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“Yes, I think so.”

“Okay, what if the person you fall for isn’t capable of having children with a human?”

“I would, well, urn, I don’t know.”

“There are other problems, too, and we’re not talking the possible difficulties and dangers of making love, either.”

“Dangers?”

“Sure. Suppose the person you’re with is used to giving and getting gentle little love nips—with ten-centimeter-long teeth?” Corran hooked two fingers over like fangs. “Your hide isn’t as thick as a Gamorrean’s, so you’d be leaking.”

“I hadn’t thought about that.” Gavin frowned and his shoulders slumped. “I mean, I don’t think that will be a problem.”

“Some species don’t live as long as we do—though amid present company, life expectancy isn’t that big an issue.” Corran picked up a new heavy blaster and began to disassemble it for cleaning. “There are a lot of things you can take into consideration, Gavin, but it pretty much boils down to the same thing relationships between humans do: if you and the other person get along, problems can be worked out.”

Gavin nodded. “So have you ever, you know …?” The young man’s voice trailed off as color rose in his cheeks.

Corran felt two hands on his shoulders and looked back to see Iella’s smiling face above his. “Has Corran ever what?”

Corran shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing.”

Mirax appeared on his left and leaned on the table between Corran and Gavin. Her dark hair had been pulled back into a thick braid. “The look on Gavin’s face doesn’t suggest it was nothing, CorSec.”

Iella’s hands tightened playfully on the back of his neck. “Come on, Corran, there’s not much you haven’t done.”

A smile blossomed on Gavin’s face and Corran suddenly felt outnumbered. And reluctant to answer Gavin’s question. He knew it wasn’t because of Iella’s presence—she already knew the answer and could even tell the story better than he could. And he figured Gavin would find it amusing and make him less nervous. Clearly Gavin wanted to hear that Corran had dated an alien because the boy obviously had an interest in someone, and from the glances Corran had seen and the stories he’d heard, Gavin was thinking a lot about the Bothan, Asyr Sei’lar. While Corran thought she was a bit worldlier than Gavin could handle, he was willing to bet the farm boy from Tatooine could learn fast.

He found his reluctance to say anything came from Mirax’s presence and his feelings toward her. Erisi and Rhysati had been paired together for their part of planning the operation, giving Corran time apart from her. It allowed him to put Erisi into perspective. Even though they were of the same species and even were attracted to each other, something deep down inside told Corran that their getting together would be wrong. Not wrong, a disaster!

Everything that made Erisi wrong seemed to make Mirax right. She understood him because of their common background. Granted their fathers had been enemies—Corran characterized them as chronic enemies instead of mortal enemies—but that gave them a bond he would never have with Erisi. Ultimately with Erisi he knew he’d have felt like a pet, whereas with Mirax he felt like a friend and equal.

During the planning operations Corran, Mirax, Gavin, and Iella had gone out and secured a lot of supplies for the operation. Things were scarce and, if available at all, were high priced. More than once Corran wished Emtrey had been on Coruscant to help with procurement, but Mirax proved every bit his equal in obtaining things. Whereas the droid might have used an instant analysis of a trader’s wares to figure out his markup and squeeze him until his prices became reasonable, Mirax charmed, cajoled, wheedled, and even threatened. She’d learned every trick in the book from her father and Corran thought old Booster would be proud when he learned about her exploits.

But there is so much about her I don’t know, like her reaction to learning I dated outside my species. Fear that she might see such an action as making him unclean or unworthy killed any quip he might have tossed at Iella. He looked up at Mirax but saw