“Of course,” Marlowe said, standing as well. “As we said, it is an honor and a privilege to assist the Jedi and the Republic with anything you might need.”

Final pleasantries were exchanged, and Avar and Elzar left the San Tekka compound, heading for the Longbeam that had brought them to Naboo, waiting on a landing pad just outside the gates.

“They were hiding something,” Elzar said. His tone was light, but she knew he was frustrated. A familiar emotion from him. He was always reaching…pushing.

“I’m sure they were, Elzar. They’re businesspeople. We don’t know that what they held back is even relevant. The San Tekkas didn’t seem malicious. The opposite, really—they’re offering to share some of their most closely held secrets to help save lives.”

Elzar was silent, but she felt a grudging acceptance from him.

“Let’s continue our investigation, see if there’s more we can learn. If need be, we can return and question them again. We made progress here. Be pleased.”

“The drink was good, at least,” Elzar said, and walked ahead, toward the waiting Longbeam.

The breeze blew across the lanai, and Marlowe and Vellis San Tekka sat in silence, looking out across the lake at the isle of Varykino, where strange geniuses toiled in isolation, creating art that, more likely than not, would never be seen by anyone beyond the shores of the little island.

“You know who this sounds like, don’t you?” Vellis said.

He lifted his wineglass, tapped his fingernail against its rim a few times, then set it back down on the quartz table.

“It’s not possible,” Marlowe answered. “She can’t still be alive. She’d be beyond ancient.”

“I hope so,” Vellis said. “For her sake, by all the gods…”

The sun sparkled off wavelets on the lake, and both men thought about the history of their clan, and where their great wealth had truly come from, and the great tragedy at its heart.

“…I hope so.”

Chapter Twenty-four

Marchion Ro’s flagship traveled through hyperspace—but in a way no other ship in the galaxy could. Its course was not set, moving from one access zone to another, through a well-defined hyperlane. No…the Gaze Electric didn’t move, it maneuvered. The massive ship plunged and rose, making impossibly tight turns, diving into tiny offshoots of the main road and finding itself in an entirely new ur-space. It followed routes that could not be seen and could not be repeated.

Its path was charted by Mari San Tekka, and Marchion Ro let her have her head—she had complete control over the ship’s navigation systems, and if the ride got a little bumpy sometimes, even terrifying, so what? These rides made Mari feel happy and good—they let her test her theories, work out new ideas.