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Just so you know, I normally update this every Monday and Thursday in the (European) morning, but the next post will probably come on Thursday night or Friday because I'll be travelling.
Chapter 38: The new ambassador
They settled into habits as the days went by. Ayesha had been able to sell a few pieces of her art over New Year Fete, and she was now busying herself with the collective exhibition she was preparing with her friends. "We decided to call it the Plebeian Exhibition," she told Thrawn. "It's going to be only works made from materials that are not considered noble. I'm amazed at the number of alien but also human artists who expressed interest in participating. Apparently we're not the only ones to be fed up with the snobbery of the Coruscant art scene." Valeria volunteered to help find a suitable venue and joined regularly the little group of friends when they gathered in the evenings, and Thrawn listened – with great interest but also amusement – to their plans for what they had dubbed the overthrow of Imperial art.
"First you have me toast to breaking the law in the Centre, now this," he said one night as they slipped in bed after a particularly irreverent discussion about the Emperor's artistic preferences. "You will make a Rebel of me after all, Ayoo'sha'nek." She gave him a mock angry look. "It is good that the historians of the future will never know about these conversations," he added. "I shudder at the thought of what could be said of the only alien admiral in the chronicles of the Empire."
She was grinning as she let a finger trail from the Japor snippet around his neck to his navel. "There's a lot more about you that would make the historians of the future shudder, or at least blush, if they knew about it. Maybe I should leak some information so that people get to hear about the real stuff of legend you do. Now please let me see your tactical skills at dealing with this unforeseen situation," she continued when he failed to suppress a groan as her hand travelled further down. "I'm told that your creativity in this area knows no limits, and I expect you to provide strong evidence, you know."
Thrawn regularly went to High Command now that he was back on planet, but more often than not, he stayed and worked from home. "My task force is detached from the Fleet command structure," he explained. "There is no need for me to go to the Palace when I have such a wonderful room to work here." He spent hours on end in his study and soon noticed that Ayesha avoided entering it as often as possible. "Is there a reason you never come in?" he asked her once.
She shrugged. "I just think you should have a space at home where you can be an admiral." Her reply earned her an inquisitive eyebrow. "I learned more about your work in the past few weeks than in all the time I have known you, Thrawn. I'm still getting used to it."
He studied her face carefully. "Would you like me to take my work back to the Palace? I am entitled to a private office there if this makes you uncomfortable."
"Of course not. Your admiralness is part of you. As I said, I just need some time to get used to it."
He gazed at her in silence. "I will at least hold my meetings elsewhere," he said finally. "I do not want to disturb you with a constant flow of visitors."
"No," she said firmly. "You will hold your meetings here and nothing will disturb me. This is our home now and you agreed to act as if you own the place, barring what, I'll spill the beans on the Empire of the Hand." She marched him to his study, forced him on his chair and planted a kiss on his mouth. "Get to work now. And just keep running your business the way you always did."
She strongly suspected that he had ignored her threat because no visitors showed up, until Voss Parck came over on a Centaxday afternoon to report on the status of the Admonitor when the Star Destroyer finally returned to Coruscant. Ayesha greeted him with a warm smile and led him to Thrawn's study, then fetched two tankards of Forvish ale and closed the door behind her as she left. She returned to her workshop to get some work done and went to prepare herself in a hurry when she realized it was time to go to the Centre. The two men were still conferring when she knocked on the door to tell Thrawn she was on her way out. "I'm sorry I must leave, Captain Parck," she said politely. "I'm babysitting tonight."
"I'm the one who should be apologizing for disturbing you in your home," Parck answered.
"You are not disturbing us at all, Captain. Next time I hope we can have dinner together." She turned her gaze to Thrawn. "There's food on the stove if you ever decide that this man needs sustenance," she added sternly. "I know I'm a rotten hostess, but I can't have the Captain telling the whole Fleet that all he got here was flat ale." Parck struggled hard not to laugh as he turned back to Thrawn. The admiral was his cool, calculating self, but the twinkle of amusement in his eyes didn't go unnoticed.
The doorbell rang again two weeks later, and Ayesha found a man barely out of his teens standing on the landing pad. "Crewman Halber Prashat, at your service, Ma'am," he said, snapping his heels nervously. "I'm Admiral Thrawn's orderly and I have an urgent message for him."
She ignored his bemused look when she held her hand out for him to shake and led him to the study. She was already back in front of her potter's wheel when Thrawn knocked softly on the workshop doorframe. "I am afraid that I must leave Coruscant for a short while, Ayoo'sha. Something came up that I must deal with."
She stood up without hesitation. "Do you need help packing?"
His expression clearly indicated that it was not the reaction he had expected, but he merely smiled. "Not at all, Ayoo'sha. Although a small bottle of that sweet Wookiee addiction of yours would not be unwelcome for the shuttle trip to the Admonitor."
She went to the kitchen to prepare a bottle of chilled wroshyr sap syrup for him and brought a glass for Prashat who was waiting by the door. The young man blushed intensely as he accepted it from her. "Thank you, Ma'am, that's very kind of you," he mumbled.
She laughed. "Please don't call me Ma'am, Mr. Prashat. Miss Eskari or Miss or just Ayesha is okay."
His blush turned crimson. "Yes, Ma'am."
His eyes wandered around to avoid her gaze and finally settled on the black stone statue in the atrium. "You like my Twi'lek Dancer?" she asked.
"It's beautiful, Ma'am," Prashat answered timidly. "It looks like it's alive."
"That's a nice compliment, Mr. Prashat. Did you ever see a Twi'lek dance?"
"Unfortunately not, Ma'am. I'm from Thyferra and there aren't any Twi'leks there. This is my first time offworld," he added apologetically.
"Really?" Ayesha asked. "Did you join the Navy recently?"
Prashat swallowed and blushed again. "Yes, Ma'am, this is my first tour of duty. I was assigned to the Admiral's service only a few days ago."
He was fidgeting with his empty glass. Ayesha took it and put it down on the table by the door next to the Gree sculpt Thrawn had brought for her from the Unknown Regions. "I'm sure you'll do fine," she said reassuringly. "You'll see all sorts of new things and you'll learn a lot, and I assure you the Admiral isn't as scary as he looks. Although if you insist on calling me Ma'am, I might tell him to go all scary admiral on you for real."
Prashat was beet red when Thrawn emerged from the hallway with his luggage. He took the space bag and ran away to the speeder after a mumbled thanks to Ayesha. Thrawn watched him flee with a cocked eyebrow, then turned back to her. "I am sorry for this, Ayoo'sha'nek. I did not expect to have to leave again so soon, but I am hopeful that this mission will not last more than a few weeks."
"Don't worry about that. I know that you going on missions is part of the package." She gave him a long, teasing kiss. "Just a taste of what you can expect when you come back," she whispered as she pushed him through the door. "Go now, and be nice to that poor boy, he's terrified enough as it is."
Thrawn returned a month later and found the bedroom empty. It was the middle of the night between Taungsday and Zhellday and Ayesha was supposed to be on shift at the Centre. He was therefore quite surprised when he found her very early the next morning, sitting cross-legged in her nightdress on the floor in front of the Twi'lek Dancer, as if she had just gotten out of bed. "I thought you were not here," he said.
"I didn't know you were coming back," she replied. "I spent the night in the guest room with the second most amazing man in the Galaxy." Both eyebrows shot up in astonishment. "Naval strategy really isn't all it's touted to be. I find you amazingly predictable." She clapped her hands. "Come out now, Tammy. Thrawn's here and we're going to have breakfast all together." The little boy leapt out from behind the conversation circle and flung himself at Thrawn's legs. Ayesha was still laughing as she led them to the kitchen. "Kal and Mira were invited to a party last night, so they asked me to babysit," she explained before Thrawn could place a word. "I fell asleep in the middle of the lullaby. They're coming to take Tammy to the nursery in half an hour."
"Hafanawaw," Tam repeated proudly.
She donned an apron and took the child on her lap while they ate – "you're wearing your uniform," she said, "what you really need if you want to feed Tammy is full-body armour" – and asked Thrawn about his trip, but he was answering her questions evasively. "State secrets again, uh? Okay, can I at least ask how crewman Prashat is doing?"
Tam was shovelling blue yoghurt in and around his mouth. "Kwew'an Pwashat," he warbled.
"That would be Corporal Prashat now," Thrawn corrected. "He managed to distinguish himself quite quickly and he already earned his first promotion." His lips twitched. "We can officially add him to the ranks of your admirers, Ayoo'sha. I do not know what you did to him while I was packing my bag, but he is absolutely smitten with you. I believe the entire Admonitor, if not the whole task force, has heard from him how beautiful, how talented and how kind the admiral's wife is."
It was her turn to arch an eyebrow. "The admiral's wife?"
"De ad'iwalz wayf?" Tam asked, sputtering blue droplets all over the table.
Thrawn chuckled. "I did try to rectify that to lifemate, which would be the appropriate term for the Chiss and also, as I understand, for Wookiees, but I am afraid that the damage was already done. Corporal Prashat talks much more and much faster than I do."
Her expression softened. "Lifemate, eh? I like the sound of that."
"Laif'ayt, eh?" Tam repeated cheerfully, waving his spoon.
Ayesha laughed and escaped briefly from the kitchen as Mira arrived to pick her son. She returned immediately to stand in front of Thrawn, who was still sitting at the breakfast table and finishing his caf. "I imagine you have to leave to the Palace soon, since you're all dressed up, but your lifemate would like a cuddle before you go. You will be pleased to hear that she missed you."
Thrawn pulled her close to bury his face in her belly. "I am also pleased to find you at home, Ayoo'sha. I did not expect to see you until this afternoon, I thought you would still be in the Centre so early in the morning."
"I changed my schedule in the Centre. From now on I'm doing a 24-hour shift, from Centaxday afternoon to Taungsday afternoon."
He looked up at her. "Will that not be very tiring for you?"
She swatted the top of his head. "Oi, mother avian! It won't. We don't have work around the clock, so I'll be getting naps in-between. And I'll be doing one trip a week instead of two, so you'll worry only half as much, which was the whole point."
He held her tighter and buried his face in her belly again. "Thank you," he murmured.
"For nothing. I know that you take your life-oath to the letter, and I'm grateful for that, but I see that you're concerned and I should do what I can to put that mother avian mind of yours at ease." She felt him kiss her through her nightdress and he had soon tugged the thin fabric up to her hips. "Keep that up and you won't be leaving to the Palace anytime soon," she whispered.
"The flimsiwork in the Palace can wait a little longer," he breathed huskily. "I am confident that I can make time for more than a cuddle."
When Thrawn returned from the Palace in the evening, Ayesha was cooking dinner. He dropped a thick pile of flimsi envelopes on the kitchen counter and sat on one of the bar stools. "It seems that high social life in the Empire knows no limits," he said. "These are the invitations to Palace events that were waiting for me in High Command after less than a month of absence. I thought we might want to look at them together."
Ayesha nodded and wiped her hands as she came to sit at his side. There were invitations to the premiere of an opera in the Imperial Concert Hall – "this we should avoid at all costs," Thrawn said, "I know the librettist and his work is what you call pompous bantha poodoo," – to the graduation ceremony of a new batch of Royal Guards – "urgh, I'm not coming to that one," she muttered, "those guys just give me the creeps," – to promotions of junior officers, to the unveiling of a new Star Destroyer, to another dance recital in the Emperor's private auditorium – "thank the stars the date already passed, I know it was our first evening out together, but I really don't want to repeat the experience," – and to a myriad more smaller Palace functions. They were reaching the bottom of the pile when Thrawn opened a large envelope with the Empire's seal.
"His Majesty mentioned this to me when I saw him earlier today," he said. "He thought you might want to come given your interest in diverse cultures. New ambassadors are presenting their credentials, and there will be a concert and traditional dancing after the ceremony."
Ayesha grimaced. "If the Emperor mentioned it, it qualifies as a summons rather than an invitation, doesn't it? Which worlds are the ambassadors from?"
Thrawn ran through the list. "Dantooine, Palanhi, Arkania, Dac – this is interesting, the planet has all but officially joined the Rebellion – Mimban, Daalang, Hypori, Drexel, Woostri and Kiffu."
"Umph," she grumbled. "Let me guess. The Kiffar ambassador is from clan Malki."
Thrawn checked the flimsi sheet. "You are correct. Paraseel Malki is his name."
Her entire body jerked. "Paraseel Malki? Paraseel Malki is the new Kiffar ambassador?"
He looked up at her sharply. She was deathly pale and trembling. "Ayoo'sha, are you alright?"
"Paraseel Malki is the new Kiffar ambassador," she repeated, and she suddenly broke into maniacal laughter, shaking so hard that she fell off her stool. Thrawn knelt at her side. "Don't touch me!" she yelled hysterically when he held a hand to her shoulder. "Stay away from me! Stay away from me!" She was clutching her head in her hands as if it were exploding, her eyes had become glassy and unfocused and were swivelling in all directions, and more incoherent screams came out of her mouth in a jumble of Basic and Old Kiffar.
Thrawn tried to talk to her and to hold her hands, to bring her out of the seizure somehow, but she did not even seem to notice his presence anymore. She was soon writhing and banging her head on the floor, fighting him tooth and nail when he tried to restrain her and prevent her from hurting herself. It took all of his strength to subdue her and carry her to the bedroom. By the time he came out of the 'fresher with the medpac, she had torn off her clothes and was crouching in a corner, rocking back and forth and chewing her wrist so hard that blood streamed down her chin. Without hesitation, he pressed the hypospray to her neck and, as soon as the sedative took over, he laid her on the bed, bandaged her wrist and covered her with a warm blanket. He then went straight to the comm desk in the dining area and looked for Flo's diner's number to get in touch with Simon at the Centre – she had it saved under 'donuts' – but suddenly changed his mind and keyed for 'home' instead. The holo of a dark-furred Wookiee flickered to life. "I am Thrawn," he said. "Ayesha needs your help."
END OF PART I