Chapter Text
Thunhe is dead on her feet when she finds her way back to her room. For the past three weeks she has been working night shift, but the schedule change hasn’t really taken effect yet. She wakes at odd hours, sleeps at even odder times—if at all. And after a late night skirmish last shift, she has come to the horrifying realization that she hasn’t slept in two ship-time days. No wonder her eyes are literally burning at any exposure to light.
It takes her three tries to get her hand on the keypad correctly and even then the door whirls open before she gets the chance to open it for herself.
“Sweet Chaos you look like shit,” Coduyo’kim’ara, her roomate, says with a grimace.
“Good to see you, too,” Thunhe grumbles and brushes past her.
“Hey! Turn that frown upside down!” Yokima chirps and follows her back into the room.
Heedless of her uniform, Thunhe flops unceremoniously on her bunk. “No.”
“Well, you’re just an absolute peach in the mornings, aren’t you?”
She rolls over to face her roommate. “Yokima, I haven’t slept in two days. Why would I want to be happy and smiley right now?”
Yokima rushes over and sits on the side of her bed, motioning to her questis. “ Because it finally finished downloading.”
Thunhe sits up, excitement burning away the exhaustion. “What?”
“You heard me. The holofilm finally finished downloading.”
“This is perfect.” The thrusters in Thunhe’s brain slowly start firing. Morale hasn’t been bad—Eli doesn’t exactly run a slave transport—but there have been a few gruelling skirmishes in the past couple weeks that have really killed the vibe. Most new recruits are homesick, everyone has been working crazy long hours, and just yesterday there was the first report of a flu. It happens on every ship and will pass with time, but the matter stands that most people are lonely, exhausted, sick, or some combination of the three.
“Do you think your dad will let us have a movie night?”
Thunhe’s plans snap back to reality. “What? No way. He can’t know about this.”
Yokima frowns. “But I was really hoping to invite him. He seems so lonely. I think a good romantic comedy would liven his spirits.”
Thunhe suppresses the urge to roll her eyes. That isn’t the first time she has heard a comment like that aboard the Protector . She swears everyone must be blind. If they just looked they would see how absolutely besotted he is with their first officer. But then again, it is probably best that their relationship remains secret. She knows there are a few people aboard their ship that would report them for fraternization.
“I don’t think it’s his idea of a morale exercise. I think he would want us to do more… PT or something,” she says with a grimace.
“PT isn’t so bad,” Yokima shrugs.
“Says the woman who can run a klick in seven minutes flat.”
“Grow longer legs, maybe you’ll keep up next time.”
Rolling her eyes, Thunhe flops back on her bed. “I’ll get right on that. Do you think that Kiwu guy in IT would help us out?”
“Maybe if you take him to the mess. You know he likes you, right?”
Thunhe throws an arm over her eyes. “I would feel so bad using my beauty for morale purposes.”
“We all must sacrifice for the greater good. Besides, it’s a woman's prerogative to do a little harmless flirting.”
Thunhe uncovers her eyes. “Don’t you have someplace to be?”
Yokima rockets up. “Shit. I have to go. See you tonight?”
Thunhe gives her a thumbs up as she races out the door and then promptly passes out.
~
Her roaring stomach wakes her sometime later. She sits up, mouth stale and drool saturating her pillowcase. Smacking her lips a few times, Thunhe tries to peel her face from her soaked pillow case and sit up.
She checks her questis first. There is nothing new and she has just enough time to get ready before Yokima comes back. She grabs her toiletry bag and hits the communal refresher down the hall. At this time of day, it is vacant and she relishes in a few extra minutes of hot water before stepping out and dressing in a fresh uniform.
When she slips back into her room, Yokima is sitting on her bed scrolling through her questis. “Hey,” she says without looking up.
“You ready?”
“Yeah,” she says and tucks her questis onto her belt. “I figured we could grab dinner, work out how we want to notify the staff and set up the movie night, and then talk to Wuluko to get the equipment we need.”
“Works for me,” Thunhe says and they step out into the hall together. The trip to the mess hall is brief, even with stopping to salute every officer that passes by. The aroma of dinner wafts into the hall and Thunhe’s stomach roars with excitement.
Yokima breathes deeply through her nose. “Smells like soup,” she sniffs again. “And that crusty bread.”
Thunhe groans in agreement. “I’m so hungry, I could die.”
“You didn’t eat before you passed out?” she asks and they fall into line. Thankfully it isn’t very long—only six people ahead of them. They are on the tail end of the dinner rush and will be lucky to get soup with actual meat in it.
Someone steps up behind them, Thunhe doesn’t bother to look, but Yokima casts a quick in their direction and freezes. “Senior Captain Thrawn, sir.” She comes to attention.
Thunhe whirls around and does the same.
“At ease,” he says with a dismissive wave.
Yokima, who Thunhe considers to be quite tall, looks up at Thrawn, “You’re a lot taller up close, sir. Respectfully.”
A ghost of a smile plays on his lips. “Yes. The air up here is just fine, if you were wondering.”
Thunhe bites her cheek to keep from laughing.
Yokima looks absolutely horrified and sputters. “Where are my manners? Sir, please, go ahead of us.”
Thunhe shoots her friend a disbelieving look. Yokima shrugs.
“That is not necessary,” Thrawn says.
“We insist. Don’t we?” Yokima elbows Thunhe.
She sighs. “Yeah, go ahead. Sir,” she tacks on at the end. Yokima is about to learn a valuable lesson of always getting rations before Thrawn. On particularly good dinner nights, she has to smack him back from getting seconds before she scoops her first plate. The man eats so much that she has considered putting him in contests. They really will be lucky to get a proper serving of soup now.
Thrawn arches an eyebrow at her and brushes past her. “Thank you.”
She glowers at his back—it’s not like she can see past him—and they step up in the chow line.
“Sir, may I ask, what’s your best piece of advice for a junior warrior? I just—you’re so talented and I’m only in navigation right now, but I’d love to go to officer training school one day and maybe become a CO. I just really admire your leadership style, sir.” Yokima stops to take a breath, her cheeks darkening with embarrassment or lack of air—maybe both.
Thrawn turns back to face them and Thunhe nearly folds over laughing. His face, to anyone else, looks completely impassive. To her, though, she sees the absolute astonishment hidden in his features—the slight arch of his brows, the way his eyes widen with surpise. Of course he’s shocked that some junior warrior from navigation idolizes him, that’s just Thrawn. But the fact that Yokima talks at the speed of light is just another thing that has left him reeling for a second.
“Yes, Senior Captain Thrawn,” Thunhe adds innocently. “We’d love to hear any guidance you can offer, sir.”
Thrawn folds an arm over his chest and cups his chin with the other. “Warriors must forge their own path, but they don’t always have to do so alone. I believe that is the best advice I can provide upon such a sudden request.”
Thunhe gives him a smile and a sly wink.
Thrawn returns her smile with a slight upturn of his lips.
“Wow. That’s so great. I’m going to write that down.” Yokima unclips her questis and starts typing.
“What can I get you, sir?” the mess hall worker prompts and Thrawn turns around to order two trays of soup and bread.
Thunhe frowns, Da must be buried in work if Thrawn is bringing him dinner. He moves down the line quickly enough and Thunhe is finally able to order her own tray. When Thrawn has poured himself and Da a cup of caccoleaf, he turns back to them. “Have a good evening, warriors,” he bids.
“Thank you so much. You do the same, sir,” Yokima blurts.
“Tell the commodore I said not to work too hard, sir,” Thunhe says.
Thrawn nods and sweeps out of the mess hall.
As they pick a table, Yokima squeals. “Can you believe that?”
“Believe what?” Thunhe asks as she breaks her bread and stuffs a piece in her mouth.
“He is absolutely amazing . And did you see that second tray? Oh my stars , do you think that was for the commodore?”
“More than likely,” Thunhe answers around a mouthful. “He sometimes forgets to eat when he’s working.”
“And the Senior Captain is observant enough to know that, to take care of his team. Oh my stars.”
“Yokima, he’s a Senior Captain not a God.”
“He’s built like one.”
Thunhe chokes on her bread. “You did not just say that.”
“What? He’s so tall and did you see the width of his shoulders?”
“He’s like…” she pauses, she doesn’t actually know how old he is. “He’s old .”
“Age is but a number,” Yokima says as she takes a bite of soup.
“You’re disgusting.”
“I’m not the one who’s going to flirt with the boy from IT to get an illegal projector.”
“It’s not illegal .”
“I’m almost one hundred percent certain that if you asked the commodore he’d say yes.”
“I’m telling you, movie nights are not his idea of fun and even if they were, he’d find a way to make it educational.”
Yokima sighs. “Okay, so what’s your plan?”
“Talk to Wuluko, get him to give us a projector and send an encrypted message to all enlisted.”
“No officers?”
“We don’t need to get snitched on.”
“And you don’t think some Irizi is going to try and ruin it just because you’re a Mitth?”
Thunhe grimaces, she hadn’t thought about it that way. “Let’s just hope that the EDF oath overrides family ties.”
~
It is dark in the belly of the ship where the analysts and information technology specialists dwell. Thunhe and Yokima make their way through the twisting halls and into the office where they know Wuluko works. Junior Warrior Kiwu’lu’kondo frequently helps Yokima with her questis. Thunhe has never met someone who has more technical troubles than her roommate. On her first day, she got locked out of her questis and Wuluko had helped her reset the pin and establish secondary authentication methods in case it glitches again.
The guy is crazy smart.
And cute in that endearing, nerdy way.
“Hey Wuluko,” Yokima says as she enters his cube.
He jumps and turns to face them. “Hey guys, you spooked me.”
“We need your help,” Yokima says.
“I figured,” he says, brushing a stray hair from his eyes. His hair is just within regulation. “What can I do for you?”
“That movie we wanted finally finished downloading,” Yokima explains.
Wuluko glances at Thunhe before turning his attention back to Yokima. “So the fob worked? That’s awesome!”
Wuluko, because he is smarter than everyone gives him credit for, had found a way to bypass the firewall and divert some download speed to a single questis that they set up in their room. It took almost a week, but they are now the proud owners of a romantic comedy film and that is all that truly matters.
“Yeah,” Thunhe says and pushes past her butterflies to give him a smile. “We want to have a crew movie night. I was hoping you could help us with that?”
He bites his lip. “Did you get Commodore Eli’s permission?”
“No. This is a covert crew movie night. No officers.”
He chews his lip more. “I dunno. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“If we get caught, I’ll take the blame,” Thunhe says.
“That’s not fair,” he says and sits up a little straighter. “What do we need?”
Thunhe sweeps into the spare chair he keeps in his office. It wobbles a little when she sits down and he extends a hand to keep her from falling. When she doesn’t, he immediately moves his hand back to his side, the tips of his ears turning purple. Yokima folds her arms out on either side of the cubical doorway and leans forward.
“We’re gonna need a projector, for starters,” Thunhe says.
“One that can connect to the questis with the movie downloaded on it,” Yokima adds.
He pulls out his personal questis and starts typing. “Okay, that shouldn’t be hard, we just need the proper data transfer cable.”
“And the projector?”
He tilts his head from one side to the other while he contemplates. “We have a few for training vids. I think I could, uh, requisition one easily enough.”
“Wuluko, this has to be off the books,” Thunhe warns. Eli may not be a heartless leader, but he does run a tight ship. If something comes up missing on an inventory docket, he will be the first to find it and question it.
He scoffs. “These are my people, I know how to barter with them.”
Thunhe holds up her hands in surrender.
He finishes typing up something and looks up at them. “What else do we need?”
“We need to find a way to send out a message to just enlisted and encrypt it so that officers can’t open it.”
Wuluko pauses and taps his chin with his stylus. “We could tie it to their ID pins?”
“Brilliant,” Yokima says.
“There’s just one problem with all of this,” Wuluko says, leaning back in his chair, fingers steepled in front of his lips.
Thunhe’s stomach does a stupid little flip. She ignores it.
“What?” Yokima asks because Thunhe’s tongue is too busy being stuck to the roof of her mouth.
“We have a three to one, Enlisted to Officer ratio on the ship. You’re going to have to have separate showings for people who are off or on shift that day. And time variations.”
Thunhe leans forward, chin propped in her hand. “Let’s not. We’ll hold our first movie not on Friday night. If we have a good reception, we’ll plan another one for later that weekend. Does that sound fair?” she asks, looking at her two friends.
Yokima nods.
Wuluko shrugs. “I’m just the tech guy here.”
“And an invaluable member of our team,” Yokima says with a nod.
Wuluko blushes again. “Well, I dunno about that .”
Thunhe stands. “So we have it figured out. Wuluko, work on those two things. Yokima and I are going to try and secure a dojo for ‘group training’ or something that night.”
He gives her a lazy salute and a lopsided smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Great,” she says and slips under Yokima’s arm.
~
Five days later, Thunhe and Yokima sit in the mess, counting down the hours for tonight—movie night. The room has been acquired and as far as Thunhe knows, the technology bit has been handled. A few enlisted members have given her sly winks and nods of approval. She hadn’t done this for the popularity—Chaos knows she’s infamous enough after the stunt she pulled on the bridge a few months ago—but it’s nice to feel welcomed by a group that has previously shunned her.
Wuluko slips across from her and next to Yokima. “Are you guys all ready for tonight?” he whispers.
Thunhe nods, casting a quick glance around their immediate surroundings. No officers. “You found a projector?”
He grimaces. “Yeah, had to trade my desserts for a week, though.”
“Rotten bastards,” Yokima says. “Want mine?” She extends her fruit cake to him.
He shakes his head and waves her off. “Is there anything else we need?”
Thunhe shakes her head. “No, I’ve been hoarding snacks for a week so that we can have some food. And everyone was notified to discreetly bring their own pillows and blankets.”
He nods while he chews.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m excited,” Yokima says, wiggling in her seat.
“Same. I’ve never broken the rules before,” Wuluko says.
“You guys make it sound like we’re committing an act of high treason,” Thunhe grouses.
“I don’t know about you, but I think the commodore is terrifying,” Wuluko says with a shudder.
Thunhe doesn’t want to confirm or deny that—she has seen her dad when he is angry and that is terrifying. “It’ll be fine,” Thunhe says. “It was my plan, I ordered you guys to do this.”
Yokima reaches across the table to take her hand. “It has been an honor and a privilege to know you.”
Thunhe rolls her eyes and they all dissolve into a fit of giggles.
~
Her palms are sweating as she looks upon the crowd of enlisted members sitting before her, some wrapped in blankets, others leaning on their friends. It shouldn't be intimidating, but taking control of the bridge was less nerve-wracking than this. She clears her throat. “Welcome, everyone, to the first ever morale movie night.”
The crowd of sixty-some Chiss warriors cheer.
“Tonight's film will probably not be everyone’s favorite, but it’s free so you’re all going to at least pretend to enjoy it,” she says and is rewarded by a ripple of laughter through the crowd. “So, without any further delay, I present to you Midnight Dance in the Rain .”
Yokima hits the lights and Wuluko presses play. There is a moment of buzzing before the movie comes to life and the room fills with cheers. It’s a good movie, but maybe not everyone’s favorite, like she said. The main character is a baker—and one of the Nine—and travels to a distant Chiss-governed planet to teach a baking course as part of the Ruling Outreach Program. The place she stays is terribly run down and happens to be maintained by a very handsome landlord. They fall in love, naturally—it’s a romantic comedy, after all—but in the tearful moment where she’s about to board her ship back to the Core Worlds, he comes running back to her.
Thunhe is certain that almost all of the fearsome Chiss warriors in the dojo are openly crying—herself included.
In the end, he joins her family, they start a beautiful bakery chain together, and they live happily ever after.
Yokima hits the lights and Thunhe takes the front of the room. “I’d like to thank you all for attending our first ever—” Her words turn to ash at the sight of one not-very-happy looking Commodore, standing in the back. She clears her throat. “Our first ever Monthly Movie Night. If you have any suggestions please feel free to drop me a line. Have a good night.”
Everyone filters out, saluting the commodore and senior captain as they go.
Yokima and Wuluko sidle up to her.
“Go,” Thunhe mutters. “I’ll handle him.”
Wuluko looks at her like she’s insane and Yokima slaps her arm, “It’s been nice rooming with you, buddy.”
Thunhe nods.
When the room empties, she steps up to the Commodore. “I am ready and willing to accept whatever punishment you find becoming, sir.”
“How about we head to my office and discuss this?”
The warm smile he gives her sends a chill down her spine.
~
Thunhe stands at attention in front of the commodore’s desk. She tries to ignore the picture of them hanging on his memory wall—he was only a Mid Commander at the time and she still looked half her age. Thrawn stands in the corner of the room about as impassive as a duracrete wall.
“Have you really been so bored that you had to break the rules?” The commodore asks; she can hear the twang in his voice thickening.
“Group gatherings are allowed and we didn’t exceed maximum occupancy of the dojo. Technically, I didn’t break any rules, sir.”
“No, instead you had your friends break the rules for you .”
She winces.
“The illegal movie wasn’t downloaded to your questis, it was downloaded to Yokima’s. Wuluko is a young, bright info tech specialist and hasn’t stepped a toe out of line. Yet he was the one that traded all of his dessert for a projector . Do you know how expensive those are?”
“No, sir,” she mutters.
“If it were broken both he and the Junior Warrior who signed it over to him would have gotten in serious trouble. Worst case scenario, a court-martial for mishandling EDF equipment.”
She winces.
“Toeing the line is expected. It’s how we learn our place. But you didn’t toe the line, you pushed others over it . You’re a Mid Warrior, the highest ranked of your friends, did you ever think they interpreted your little quest as an order?”
She shakes her head.
“With words, Mid Warrior.”
“No, sir,” she chokes out, trying to ignore the tears welling up in her eyes.
“You’re in a position of power now, not much, but you are. Don’t exploit it.”
“Yes, sir,” she whispers.
He sighs. “With all of that said, I do see your point. We’ve been riding hard the past couple weeks and I know the new recruits are probably feeling a little burnt out. I want you to work on forming a Morale Committee. I want you to create community building exercises and making a way for people to anonymously leave suggestions. Don’t forget to include officers. However, I will make sure that on your head rests the final say since you took such interest in it from the beginning. Maybe they can form their own sub-committee. You will work it out, I’m sure.”
She nods, emotion constricting her throat. “Yes, sir.”
“At ease,” he says and she stiffly unfolds her joints from academy-perfect attention. “Thunhe, I don’t know why you didn’t just ask.”
She nods, blinking back the tears. She will not cry. She will not cry. She will not cry.
“I’ll always have time to talk to you. The fact that I’m your CO doesn’t change that, okay?”
She nods again, eyes trained on the memory wall. She knows that if she looks at him, she'll lose it.
This time, when he sighs, it sounds defeated and not at all frustrated. “You’re dismissed. Get a cup of caccoleaf before your shift, you’re going to be up for a while.”
“Yes, sir.” She salutes him, and then Thrawn, turns on her heel, and marches out of his office.
~
Somehow Thunhe makes it to her room before she starts crying. Her vision blurs with unshed tears and she tries to get her hand on the keypad, but misses. Tries again, and misses just as the door whirls open.
“You lived,” Yokima says when she sees her.
At the sight of her friend, the tears overflow and she hiccups.
“Hey,” Yokima ushers her into the room and puts an arm around her. “Hey, none of that. What’d he say?”
She can’t say anything, her throat is too tight, and instead turns and sobs into Yokima’s chest. Yokima just holds her closer and rocks her back and forth.
“That bad, huh?”
“I’m so sorry!” she sobs. She doesn’t know what’s worse—disappointing her da or abusing her friends.
Yokima pulls away. “What? Why are you sorry?”
“I—I took advantage of our ranks. I—I pressured you—”
“Wait. No. Is that what he said?”
She hiccups. “He said that—that my actions c-could have been misinterpreted as pulling rank.”
“You never pulled rank. Thunhe, look at me.” Yokima grabs both sides of her face. “I would follow you to hell and back because you’re my friend . Not because you’re one rank above me. We’re both still sea-barnacles on the underside of this ship.”
Thunhe snorts.
“As for Wuluko,” she wags her eyebrows. “We both know why he’d follow you anywhere.”
“Why?” Thunhe knows her answer, but she still wants to hear it. Yokima always makes her laugh.
“So he can watch that flat little ass of yours walk away. You need to do some squats, girl.”
Thunhe laughs, wetly, and presses her head to her friend’s shoulder. Yokima runs a gentle hand over her braid.
“Feel a little better?”
“Yeah. Want to join the Morale Committee I’ve been tasked with forming?”
“Hell yeah! What’re we going to do?”
“I have no fucking idea,” Thunhe groans into her friend’s uniform tunic.
“Great. I love it. We’ll start tomorrow. Today? You need to get yourself cleaned up and get to the weapons depot.”
She nods. “Okay.”
Yokima pats her back. “Okay.”