A short jab to the mouth mashed Remart's lips and tumbled a couple of teeth free. His hands rose to his face, came away b.l.o.o.d.y, then he stared at me for a moment as if he couldn't believe what was happening. His mouth gaped open with surprise, so I closed it for him with a sharp jab that staggered him and sent him to the ground.

Remart lay there for a second, spitting out b.l.o.o.d.y saliva and a tooth. He swore, spraying blood over the green gra.s.s, then looked past me. "Don't just stand there, nerf-brains. You have blasters. Shoot him."

I spun, hoping I could touch the Force and absorb the bolts, but I never even got a chance to begin to concentrate. Blue lightning wreathed each man, one after another, starting them jerking and dancing as if puppets controlled by a spastic droid. Their blasters. .h.i.t the ground right before they did, and the bleeding Caamasi kept my blaster on them.

I turned for one last time to Remart. "You don't know it, but you've had quite enough." I leaped above the feeble kick he aimed at my legs, then snapped a kick to the side of his head. He flopped back on the ground and I prepared to kick him again, but a hissed gasp from the Caamasi stopped me.

I stared at Remart for a second and could feel my hands swelling. I flicked the blood off my right hand, then realized I'd spattered the young Caamasi female. I looked to apologize to her, read the horror in her eyes, then my gaze drifted beyond her to where her father stood holding my blaster carbine.

On me.

"Thanks for protecting me." I opened my palms toward him. "Couldn't blame you if you shot me. In your place, I probably would."

"That is entirely possible." The Caamasi shrugged his shoul-ders easily, lowered the carbine, then twisted it around to present the stock to me.

"Among the Caamasi, however, a bodyservant does not shoot his master."

"I wasn't serious about that. I said that just to prevent him from killing you."

The Caamasi's blue on green eyes sparkled. "This I know, but I am serious about it. You put your life in jeopardy to protect mine, much as I did to protect my daughter and these, my friends."

"So you should stay with them."

"I cannot, for to do so would be to put you in jeopardy." He blinked his big eyes and raised a three-fingered hand. "You told these men that you were taking me as your servant, which action precipitated this fight.

Your man violated an order, an order from which your authority to discipline him arose. If you do not take me as your servant, then there was no justification and he and his friends will be free to fabricate a story that will destroy you. By going with you, I am proof of your story."

My eyes narrowed. "And what of the tale they will tell about the jewelry?"

"We are all that remains of a peaceful people who had their world destroyed. Who would believe we have anything of value?" With his right hand he indicated his people. "I am Elegos A'kla, Trustant for this domain of Morymento. All I have of value is these people and, I believe, by protecting you I can protect them."

His words, carried in a somber but rich and sincere voice, made a lot of sense. Still, I didn't like the idea of taking him with me into the Survivor society. Even under my protection, Courkrus was no place for a civilian. "I do not want to take you away from your daughter."

Elegos shook his head. "We are Caamasi. We understand well the pain of losing kin, and how to ease that pain. She will not be alone."

I nodded and accepted the blaster carbine from him. I turned and fired one stunbolt into Remart, then lowered the weapon again. "Looks like I have a bodyservant. I'll be at the s.p.a.ceport. You have an hour to say your farewells. If you don't make it on time and get left behind, I'll understand."

The Caamasi graced me with a warm smile. "An hour. I will be punctual."

I started to trudge down the path to the s.p.a.ceport and worked my comlink into my left hand. "This is Bolt Leader. When we have a chance, I need some pilots to de-dirt some clutches, and I'll need some evac of downed men."

Someone at fleet replied after only a couple seconds delay.

"You have trouble down there, Bolt Leader?"

"A bit." I sucked at a knuckle. "Nothing I couldn't handle though."

Some of the Invidious' internal security officers came down with the evac shuttle, separated Elegos, me and the four of my men who had gone down.

Once we got back to the Star Destroyer, I was placed in a small ward room and interrogated. I told them the full story about finding Remart looting the dead Thala.s.sians, our disagreement about the fate of the Caamasi and the subsequent fight. I eliminated any mention of the Caamasi jewelry and instead suggested Remart had been angry that the Caamasi had nothing for him to take. I knew Remart and his cronies would spin the story differently. I counted upon the idea that no pirate would give loot back to people to give my fiction about the lack of loot the stamp of truth.

Their counterclaims would simply seem like a trumped up story to get me into trouble.

The interrogation lasted for a couple of hours during which time my hands stiflened up, the blood on them crusted, and the broken bones in my left hand began to throb rather fiercely. The interrogators knew I was in pain and kept promising I'd have medical attention once I'd cleared up a few details. Having conducted numerous interrogations myself, I knew what they wanted to hear, how they wanted to hear it, so I gave it to them.

Finally they walked away, apparently satisfied with what I had told them.

After they left, a Two-Onebee droid came in and examined my hands. It noted that I'd broken two bones in my left hand and had a lot of edema in both hands, as well as cuts and abrasions. It set the broken bones-and was a bit more gentle about it than Mara Jade had been-but informed me that I'd not be getting access to the bacta tanks on the ship because I was not sufficiently injured. While it would not give me details on what had happened, from the nature and number of injuries it described, I gathered some Thala.s.sians must have ambushed one of our looting parties, or someone triggered a b.o.o.by trap, which accounted for all the people using the tanks before me.

The droid withdrew and Elegos came into the room, with bandages, some salves, water and sponges to clean up my hands. "Though I am not formally a healer, one learns to deal with wounds like these when building a settlement."

"Carving out a new life is bound to give anyone new skills." I smiled carefully, a bit surprised by the Caamasi's scent. I found it slightly spicy and woody, almost like Corellian whiskey, but a touch sweeter, reminding me of warm beverages my mother would make for us when the family would huddle together dur-ing winter nights. I found the scent comforting and something that seemed to make the small grey room in which we stood seem less oppressive.

Sitting on the room's table, I looked up into Elegos' eyes as he cleaned the blood from my right hand. "I have a question for you."

"I will do my best to answer it."

"When I arrived on the scene down there, you were on the ground, bleeding from the nose. Remart said you'd hit him, but from here, feeling the strength in your hands, looking at your musculature, I know that's not true. You are not that far removed, physiologically speaking, from Selonians that I believe Remart would have been left standing if you'd hit him."

Elegos c.o.c.ked his head slightly to the right. "I tapped him on the shoulder, wishing to thank him. I believe I surprised him with my approach, which is why he turned and struck me."

"But, if you had wanted to, you could have snapped his neck with a single blow, couldn't you?"

Elegos' brow furrowed, then he looked down into the basin of b.l.o.o.d.y water. "For Caamasi, momentous events produce memories that are very striking in detail-you might consider them holographic, but they are more to us. Almost tangible. To have that sort of memory of killing someone, no matter the reason, is a terrible burden to bear. Such a memory would not fade with time, and would become a heavy burden indeed. Because of such things, we have always sought to promote peace and understanding, harmony and unity."

I nodded. "And that's why you stunned instead of killed the others down there."

Elegos straightened up. "I thought I had killed them. I stunned them because you had left the blaster set on stun. I could not have let them kill you, and would have accepted the burden of such memories in your defense."

That surprised me a bit. "So, when you held the blaster on me, you thought a shot would kill me."

He bowed his head forward. "Until you took the weapon and shot Remart, I thought the men I had shot were dead. It was only when you shot a man you could have easily beaten to death, that I realized the men I had shot were merely sleeping."

"Now that you know they live, will that memory fade?" The Caamasi gave me an enigmatic smile. Flesh tightened around his eyes, sharpening the purple striping that rayed out from their corners. "I will keep it intact for other reasons, I think."

He started to shift over to work on my left hand, when Admiral Tavira entered the room and shoved him away. She grabbed my left hand and caught the broken bones in a pincer grip. "I am not pleased at all with you, Jenos Idanian, not at all."

I locked my jaw so I would not cry out as she tightened her grip. Through clenched teeth I said, "I am sorry to hear that, Admiral."

She released my hand and raked a stare over me. "You look a mess."

I snorted. "You should see the other guy."

"I have, d.a.m.n you." Her expression went from angry to something colder, and brought a smile with it. "You administered quite a beating to Remart.

And why?" She flicked a hand out, thumping it off Elegos' breastbone.

"For this piece of alien meat? Why?"

I gave her a cold stare. "I needed a servant, nothing more."

Fire flared in her eyes. "You needed a goad to use on Remart." She folded her arms across her chest. "You are so easy to read, Idanian. I know you too well."

"Do you?" My guts began to churn for reasons I could not identify. "I should apologize to you for spoiling your fun, I suppose, but I saw no reason to let Remart murder someone who had done nothing."

"Remart said this one struck him."

I frowned at her. "Remart has said nothing to you. He's still got to be in a bacta tank. Another couple of hours and your toy will be fine. You can speak to him then."

She shook her head, her hair brushing over her shoulders and b.r.e.a.s.t.s like liquid shadow. "He's beyond speaking."

"What?"

Her cruel smile reappeared. "He's dead."

I shook my head. "Not possible. I didn't hit him that hard."

She laughed. "Such concern over someone you clearly hated. No, you did not kill him." Tavira paused for a moment and stepped in closer to me, leaning forward with a hand pressed to the table on either side of my hips. Her words came as whispers, her breath on my left cheek coming warm and gentle, in sharp contrast to what she said. "I had him shot. He was insubordinate. He disobeyed an order and struck a superior officer. He had to die, and you knew he would the moment you goaded him into that fight, didn't you?"

I pulled my head back, leaving a centimeter of s.p.a.ce between our noses.

"If I'd wanted him dead, I'd have done the job myself."

"That may have been what you were thinking, Jenos, but I know better.

Your heart knows better." She moved her head forward until her nose barely b.u.mped mine. She smelled of flowers, musky flowers with a hint of a nebula orchid's sweet-ness underneath it all. "You wanted him dead, and you wanted me to kill him, to punish me for selecting him after you rejected me."

"Wrong."

She straightened up, raised her right hand and traced her index finger along my jaw, starting at my right ear. "You blonds always cause so much trouble. Everyone a.s.sumes you are stupid, but that's because they cannot fathom the complexity of your thoughts. Perhaps even you cannot."

As her finger came around, she caught my goatee between it and her thumb, giving it a tug that was decidedly ungentle. "You knew I chose him because I knew he was a rival of yours. His hatred of you was quite pathological, as was your hatred of him. At heart though, you were very much alike. The confrontation was expected, and I knew you would be the victor."

I stared deep into her eyes. "Then why didn't you prevent it'?"

"I wanted to see how you would get rid of him." Her smile broadened. "If you were a coward, you would have given him impossible a.s.signments, a.s.signments that would have gotten him killed. I did not expect that of you."

I felt a thrill run through me as she spoke. "What did you expect?"

"I expected you to let him trap himself, as he did." Tavira leaned forward again and licked my left cheek teasingly. "I didn't expect you to make me kill him. I thought you would present his body to me as proof you were his superior. Trapping me the way you did, you sought to prove you were my superior as well."

I kept my voice even. "You may choose to believe that, if you wish."

She laughed and backed away a step, then tucked her black hair back behind her left ear. "And you may choose to believe that is not what you intended." She licked her lips and I felt the heat of her l.u.s.t radiating from her. "So, you forced me to destroy my diversion, leaving me with the need for a replacement. I think I will have you become my new diversion."

I held my hands up. "I won't be diverting anyone for days."

"And you will want to use those days to figure out how to escape me, won't you?" She shook her head. "I know your tragic tale of a lover lost and your revenge plotted. I know what you desire. I am not a stupid woman. I could compel your attendance by my side by simply threatening to have the Survivors wiped out. I could threaten your servant here, and you would do what I want, but that is not enough.

"So, this is what I tell you, Jenos Idanian. You know you want me, and you know I want you. I know you want to destroy the Tinta line and reclaim the lover denied to you. I will even allow you to do that, putting the Invidious and all my resources at your disposal. All you have to do is to agree to come to me of your own free will. You will enjoy my company-and I a.s.sure you that you will very much enjoy it. You will come here, to the Invidious, and I will make you my consort. Through me, your goals will be accomplished."

Leonia Tavira smiled, then stepped forward one last time.

She took my jaw in her hands and pulled my mouth to hers. Her tongue played across my lips, then she kissed me, fully and deeply.

I wanted to tell myself that I didn't thrust her away because of the injuries to my hands, but I knew that wasn't the truth. The thrill I had felt before exploded inside of me, running from my loins to my brain and back down, rendering my pain insignificant. I found my nose full of her scent, and could feel each strand of her hair that lashed gently against my cheeks.

The injuries to my hands were the reason I did not pull her closer.

My face burned as she pulled away, a victorious smile on her face. She glanced at Elegos. "Take good care of him. I will call upon him in a month for his decision, and if he is not healed, I will return to Kerilt and sterilize the planet."

She kissed her fingers and pressed them against my lips. "A month, then all you desire, in your heart and mind, will be yours for the taking."

She swept from the room and a few seconds after her departure, the fire in my lungs reminded me that breathing was indeed a necessary part of my continued existence. I greedily sucked in air and snorted it back out, trying to clear her perfume from my nose. I did my best to ball my left fist and smack it against the table, but Elegos caught my wrist and stopped me from doing that as easily as a parent curbing a child's tantrum.

He didn't say anything, but just started washing my left hand. The sting of water and the rasp of the sponge over torn flesh helped bring me back into myself. I wanted to apply a quick Jedi calming technique, but to do so would betray me to Tarira's advisors. Using such a technique also required more composure than I could muster at the moment.

There was no denying that I was attracted to Tarira. It was a physical thing, an animal thing, a magnetic attraction of one meat machine to another. I wanted to think of it on that plane alone, as if I were betrayed by the crude matter that trapped my spirit, but I knew that wasn't the whole story either. There was something in her spirit that I found intriguing. I told myself that what drew me to her was situational-like my attraction to Siolle Tinta or Wedge's attraction to Qwi. Still, I found some-thing about Tarira absolutely fascinating, which made it difficult to deny the enticement of the flesh.

What disturbed me more than my feeling of being drawn to her was her a.n.a.lysis of why I hated Remart and why I had done to him what I had. Even when describing the fight to my interrogators, I denied the detail of the damage I had inflicted on him. Kicking him in the stomach, smashing his face, all of that was certainly one way to win a fight with him, but I'd been trained in much quicker and more effective ways to deal with someone like him. Even in our first encounter, a shot to the throat had backed him off. That same blow, delivered more forcefully, could have crushed his windpipe and killed him with-out a fraction of the damage I'd done to him.

I looked at my hands and knew I could have easily put him down without cutting myself and breaking bones. I'd known forever that hitting someone in the face was a great way to break a hand, but I did it anyway. I'd hit him there to punish him, and I'd hit him to punish myself. Somewhere, deep down inside, I knew the beating I gave him was wrong. I couldn't stop myself, so I made myself pay.

Tavira suggested that I'd hated Remart so much because we were so much alike. I couldn't believe that, but cold a.s.sessment showed me her comparison wasn't terribly flawed. The necessities of the pirate society had brought out my worst traits. I'd allowed my arrogance and c.o.c.kiness to run away with me and bring me down to the Invids' level.

Remart is what I would have been had I fallen in with the Sttrvivolx and not the Rebellion. A chill ran down my spine. It would have been so simple, too, because the Survivors loved the Empire no more than I did when I was on the run. Given no place to hide, I could have easily joined them to strike back at the Empire. Had I not been in a position to eventually join the Rebellion when I ran from Corellia, I might have ended up with the Survivors. Without a moral compa.s.s, I would have fallen into the savage and brutal society with absolute abandon, thriving amid the sc.u.m I used to hunt.

I'd not have been Tarira's consort, she would have been mine. I hissed, more at that realization than the sting of the unguent Elegos applied to my hands. I would have been a terror, a Garm bel Iblis, carrying on my own war with the Empire, but without bel Iblis's n.o.bility to guide my hand. The whole of the galaxy would have been arrayed against me and I would have destroyed them all.

I would have become what Exar Kun offered to make me.

"No!"

Elegos smiled. "The dressing will help the healing, Master."

"Not that." I frowned. "And don't call me Master. Jenos will work; Captain if you want to be formal."

"Very well, Captain." Elegos elevated my right hand and started to wrap it in steriplast.

I sighed and let him work. I knew I had been jealous of Remart, and I beat him in a manner such that I destroyed his physical appeal. As nearly as I could sort out, Tarira had been right-I beat him to spoil her fun and punish her for choosing him over me.

Even accepting that, I knew I'd not let Remart live just so she would kill him. I had not expected that to happen. She was morally bankrupt enough to transform mercy on my part into lethal trickery. I knew others would believe as she did-Caet and Timmser, who probably knew me better than anyone else in the Invids, would clearly accept my being that devious.

But I didn't do that. I couldn't. I frowned. Could I?

I shivered again and felt an icy viper wriggle through my guts.

I could have, definitely. I clung to the fact that I knew I hadn't.