Star Wars_ Death Star - Michael Reaves [92]
Rodo nodded. They had given each other new moves. A valuable exchange.
Nova realized that his tiredness was gone. He hadn’t had a chance to play with a fighter this good in years. It was rare, these days, to run into someone skilled enough to learn from.
“You ever see any Velanarian boxing?” he asked.
“Yeah, the crosscut version. Used to know a guy had some of that. Hard to get the moves down when you’ve only got two arms, but …” He shrugged. “Gotta get back to work. C’mon along—drinks are on me.”
This, Nova told himself, could be the start of a great friendship.
42
ARCHITECTURAL OFFICE SUITE, EXECUTIVE LEVEL, DEATH STAR
Teela Kaarz blinked at the man in front of her. “Where’s the Wookiee chief? Hahrynyar?”
“He took sick,” the man said. “Had to go to the clinic, isn’t well enough to come back to work yet. I’m pushrodding this shift.”
“And it was your idea to build this exhaust port?” She gestured at the expanded holo of the station’s plans. The much-debated port, near the “north pole” of the meridian trench, was clearly visible.
“No, it wasn’t my idea. It’s on the plans.”
“I talked to the Wookiee about that.”
The man, a graybeard who was a hand span shorter and fifty kilos heavier than she was, shrugged. “Yeah? Well, sorry, but what you told him didn’t get passed on. The plans called for an exhaust port and that’s what they pay me to do, follow the plans. Unless you, uh, maybe got an exception and wrote it down?”
Disgusted with herself, Teela shook her head. “I didn’t have a chance to get to it.”
He shrugged again. “Not my fault.”
She nodded. That was true, it wasn’t his fault. “Okay,” she said. “Done is done. What about the heat exchangers on the barracks levels?”
“Ninety-eight percent complete, down to routers and capacitors, and we’ll have those online in a couple more shifts, no problem.”
That much was good, anyway.
“The walkway escalators from Six to Seven?”
“Done. We can crank them anytime.”
“And the pocket park on Nine is where?”
“Laid out, greensward all seeded, the big trees and foliage planted, pumps and pipes installed, and the channels and ponds cast and hard-set. All we need is for Hydrology to deliver the water and power to light it up.”
Teela looked at her datalog. Everything was coming along on time, and some things, like the tiny patch of greenery up on Nine, were actually ahead of schedule. Hahrynyar’s substitute was certainly keeping the Wookiee’s rep spotless. Okay, so they’d put in a heat exhaust port that wasn’t really needed. It hadn’t slowed down anything else, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt anything by being there. In fact, given the size of the reactor, and the heat it would generate at full power, it was probably better to have too many vents than too few.
It was always a good idea to err on the side of safety.
“All right,” she said. “Just keep me in the circuit.”
“Of course.”
After he left her office, Teela looked over the schedule again. Her portion of the construction was on time and on budget, true enough, but she wasn’t the only architect on the project, and as it sometimes happened, the good suffered for the faults of the bad. She expected a call from her boss anytime now, telling her she was going to have to cut costs or speed up—or both. It wasn’t fair or right, but if you could carry your load, then you were often asked to help somebody else carry theirs.
“Teela Kaarz?”
Teela looked up. Her receptionist droid stood in the doorway of her office.
“Yes?”
“Senior Project Manager Stinex sends his regards and asks that you come by his office at your convenience.”
Teela nodded. Well, there it was, just like she expected. “Inform the senior PM I’ll be by in an hour, if that’s okay with him.” There was no help for it. That was how things worked.
She noticed the droid was still there. “What?”
“You have a call incoming from a Lieutenant Villian Dance.”
Teela grinned. “Put that through. And close the door on your way out.”
Despite her resolve, the dashing TIE pilot had charmed her. He was funny, clever, and not bad-looking. Given her job and trustee