I have great respect for the culture of the Blood Carvers," Raith Sienar told the tall, quiet, golden figure that stood in the anteroom to the commander's quarters. He could hear Ke Daiv's slow, soft breathing and the steady click-click of his long black nails on one hand, knocking together like wooden chimes in a breeze.

"Why did you bring me here?" Ke Daiv asked after a mo ment. "It is early in the mission."

"So insolent!"

"It is my way. I serve and obey, also in my way."

"I see. Please, make yourself comfortable." Raith stood back and gestured toward the sitting room.

Ke Daiv moved half a step, then hesitated and bowed slightly. "I am not worthy."

"If I say you are worthy, then you are worthy," Sienar told the young Blood Carver, with just the right measure of sternness.

Ke Daiv bowed again and walked into the viewing room. The port hatches were still closed. The navigator droid had predicted another four or five hours in hyperspace before they emerged into realspace.

"Please, sit" Sienar urged again. He wished to hold his command voice in reserve. He sensed Ke Daiv would be more susceptible in due time, after he learned a few things about his situation-and about Raith Sienar.

Ke Daiv gentry bent his triple joints and knelt by the crystal-top table, rather than sit on the divan.

"Have you been treated well aboard the Admiral Korvin?" Sienar asked.

Ke Daiv said nothing.

"I am concerned with your well-being," Sienar said.

"I am fed and left alone in small quarters reserved for me. As I am not part of the crew, they stay away, and that is good."

"I see. Something of a wall there, hm?"

"No more so than on Coruscant. My people are few in that part of the galaxy. We have yet to make our mark."

"Of course. I, personally, admire your people, and I hope we can exchange information useful to both of us," Sienar said.

Ke Daiv turned his head, and his face formed that disconcerting blade shape as his wide nose flaps came together. He turned slowly to look at the E-5 droid hulking in one corner. The droid rotated its wide, flat head in their direction, jewel-red eyes glowing like coals, and adjusted its stance to face the Blood Carver directly.

"Do you believe all that you've been told about this mission?" Sienar said.

Ke Daiv shifted one eye toward him, but kept the other on the E-5. "I have been told little. I know that you do not trust me."

"We're equal in that regard," Sienar said. "And in no other. I am still commander. I am your leader."

"Why remind me if you are so certain?" Ke Daiv asked bluntly.

Sienar smiled and held out his hands in admiration. "Perhaps we are equal in other ways. You have doubts, and I have doubts. You know little or nothing about me, or what I hold in reserve."

Ke Daiv's joints cracked softly, and he looked away from the E-5. The droid did not frighten him. "What do you wish to know?"

"I understand you have a contract with Tarkin." "You cannot understand what you do not know, and you cannot know this."

"A little respect," Sienar suggested in a soft rumble. "Commander," Ke Daiv added with another cracking of his arm joints.

"Tell me about your arrangement."

"I do not mind dying. I am in disgrace with my family, and death is not feared."

"I have no intention of killing you, or of letting you die," Sienar said. "The droid is here in case you have instructions to kill me. It's completely under my control."

"Why would anybody wish to kill you? You are commander." "Such insolence!" Sienar said with a tsk-tsk. "Almost ad mirable. Please, I'll ask, and you'll answer." "You show weakness in your phrases." "No, I show politeness, and that is my culture and my upbringing, and you show ignorance about me, and that is a true weakness, Ke Daiv."

Ke Daiv fell silent again and faced the closed port.

"You have other weaknesses. Your contract with Tarkin is all you deserve, because you failed to kill a Jedi."

"Two Jedi," Ke Daiv corrected.

"An understandable lapse, but still, a disgrace to your superiors and, I presume, your clan. Do you hope to make up for this disgrace by succeeding in this mission?"

"I always hope for success."

Sienar nodded. "Killing Jedi is a mug's game, Ke Daiv. They are strong and they have honor, and they respect all peoples and their ways. Why would you want to kill them?"

"I have no honor in my family, and that is all I may say," Ke Daiv told him.

"I did some research before I left, and discovered, in the Blood Carver genealogical registry on Coruscant, that you are listed as 'extended,' which means, I believe, a kind of extreme probation. Is this true?"

"It is true."

"Tell me how this happened. That is an order."

"I am constrained," Ke Daiv said.

"If you disobey my order, I can have you executed. . under the Trade Federation rules these officers still believe in and follow. That would remove you from any chance of redeeming yourself and put you on the list of permanent exclusion from the Art Beyond Dying. That is the finale of life within the Blood Carver belief system, a glorious conception of the afterlife, with which I, personally, would hate to interfere."

Ke Daiv's head bowed slightly, as if under some weight.

"You have contacted my clan," he said. "You bring me shame beyond my ability to erase."

"No, I haven't contacted your clan," Sienar said. "And I intend you no shame. I respect the Blood Carvers and their ways, and you are in enough trouble already. But I ask you listen closely to what I have to tell you."

Ke Daiv lifted his head and brought his nose flaps submissively back against his cheeks.

"You followed your quarry to the bottom of the Wicko refuse pit, and remarkably, you survived the garbage worms there. You climbed back against all the odds and reported your failure. That is bravery befitting any clan warrior, and a commitment to duty beyond anything I've heard about on Coruscant for decades. Yet there is a rumor going around that. ."

Sienar hesitated for effect and shook his head incredulously. "There is a rumor going around that in the future of the Republic, there may be no room for your people. No room for any race but humans. I, personally, will not support such a scheme. Will you?"