Thrawn Chimaera : Galactic Civil War

Chapter Twenty-One

Thrawn turned to stare at the piece of wall, focused. His back straight with one arm crossed over the chest as the other elbow used it for support as he scratched his chin thoughtfully.

Ziinuuvitas worked in silence, peeking from under her eyelashes every so often at him. He had been analysing what was basically any visual data gathered on the Ghost/ Phoenix Squadron, comparing any small detail found around Lothal with it.

It was certainly impressive the way his brain quickly worked even the most insignificant things and pieced them together with a logical explanation. Impressive and scary- she couldn't forget that this same man was doing exactly the same thing for the Basilisk.

It was a good thing, then, that Ziinuuvitas was much more careful than Hera, with a better control over her own crew. Or was it? Perhaps she was too hard on the Ghost, and she judged Hera too much...

After all, I don't have to deal with an orphan kid with wizard powers suffering from hero-complex, a quirky droid, a mandalorian anarchist (however those two concepts can coexist), a gruff, loud, agitated Lasat that is prone to quick fits of rage and violence, and a Jedi who probably makes everything difficult with his Jedi moral code and wizardry...

"Senior Captain?" Thrawn called her from her little void-staring moment.

"Yes sir!" She almost jumped and straightened her back on the chair.

"You look thoughtful. Have you found anything relevant?" he asked in a calm, friendly manner.

"Not much sir. I'm still waiting for confirmation from the central system, but there are a few things that may not be adding." she explained what she had been working on so far.

Thrawn knew her well enough to tell that there was another reason, unrelated to her work, that had kept her staring at the void for a good minute. But now wasn't the time to press her on the matter - he had time to play that game latter.

"Explain Captain."

"I found some irregularities with the number of workers currently active in the factory."

Unfortunately, she had no choice but to point it out. If the Ghost crew was around, they would need to find a way out soon. Pretending not to notice two extra workers... such a detail would surely draw unwanted attention from Thrawn, to her. She took her time to find a plausible way for her to stumble on such a small (yet evident) thing, making it look like it was the fruit of her usual, remarkable skills.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be the first time she would notice that sort of thing, so it was believable.

"Not surprising. We shall wait for confirmation before acting. What else?" he asked, turning his back on her again.

"Section A-4 reported missing tools, and the droids reported two missing sets of gear from the change room earlier."

"It seems it's all starting to add-up then, wouldn't you agree, Captain?"

She eyed him suspiciously, although there was no hint of anything in particular from the Grand Admiral. Even so, she could never be so sure that he wasn't piecing together much more than the lot she knew he did.

"It would seem so. As per usual, sir." she agreed.

Thrawn moved again to the centre of the room, fetching his datapad to type something, scrolling and reading afterward. So she returned her attention to her own datapad, continuing her work and trying to ignore that heavy gut feeling that Thrawn wasn't quite done with his scheming.

And as if on cue, shortly after the silent pause, he addressed her again.

"Captain, please inform Agent Kallus and Lieutenant Lyste that their presence is required in the operations room. Promptly."