Part 11 (1/2)

Our Chief of State-my sister-was caught in the revolt, along with her husband and children.”

”What help do you need of us?” Gaeriel asked.

”The leaders of the revolt seem to have chosen their moment carefully. They commenced their rebellion at a moment when the New Republic Navy was heavily committed, and those s.h.i.+ps nOt committed were undergoing repair. We don't have any s.h.i.+ps to spare. We need yours.”

Gaeriel looked at Luke in astonishment. ”I hardly know what to say, Luke. I must admit that I'd imagined seeing you again more than once over the years. But somehow I never imagined you calling on me to ask if you could borrow our navy.”

”It's not the most gracious way to renew an old acquaintance, is it?” Luke asked, smiling ruefully.

”No, it isn't. But at least it has the benefit of being original.”

Gaeriel thought for a moment. If they wanted help from the Bakuran Navy, they would have to talk to Ossilege. And he'd want to bring in his tactical people. And she'd need to talk to the new Prime Minister as well. He'd certainly want a representative sitting in.

Gaeriel was lost in thought when the door annunciator chimed again.

She blinked and came back to herself, surprised at how quickly her mind had turned toward the practicalities, the ins and outs of making things happen on Bakura. The chimes sounded again.

”All, that will be my friends,” Luke said.

”You go let them in,” she said, standing up. ”Now that I know what this is about, I know who to call. Give me a half hour and I can get together the people you need.”

Han Solo sat on his cot and stared at Dracmus the Selonian, and Dracmus the Selonian sat on her cot and stared back at him. The two of them had sat there, silent, for half the night. Han had no idea what to do. Was this creature his ally or his enemy? Was she wondering whether to befriend him, or was she just waiting for him to doze off, and amusing herself in the meantime by considering which part of his anatomy would make the tastiest appetizer?

”Apologize my asking in the Basic,” Dracmus said at last, speaking so suddenly that Han jumped in startlement. ”My Basic I have not used much for long, and it is not good. As I use, will come back. But must use. Must ask. Cannot ask in my tongue, as Selonian has not the word.

So, in Basic. That man Thrackan sal-solo is your cousin? Yes?

That is how you say the thing?”

An anticlimactic way to start the confrontation, but the way things hadbeen going, Han would take all the anticlimaxes he could get. ”Yeah, that's right. My cousin.”

”Which is a kind of relative? A relation of the blood?

Of what sort, please, does it mean?”

”There are various kinds of cousin,” Han said slowly.

”But the sort he is to me is of the closest sort, a first cousin.

That means a child of you, r parents' siblings.

Thrackan is my father's sister's son.

”Ah,” said Dracmus, still staring fixedly at Han. ”I make confession that I do having the trouble getting human family concepts straight,” she said.

”Yeah,” Han said, a bit slowly. ”I can see how that might be.”

He had not known what to expect of Dracmus. He had been worried that she might bear a grudge about the fight, but it seemed she wasn't going to mention it. Well, if she wasn't, he certainly wasn't going to.

Still and all, he hadn't expected her to start off asking about cousins. Why cousins? Han didn't know a great deal about Selonian family life, but he knew something.

Selonians were hive animals, living somewhat like certain social insects, in groups they called dens. Normally the whole den lived together, but members might travel far and wide, and some might live apart from others. It was the bloodline of the den, and not the physical proximity of den members, that mattered.

Each den normally contained a few fertile males and exactly one actively fertile female, the queen. That one queen, the single breeder female, gave birth to all the rest of the den's offspring. She would have four or five birthings of five or more every year, a pace she might keep up for thirty or forty standard years. Only one birth in a hundred was a male, but all males were fertile.

One birth in five hundred was a fertile female. The vast majority of a given den was made up of sterile females.

Strangely enough, the fertile males and females, the breeders, were an oppressed, albeit pampered, minority.

The steriles treated the fertiles as breeding stock. Power was vested not in the fertile queen, but in one of her sterile daughters or aunts or sisters, who, in effect, owned her.

A very odd setup, and Han could see how human family relations would seem just as odd to Dracmus.

”You Selonians do things a bit differently,” he said.

”Yes, yes,” Dracmus said, a bit absently. ”Very differently.”

She curled her tail on her lap. ”But this your cousin. He is not like you.”

Han felt his head reeling just a bit. It had been a hard enough day already without some Selonian trying to play anthropologist.

Still, there was something in her tone of voice that told him she was the persistent sort.

He wouldn't get any peace until he satisfied her curiosity. ”He is and he isn't,” he said. ”We look a lot alike and sound a lot a like. But we don't think alike. Which is why he's out with his drinking buddies and I'm in a cell.”

”Is that the rule with human cousins? Look alike, not think alike?”

”There's no rule,” Han said. ”It varies. It varies an awful lot.

Thrackan and I look a lot more like each other than most cousins.

Cousins don't usually act much alike.”

”Very much of interest,” Dracmus said. ”Very much.

And he is your enemy? Deeply and truly so? Of your blood, your close blood, and yet you work against each other?”

”Oh, yes,” Han said. ”Very much so.”

The tip of Dracmus's tail whipped back and forth moodily.

”Amazement. We Selonians, we know other species are so, but having know is not understand.

Against blood.”

”Yeah. Against it,” Han said. He was exhausted, and nOt quite sure how much longer he could keep up the small talk without pa.s.sing out on the spot. Still, he really didn't want to insult Dracmus.

Especially considering how sharp those teeth were. He hesitated a moment, then decided to take the chance. ”Look, no offense, and I really am glad it seems you're not going to tear me limb from limb, but I'm not in such great shape just now. Why does this matter? Can't it wait?”

”It matters much,” Dracmus said. ”I believe now you are not like him, though I wonder why you are not. I am glad you are not the same. So you should be glad.”