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"Have you received instruction in its use?" Raga nodded toward Aurora Ascendant while he and Taz worked between the Chimera's two main sublight engines.

"What, this?" Taz patted the lightsaber and made an uncomfortable frown. "I have no teacher, no master to instruct me. I... struggle, Mr. Raga."

Standing atop an a-frame ladder, Taz finished disconnecting power cables and attached float clamps to the aft shield projector, then eased it off its mount and walked down the ladder, pulling the bulky device with him. He motioned to Yuzu, who shifted his weight from foot to mechanical foot, looking eager to help with the work. "It's all yours, Yuzu."

"Thank you, Master Taz-nagrasha!" The droid replaced Taz on the ladder, ignited his plasma torch with a hiss of superheated gasses, and started cutting.

Shin carefully replaced the laser scribe in its appointed slot within his well-worn wooden toolbox and closed the lid. "My people have practiced the sword for thousands of years. It is a skill passed down from father to son, generation upon generation, to the present day indeed." He consulted the design that he and Reiko had sketched up over lunch. "If you would be so good as to pass me one of those latching clamps, honored guest Oktos."

"Sure, here you go," Taz replied, hefting two clamps out of the scratched and dented parts bin, and joining him at the workbench they'd set up behind the Skipjack Chimera. Reiko sat at one end, tapping away on a mini-terminal, consulting the ship's schematics. There was a good deal of rerouting to be done on the conduits within the freighter's hull before they could install the docking ring and clamps.

"It is said that the Jedi once fought with swords and they carried over those techniques when they began using lightsabers. There is a basic combat form for the sword. On Inusagi our swords are called jiden-sho, and the art of wielding them is Ji-Sho-Te. Some practitioners claim that the ancient Jedi copied this form for their own use."

Taz slapped the bench, startling Rei, then gave her a chagrined look. "The basic form for lightsaber combat is called Shii-Cho!" he exclaimed. "The names sound too close to be a coincidence."

"Perhaps, honored guest Oktos, perhaps," mused the older man. "When Lady Nimor bought me out of bondage I took residence with an uncle who instructed me. If you would like, I will impart what I know of it to you."

"You'd do that for me?" Taz looked excited.

"You protect Lady Lyra with your weapon, do you not?"

"Of course."

"Then I do it for her, honored guest Oktos."

Once an outsider... he thought dryly. Nevertheless, having an actual person to spar against would be a lot better than the training remotes. Taz inclined his head. "Your offer is very gracious, sir. I'll try my best to be worthy of your training."

"Hm," uttered Raga with a definitive nod. Taz began wiring power and data cables into his clamp, humming to himself.

Reiko rolled over on her stool to show Raga the progress she'd made on her datapad. They exchanged ideas and she returned to the far end of the table. After a minute she looked up. "Uncle Shin, I saw something yesterday. There were humanoids standing at the edge of the pool watching our arrival. They looked like... ghosts."

"Those are Rayeths, honored guest Hudson. They have often been described as wraiths or ghosts."

"I've read about them," Taz commented. "They're the other sentient species that lives on Inusagi, aren't they?"

"Some say Rayeths predated Humans here by millions of years. They live under the oceans, and in some large lakes as well. They keep to themselves."

"They don't mix with Humans?"

"Our ecologies are alien, as well as our respective cultures. Interactions between the Inusagasa— those of us who dwell on land— and the Rayeths, are... uncommon. Despite that, they have an embassy at the capital."

"Do they participate in government?"

Shin shook his head. "They govern their affairs apart from the Inusagasa, although the Chieftess consults their ambassador on important planetary matters."

"When the Empire was in charge they must have suffered," Rei supposed.

"I would not know of such things," Raga said without meeting her inquiring gaze. "They keep to themselves," he repeated.

Taz and Rei shared a quick glance. "How many of these clamps will we need, Rei-aktuu?"

"She'll hold with two, but for the sake of redundancy I'd go with four."

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"Tell me again why we can't just use the docking ring. It's magnetic, isn't it?"

"It is, but it's only rated for low-stress maneuvers and modest angular acceleration. Plus, we're grafting a ring onto the Skipjack Chimera, so it won't be quite as strong as one that's integrated into the spaceframe."

"Got it. Don't want our dragon moth falling off the Chimera if we get into a dogfight, or Lyra tries more of her high-G turns, do we?"

"As long as I'm not aboard she can make all the hard turns she likes." Rei put on a queasy look to match how she'd felt when they arrived in orbit.

"It would seem Lady Lyra has become an accomplished pilot." The gleam of pride in Raga's eyes was hard to miss.

Taz looked up. "She's a very good pilot and instructor. Courageous, too. Her flying saved our lives a few months ago." Taz returned to his task, feeling somber. While they worked, he and Rei related the story of their battle with the Kantorius above Beta Fonidian II.

When they finished, Shin looked thoughtful. "I am gratified that Lady Lyra's companions hold her in such high regard, indeed."

"Lyra is... a very dear friend," Taz stated with quiet intensity, recalling her earlier words. Then he pursed his lips and concentrated on realigning a balky servo for one of the clamp arms.

"Indeed." Shin watched the play of emotions on young man's face from beneath his brows as he worked.

Perhaps sensing Taz's discomfort, Reiko said brightly, "I'm working on a data interface so you can slave Ajakeet-Two's weapons to the Chimera's gunnery controls."

"Mmm," Taz perked up, "that'll be a nasty surprise for pirates, won't it?" Across from him, Raga chuckled.

"What is it, Uncle Shin?"

"Forgive me if my comment is out of place, but you both seem concerned with preparing for combat."

"Sera-sha likes to say that the galaxy's an unsettled place. We've been in business less than a year and we've already had run-ins with pirates and rogue Imperial holdouts. So we put a premium on being able to protect ourselves. I suppose it's the legacy of living as Rebels, too."

"What was life like in your Rebel cell, if I may ask?"

"Better than a lot of other cells. We were well-funded, and our ship, the Pride of Olminar, was a state-of-the-art frigate."

"Morata Heavy Industries is building six squadrons of them. I hear they'll be the backbone of the sector fleet," Taz put in.

"You'd love her, Uncle Shin. She was a converted yacht, although I'm pretty sure Mr. Karanos knew she'd be squaring off against the Empire from the day her keel was laid. She was built to take a beating, which was good, considering all the beatings she got."

Shin glanced at her. "Aristotle Karanos?"

Reiko nodded. "He founded Razorclaw Cell. That's what the Filvian resistance was called. You know of him?"

"I studied starship architecture for a time. Karanos's innovations in modular transporters, and indeed his entire career, were included in the syllabus. Interesting that he would oppose the Empire, given his companies' close ties to them."

"Oh, he kept that hidden with financial cut-outs, untraceable money, gray market purchases, those kinds of things. Even so, I'm sure the ISB had their eye on him. Anyway, it was dangerous for all of us, and insanely chaotic at the end, but I had all of my friends and Sera-sha." Rei went back to her work, the smile on her face diluted by deep sadness. "Did the Inusagi military ever have any contact with the Alliance?"

Raga shook his head. "Our only exposure to your forces was the attack on the palace twelve years ago. The Imperial presence increased after that. The Royal Defense Force bolstered Imperial troops during their tenure here."

"We saw some abandoned Imperial buildings in the city," noted Taz. "It looks like they left in a hurry."

Shin paused before he spoke. "Their withdrawl was abrupt, indeed. After their defeat at Endor, I believe that they felt their forces were better employed elsewhere."

"They didn't think Inusagi was worth defending?" Reiko asked carefully.

"I do not believe the Empire perceived us to be an attractive target, nor to present much of a threat, honored guest Hudson. The Rebellion never materialized on Inusagi, apart from a few hard-liners among the Asantu-sar."

"Asantu-sar?"

"A domestic organization that opposes Inusagi's class structure, and seeks greater rights for the Tavit-wey."

Taz's face grew dark. "Filve's society isn't stratified like Inusagi's, but we have dissidents, too. The Empire's Protectorate forces used to raid them, looking for rebels."

"Was your Razorclaw such an organization?"

Taz shook his head. "No, Mr. Raga. In fact, most of the dissidents on Filve didn't want to have anything to do with us. That didn't stop the Empire's raids, though. Didn't stop them from inventing rebels when they couldn't be found, either."

He glanced at Shin, who regarded him intently. "Of course, we used that to our advantage. I'm not proud of it, but it worked in our favor. The more we attacked, the more the Protectorate cracked down. And every time they did, it pushed more people toward us."

"The population favored the Empire?"

"Favored?" Taz shrugged. "Some did, but most just wanted to keep their heads down and get on with their lives. The Empire turned one of our continents into a labor colony and filled it with 'reeducation' camps." He snarled at the recollection. "The native Filvians are great engineers and techs, but they're non-human. The Empire enslaved them, or near enough to it. That rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Seeing your friends dragged away for doing nothing, sentenced to years in their brutal camps for the smallest infraction? It drove a lot of us to rebel. It's why I joined. But even with all the crackdowns, the pogroms, most people just accepted it as long as it didn't hit too close to home.

"When they bombed Vrast, though..." He stopped and repressed a shudder. "Nearly all the rebel activity was in the capital, Olminar, but the Protectorate decided they couldn't act there without setting back their own operations. So they brought in an Acclimator assault cruiser to reduce Vrast to ashes. We..." Bitter recrimination stiffened his expression. "As much as I blame the Empire, and I do blame them... I don't ignore the part Razorclaw played in it."

He stopped for a minute, his jaw working. "We lost millions; my parents and sisters among them. Do you know how it feels, Mr. Raga? Knowing you got your family killed?" Taz drew hard breaths, fighting the tears and bitterness and guilt. "Seeing the planet's ninth-largest polidome in ashes is what pushed most of the people on our planet to finally see the Empire's true face."

"I see," Shin answered simply, and said no more.

Taz glanced across the table at Rei, who wore the same horrified, grim look that he surely had. They worked in silence for a while. Finally, he pushed the clamp he'd been wiring across the bench to Shin. "Check my work?"

"I'm certain there will be no deficiencies, honored guest Oktos."

"Oh, I don't know about that, Mr. Raga. I'm a passable tech, but I'm no expert like the two of you."

"You honor this old man with your trust, indeed."

Taz smiled a little and reached for another clamp.