Cloak and Shadows 9

I sat at the small table in the galley drinking tea and reading. Thrawn had sequestered himself in the cockpit to work on his current project, asking to be left alone so that he could meditate on the work at hand. He had said it was easier for him to think where he could see the stars and I had just smiled because I understood this. I had made him tea then left him to his thoughts. We were still at least forty-eight hours away from the Avenger and while he had worked on his plan for dealing with the Rebels and the arms smuggling that was going on, he wanted to be certain that he had all possibilities and permeations thought out. He would not speak of what he was working on and I did not ask. I was pretty certain that sooner or later I would learn of the results of this plan anyway. I didn’t want to know details.

I didn’t hear anyone moving around me but when all the hair on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end I knew I wasn’t alone any more.

“I know you’re there.” I told the air and a second later Rukh stepped out of whatever shadow he had been hiding in to stand beside me.

“Can’t you just walk around like most normal beings, what is with all the sneaking about?” I asked without looking up at him.

“We are trained to be silent.” His gravely voice was soft.

“Well, if you keep this up you will give me a heart attack.” I told him. That wasn’t strictly true since I had sensed him but I didn’t really want to spend the rest of the trip wondering when he’d suddenly pop up, giving me the fright of my life.

“That is not my wish.” He said. “Admiral Thrawn specifically said you were to be protected and not harmed.”

“Then I suggest you sneak louder.” I said crossly.

“That will be difficult but I will try.”

“I’d appreciate it and so would the Admiral, he’s getting tired of me complaining about you scaring the sandjiggers out of me.”

“May I ask you something, lady Merlyn?” Rukh asked after a moment.

I nodded. I had given up asking him to stop calling me lady Merlyn; he just did what he wanted to do no matter what I said or asked.

“You are the Admiral’s bond mate.” He said. It wasn’t really a question.

I raised both my eyebrows in question and I was about to say something not so polite about him minding his own business but then managed to squash that impulse. In the end, considering the obvious fact that sharing a small shuttle space left no room for secrets and Rukh was not stupid, I didn’t see the point in trying to fabricate some huge story or explanation. “Well, I suppose that is one way of calling what we have, although I am not sure what I’d call it myself.” I answered. Truth of the matter was I had no idea what to lable the relationship I had with Thrawn.

“Do you have offspring?”

“Uh… no.” I made a face.

“But you are his mate.” He pressed. “You will bear him offspring, yes?”

“Uhm… not right now, no” I said and then seeing the frown on his face added. “It’s complicated.” I told him. “The Empire isn’t exactly happy about our uhm… relationship. Why do you ask?” I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation with an alien assassin who had nearly throttled me not so long ago, but then again considering my life in general it wasn’t weirdest thing to have ever happened either.

“He protects you.” Rukh said. “He has asked I protect you as well. He has said he is bound to you. He said….”

I interrupted him. “I get the idea, Rukh. Why are you asking this?”

“If there were offspring they too would be under my protection but for that I would need to know where they are.”

“Well, there are none so you don’t have to worry about that. Is that why you have been following me around like a love sick bantha, because the Admiral told you to protect me?”

“Yes, lady Merlyn.”

“Rukh, we’re in a shuttle in hyperspace. No one is getting onboard any time soon to do anybody any harm. You can relax.” I told him. “I don’t need you to bodyguard me here, so for the love of the great and almighty Sarlacc will you knock it off?”

“You did not know I was onboard and I can do great harm.” He pointed out.

“Yes well, unless there are more of you hidden away that I don’t know about, I think we are all safe for now. You can stop shadowing me, it’s unnerving.”

“I am to protect you at all costs.”

“Admiral Thrawn told you this? In those exact words?”

The Noghri nodded.

“Well you can stop with the ‘at all costs’ bit, for now we are all safe and once we get to where we are going I don’t think lord Vader would be pleased if I brought you back home with me.”

Frowning, Rukh thought about what I had said and decided there was a failure to communicate somewhere and gave up pressing the matter. I guessed that when it came down to whose word had more weight; it wasn’t mine that had priority. Whatever Thrawn had told the Noghri warrior about our relationship I didn’t want to hear it. I was already confused enough by some of the things done and said by this man who was still a mystery to me in so many ways. I was still mulling over in my head what exactly had happened on Hjal at the unmasking ceremony. Of course, I really wasn’t sure I wanted to know that either, so I hadn’t pushed for answers.

Now I began to wonder if perhaps I should, especially considering his words to me our last night together on Coruscant. “I am already bound to you,” he had said. “You do not need to mark me as yours.” I hadn’t given that much thought at the time but as his words suddenly echoed in my head, resonating with Rukh’s I wondered if perhaps I might want to bring this up with him and find out exactly what he had meant. I was beginning to suspect that there had been great significance in the Dantassi ceremony, especially the part that no one had explained to me, that I had blindly said yes to but for the moment I was mostly content with the whole ignorance is bliss idea. I was brought out of my thoughts when Rukh moved slightly.

“You know, you can sit.” I told him. It was a little unnerving to have him stand stone still all the time. He was very good at standing very still.

“I do not enjoy to sit.” He told me.

I looked up at him then. “What do you enjoy?”

The Noghri was silent for a few moments then said. “I enjoy the Hunt.” He said. “It is what I am trained for.”

“How long have you been training?”

“From birth the Noghri warriors are taught the ways of battle. We train and practice daily for many hours.”

“Sounds like fun.” I muttered. “Well, you are really good at it and you scare the sandjiggers out of me.” I told him. “Maybe I should train with you.” I half joked.

“You have warrior skills?” he asked, sounding very sceptical.

I might have been insulted except I had been on the receiving end of his skill and knew exactly how good I was not. “I’m starting to wonder about that but Lord Vader sometimes teaches me in his ways of combat and I have been trained in the Bunduki arts and.”

“We do not use the ways of the followers of Palawa. I would be happy to teach you but the Noghri ways are not easy.”

“Nothing ever is.” I told him. “But you jumped me like I was a brainless patch-piece doll and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I’d like to be better prepared.”

The Noghri gave me what I hoped was a smile and said in that rough voice of his, “Few ever see the Noghri coming, fewer are prepared to fight us.” He nodded.

“Right.” I looked at him, then asked. “Are you hungry?”

“I have already had nourishment.” He said and then before I could say or ask anything else he slipped into the dimly lit corridor and effectively vanished. I guessed the conversation was over.

I sighed and refilled my tea then spent the next hour mulling over the whole bond-mate, belonging to someone, having offspring conversation. At some point I was going to have to talk to Thrawn about this but not yet. For the moment I was just content to share his bed and bits of his life.

The rest of the trip passed easily enough, especially since no one else decided to shoot at us. When Thrawn wasn’t locked away somewhere working out his brilliant plan for saving the Empire and I was not checking on the ship or learning some pretty interesting, but according to Rukh very simple and basic Noghri combat techniques, we spent our time together. Both of us knew it was limited and precious, so we made the most of it. Only when we were a couple of hours away from our rendezvous with the Avenger did the distance of duty and work slink back in between us. That side of him which I suspected few ever got to know, which was warm, tender and often funny, receded behind his mask of cold, calculating logic.

Thrawn withdrew to the galley and buried his thoughts in the datapad he had with him, both studying his plans and finalizing them. He had spent a great deal of time working out his battle plans for Derra IV and he needed to be sure they would work. A lot was riding on this going well. I knew better than to distract him when he was working so I left him alone.

My retreat was to the cockpit where I sat reading or watching the hyper-space lane. The last hour of the journey was filled with the usual last minute preparations and tidying. While a cleaning crew would come on board and magically make the ship spotless, I never liked it when pilots left their ship looking like a garbage scow just because someone else would do the dirty work. I also didn’t want more rumours starting up so I stripped two beds in the crew cabin and the one in the stateroom we had been using.

Our arrival on the Avenger was quiet. There was no large honour guard waiting to meet Thrawn just the captain, a slender, nervous looking man called Loth Needa, two young looking officers and two stormtroopers. They looked a little more worried when Rukh shadowed behind the Admiral but he waved their concerns off with a brusque flap of his hand. Thrawn and the captain spoke briefly, there was a flurry of saluting and then the captain ordered the young officers and the two troopers to escort Thrawn and Rukh to quarters. I watched all this from the top of the ramp and I was the last to leave the shuttle. The Captain looked at me as I walked down the ramp with a mixture of distaste and amusement.

“Miss Gabriel, I presume.” He said with that polite yet frosty manner all Imperial men seemed to have been trained to use when meeting someone they have to be respectful to despite their dislike.

“Captain Needa, it is a pleasure to meet you in person.” I said cheerfully.

“Like wise, welcome on board Avenger.” He said but he didn't mean it. “Lord Vader has sent word that he will be joining us in a day from now and that you were to be afforded every courtesy.”

“Lord Vader is most considerate.” I said knowing this would really confuse the captain because that description didn’t do my boss any justice at all. “I take it you have accommodations for me?”

“Yes. Lord Vader requested that you be quartered close to him.”

“Thank you.” I said with a smile. “I have to finish the paperwork for the journey here, maybe you can send someone to show me to my room in, say, half an hour?” I was letting him off the hook; he was very uncomfortable in my presence.

He smiled. “That will be arranged.” He told me then handed me a datachip. “Lord Vader’s instructions were to give you this upon arrival.”

“Thank you, Captain.” I said taking the chip from his hand. He gave me a curt nod then turned and left the hanger. I watched him leave, looked at the datachip in my hand, sighed then went back inside the shuttle to sort out the last bit of my work as pilot and get my things together. I was looking forward to a hot bath and some decent food. When the young aide came to fetch me I was more than ready.