[Republic Commando] - 03(105)

“Well.” Skirata shrugged. “We can’t just drive in, can we?”

“You’re so nautical” Vau said.

Mereel still had that grin on his face. “There’s always the chance we’ll find that it’s only a waste outlet, and that there’s a hungry thing twice the size of a dianoga living in there.”

“Let’s find out.”

“If Ko Sai’s in there, then she’ll be using transport to get in and out. Let’s head back to the resort and see what they’ve got for rental.”

“This means diving, doesn’t it?”

“Not necessarily, Kal’buir.”

Whatever Mereel had in mind, it amused him. Dangerous things usually did. Vau raised an eyebrow. “I’ll put Mird ashore, if that’s okay with you.”

“Trust me,” said Mereel.

Aay’han surfaced well clear of the harbor and skimmed through the gap in the breakwaters toward her berth. As they drew nearer to the pontoons and slowed almost to a stop to come alongside, Mereel pointed across the water.

“That’s what we need,” he said. “I knew they’d have them here. Perfect.”

Vau and Skirata followed his finger, but Vau could see nothing except choppy waves. Then something broke from the surface, like a Whaladon breaching, and arced three meters into the air before crashing back into the sea again. At first, Vau thought it was an enormous silver fish, but by the time it had progressed across the harbor in extravagant, corkscrewing leaps, he’d managed to focus on the thing long enough to see that it was an extraordinary ship shaped like a firaxa shark, minus the head fin. It was five sleek meters long with a brilliant scarlet flash on one flank and the words WAVE-CHASER picked out in gold.

Fierfek, it looked like fun. Vau could barely recall fun. The craft would also fit neatly through the entrance to what he hoped was Ko Sai’s laboratory, as well as Aay’han’s cargo hatch.

“Let’s go rent one,” Mereel said. “They’re two-seaters and they’ve got a top speed of twenty-five kilometers an hour. Not that I researched them earlier, of course.”

Skirata just looked blank. It was the expression he wore when he wanted to say nu draar-the most vividly emphatic of Mando’a refusals-but felt he had to keep up appearances. “One.”

“Someone has to pilot Aay’han, because those things won’t have much range,” Vau said. “And I’m volunteering. I had my midlife crisis about ten years ago, so you can go play boy racer this time, Kal…”

“Shabuir,” Skirata muttered, but he looked nervous.

The Wavechasers turned out to be for sale or rent. Price had long since ceased to be an issue for any of them now that time was the rarest and most precious thing imaginable, so Skirata bought one.

“Handy runabout for Aay’han,” he said, staring at his boots. “And if we dent the thing, we won’t have any explaining to do to the rental office.” Then he looked up at Mereel, a head taller than him, and slapped the passcard in the

Null’s palm. “All yours, son. High time you owned something nice.”

Vau was usually immune to Skirata’s polar extremes of emotion, but for a few seconds the old chakaar and his surrogate son simply looked at each other as if there was nothing else that mattered in the galaxy, and Vau felt genuine envy.

It wasn’t Skirata he envied. It was Mereel, for having a father who doted on him so much that he could do no wrong. Like time, it was something his wealth had never bought him.





Chapter 11


There’s one thing that bothers me, sir. They say Master Yoda referred to the war as the Clone War right after the Battle of Geonosis. It was the very first battle of the war. Why did he identify the war that way, by the clones who are fighting it? Have we ever said the Fifth Fleet War or the Corellian Baji Brigade War? What does he know that we don’t?

-General Bardan Jusik, confiding in General Arligan Zey



Shuttle, en route for Dorumaa from Qiilura, 478 days after Geonosis

What does cyar’ika mean?” Etain asked, gazing at something in the palm of her hand.

Ordo could guess where this was heading, and as they were stuck in the cockpit of a small shuttle he had no option but to have a conversation. He was afraid things would stray into areas where he felt woefully ignorant, and not having the answers always troubled him. He expected to be perfect.

“It means ‘darling,’ ” he said. “Sweetheart. Beloved. Dearest.”

Etain swallowed audibly and didn’t look up. “And it’s okay for a woman to use that word to a man?”

“You can use it to anyone,” Ordo said. Ah, she was groping her way through the minefield of a relationship in a foreign language. “Anyone or anything you love. Child, spouse, pet, parent.”