Work Text:
~The Strikefast:
Eli put his head on the desk and groaned. He needed to finish the conclusion and referencing for his project on impulse propulsion systems, but his mind just wouldn’t focus. He was under stimulated and bored.
Eli was always bored. Even when he was watching holos, while simultaneously listening to lectures and reading research papers, he was bored. His professors and instructors always commented that he was ‘capable but unfocused’.
Eli didn’t think he was unfocused; he just wasn’t always focused on the same things his teachers were. His Dean at Myomar had volentold him for the assignment on the Strikefast. He’d not been sure of why he was going. But he had packed his things and left his friends behind on Myomar to go galivanting around wild space. He’d been in this particular region before, so he wasn’t as excited as the other students had been about the nebula they were currently scanning. He’d left after about ten minutes to return to his project.
Now he was really regretting that idea. Eli turned on the holo projector and flicked his data pad on to one of the more in-depth propulsion lectures when a call came over his comm.
“Cadet Vanto, to the main hanger bay immediately.”
Eli had no idea what they could possibly want with him, but he quickly fastened his tunic and snatched his cap on the way out the door.
~
Two days later Eli was back in his own room. Having spent the last twenty hours in a cell with the first Chiss Eli had ever laid eyes on. A myth come to life. And what a myth.
Thrawn was everything Eli had expected a Chiss to be. Intelligent, graceful, calm to the point of coldness, with a dangerous glimmer in his eyes that told Eli that beneath all the cool blue façade there was a very dangerous man sitting just a foot from him.
Eli laid back on his bed and spent the next few hours going over everything. It was late and he’d been awake for a long time, but his mind simply wouldn’t shut down. He wriggled onto his side restlessly and turned on his data pad’s music app.
After another hour of contemplation Eli finally fell asleep. And dreamt of Angels and Demons and Chiss.
~Week Four at Royal Imperial:
Thrawn tried to concentrate over the incessant noise. The project he was working on had been more intensive than he’d anticipated and the music blaring from Eli’s side of the room was starting to grate on him. He was hungry, and there had been a day of ceaseless harassment and bullying during their studies that had drained him of his usual composure.
He wasn’t sure why Cadet Vanto required such a high level of stimulation to function optimally, but Thrawn had noticed over the few weeks they had spent together that the human did indeed seem to function significantly better in such an environment. He had noticed this as a peculiarity specific to Vanto, the other humans did not seem to require what Thrawn would deem as a chaotic environment on order to perform.
Vanto had apologised several times in the first week for the distractions.
“Oh sorry, I’ll turn the holo off, do you mind the music?”
Thrawn had always replied that he did not mind, he was used to focusing in chaotic situations. But today he was apparently not going to be able to conclude even this sentence if he did not get a moment of silence.
“What’s wrong?” Cadet Vanto’s voice cut through his frustration.
“I am trying to select the best fuel mixture for the system I am examining.”
Vanto approached and peered over his shoulder, “Oh, you’ll want the MD25 mixture. I was lookin’ over it before, it’ll give you more fuel efficiency.”
“But it will encourage more wear on the hyperdrive, as this model of craft relies on the impulse drive to engage the main drive.”
“Nah, it won’t. It just seems like it will.” He grabbed his data pad and flicked through documents for a few seconds before handing it to Thrawn. “Here, I built a spreadsheet for them. See how the MA25 and MJ25 either cause stallin’ or overburn? Well the MD25 balances out the pressure the compressor puts on the main drive while havin’ enough force to stop it from sputterin’. Which will do far more damage to your drive than fuel with a little more punch.”
Thrawn’s eyes quickly absorbed the information on the screen. Cadet Vanto had used the instructor’s original spreadsheet and improved on it immensely. Thrawn supposed that the class would be largely unnecessary if Vanto’s spreadsheet was made use of in tutorials. He added it to his mental list of things he would make comment on in the hopes of improving the productivity and efficiency of the military.
Thrawn was still surprised by Vanto at times. The human seemed impulsive and uncoordinated even after his four years of military training. Vanto would often leave assignments and projects till near the last minute, but always achieved decent marks. Thrawn had come to learn that people underestimated Vanto, they either thought of him as ‘scatter-brained’ if they met him in one mood, or ‘very intense’ if they met him in the other.
Thrawn had been surprised by Vanto’s ability to focus when necessary. In fact, the young man would often become so involved in his projects that he would not remember to eat or drink, would go without sleep and would even fail to hear his own name being called from close by. Thrawn supposed this ‘hyperfocus’ was the reason Vanto was still a Cadet at all. That and his genuinely impressive intelligence.
Vanto simply understood numbers the way Thrawn understood art. He would routinely pull conclusions out of seemingly meaningless data, or find astonishing information out of massive data fields that most humans would not even have the ability to read all the way through. Vanto’s short term memory was not as good as his own, but Thrawn found that the things Vanto did remember would often be vastly complicated concepts. There had been several times since their coming to Coruscant that Vanto had explained difficult scientific theories in broken Basic/Sy Bisti so that Thrawn could understand them.
Cadet Eli Vanto wanted to be the best supply officer he could be.
Cadet Lieutenant Thrawn had already decided the idea of such a brilliant mind pushing ration packs around the Outer Rim was an absolute travesty of morality.
Thrawn thanked Vanto. Then flicked to another document, and added Vanto’s fuel propulsion spreadsheet to his list of improvements he had was going to send to the Commandant.
~Week Five at Royal Imperial:
Thrawn was meditating cross legged on his bed when the door burst open.
“I DID IT! I KRIFFIN’ DID IT! You passed too of course, BUT I KRIFFIN’ PASSED COMBAT TRAININ’!”
Cadet Vanto was standing in the doorway, he had obviously run to the barracks after collecting their grades and he was panting and flushed, his grin spread from ear to ear.
Thrawn couldn’t help but allow a slight smile to prickle at the corners of his lips. “Very well done, Cadet Vanto. Your dedication paid great dividends, perhaps you wish to apply the same focus to the hyperdrive mechanics project due next week.”
Vanto groaned and plopped face down on his bed opposite Thrawn, “Eugh, no thanks.”
“I do not understand, you enjoyed the last assignment from that class immensely, and received an A for your efforts.”
“Yeah, I know.” Vanto sighed.
“Then why do you not approach the next topic with the same enthusiasm?”
“I dunno, I guess it’s borin’ now.”
“You think you have learned all there is to know on the subject?” Thrawn raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.
“No! Of course not! It’s just… not interestin’ right now. You know I’ll get around to it.”
Thrawn’s eyes narrowed a little, “But if you started now you would improve upon the outcome of your grade.”
Vanto’s jaw clenched, “Yes.” He said has he tried to restrain an eye roll.
Thrawn thought for a few moments, watching Vanto intently.
Vanto turned his head to face him, “Yes?”
“I am just curious to know why you undermine your own achievement.”
“What?”
Thrawn cocked his head to the side, “You could be more than a supply officer. But you do not put the effort into your grades.”
Vanto frowned and turned away, “It’s not like I do it on purpose.” He mumbled.
“Explain.” Thrawn asked gently.
Vanto sighed and sat up to face him, “Well… Sometimes I can’t make my brain do what I want it to do. It’s always tryin’ to do somethin’ else, it’s like it has a mind of its own. Sometimes it’s easy, cause my brain and me both want to do the same thing, but sometimes…” Vanto shook his head, “it’s like a computer with all these different programmes runnin’. And a bunch of those programmes are all playing music, but it’s the other programmes you need to be paying attention to, but the music gets so loud and so jarrin’ you have to turn it off. Except you can’t figure out which programme it is to shut it off and eventually the only thing you can do is run through all the programmes, one by one, and shut them all down or the different songs playing at once make me feel like I’m gonna explode or somethin’.” Vanto paused to catch his breath, “They tried medicatin’ me for a while, but it made me feel even worse, so I stopped takin’ it.”
Vanto ran a hand through his hair and Thrawn observed the movement closely. The coiling muscles in his arm and chest obvious through the thin fabric of his t-shirt.
“I want to be more like you, Thrawn. But I’m just not cut out for that. I’m just Eli Vanto from Wild Space.” He stared at his hands while his elbows leant on his knees. “There just isn’t any more of me left to try harder, I’m just… not enough.”
Thrawn was stunned. He had never come into contact with such open self-depreciation. It simply wasn’t cultivated in the Ascendancy, where everyone had a purpose and a place among their society. Where everyone’s strengths and weaknesses were tested so they could be offered occupations that fulfilled them and benefitted the Ascendancy as a whole. There, Eli Vanto would have been put to good use; his abilities cultivated. Perhaps not in the CEDF, but certainly for the Aristocra.
How could this young man, so full of potential and capabilities beyond that of others, believe himself ‘not enough’? How can a man who routinely achieves high grades with startlingly little effort not think of himself as being valuable enough to be allowed to have ambition?
Thrawn steepled his fingers together, his elbows braced on his crossed legs, and stared at Vanto. “Perhaps,” he said darkly, “perhaps not. Did you consider that you must simply find a different method of functioning to that of others?”
Vanto frowned, “What’da ya mean?”
Thrawn quirked an eyebrow, “Your culture considers your mind irregular, therefore it stands to reason that to learn and function at your highest ability, you must also use an irregular form of studying and remembering information.”
Vanto stared at him, stunned. “Like what?”
Thrawn quirked a smile, “I believe you often find clarification in complex concepts when trying to explain them to me. I believe a method of open communal discussion would be a more efficient method of remembering and linking concepts.”
Vanto scoffed, “Yeah, riiiiight. Not sure if you’ve noticed Thrawn, but ‘Wild Space Hick’ isn’t exactly flavour of the month. I doubt I’ll be able to get a group to join in on a conversation about supply coordination.”
“I would be pleased to engage in conversations about our studies. It will also help with my own personal studies of Imperial culture and language.”
Vanto seemed to perk up, “Really? But you’ve got so much of your own work!”
“Which is generally identical to yours, or similar enough that working together will be of mutual benefit.”
Vanto nodded slowly, “Okay.”
Thrawn picked up his data pad with a small satisfied smirk on his lips, “Then perhaps you can explain to me what this particular sub-unit of the cooling system of a TIE actually achieves?”
Vanto smirked, and Thrawn felt his next breath stutter in his chest.