A few Days Off 1

The more time I spent away from Coruscant the less I enjoyed it when I returned. Lord Vader informed me we would be on planet for five days and I was to make myself scarce. This had caused me to look at him as though he had sprouted two heads.

“You’re giving me time off?” I asked in surprise as we walked through the Palace halls.

“Yes, I am required by the Imperial Palace Worker’s Council regulations to provide you with personal time.” He told me.

“Since when have you ever cared about IPWC rules?” I asked trotting to keep up with him.

“I don’t but I will not require your annoying efficiency this week as you have already prepared the schedule I requested and the rest of my time on Coruscant is spoken for.” He replied testily. This last bit was Vader speak for ‘The Emperor is being difficult and I need to deal with it.’

“So… I really have five days off?” I asked just to confirm I had actually heard right.

“That is what I said the first time, girl! However, you are expected to attend tonight’s ceremony to honour the heroes of Derra IV and you are expected to dress appropriately and not disgrace my name. I trust this will not be an issue?”

“No, my lord.” I had contacted Cati as soon as I had found out about how big this medal ceremony would be and ordered a dress made. Since she had my measurements and a pretty good idea of what sort of colours and style I liked I trusted her judgement. I arranged for the dress to be delivered to the palace office.

“I shall expect you to be available should I have need of your services but unless I summon you, you are free to do as you wish.” He said. In other words I was to stay out of his and the Emperor’s way. This was more than fine by me.

“Yes my lord, thank you.” I said and before he could say anything else or change his mind I scurried off to find out if the dress I had ordered had been delivered and then head home before the main event. Time off was an incredible luxury for me, the last time I had taken a holiday was when I had gone home for Boonta Eve and then I had sort of been sneaky about it.

The flat was empty and quiet when I arrived so I took advantage of it by doing what I loved to do best of all, soak in a bath tub full of hot bubbly water. I was still lounging in the bath when Thrawn arrived home. He poked his head in the ‘fresher to tell me if I didn’t get a move on we would be late.

“Especially,” He added, “knowing how long it takes you to get ready for one of these functions.”

I threw the wet sponge at him but he ducked out of the way so it hit the door with a loud splat!

He was sitting waiting in the living-room, perfectly dressed in his dress uniform, switching through the HoloNet when I was almost ready. I had done my hair, my make up and added a touch of perfume in record time but the dress presented some problems.

“Can you help me with this?” I asked walking into the living room, and turning my back on him so that he could fasten the straps.

He sat speechless for a moment and then got up. “The men who helped win the Battle of Derra IV are supposed to be the center of attention, my dear, not you.”

He was right. The dress was stunning. Cati had created a work of art from dramassian silk and true to Cati style it had a very open back along with a fairly revealing décolletage. It was fitted through the bodice but flowed over my hips to my ankles like water, layer over layer of mist fine silk dyed the colours of sky fire. It was held together by two fine straps decorated with what Cati had called Jenn’ai-ice crystals, they had to be hooked, criss-crossed at the back of the dress and I couldn’t do that by myself.

I shrugged. “Cati likes to show off.”

“So do you, apparently.” He said with a wolfish smile.

“Everything that should be covered is covered.” I said defensively.

He traced a finger from the nape of my neck down my spine to where the dress finally caught up with itself. “It’s not what it covers; it is what it leaves to the imagination.” He murmured in my ear. “This dress will get you into trouble.”

I smiled. I could sense his arousal and it made me smug. “That might have been the idea.” I said, leaning back into his body and his touch.

I felt him take a deep breath. The kiss he laid on my shoulder did not match the words he finally found. “We shall be late if we don’t leave now.” He said and I couldn’t argue with that. There would be time enough for play later but I turned around and kissed him anyway. This teasing between us was almost a competitive sport. I grinned as he pulled himself away.

“You are a menace.” He told me, placing the shawl that went with the dress over my shoulders.

I couldn’t argue with that.

We arrived together but as soon as we had entered the grand hall we separated. I was part of the general public and he would be up on the stage as part of the higher ranking military officials, paying honour to the heroes of the day.

“I shall come and find you at the reception and perhaps we can leave earlier rather than later. We do have some unfinished business to take care of, my dear.” He whispered in my ear in Cheunh. I shivered despite the sudden rush of warmth I felt. I blushed and looked away shyly.

“Miss Gabriel, until later.” He said out loud, giving me a smile that made his eyes twinkle. I nodded politely not wanting to add fuel to the gossip fire. With a curt bob of his head he left me to my own devices. I watched for a moment as he walked away, admiring the view. He was a handsome man in excellent physical shape and he made my knees weak. I drew a deep steadying breath and then I made my way through hall to find a seat next to Ynyth and Bobbyn.

“Wow, you look fabulous!” Bobbyn exclaimed when he saw me.

“Thanks, you two don’t look so bad yourselves. Where’s Shiv?”

“He got called off world at the last minute, some decorating disaster on Coruscant at the retreat. Don’t ask, I don’t know. He should be back by tomorrow. Antygra is here somewhere, but he doesn’t bother with us so much any more, mostly he tends to hang with the HR crowd.” Ynyth said sounding a bit peeved. “His girlfriend works there.”

I nodded and was disappointed. I had been looking forward to seeing Shiv again. Before we could chatter and catch up on the gossip the lights in the hall dimmed and the stage lighting was increased. Everyone stood when the Emperor appeared and the evening’s event began.

The ceremony was long and filled with high praise from the Emperor. There were a lot of speeches I tuned out filled with words like, ‘heroic’, ‘great’ and ‘mighty’. The three men that had been picked out for their bravery and great deeds were given new ranks, and rewards such as land and new commands. I watched Soontir Fel with great interest but he was stoic in his expression and gave neither pleasure nor displeasure away. After what seemed far too long the medals were presented and the ceremony ended with thunderous applause. After the stage had been emptied the rest of us followed to the room where the reception was held.

If the Empire knew how to do anything, it was how to throw a party for its heroes. The reception was very crowded, leaving little room for mingling, let alone the wait staff who were trying to make sure that everyone had access to the potent sparkling wine and the Hors d'oeuvres. I had come in with Ynyth and Bobbyn but we got separated pretty quickly and I was on my own so I scouted the room as best I could for friendly faces. When I couldn’t see anyone I opened myself up a little to the force to find Lord Vader, which was a bad idea. The next thing I knew I was in the presence of the Emperor. I curtsied low and bowed my head and put into practise some of the techniques that Lord Vader had been teaching me to keep my thoughts to myself.

He motioned for me to stand and tucked one finger under my chin to raise my face so that I was allowed to look at him. “Miss Gabriel, what a delight to see you again. I was most pleased to hear from Lord Vader that you would be in attendance this evening. I understand you witnessed the great battle for which we honour our valiant men this evening.”

“Yes, your highness. It was indeed a great battle.” I said as demurely as I could.

He gave me a toothy grin and chuckled. “You disapprove?” he asked.

“No, your highness but I found it… disquieting to watch so many beings die.”

He nodded knowingly. “Yes, I imagine that for one such as yourself that would be a difficult thing to observe first hand.” He said. “You are as compassionate as you are lovely, my dear, but you must learn to temper that, I had rather hoped that your time spent in Lord Vader’s presence would help with that negative little trait of yours.”

I wanted to ask him how it was that he could say that compassion was a negative thing but before I could say anything he had patted my arm and moved away, swallowed up by the crowd, surrounded by his Royal Guard. I shivered involuntarily and grabbed a glass of sparkling wine from the nearest waiter; I finished it and swiped another before the surprised young man had time to blink.

I was half way through my second glass when the leader of Intel, Ysanne Isard came to stand beside me. When her conversation began with, “I understand you are quite close with Admiral Thrawn. He a most intriguing man and I would love to learn a little more about him…” I knew it was going to be a long evening. The party went down hill from there.

After more than an hour of pretending to be cheerful, despite people’s best efforts to really make me cross, I had collected a circle of unwanted admirers. My dress was attracting entirely the wrong sort of attention and I did not know how to politely tell them to bugger off and leave me the hell alone. When the fourth young man tried to make a pass at me I was on my fourth glass of sparkling wine. His face contorted as I caught the hand he had placed on my behind and I pinched the pressure point hard enough to elicit a squeak of pain from him. If Shiv had been with me he would have dragged me out of there long before it had gotten to this stage but that was not the case. I was bored, on my own, had not eaten anything since breakfast and was quite happy to drink whatever was in the glasses that kept being handed to me by stone faced waiters because that kept me from killing someone. By the time Thrawn made his way through the crowd to join me and had taken stock of the situation I was very giggly and the room was spinning.

“Miss Gabriel, there you are, Lord Vader said I might find you here.” Thrawn said lightly. The tone of his voice did not match the stern look on his face as he took stock of the state I was in. It never ceased to amaze me what a high rank and a scowl could do to a crowd of eager, libidinous, young Imperial officers. I had to bite my tongue to keep from giggling loudly as they all stood smartly to attention. He did not bother to tell them to stand at ease.

“Admiral…” I began but before I had a chance to speak he had removed the glass from my hand and was in the process of ushering me away from the young men who had suddenly discovered someplace else they desperately needed to be.

“A word, if I may.” He said tightly.

I just gave him a dazed look and began to complain that my drink was gone. All of a sudden I found myself in the subtle grip from his strong hand which guided me gently but firmly out of the reception hall. He walked me down the corridors, keeping a tight hold on me because the more I walked the more unsteady I became on my dainty but perilously high heeled shoes. How he managed to get me into the little speeder and home I had no idea. Even more of a mystery was how I had gotten out of my dress and into a pyjama top and tucked into bed without really remembering that either. All I recalled was wishing the room and the bed would stop spinning. When I woke up sometime in the small hours of the morning with the desperate desire to violently remove everything in my stomach, I wished I was dead and that I could forget about this as well. He popped his head into the fresher to see if I was okay but I force shut the door. I didn’t need help and I didn’t want him to see me like this either, especially when it was entirely my own fault. When I felt well enough to stand, wash my face, clean my teeth and then stagger back to the bedroom I found Thrawn sitting on the bed waiting with a cup of some sort of strong smelling tea. How he managed to look both sympathetic and smug at the same time was beyond me. I took the cup from his hands. I didn’t think I could drink the tea, let alone keep it down. I felt like an idiot.

“Do you know, I don’t recall ever seeing you that drunk before, especially at an official function.” He said calmly. “What possessed you to drink so much of that terrible wine they were serving?”

I shook my head and then wished I hadn’t. “No idea.” But that was a lie. Thrawn knew this, gave me that stare which said you don’t get away that easily, so tell me what I want to know or suffer the consequences and waited.

I sighed. “Okay I was cross and bored.” I told him. “Well mostly cross.”

He waited some more. Leaning back against the headboard of the bed, his legs stretched out, one ankle folded over the over and his arms folded across his bare chest, a hint of a grin playing across his lips.

“Well first the Emperor cornered me and that was just unpleasant, then I had a run in with Ysanne Isard who was being particularly nasty, she kept asking questions about things I couldn’t and wouldn’t answer, mostly about you, oddly enough. After that I spoke with Antygra, who had also had too much to drink and was in an even worse mood and was ranting about on about something to do with how the Empire works and how one of his family was killed at Derra IV. Then I overheard someone say some very unpleasant and untrue things about you and then someone said some very inappropriate things about Lord Vader and then someone else said some incredibly inappropriate things about me. After that I suppose because I was on my own, the Empire’s finest and randiest felt I was easy prey and that’s when I kind of took matters into my own hands, because it was either hold a glass and drink or kick someone’s butt.” I told him. “I just didn’t think showing off some of my newly acquired Noghri put-you-on-your-ass moves would go down well at this reception.” I took a deep breath. “I really hate these stupid functions! I hate having to play nice and be all smiles and sweetness listening to stupid men talk about their stupid conquests and it’s even worse when they get all grabby, with hands on places they should not put their hands or when other women get all bitchy and sarcastic, claws and teeth, and I can’t hurt them! I really, really hate being back on this stupid, single sun, freezing cold, filled to the brim with snivelling sycophants planet!”

He stroked my hair and tried very hard not to laugh.

I sat back against the pillows and shuddered. I looked at the cup of what ever it was he had given me and made a face. My stomach was making rebellious type motions.

“Drink it, it will help.” He said.

I did as he asked and was surprised to feel a little better. “What is this stuff?”

He gave me a grin. “Ancient Dantassi remedy for those who indulge a little too much the night after a successful hunt. I’d tell you what was in it but then I would have to kill you. I am sworn to secrecy.”

I sighed. “Was I complete idiot?” I asked wearily.

“Not as much as you could have been but I dare say there are a few broken hearts wandering around tonight. You are actually delightfully charming when you let your guard down, even when you are cross. Perhaps I should ply you with cheap sparkling wine more often.”

I made a face. “I’d be forever grateful if you wouldn’t mention that stuff to me right now.”

He caressed my face and ran his fingers through my hair. “Welcome back to Coruscant.” He said, leaning over to plant a kiss on my head. “Now get some rest. While this tea is good, I am certain you will not be feeling so well when you get up for work tomorrow.”

“Lucky me then, I have the next five days off.”

“Vader gave you time off?” he asked, surprised. “What did you do, annoy him to death?”

I stuck my tongue out at him and snuggled back under the covers. The last thing I remembered was the caress of Thrawn’s fingertips through my hair. I woke up alone the next day with a headache strong enough to kill a bantha. Bleary eyed I got out of bed slowly, moving hurt. After a lengthy stay under the shower and an analgesic patch at the base of my neck I began to feel more human, less sarlacc victim. It should not have surprised me that it was nearly one in the afternoon, but it did. I made a mental note never to drink anything fizzy or alcoholic or both ever again.