“Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Klowix had a dark expression on his face, and Bethany pitied whomever was calling him away when he didn’t want to be called. She hoped everything was all right; the other girls knew very well he didn’t like to be disturbed when he was with Bethany, and wouldn’t call him unless it was urgent.

He popped his head back in, suddenly looking much more like a military commander than he had a few minutes ago. “I need to go deal with something. I will be back soon.”

Bethany blew him a kiss and then applied herself to the tray of pancakes on the bed next to her. She supposed it was only fair he was called away on a weekend, considering he had skipped work on Monday.

Bethany called out to the girls in down the hall. “Come on, come in!”

Trili was the first to leap on the bed and snatch a pancake, followed by all the others.

Ruth even looked excited. “Tell!”

“You know Klowix wouldn’t like that.”

“Come on, Bethany, give us something here.”

“Fine, I guess I can tell you a little.”

The pancakes were soon gone, and the eight of them were talking animatedly about the upcoming levaitor course for Culip.

“I’ve been reading some extra books, just to make sure I’m properly prepared.”

“Culip, you’re already going to embarrass the rest of the class, why make it worse for them?”

She stuck her tongue out at Lizzy and swiped the last bit of chocolate sauce from the plate.

“Bethany, your hair is awful, come here.”

Bethany surrendered her tangled mess to Snia, who was soon expertly unknotting and smoothing her hair down. They were just thinking of watching a movie when a sudden bang and splintering sound made them all jump. It sounded like someone had slammed the door so hard it had come off its hinges.

Klowix came storming in. Bethany had seen him angry before, but never before had that anger been directed at her. For the first time in a while, she was scared of him.

“OUT!”

It came out in a roar, and the others scurried away, shooting worried glances behind them.

He roared at Bethany now. “Why would you do this!” His face was bright red and his hands were clenched into fists.

“W-what, Klowix? What are you talking about?”

“THIS!” He brandished a piece of paper at Bethany, but she couldn’t see what it said.

“I don’t understand.”

“Oh, YOU don’t understand! Well, that makes two of us, Bethany. Why would you not tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“That you were brought here by slavers! Slavers, Bethany, the most despicable creatures in the galaxy. They kidnapped you and brought you here and you SAID NOTHING!”

Bethany gulped. Her throat had gone too dry to speak.

“Was I perhaps not clear with you? Did I give you the impression that I was tolerant of the slave trade? Did I? What were you thinking! You’ve made me complicit in slavery, and I abhor slavery! How could you?”

He moved towards her and Bethany flinched back, but he merely kicked the bedside table over. It shattered under the force of his blow.

Bethany looked at him earnestly. “I couldn’t tell you, Klowix. They would have killed my family. I wanted to say something, but how could I ease my guilt at the expense of my parents’ lives?”

“Well perhaps you haven’t noticed, Bethany, but I am a military commander! Did you think I wouldn’t be able to protect them? Or that I’d be unwilling to? How could you do this to me? I thought you chose to be here, and now I find out you’ve been here against your will to protect your family all along!”

Bethany gasped. “No! Klowix, I swear –”

“It’s Commander! Get out of here! Now, get out!”

Bethany wanted to stay, to explain herself, but Klowix was terrifying her. She ran from the room, trying to hide her tears.

The others were right outside the door, and Bethany blew past them to the privacy of her room and locked the door.

Snia pounded on the door. “Bethany! Bethany, open up! Talk to us.”

“Go away!” Bethan didn’t wait to see if they’d do as she asked, but flicked the sound proofing switch on the side of the door. All noise from outside of the room ceased. Bethany crawled woodenly into bed, shivering violently.

She should have told him. He was a military commander, of course he was going to find out eventually. Now he thought that she’d been lying to him about her feelings. How was she ever going to explain herself so that he would believe her? Would he ever forgive her?

She vaguely wondered whether Klowix had an override key to her room. She doubted it. He considered giving his girls space and privacy to be very important, that’s why they were allowed locks on their doors in the first place. Bethany wondered how long she could stay in here before going out to face him.

She tried to fall asleep to forget her anguish, and eventually she succeeded.

When she opened her eyes again, it was dark outside. She hesitantly turned the sound proofing off and listened. She could hear the faint sound of the girls talking in the lounge, but she couldn’t hear Klowix at all.

Bethany was starving. There was always food in the dining room. She wondered if she could sneak in and out without anyone noticing. Her stomach grumbled; she’d have to try.

Lizzy was sitting so close to the door that Bethany almost tripped over her on her way out.

“Bethany, finally! Are you all right?”

So much for that plan.

“What are you doing there?” Bethany kept her voice low, hoping not to alert the others to her escape attempt.

“Klowix ordered one of us to wait by the door until you came out. He wanted to us to give you a message.”

Bethany wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the message, but Lizzy gave it to her anyway.

“He says he’s gone to the king to sort all this out. He’s going to arrange transport home for you when he gets back on Thursday.”

“Thursday?”

“The king lives two cities over, Klowix will have to take an overnight hover to get there.”

“He’s – he’s gone?”

Lizzy’s voice was suddenly very soft. “Why didn’t you tell us? I thought we were your friends.”

Tears began to escape Bethany’s eyes again. “You are, I swear you are. I couldn’t tell anyone, they would have killed my parents.”

“The slavers?”

Bethany nodded.

“Oh Bethany, you could have gone home. Didn’t you know that? You never had to be here against your will. You could have just asked to go home, you didn’t even need to mention the slavers.”

Bethany choked on a hiccup and Lizzy patted her on the back.

“By the time I found that out, I didn’t want to go back. I’ve been here of my own accord for a while now.”

“Then why didn’t you tell Klowix that? He’s really upset about all this…”

“I tried! I tried to tell him, but he didn’t want to listen to me. He was so angry.”

The sounds of Bethany’s crying must have alerted the rest of the household, because suddenly Snia was on her left and Ruth was on her right. They pulled her to her feet and helped her to the lounge. There was a plate of reni on the table. Bethany grabbed a piece and ate hungrily.

Anna did her best to encourage her. “That’s ok, then. You can just explain it to him when he gets back. That’s what he’s really upset about, thinking that you were deceiving him about the way you felt about him.”

“Will he ever forgive me, though? For not telling him? He’s right, maybe at the beginning I couldn’t say anything, but once I got to know him… I knew he wouldn’t let my parents die. I could have told him.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I was afraid he’d think the things he’s thinking right now – that this thing between us isn’t real.”

Beoli soothed her. “He’ll understand.”

Bethany choked on a hysterical laugh. “Klowix, understand? Are we talking about the same person?”

Trili was firm now. “Enough of this. Clearly this can’t wait a few days until Klowix gets back. We’ll just call him, and Bethany can explain.”

“You think he’ll take my call?” Bethany couldn’t be sure.

Trili nodded. “He’ll take mine. I’ll get him talking to you, you have my word on that. The rest is up to you.”

The others were nodding. Klowix listened to Trili; they were good friends.

Bethany agreed, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to talk to Klowix, and she didn’t think she could deal with the miserable weight of guilt in her stomach much longer. She coughed and took a sip of water, feeling like it was getting hard to breathe.

“You ok?”

Bethany nodded. “I’m fine, just nervous.” She really needed to get these anxiety-related breathing problems under control.

Snia held Bethany’s hand while Trili dialed Klowix’s T-screen. When his face appeared, Bethany shrank back, so that he couldn’t see her.

“Trili. Is everything ok? Is Bethany out of her room yet?”

“Commander, everything is not ok. Klowix, I need you to listen. Please, promise me you will listen.”

“I promise. What is it?” His voice was sharp, and Bethany could imagine his eyes moving quickly between Trili and the others.

Trili handed the screen over to Bethany, who took it with a shaking hand. “Klowix?”

She expected his face to twist in rage, but instead, he sat up straighter and looked her straight in the eye, seemingly calm.

“I owe you an apology. Untri was my agent acting on my behalf, and he colluded with slavers. You should know that this was never my intention. I will make arrangements to have you sent home at once. You can –”

She interrupted him, to the surprise of the other girls. “Klowix, stop. You need to listen to me, all right? Yes, I was captured by slavers. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want my family killed. That was the beginning, though.

“Of course, I knew, after a few weeks here, that you’d protect them if I asked. I knew I could leave without ever having to reveal the way I got here. I stayed by choice. Do you understand? I stayed with you because I wanted to.”

“You don’t need to say that. I’ll see you safely home, and see that your parents are protected, I promise.”

“No! Klowix, look at me. I am telling you the truth. I don’t want to go back. You need to understand that. I. Want. To. Stay. With. You.”

“You – you really want to stay?”

Bethany nodded emphatically, relieved that he was finally getting the point. “Yes. Now will you please come home so we can talk about this?”

“Home?”

“Commander, I know you’re upset, but please just come back. Yes, home. Here, where I am. Home.”

Klowix hesitated. “I’m on my way. I’ll be there soon.”

Bethany sighed in relief as they hung up.

“Thanks, Trili.” She was suddenly exhausted. “Can we open a window? It’s really stuffy in here.”

Anna gave her a quizzical look, but opened the window anyway. Maybe they didn’t feel it, but Bethany was sure the air was getting thinner in here; no doubt no one had opened a window or door since Klowix left.

There was a knock on the door. For one wild moment, Bethany hoped it was Klowix, back already. Instead, Culip let in the same doctor who had helped Bethany after the first sharing.

“Bethany, Klowix called me a few hours ago, said I should come check on you when I could? He said you may be in shock or otherwise in distress. What happened?”

“Nothing, I’m fine. I don’t know your name, though.”

“I’m Doctor Yie. Sit down, let me look at you. You don’t look so good.”

Bethany leaned back and tried to breathe deeply. “I’m all right, I think I’m developing an anxiety problem, though.”

“Anxiety would be similar to shock, that makes sense. What are your symptoms?”

“Just more of the same, feeling like I can’t breathe. It happened the second time after the sharing, but not like the first. Klowix explained it was just because I was worried about it. I guess I’m still stressed now, so it’s causing problems.”

“Quite possibly. Where is Klowix? It may good to have him sit with you until you’re feeling better.”

Snia spoke up. “We can sit with her. Klowix is miles away, though he’s on his way back now.”

Doctor Yie froze. “When you say miles away, you mean not more than a short drive via pod, don’t you?”

Bethany didn’t know what his problem was, but she had a more urgent problem. It was really getting hard to breathe. She wondered if she needed an oxygen mask or something.

“Doctor, I’m struggling to breathe.” Her voice was faint now.

“Of course you’re – Klowix is out of the city?”

“Yes, but why does that make a –?”

“Call an ambulance, and get Klowix back here now! You can’t separate humans with a bad reaction to the sharing from the person they had it with, not for at least two months, or it brings back the symptoms! I thought Klowix knew that.”

Bethany wasn’t keeping track of the conversation. She was rapidly panicking and clutched Snia’s arm.

“Can’t… breathe…” she gasped.

“Doctor, do something!”

Bethany felt herself falling backward onto the couch. The terror of not getting enough oxygen overwhelmed her, and she thrashed frantically, desperate just to breathe.

Something plastic was pushed in her face, but if it was an oxygen mask, she couldn’t tell, because her throat was completely closed.

There was a confused impression of running and shouting people around her, but Bethany couldn’t make anyone out clearly. She wished Klowix was here. If she was going to die, she at least wanted to see him again.

What a stupid thing – some silly rule neither of them knew about. No matter how mad Klowix was, he never would have left if he’d known he was putting her in danger. They just didn’t know, and now she was dying because of it.

Her hand groped for something to hold onto, and another hand found hers. She clutched tightly to it.

A voice spoke in her ear. “You’re going to be ok. I promise, we’ll make sure you’re ok.”

Her chest hurt so badly. Bethany just wanted it to stop. If only it would stop…