Perils of Peridea

Chapter 8 - Deviation

Perils of Peridea
Chapter 8
Deviation

Ezra was finally recovering thankfully, the rest was even helping his shoulder wound heal. After a week it finally closed up and Ezra no longer had to use the sling when the pain got bad. He did have a big scar to add to his body's tapestry of old marks. Thrawn hoped it would forever serve as a reminder. When Ezra's fever finally broke Thrawn allowed him to return to work light duty, but strongly advised him to take care as to not aggravate his shoulder, or himself, or give himself a relapse of the fever. Not that he cared about his well being, it was just extra annoying and extra exhausting to have to nurse an ill teenager. Thrawn assured himself, that was all. Thrawn had been spending most of his time alone doing repairs in secret, he led Ezra to another area of the ship to do repairs in order to hide his real project.

"Take caution Bridger, you don't want to electrocute yourself on any of the repairs."

"Awwww, you do care." Ezra snorted dryly.

"I do..... About my ship. If you get electrocuted you will be wasting precious resources."

"Myself?" Ezra raised an eyebrow.

Thrawn gave him an unamused frown, "The small amounts of energy and fuel we have rationed for survival functions."

"Uh huh." Ezra gave him a slight smirk.

"Please stop talking." Thrawn let out a sigh, exhausted already.

"Why? The pain it causes my voice is worth it to see the pain it causes your ears." Ezra snickered to himself but cleared his throat from the painful strain. "Too bad I'm not contagious, I could sure go without hearing YOU talk."

"You work on that control panel over there, leave me alone on my side of the room." Thrawn turned and walked away.

Ezra rolled his eyes and knelt down, removing the cover and looking at the components inside. He went and grabbed a frayed set of wires, he pulled them out and it caused slight sparks. He replaced them and rearranged a few fried component chips, then turned on the computer. It weakly whirred to life, its display struggling to load and stay lit. Thrawn however had made an error, not realizing that Ezra would be able to see what other systems would be functioning on the panel he was working on. Ezra analyzed the readout and gasped, giving Thrawn an angry toothy glare over his shoulder. He did not notice, too busy on his own console repairs. Ezra hissed thru his teeth to himself with frustration. But then he had an idea, he sneered to himself. He would do what he does best, sabotage imperials. If Thrawn could repair in secret, so could Ezra disrepair in secret. He carefully and quietly began to go in and undo and delete or override all the repairs and modifications Thrawn had been doing, making a mental note of things to physically damage without Thrawn realizing it. Ezra snickered to himself but it triggered a coughing fit.

"Please do not get your germs on my computers." Thrawn called with annoyance over his shoulder. Ezra silently mocked him but continued to wear his devious smirk as he undid all of Thrawn's work.

As the repair and disrepair continued, Ezra finally fully recovered as they resumed minor tasks. Thrawn was not sure why his repairs were not progressing as planned, he merely assumed not enough components had been fixed and didn't even consider the fact that Ezra was causing disarray behind his back. Therefore he decided to take a pause and focus on other more pressing issues, such as their dwindled supplies. Their next mission was high priority, to gather and investigate their newly discovered food source. They would finally be able to go out and explore other bodies of water to try and find more fish. Ezra was excited, his stomach was settled and ready for more delicious fish! He needed a break anyway, it was exhausting work to undo what a genius was doing.