Greater Good (Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy, #2)

by Timothy Zahn

But she and Thrawn had worked together long enough that she knew he would see what she was seeing and know exactly what she wanted him to do.

“But beware of overconfidence. Eyes held high in pride are less able to see uneven ground ahead.”

The Chiss were also the stuff of legend, as terrifying in their own way as the mythical demons.

Emblazoned on the underside of the Nikardun frigate was a familiar image: a nest of small stylized snakes with two larger ones curving up from among them. The same image as the ring Thrawn was still holding to the cam.

And you’ve been dealing with a ten-year-old girl for the past few months, Samakro added silently to himself. Children that age are as alien as anything you’ll find in the Chaos.

“The Force,” Thrawn murmured, his voice thoughtful. Thalias frowned at him. “The what?” “A concept from Lesser Space that General Anakin Skywalker told me about when we were working together,” Thrawn said. “He defined it as an energy field created by all living things from which he and others could draw power and guidance.”

“The odds are never impossible,” Thrawn said calmly. “Merely unfavorable.”

“All lives are important, and I resist the thought of standing by and watching two hundred possibly needless deaths.

“It is said that millennia ago, the Chiss adventured into Lesser Space, taking part in wars between two hostile factions over vast and ever-shifting regions,” Jixtus said, his voice again thoughtful. “Those factions reportedly had special navigational techniques that involved computers or mechanical constructs. Even now, those in that part of the galaxy use such techniques.”