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Samakro was, by and large, used to being the only one sneaking around the Springhawk in the middle of the night. Sure, there were always people on duty, but he felt fairly comfortable in the assumption that nobody else would be using the maintenance tunnels in order to sneak a midnight snack from the kitchen under the radar.
That was, until he tripped over a figure he'd not spotted in the crouching in dark, almost sending an armful of jam and toast falling to the floor in a mess that would have taken forever to clear up without drawing undue attention.
He didn't know exactly how they managed to catch him, crouched by the floor as they were, but something snagged the back of his vest and pulled him back upright before any undue messes could be made. A quiet string of curses sounded behind him, mingled with various hushed apologies, and Samakro grimaced. He knew that voice.
"Thalias?"
"Samakro?"
Thalias' voice sounded oddly thick, as if she were choking on the word, and Samakro raised an eyebrow.
Of all the people to trip over in a maintenance corridor, it had to have been her.
"What are you doing here?" Thalias asked, taking a moment to compose herself. Samakro's eyes darted to the snacks - the snacks that were, fortunately, not currently decorating the floor of the cramped little passage - and back to Thalias again.
"I could ask you the same thing," he snapped, not bothering to keep his irritation out of his voice. So Thurfian's pet was sneaking around in maintenance corridors, now? Good to know. "I'm a senior officer on this ship, Thalias. What are you doing here?"
A few emotions crossed Thalias' face at that, far too fast for Samakro to even begin to be able to identify them, before settling into something she rarely wore - at least, as far as Samakro knew, which was, admittedly, not very far.
Resignation.
"Ali'astov," she said, simply, but there was a strain to her voice as she said it.
"I'm sorry?"
"It's- not Thalias anymore. It's Ali'astov."
"It's-"
Oh.
Oh.
Well, shit. Samakro could see how that might have been something one would want to illegally hide in a maintenance corridor about.
A million thoughts raced through his mind. Was she- no, she definitely wasn't lying, that kind of thing was far too easy to call. But why? Last he'd checked, Th- Ali'astov's benefactor had just risen to patriarch status. By all rights, she should have been on top of the world.
For crying out loud, she was - had been - a Trial-born. And Thurfian had just... kicked her out?
Why? Was he afraid she might compromise him?
Something must have shown on his face - that, or Ali'astov's intuition was far better than he'd given her credit for - because she sent him a small, sad, smile.
"It's okay," she said, simply. "You can ask."
Samakro only hesitated for a moment.
"Why?"
"Why not?" Ali'astov shrugged. "It's not like he hasn't tried to get me kicked out of the Mitth before - it's why I took the Trials. Except this time, I had no recourse against him, given his- promotion."
"What?" Samakro burst out. "Thurfian tried to- when was this?"
"Just before Thrawn and Che'ri left for Lesser Space. It's why I didn't go with them."
"Well, fuck me."
Thalias- Ali'astov blinked. "Did you think I was-"
"Working with him?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck," Samakro said. "Yeah. He got you the place on the Springhawk-"
"Yeah," Ali'astov said. "He wanted me to spy on Thrawn- the Springhawk as a whole, too, I suppose."
"And you refused?"
"Of course I refused." A bitter smirk twisted Ali'astov's lips. "I wanted to meet Thrawn again- I owe him a lot. Thooraki stood beside him, too, he told me to watch out for his enemies for him."
Samakro couldn't help the noise of disbelief that rose up his throat at that. Thrawn was an esteemed military commander, and Ali'astov was- well.
Ali'astov was not, to put it nicely.
Still, she must have caught on to his train of thought - obviously - because she huffed a laugh.
"His political enemies," she clarified, then paused. "Like Thurfian."
"And now he's patriarch," Samakro surmised.
"Yeah," Ali'astov said, and pulled a face. Samakro pointedly did not comment on the way the light caught on half-dried tear tracks on her cheeks. She deserved that much dignity, at least.
The silence stretched between them for a few more moments, and Samakro was ready to bid her an abrupt farewell and leave her be - without even reporting her mildly illegal excursion - when Ali'astov spoke again.
"He commed me, you know," she said, "just now. Asked me to spy on Thrawn again. I gave him the same answer I did the last time, except this time, I didn't have Thooraki in my corner-"
"-And he kicked you out," Samakro finished. "A trial-born, for refusing to conduct espionage. That's one hell of a move, you know. The political fallout-"
"He has the Irizi in his corner. He can do whatever he wants, at this point."
"Well, shit."
"That about sums it up."
A moment of silence passed between them, before Samakro spoke again.
"The Irizi? How the fuck did he ever manage that?"
Ali'astov shrugged. "Thrawn."
"Thrawn? What about him?"
"They found it within themselves to agree on the viewpoint that Thrawn is the root of all evil, and they're cooperating on that basis."
Samakro nodded, understanding dawning in his mind. "Ah. So you weren't just fucked, you were extremely fucked."
"And, you thought I was a spy for Thurfian, to boot."
"I did," Samakro said, unapologetic. "I thought you were smarter than throwing away your status in the Mitth for a complete stranger, but that was my mistake."
Ali'astov grinned. "You're an arse, Samakro, you know that?"
"Yeah. Yeah, you know-" he trailed off awkwardly, glancing from Ali'astov to the snacks still held in his hands. "I know we're not on the greatest of terms, but i doubt moping alone in a tunnel is going to do any good, so if you want, we could share some of this, and you could talk about it, if you want?"
Ali'astov blinked, momentarily stunned, before a smile - a genuine one, this time - spread across her cheeks. "I'd like that, I think-" and then, as if remembering herself and who exactly it was she was talking to- "if you don't mind, that is."
"If i minded, I wouldn't have offered," Samakro shrugged, taking a seat by the wall of the cramped little corridor - not, mind, that there were very many options for where he could sit, in such an enclosed space. "Are you going to sit, or stay standing like some sort of animal?"
Ali'astov blushed, at that - deep, inky blue spreading across her face so vividly that Samakro could make it out easily even in the dark, as she hurriedly took a seat next to him.
Perhaps Ali'astov was an alright sort, after all. Either way, he doubted he would mind taking the time to find out. Who knew? Maybe one day, he thought, as he cracked open the lid on the container of jam, he might even be able to call Ali'astov a friend.
Yeah.
Maybe one day.