Chapter Two

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Watching the chaos of Coruscant pass by her transport speeder gave Ziinuuvitas headaches.
Coruscant was horrible. It was chaos, and ugly. The streets of lower levels stank and the lower you went the worse the crime was. The upper nice levels were a different kind of horrible in her opinion: crowds of posh people, stormtroopers, officers of all sorts of rank.

Coruscant meant crowds wherever one would go and while that was good to pass by unnoticed, it was also overwhelming. It was during missions like this, among the oceans of people, that Ziinuuvitas longed for the quietness of the Basilisk out there, the crushing silence of the space that engulfed her senses and allowed clarity in her mind.

But above all that, Ziinuuvitas missed the ice and snow of Midian, it's caves, mountains, cliffs, lakes, the wild tundra...


But none of it mattered now, she thought as she tapped her datapad.

Thrawn.

Soon to be Grand Admiral: three months in the Imperial Academy only, graduated with outstanding marks on everything. Countless disciplinary issues, not just during his time at the Academy, but after as a Lieutenant and so on.


Yet each time he was victorious, in the court and in the field. An exemplary career, flawed only by the error of others around him it seemed.


That much she could comprehend from the records.

Ziinuuvitas sighed, the man was, for all accounts, a genius. And if half the things she was starting to understand were true, her mission was much more dangerous than she had anticipated.


Not to mention, she now had to deal with smuggled doses of her medicine, because Doctor Bekk couldn't join her. He had protested a lot, but it couldn't be helped so instead he prepared stims that she would need to smuggle into the ship.

Ziinuuvitas' transport came to a halt as the pilot droid announced the next and final destination.
The graduation ceremony would take place as usual in the Imperial Palace where most officers would be attending - the ones not currently in important campaigns. It was common practice for the high ranks to claim the best students for their fleets.

For Ziinuuvitas, being the 3rd on the list of the Advanced Program for ISB Agents was a one-way ticket to where the action would be, to where someone of importance would be leading. However, she didn't want just any someone. But how to get inside the fleet of this Thrawn?


She took a closer look to his own curriculum and sighed again. Of course, she was the one chosen for this- change the names and locations (and the fact she never actually attended any academy) and that could very well be her own file.

That would certainly catch his attention because her own fake curriculum was just as brilliant - expect that, for all it was worth it, her ambitions were smaller. She had a career planned for nothing but an Agent, while he had started as a Lieutenant from scratch and climbed the ranks faster than lightspeed.


She could only hope it would be enough to get herself close to the man. The Rebellion needed this and so the fond memories of snow or infinite silent starlight were replaced by her primary order: Spying Thrawn.

The Imperial Level Transport was now full of other cadets. It wasn't a Priority Transport - those were exclusive to higher patents- but there were no civilians either. The Imperial Palace wasn't a place for civilians anyway: the few families attending the ceremony were important people in the right circles, and those could afford their own transportation. There would probably be a few politicians, but not many. The Senate, as fake as it was, had no place minding the matters of Imperial Military.

The view from Ziinuuvitas' window was now extremely grim, she thought, as the imposing building came closer. She had been in Coruscant a couple of times during her childhood and she remembers not liking it, but now it looked worse. And this building, the former Jedi Temple, was void of all it's former grandeur. But that was also another personal problem to archive far away in her mind: now, Ziinuuvitas had to become a cold, efficient, outstanding imperial machine.

Another cadet was walking to the empty seat next to her, undoubtedly seeking some camaraderie. Most were young, some younger than her even. Those would start low, as stormtroopers, even technicians or maintenance personnel. The older the students, the higher they would start since it meant more years of studying at the Academy.

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