Eternity in a Box
By Ladyravena
Chapter Five: Trili
Trili slowly unwrapped a smaller bundle. "I went for small and light when I was picking items to give you. I knew that the others were going with the bigger, heavier items. But these… these are more useful than cumbersome."
Thrawn took the small bundle. Inside the thin shirt was a fair-sized weather-proof tool kit. Opening it up, Thrawn could see that Trili had bought him more specialized tools for the items that the others had given him. There were also several small pockets of spare screws, special sized nuts and bolts for …
"The army has already stored a double Ch'thak-class generator for your exile. I made sure that you had a few spare "generic" parts for it, hidden in the main casing of the first engine. Use the blue screwdriver to get the main casings off; they are spark welded to the inside. Easy to pry off without damaging anything."
Thrawn could barely move his gaze from her face. That information was the highest classification, and not privy to a lowly communications officer. To have found that out, and to have gained access to the storage facilities….
"Trili," he whispered, aghast.
"Don't be so concerned about me," she said, placing a hand on his knee. "I know how to scurry and snoop with the best of them. Worry about how your going to survive when your supplies run out." She straightened back into her seat. "And on that note, keep looking at your bundle."
Under the tool kit, two pairs of gloves were neatly tied together. One set was obviously for winter, being thick leather and fur lined. The other set was thinner, with no liner.
Saalin piped up. "For fishing and other high-blister activities, Thrawn."
"Look inside them," Trili prompted.
Thrawn obeyed. From each finger of each glove dropped a small packet of seeds, tiny bulbs, dried cuttings of several succulents, spore collections, kernels, and tubers. All were smaller than a 2 inch screw, and all were wrapped so that nothing could escape.
"Everything from teas to lettuce, and everything else that your black thumbs won't kill. Simple to grow: put in ground, eat when big." Trili giggled. "Well, I guess that you might need a bit more information than that." With that, she pulled out the last addition to Thrawn's inventory.
A leather bound book.
He took the tomb with shaking hands. The inside pages were all covered in a clear laminate. The pages themselves were hand written, with illustrations, directions, helpful hints and tricks. Looking over the table of contents, he saw that there was a section for all their gifts, more information on medical treatments, sewing, hunting, fishing, along with new information on tanning hides, making replacement hooks, bows, and arrowheads, cooking over an open fire and a dozen more topics. Better than any textbook, each section had been spiced with comments and personal stories from each of his friends, little pictograms from Saalin, treaty discussions from Frixs, tinkering ideas from Trili, and memories from Lyn about their time together.
On the very last page a single photo was placed in the center. All five of them, in full dress uniform … Lyn hanging off his arm … Frixs at parade attention on his other side … Saalin crouching in front with Trili, smiling at the camera … together for one moment in lives that had spanned the entirety of the Ascendancy's borders.
"So the winters don't take our faces from you," Lyn whispered in his ear, hand rubbing the tense muscles in his back.