"If you're sure enough that your side is the right one, but she's skeptical of that. You lived there; did you somehow not notice that the people on that station were leading satisfactory lives and didn't need rescuing at all?"

Anila considers this.

"I noticed."

(Emotion Read--Anila: conflicted.)

(Emotion Read--Tamarai: are you kidding me?)

Deskyl nods.

    "Does it really just come down to the dragons being alien, or is there some other reason for this war?"

"It comes down to them being tyrants. Their intention is to have every human in existence either enthralled or contained. That's how the war started and, two hundred decacycles later, it hardly seems likely that they're going to change their minds."

    "She's known tyrants. It's a common aspiration, for Sith. The results don't look like this, not with the kind of power you claim the dragons have."

    "We're done here. Thank you for your time."

The spy doesn't know whether to be relieved (she is still alive) or disappointed (her words didn't sink in as far as she'd hoped they would).

In either case, she is not going to press the issue when Deskyl and DZ elect to depart.

Wise of her.

Deskyl stalks off to the room they left the teenager in, drumming her fingers on her thigh as she goes; as she gets close, she draws her 'saber, but doesn't light it. She signs, once, to DZ, who goes in ahead of her.

    "Nilam? Deskyl needs to use this room for a few minutes. I can take you up to the cockpit or something if you'd rather not go to your bunk."

Nilam, significantly less moody in disposition than when last DZ visited, smiles and says: "Sure. I'd like to see the cockpit."

She gestures Nilam out, and Deskyl claims the room in her place. Once the door is shut, she turns to Tamarai: "Please don't let anyone disturb her, Ma'am; if someone does she'll most likely kill her. I'll be back in twenty minutes."

"Okay."

Tamarai is going to personally anchor herself outside this door and make sure nobody walks in on Deskly during the Instant Death Interval.

And up to the cockpit they go. It's kind of pretty - starscape, debris, SLAYERs, escape pods, all just floating. She offers Nilam the still-vacant pilot's seat and gives her a few minutes to take in the view before speaking again. "Would you like to tell me a little more about yourself?"

"I want the sword lessons," she says abruptly. "If, uh. If your master's still offering them."

"She is," DZ nods. "Maybe not right away; she might need a little time to settle in at the new place. But soon."

"Thank you."

She fidgets. Pokes at the buckles on the pilot's chair. (Its layout is subtly different than anything she'd encountered before in the Draco Territories.)

"What did you want to know about me?"

"Do you have plans, for when you get to Guinevere's vassalage?"

"I'm not really big on making plans--"

She kicks her legs up on the cockpit dashboard.

Her heel jostles a knob.

A light in the corner of the room starts flashing.

She panics and tries to correct her blunder and gets tangled in the seatbelt.

DZ steadies her, and returns the knob to its original setting before helping her with the belt.

"Uh. I don't have aspirations of being a princess or anything." Nilam gives the seatbelt one more wary tug before settling properly back into the chair. "I don't really get why everyone else seems so keen on it, either."

She nods. "Deskyl would be miserable as one, too. But some people like it; it's nice, for some people, to know just what they should do, and only have to worry about doing it."

“...so you pledged to Deskyl, huh?”

"We don't do things the same way, where we're from. But close enough, yes. I'm very happy with her."

“Well that’s good.”

Awkward pause.

”So, how come you’re made of metal?”

"I'm a robot - I'm not biological at all; I was made, not born. Robots are common, where Deskyl and I are from, as a replacement for human slaves, since we're not believed to be people."

“Ah.”

There were a lot of words there that Nilam did not understand.

"Sorry. I'm all right, Deskyl knows I'm a person. And she'd never keep a slave."