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empire outward. The arrogance, the superiority, the unflinching
loyalty…and the horrors they enacted to subsidize it all. Sometimes they were
in the right, taking down enemies that deserved to be destroyed, but many times
they were not, simply doing what they wanted to do and treating the galaxy and
all in it as their birthright.
    And yet even they had a nemesis they could not
overcome. The Hadarak vexed them, but rather than simply hold the line for
perpetuity they continually sought ways to strike at them, failing time and
again, but their ego would not let them admit inferiority.
    They had to be superior.
    They were superior.
    And anything that suggested otherwise had to be
annihilated.
    No matter the cost.
    The mastermind took a step backward when the massive
mental download ended, his mind still trying to process it all as Paul just
stood there giving him time to work through it. One of his large hands rose to
his face and he touched his claws to his forehead as he thought quickly and
cleanly, all doubt having been erased from his mind. He might not fully
understand himself, let alone the templars, but the existence of the V’kit’no’sat
made it all nearly irrelevant. They were an unbeatable foe…and one that had to be challenged.
    He eventually dropped his hand and looked directly at
Paul as possible strategies to employ against them failed humorously. There was
no way to beat them. That was clear enough. And ironically, it didn’t matter to
him in the slightest.
    “ What would you
have your Thrawn do? ”

 
 
    4

 
 
    April 3, 3254
    Solar System
    Earth

 
    Davis didn’t get the priority update until he got out
of the shower after his morning workout session, finding the small red
holographic icon floating over his computer terminal in his quarters that he
rarely used. Normally he’d wait until he got to his office, but it was times
like these that made him glad he had the access handy.
    He sat down and pulled up the alert, finding the
report from the scouting mission to an unnamed system in lizard territory. The
lizards were there, along with a lot of other races, including the Sety…and
their scout ship had been fired upon, and not by the lizards.
    He picked up his earpiece from the desktop and opened
a line to his staff with a simple preset mental command. “Get the Sety
ambassador down here immediately, personal conference, I want him face to face.
Don’t tell him why.”
    Davis pounded his fist on his desktop in frustration.
The Ma’kri hadn’t been damaged, but at the same time as The Nexus had its
delegation here negotiating with him another part of their fleet was firing on
one of his ships. He didn’t know who these other races were, and it wasn’t a
Sety ship that had fired upon them, but they’d been chasing as well and didn’t
get into firing range only because the Ma’kri had managed to slip away from the
planet in time. Regardless, they were working with whoever had fired those
shots, not to mention the lizards…which drew into question the lack of action
on the H’kar front, and if they had some arrangement with them all along.
    These bastards had been here for two months, hounding
him with matter after matter and him putting them on hold for a few days at a
time here and there so he could get other work done. Part of the negotiations
were worthwhile, but a lot of it seemed like little more than blustering as the
various races within The Nexus sought and offered information as well as trade
deals, technology overtures that Davis had almost entirely struck down before
they’d uttered the words, and a lot of political maneuvering within The Nexus
that he wasn’t going to facilitate.
    The Daegon and the Maktee seemed to be straightforward enough and interested
in actual agreements, and until now Davis hadn’t had any appreciable contact
with them. A few others he’d made inroads with before were now coming to the
forefront as well, but most of the delegation was here