"Tausson, wait."

Tierney caught up with him, but he didn't slow his swift pace. When she was finally able to see his face, she saw it was set in an angry frown.

"Can we talk? Tausson?" she added when he didn't answer. After another few moments of silence, she jumped in front of him and said, "Hey, we need to talk."

He stopped, but his eyes were on the floor.

"You can't look at me now?" she whispered, fighting back tears, but when he briefly met her gaze, she saw she wasn't the only one.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his eyes wet.

"We both agreed to this," said Tierney, unsure what he was apologizing for. "I chose this."

Footsteps announced someone's approach, and Tausson brushed past her, anxious to hide his emotion. Tierney walked silently beside him, not knowing where they were going until he stopped outside a door.

"Where are we?" she asked.

He went in without a word. "Is this your room?" she asked, following. Tausson didn't answer, but sat on the far side of his bed and rested his head in his hands.

Although identical to hers, Tausson's room was vastly different. Her room had the empty, lifeless atmosphere of a hotel room, while this... this was a home. A beautiful, multi-colored blanket lay on his narrow bed, and the walls were lined with shelves full of pottery, sculptures, and even a few plants.

"These are beautiful," she said, admiring a set of animal figures -- although no animals Tierney had ever seen -- that were carved out of pink crystal.

"You were right," he said, his deep voice rumbling.

She looked at him in confusion. "About what?"

"I know you don't like to hear this," he said, "but over the past twelve years I've paired thousands of times, with thirteen women. Before you, I never thought there was anything wrong with it. None of the other Asteroid Mates had any qualms about it either -- their cultures viewed mating similarly to us, that it's purely for producing offspring."

She'd moved to stand by the foot of the bed. He glanced in her direction, but still didn't meet her gaze.

"Now," he continued, "knowing what it can be like, what it can feel like -- not just physically, but in the depths of me... When we were in there, I couldn't think of anything but how..." he gave a weak laugh, "how degrading it is."

Tierney didn't laugh. He looked up at her. His tears were gone, but the sorrow remained when he repeated, "You were right."

Slowly she moved to sit beside him. "I'll admit: that was definitely worse than I expected it to be," she said. "But it's only degrading if we let it degrade us. No, it's not perfect, but we knew that going in."

She reached out and took his hand in hers. "If we weren't mates, would we be allowed to be alone with each other, like we are now?"

Tausson stared at their hands intertwined. "No."

"Then it's already paying off. We just need to... adjust our mindsets."

He lifted her hand to his cheek and closed his eyes, but said nothing. Thinking that a change in subject might benefit them both, she said, "When I went to meet with Rasmus, he wasn't there -- since I'd never actually confirmed our meeting. First Elic walked me back to my room. She wanted to apologize for acting standoffish, but then we got to talking about the blood walk."

"What did she say about it?" asked Tausson, bringing Tierney's hand to his lips.

"She said that Rasmus has been acting like he knows which weapon you're going to use, and boasting about how his weapon is going to beat yours."

He let her words sink in, but then went back to kissing her wrist. "That's just Rasmus trying to intimidate. He knew his words would find me."

"Elic seemed to think it was more than that. She's really worried that you'll lose because of it. She even said it was too bad you didn't know his weapon, to make the whole thing more fair."

His lips froze on her palm, and he lowered her hand into his lap. "I'm sure you misunderstood. That would be a breach of conduct, and Elic knows that."

"She said it would be a breach for her, but implied that it wouldn't be one for me."

Tausson studied her with narrow eyes. "You were considering it," he said, as if reading it on her face.

"I want to help you. If I can somehow find out --"

"No," he ordered, standing abruptly. "I must not know."

"But what if --"

"No," he barked. "Rasmus is a good man, but right now he is blinded by his frenzy. I will not lower myself to his standards."

Tierney wanted to argue with him, to talk some sense into him, but just then his sleeve chirped with an incoming call.

"Tausson, nakal," said a male voice.

"Firka, Undir."

They went back and forth in Relican, and when he ended the transmission, Tausson said, "He asked me to help with some repairs."

"Aren't you suspended right now?"

He snapped hard eyes down on her, and she realized her error in pointing that out, but before she could apologize, he said, "Our conveyance system is still recovering from the strain of Earth's relocation." His face went grim. "We're lucky more vessels did not go the way of the Eklan."

Tierney thought of the hundreds of lives that had been lost when the Relican Squad had pushed their technology to the limit to convey all of Earth's population to the cart. Tausson had been on board the Eklan, and barely escaped the inferno.

"I thought I'd lost you that day," she said. She stood beside him and took his face in her hands. "I don't want to lose you."

"You won't," he said, kissing her.

"I better not."

* * *

By the end of the next day, Rasmus still hadn't contacted her regarding their meeting, and neither the President nor the governors were pleased. She'd also started fielding calls from other world leaders. Because no other humans were allowed on the Irral, Tierney had become known as the expert on Relican culture, simply by virtue of having spent the most time with them. She was getting all kinds of questions, ranging from physical and technological weaknesses to diet to planetary governance structure. Though she was still only managing the practical issues of her own country, she was essentially serving as a liaison for all of Earth. There were still Relocation Liaisons from each country working with other members of the Squad, but only virtually, and many humans were still wary and distrustful of the Relicans, and felt more comfortable asking her their questions.

She did, finally, talk to her family about becoming an Asteroid Mate. They were all reasonably shocked, and because Tierney couldn't say she was doing it for love, she tried to frame the decision as a way for her to give back to the people who had saved humanity, but she doubted they believed her. Clementine, expectedly, was the worst, rubbing it in that she'd "totally called it," and saying that Tierney couldn't be mad now if Clem signed up. Tierney was pretty sure her little sister was just saying that to goad their parents -- which worked -- but she was still quick to describe how medical and un-erotic the actual pairing process was, in hopes of dispelling any romantic notions Clem may be entertaining.

After the call, Tierney had gone to the Medic Lab as required, and again participated in said un-erotic pairing process. Knowing what to expect made it a bit more tolerable, but Tausson still had trouble, pulling out twice to get hard enough to finish. Aspri watched, unmoved, the whole time, and Tierney wondered why he'd paired them in the first place. She'd thought it a romantic gesture at first, that he was somehow vicariously being with Hoff through them, but now she couldn't see the man who snapped at them about ruining his schedule being that sentimental.

On the way back to her room -- Tausson had once again been requested to assist Trajectory -- Tierney heard someone call her name. She turned to see Rasmus walking towards her from an intersecting hallway. Though she wanted nothing more than to keep walking, her sense of duty held her still. She needed to work with him to do her job. She had to talk to him.

Forcing a smile, she said, "Commander, I've been trying to reach you. We have some work to do."

"Squad," he said, his gaze only flickering down at her breasts. "This way." He started walking away.

"Now?" asked Tierney, staying where she was. "Let me get my notes first."

"This concerns something else," he said, not stopping. "This way," he repeated.

She contemplated refusing, since there was nothing else she could think of that they had to talk about, but he was acting differently, less... slimy. Had the weight of his new command finally snapped him out of his frenzy? Had he been assigned an Asteroid Mate?

Walking quickly and with large strides, Rasmus was already far ahead of her. The fact that he seemed unconcerned whether she was with him made her decide in his favor. She jogged to catch up, then walked as fast as she could as he led her to a section of the ship she hadn't seen before, and up a wide spiraling ramp that served as a stairwell. They went up what must have been seven or eight stories, judging from the number of floors they passed by, and then seemingly walked the entire span of the ship back in the direction they'd come from.

Tierney was just about to accuse him of taking her on a pointless trek through this massive ship, when he came to the end of a hallway and opened the door, gesturing for her to enter. Before she knew what she was walking into, Tierney stepped onto a metal grate floor, and her heart stopped.

They were in the assembly, the gigantic room where Tausson had given his speech, and where Rasmus had sentenced him to a blood walk. But instead of being safely on the floor, they were on the highest of the many catwalks that bridged the space.

Spinning around to get back on safer, firmer ground, Tierney bumped straight into Rasmus's solid mass.

"Let me out," she said, not worrying about being polite, not thinking about anything except getting away from the vast empty space between her feet and the floor.

Rasmus grabbed her shoulders and twisted her back to face the iron footbridge. "This is my favorite room," he said, closing the door behind them. Tierney almost didn't care that he was still holding her. As long as he was gripping her so tightly, she wasn't falling over the rail.

"No one comes here unless I order them to," he continued, pushing her forward. "And when I order them, they have to come."

"I need to get out of here," she whispered, wanting to close her eyes, but terrified of losing her balance.

If he heard her, he ignored her, shoving her ahead until they reached the middle of the room. Rasmus let her go and moved to stand in front of her and lean on the rail. While he looked down on the white circle far below, Tierney clung to the railing on both sides of the bridge so tightly that her hands ached. Her path to the door behind them was now free, but she was paralyzed.

"This is my vessel!" he shouted, grinning. His words -- both Relican and the English from his translator -- bounced off the metal walls. "I am commander!"

Helplessly she watched him turn back to her. If she looked anywhere else she could see the air beneath her feet, and practically felt the floor falling out from under her. His eyes were much darker than normal -- even the whites were a pale brown, and she wondered if that was the equivalent of being bloodshot, since Relicans had brown blood.

As he took in her frozen body, she worried that he was going to try something. She was so petrified, she wasn't sure she would even be able to stop him. But he only looked, and when he met her gaze she was surprised to see that his eyes held no lust at all. They were ablaze with something else entirely -- a wild fierceness that filled Tierney with a fear not just for her dignity, but for her life.

"When I defeat Tausson -- and I will!" he added with a frothy shout, "-- he will be cast out of the Squad and sent back to Relica in disgrace." He took a step towards her. "And then you will be my Asteroid Mate, not his."

"Why do you hate him so much?" Tierney whispered, trembling.

Rasmus gave a bellowing laugh that echoed a chorus around them. Then, assuming a high, mocking voice that might have been amusing in other circumstances, he said, "Tausson Corwin, an honored descendant, youngest Relican ever to become Squad, commander at twenty-six!" He became angrier as he spoke, pacing the catwalk and yelling as if addressing a great crowd. He gesticulated and moved around so freely that Tierney found herself actually feeling jealous of him.

"Hero of Yarkinda," he continued, speaking softly, but not losing his manic gaze, "murderer of humans, breaker of oaths."

Yarkinda? Tierney's numb brain slowly reminded her of the last planet before Earth that Tausson had relocated. The Yarkin had also been in the path of a destructive asteroid, but they were too afraid of the Relicans to evacuate their entire population in time. Though he'd never spoken of it with Tierney, Carterra had told her that Tausson had been understandably shaken by the tragedy, even taking time off from the Squad.

"I was there when he killed that human," she said, her breath shallow. "It was self-defense. Tausson was devastated."

"He murdered millions!" cried Rasmus. "And still Control favors him, still he is given everything he wants. Not anymore." Speaking to his imaginary audience, he repeated, "Not anymore!"

He rushed to stand directly in front of her. "His vessel is mine, and soon his mate will be mine."

I will never be your mate. She wanted to say it, desperately, but her survival instinct, operating on high alert, told her that pissing off her only means of getting out of this death trap was not a bright idea.

But her face must have given her away, because he bared his teeth at her and said, "Say it. Say I am commander. Tell me that you won't be Tausson's -- that you'll belong to me."

Giving the politician's answer, she said, "You don't need me to tell you what you already know."

"I want to hear you say it," he growled, moving closer to her.

Was there a way to get out of this? Was there a solution to this scenario where she escaped without losing her pride?

Apparently she was taking too long to respond, because Rasmus let out a roar and grabbed her hands.

"No!" she shouted, but she was no match for him. He turned her until she faced the empty space that surrounded them. He leaned her over the railing so fast that she was sure she was going to fall. But he held her firmly, keeping her stiff body balanced on the rail.

"Say it."

Although her eyes were squeezed shut, and he was speaking into her ear, she could hear the smile in his voice. A tear squeezed through her clenched eyelids and dripped down her nose. The thought of how far it had to go before hitting the metal floor drove all thoughts of pride from Tierney's mind.

"You're commander," she managed to whisper.

"Say, 'Rasmus is commander of the Irral,'" he ordered, sounding far too calm for someone who could kill her just by letting go.

"Rasmus is commander --"

"Louder," he directed, clearly not satisfied with her barely audible whisper.

Tierney swallowed her sobs and found enough of her voice to say, "Rasmus is --"

"Louder!" he yelled.

"Rasmus is commander of the Irral!" she screamed.

With a hearty, terrifying laugh, he tossed her back down on the catwalk. She lay flat on the floor, keeping her eyes closed and fighting back her nausea, but his breath on her face made her open them.

"Now say, 'I will be Rasmus's mate when Tausson is gone.'"

The fervor in his face was so intense that for a moment Tierney was more frightened of him than the eighty-foot drop. There were even tears in his eyes.

He's crazy. The sudden realization struck her so powerfully that she almost laughed at how blind she'd been.

He's completely insane.

"Say it!" he shouted.

She needed to get away from him. Now. He might not be able to control himself next time he threw her over the railing. And his body was hardly inches above hers. He could force himself on her at any moment.

Swallowing the disgust that crept up her throat, she said, "I will be Rasmus's mate when Tausson is gone."

All anguish disappeared, and he sat up, smiling with relief. "Yes," he said with a laugh, "that will be a good day."

"Please, get me out of here, please," she begged, still unable to make herself move.

Rasmus kept laughing as he wrapped an arm around her waist and half-carried, half-dragged her back to the door. He dropped her on the floor of the hallway outside, and left her there.