Admiral's Honor [ThrawnXReader][Arranged Marriage]

Chapter 30

"This is the infamous Grand Admiral's command chair." You said with a devious smirk. You leaned back and lounged, making a face. You tried to look intimidating, though the effect was apparently lost on Thrawn. He simply raised an eyebrow at you in what appeared to be thinning patience, but there was a barely perceptible edge of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth so you figured you were still in the clear. 

Well, you figured that until Thrawn cocked his head, matching the devious look that you had had on your face only a moment ago. "Look who thinks she's in charge." he said just loud enough for the other officers to hear. He directed his voice to the rest of the crew. "Senior Lieutenant Lomar," 

"Yes sir," came the immediate reply.

"Inform second command that we are relinquishing control of the Chimaera to them, as we will begin running a drill momentarily."

"Yes sir."

Your eyes widened in realization of what Thrawn was about to do, and you quickly moved to exit the seat, but Thrawn's hand on your shoulder stopped you. It was gentle, but he did push you back into the seat. "Are you not up for a bit of fun, Your Highness?" he challenged you with that smirk of his. "You're the one who sat down in the command chair. Don't think you can handle it?" 

You narrowed your eyes at his challenge. "No. I can handle it..." you knew you were going to eat those words. "...Maybe." you amended just in case you failed epic-ally. Some of your sudden nerves showed through your voice. 

Lomar's voice broke through again, "Sir, Second command has taken control of the ship.

"Thank you Senior Lieutenant. Bridge, switch your consoles to simulation mode." 

"Yes sir." came the chorus again. 

"Oh kriffing hell." you cursed under your breath. 

Thrawn's head snapped back in your direction, his hand still resting on your shoulder, "What was that Your highness?"

"Hmm?" you hummed, looking up at Thrawn as if he had caught you deep in thought. "Nothing." you answered. 

Thrawn smiled at you again, clearly enjoying himself. One of the officers, you think they were the Technical Systems Officer, walked up to Thrawn and handed him a bulky datapad. He let go of your shoulder and moved farther away from you, standing closer to the transparisteel viewport in front of you. He pressed several buttons, clearly working out the beginnings of the drill. 

Then he addressed the bridge. "For the sake of this exercise Her Majesty is in command of the bridge. It will begin in hyperspace, with 5 minutes to breakout at destination. Stand by... Begin." He pressed a button and the data screen attached to the arm of the command chair sprang to life with various reading from the different crew stations scrolling across the screen. 

You looked at Thrawn, hoping he would be a little gracious and give you some idea of what to do, but he merely smiled and waited for you to do something. You actually began to panic a bit before you realized what you were doing. You sucked in a breath, and braced yourself for how huge of a fool you were going to make of yourself. Better to try than to not try at all and look like worse of an idiot. You were going to impress Thrawn some way, some how, even if it killed you. Which you knew it wouldn't because it was just a drill. Nothing that important was actually riding on this, so no pressure, right?

You grit your teeth. "Can I get a short status update on the ship's systems please?" You had hoped to sound a bit more in control than that, but at least you got the word out. You'll take what you can get. 

"Ships engines are all at 100 percent functionality Ma'am. Currently only the main hyperdrive is running."

"Deflectors are at 100 percent as well Ma'am." 

"Weapons are reporting all turbo-lasers and ion cannons fully operational Ma'am."

When nobody else chimed in, you assumed that was all you needed to know about that for the time being. You glanced at Thrawn, his expression had become skillfully neutral. 

3 minutes to breakout. 

"Okay. Umm..... As soon as we come out of hyperspace I want a scan done of the surrounding area. Report any ships, or anything out of the ordinary immediately upon arrival." 

"Yes Ma'am." You assumed that was the Sensor Array Officer who answered. Then you realized that this crew was used to working with Thrawn and by now could probably anticipate things that he would normally do. The could probably run the ship marginally without anyone telling them what to do at this point. That would make this exercise quite a bit easier on you. All you had to do was leave as much of it up to them as possible. 

T-1:30 and counting. 

Screw it. "Is there anything else that I need to know before we come out?" you asked, scrolling through the readings on your own display, even thought you couldn't understand what most of them meant. 

The Flag Captain, Marinith, you think it was stepped up next to you. "No Ma'am, I don't believe there is." 

You sighed in relief, almost gasping out "Thank y---" before stopping yourself and saying it with your closest imitation of Thrawn's poise that you could manage without sounding ridiculous.  "Thank you Flag Captain... Mari-nith." you said, the name slowly, hoping you got it right.

He nodded. You must have. "Of course Ma'am" The Flag Captain didn't move from his new position to your right. You looked up at Thrawn and smiled, feeling a bit of triumph. 

Thrawn merely smiled back and pressed another few buttons on his datapad, his eyes glinting. 

10 seconds.

You decided to take a page out of Thrawn's book yet again, and used his own words from earlier "Stand by for break out... in three, two...one."

Author's note: Here's to celebrating Chapter 30! This is definitely the longest I've ever kept up with writing a book, and its still not over. I would like to take a moment to thank all of you who are following this story. You are what has kept me going on this for so long. And you have even pulled me back to it a time or two... or maybe every time, its a moot point. Anyways, just wanted to say that I love y'all. <3<3<3

Love You BYE!