Lieutenant Commander Eli Vanto stood in Lisaar's cold mist and tried not to shiver, in part because it would be bad for morale and in part because Commodore Thrawn wasn't shivering, either. It wouldn't do to distract him while he was staring at the carvings intently.
Thrawn leaned in further. His brows knit attractively and he made a small noise in thought.
Okay, maybe Eli just didn't want to embarrass himself in front of the Commodore he'd spent years translating for and surreptitiously admiring. Or be the reason Thrawn had to cut his study time short. He'd have been here anyway as the Commodore's aide, but his presence had been specifically requested.
The rebels had vacated the base before they'd arrived – Yularen had been informed, in case they'd been tipped off, but more likely this was just supposed to be a transient stop for them – and while they'd taken with them all but the impressions they'd left on the dirt, they had not touched the low ruins next to which they'd built their base.
It was possible the location was simply radar camouflage – some sort of structures would be expected there – but just as likely was that the rebels had chosen this location for a reason. And Thrawn could figure that out from the carvings on the wall.
"Light, please, Commander?" Thrawn asked.
Eli reached for his flashlight and held it at the edge of the wall so that the carvings would be thrown into relief. The weather had worn at them, Eli distantly thought as he tried to angle the light so that it wouldn't catch the pits but would catch the carvings. Signal to noise ratios. His fingers were freezing. The cold had seeped to his bones.
Thrawn frowned. "Intriguing. I haven't seen any examples in the flesh, but I suspect this was once a Jedi shrine."
"Do you think the rebels have a Jedi with them?" It would be a disappointment to dump this onto the Inquisitorius. They had a tendency to ignore everything but the suspected Jedi, and one didn't need to be a Jedi to cause significant damage to the Empire.
"They do not have a Jedi, but wish they did." Thrawn knelt to look at a different section of wall. Eli followed with the flashlight. "At the time of this wall's creation, the Jedi had only recently settled here, but they'd undergone significant losses. They hoped they could find peace on this planet and bond with it."
"They haven't been here for millennia," Eli hazarded.
"Even the noblest of intentions fades with exposure to reality." Thrawn reached out to run his fingers over a curlicue of text.
The entire wall lit up with blue light. "Sir-"
It was as if the universe had been dislocated and the joint suddenly snapped into place. Eli took an involuntary step back as the world spun.
The wall had stopped glowing. "Sir?"
Something buzzed low in Eli's mind, thoughts he'd yet to voice. The wall was covered in faint traces of the glow in a color for which Eli did not have a name.
He closed his eyes. The wall glowed.
"Sir?" he asked, trying not to freak out. It was hard, when there was another nexus of emotions brushing up against his own.
Thrawn stood up gingerly. "Let us head back to the ship." He glanced around. "It seem there are things we must discuss in private."
They didn't speak on the way up to the Chimaera. They didn't need to: Eli could feel the steady hum of Thrawn's thoughts press against his own, twisting and turning and plotting at lightspeed. Perhaps this was what Thrawn felt like.
Eli wondered what Thrawn was getting from him. He must be getting something – he'd called the return soon enough that the bond must go both ways – and the Stormtroopers looked to be unaffected.
Assuming that it was symmetric, Thrawn would be getting from him what he was getting from Thrawn. So: the sensation of another mind brushing against his. An awareness of the world that was slightly off-step from his own, due to the minor differences between human and Chiss sensory apparati. No actual thoughts or double vision. Perhaps something of a homing sense? Eli was even more acutely aware of where Thrawn was in relation to him than usual.
He risked a glance at Thrawn. Their eyes met. Eli broke the eye contact and tried to quiet his heart with slow breaths.
The shuttle landed in the bay. "We'll discuss things further in my office, Commander," Thrawn said and exited the shuttle to the bustle of the ship. He walked as if nothing were amiss, but Eli clearly felt the mystical homing beacon that had attached itself to his commanding officer, and based on the way Thrawn's thoughts jolted as if sidetracked, Eli had a similar one attached to him.
He hurried to catch up with Thrawn. There was some sort of proximity effect to the connection, Eli noticed as the humming in his mind grew louder.
They didn't speak until Thrawn had closed the door to his office and turned on a jammer. "We need to characterize this ... bond," he said. "What have you observed so far?"
"I can't read your thoughts, but I can feel you thinking," Eli said. "As well as some secondhand impressions of how your eyes see things. The most noticeable feature is that I'm aware of where you are and sort of pulled towards you." A sensation of wary calculation, as well, but he wasn't sure if that came through the bond or if he was merely reading Thrawn's expression.
Thrawn nodded and gazed at him speculatively. Eli shivered as his gaze ran over him in a distinctly appraising way. "It affects me similarly." His thoughts ran against Eli's, whose mind went frighteningly blank as it surrendered to pure endocrine response.
Of course, instead of giving him time to recover, Thrawn stepped closer and cupped his cheek. Everything became much more intense. "It seems the bond reacts to physical contact."
"I suppose that's logical, sir," Eli inanely replied, trying very hard not to gasp.
"Further testing is necessary, of course," Thrawn said and picked Eli up.
He didn't leave it at that, either – Eli was subjected to Thrawn holding him, touching him in various places while Thrawn made thoughtful noises and asked him for input. Eli did his best to sound coherent and professional, but feared Thrawn would see through it immediately. Especially as the more time they spent in close contact, the more Eli could sense from Thrawn – calculation and anticipation and a trap in the process of springing – and thus the more Thrawn must sense from Eli.
By the time Thrawn was holding Eli's hand, running his fingertip across the back, Eli was ready to die of shame. The fact that Thrawn must know that through the bond didn't help.
"I take it you're feeling some of my emotions?" Thrawn asked. He didn't let go of Eli's hand.
"Yes, sir." Eli felt his cheeks burn.
"Describe them."
"Anticipation," Eli immediately said, doing his best to detach from his own mass of unpleasant neurochemicals and beginnings of physical arousal to see what Thrawn was undergoing. "Like a kath hound that's gotten its prey right where it wants it."
Thrawn had the audacity to smirk. Something hot and dark coiled in his veins for a moment before he shoved it down. Eli caught it and – hm. Had Thrawn been human, Eli would have been certain of his guess, but he didn't know whether Chiss emotions were a one-on-one match. Nonetheless...
Thrawn was still holding his hand when he leaned over, lips close to Eli's ear. "Follow me." He let go of Eli's hand and turned around.
"Sir, is this some sort of Chiss courtship thing?" Eli blurted out before he'd lose his nerve.
Thrawn turned enough that he could look over his shoulder and cock an eyebrow at Eli. "Do you want it to be?"
Normally, Eli would demur, but now, when he could feel Thrawn's mind against his own, feel the anticipation and superimpose it over the controlled tension of his body – "You know, sir," he said, striding forward with a cocky smile, "I believe I do."
"Excellent," Thrawn purred as he let Eli turn him around.
"Would you like to be introduced to human courtship practices as well?" Eli was giddy with the desire he felt coming from himself and Thrawn both, reflecting between them and building up to sizzling heights. He hooked two fingers in the collar of Thrawn's uniform.
"I believe that would be most agreea-"
Eli yanked him down into a kiss.
It felt odd to receive a low echo of sensory input from another person in addition to one's own, and the bond hummed strongly with the increased skin contact. Eli felt electric as he clenched his hand in Thrawn's collar and plastered his mouth against Thrawn's.
By unspoken mutual agreement, they leaned back and panted. The bond receded slightly at the distance, but its low hum was still present.
Eli had gotten quite good at guessing at Thrawn's emotional state over the years, but now he could be certain. And Thrawn was awfully smug. So smug, in fact, that Eli couldn't help but suspect he'd planned it all from the start, Jedi ruins and all.
Bastard, Eli thought very loudly.
The smug sensation intensified, and Thrawn pulled him in for another kiss.