Admiral's Honor [ThrawnXReader][Arranged Marriage]

Chapter 7

"You are in pain your Highness?" Thrawn asked you quietly, a bit of concern etched on his face. Though you weren't sure if it was actually a question or more of a statement. 

You lifted your head off of his arm and nodded, gritting your teeth, and sucking in shallow breaths, trying your best not to aggravate your broken ribs. There was blood on Thrawn's sleeve where your head had been. You must have hit your head too when you had slammed onto the floor. "Just a bit." you ground out. 

Thrawn slid his blaster back into the holster at his side and shifted his hold on you to his other arm. Then he lifted you up bridal style and stood up in one easy motion. He hadn't warned you, though that was probably for the best. You gasped in pain. 

You did spare a moment to notice how easy it had been for him to lift you. You wen't a huge person, but you weren't exactly light either. You could remember other times in your life where someone had for various reasons, struggled under your weight. But to Thrawn it seemed like he barely noticed you.

He started walking, careful not to jostle you further. "I'm going to take you to the Medical Bay." he said calmly, back to his unreadable voice and facial expression.

"You're doing it yourself?" you asked a bit surprised. You had assumed he would pass you off to someone else. "You really are different than I thought you would be." you said between shallow breaths. Though you never looked up at his face. If you had you would have seen him send you that strange look again. The one he had sent you when you had first met him. The one that you still hadn't had time to decipher.

"You are in my care. In the end it was my responsibility to keep you safe... and I have failed." 

This time you did glance up at him, "I'm sure it wasn't your fault." you said, not really knowing what to say. The intense eye contact made you a bit uncomfortable so you looked back down again quickly.

Thrawn's eyes were still glowing a dangerous red. He had failed. He knew that. He should have anticipated the attack. But because the ship had made it safely into hyperspace he had thought the danger was past, at least until they would have re-entered real-space at the end of the journey. He had been mistaken. And it had almost cost you your life. Thrawn was also aware that it still might cost him his own if the Emperor believed that Thrawn was to blame in all of this.

He replayed the order of events in his head as he carried you towards the med-bay, in an attempt to discover what he had missed. 

The shuttle that brought you aboard had landed and you disembarked. You had gone to the bridge along with him and Commander Faro. You had left for your quarters. The Chimaera had jumped to hyperspace. It remained in hyperspace for approximately 30 minutes. Then the ship had been ripped out of hyperspace somehow.

Then Thrawn realized it. The Rebels had somehow already been aboard ship before The Chimaera had entered hyperspace. He pursed his lips and his alien brows knit together in thought.

You looked up at him again. "Whats wrong?" you asked. 

One of his eyebrows shot up as he glanced down at you. "As far as I can tell, the rebels had to have been aboard ship before the Chimaera entered hyperspace. But before we left for Coruscant their ship had not been in the hangar. How do you think they did it?"

"I hadn't even realized we were in hyperspace." you said, thoughtfully. Your face also screwing up in concentration. Thrawn only nodded. "That moment when the ship lurched, must have been the ship getting pulled back into real-space... The rebels could have magnetically locked onto the ship somewhere and waited for the ship to come out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere, then flown their ship into the hangar amid the confusion..." then you added, a bit embarrassed that this whole thing was about you, "And basically unopposed what with the death threat hanging over my head and all." 

"Indeed that is the only logical conclusion I myself could think of. Though how did they manage to get magnetically locked to the hull of the Chimaera, much less get that close, without being spotted by the scanners. And how did they get the Chimaera to come out of hyperspace?"

"Well the first part is relatively easy." you said. Thrawn raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Its a commonly known pirate trick. Though it's not used very often because it is very dangerous and requires some prior knowledge. Basically if you know where a ship is going to come out of hyperspace you can wait right next to that spot. As soon as the ship appears next to you you set up the mag lock. The trick is being close but not so close that you get smashed. And it only works if your ship is completely powered down when your target enters the system."

"Interesting." Thrawn intoned. "Your theory would imply a great deal of information about your discovery, and the Chimaera's travel plans, having been leaked enough in advance for the rebels to have time to plan their attack." He thought for several more moments. Then he appeared to come to a conclusion. "What about the second part? Do you also have a theory about that?"

"Are you asking my opinion?" you asked. It appeared he already had some idea of the answer and was just digging to see what you would say.

"Yes." was Thrawn's blunt reply. 

"Well they could have breached the hull where they had the mag lock. How long would it have taken them to cut through?"

"It depends on where they had attached themselves to it. There are some places nearer to the real-space engines that are a bit thinner as they aren't pressurized. If they made it into those areas, they would presumably have been able to slice their way through any of the maintenance access hatches. On the plus side those areas are off limits to personnel during hyperspace travel due to the dangers it presents." 

"What was it? 30 minutes in hyperspace?" you asked  

"That was also my rough estimate."

"Do you think that is enough time to cut through?" you thought for another moment, something occurring to you. "They would have had to have vac suits to get from the breach to the hatchway. But they weren't wearing suits when they grabbed me. If you send people to search for the discarded suits back by all the maintenance accesses you would know if that's how they got in or not."

"Indeed." Thrawn said, nodding thoughtfully. "You reached the same conclusion I did. Though the tactic you supplied for the 'first part' was previously unknown to me."  

"Don't feel bad." you said with a smirk, as Thrawn rounded a corner, the med-bay coming into sight. "Not many people use it, and those who do tend to get crushed."