Infiltration (Thrawn x Reader)

Chapter 4 - Tarkin's Shadow

Another year later, four years in the Empire, two years with squad

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The five of us stepped off the shuttle and into Coruscant's bustling space port. Tarkin was here for a meeting with the Emperor, and the Fortitude would be staying for almost a week. I decided it was a perfect opportunity to take the squad out for a little team bonding, and drinking, of course.

Kellchri and Darro argued over the best cantina, but when I heard Darro's was many levels below Kellchri's suggestion, I overruled and picked Kellchri's. I did however act like I got us a bit lost in order to go down a specific road.

There, on the corner, was a homeless man with a brand new hat on the ground, a small, gold emblem on his coat jacket indicating who he was. I bent down as I passed, dropping credits into the hat, and two small datachips. My recent reports to Bail Organa, consisting of the last three months.

Ten minutes later we all squeezed into a round booth. I ordered us a round of shots and drinks, and we clinked the small shot glasses together and downed the gross liquid. I made a face, disgusted, and Darro laughed. With an eye roll, I smiled, remembering the time we shared an expensive bottle of whiskey. I wouldn't tell him this, but I thought it was gross too, only a few notches better than this agave extracted poison.

We joked around for a while, until we were all feeling happily intoxicated.

"Darro," I said, smiling at him. "Tell us more about your surgical enhancements." He'd given us the basics when we started, and we've learned a bit since. But I thought it was fascinating.

He lifted up his left hand and grinned. "This hand is fake down to here," he pointed to about half way down his arm. My eyes went wide, I hadn't read that in his file, nor has he mentioned it.

"But it looks real," I said, confused. He reached down and gripped an empty glass. He squeezed it, and in an instant it shattered.

"Woo!" said Kellchri, clapping. I looked around to see if someone was going to kick us out, but the cantina was loud, and nobody seemed to notice or care.

"Wow," I said, nodding. "What else?"

"Hold on!" said Kandria. "Darro, I could make that hand better, if you'd like."

"How so?" he asked her.

"Easy! I'd slice into it."

I laughed. "Kandria, I don't think you can slice into everything."

"Nonsense! If it's electrical, I can slice it. But really, prosthetics have settings. I could make it to where you could control it better, allowing it to do super fine movements with a surgeon's precision, or even stronger motions than it can already achieve."

He cocked his head at her. "I'd appreciate that very much, actually."

She grinned widely at him. "Alright!" I laughed again. She loved her electronics.

Kellchri spoke up. "You know, I've been working on a new nanobot," I interrupted him.

"What, why?"

He looked at me in mock annoyance. "To use as a weapon," he said, as if it were obvious. I gave him a conceding look and motioned for him to continue.

"My original goal was to infiltrate droids with it, but I've come across some snags. It works fine if I already have control of the droid, but I am having issues overriding non-Imperial ones."

"I can help with that," piped Kandria.

"Yeah, that would be cool, but actually, you just gave me another idea. Bear with me for a second," he said, glancing at me accusatorially. I held up my hands in defense, indicating I wouldn't interrupt.