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Falynn snickered, then asked, “What about the lieutenant?”

Face shrugged. “She had a sense of humor like mine. Probably why we got together, and certainly why we got apart just as fast. The next day, they found my clothes just in front of the intake door of the food reprocessing plant. There was a note on them saying, ‘I cannot live with what I have done. Think of me whenever you have a bite to eat.’ She signed my name, of course. I got away clean, so to speak, with the naked-in-the-halls thing, only to be written up for my ‘practical joke.’ I had to clean everyone’s dress uniform boots for graduation.”

Phanan said, “So, Lieutenant.”

Donos looked up. “We’re off-duty. You can call me Myn.”

“So, Myn, do they do that sort of stuff in the Corellian armed forces?”

Donos nodded. “A long and honorable tradition. I’ll tell you sometime about the dead gurrcat that wouldn’t stay buried.”

Grinder sniffed. “Practical jokes. A ridiculous waste of time.”

The others looked at him. Face said, “You’ve never sliced into someone’s secure files and changed them, left messages or something, just for your own amusement? Or to make them look stupid?”

“Certainly not.”

“You’re not like any code-slicer I’ve ever met.”

The Bothan smiled. “I’m better.”

Falynn turned away from him and back to Donos. “So, were you really a sniper?”

The lieutenant nodded.

“Did you ever have to … you know … I mean, don’t answer if that’s too personal.”

“Did I ever shoot someone in cold blood? Without giving him a chance?”

She nodded, somber.

“Yes. Three times I did that. I didn’t much care for it; if I did, I’d probably still be doing it. But better to have dead enemies than dead innocents.” He glanced at his chrono. “Speaking of which, I need to suit up and get in some practice out on the range.” Folor Base had an interior shooting gallery for blaster pistol practice, but the distances for which a laser sniper rifle was best suited were much greater. Donos and Janson had put together a target site on a hilltop outside, in hard vacuum; Donos would be sniping on it from several surrounding hills. “Ten, are you still going with me?”

Tyria nodded. “I’m certainly not going to let you wander around out there alone.”

Jesmin said, “Please, let me. I need the vacuum suit practice.” She rose.

Donos followed suit and, with a short nod for his squadmates, left with the Mon Calamari flyer.

“He certainly opened up,” Phanan said. “It makes me feel all warm inside, seeing the barriers come down. I think we should get him a toy bantha to cuddle at night.”

“Oh, shut up,” said Falynn. “He is better. He talked, a little. He even smiled.”

“Imagining Face naked would make anyone laugh.”

Falynn glared at him. “Ton, would you die for Myn Donos?”

The cyborg chuckled. “Maybe some other day.”

“Would he die for you?”

“I don’t know.”

“He would. I’m sure he’d die for any of us. He wanted to die for his last squadron, but his responsibility wouldn’t let him. As far as I’m concerned, that makes him better than you. Ton, what’s it like to be constantly making fun of people better than you?” She rose, not waiting for an answer, and stormed out of the cafeteria.

Phanan raised his eyebrow. “I say she’s sweet on him.” He turned to Face. “Want to bet? I’ll give you three to one.”

“No, I’m betting your side.”

Grinder leaned in. “I’ll have some of that. I am an expert in human psychology. She is too independent and pragmatic to have romantic yearnings for him. She is merely responding to the pain of a hurt animal. This is a human female instinct. She wants to nurse him back to health.”

Phanan grinned. “Twenty creds?”

“Fifty.”

“Done.”

Kell fixed Tyria with a stare. “What do you bet?”

She shrugged. “They may both be right. Some women see a man who is a mess, feel the urge to repair his problems, and then fall in love with him while they’re working on him.”

“Emotional distress as an attractant. Say, Tyria, I have a sharp pain in my childhood memories.”

Phanan winced. “What a terrible line. I wish I’d thought of it.”

Tyria stood and turned an indulgent eye on Kell and