowly turned. Eli dropped his jaw.
It was indeed the Chiss, sitting in the chair before him. But it was not Ar’Alani. It was… Thrawn?
No, it was not possible. It was just another Chiss. He just had been so accustomed to Thrawn that now all the Chiss would look like him. However, he had not made the same mistake with the two other Chiss. And yet…
Yes, it could not be him. This one even looked a little bit different. There were no pupils or iris on the glowing red eyes. And the face looked more like a human’s only with pale blue skin. He was different. However Eli felt like it was exactly him.
“Greetings, Eli Vanto,” said the Chiss with a quiet low voice, apparently having decided that the pause was long enough. He clearly waited for his reaction.
“Th… Thrawn?” perhaps in this case the official greeting was more pertinent, but Eli was too confused to think about it. Now there was only one question which interested him.
The Chiss folded fingers together before him and slightly tilted his head.
“I understand your surprise and puzzlement. But I think that you will be even more surprised when you discover the crux of the matter. However, answering your question – yes, this name belongs to me.”
“But, why are you different? How did you get here… and why? If you needed to return, why you did not fly with me?”
“There was no necessity for me to return as long as I always was here.”
“What do you mean – here? You spent the last few years in the Empire. And before that months on that planet. What is going on?”
“You need to calm down. It will be hard to accept what I am going to say in your state.”
Thrawn moved his hand toward the nearest chair, got up and headed to the small locker. Eli followed him with his eyes and slowly went to the seat. Thrawn took the bottle and two glasses, filled both of them, went back to Eli and offered him one. Eli carefully took the drink and smelled. The smell was quite strong.
“This is a forvish ale,” Thrawn informed him briefly, making a sip from his glass. Eli also carefully tasted the liquid and wrinkled his nose. The drink was too strong for his taste.
Thrawn meanwhile again placed himself in the chair.
“So are you going to tell me what is going on?” asked Eli a little bit calmer.
“Of course,” the Chiss nodded. “However your question is not quite correct. What exactly do you want to know?”
Eli sighed. Again his mind games.
“All right. Are you the real Thrawn?”
The Chiss smiled a little.
“It is a strange kind of question. However, you are on the right way. Yes, I am the real one.”
“You were here all the time? You have never left the Ascendancy?”
“I have been out of the borders of the Chiss space a few times. But recently I have not moved far. So I can say yes. I have been here for a long time.”
“And it was not you with me all this time?”
“Right.”
“But how it can be? Who was it then? He… was almost like you. But it appears that you are the one I don’t know. You are almost like him then. You are different… But at the same time you are quite similar. But… and…”
Thrawn stopped Eli’s flow of talk by waving hand.
“You said the right thing that he was almost like me. This is the closest thing to the truth.”
Eli studied the Chiss for some time.
“Is he… like a doppelganger?”
“Correct.”
“But why? And how do you know me then?”
“I think he already explained the reason before sending you here. At least I instructed him to do it…”
Eli felt like he had slowly gone insane.“Thrawn, please, just tell me everything. I can’t solve your mysteries now.”
The Chiss closely looked at Eli then graciously nodded.
“Very well, perhaps it will be better indeed. The Chiss have looked at the main part of the galaxy for the long time. We have always watched you. However, only from afar and of course the data was incomplete, partial and sometimes even wrong. But your affairs were not really important to us until recently. The majority still do not care about the rest of the galaxy. But there are those who see the potential there. That was why I succeeded to convince the ruling families that we needed more data about your Empire, more close exploration of what was happening. The control would be even better even if it were limited. However, these explorations must be one-sided. The Ascendancy’s borders must stay closed from the outer world. That was why the most logical way was to send someone to the Empire disguised as a fugitive or exiled. I wanted to go personally, but this decision was not approved. See, there are many dangers in the Unknown Regions and your Empire even does not realize them. I was needed here for the protection of my people. But I also did not want to abandon my plan to infiltrate the Empire. At almost same time, I happened to meet Flim. I will omit the details of our acquaintance for now. He does not possess great mind, however his abilities regarding… fraud, deviousness and acting deserve commendation. I suppose, you saw it yourself. It was risky. But at the end in the case of failure we would have lost almost nothing. Except this man. However, sometimes casualties cannot be avoided…”
“Wait, you want to say that all this time it was just a human?”
“Exactly so. The Chiss and the Humans do not differ significantly in appearance. It was not a problem to change the skin and hair color. However, it was much harder to change the color and specificities of the eyes. But we solved this problem. A small prosthetics based on the lenses still could not hide pupils and irises but changed the eyes color and with the diodes it could be possible to make them glow. For the long effect, a small accumulator was necessary, which was hidden in the forehead part.
“That is why he had these arcs on his forehead and you and the other two Chiss don’t… And the eyes… Do all Chiss have such kind of eyes?”
“Yes. Our copy despite being a good model still was not fully reflect the appearance of the Chiss. But it was not really necessary. Humans had almost no contact with the Chiss for centuries and still know almost nothing about us. And, as expected, no one in the Empire noticed the differences.”
“All right, let's assume, you changed the color of everything that was possible. But you said that this Flim was not really smart. In this case how he pulled everything off?”
“Under my full control and in exact accordance with the instructions, of course. Yes, it is quite problematic to establish the clear communication between the Unknown Regions and the central part of the galaxy, but it is possible. Thus I receive all the information, available to Flim and instruct him about further actions. He also had instructions in the case of contingency like breakdown of communications. The operation was and is pretty important and I tried to consider all possible difficulties and solutions to minimize the possibilities of failure.”
“But why did you send me here?”
“Because I needed you here now. You proved that you can be trusted and ready to participate in something bigger than the protection of the Empire from the pirates.”
“And what is this “bigger one”?”
“Flim has already told you part of the events however without details. He does not know them himself. He does not need to. I will tell you more. Almost everything I know. But not now. We still have time, albeit less and less.
“Less till what?”
Thrawn did not answer He directed his red eyes into space and thought about his own. Eli went through the information in silence.
“You had a long journey,” finally Thrawn returned to the present. “Now it will be better to rest. We will talk again when arrive at our destination.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the Nirauan system. One of the new outposts is placed there. The only one, which is located beyond the Ascendancy borders. Soon it will turn into the base for the operations in the Unknown Regions. And to make it such is one of our priorities now.
Eli had many questions. But Thrawn clearly let him know that there would be no introductory lecture right now. Well, the travel would not likely take long. And one conversation obviously would not be enough to tell him everything. So he had to wait.
He quietly got up and headed to the exit. Thrawn followed him with his glowing eyes and turned to the screen.
Yes, his path had changed again. And again in a very unpredictable direction. However, now he learned to accept such changes with less pessimism and also he learnt to trust Thrawn. But now he had also to adjust to the new Thrawn. Though, considering that all this time it was exactly him… Anyway now there was a new way and a new path. Simultaneously interesting and important. It was always difficult with Thrawn to guess what was awaiting you. But still he knew that he was ready for everything that the future would bring him. His new future.