#first time i've ever written thrawn so bear with me

[radioactivepeasant]

Glimpses III

Another moment in the “Imperial Problem Child” series

3. Match

The circumstances of the Princess’s capture had seemed off to him from the beginning. Although there was every indication that the operation on Sy Myrth had been established some months ago, and the Rebels had fought violently to defend it, the end of the battle had seemed suspicious. The moment the Princess was captured, the Rebels turned tail and fled, abandoning the Sy Myrth base. Odd. And not in keeping with previous experiences. There weren’t even any parting shots as the Rebels retreated.

More curious than anything else, Grand Admiral Thrawn had the Princess brought to his office. Her expression was calm, her posture relaxed, but her eyes were calculating. 

“Grand Admiral,” she said with a polite dip of her head. “I see that the rumors of your great love of art are not in the slightest bit exaggerated.”

“Princess Organa,” Thrawn made a courteous half bow and smiled thinly. “You have taken a risk, haven’t you?” The human woman had an impressive sabaac face, to be sure, but there was a slight tightening at the corners of her eyes. Yes, he’d interpreted her posture correctly: she was exactly where she wanted to be. The operation on the planet below must have been a sham. A clever one, at that. Thrawn couldn’t help but be slightly impressed by that.

“Considering reports place your intelligence somewhat higher than the usual Imperial, Grand Admiral Mitth’raw’nuruodo, I decided that a little risk was necessary in order to gauge for myself whether you’ve the common sense to go with that intelligence,” Princess Leia indulged a gentle smile and folded her hands calmly.

“Is that so?” Thrawn crossed the room in a few steps, hands clasped behind his back.  Rebels had attempted to infiltrate his ships before, and had spent plenty of time escaping his ships. But this was something quite different. The Princess was after something. Very well, he had no pressing engagements of note. He could spare an hour or two to study his opponent.

“Do you play chess, your highness?” he asked casually, and glanced at a compartment in the wall.

“It was a favored pastime of my mother’s,” the Princess answered with a bittersweet expression, “But sadly I have not had the opportunity to play in years.”

Thrawn took an ebony board from the compartment and placed it on his desk. “Well, your highness, as we have some several hours before we reach the nearest Imperial outpost, I wonder if you would indulge me in a game? You clearly have something you mean to say or learn, so I may as well learn something of you in the interim.”

“I would be delighted, sir,” Princess Leia took the chair he offered her and examined the board closely. “And who shall play white?”

“Well, your highness, this is your gambit. I think white for Alderaan is appropriate, don’t you?” Thrawn seated himself across from her with a calculating smile. To her credit, the woman hardly twitched at the reference to her lost world, and Thrawn called for tea to be served.

“Pawn to d4,” the Princess began.

“Knight to f6,” Thrawn answered, and the game was on.

“I imagine,” said the Grand Admiral as he moved his pieces, “That you have come on some matter connected to the rumors that Lord Vader is preparing a coup?”

“You are very well informed -- knight to c3 -- but I notice that you do not seem particularly concerned by this rumor. Do you believe that Lord Vader is not a threat to the Emperor?”

“Pawn to d5. On the contrary, my dear lady. I have a tremendous respect for your friend Skywalker’s father. He could be a very great threat to the Emperor, if only he had the patience for it.” Thrawn took note of where the Princess moved her queen and took one of her pawns. “But perhaps I am merely lackadaisical about it all. The Empire will be shaken, surely, and shall either emerge stronger, or shall weaken and be replaced with something stronger. My....skin in this game...as some might say, is minimal.”

Leia twirled the queen piece between her fingers a moment before taking Thrawn’s pawn with it. She doubted very much that he was as uninterested as he claimed. She had read up on the Chiss: he had encountered Anakin Skywalker before, seeking an alliance with the Republic, but changed his mind and later allied with the Empire. For all his claims of exile, there were some -- Leia included -- who suspected that Thrawn was playing a longer game, one to do with the threat supposedly growing in the Unknown Regions.

“He does indeed have his moments of rashness. They have led him to appalling lapses in judgment and terrible sins,” Leia agreed, and for a moment her sleeve caught on the edge of the desk, revealing the faintest mark of a needle scar against her arm. “But I think you’ll find, Admiral, that in recent years he has become a more subtle man than either of us would have thought possible.”

Thrawn moved a bishop to g7 and narrowed his eyes in thought. “The absorption of the Rogue Squadron into the Executor’s forces, among other rumors, does suggest a broader plan at work. I am surprised that he would form any kind of alliance with the Rebellion, but the sheer absurdity of the thought would make a decent cover, I expect. Ah! The tea.”

He stood and took a covered tray from the droid that had brought it and set out two delicate cups, crafted on Naboo.

“Please, allow me,” the Princess beamed and took the pot from him.

Ah, now this was another calculated move. He remembered reading that on Alderaan, traditionally tea was served by the individual with the higher rank or social status, symbolic of a leader being a servant of the people first. The Princess was making their respective positions abundantly clear.

They were sixteen moves into the game now and the Princess had just taken his knight with a bishop.  “Grand Admiral, were you to find yourself in the position of being forced to choose to side with either Emperor Palpatine or Lord Vader as a candidate for the throne, could you say with any degree of certainty which you might support?”

“Queen takes bishop,” Thrawn murmured, and sipped his tea. He leaned back. “That the last princess of Alderaan should have come to the point of lobbying for a man that she hates suggests that the Rebellion is, at the least, struggling. Or is it because Vader is the father of your friend, Skywalker? But no, you are not the sort of person to let something as simple as that change your mind.”

“No indeed. Knight takes pawn.” The Princess’s eyes flashed. “I think you underestimate the Alliance, Grand Admiral. It would not be the first time you have done so, but I had thought you might have learned better by now.” 

“Indeed? And how, pray tell, does supporting Vader bring you closer to your goal of restoring the bloated ineffectiveness of the Republic?”

Leia smiled the same, thin smile that Thrawn had worn earlier. “Why, my dear Grand Admiral, it is all strategy. One must have plans, after all.”

Thrawn closed his eyes and thought a moment. Supposing the Rebellion failed and was defeated, if Vader were to succeed Palpatine as emperor, that might mean fewer members of the Rebellion were executed. Though this would surely not have been the case even a year ago, and was clearly dependent on the boy, Skywalker, to work. Or perhaps Organa and the Rebellion intended to use Skywalker as a plant within the Empire, not unlike his own role in the service on the Chiss Ascendancy, to strengthen or weaken his father’s organization as he saw fit. Yes, played that way, he could understand the Rebellion’s tacit support of Vader, rather than them letting the fight play out as it would.

He moved a pawn to e5 and stroked his chin. “So I see,” he said. “I must confess, for all that I find our Emperor to be a brilliant man, capable of great subtlety and a mastery of the Dark Side of the Force -- yes, I am aware of his...unusual abilities -- I find that in his waning years his mind has grown ever more narrow. And hubris is so often the downfall of even the mightiest men.” Palpatine would not live forever, whatever he thought of the matter. “Considering that, of the two of them, only Lord Vader has an heir, I do wonder that his majesty isn’t taking the rumors of this plot more seriously.”

“As you said, Grand Admiral,” Leia murmured, capturing a bishop with a pawn, “Hubris is often the downfall of even the mightiest men.”

“Quite so,” Thrawn nodded. He took one of her pawns with his own, only to lose it in the next turn to another white pawn. “Admittedly I had put some thought to the problem long before you boarded my ship, but I suspect you were aware that I must have.” He held up the pawn he had lost and stared at it in a contemplative manner. “I am not a sentimental man, your highness, but I suppose I do owe the former Anakin Skywalker some thanks for his part in my appointment as Grand Admiral. If you could perhaps offer some example to show me that he has indeed become more subtle, I might believe he has a chance.”

For a short time, the game continued in silence. The Princess would give him no hints of strategic planning or incriminating evidence, nor had Thrawn really expected her two. Ten more rounds passed, a surprisingly even match between them, before the Princess spoke at last.

“You are, of course, aware of Lord Vader’s son. We have taken pains to make him visible.” She moved her bishop to f4 and looked Thrawn dead in the eye. “This flurry of attention both military and media made it considerably easier for his daughter to pursue her own agenda, out of sight of the public.”

Thrawn moved his queen beside the bishop and leaned back with a wondering expression. “A shadow child?” he asked, noticeably startled. This was a Chiss practice, to keep one child hidden from the public, invisible, to preserve the bloodline in case some tragic accident or assassination should claim the lives of their siblings and parents.

Of course, this had not been on the minds of anyone involved in the hiding of the Skywalker Twins twenty-three years ago, but Thrawn had no way of knowing that. Nor could he know that he had just provided Leia with the perfect explanation to give the newshounds for when the truth inevitably came out.

“You would not have thought it to look at me, would you?” Leia asked, easing out of check on the board.

“Perhaps Lord Vader is more patient than I suspected,” Thrawn admitted, “Though if his discovery of your...brother...was as unexpected as reported, then it follows that he was equally unaware of your existence as his daughter.”

“Which does not preclude my own knowledge of the subject.” Leia countered, neglecting to inform Thrawn that her supposed pre-existing knowledge of her relationship to Vader was really only that she had been informed four days before he had.

There were very few pieces left on the board now. Their moves were quicker, almost frenzied. Then, at last, “Checkmate,” Thrawn announced. He smiled. “Well played, Princess, I have not played such a close match in a very long time.”

“It was a near thing,” Leia agreed, and shook the hand he offered her. Both understood that they were speaking of more than the game on the desk before them.

The Chiss pushed back his chair and stood. “I wonder if a larger strategic match might be arranged at some point,” he remarked, almost playfully. “I do enjoy testing my wits against well-known opponents.”

“I expect you shall have plenty of opportunity soon enough,” Leia replied. 

“This is true,” Thrawn nodded. “Well then, your highness, I suppose we had better return you to your quarters, hm? I shall arrange for your father to be notified and he can come collect you when he will.”

The Princess was escorted from his office and Thrawn returned to his desk with a satisfied smile. He found himself looking forward to the battle of wits that would inevitably ensue. He was not one to champion the underdog, usually, but this was altogether too intriguing to pass up.

In her cell, Princess Leia grinned fiercely and reached out with her mind for the little thread of light she was just learning to connect to. At Luke’s questioning acknowledgment, she sent a single sentence through their bond. Queen takes Thrawn: check.