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Samakro hates mornings. He much prefers the quiet solitude of late evenings, when everyone is asleep, the ship is dark, and there is nothing but the stars to keep him company. He probably wouldn’t mind being a morning person if everyone else in the military wasn’t required to be so. He shuffles down the chow line, accepts his bowl of oatmeal, passes the danishes with a nauseated roll of his stomach, and pours himself a heaping cup of caf. No cream. Sweets this early in the morning are always a bad idea.
He sits down at a table far away from everyone else and pulls up his questis. Someone hoops with excitement and he has to physically restrain himself from rubbing his temples. What in the hell can be so exciting before 0800?
A tray smacks against his table and Che’ri, their navigator, plops into the seat across from him. “Good morning, Mid Captain Samakro,” she chirps. Her entire plate is filled with danishes and his stomach does another displeased flip.
He glares at her, hoping to scare her off, but she either doesn’t care or isn’t aware that her presence is unwelcomed. “Where is your caretaker?” he snaps. He hasn’t even taken a sip of his caf yet, damn it.
Che’ri shrugs. “She asked if I would be okay getting breakfast myself this morning, which I am. I’m not a child.”
He stares at her. She is very much a child. He can tell by her tray full of sweets and the way she is bouncing in her chair because her feet don’t reach the floor. “You shouldn’t wander around unattended.”
She stares at him. “Unattended?”
He rolls his eyes. “ Alone .”
She smiles. “I’m not alone, I’m with you.” She goes back to bouncing in her chair, no doubt swinging her legs about under the table.
He heaves a sigh and stirs his oatmeal, not for any particular reason, it’s not like he added anything to it. Hot, bland mush, the perfect way to start the day.
“That looks gross,” Che’ri says around a mouth full of danish.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he says without looking at her.
“Why?”
“It’s impolite.”
“Why?”
“Because no one wants to look at your half-chewed food. Including me.”
“Why?”
He sets down his questis and glares at her. To his complete and utter dismay, she giggles. She may have claimed not to be a child, but her actions are speaking louder than her words. He shovels a bite of oatmeal into his mouth to keep from saying something rude or mean. The last thing he needs is to make her cry and receive the wrath of the Senior Captain. He rolls his eyes.
“Why did you pick oats for breakfast?” she asks and he can hear the disdain for his choice of breakfast in her voice.
“Because I don’t want my teeth to rot and fall out of my head,” he answers blandly, scrolling through yesterday’s report. He had been on shift for most of it, but the addition by the Senior Commander, while boring, is a new read.
“That’s just something adults tell children,” she scoffs.
“Because it’s true.”
She hums her disagreement and Samakro starts shoveling down his breakfast. If he eats quickly maybe he can just leave her here. He’ll be early to his shift, but anything is better than being pestered by a child this early in the fucking morning.
“Adults just like to say things to scare children. They also like to lie to make them feel better about scary things, when the truth would be better.”
Samakro stops mid-bite and looks up at her. “You’d rather know about everything that happens on the ship?”
She thinks about it for a moment and then nods. “Yes. The truth is scary when you’re surrounded by lies too, but when you know all the truth? Then things aren’t so scary.”
He just stares at her as she debates between which of her danishes she wants to eat next.
“Besides, if my teeth fall out, I just get new ones. See?” She opens her mouth and wiggles her front tooth for him.
He groans and turns back to his breakfast.
“I’m excited for it to fall out. Thalias told me that if I put it under my pillow a space nymph will come and take it and give me treasure.”
Samakro opens his mouth to tell her that that is both really creepy and entirely false and quickly snaps his mouth shut. She is smiling with excitement and even he isn’t enough of a monster to shoot down her fantasy.
He takes a long swig of his caf instead.
“I always like eating sweets for breakfast,” she says. “Even if the rest of the day is bad, at least I had something good for breakfast.”
“Do you frequently have bad days?”
She frowns and shakes her head. “No.”
It’s a short answer and Samakro feels like there is probably more to it, given how chatty she is, but he doesn’t press the issue. She’s entitled to her opinions, stars know he has enough of his own. They finish eating in silence, thankfully.
Unfolding himself from his seat, he tucks his questis under his arm and grabs his tray. “Have a good day, Navigator. I’ll see you on the bridge.”
She nods. “Good day, Mid Captain.”
~
“Caretaker Thalias, a word?” Samakro says, catching her in the hall between the bridge and what he assumes is the navigator’s suite.
She stops and turns to look at him, arching a delicate brow. It just makes him even more irate. How dare she swagger around these halls as if nothing is wrong, as if her Mitth name earns her every right to interfere with the function of his crew.
“It has come to my attention that you have been telling the navigator childish fantasies about space nymphs,” he grinds out.
“Yes, that would make sense given she is a child .”
“She is a navigator and should be treated as such. Fantasies will only warp her sense of duty.”
“Because I’m sure your sense of duty was without fault at the age of nine.”
He glares. “It was. I was a cadet when I was nine.”
“And you never dreamed of a life somewhere else? Of doing something different?”
“If I entertained such foolish notions, I’d be frozen and half-dead. The Ascendancy will always be my first priority. I will not tolerate you trying to sabotage our unit from the inside out. Grow up or get off my ship.”
“This isn’t your ship.”
His jaw works. A fatal mistake. He won’t let her get a rise out of him. He refuses.
She glares at him. “You don’t know what it’s like to be a Navigator. To be alone, to have a whole ship depend on you.”
“You don’t think I know what that feels like?” He steps closer. Before Thrawn was placed as captain, the Springhawk had been his ship.
“No, Mid Captain , I don’t. You’re an adult officer , I’m sorry you can’t handle the same pressure these little girls are under. If you are really so arrogant to assume that you can do my job better than I can, please, be my guest. I’d love to watch you fail.”
“Quit telling her lies, she doesn’t like it,” he spits and turns on his heel, stalking towards the conference room. He will probably be late.
~
“There is something on your mind,” Thrawn says coolly.
Samakro snaps to attention, belatedly realizing that he hadn’t heard Thrawn’s question and hadn’t answered him. “My apologies, sir. Nothing you need to worry about.”
“I sense dissonance between you and Thalias,” Thrawn says, folding his arms neutrally upon his desk. “Is there… something I can do?”
Samakro bristles. “Nothing a muzzle wouldn’t fix, sir.”
Thrawn arches an eyebrow. “For you or for our civilian guest?”
“She’s a caretaker, not a guest .”
“I see.” Thrawn steeples his fingers in front of his lips and Samakro wants to roll his eyes. A thinking pose. Great. Now he’ll be here for the rest of the night and miss dinner along with lunch. “What is it about her presence that is troubling to you?”
“May I speak freely, sir?”
Thrawn waves a hand, giving silent permission.
“I have doubts about her intentions, sir. I have reason to believe that her motivations for being aboard the Springhawk are not based in Navigator Che’ri’s safety, but rather in politics.”
“I see.”
Samakro swallows down his temper. That sort of statement, a declaration that nefarious deeds are happening aboard his ship deserves something more than a dismissive acknowledgement. “Are you not concerned, sir?” Samakro tries to keep the heat out of his tone, but even he can hear the low simmer anger dancing across the syllables.
“No. I doubt that Caretaker Thalias will ever intentionally harm Navigator Che’ri. As for the supposed political web she is weaving, the fleet and the syndicature are separate entities. Whatever trap she is trying to set would require us to be recalled to Naporar, in which case we can plan accordingly when the time arises. There is no need to worry, Mid Captain, I’m certain there is no foul play afoot.”
But it is never that easy. Thrawn has delusions of simple political problems and simpler political solutions. The EDF and Syndicature are not separate entities. So long as every crewmember holds a family name, there will never not be politics involved. “Thank you for clarifying, sir,” Samakro says, trying his hardest to feign just the smallest inkling of gratitude. He doesn’t know why he bothers trying. He’s almost certain Thrawn sees right through him.
“Though, I do recommend that you and Thalias attempt to mend whatever is fractured between you two. Otherwise, this will be a very long and difficult deployment. I will not remove either of you from the bridge because you cannot… play nicely.”
“Yes, sir.”
Thrawn nods and Samakro recognizes that as his dismissal. He turns sharply on his heel and leaves.
~
Samakro grabs a plate of oatmeal, a cup of black caf and sits down. He pulls up his questis; he has a few missed messages from Wutroow, but decides to answer them later, she’ll understand. There is just a certain level of energy Samakro can handle this early in the morning and hers is well above the tolerable limit.
“Can we eat in here today?” Samakro hears Che’ri ask Thalias as they make their way to the chow line. He hazards a glance. Thalias is holding the little girl’s hand and she bounces on her toes hopefully.
“I don’t see why not,” Thalias says.
He turns back to his breakfast. Stirring his oatmeal pointlessly, he reads through a status report. Again, nothing exciting, but that’s what makes it good morning reading. Nothing to miss in his uncaffeinated haze, but he still looks busy enough for people to leave him alone.
“Che’ri, I--”
A tray smacks down across from him and Samakro slowly looks up to see Che’ri wiggling up into the seat across from him. “It’s okay, Thalias. Mid Captain Samakro and I are friends, aren’t we?”
“I--” He catches Thalias’ withering glare and breaks into a grin. “Of course we are,” Samakro says. Thalias’ glare intensifies as she slips into the spot next to Che’ri.
“I see you picked oats again.” Che’ri wrinkles her nose.
“I see you’ve decided on another nutritious breakfast.” To her credit, she does have a fruit this time.
“I wouldn’t expect someone as bitter as you to enjoy sweet treats,” Thalias grumbles and bites into her own danish.
Samakro sighs. Bridge the gap. Captain’s orders. “For the record, I do like sweets. I just don’t like them in the morning.”
Che’ri’s eyes widen with excitement. “You like sweets? What’s your favorite sweet? I love sweets that have fruit filling in them. I don’t care what flavor I just like the jam inside.”
“Fruit-filled desserts are my favorite, too,” he says and takes a sip of his caf. It’s the truth. Che’ri doesn’t like it when adults lie to her and he’s not about to lie about his preferences in dessert pastries. Thalias, however, looks like every single thought in her mind has blanked out. Her mouth hangs open, her eyes are wide, and her eyebrows have almost taken up residence in her hairline.
Che’ri practically starts vibrating at his admission. “Do you have a favorite color, too?”
He nods. “I do.”
“What is it?”
“Ask me tomorrow,” Samakro says. “Wouldn’t wanna run out of breakfast conversation.”
Thalias glowers at him, but this time there isn’t any heat to it. Instead, she turns back to Che’ri and reminds her to chew with her mouth closed. Samakro smirks and eats his oatmeal, skims his report, and listens to Che’ri tell him about a story Thalias told her last night. It’s another grand tale about creatures that certainly don’t exist, but she looks excited.
After all, she’s just a kid.