41:03:32 GrS

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"Ensign Nimor!" Lieutenant Eccleston hailed Lyra as she left the interview room, making her turn.

"What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" answered the pilot, running her fingers through her hair. She felt fatigued already and the day was hardly started. Nevertheless, she put on a grin and took Eccleston's outstretched hand.

"I meant what I said about that Eye Poke, ma'am. It's hard enough getting it right in a boarding shuttle, let alone a civvie transport."

The corner of Lyra's mouth twitched. "I've got a great ship and an even better engineer. Plus, I probably ran that maneuver eighty times over the years."

"Great job taking on those fighters, too. Mind if I ask what you flew in Customs?"

"Besides boarding shuttles? Guardians and Sentinels, mostly."

"No starfighters?" asked the lieutenant, wide-eyed.

Lyra shrugged. "Didn't make the cut at the academy."

"Well they missed the mark, and your COs were idiots for not seeing it."

Lyra chuckled. "I told them that. Several times. In no uncertain terms. It's probably why I never made it past ensign."

Eccleston shared her laugh and let her eyes wander around the ship. "You'd be a great asset to an operation like ours. Ever think about joining back up?"

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, Lieutenant, but..."

"It's Ashleyne."

"Lyra. A pleasure to meet you, Ashlyene," she smiled.

"I'm not just saying that. Our team is small, mostly cobbled together. You've got the background, the skills, and you've got fire. We could really use someone like you."

"I'm not sure Indrus would agree," Lyra smirked. "Things are hard all over, and I know how tough your job is, believe me." Lyra glanced over her shoulder at the sound of a door opening. Taz was just emerging from his interview. "My crew and my ship mean everything to me. But knowing officers like you are out here makes me feel like the galaxy's in good hands."

"Well, if you ever want a change of pace, keep us in mind, Lyra."

"I'll do that, Ashleyne." The two women exchanged handshakes again, then Lyra walked to where Taz waited for her.

"Friend of yours?" he asked, taking her hand.

Lyra shrugged. "She helped a lot when I came after you and Rendix. It's nice meeting competent officers like her. She reminds me a little of me, a few years ago."

Taz reacted with a wry grin. "She try to recruit you?"

"How'd you know?"

"Tess did the same thing to me on Beta Fonidian."

Lyra swept her hand in a little arc. "They're short of good help."

Taz pursed his lips and let out a breath. "I imagine everybody is." He gave her a sidelong look as they started up the passage. "Ever... think about it? Joining back up, I mean."

"Did you, when Tess asked?" she challenged.

He answered with a smile. "Of course not, but... There was... I don't know, this thing about belonging to something, you know? Something big, something important. It felt good."

Lyra made a little smirking nod. "I used to feel that way about Customs, when I wasn't hating my life and everyone in it. And you Rebels."

Taz squeezed her hand. "RCS is different than the military but it's important too."

"We're building something that's new, and it's ours, Taz. I'd never let that go." Besides," she gave him a sly look, "the galaxy needs us."

"Sure they do. Who else is going to lug all their drekh around the Rim?"

Lyra chuckled. On their way to the docking port they ran into Renosi. She was walking beside a young man with cropped sandy hair wearing a sergeant's uniform.

Lyra gave him a long look. "You're the one who led the boarding team, aren't you?"

"Yes ma'am. Sergeant Chibb, ma'am."

Taz and Lyra both shook his hand. "I'm very sorry about your team's casualties, Sergeant." She felt her heart thudding hard, though it made a hollow sound in her ears.

"We're all volunteers, ma'am. A lot of us were in occupation units during the war. Some of the things we saw on the planets we subjugated... Anyway, we appreciate the opportunity to do some good. What I'm saying is that the team knew the risks and accepted them willingly. I'm glad we were able to assist you."

"How many in your unit, Sergeant?"

"Twenty-eight. ma'am. Sixteen were on the boarding party."

Taz spoke up. "How many casualties?"

"Six dead, seven injured," the soldier answered Taz's question in the same terse, perfunctory tone he'd used himself during his time as a combat medic.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Taz made a sober nod. He wanted to apologize, too, but he'd had the same experience. He knew what Chibb and his team had gone through, and exactly how they felt about it. Apologies wouldn't change any of the bitterness, or the regret, or the survivor's guilt.

"You and your team kept a great evil from spreading, Sergeant. I'm grateful you were there."

"You might feel different when I tell you I was going to drop you." When Taz gave him an inquiring head tilt, he added, "On that ship. I had you in my reticle. I'd have killed you if not for those things that attacked us."

"I wouldn't have blamed you, Sergeant, but I'm glad you didn't."

"Yes sir." He glanced at Aurora Ascendant. "Nice work with that weapon of yours."

Taz acknowledged with a joyless grimace, but said nothing.

"Please express our thanks to your team, and our sympathies," Lyra offered.

"I will, ma'am. Thank you both." He spoke quietly to Renosi. "If you'll excuse me," he said, nodded to the Ranger, and continued down the corridor.

"Miss Nimor, Mr. Oktos, I'm happy to see you both looking more like your usual, attractive selves."

"Thanks, Officer Renosi," Taz answered with a lopsided grin. His eyes went to the transparent bandage covering the laceration she'd suffered during the assault on the Misery. "Would you like me to look at that? I have bacta bandages on the Chimera."

"Funny thing," she said, tapping her chin with a clawed finger, "bacta doesn't really work very well on Neablus. Something about our cellular metabolism, I think."

"Still, that's going to leave a scar. I could fix it."

Naktiya waved her hand. "Oh, no need for that. Among my people, scars are the sign of an accomplished hunter." She showed her sharp teeth and fangs in a proud smile.

"I see," said Taz. "I wanted to thank you for helping Lyra and coming after me. If not for you, Inusagi might only have been the first world to feel the kind of suffering that Sykes and Agonis had devised." Taz's face grew grim again. "It wasn't hyperbole when I said you stopped a great evil. Agonis would have..." He trailed off, looking haunted.

"I should thank you, too." Lyra took Renosi's hand. "I was... I'd have failed without your help. Inusagi owes you a lot, and so do I. If you ever need anything, just ask."

"That's a very kind offer, Miss Nimor," Naktiya answered, uncharacteristically sober.

"That goes for me, too," Taz echoed, sounding more upbeat. "If there's ever anything I can do for you, I hope you'll let me know."

"Now that you mention it, I've been feeling a lot of stress recently."

"What kind of stress?"

"Oh, the kind that Human males are good at treating." Her supernova-bright smile came with a very suggestive-sounding purr.

"Renosi!" Lyra snapped, red-faced.

The ranger laughed, "You're welcome to join in, Miss Nimor. I'm sure the three of us could have a lot of fun!"

Before Lyra could explode, Taz stepped between them. "That's a flattering idea, Officer Renosi, but my answer hasn't changed since the last time you asked. Besides, what about Officer Tolfer?"

She made a disappointed noise with her tongue. "He's a local; had to leave him on Lantillies. I was starting to get bored, anyway. Time for a new hunt." She looked after Chibb with a predatory gleam in her yellow feline eyes. "Oh well, no harm in asking, right?"

Taz smiled at her. "I hear you've been promoted?"

"Yes!" she gushed. "SEO Naveen has agreed to a provisional transfer to his team. If I play my pieces right I might get a permanent assignment, maybe even a shot at an SEO slot! They only give them to top performers, you know."

"I'm sure you'll make an excellent candidate," Taz assured her.

"Me too! Well, gotta go. Lots of work to do with all these new leads. Good hunting to you both. Maybe we'll meet again sometime!" She bounded off, waving over her shoulder.

Lyra was still hot when he turned back to her. "That... minx!"

He took her hand. "She's not that bad." When she gave him a dagger look, he lowered his voice. "I like that she makes you jealous."

"You don't have to encourage her!"

"Is that what I was doing?" His smile was as innocent as a new day. "Come on. Let's get back to the ship." His mischievous look fell away. "Senguru Raga..."

"I know." Lyra's somber mood returned with a crash. As they entered the airlock she squeezed his hand to keep the sadness at bay.

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The Skipjack Chimera touched down on scarred permacrete at the Pratikaya spaceport amid opaque mists of expended coolant that obscured the slanting rays of late afternoon sunlight from Surai. Scaffolding and hasty patchwork covered the shattered windows and other damage that had been caused by Agonis's rampaging victims. Scores of spaceport workers and every member of the clan's operations staff lined up in two long columns. Between them, a ribbon of verdant carpet, strewn with sakoola blossoms. Lines of tall ashen banners with the Nimor clan's sigil fluttered and and snapped in the breeze.

The starboard cargo door dropped, forming a ramp. Lyra, Seelam, and Eshna brought out Raga's wrapped form on a float cart. Taz, Sera, and Reiko emerged behind them. A woman's voice began a funeral chant while they moved at a stately pace toward the Aerosine skycar waiting thirty meters away.

Cousin Anish, Clan Nimor's majordomo, was foremost among the assembled mourners, wearing a long, off-white silk robe under a pale green jacket. Alone among the family's main branch, Lyra found Senna's older brother moderately tolerable, probably because he'd never spoken more than a few dozen words to her. She greeted him with a solemn bow and quiet words, which he received with a nod.

His dark eyes fell upon Shin's body, and for a few seconds the hard lines of his face softened. He set his hand on Raga's head while his lips moved in a silent invocation. He bowed deeply and the rest of the clan followed. Anish nodded to Lyra again as he rose, sadness crinkling the skin around his eyes.

She and the rest continued forward. The mourners rose as they passed, touching their foreheads and lips in a gesture of sacred grief and farewell. At the end of the procession, a full company of the clan's security forces dressed in long red tunics and white trousers stood at stiff attention. They held tall lances with long streamers that trailed in the clear air.

The clan's two remaining battlemasters stepped forward, six soldiers behind them. Eshna moved aside, but Lyra spoke a quiet word to Seguru Bilarupal who made subtle gestures in response. One of the red-jacketed soldiers exchanged a salute with Eshna, who kept her place at Raga's shoulder while he moved to the foot of the float cart. Together, the seven troops lifted Senguru Raga's body and laid it in the speeder's hold, then rendered grave, deliberate salutes as the compartment was sealed. The chanting stopped, leaving only the mourners' cries in the still air.

Seelam and Eshna stood by the skycar's door. "You could accompany us," Lyra suggested.

"It is a most generous offer, Lady Lyra, but our place is here with the clan," Seelam answered.

Lyra took both of their hands. "Of course. I thank you for the respect and care you showed him. It's not often that a Tavit-wey man is so beloved or honored."

"Senguru Raga was... special, my lady," Eshna said, her lip quivering despite her soldier's discipline. "His absence will be deeply felt."

"By all of us," Lyra agreed, misty-eyed. She nodded deeply to them. "Thank you for everything you did. I won't forget it."

"I regret the circumstances," Eshna began, "but it was an honor to serve under your command, Lady Lyra." She came to attention and snapped a salute.

Lyra returned the gesture, then took her hand. "Thank you, Eshna. You're an excellent warrior. I hope our next meeting will be under more pleasant conditions."

"As do I, my lady."

"Are you certain you want to fly yourself, my lady?" Seelam probed. "I can assign—"

Lyra stopped him with a raised hand and flashed a sad grin. "Thank you for the offer, but you'll recall that I'm an excellent pilot, Seelam. We'll be fine on our own."

"Of course, my lady. As you wish." Footman and soldier bowed to Lyra as the others climbed into the speeder. She exchanged a formal farewell with the majordomo and the sengurus, then she slipped into the pilot's seat, lifted the Aerosine, and turned the craft toward the mountains.