It was the pounding within his head that first woke him, rhythmic beatings of miners against his skull. He groaned with the pain, but found that to be a mistake as his throat exploded into flames and a breathless gasp escaped instead.
"Good. You're awake." A familiar voice said. The lieutenant frowned, trying give a face to the voice. Failing that, his eyes blinked open against the light, blurring his image until they opened unto the focused vision of the blue-skinned Grand Admiral, his red eyes observing. The human then scrambled to stand up, ignoring the sudden light-headedness and the fresh agonies, but a hand rested on his shoulder and Admiral Thrawn's lips faintly smiled in amusement. "At ease Lieutenant. A medbay patient is hardly expected to stand on ceremony." The Grand Admiral then offered a glass of cool water in his other hand and the officer nodded gratefully before quenching the fires within.
"The doctor said that there will be no lingering physical damage," Thrawn continued. "That's something at any rate. As long as you avoid drawing any more rigged straws, you should be fine."
"R-rigged, sir?," then a hacking cough burst from the lieutenant's mouth. The blue hands returned the glass to the sink and turned the tap.
"Yes, rigged," the water cascaded down before the tap squeezed back into place. The Admiral walked back with the glass, "On ships controlled the way Vader controls them, some officers become unscrupulous and seek to utilize their leader's rage for a quick promotion, an unfortunate occurrence." Thrawn handed the glass back to the patient, who nursed it down while looking up questionably.
"Their game then is to stay under the radar," continued the Admiral. "And convince someone, preferably a superior, to take the fall whenever Vader should be displeased. If the superior should take the fall, the officer would have a high chance to move up in rank." The red eyes perused the figure before him. "In this case, rigging straws was just one tool. Others were reminders of the officer's responsibility to their subordinates or of their age in relation to younger officers who had longer to live, fostering loyal superiors who would be willing to give their own life if that would save their subordinates from wrongful death. Officers already loyal to their men take very little work in this form of duplicity." The lieutenant glanced down, knowing what and who the Admiral meant and seeing how much he had been an ideal target. Thrawn paused and eyed the patient, his gaze seeming to peer into the other's innermost depths.
"Fortunately for you," Thrawn said. "Vader has less patience with disloyalty than for those who fail. I arranged a medical team to pick you up while we investigated and to keep you out of his path if he wasn't satisfied by what we discovered on the bridge. Your little traitor was the only one seeking to pin you as responsible and kept doing so till the end."
The human shivered at that last statement. He was glad he wasn't dead (at least he wasn't yet), but the lad had had his whole life ahead of him. Besides, any time a fellow enlisted was punished by death was a tragic occasion, even if slightly earned. He looked back up at the Admiral and asked, "W-Why-" before his body fell to a coughing fit again. Darn his throat hurt! His glass was grabbed, filled, and handed back to him.
"Why save you?" the Admiral said. The lieutenant nodded, then took another sip from his glass. Thrawn grabbed a nearby data pad and scrolled through until he was able to pull up the records he wanted. "Lieutenant Gilad Pellaeon. Joined the Galactic Republic navy during the Clone Wars. Rose through the ranks, served with distinction, and was commended for your ability to act on your own, your courage, and your loyalty to your men and the service. When the Galactic Republic became the Galactic Empire, you stayed and continued to serve with distinction. You rose through the ranks until you came to your current position, in all likelihood on your way to further promotion elsewhere though opportunities have been stagnant as of now." Thrawn set the data pad back down. "Quite simply, you're too valuable to be thrown away, especially in one of the Dark Lord's temper tantrums. Unfortunately, the longer you're here, the more likely you'll come under his wrath again." Thrawn paused, making sure he had the lieutenant's attention. "However, I can offer you a chance off here. I need a new executive officer on my flagship, the Chimera. My previous officer was transferred onto Grand Moff Tarkin's flagship." He picked the data pad back up, opened up to where he wanted, then handed it to Pellaeon. "Here's the information what the position would require. If you accept the transfer, sign on the bottom line and I'll take care of the rest of the paperwork."
Lt. Pellaeon grasped the pad and read through the document. He had been wanting a transfer since the first week, but had always been blocked before. Now, he had a way out and for a higher rank than his current one. This was too good an opportunity to pass up, no matter what motivations the Grand Admiral had for offering the position. If things didn't work, he would either request transfer or be dead. It seemed like he had more chance of life there than under Vader's command. Pellaeon signed his name then handed the data pad back to Thrawn. Thrawn softly smiled then extended his hand. "Welcome to the Chimera then, Executive Officer Pellaeon," Thrawn said as the two shook hands on it. "My first order to you is to rest up and recover while I finalize the transfer." With that, the Grand Admiral turned around and exited the medbay. Pellaeon watched as he left then surrendered back to slumber, more at peace with what was to come than ever before.
And with that this two-shot is complete. Sorry for the long wait. If you guys would like to see more stories within this au, please comment. I would kind of like to do some one-shots within this verse though in a new collection. The comments can include scenes you would like me to do.
Thank you for your views, favorites, and comments.
(I do not own the above characters, who are all the property of Disney now. I would like to thank and highly credit Timothy Zahn for the creation of the classic characters, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Gilad Pellaeon.)