"No!" Tierney screamed, rushing forward.

But she was too late. On the screen above, she could see Tausson's paralyzed face, brown stains spreading across his chest. The drumming stopped.

"No!" she screamed again. "Tausson!" A hush had fallen over the room, and her cries echoed as she forged a path to the circle through the thick wall of Relicans.

He lay on the ground, his eyes wide open, a frightening, dry gurgling sound coming from his mouth. Tierney fell to his side and took his hand, pressing it to her cheek.

"Tausson," she whispered, his face swimming before her. "I'm here."

Footsteps slapped the metal floor, and she looked up to see Aspri and two other medical assistants running towards them from the same door where the combatants had entered.

As they rushed forward, Rasmus raised his arms with a grin and cried, "Na ansaba ta tasir!"

About half of the crew repeated "Tasir!" in unison, while the other half was silent and grim.

The Senior Medic knelt by Tausson's other side, using a pen-sized tool that was shining a bright white beam of light onto Tausson's chest.

"Is he okay?" Tierney asked.

Aspri didn't even glance up at her. She looked to the other assistants, but they were busy unfolding a stretcher.

"Aspri?" she asked.

"Ash," he snapped in Relican, moving the light down Tausson's body.

"Tasir!" Rasmus bellowed again, with Chief Raleth at his side, who had apparently come out behind the medic crew.

Tierney shut them and the whole world out, focusing only on Tausson. But whatever Aspri was doing didn't seem to be helping. Tausson's eyes were going blank, and his breathing had become a rattling wheeze that chilled her heart.

"Don't you leave me," she said, hardly able to see him through her tears. "Don't you leave me here alone. I know you're mad at me, but that's not reason enough to die on me." She squeezed his hand tight. "I love you, Tausson. I still love you, and I always will."

Was that a faint pressure from his hand? Was he trying to tell her something?

An unnatural stillness suddenly enveloped her, and she noticed that Aspri's hand had paused, hovering over Tausson's thigh. She looked up at him, and he was staring at her, his face frozen somewhere between terror and grief.

"Aspri?" she whispered, thinking Tausson had died, despite the pulse she could still feel in his wrist. Then she realized that the entire room was deathly quiet. Everyone was staring at her with expressions ranging from horrified to confused to furious. Even Inlan, and Lutari standing near him, looked grave.

She looked up at Chief Raleth, who was watching her with a hard frown. Rasmus also looked surprised, though there was a manic edge to it, as if he were still riding the high of his victory.

It took a moment, as lost as she had been in her own fears, but eventually Tierney understood what had happened. The room must have gone quiet when Chief Raleth came in, so her words -- meant to be private -- were heard by everyone. She turned terrified eyes on Aspri, and thought she saw a spark of sympathy in them, though he quickly looked away.

"Tierney Dawson," said the Chief, "you have been witnessed indulging in excessive affection, an unforgivable crime in Relican culture. You are stripped of your Asteroid Mate status, and will be isolated until exiled."

Her hands, still gripping Tausson's, went numb. Her whole body seemed to disappear from existence as the certainty of her fate settled over her. She was still near the floor, by Tausson's side, and the Relicans, tall to begin with, loomed over her even more from this perspective, staring down on her with dark, accusing faces.

She'd done it. She'd exposed them. Their love was no longer secret. She'd never see him again.

Tausson's body was lifted from the ground, and instinctively Tierney stood with him. But when the Protection Officer grabbed her arm, she was forced to let go of Tausson's hand.

"Will he be okay?" she asked, still more concerned with his life than her own.

"I don't know," Aspri said quietly. Then, with a guilty glance at the Chief, as if even talking to her now were a crime, he followed his patient.

"Take her to the pit," ordered Chief Raleth.

The pit? That didn't sound good.

As the Protection Officer led her in the opposite direction from where Tausson had gone, Tierney saw Rasmus watching her.

Rasmus. This was all his fault. He hated Tausson -- enough to try to kill him. He may have succeeded.

Her path brought her right next to him, and all the fear, anger, and desperation that Tierney was feeling bubbled over the closer she came. She knew the rules about no touching, but at this point she had nothing to lose. As soon as she was within arm's reach, she pulled back her hand and slapped Rasmus as hard as she could across the face.

He staggered back, although it must have been from shock rather than the force of the blow, and brought his hand to his cheek.

"How dare you," Tierney fumed, a fresh bout of tears choking her anger. "He was your friend. He believed in you. And you killed him."

The Protection Officer was as stunned as Rasmus, and stopped walking. Tierney turned on the Chief. "I thought Relican life was precious? With all this time and energy spent trying to create new Relicans, you'd think killing one would be a crime. But instead you put me in jail for loving one. You think love can skew judgment, forcing a choice of one person over another, but that's not true. It's loneliness and hopelessness that make people do terrible things. Love empowers. Even if there were billions of Relicans -- without love, your people are doomed."

Chief Raleth's eyes, far more golden than Rasmus's or Aspri's brown, bored into hers. Was that triumph she saw? Satisfaction?

Before she could read more deeply, he nodded to the Protection Officer, who tugged Tierney forward. The Relicans outside the circle parted to let them pass, eager to avoid coming into contact with her. She glared at any who would meet her eye, holding them all responsible for Tausson's brutal fate. But as the door to the assembly closed behind her, and the Protection Officer started leading her to a lower level of the ship, it wasn't Tausson's future that weighed heavily on her frightened heart, it was her own.

* * *

The pit turned out to sound a lot worse than it was. While her holding cell was on the lowest level -- or pit -- of the ship, it actually resembled her room above pretty closely: same narrow bed, same steel walls and iron floor, same bathroom set up. No one had brought her clothes down, so, including the day of the blood walk, she'd now been in the same dress for almost three days. Luckily there was a clothing sanitization unit in her cell, so between that and the shower she was able to keep from feeling too unkempt, although she already missed her hair brush dreadfully.

The overall size of the room was almost the same as her own too, but halfway across was a wall of light that Tierney couldn't cross without the guard, who watched her twenty-five hours a day from the other side, turning it off. The wall was clear and smooth to the touch, as if it were made of glass, but when the guard brought her food, all he had to do was shine another light on the seemingly solid wall, and the spot he was illuminating would dissipate, forming an empty patch of air.

The guard could hear her, but she couldn't hear anything on the other side of the wall. So when Rasmus walked through the door, she had no idea what he said to the guard. Whatever it was, the guard nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.

The commander of the Irral still looked surprisingly battered considering the Relicans' advanced medical technology. His bronze skin was a dull brown around his left eye, and there were nicks and scabs all over his face. While Tierney couldn't see any other injuries through his mechasuit, she noticed that he walked with a slight limp as he approached her.

He pressed a button on his uniform and the wall shimmered a little bit, but remained intact.

"Is Tausson alive?" she demanded. None of the guards had given her an answer when she asked them.

Neither did Rasmus. A flash of satisfaction crossed his face at her question, but otherwise he ignored it. "You remain on the Irral because your people are protesting your imprisonment."

Protesting? She'd wondered why she hadn't been sent off yet. Knowing humanity was on her side was certainly a comfort, but she needed an answer to the question that was keeping her awake at night.

"Is Tausson alive?" she repeated.

"We must have positive relations with the humans if the relocation process is going to be successful."

"Rasmus!" she cried. "Is he alive?"

"You will listen to what I have to say!" he snarled, but Tierney was done being intimidated by him.

"Only if you answer my question!"

He opened his mouth to reply, but then closed it, his anger coiling back within him.

"I will tell you when we're done," he said, with a smugness that made Tierney sick to her stomach.

"Yeah, right."

They stared at each other through the wall of light, and Tierney could feel herself losing the battle of wills. Rasmus had the only piece of information she cared about, and she had nothing. He saw the defeat in her face, and smiled.

"To appease your people," he said, "Chief Raleth and I will give you a choice. You may accept exile, and never see your kin again, or you may remain on board the Irral, in isolation, for four years."

Tierney sat on her narrow bed. The choice was obvious, but it didn't take a decade in politics to know there was more to this deal than Rasmus was letting on.

"What's the catch?" she asked. "What happens if I stay on the Irral?"

Rasmus bit the inside of his lip. "You will be reinstated as an Asteroid Mate."

"What? After I broke just about every rule in front of the entire Relican Squad? How does that work? I thought being an Asteroid Mate was considered an honor -- doesn't seem like anyone would want me to be one at this point."

Noting his overt leer at her chest, she clarified, "Anyone other than you, I mean."

"It is the only way a human can remain upon the Irral," he said.

"Right," she said, getting up to pace the room, "cultural contamination and whatnot. Seems a little late for that though, doesn't it?"

"What is your selection?" he asked, ignoring her commentary.

She continued pacing. Obviously two pairing cycles and then freedom was better than eternal exile. Or was it?

"Where would I be going, if I were exiled?" she asked.

Rasmus frowned. "Melea."

"What's the deal with that place? Is it a desert wasteland, or something?"

"Melea is as lush as Relica is barren," he said, though judging from his sneer on the word lush, he clearly favored the latter.

"And?"

"It is ruled by a princess who is so beautiful, that anyone who looks on her becomes a slave to her will."

Tierney scoffed. "This sounds like another female-as-plot-device of yours."

"It is true!"

The fear in his eyes gave her pause, but she wasn't about to give her body over to him for four years without more details.

"How do you know it's true if the people who are sent there never return?" she asked.

He hesitated only a second before answering, "The Beneficents know of her."

"Who are the Beneficents?"

"The Relican ruling class."

"I thought Control was in charge?"

"Enough!" Rasmus spat. "What is your selection?"

She knew what she should choose. Even if Melea wasn't as bad as Rasmus thought it was, it would still be a life sentence, whereas being his mate at least had an end in sight. But could she do it? Could she have sex every day for the next four years with the man who tried -- and maybe succeeded -- to kill Tausson? If Tausson was alive, did he even love her anymore? He'd basically called off their relationship the last time they'd spoken. The only evidence she had that gave any hint that he might still care was that faint squeeze of her hand in the assembly, but that could have been her imagination -- or, more realistically, a spasm as he struggled for breath. Was she saving herself for a man who wouldn't touch her again if he had the chance?

Staring into Rasmus's conceited gaze, she knew it wasn't just about Tausson. She couldn't give herself over to this man. Even if it meant becoming a willing slave to some space princess halfway across the universe, she couldn't let this deranged, selfish, pig of a man have his way with her day in and day out.

She had her answer, but she wouldn't give it to him, not yet. She needed to pay this bastard back for what he'd done to the man she loved.

"Does Carterra know how you feel?" she asked, sitting on her bed.

He had been staring at her, watching her think, unabashedly rubbing his shield. At her question, his entire demeanor changed. He straightened up, his eyes darting around the room, unable to meet her gaze.

"What are you talking about?" he snapped.

"You love her," she said. "You always have -- ever since you were children. Does she know?"

He looked at the door, as if someone were there, then back at her in alarm. "You -- you have --"

He stuttered out a few more incomplete phrases before Tierney interrupted.

"It must have been hard, living with that inside of you, but without the words to express it -- hiding your feelings from the world, not even understanding what you were feeling because your people condemn those who want more than chaste friendship."

He listened, his eyes darkening. As she spoke, her anger unexpectedly fell away, the image of the confused, insecure, fifteen-year-old Rasmus from his picture rising like a ghost in front of her, blocking out the empty caricature he had become.

"You were forced to watch your best friend leapfrog ahead of you," she continued, surprised at the pity swelling inside of her. "He graduated into the Squad before you did, became commander sooner than anyone could have predicted. You got to serve with him, but always in his shadow, never receiving the same credit as the honored descendant. But all of that was probably easy to endure, compared to the agony of losing the woman you loved to him, when she became his mate, instead of yours. You couldn't do anything as they became closer, forming a bond --"

"Stop it!" he bellowed, rushing straight at her. Tierney backed away, but he didn't try to breach the wall.

"Don't look at me like that!" he hissed, spit flying from his lips and dripping down the glass.

The vision of the young, innocent man shattered, and Tierney remembered who she was talking to. "You're a murderer," she snarled. "I'd rather die than let you touch me. I choose Melea."

He huffed like a bull about to charge, but instead of moving towards her, he spun around and went for the door.

"What about Tausson?" Tierney called after him. Tears stung her eyes as she realized she'd just ruined her chances at an answer. "Is he alive?"

The wall shimmered again just before he left, so when the door slammed shut, she couldn't hear it.