A/N: Firstly, we'd like to thank you for the kind reviews of our last story, "The Good, the Bad and the Fraudulent," and thanks for sticking with us!

To all who don't know it yet, our stories originated as online role-playing and are situated in our alternative Star Wars universe – well, mainly the universe of Episode One, pretending that the tragedy of the Great Jedi Purge never happened. Ahem. There are approximately twenty-five stories pre-written in this series which focuses on Master Eeth Koth and his padawan learner Raven Trebeck as well as some characters surrounding them, especially Eeth's first padawan Lakhri Tumuel and Lakhri's padawan Flynt. Although each story can stand alone, it might be a better reading experience to start from the beginning with "Of Padawans Fake and True."

"Ashpah" takes place after a time lapse of about two and a half years after "Parents and Children," the last story in our series featuring Eeth and Raven. It is the first of a set of three stories that focus on Raven's growth and – sometimes painful – learning experiences throughout a number of challenging missions during which her tendency towards arrogance and overconfidence becomes an increasing concern for Eeth.

Now for the standard disclaimer: As everyone who has read and followed our stories ought to know by now, authority and discipline, including corporal punishment, are central themes. To any newcomers, see the aforementioned statement and take it as your only warning. We don't post content warnings at the beginning of each chapter for this. Also, we realise that our master characters will at times come across as harsh. However, please keep in mind that this is a fictional universe in which teenagers with extraordinary, potentially lethal abilities are raised to do an incredibly hard, dangerous and responsible job. Their masters feel an obligation to keep them in line in order to protect them and others by various types of discipline, including corporal punishment, i.e., spanking with the hand and different implements. And sometimes, they will need to dispense with the cuddling and tell their charges to do their duty. These are teenagers, after all, not small children. There will always be times to offer comfort and moments of closeness between master and padawan, but they might sometimes have to wait. Plus, masters might have their own issues … which is certainly true for Eeth. His journey with Raven is a learning experience for him as much as for his padawan.

Fortunately for our padawans, our master characters have near-magical healing abilities at their disposal, allowing us to indulge our preference for strict discipline – but hopefully not at the expense of character development and progression of the storyline!

If you like our stories (or if you don't like them for reasons other than those of which you have been warned), let us know in a review; we love to hear what you guys think. And that's enough of the preliminaries. Enjoy!

"Master Koth. Padawan Trebeck. Thank you for joining me," said Saesee Tiin, beckoning the pair of Jedi into one of the offices where mission briefings were typically held. "As you know, you have been assigned a mission, together with another team. You know them well: Lakhri Tumuel and his padawan Flynt. They were out in the city when our call reached them and are currently being briefed over the comm while taking a shuttle back to the Temple. There is no time to lose."

Eeth inclined his head wordlessly and sat down, motioning for Raven to follow suit.

"Lakhri and Flynt?" said Raven in surprise as she took her seat. At the age of eighteen, Raven was well able to keep the excitement from her tone at this piece of information, but she had no chance of hiding it from Eeth, and she was excited at the prospect of a mission with her Jedi brother and nephew. "Where is it and what are we doing?" she asked Saesee Tiin.

"Ashpah," said Saesee, sitting opposite them. "A cluster of three small planets located in the Elrold system. The Elrold system is located along the Rime Trade Route in the Mathurin Nebula Territories, within the Dogan Gas Clouds and adjacent to the Koras Drift, which surrounds all planets in this sector. As Ashpah I and II have unbreathable atmospheres, their surface consists of massive cities, each enclosed in a huge dome. Ashpah III is the only planet of the three with a breathable atmosphere and is heavily populated as a result. Over the past decades, Ashpah III has become increasingly unpopular with its sister planets, firstly by becoming a member of the Republic and most recently by enforcing new and extremely strict immigration laws in an effort to prevent their planet from becoming overpopulated, which has caused their already stressed relations with the two sister planets to become more so – to the brink of war. Ashpah III has asked for Jedi intervention to help orchestrate a treaty to prevent war."

He paused, looking at the notes on his datapad. "The whole affair is being complicated by vast cultural differences between the planets," he continued. "All Ashpans are genderless but that is where the commonalities stop. On Ashpah III the laws are absolute and rigidly enforced without discrimination. No liberties are given to those who break the law, for whatever reason, whether it be ignorance or dire need; if you break the law there, you suffer the consequences, which vary from community service right up to the death penalty. The other two planets are more liberal and flexible in their application of laws. The most distinctive feature of Asphpah II is that they have no rules at all governing interactions of a sexual nature. They may fulfil their urges at any time and place they desire. About the inhabitants of Ashpah I we know comparatively little, but it seems that they are quite reserved and put-off both by the open displays of sexuality on Ashpah II and the rigid law enforcement on Ashpah III."

Raven nodded curtly. That was a lot to take in but by now, she was well used to absorbing details. She did have one pressing question, though. "The Elrold system? That's quite a distance. How long is the journey?"

"Ten days," said Saesee, his voice matter-of-fact.

"Ten days," Raven repeated, deflating a bit and sighing.

"Yes, that cannot be helped," said Eeth, unmoved. "I am sure we will be able to keep ourselves busy during that time."

"I'm sure, too," Raven said dryly. "Asphah II reminds me a bit of that time you and Lakhri went to Tintitl. Except for the fact that Asphah's cities are in domes."

Eeth's face was stony. He could see no humour in being reminded of the mission to Tintitl where the locals had not ceased to make advances on both himself and his padawan because apparently they considered them immensely attractive.

Raven, on the other hand, found the thought of a bunch of people hitting on her master kinda amusing. But after all, they had no real idea whom, if any of them, the people from Ashpah II would find appealing.

Flynt, too, thought this all incredibly entertaining. At sixteen years old, the teenager could think of a lot worse things than visiting such a sexually liberal culture. "I bet Raven is dark over the ten days of travel time," he commented as he walked beside Lakhri towards the hangar.

"Yeah, definitely," said Lakhri. "Fortunately for us and unfortunately for her, we can rely on Eeth to keep her in line. And I thank the Force you're not as antsy as she is. I'll find you a starship mechanics project to work on during the trip. If you complete it, that will be worth one cycle of classwork in the subject."

"Thanks. It's been a while since I've looked at starship mechanics, what with all that Basic garbage you made me complete last cycle," the boy said. His tone was deadpan, but his lip twitched into a smile.

"Lakhri! Flynt!" Raven called and ran to greet them. She gave a brief bow to Lakhri, then bent over to wrap the man in a hug. She reached up to put her arms around Flynt who picked her up off the ground and spun her around. "Hey, shorty, I've missed you," he said, kissing her cheek and putting her back on the ground.

"Missed you both, too," replied Raven and swiped an oversized handkerchief that she'd obviously pilfered from Eeth over grease covered hands. "We're good to go," she told them when Eeth came to join the group.

Eeth nodded. Raven was a fairly experienced pilot by now and he had trusted her to oversee part of the preflight checkups.

"Lakhri. Flynt," he said, bowing to both and allowing his former padawan to pull him into a brief hug. "Come inside, or we will be running late."

"We won't," Lakhri assured him. "We're right on time, after all."

"So you are," Eeth said, leading the way inside. "Flynt, you completed your starship piloting class, did you not? Could you act as Raven's co-pilot?"

"Sure I can," Flynt said jovially. He tossed his pack onto the couch in their small common room area and made his way into the cockpit where Raven was in seventh heaven. Flynt shook his head. How anyone could get so much pleasure out of piloting he didn't know. Mostly, flying was boring to him now, the novelty having worn off shortly after he had been cleared for solo flights. That said, he wasn't cleared to operate this sort of ship unsupervised yet, at least not technically. Personally, he thought he could practically build it by now, but arrogance over his abilities was not something Flynt struggled with.

"Start the navigation. I'll get us out of this. Gah!" said Raven. She swerved, narrowly missing a slow cargo freighter. Raven hated traffic.

"jumping in five," Raven announced fifteen looooong minutes later. This served two purposes. Firstly, it was protocol to announce to the crew what she was doing, and secondly, if Eeth or Lakhri wanted to check her numbers, now was the time to do it.

Eeth, however, was confident that Raven knew what she was doing. Besides, he had been watching her from the back seat where he had talked to Lakhri about their assignment. If she had made any major mistakes, the Force would most likely have alerted him to it.

"Alright," he said once they had made the jump to hyperspace, rising from his seat. "Let us organise dinner. Then we will discuss the mission and the schedule for mission preparation during our flight. Then bed."

Given that they had ten days in hyperspace, their ship was packed with as much fresh food as was practical. The problem was that once that ran out, they would be busted down to vacuumed packs and dehydrated vegetables. Flynt didn't mind this so much because he'd eat just about anything. Raven on the other hand wrinkled her nose. It was going to be yuck, she thought

They grilled fresh meat and some high protein substitute for Raven, mashed some tubers, steamed rice and thawed out some pre-made dumplings stuffed with mushrooms. All in all, the meal was delicious and by the time they sat down to eat, the smell had made them all hungry. Even Raven with her typically lacklustre appetite was keen to dig in.

"It's good," Flynt commented, slathering his tubers in a gravy that Eeth had made from the leftover meat drippings.

"Enjoy it while you can," said Lakhri. "Apparently, natural resources on all Ashpah planets are so scarce that food is mostly practical, rather than tasty. From what I gathered after skimming the mission briefing in the shuttle to the Temple, I imagine that it's food pills or some mush that contains all the essential nutrients. The mission file wasn't too specific, but in any case, Raven should be pleased to know that the food is 100% vegetarian. They don't have any farm land or crops to waste on raising livestock."

Raven nodded in approval but said nothing. Over the years, she'd learned that not everyone shared her beliefs.

"How like you to have read the section on food first," Eeth remarked drily. They had received hundreds of pages of mission information; none of them had been able to read it all before their departure, so he and Raven had focussed on the essential mission objectives.

"Oh, I knew you'd memorise the important stuff anyway," Lakhri said innocently. Then he flashed Eeth a grin. "And I've learned as much about the Ashpan planets as I could, so relax. I even read up on Ashpah III's immigration laws."

"Yeah, we both did. I had to read the thing, too, you know," Flynt mentioned, pointing his fork at his grandmaster.

Before Eeth could say anything to this, Raven cut in. "More reading. Joy. Instead, we might try to come up with some ideas around how to go about making this treaty work. As master once pointed out: 'A peace treaty can only work if the factions involved want it.' Otherwise, it's kinda like trying to push shit uphill. He didn't say the latter, that's one of Flynt's." Raven grinned. She had turned eighteen the day before and couldn't wait to test out her new status, although so far Eeth had treated her no differently than before, which irked her no end.

"Your wisdom notwithstanding," Eeth said, giving her a pointed look, "trying to come up with ideas without possessing the necessary information is a waste of time. Therefore, all of us will do the reading. We should divide the mission briefing into sections and each of us will focus on one of them."

"Sorry, Raven, Eeth is right," said Lakhri who was a very good and experienced negotiator. "How about three of us focus on one planet each and the fourth person on their interaction? That way, we can bring different perspectives into our discussion."

Raven frowned slightly at Eeth and Lakhri. They were probably right, but she had thought to just talk over what they had read so far and what ideas might come of that. Having her suggestion dismissed did not please her. Still, Raven wasn't crazy enough to take on both of them and so she relented, albeit with a dismissive snort and flick of her hair.

"I'll be the interaction man," Flynt offered, wanting to take the focus off Raven.

Eeth was not so easily distracted, however.

"Padawan, if you have any valid objections to my proposals, you are welcome to voice them in a constructive and polite manner," he said in the level tone of voice that he used when he was not pleased. "If you do not have valid objections, that will be all the more reason for you to be polite. I am not going to suddenly tolerate disrespect."

"No, you'd better not, or the shock would kill me," Lakhri said, leaning back in his chair. "Alright, Flynt, you do the interaction. That's kind of the hardest job, but it'll help you learn. Raven, pick your planet."

It would probably kill both of us, thought Raven, but she kept that thought to herself. She didn't meet Eeth's gaze but she did apologise across their bond. "I'll take Ashpah I and leave the 'fun' planets for you two," she said and gave a smile, her sense of humour showing through just a bit.

"Oh joy," said Lakhri. "So, Eeth and I get to choose between absolute sexual liberty and super strict laws. Eeth, you take the laws. That'd make it your job to ensure we don't violate any of them. Sounds like you're the perfect man for that. I, on the other hand, can't say I'm keen on finding out which of us they're going to feel most sexually attracted to, but I suppose someone should."

"Thank you so much for that sacrifice," said Eeth, his face and tone of voice absolutely deadpan.

Given how late in the day it was, Eeth gave them two hours to get started on their reading, after which he asked them to join him in the common room and talk about their findings.

"Ashpah I is the largest, hence the namesake," said Raven as soon as they were all seated around the table, not waiting for an invitation. "In contrast to the culture on Ashpah II, people on Ashpah I dress conservatively, are dignified, reserved and highly moralistic. They look down on their sister planet for its sexual liberties. They take their planet's laws seriously but the consequences of breaking them are adapted to the circumstances and generally aim at rehabilitation of the culprit, rather than deterrence. They have no tolerance whatsoever of Ashpah III's habit of imposing the death penalty on illegal immigrants, especially since a number of citizens of Ashpah I have fallen victim to it recently. This is why they dislike Ashpah III. All in all, they seem to think that Ashpah's III's good fortune to have a breathable atmosphere is wasted on such a harsh, inflexible society."

Eeth did not comment on the fact that Raven had taken the lead. He would have called her up first if she hadn't spoken up, and besides, they would all get their turn anyway. "Thank you," he merely said. "Lakhri?"

They continued exchanging basic information about the planets of the Ashpah system until Eeth finally decreed that it was time for bed. "Our mission files are extremely extensive and detailed," he said. "It will take at least three days, maybe longer, to work through them properly. And we should take that time."

"Agreed," said Lakhri. "It might not be the most thrilling of tasks, but the more we know, the higher our chances for success. The small, seemingly unimportant bits of knowledge might be just as relevant as the big political stuff. I really want to go into this as well-prepared as possible because it won't be an easy situation to resolve at all."

"When is any situation like this ever easy to resolve?" Raven remarked as she got to her feet.

Flynt shrugged. He wasn't really bothered by this sort of thing. In fact, he was rather looking forward to it. "Sounds like some of it could be interesting," he said, thinking that Ashpah II's liberal nature in particular might turn out to be entertaining, especially for a sixteen-year-old boy. He didn't say as much, but he was smiling.

"Yeah, 'interesting' is probably the right word," said Lakhri with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He was not particularly looking forward to supervising Flynt as he navigated his way through a sexually permissive society. His secret hope was that Ashpah II had some rule according to which beings without two fully functional arms were not considered attractive, but he doubted that they would be so lucky.

Both masters meditated with their padawans and then they all turned in and slept… until six in the morning, at which time Eeth woke everyone up, starting with Raven.

The girl had actually been awake, she was simply disinclined to get out of bed as it felt so comfortable. "You know," she said, rolling to meet Eeth's gaze. "After six years of getting up at the same time, I can manage this myself. I am an adult now, just like you. – Nobody comes to wake you," she felt compelled to add.

"When you are up on your own at six, I will dispense with waking you," Eeth told Raven. "When you are not, I will tell you to get up for as long as you are my padawan. Being eighteen does not equal being knighted, as you should well know."

She did, but Raven didn't want to hear that right now. Did turning eighteen afford her no new privileges at all? By the looks of it, not with Eeth. "We have another nine days of spaceship travel," she said. "The work will not run away. – Master." The last word was added as an afterthought because she really didn't want to start the day off on Eeth's shit list. That would be exceedingly stupid. Besides, Raven knew that this was just Eeth's way, that this was how he did things. Still, something just had to be said.

"Neither will the work do itself," said Eeth sternly. "Now get ready for the day." Then he turned and left to take care of breakfast.

Thirty-five minutes later, Raven appeared in their kitchen area clad in a comfortable training uniform. Her long hair was still damp but tied into a complex twist of braids that looked quite elegant. Drkai Luthan had taught her on one of the few missions they had been on together with her padawan Endal Kanyan. Those missions had mostly had animal-related agendas, as the Zabrak woman was an expert in the talent of using the Force to connect with animals that Raven possessed, too. Raven had learned a lot from Drkai, not least of which was how to make elegant, grown-up-looking hairstyles. Yes, braiding her hair had taken her an extra fifteen minutes this morning, but it did work to make her look older, nowhere near eighteen, but it was still better than nothing.

She looked around the ship. It was a typical Corellian design but with some apparent design flaws, she decided, the layout of their kitchen and refreshers being but one. Her confidence had grown in leaps and bounds lately, to the point where Eeth had scolded her often for harbouring an arrogant, almost condescending attitude towards non-Force-sensitive beings and their perceived inability to do things as well as Jedi could.

"Master," she said, bowing a greeting to Eeth as she had done just about every morning for the past six years. Her demeanour was still a little touchy, but she had released her annoyance into the Force and was now more or less her usual self.

"Finally! Were you bathing a creche group in there?" Flynt said with mock indignation. He had already showered and was in the mood to tease his aunt.

"Yes, and I left them all there for you to dry and dress," said Raven, smiling just a bit at the idea of Flynt having to actually do that.

Flynt had done his time in creche, and for the most part, he'd found it fun. The diapers, baths and clothing changes, however, he could have done without. Still, he wasn't about to let that on. "You leave all the hard work to me, I can take it." He turned, about to leave, but Eeth stopped him in his tracks. "Enough with the banter," he said sternly. "Both of you may help me finish setting the table. Flynt, where is your master?"

"He's coming," said Lakhri, slouching into the kitchen dragging his fingers through tangled curls. "And please refrain from scolding me for my appearance. I thought we'd probably have a workout this morning, so I might as well take a shower afterwards. And I'm a grown-up, just in case you haven't noticed."

Eeth digested this for a second. "So you are," he finally said, setting a bowl of Corellian fruit stew onto the table.

"Yes, well, so am I, not that anyone notices," Raven stated, giving Eeth a slight frown, which he ignored completely.

"Oh! Happy birthday for yesterday, Raven," Flynt said, missing her point entirely. He and Lakhri had been wholly occupied with a mission that had them spending their days and most of their evenings wandering Coruscant's Central Space Station. This had gone on until a few hours before their departure for Ashpah III yesterday when another team had taken over for them. "So, did you get anything good?" he wanted to know.

"Master took me to an exhibition on Mt Akemi's scorcher population," Raven answered. "The population suffered a rare disease but thanks to the implication of a successful breeding program on Coruscant about five years ago, they have all but eradicated it. I want to think I inspired that, even if my method of doing so might have been questionable." Raven smiled just a little bit. Eeth raised his eyebrows at the statement about Raven's alleged contribution, which he considered entirely absurd. But again, he chose not to comment.

"A scorcher?" Flynt thought aloud. "Isn't that one of those firebreathing critters that almost burned down your quarters that time?" Flynt recalled the story of Raven smuggling a scorcher back to the Temple after a field trip to Mt Akemi with Granzien, and although he didn't envy her for having faced Eeth's wrath, he had found the rest of the story amusing.

Raven coughed once, unwilling to look at Eeth. "That would be them, yes."

"Happy birthday, Raven," said Lakhri. "Sounds like it was a good way to spend your day."

He knew that Eeth did not make birthday presents, as such, but he usually tried to turn his padawans' birthdays into special occasions of some kind. Lakhri's first birthday with Eeth had occurred shortly after Eeth's former master had stepped in, bringing it home to Eeth that his padawan had emotional needs and required more than a full-time disciplinarian. As a result, Eeth had taken an extremely surprised and pleased Lakhri to Tree World.

"Thanks," replied Raven.

"You're legally an adult now," remarked Flynt. "That's so cool, Raven, really. You can go into even the strictest of bars without using fake identifications or Force suggestions." He coughed once at the expression on Eeth's face and quickly added, "Not that any underage padawan would ever consider such serious abuse of their abilities." He gave Lakhri his patented thousand-watt smile just to sweeten the deal.

"I don't think I received any extra privileges for turning eighteen," Lakhri remarked.

"Yes, well, having a birthday is not exactly an achievement," Eeth pointed out, starting to ladle out stew.

"It might not be a privilege," said Raven, "but becoming a legal adult is actually a pretty big deal for most teenagers." Especially those who looked as young as Raven did, although she kept that part to herself.

"Just as long as you do not expect special treatment," said Eeth drily and took a seat, motioning for everyone to start eating.

Raven just nodded, not wanting to further antagonise Eeth.

The problem was that Raven was touchy about her age. Yes, she had recently stopped experiencing the worst of puberty, much to her (and no doubt, Eeth's) great relief, yet Raven still looked significantly younger than her human peers which had caused her no end of trouble, thanks to her temper. When, finally, she had started developing, she had been almost seventeen years old, which according to the healers was typical for a human from Chine. Typical it might be on Chine, but her childlike appearance had its disadvantages to a young girl who wanted to be grown up, YESTERDAY! Her frame was lithe and sinewy and she carried very little body fat. She was mostly muscle, thanks to years spent training with Eeth, but, and much to her annoyance, she still looked to all the world like a fifteen-year-old and that wasn't going to go away overnight.

Breakfast was enjoyed with no more conversation on the topic of birthdays, and then they cleaned up.

"We will all have a sparring session now," Eeth decreed. He knew how hard his padawan found it to deal with long spaceship trips, and putting her through her paces at least once a day tended to help.

As Eeth had intended, the workout was nothing short of spectacular and left Raven too worn out to be bored.

This was a trend that continued. Each day Eeth worked her to exhaustion, twice! Sometimes it involved Lakhri and Flynt,which added to the fun of it. Sometimes, it was simply gruelling from woe to go. Raven didn't mind; she was an extremely fidgety personality and hated being idle, really hated it. She was getting to an age now where Eeth's decisions made more sense to her. She knew what he was doing and why, and was grateful that he was making an effort to help her.

He filled the rest of their days with a mixture of mission-related reading and, in Raven's case, studying an advanced anatomy module, something Raven truly enjoyed as both she and Eeth had a talent for healing.

Flynt took the trip in stride. He didn't complain nor did he need to be run ragged in order to keep from losing his shit. He was, however, well and truly over being stuck in this ship by the tenth day. Hell, they all were, he guessed. "Six hours," he announced across their intercom system. He had taken to checking the remaining flight time as this seemed to be helping Raven who, despite looking well and truly over it, had her head buried in a data pad studying.

Eeth had, of course, been perfectly aware of the time. He told Raven, "Take another hour to finish up here. Lakhri and I will prepare lunch. I assume we will be provided with some kind of food after our arrival, but given what we read about the quality of Ashpan food, we should eat our fill before our arrival. And best pack some energy bars."

"Yes, master," Raven replied on autopilot, neither hearing his words nor looking up from her pad. She was deeply engrossed in a section on the autonomic nervous system, which was absolutely fascinating to her!

They were going to land on Ashpah I's moon, which was not habitable but had a domed space port. There, they were going to be greeted by delegations from all three planets and discuss a schedule for their visit. This might prove to be the first challenge this mission offered. During the last ten days, they had already discussed at length how to negotiate their way through this without offending anyone, especially the planet that was to be visited last.

"I'm going to pack my stuff," said Flynt. It wasn't a necessary announcement, but it did give both masters the opportunity to veto and give him other orders.

"Be back here in an hour," said Eeth. "I want us to have enough time left for a thorough workout this afternoon. Who knows when we will next have the chance."

"Yeah," Lakhri said with a sigh. "From what we read about these planets, there's hardly enough air and space to breathe, let alone work out."

He helped Eeth select a few meals of spaceship food and put them in the heater. While they waited, they talked. Every time Ashpah II was mentioned, Lakhri could not help remembering their mission to Tintitl where the locals had been hitting on him and Eeth constantly.

"I sincerely hope Ashpah II is not quite as bad," he said to Eeth. "Although my hopes for you aren't high. They seem to prefer darker types to blonde ones. Raven should be fine."

"Probably so," said Eeth. "If people really pass her by in favour of her old master, though, I am not sure whether she will be relieved or offended."

Lakhri chuckled. "You're not old. And you look younger than you are. Let's face it, you're doomed."

Eeth just gave him a look, but did not deign to respond.

Raven, however, had heard that exchange and it was amusing enough for her to look up from her reading.

"Offended, why would I be?" she said, flipping her leg over her head to roll into a seated position and placing her data pad aside. "You are a handsome man, albeit a grumpy one. It is entirely plausible that these people might find you attractive." Also, having people hit on Eeth would be tremendously entertaining tforo the girl. Then again, she knew how much that would pain him so if it kept happening, well, her empathy would take over and she would become protective.

Eeth just raised an eyebrow at her and said nothing. Lakhri grinned. "Just be honest with yourself, Raven. People tend to like your looks," he said. "Which might change completely once you find yourself in a setting where they're not used to humans, of course. I don't think the Ashpans are."

Raven snorted. "Agreed. The Skobrans found me entirely repulsive. So did the Gelis, for that matter." The memory of Conrad and their banter made Raven grin, her work forgotten for the moment.

"Yes, that is what I am hoping the Ashpans will think of us," said Eeth. He rose to fetch jugs of water, his demeanour making it clear that the discussion of sexually permissive societies was over. Lakhri shrugged and went to fetch plates and cutlery.

A little less than an hour later, Raven put down her work, Flynt ambled back into their common room area, and they all sat to eat.

"Don't tell me. Steamed energy bars, served on a bed of soggy lettuce with some crystalised chaga nuts," Flynt said. By now, most of their fresh food had been eaten and, well, they were left with creativity. It wasn't as bad as Flynt made out, but he did enjoy being a smart ass.

"No, only vegetable casserole," said Eeth quellingly.

"It's not as if we have any lettuce left, after all," Lakhri added cheerfully. "Better get used to it. Food on the Ashpah planets sounds truly awful. Eating seems to be more of a chore than anything else for these people."

"That will be hard on you," Eeth commented solemnly.

"It will," Lakhri agreed, equally solemnly.