• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“In something,” Daala said. She removed her hand from his knee. “Any change?”

“Not that I have the training to see,” Ysa’i replied. “But the monitor is capturing this on a chip. I’m sure Dr. Javir can interpret the data more accurately than I can.”

Instead of replying, Daala continued to watch Bwua’tu’s eyes. It took only a couple of seconds for his pupils to shift again. She turned to look in the same direction—and felt the excitement of a few moments earlier draining away.

Bwua’tu’s gaze was fixed on the vidscreen above his bed, where the impish figure of Madhi Vaandt was broadcasting from a plaza surrounded by the looming, cut-stone buildings of Blaudu Sextus’s capital city, Arari. Behind the newscaster, thousands of shaggy-furred Octusi were racing past, squealing and shrieking as they fled a line of Mandalorian QuickStryke assault sleds.

“Madhi Vaandt,” Daala growled. She glanced over at Wynn, who was watching the vidscreen with an expression that seemed a lot less surprised than it should have. “I thought we were going to suppress her reports.”

Wynn shrugged. “Needmo said he’d pull her off the assignment voluntarily,” he explained. “Apparently, he was lying.”

“And you took a newscaster at his word?” Daala asked. “It’s not like you to be so careless.”

“I wasn’t.” Wynn shot a meaningful glance at Ysa’i, then added, “Needmo would have challenged a formal suppression order as a matter of principle, and we would have had to demonstrate material relevance in open court. I thought an informal request was the better option.”

What Wynn was being careful not to say in front of the doctor was that the informal request had been their only option. To avoid a direct link between her government and the effort to suppress the slave revolt, Daala had arranged for a local mining company to hire the Mandalorian mercenaries with laundered funds. Defending a formal security order in court would have meant running the risk not only that the order would be overturned, but that the entire arrangement would be revealed to Needmo—and therefore the general public—in the process.

Daala exhaled in frustration, then nodded. “You’re right, of course,” she said. “But no more playing nice with Perre Needmo. If one of his reporters airs so much as a stang, I want him off the air.”

Wynn nodded. “I’ll alert the Galactic HoloNet Commission.”

“You might want to hold off on that until after Admiral Bwua’tu awakens,” Ysa’i said. He pointed at the brain-activity image. “The situation on Blaudu Sextus seems to be catching his interest.”

The holograph had blossomed into a virtual mountain range, with spires and peaks shooting up in all quarters. Daala checked Bwua’tu’s pupils and found them locked on Madhi Vaandt, tracking her image as it shifted to different parts of the display.

“Nek?” Daala asked. “Is it her?”

The image on the vidscreen shifted to a close-up of one of the Octusi, and the peaks on his activity graph began to subside.

“That’s strange,” Daala said. “There must be some connection.”

“A connection?” Asokaji asked, stepping back into the room. “Is he coming awake?”

“It’s too early to tell,” Ysa’i replied. “At least for me.”

“But there’s something happening,” Daala said. “He seems interested in Madhi Vaandt.” She looked up. “Can you think of a reason?”

Asokaji’s face grew a deeper shade of blue, and he could not help shooting a quick glance in Wynn’s direction—a glance that was returned just as quickly, then broken off. Daala found herself confused for a moment, until the image of Vaandt’s face appeared on the vidscreen again. With sharply pointed ears, shaggy white head fur, and long narrow eyes, she was, Daala had to admit, quite bewitching.

“A reason aside from the fur, I mean.” Daala’s tone was crisp without being sharp. “She’s beautiful, but I don’t think that’s what is catching Nek’s interest. There’s some connection to the attempt on his life.” She looked back to the brain-activity image, which had once again blossomed into peaks and points. “There has to be.”

Asokaji glanced at Ysa’i and reported that Dr.