Chapter Text
Flashes of red filled Eli’s vision as he jolted back to consciousness. His side of the cockpit was wrecked. Wires sparked off the torn metal. In a panic, he looked to the alerts blinking rapidly on the HUD of the jaeger.
Right Arm Disabled
Shields Disabled
Neural Link ___%
Eli grimaced as the numbers kept glitching out. He could still vaguely feel his partner, so that meant they were still drifting. He tried to turn to see his partner, but agonizing pain flooded his body when he moved. Eli let out a hiss, but before he could look down to see the extent of his injuries, his partner pulled him out of the wreckage.
Thrawn set Eli down gently on the left side of the chamber. The Chiss was saying something to him, but Eli couldn’t understand. He was getting dizzy and it was so hard to breathe. Thrawn looked away towards the cracked open exit hatch and then back at him. Again his partner said something incompressible to him but this time Thrawn got up and started to move away.
Eli’s breath hitched as a sense of dread filled him, watching Thrawn walk towards the hole in the exit hatch. The Chiss turned back with a wistful smile that seemed so alien on his face, Eli had never seen that expression on him before. Then he disappeared and the world went dark.
****
Eli let out a sharp gasp as he woke up and promptly fell off his bunk. He let out a hiss of pain as he collided with the cold metal floors with a loud thud.
“Vanto, are you alright?”
Eli let out a sigh as he looked up to see the soft glowing red eyes of his roommate.
“‘M alright. Just had a strange dream.”
Again . Eli thought. They haven’t even been in combat yet, but every now and then he dreams of that same scenario. Eli shook his head, trying to shake off the odd lingering grief. He shifted his focus towards Thrawn, who had seemingly accepted his answer and was moving to get ready for the day.
Even that was strange to Eli. Usually Thrawn would be fully awake before him and at the desk on his datapad. Something about needing less sleep than humans, which Eli didn’t believe. He figured that it was a sign that today was going to be another insanity filled day. Considering they would be doing simulations today, Eli knew he was probably right.
****
As the two of them walked to class—or more like Thrawn briskly walking and Eli having to take long strides to keep pace—Eli mentally prepared himself for the drift. If he was honest, drifting with Thrawn was easy. Perhaps it was the way they were both outsiders. Or maybe it was just Thrawn’s extensive experience as a pilot pulling the weight. But it had been near perfect, when they synced. If he had to describe the feeling, it would be akin to all the numbers slotting into place when sorting data.
Eli smirked remembering the shock on all the cadets and the instructor’s faces when the space yokel’s simulation score blew them out of the water. On their first try too. He doesn’t like that he’s been assigned to be Thrawn’s aide, but that moment almost made it worth it.
No, it wasn’t the drift that concerned him. It was all the questions Thrawn would have for him after. Questions about him, about whatever bit of Lysatra he saw from Eli’s memories. He wouldn’t mind it if the man himself gave anything back. Eli didn’t push that much into the drift, but Thrawn was practically a blank slate in the drift. Or perhaps a wall would be a better description.
Eli understood. He’d watched the Chiss refuse to give up information on his people to the Emperor himself. Thrawn had things to protect. Eli could respect that. But it would be nice to at least get something for all that he was giving. Other pilots became friends with their drift partners. If Thrawn was going to drag him away from the nice comfy job as a breach calculator, then he could at least attempt to be friendly.
Eli snuck a glance at Thrawn, who had been uncharacteristically quiet on their walk. Just last week, he had to explain the concept of a prank and intricacies of senior cadets hazing the new ones. But today they walked in silence. He almost missed the banter. Eli felt his face heat up at the thought.
****
Up ahead another cadet, a girl with blonde hair pulled back in a bun, was leaning against the wall near the classroom. She was scrolling on her datapad and looked up when they approached.
“Cadet Vanto. Cadet Thrawn.”
“Cadet Brevit.”
“I see you missed the notice as well. Classes have been cancelled for the day. Commandant Deenlark told me to let anyone else who came to know.” Brevit said with a sigh.
Eli blinked in surprise. It was rare to have all classes be cancelled. “Not that I’m not happy about it, but why?”
Thrawn held out his datapad towards him. “It seems there is Level 5 kaiju attack happening near Corellia”
“What?!” Eli leaned closer to Thrawn to see the datapad better. On the screen was a clip of live footage from the Corusant Holo-News of a massive Kaiju ripping through a Star Destroyer over the planet
“They said the ISB predicted it would only be a Level 2 threat but their data was incredibly far off.” Brevit said, pulling up an article on her own pad.
Eli looked over at Brevit’s pad and grimaced. “Someone’s going to get an earful for this. Their equation wasn’t wrong, it’s that they clearly input the wrong numbers.”
He could feel Thrawn’s gaze lock onto him and Eli suppressed a shiver.
“Interesting. And where do you believe they misstepped?”
Eli gestured to the datapad. “Here and here. Because if you follow the order of operations on the equation, the final data should match a Level 5 diagnosis. But I’m guessing someone did it in the wrong order and that ends up skewing towards a far lower outcome on the final data.”
“Very impressive, Vanto.”
Eli flushed at the praise. Brevit let out a awkward cough and shifted on her feet.
“Well since you two are here, you can take over for me. Thanks!”
Before Eli could protest, Brevit rushed off. Thrawn’s focus drifted back to the datapad and the news updates coming in.
“Welp, if we’re gonna spend an hour here, might as well sit down.” Eli said.
He opened the door to the class and took a seat in one of the chairs. Thrawn followed suit and continued watching the newsfeed with interest.
Eli gestured towards the holo projector. “Wanna hook it up?”
Thrawn raised an eyebrow at the suggestion but held out his datapad towards him. Eli took it and plugged a cord into the pad and started fiddling with the settings of the projector. Anticipating the question, he chuckled.
“We had one back home. Nothing this fancy of course, but I did save up a lot of credits to get one for my family. Used to have holo nights.”
“Holo nights?”
“Yeah, ya know. Sometimes we’d watch whatever trashy drama was playing. Other times we put in our favorite holo-film and watch that. ‘Tho if it was my mom’s night to choose, it was going to be a trashy drama anyway.”
Eli looked back at Thrawn, who looked amused but still a bit confused.
“Do your people not have this kind of stuff?”
“No, we do. But I have never had the chance to truly watch anything like this nor experience something like your ‘holo night’”.
“Really? I thought you especially would enjoy this kind of thing.”
“Oh? And why is that?”
“I mean, it’s art. Different form, of course but….”
Thrawn nodded in understanding. “Ah, I see. I do not think it is quite the same, however, seeing as I have yet to experience it, I cannot say for sure.
“Tell ya what, if we ever get an off day while we’re on Corusant or if either of us ever get a personal holo projector, I’ll show you my favorite holo-film and we’ll see if you can do your thing on this kind of stuff too. Deal?”
Thrawn blinked slowly and then nodded. “Alright, Eli.”
Eli stilled. The sincerity in the way Thrawn had said his name flustered him.
“Anyway, got your newsfeed set up. Don’t know how those reporters do it, getting so close to an attack.”
****
The walk back to their dorm was quiet. A peaceful sort of quiet this time. When the newsfeed got cut short, Eli spent the last half hour listening to Thrawn’s analysis of the fight and interjecting his own thoughts on the state of the ISB’s prediction models.
“You’ve been upset that you are unable to derive anything from me while drifting.”
Eli startled at the sudden admission. “What?”
Thrawn turned to face the younger man. “You see it as unfair as you have allowed me to glean pieces of your life.”
Eli looked away, tense under the piercing red gaze of the Chiss, but nodded. Thrawn hummed.
“It is not that I do not trust you.“
“I know. There are things you must keep secret. I don’t need to know any of that, Thrawn. It’s just…”
“You would like to be on equal terms with me.”
Eli met Thrawn’s gaze. He saw no judgement, no malice in the older man’s eyes. No, Thrawn was looking at him with a calm curiosity and respect.
“Yes. I don’t need to know anything you don’t want to tell me, but it would be nice to know something about the person I’m going to be going into combat with.”
Thrawn nodded. “In the Ascendancy, drifting is less…emotional. It is less about giving all of one’s self and finding a perfect match and more about keeping everything in to be able to fight alongside anyone.”
Eli huffed. That sure explained a lot about Thrawn, he thought. He was pretty sure he had yet to see the man smile.
“But for you, Eli’van’to, I shall endeavor to give you a piece of myself in return to what you have given me.”
Eli fought and failed to stop his face from heating up. “Thank you”
If his voice had wavered, Thrawn didn’t comment on it.
“You spoke about an activity you would share with your family before?”
“Oh, uh yeah?”
“Equal terms then. There’s a cafe back in the Ascendancy. I would go there quite often and play Tactica.”
“Tactica?”
“I am not sure if there is anything similar here in Lesser Space.”
Eli chuckled. “Teach me the rules and we’ll see. Consider it making us even for the hours I spent teaching you Sabbac.”
****
It was only before Eli felt asleep, did he realize Thrawn had implied that it was something he used to do with family. Who had he omitted from that memory?