The Ghost

5

A year later

Lynn was sitting in the Chimaera officer mess. She was alone, surrounded by the ghosts from her past.

The datapad that Thrawn gave her almost a year ago was at the table in front of her. She decrypted and read the message it contained.

Once.

The former Cipher Nine sighed and took a small sip of her drink. Too much alcohol. Far too much...
Her gaze drifted at the view behind the viewport, blue fingers half consciously tightening on the glass. Stars shone against the black backdrop of space, as they always have.
Bloody three thousand years have passed and they look the same, like nothing changed. Lynn shook her head angrily.

Thrawn stopped at the entrance to the officer's mess. It was not a place he visited often but tonight he was in the mood for a drink. Taking the glass from the serving droid he looked around.

It was very late and the room was empty except for one of the lounges, taken by his newest lieutenant, Lynn.

It took her four months to get over medical issues after hibernation and to regain good physical form. Next five months after that she spent in the Royal Imperial Academy on Coruscant. And she graduated with distinction. Not a surprise, he expected nothing less from her.

Since she was back aboard she proved invaluable. Along with carrying out a few tricky assignments she managed to rescue an important ground op that one of his officers blew up, saving the lives of several soldiers and retrieving the intel. And almost losing her life along the way. Calculated risk, as she put it. He shook his head at the thought. And a calculated outcome.

The whole story apparently made her very popular among the crew, in a good way. Several of his officers praised her, many more ordinary troopers looked upon her, an alien, with respect.
Clever girl. He swirled the whisky in his glass and suppressed the smile.

Lynn still didn't notice him and for a short while Thrawn observed the woman. Once again he mused on how attractive she was, not just physically. Longer he worked with her, the more respect for her abilities he had. She was cunning, disciplined and intelligent, far beyond any other soldier he ever had under his command. Even back in his military days in Ascendancy.
Surprisingly she never tried to use her charm to her advantage, not against him, at least. Or maybe it shouldn't surprise, she was smarter than this.

He moved into her direction.

"Can I join you?" Thrawn's quiet voice cut through Lynn's musings.

"By all means." Lynn made a wide gesture with her hand. "Plenty of space."

"You are inebriated." He observed taking a seat opposite her in the small alcove she chose as her hiding. She never allowed herself to be intoxicated to that level before. Is she shaken?

She pushed the datapad in his direction, ignoring his statement. "It's decoded. I don't want to see it again."

Definitely shaken. Thrawn watched her in silence, his palms loosely embracing the glass of amber drink.

Probably whisky. Lynn sighed inwardly and redirected her attention back to the stars. She was all too aware how handsome Thrawn looked in the dimmed light of the mess, his red eyes reflecting light of the stars. And in her current state of mind thoughts like that were dangerous.

"Lieutenant." Thrawn's voice was calm but unusually soft. "Leave the past behind. You can't get it back, no matter how hard you try."

Lynn shook her head and whispered, more to herself than to him. "I know."