> Protests by members of the movement for political and social change known as Asantu-sar continued for a third week outside the royal palace and planet-wide as thousands of Tavit-wey denizens pressed for full citizenship and a parliamentary government to replace the monarchy. Though an elected position, nominees for Chieftess can be drawn only from the noble Sajoku Tavit, and Electors are drawn from the enlightened Tavit-dar. Protest organizers say the current political situation is 'unsustainable and antithetical to modern notions of civil rights'. Some protesters also complained that the Rayeths are excluded from global political affairs, although this reporter found that support for Rayeth suffrage was sparse among the assemblage.

>

> In other news, authorities are no closer to solving the disappearances of mostly Tavit-wey denizens that have plagued Akushima Prefecture and others for the past three months. Asked for comment, Clan Nimor's security commissar, Lady Anara Nimor, indicated that a 'vigorous investigation is underway with several promising leads', though she declined to elaborate. She pleaded with citizens and denizens alike to contact her office with any information that might aid the investigation.

- Advita Abetaka

Inusagi InfoNews

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41:03:19

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The crew of Allegra's Heart stepped out of the polished blue and white 7N40 passenger shuttle and stood in a semicircle, staring up at the scintillating Navata.

"She is quite the ship," Reiko offered, still abuzz and envious after they'd finished their tour.

Behind her, Taz agreed with vigorous nods. "Don't think I've ever seen that kind of luxury before." The shuttle's boarding door closed and it lifted back toward the yacht in a swirl of wind and singing repulsors.

Raga bowed in receipt of their compliments and led them past the blocky, glass-enclosed spaceport terminal. A double column of waist-high brushed metal cylinders with flashing warning lights telescoped out of the hard pavement, forming a walkway between them. A platform elevator surrounded by tubular rails of the same burnished metal sat some distance out on the permacrete. Seelam waited there beside a control pod. When they'd gathered inside the railing, Raga nodded to Seelam who worked the controls on the lift, lowering the platform into the subterranean hangar.

Strip lights embedded in the shaft took over the work of the morning sun as a heavy hatch irised closed overhead. Sera angled her chin toward the curved staves tucked into Seelam's and Shin's sashes. They had oval cross-sections and elaborately-carved bronzium end caps that couldn't quite disguise the shock probes from the commando's sharp eyes.

"Stun batons?"

"In part, honored guest Rendix." Shin grasped the top, drawing forth a gleaming steel blade. Its single edge had a gentle sweep that terminated in a stout chisel point. A tapered bronzium collar ensured a flawless fit with the scabbard's matching chape. "The tulan-sho, a traditional weapon of the Inusagi people."

"Beautiful." Sera's verdant eyes glowed in the artificial lights as they descended. "Can I take a closer look?"

Seelam looked like he'd endured some kind of affront. Shin glanced at Lyra.

She rolled her eyes. Rutting traditions. "Personal weapons are highly regarded, Rendix. We don't like to let others handle them."

"Oh, that's fine. I didn't mean to offend."

Lyra explained, "Sera's a warrior, Uncle Shin. She's never seen a blaster or blade she didn't want to get to know better." She threw in a smirk at the commando.

Raga sized up the Corellian woman for a brief moment. He sheathed the long knife and slipped the glossy weapon from his sash, scabbard and all. He held it out to her, balanced on his palms.

Sera's brows lifted. "It's okay?"

"It's traditional to accept an offered weapon with both hands," Lyra instructed under her breath, "and to bow in acknowledgment and appreciation."

Sera took the tulan-sho in her hands. She and Shin executed modest bows, then she drew the blade, marveling at its silky exit from the lacquered scabbard. Below the polished spine with its aurodium-inlayed floral vines and sakoola blossoms, the beveled steel swirled with light and dark patterns. A mark or two on the flat of the blade and telltale imperfections in its thick spine testified to previous use, perhaps in mortal struggles. Her smile grew as she tested the balance, moving the blade in her hand with practiced grace. Raga made the slightest approving nod.

She found a small activation stud under her thumb. "The hilt's too sleek for a vibrogenerator." She glanced at Shin. "Monomolecular cord?"

"You are an observant warrior, honored guest Rendix."

Sera turned it a few more times, admiring the exquisite workmanship of the weapon. Though it was old, it had been lovingly maintained. She returned the blade to its scabbard, rubbing her finger lightly over the black lacquer with its crackled finish that showed a gossamer tracery that faded from yellow to green and blue.

Sera sighed, balancing the weapon on her upturned palms. "It's the most beautiful, blade I've ever seen. I'll bet it's as deadly as it is elegant." She didn't do a great job hiding her regret as she returned it to Shin.

"In trained hands such as yours, indeed." Raga received it and they exchanged another set of polite bows just as the lift settled into the floor.

The hangar was probably a kilometer across, busy with maintenance crews and droids. There were any number of aircars and small transports, a twin of the 7N40 cutter they'd just left, and an egg-shaped Eta-2 starfighter, to count only a few. The fighter bore sky blue livery with yellow and silver accents and the clan's sigil on the wings.

Shin's face lit up as he caught sight of the Skipjack Chimera, bathed in floodlights. Smiling at his enthusiasm, Lyra led the way to the YX-1530, touching a control on her wrist link to deploy the boarding ramp. Seelam stopped at the bottom, taking a position like a sentry.

"You don't want to come aboard?"

"Starships hold no fascination for me, Lady Lyra. I will await you here." He made a perfunctory bow while the others proceeded up the ramp. Reiko took Shin's arm and walked him through the ship, touring all of the compartments, but spending most of their time in the cockpit and engineering bay.

Loitering in the lounge, Lyra said, "I should probably have mentioned this earlier, but the clan isn't really crazy about outsiders carrying weapons, especially big ones." She curled her lip and dropped her gaze to the blaster on Sera's thigh.

"How about something not so big?" Sera probed.

"I suppose, as long as you're discrete about it —"

"I'll be right back!" she called, already halfway to her cabin. A minute later she emerged waving her compact PK12 backup pistol before slipping it into the concealment holster under her jacket. "How's that?"

"It'll do." Lyra rolled her eyes.

Taz followed Sera's lead, exchanging his bulky DT-15 for one of the light blasters she'd given them. He joined the women in the lounge, tucking the gun into a pocket of his utility vest. He and Sera shared big smiles.

"You two might as well be siblings!" Lyra carped at their smug looks and fist bumps.

They went down the ramp and spent another half hour walking around the ship. Shin examined it from every angle, ducking under the aft hull with surprising dexterity and calling for a repulsor platform so he and Reiko could inspect the top of the ship.

When they came down, Shin walked arm in arm with Reiko, looking as happy as Lyra had seen him. He bowed before her. "An impressive vessel, Lady Lyra, honored guest Oktos. Honored guest Hudson, I thank you sincerely for your kind indulgence of this old man," said Raga, kissing her hand and bowing.

Reiko stifled a giggle and put on as serious a look as she could manage. "You're welcome, Uncle Shin. Ships are my passion! And droids. And Sera-sha, of course!"

"Yes, don't forget me Rei-sha," Sera drawled.

Lyra cracked a wide grin. "If I didn't know better I'd say the two of you shared the same DNA."

Raga gave Reiko a long look. "Some scholars posit that the Shirumon genetic line of humanity began on Inusagi and spread throughout the Mid Rim thousands of years ago."

Rei shrugged. "My mom always told us her ancestors immigrated to F'Dann Nine as refugees, though she never said where they came from. Maybe it was from here, or somewhere nearby. There certainly are a lot of people on Inusagi who look like me." After a second, she asked, "What about your people, Lyra?"

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"The Ankriti? We're a Chalactan offshoot. Apparently my ancestors were more inclined to be merchants and explorers than spiritualist farmers. Colony ships from Chalacta found their way here millenia ago." Her expression turned dour. "They brought their rivalries with them, fought a lot of wars through the centuries, and eventually subjugated the Shirumon." She shared a regretful look with Shin.

"Anyway," Taz interjected to leaven the mood, "if you think the Skipjack Chimera is impressive, you should see the work Rei-aktuu did on her ship."

"Allegra's Heart!" Reiko exclaimed, then put on a pout. "Too bad we had to leave her behind for repairs."

"Allegra?" Shin cast a surprised glance at Lyra.

"Sera and Rei named her after Allegra," Lyra stated proudly and gave Rei's hand a squeeze.

"Indeed." The old man's dark eyes gleamed. "I would be honored to see her someday. May I show you one that I've been working on?"

"Ooh, I'd like that very much!"

"What's with the snubship?" inquired Taz as they passed by the compact Clone Wars-era Eta-2 fighter. A maintenance crew had removed the portside s-foils and were busy working on the components within the wing.

"The Navata's complement includes four of them, for escort duty. Like the yacht, they are rarely used except when Lady Nimor's security staff practices combat maneuvers."

Taz rubbed his chin. "A ship like that would probably be small enough to fit on the Chimera's docking clamp," he mused.

"Even if it could, what good would it be?" Lyra prompted. "You'd have to wear an EVA suit to board it unless you were in a hangar or on the ground."

Taz shrugged. Past the Eta and a row of speeders, they saw a pair of small ships sitting near the hangar walls. Maybe six meters long and not much taller than Taz, they were much alike, with side-by-side seating, downturned, thick stubby wings, and vertical engine pods near the wing roots.

Lyra's eyes went wide and she broke into a trot at the sight of them. "Ajakeet!" she cried, sounding much more like a schoolgirl than a noblewoman. Stopping at the nearest one, she ran her hand lovingly along the pale blue fuselage and open canopy. When Taz and the others caught up, she exclaimed, "This is the first ship I ever flew! You kept her, Uncle Shin?"

"Indeed, my lady."

Reiko piped up. "It's a Slayn and Korpil model, like the cutters. A Syffid-class short-range courier, isn't it?"

"Indeed. The family purchased the Syffids many years ago. We intended to reconfigure them as patrol vessels and escorts for the Navata, but my modifications were unsuccessful and Lady Nimor's security team pressed for the Eta-Two fighters. We sold most of the Syffids, leaving only these." He touched the little courier's featherweight alloy-skinned hull. "This is Ajakeet-One, our courier, personal transport, and—" he winked at Lyra— "training vessel for wayward girls."

"Wayward girls?" repeated Taz.

Lyra wanted to scowl but she couldn't; too many happy memories flooded her mind. Surrendering to impulse, she swung her leg over the edge of the cockpit and settled into the narrow pilot's seat. The control yoke felt a little smaller than she remembered, but nothing else had changed, except the foot pedals were easier to reach. The chipped paint on the instrument panel, the auxiliary display screen with the crack in the corner— it was all exactly like it had been back then. Lyra took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the leather seats and the peculiar odor of the flat gray paint.

She shivered with delight. "Remember when we found Allegra's Heart, I told you that my sister dreamt of being a pilot? We snuck out of the house one time and went to the landing pad at the compound. Somehow she'd gotten her hands on the access codes and she was determined to fly, so we took Ajakeet here for a little joyride."

Taz grinned madly. "I'll bet that didn't go over too well."

Lyra shook her head, making her platinum hair glimmer. "We were only gone for a little while, not even an hour. It didn't take very long to figure out that neither of us had the slightest idea what we were doing." She chuckled at the memory and used her hand to demonstrate the wobbling, drunkard's path they cut through the sky.

"We panicked for a few minutes until Allegra thought to call Uncle Shin. He talked us down. It was an ugly landing—" She smacked her hands together. "We hit hard and collapsed the landing struts, but we made it in one piece. Aunt— the chieftess was furious, and our parents, well... Even Allegra's silver tongue couldn't get us out of a month's grounding. And extra chores."

Sera chortled and held her stomach. "Why doesn't that surprise me in the least?"

Lyra smirked. "Laugh it up, Rendix. You too, Oktos," she said when she caught Taz doing his best not to crack up.

Shin patted the rounded wing. It was stocky where it joined the sweeping fuselage, but thinner toward the end. "I knew their curiosity was not sated, so we made a promise. They could fly again, but only under my supervision."

Lyra hummed happily. "Mum and Lady Nimor were none too pleased, but Uncle Shin flew with the Royal Defense Force. He taught us the basics, enough so we wouldn't kill ourselves." Her smile faltered just a little. "Enough for Allegra to realize that I was the pilot she wanted to be."

"What about you, Lyra?" asked Reiko. "Did you want to fly too?"

"Me? I was thirteen. All I wanted to do was go shopping, skip school, and chase boys. But it turned out I wasn't half bad in a pilot's seat. It wasn't a passion of mine or anything, but after Allegra died... I guess I entered flight school thinking I could make her dream come true." She swallowed past the painful tightness in her throat and pushed back the tears that wanted to come. Allegra always chastised her when she got moody. It took an effort, but she smiled. I can't disappoint her now.

"Anyway," she went on, summoning as much cheer as she could, "Ajakeet here is special." She turned to Raga. "I'm so glad you still have her, Uncle."

"She is a fine ship, indeed, my lady. But she's not the one I wanted honored guest Hudson to see." He swept his hand toward the other Syffid. "This is Ajakeet-Two."

"Ooh!" exclaimed the young engineer. The second ship was similar, but in place of the smooth alloy skin, Ajakeet-2 wore a chunky mosaic of tough, irregularly-shaped duranium and titanium armor plates in shades of dull green, tan, and gray. The wings were angled downward and the engine pods were bigger, sporting dark orange paint, vectored thrust nozzles, and advanced cold plasma radiators. There were etheric control surfaces and additional maneuvering thrusters, too.

The light blasters under the chin were gone, replaced with potent lasers. Jutting from a pod on the portside wing was the business end of an M-45 repeating ion blaster, and a missile tube occupied the same spot on the other side. The canopy was thicker and the entire cockpit was sheathed in gray impervium armor.

Reiko and Taz swarmed over the little ship like dune beetles feasting on a ruktigon carcass. She poked her head out from beneath the front of the courier. "These are Borstel laser cannons, just like we had on our A-wings!"

"Indeed. Many of her components are from an RZ-One that I purchased from a salvager."

"All these changes... you made her into a proper fighter, didn't you, Uncle Shin?"

Lyra smiled at how Rei had just spontaneously adopted him. But then, that was Reiko to a fault.

"Lady Nimor indulged me, indeed. I'm ashamed to say that my pride was wounded after my failure to convert our Syffids into suitable escorts. It took many years of careful work upgrading nearly every system. I only regret that Ajakeet-Two is not yet capable of lightspeed travel without a hyperdrive ring."

Reiko climbed up on one of the wings to examine the top of the ship. "Syffids weren't equipped with hyperdrives, right?"

"Indeed. I intended to use the RZ-One's hyperdrive, but alas, it was damaged beyond repair. In any case, it was nothing more than a hobby project. I never expected her to be used, only to prove to myself that I could do the work. And now here she is indeed."

Reiko slid from where she'd climbed onto the hull, dropping lightly to the hangar floor. "Well, she looks marvelous! I couldn't have done better!"

Shin nodded deeply. "High praise, honored guest Hudson."

"Oh, Uncle Shin, just call me Rei. All my friends do."

"You honor me indeed, but that would be most improper, honored guest Hudson."

"The wings fold?" Taz asked, examining what looked like a hinging mechanism and actuators.

"They do, honored guest Oktos."

"A ship like this would work too," he supposed, looking at Lyra. "As an auxiliary craft for the Chimera, I mean."

She rolled her eyes, for the hundredth time today, it seemed. "By the moons, Oktos, what do we need an auxiliary ship for?"

"Mmm, I don't know," he shrugged. "Small cargo transfers maybe? Or ferrying passengers."

"Or giving pirates a good thrashing," Sera suggested to no one in particular.

There was something to that, but Lyra still frowned. "You just want to put more toys on your toy."

"Well, sure," Taz answered brightly, as though it was the natural thing to do.

Boys and their toys. "Besides, you'd have the same problem as the Eta," she grumbled, thumbing over her shoulder at the snub fighter. "No way to get in or out without taking a spacewalk."

"There's this hatch and docking port at the back of the Syffid," Reiko noted, rapping on the steel mechanism with her knuckles.

"What, just fly around with it hanging off the side of the Chimera? That doesn't sound like a good idea. For one thing, it'd mess with the—"

"Hyperspace field geometry, I know," Rei blurted, calculating in her head. "You'd need..."

"Perhaps a docking receptacle on the back of the Skipjack Chimera," suggested Raga.

"And some locking clamps!"

"What? Stop encouraging them, Uncle!" cried Lyra.

Rei's mind shifted into overdrive. "Reconfiguring the engineering compartment shouldn't be much work. We can mount the ring so she wouldn't be too close to the Chimera's primary drives when she was docked, add a containment field, and —"

"Rei-sha," interjected Sera gently, "aren't you getting a little carried away, my love?"

Rei looked at her and paused for a second while reality caught up with her genius brain. "Oh. I guess I am."

"Begging your pardon, honored guest Rendix, but I think it would be an excellent use for Akajeet-Two. After all, I have no further need for her. My goal was simply to prove to myself that I could remake her into a true escort craft. That has been accomplished, indeed." He turned to Lyra. "I would be most honored to have her serve you, my lady."

Lyra eyed the old man, but he seemed quite animated by the idea. Taz looked equally enthused. "You're all crazy, you know that?"

"There's what, a week until the festival?" observed Taz, "And our charters aren't going to the conference until after that, so..."

"We have the time, don't we Lyra?" Reiko's brown eyes brimmed with earnest excitement.

She let out a rough, resigned sigh. "I shouldn't let you have your way — Any of you!"

"Oh, thank you Lyra-kaashuub!" cried a delighted Reiko, throwing her arms around Lyra's neck and hugging her.

"You sure you're okay with this?" Taz asked.

Lyra shrugged. "She's your ship."

"She's our ship, Lyra. If you don't want to..."

He looks as happy about it as Rei does. "It's alright," she relented, grinning at his gleeful look in spite of herself. "Go on, all of you. But no freebies! We pay for everything!"

"That's not necessary, my lady," Raga protested.

"Oh yes it is, Uncle. I'm not going to owe that bit —" She caught herself before she said something even Uncle Shin wouldn't be able to forgive her for. "Clan Nimor will be paid for everything we use. I'll hear no argument otherwise." She crossed her arms to drive the point home.

"Why do you call them both Ajakeet?" Reiko asked suddenly.

Lyra's lips twitched with amusement. "It means 'dragon moth'." She made a circle with her thumbs and forefingers. "They're about this big. They flit around on wings that look too small for their bodies, and they have huge green eyes and long, glowing tails. They come out when the sun goes down."

"Can't wait to see one!" Reiko untangled herself from Lyra, gathered Taz with one arm and Shin with the other, and the three of them were quickly lost discussing plans.

Sera gave Lyra's shoulder a nudge. "I think I just lost her, to an old man, no less."

Lyra laughed. "I'll rein in Uncle Shin, and Oktos, too. The last thing you want to do when you come to Inusagi is to spend your vacation in a hangar watching those three cutting and welding."