Rene bowed his head and held his tongue, resolving to leave the talking to Solae. He wondered what bonded implied in Syshin society but supposed that it held enough truth in any case. There was a bond between them that went beyond fellow refugees. He wondered if it implied servitude as a liegeman an woman might define the term, or an emotional connection as between lovers. Again both held enough truth.

The interior of the starship/habit was surprisingly quiet. Normally a star ship was a nearly overwhelming symphony of pumps, motors, and electrical equipment. The subtle subversion of his unconscious expectations bothered him but he kept it from his face. The ship hadn’t been operational in many generations and the vast bulk of its internal machinery had been either salvaged or repurposed. The metal walls were still visible in some places but in others the Syshin had constructed their own internal walls from plant matter and red brown adobe. The resulting effect was not unlike the inside of a wasps nest, with dozens of small freestanding chambers constructed in what would have been holds and maintenance decks.

The technique had the added effect of making the space much cooler than it might otherwise have been in such a tropical environment, in places where the curvature of the hull as particularly extreme condensate dripped from the ceiling, often times into large pools fastened for just such an effect. Plants, some native a but mostly offworld varieties, grew around the fringes of the ponds with surprising profusion. Rene wondered if they would have been cave dwellers in their natural environment, or they had other ways besides direct sunlight to gather energy. The inside of the ship seemed almost disturbingly alive, more like a subterranean rainforest than a building as humans understood it.

Like most children Rene had gone through a phase of fascination with aliens. The reality was that despite the fact that a score or so of intelligent species had been identified, there wasn’t nearly as much interaction as one might imagine. Methane breathers from Hydax had colonized hundreds of worlds, but those worlds were so inhospitable to humans that competition for space or resources was virtually non existent. The same could be said of the majority of alien species known to man, with contacts existing mostly at academic levels and with tourism among the super rich. Only where metabolic processes were similar enough to allow the sharing of biospheres, did competition occurred. As with the Syshin, this usually didn’t go well for the non humans.

The Syshin watched them as they made their way down the long axial corridor of the ship. Many looked suspicious and others looked out right hostile, although they dropped their gazes as Nami swept them with her strange nonhuman eyes. There were a surprising number of them, adults as well as children, and they seemed to fill most of what Rene could conceive of as living spaces.

“They worry,” Nari explained when he mentioned it. Her words curiously clipped and with clicks deep in her throat that snapped off the end of her words. How Solae had managed to learn and speak the tongue was beyond him.

“With the..x-trouble, they worry humans turn on them, dangerous time,” the alien expounded. Her fears were probably justified, history was full of cases of minority populations suffering pogroms and massacres at times of turmoil and it probably wouldn’t take much for disgruntled workers to turn against the aliens when they were drunk on the equally potent intoxicants of alcohol and power. The Syshin had a strange smell to them, perhaps only noticeable when they were in close proximity, it reminded Rene of spice mixes from Xandar or Chem-hi, though neither was a perfect max. It wasn’t exactly unpleasant but neither could he have claimed to enjoy the scent.

“Damn,” Rene breathed as they stepped through a mud covered bulkhead. The space beyond must have once been the main hold, no other space on a starship permitted so much open space, and stretched at hundred meters in both directions. The ceiling was visible thirty meters above and hung with dozens of glow bulbs, each bulb dangled amid a field of green vines, some of which appeared to be fruit bearing. The floor of the large enclosure was equally verdant with green vines pouring out of opened ventilation shafts and trees and bushes of dozens of varieties neatly, if eccentrically, spaced. Older looking Syshin, many with colorful plumage moved amongst the trees, pruning and tending them with tools of recycled steel or reshaped stone.

In the very center of the hold stood a strange looking structure. It was nearly twenty meters tall and seemd to have been made on a frame of agricultural tubing formed into irregular pentagons which were then faced with the same adobe they had seen before. Unlike the earlier structures though, these surfaces had been polished smooth till they looked more like stone than mud. Many of the panels were painted with strange abstract art, mostly in greens and blues. The pentagonal panels fit together purposely but the lack of symmetry was unsettling to human eyes.

Nari paused and said something to Solae in Syshi. Rene kept his face studiously blank but nodded his head when Solae did. His skin was beginning to crawl and he tried to banish thoughts of what might happen if these negotiations didn’t go well. Would the aliens try to collect the bounty on Solae? Had they heard the offer. He resisted the urge to let his hand slip into the pocket where he held his pistol. For now he had to stay calm and hope that Solae knew what she was doing.

"Wait here with your bonded and I will call to Enro," Nari told Solae. She made a gesture to two younger Syshin that lingered on the edges of the room watching and they scurried forward with tall stools carved out of tree stumps. Both proved to be a challenge for Solae to climb upon and so a female Syshin, whose plumage was a brilliant sapphire, lifted the marquise onto the furniture with ease. Rene watched this interaction pensively from his own seat. The Syshin were wary of their human visitors but treated them with respect. There was far more danger in acting with hostility than reserved polite distance.

As Nari moved away and the other Syshin retreated back to the exterior wall, the golden-haired noble turned to her savior soldier. "They don't have a word for... whatever we are to each other," she whispered. "If a Syshin is of proper age and are intimate, there is an expectation for procreation considering their more limited years for it. If you have not found a mate, you are single, just as human, but to be with someone is bonded," Solae further explained. "It is most comparable to marriage, but if I had said we were single and we had stayed, we would be expected to separate per their customs. I apologize I had to take liberties." She looked truly uncomfortable. To call any man she'd known for mere days more than a tryst was bucking Imperial societal norms and expectations. Though they had been tested exponentially more in the last thirty-six hours than many couple in a lifetime, relationships encompassed the past, present, and future. Rene and Solae had no past and no future as of yet.

Nari re-emerged from a room she had disappeared into moments before. With her was a Syshin that was over a foot taller than her and with a burgundy crest that fell from the apex of his height to just below his ribs. The gait with which he approached spoke of his authority in the community and, with Nari at his side, it was clear they were the twin leaders hat Solae had sought to speak with.

"My sister tells me you speak Syshi," he remarked. His voice was deep rumble that sent reverberations through the air both intimidating and soothing all at once. Enro and Nari sat side by side on a large carved wooden bench. Esoteric symbols flowed over the legs with such deft craftsmanship they evoked the imagery of water.

"Yes," Solae replied slowly. She bowed her head deeply, tresses of melted sunlight tumbling over her shoulder with the movement. Once again she humbled herself before her hosts. Syshin had begin to trickle into the hold to observe the proceedings and they gasped at the deference that was being paid. Commoners did not visit the encampment for they saw the alien race as so beneath them that even an appearance of interest would tarnish their reputation. That a marquise among the upper echelons of the empire's beloved spoke Syshi, requested to be taken inside, and now honored them with etiquette that implied her study of their culture was unfathomable. This moment would be transcribed and repeated throughout history. It was not just a first for New Concordia but all of Syshin.

"I have many questions for you, Solae. How did you come to know my tongue? Who is this you have brought with you? And why have you come to our home?" Although Enro spoke it was Nari that leaned forward with outward interest. The Syshin around had been quietly clicking at one another to communicate their surprise at the scenario before them. A few stared on in unabashed interest at the peculiar humans. Syshin did not regularly cross paths with Imperial Marines any more than an anointed lord or lady.

"I was a translator at the Imperial Embassy," she admitted as she raised her hand. Solae reached across the divide between the stools and took Rene's hand in her own. His stiff posture belied his anxiety at the foreign bodies crowded around them. This was not a situation they could or should escape and she hoped to impart reassurance through this innocent touch. "May I tell you my story?"

Enro moved an arm to indicate she should continue but Solae began to cough into the crook of her free arm. There was a scurry of activity and a child Syshin sprinted forward with two bowls, one for each guest, filled with water so clear it was almost invisible within the earthenware. "Thank you," the linguist smiled as she drank generously.

The next half hour Solae spoke freely with no interruptions from Nari nor Enro. More Syshin crept into the hold until they had arranged themselves into rows, some sitting upon the lush grass, youth behind the reclining citizens, and adults standing farthest back. Because he could not understand Syshi Rene could do little but watch. As still and strange as her audience was they were enraptured by her tale.

It was here that Solae shone brightest. She had not been trained to handle weaponry nor was she enhanced sufficiently to be the most brilliant scientist of the empire. Others had numerous competitive edges on her in those pursuits. Her truest excellence was in storytelling. Instructors had taught her during her formative years that mastery of language came not from crude translation but learning how to effective relate thought, feeling, and understanding beyond fact. Waves of emotion swept over the Syshin as they empathized with her fear when the embassy was destroyed, her despair when she had learned her parents were dead, her desperation to stop the forces that now oppressed them both. Oanh and Min Ho were omitted entirely from her recollection but it was not questioned- they did not affect the tale's totality.

The hold fell quiet.

"What would you have us do, Solae of the Empire?" Nari finally inquired.

"I ask for your protection and help getting off-world," Solae replied, "but I will accept whatever you will freely give."

"It is too dangerous!" a Syshin to their left hissed. "If they are found we will all be killed! Let us turn them in for the bounty.

"No human would ever pay a bounty to our kind," another Syshin said as he stepped forward. "You know it is true. They would find a reason to kill us and keep their money. They will not allow us to be more than this."

Solae pulled her backpack off her shoulder and opened it to reveal bottles that had been taken from Lord Armon's manor tucked safely inside. "I can not offer much, but we brought these with us." Casting a glance to Rene she made eye contact with Enro and then Nari as she continued to negotiate. "Help me now and I will pay what I can of the debt owed to your people. My home on this planet is no more, but should I survive I will build one anew and employ Syshin." This proposal set the entire room to talking over one another and Solae, for Rene's benefit only, repeated the sentences in common.

Syshin were employed by the Stellar Empire for labour only. Becoming a cook, a butler, or any other household servant was deemed above their capabilities as a non-human race. Had any noble taken on a Syshin gardener (proficient as they were with the care of vegetation) it would have been the talk of the sector if not the galaxy.

"That is kind of you," Enro said, "but we can discuss that another time. We will shelter you for this night. Nari and I will discuss with our people what they wish to do and we will bring you our decision in the morning."

"While you are here, we ask that you prove your intentions," Nari followed. Though they were two distinct individuals the twin siblings spoke almost as if they were one. "A few humans have come closer to the ship, looking for our bonded Syshin. Rene, bonded of Solae, will help us drive them away if they arrive before nightfall." Cross-breeding between the races was a physical impossibility, but deviance had never been limited to what pairings could reproduce. Humanity would claim they only laid with other humans but the truth was a more sordid past. Without the protection of a stable government, Amber Horizon was vulnerable to those who would want to toy with the 'underlings' if only to assert their dominance and power.

Solae paled but, with great reluctance, translated Nari's words to Rene. It was not her choice to make.

Even in a language he didn’t understand Solae was mesmerizing. The rise and fall of her tones alone was enough to convey a sense of what she was saying even in the alien tongue. Rene found himself straying into fantasy of accompanying Solae to the types of grand balls and social spectacles of his youth. She would shine like the stars in such a setting and it made his heart tighten. Partially it was because she was so far from where she should be and partially it was the realisation that he could never inhabit that world with her.

“Rene?", Solae asked clearly repeating a question. His mind spun the conversation back a few seconds, making explicit what his mind had absorbed without his conscious attention. Nodding his head as a placeholder, he glanced at Solae but her face didn’t offer any guidance. Damn it she was the diplomat he only had his own inclinations to follow. Under normal circumstances this would have been no concern of the Imperial Marines. Local law enforcement was under the jurisdiction of the planetary governor. When it came to protecting the rights of minority aliens help from that quarter might range from limited to non-existent.

“Sure, I would be happy to help you protect your people,” he replied, hoping he wasn’t writing a check his body couldn’t cash. There was a generalized vocalization that lacked any human equivalent, Rene decided to translate it as approval. The two Shyhin nodded as though something had been decided.

“Very well, we shall accord you the hospitality of our halls while we discuss Solae From the Empire’s request,” Nari declared. Everyone rose including Solae and Rene followed suit.

“The sun is already low and there is little time to prepare but we shall show you to quarters.”

The rooms the Syshin provided were charitibley spartan. They were of the standard adobe, though the walls had been polished smoother and treated with some sort of native lacquer. Rene suspected it was a tree sap that had been laboriously layered until it was as hard and smooth as construction plastic. The room held a single large mattress and a large earthenware amphora of water of the same amazing clarity as they had been offered in the council chamber. Rene wondered if Syshin had less tolerance for impurities in water or if it were merely a cultural consideration. It was cool and smelled vaguely of coconut or a similar tropical plant which had a soothing effect. Rene set his pack down and began stripping out equipment. He lay an assault rifle down on the mattress and began to field strip it with the ease of long practice.

“I can probably run off a few locals looking for affection in the wrong places,” he began choosing his words carefully. The various components of the rifle began to click back together as he completed his inspection. He hadn’t truly expected a problem but training stressed that the marine that survived to retire was the marine that eliminated all possible screw ups in advance.

“But if a bunch of locals wind up dead in a ditch, it is going to attract attention. Worse, I’m not sure if it is a good idea to leave you here alone,” he said, the concern obvious in his voice. It wasn’t likely that that Syshin would go through so much trouble to get rid of him if they intended to collect the bounty. They could have put a knife in him at any point and they obviously knew that they weren’t likely to be rewarded if they tried to collect the bounty. Whomever they tried to turn Solae in to would simply take the reward for themselves and probably kill the Syshin just to be on the safe side. The receiver made a metallic thunk as he slid it back into position and then reefed the charging handle to chamber a round.

“If we do this, we are going to need to be off planet as quickly as possible.”

"That would be quite the departure from our current goal of getting off the planet as quickly as possible," Solae remarked with an impish amusement and raised brow. To dwell too long on the consequences of staying on New Concordia invited despair and panic. She was trying to find levity where she could. Even now the notion of depraved members of the rebellion trying to kidnap Syshin for illicit purposes sent a shiver down her spine. The true cost of war was not physical but rather that it opened a box that could never be closed. Shattered were the illusions that the common man was always humane. Years from now she would recall the hungry look in the eyes of people she would have never thought capable of horrific atrocities.

"You do not have to leave me alone," she stated. Rene opened his mouth, surely to object, but she continued on regardless. "If you drive them off they'll come back later when we're not here, won't they? Perhaps I can try to draw them away from the encampment. Give them a bigger target to follow so it's easier to pick them off." The flat, displeased expression on the soldier told her what he thought of her plan.

Solae sighed.

"No matter what happens we should bury any dead. If not to hide them from discovery but because it is the right thing to do. I could not make peace without paying them the prosper respect even if they were despicable in their final hours." Their circumstances were desperate. Digging graves would take a toll on the body and the psyche- two resources the couple could not afford to drain. Leaving a corpse exposed to the wilderness felt like abandoning decency, however, and Solae was mindful of the fact that if she survived she would have a great number of feelings to cope with. Everything she could do to minimize guilt in the future should be considered.

There was a rapping at the door and an elderly Syshin with mottled scales and dark gold plumage stepped in. "The humans come," he advised. Male Syshin had deep, rumbling voices that were beyond what any man could hope for. It was this distinction that made even adolescent Syshin easy to sex. "Two of our inyorin wait for you." He turned and looked at Rene expectantly.

"Inyorin are the... guardians or protectors of an encampment. They aren't trained like a soldier but usually some of the strongest. Are you certain you don't want me to come with you?" Solae knew the answer of course. The Imperial Marine may be opposed to having comrades (given his inability to communicate with them) but she felt reassured that he would not be alone. Nari and Enro were being generous in not demanding a solitary military endeavor as a sign of intentions.

"If you are victorious, Enro tells me they know of a spaceship," the older male asserted. He looked at Rene's weapons with apprehension, both uncertain how far they could truly trust the pair of humans and how successful this 'ambush' might be.

Rene nodded to the two Inyorin. They looked strong, though it seemed to be more a matter of muscle density than sheer size and their feathers had been dyed with some sort of vegetable compound so that they were stiff and very dark in color. Rene recalled lessons from his childhood about the dangers of anthropomorphising aliens too much. One of the pair stepped back, looking suddenly apprehensive. Rene realised he had been grinning only as he blanked his face. These locals were about to get a lesson in the dangers of excessive anthropomorphisation also, one that would be a lot less survivable than Mistress Doziers doddering lectures had been.

“Alright I’m coming, just give me a moment,” he instructed the two Syshin and pulled the curtain of woven vines that closed the spartan room closed with a rustle. He pulled Solae to him and kissed her impulsively then, reluctantly he released her. He drew the automatic pistol he had taken from her pursuers on the day they had met. It was heavy for its size, with far more metal than a contemporary Imperial design would allow but common enough on more remote worlds. He held it up and clicked the safety down with his thumb to reveal a red phosphor dot, then pressed it back up with the thumbnail to reengage the mechanical lock out. Marine training highly discouraged giving weapons to civilians, which Solae was in function if not in fact, but he couldn’t leave her with nothing to defend herself, not after all she had been through. Solae looked about to protest but he pressed the weapon into her hand and closed her fingers around it nonetheless.

“Please, it will make me feel better,” he told her and she nodded.

“I’ll be right back,” he assured her, plastering a confident smile on his face for her benefit, then peeled back the curtain and stepped out to join the two Syshin. A gentle anger simmered beneath his calm exterior. He supposed he would have done nearly anything to get Solae off New Concordia, but he was pleased it was something that would make this world a little better after he left it.

The night was surprisingly clear, the sea having evidently decided to spare them a storm for a change. The air itself was hot after the semi-subterranian cool of Amber Horizons and the ferocious humidity sprang sweat from Rene’s skin immediately. If the Syshin were discomforted it didn’t show on the faces of the two Inyorin crouched beside him. The alien’s additional leg joints meant they could get considerably lower to the ground without laying down than was possible for Rene but he couldn’t imagine the crablike pose was comfortable. Both of the aliens held improvised spears made from agricultural tubing and had long knives at their belts. Trade in weapons was technically banned except by Imperial License, a fact that did not deter smugglers, but did mean that modern weapons were expensive for an impoverished group like the Syshin. The fact that the law as much more likely to be enforced against aliens meant that guns were a generally bad idea.

The trio were set up atop a small rise which overlooked the scrubby tropical forest. A broad track, dirt pounded by feet rather than paved, ran through the lower area, weaving between trees too large to bother cutting. A spine of upthrust granite provided good cover and concealment from the road and the foliage between them and the trail was minimal. Both moons were up and nearly full, bathing the entire scene in pale silvery light. Rene would just as soon have done this in a rainstorm where sightlines would be sort and confusion easy to so, but you had to play the hand you were dealt. He leaned forward slightly, resting the foregrip of the rifle on the lichen pitted stone for support.

“You are sure they will come this way?” he asked in a low quiet voice. Both of the aliens looked at each other and spoke in liquid and unintelligible Syshi. Rene cursed silently beginning to wish that he had bought Solae along afterall, though the risk to her was too great for him to have considered it. He realised that he was nervous, something that surprised him. He didn’t worry for his own life, he didn’t hold it in high enough regard for that to matter, but the thought of leaving Solae alone and vulnerable twisted his stomach uncomfortably.

“We sure,” one of the Syshin finally responded in broken pigeon. He seemed about to elaborate when a bird hooted nearby. Both Syshin froze and then made answering hoots. From a shadow at the bottom of the rise a third alien emerged, scrambling up the rise with little more than a rustle of leaves. This one also held a spear as well as a length of metal piping that would serve as a club at close quarters. More liquid Syshin flowed along with a good deal of gesticulating off to the south along the road.

“What is it?” Rene demanded as the conversation grew more heated.

“Stars burn you! Keep your voices down!” he snarled as his words went unheeded. All three Syshin fell silent and then one turned to him.

“Kadal say the men already have Syshin Rene Bonded of Solae,” the alien sounded despairing. Rene cocked his head to the side trying to piece the fragmentary sentence together.

“They already have captives?” he asked, taking care to speak slowly. In the distance he thought he heard a sound and his eyes scanned the moonlight road.

“Women, women from the Penshae,” the Syshin agreed emphatically, his elongated head nodding as he spoke. Rene didn’t know or particularly care what a ‘Penshae’ was but the fact that the humans already had captives compicated matters dramatically. Unfortunately it didn’t alter his job tonight. He needed to earn the trust of the Syshin so they would help Solae off world and falling back because of bad intel wouldn’t do that.

“We go!” the newcomer declared, standing to his full height decisively. Rene grabbed the alien and yanked him down, though he suspected had the Syshin really wanted to he could have broken free.

“No!” he snapped, “Keep to the plan, we will get your people out!” As Rene smoke a whining sound became clearly audible. It was recognisable as an electric engine, one of the capacitor powered kind that was frequently used for agricultural work. Rene held a finger to his lips for silence and gestured everyone down.

An eternity passed, though it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, before the source of the noise finally came into view. A group of about a dozen human, all male and most carrying torches or flashlights came into view laughing and singing with drunken good humor. Most of the men cradled weapons, shotguns and machettes seeming to predominate, though Rene did see one man with what looked like an automatic rifle. The were all dressed in variations of the gray jumpsuits and smocks that was common to paid laborers. In the middle of the procession was a small utility vehicle about the size of a small ground car. It had a windshield but no sides enclosed it. Behind the vehicle, secured with wire ropes, were a half dozen naked Syshin females, huddled together and crying as the vehicle half dragged them along. Rene felt all three of his companions stiffen. As they watched one of the drunken men whipped one of the Syshin across the bottoks with a wite knot, laughing uproariously as she screamed.

“Alright,” Rene said, “You three circle round to the…”

“MYINDI!!!” one of the Syshin screamed and leaped to his feet before charging full bore down the slope towards the road. Both of his companions stood frozen for a second before following with weird undulating cries. The men below screamed and cursed and a half dozen weapons went off more or less at random. Rene wanted to scream in frustration but that wouldn’t help now. At times like these you had to save what you could. With a quick jerk he swung the weapon onto his target and took up the trigger pressure. The weapon cracked and slapped his shoulder. A stared hole appeared in the plastic windshield of the utility vehicle and the driver twitched and slumped over into the passenger seat leaving a smear of blood on the seat cover. He let the weight of the barrel drop it a fraction and then fired twice more with sharp syncopating cracks. Bluish sparks exploded as the rounds shredded the engine of the vehicle, dumping the entire load of the capacitors in a few seconds of stunning destruction. Smoke poured out a moment later masing the couscating blue destruction.

The leading Syshin reached the edge of the road and leaped into the air, his spear plunging downwards towards one of the terrified slavers. A shotgun blast thundered in the tropical night and the Inyorin flew sideways in a spray of dark fluids, his spear falling limply into the dirt. The automatic rifle roared spewing thirty rounds into the night air in Rene’s general direction. The purplish red muzzleflash, a byproduct of ionization as the electromagnets drove the copper gold driving bands up the weapons muzzle, had given his position away but the shooter was drunk and on full auto beside. Above Rene timber cracked as one of the rounds shattered a tree limb and dropped it twenty feet to his left. The shooter reached for a fresh clip but pitched to the dirt as Rene’s return fire shattered his sternum. It would take a real soldier to hit the concealed marine in the dark and the screaming chaos of the battle, but another burst like that could easily kill all of the naked Syshin women currently tearing at their wire bonds.

The two Inyorin still on their feet crashed into the group below, spears stabbing down in brutal deadly archs. Rene cut down two more soldiers with five round burst as they struggled to bring their shotguns to bear. Small fern like plants that grew from the base of the boulder shriveled away from the rifle barrel as excess heat started to build up in the barrel. Electromotive weapons heated fast but Rene didn’t have any choice but to keep shooting. A big bull like man swung a torch at one of the Syshin, driving him back a step. Rene’s shot caught him in the neck, the shot was too high but it did the job, all but decapitating the man in a spay of arterial blood that sparkled red in the muzzle flash.

The surviving humans broke as a group, turning and fleeing from the scene of the carnage. Even with the Syshin blowin the ambush the carnage and the screaming noise of the firefight was too much. These men weren’t soldiers, merely armed thugs out to abduct some helpless women for sport. Rene put down two more in a chattering staccato burst that sent them tumbling in a tangle of arms and legs and spraying blood.

“Go!” he shouted at the Syshin spearmen.

“Get the survivors,” he screamed as he hoped from behind his cover and skidded down the embankment. The Inyorin looked between the human and the females, most of whom were now huddling behind the smouldering utility vehicle, clearly uncertain.

“GO!” he roared, this time punctuating the words by firing twice into the air. With the grace of hunting hounds the Syshin sprang into pursuit, weird undulating war cries dopplering away into the dark. A massacre of would be slavers was one thing, but nothing would keep men away from the Syshin like a slaving party simply disappearing without a trace. Fear of the unknown was a more powerful deterrent than any amount of weapons.

The clearing stank. Burning insulation from the utillity vehicle mixed with the reek of blood and the seweage taint of violent death. The fire crackled and snapped without much enthusiasm and the captive Syshin wailed. They shrieked in terror as Rene approached, eyes wide and panicked. He held up one hand and let the weapon hang down close to his leg, they probably thought all humans were a threat and he couldn’t blame them. Several of the aliens bore bloody slashes where the humans had been whipping them. He pulled a knife from his belt.

“Go back to Amber Horizon,” he said in a clear commanding voice and cut the bundle of wires close to the attachment point on the back of the utility. The wires parted easily under the powered blade and several of the women staggered off into the dark. One of them ran to the fallen Syshin and fell to her knees beside him shaking his shoulder. The spearman who had set of the ambush was still alive, although he seemed to Rene, ignorant of Syshin physiology, to be in a bad way. The shotgun blast had torn a ragged bite from his pelvis and dark blood oozed over shredded skin and muscle.

“Myindi,” the alien croaked to the shivering woman, reaching up to touch the womans face.

“She is your bonded,” Rene said in understanding, the remains of his anger cooling. The woman nodded and began tearing strips from his clothing to bind the wound. Rene unfastened his small improvised first aid kit. Suddenly a scream tore the air. A very human, very female scream. Rene bolted upright black terror coiling in his guts. That had to be Solae. Without another word he bolted in the direction the scream had come from, crashing through the bush in his thoughtless haste.

Rene had departed with the Inyorin and Solae stood at the entrance to the Amber Horizon's spaceship listlessly. Her fingers were curled around the heavy pistol that hung at her side, the cool metal touching her hip, and she stared where he had disappeared through the trees. Gone was the enchanting warmth of the kiss he had planted on her lips.

Truth be told she was not a fan of the plan to rescue the Syshin. The marquise had more empathy for them than most, especially this community, but she also understood the great risk it posed to Rene. She feverishly wanted to believe he was invincible. If Solae convinced herself that the circumstances surrounding the 'Rat Trap' and his escape was an act of destiny rather than luck she could rest easy that she had not seen him alive for the last time. A shiver trailed down her spine as she shook her head and chased away morbid thoughts. This was something Rene could handle or else he would have asked for more Syshin to accompany him. That Rene was divinely blessed and protected was not something she could force herself to believe, but she had faith in him as a soldier and lover. He would return to her.

"You wait here?" Enro asked. His face was creased in an expression that Solae did not understand implicitly. Her strong suspicion was that he was either perplexed or concerned.

"I want to be the first to see them come back," she confessed a bit shamefully. Enro paused and then nodded in understanding. While humans and Syshin had their differences, the bonds that kept their societies intact were not dissimilar. The clear devotion that Rene and Solae had towards each other (and the vulnerability they possessed because of it) had done much to persuade the Syshin to trust them with their home.

"I must seal the door in case they fail," the older male Syshin told her. Solae dipped her head in acknowledgment and stepped outside onto the grass. The smooth metal slid into place and hissed shut as safeties of the spaceship were engaged. Most of these decommissioned vessels were gutted but hull integrity was typically not one of them. Rebels and degenerates of New Concordia would not be able to penetrate the thick outer shell without heavy machinery.

For several minutes she stood alone listening for the sounds of combat. Rene and the Inyorin were probably too far away for her to hear but she strained for any sound that might confirm where he was or give clues as to what was transpiring. Instead of gunfire Solae heard rustling and the sounds of boots on underbrush to the east. She crouched down instinctively as she glanced around wildly. Her heart thudded in her chest and temporarily drowned out even the calls of nighttime insects in the trees. Fortunately the three slavers were not even attempting to conceal themselves. Each had a large rifle slung over a shoulder and strode confidently towards the spaceship with malevolent purpose. The tallest of the trio was carrying a rectangular box stamped with military insignia either smuggled or taken from the massacre Rene had barely survived.

Solae had proposed leading the attackers away not even an hour ago. To not do so now would be making herself a liar and disappointing her hosts and beau alike. Steeling herself with what little courage she had she bolted away from Amber Horizon Encampment and back towards the train tracks if only because she was familiar enough with them to know where they led. Running in a direct line made it a direct contest of speed she could not hope to win. She strafed to one side and the other, breath ragged with rising panic and exertion, as she turned to look over her shoulder. All three were giving chase with wild eyes that invoked more terror than she had felt since watching the life drain out of Marlene's gaping wound.

The weight of the pistol made her realize she was still clinging to it tightly. Rene would expect her to at least attempt a shot to slow them down or scare them off. She did not judge him nor any other soldier for taking the lives of others, but she the knot in the pit of her stomach told her she could not do it herself- not yet. Taking a life would change her until the end of days. It was a line that she had to be absolutely certain she was ready to cross because the trauma was not insignificant. Men and women came back from service changed in ways words could not express. Some of them could never cope with what they had done even in the most impossible circumstances and they broke. The Stellar Empire tried to suppress the news but everyone from the highborn scions to the completely destitute knew suicide among the discharged was not uncommon.

Although she had been genetically engineered for various forms of superiority, she could not compete with the athleticism and natural strength of a man's physique. One of the slavers, a burly man at least ten years her senior and with a full thick beard, grabbed hold of her arm mid-stride. Her leg buckled as she was yanked backwards and the angle, as well as momentum, saw her slam into the ground on the side of her sutured hip. The pistol went flying out of her hand and clanged as it bounced away. Pain coursed through her as blood oozed from the injury. Solae screamed as she found herself captured and the agony of the impact made her gasp for breath.

"Well well, if it isn't Solae Falia, the most wanted woman on New Concordia," the larger man mocked as he licked his lips. He made a motion for his comrades to pin down her arms which they did so obligingly. All three eyed her like hungry wolves as they let their gazes slide over her torso. The bounty had been posted all over the planet but had failed to capture exactly how appealing the modified noblewoman looked.

"What was she doing near Amber Horizon?" the slightly smaller, stocky man asked.

"Who cares? Let's do her now," the tallest one said as he dropped the rectangular box on the ground. It landed with a loud thud that indicated the machinery contained within was incredibly heavy. "Duke wants her alive, but didn't say we couldn't have fun first," he stated as he tried to convince the other two. The other that held her arm hooked his fingers into his waistband in anticipation of being allowed to have their way with her. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity regardless of the monetary award.

"No, we stick to the plan. Once we get back to the plantation we can fuck her," the largest man announced. Solae realized from the authority in his voice he was in charge of this operation. He had sat down on her legs and covered her mouth with one hand as he drew a syringe from his belt with the other. They had come to Amber Horizon Encampment because there was a window of opportunity their greed would not let them ignore. As one form of government crumbled and another poised to take its place there was a brief period of anarchy. No one would be watching or prepared to stop them- so they could take females (and occasionally males) from the surrounding areas to sell on an open market. Syshin were the easiest target but they had also managed to reap a few young adult children from lords and ladies that were slaughtered in the initial attack. Solae would be a prize that catapulted them to unknown riches but their avarice knew no bounds. They would take all they could while they could.

Solae thrashed as all the horrors she imagined had began to become reality. She was no match for the slavers, one of whom laughed at her futile efforts. The leader of the group took his syringe and plunged it into her exposed flesh as he pushed a translucent liquid into her bloodstream. He gestured to his companions who abruptly let her go, but she realized belatedly this was not an opportunity to escape. Her limbs felt like lead and creeping inky mist clouded her peripheral vision as a crushing weight spread throughout. She thought she heard cursing above her but the sound was muddled by the drug that spread like wildfire as it snuffed out every nerve with reckless abandon. It was quick-acting, something meant to render their victims unconscious for easier transport, and Solae could not fight the strong dose that had just been administered.

Sprawled on the edges of the abandoned railroad she succumbed to its effects. A dark stain was painting her battered side as her pants, albeit tight, were not able to stanch the flow entirely. Her golden hair had been half torn out of its ponytail when she had been writing in overwhelming panic and despair. The tangled strands stood testament, if nothing else, that even when she was faced with odds she could not win against she had not submitted.

Rene’s heart thundered in his chest as he raced through the moonlight forest. Silver light flashed overhead, dappled and distorted by the canopy above. A vine ripped across his arms scraping the skin raw as he strugled through it. Roots and rocks tangled his feet and more than once he tripped in the uncertain light, bracing his fall with one hand to keep the weapon clear, as he had been taught. Far to his rear the hollow boom of a shotgun discharge shook the darkly plumed birds from a distant grove but it was in the opposite direction of the scream and thus unimportant.

The ground fell away quickly enough that Rene picked up speed, desperately picking his foot falls and hoping to avoid tripping. Fortunately the jungle thinned on the thin soiled decline and he made it nearly to the bottom before he misjudged a step and tumbled, rolling the remainder of the way down the slope. Cold water slapped at him and rocks bit into him as he came to a stop on the moss covered rocks of a shallow stream. He groaned for a moment and pushed himself to his feet, the rifle in his hand hissed slightly as water cooled the still hot barrel, tracing lines of steam, more felt than seen, towards the sky.

“Solae,” Rene breathed, more of a prayer than he had spoken in years. He glanced around, the sound of the scream no longer enough of a beacon to lead him on. The stream ran on for a hundred yards before a small bridge, just a silhouette against the moonlight, crossed over it. Atop the bridge were a group of shadowed figures, three of them carrying a supine forth. The old railroad was the only built structure, beyond Amber Horizon, that he knew off. Intuitively he realised the unconscious form must be Solae a moment before her golden hair glinted in inopportune moonlight. He raised the rifle, settled the sight picture on the chest of the lead man and pulled the trigger. The weapon screamed like a banshee. Pale witchfire licked over the barrel and Rene’s hair sprang on end. With a shouted curse he cast the weapon away. It hit the shallow stream with a shattering QWAAH that raised a cloud of steam. The barrel had warped either due to over firing or previous contact with the water and the precise magnetic mechanism had shredded itself in a moment of spectacular destruction. Worse the flash of light attracted the attention of the men on the bridge.

“Chook!” the one not burdened with Solae cried and swung his weapon to bear on Rene. Muzzle flash blossomed in bright yellow stars and water sprayed over as bullets tore up the stream. He grabbed at the pistol in his belt and dived to the side, water founting over him, sour on his lips with the tanniny byproduct of jungle flora. One of the river rocks nearby shattered like a bomb, flint sparking crazily in the uncertain light. Pain flashed in Rene’s arm as jagged shards of rock traced bloody lines across his right arm and shouler.

“Get her out of here!” the lead guman yelled as he levered the empty clip from the weapon and slapped another one home. Rene pulled himself up behind a moss covered log rested his pistol on the soft timber and pulled the trigger. The bright flash of a plasma bolt lit the night, illuminating Rene for a heartbeat in a semicircle of blue white light. The bolt flew low, blowing one of the wooden sleepers into flaming spinters. The lead gunman reeled back, tetted on edged of the bridge and fell backwards to the rocky creek bed. The remaining two men dragged Solae out of Rene’s closely circumscribed line of sight.

“Fuck!” he snarled, pushing himself to his feet and running up the far side of the creek bed at a steep angle, grabbing a handful of branches to pull himself up over the shallow lip. He saw the fleeing men through the trees but couldn’t risk a shot for fear of hitting Solae. His lungs screamed for air but he forced himself into a run. With shocking suddenness he burst from the edge of the jungle and onto a narrow strip of grass distorted with muddy wheel ruts. Five meters ahead was sugar cane, almost impenetrable and twice the height of a man. Both men carrying Solae crashed out of the jungle one of them firing a panicd burst that would have been no danger even if it had been in Rene’s general direction. He braced his feet in a shooters stance, sighted and fired. The plasma bolt struck the man carrying Solae’s leg squarely igniting the front of his shirt as it flash heated on his chest, propelling the man backwards under the force of vaporized tissue. Fragments of flaming fabric few into the densly packed stalks of cane and began to smoulder. Solae’s legs fell and the second man staggered under his newly aquired burden but he didn’t quite drop the Marqessa. Instead he dropped his rifle and pulled a knife from his belt, pressing the shining blade against Solae’s pale throat.

“Put the fucking gun down!” he shouted in a voice that cracked with terror. Rene froze, his face a ricktus of pain. The man kept Solae between them as a shield with only his head visible. Rene wasn’t confident enough to risk Solae’s life on the shot, not when he was already trembling with adrenaline, fear and fatigue.

“She is worth nothing dead!” Rene called, not lowering the pistol, trying to stall for time or anyting which might help the situation.

“I don’t care about that put the weapon down or she dies!” Rene hesitated a fractoin of a second longer. A rational man wouldn’t kill Solae and waste a fortune but this man was scared half to death it was impossible to predict what he might do. Rene lowered the weapon reluctantly.

“Toss it aside,” Solae’s captor instructed. Rene tossed the weapon of to his right careful to place it close enough that he could jump for it.

“Thats a good little chook lover. Let me tell you, we are going to have some fun with your bitch here when we get her back to the plantation, every man on the plantation and half the horses…” The man’s head snapped sideways as the point of a steel spear suddenly split it temple to temple. Horribly the man didn’t die instantly but instead made a liquid mewling sound. Solae’s dead weight slipped through his fingers and slumped to the grass. The man took a staggering sideways step, weighted down by the weight of the spears half and then collapsed twitching to the ground. A monent later a shadowy form emerged from the trees. Rene recognised Enro even in the darkness, his plumae was undyed. He sank to his knees and groped blindly for his pistol suddenly thirsty and weary beyond description.

“Stars upon stars,” he groand. Beside him the cane was begining to burn, the bed of trash and fallen stalks catching the flames and casting a hellish light on the whole scene.

“Stars upon bloody stars.”

Enro carried Solae back to Amber Horizon with little difficulty; while he was no longer in his physical prime he still stronger than Rene. The soldier had initially protested. He was exhausted but his protective zeal had kicked into overdrive when he saw the marquise captured and unconscious. The Syshin leader delicately asserted his authority, pointed out Rene's wounds mitigated his ability to safely spirit her back the encampment, and then picked her up without waiting for consent. There was a subtle respect in his actions that had not been so profound before. When he had spoken in his broken common he had made eye contact with Rene but reduced his height slightly so as not to be so far risen about the man. Rather than slinging Solae over a large shoulder, which would have been the easiest method, he cradled her in his arms as gently as he could as if she were a slumbering princess.

"My people are in your debt," he said as they approached the front door to the spaceship that housed the alien community. "They will..." Enro paused as he searched for the words that were as inoffensive as possible, "take care of the dead and machines. I must watch. Lasha, daughter of Nari, will help you and your bonded."

Syshin swarmed out of Amber Horizon's front door which had been left open out of practical need. With the assault over the foreign race had summoned their males, females, and children that were roughly equivalent to a human teenager to assist with recovery efforts. A large clump of female Syshin squeezed past carrying various digging implements as they solemnly conversed about the tasks ahead of them. Two older adolescent males trailed after with arms laden with rope, jugs of clean water, cloth, and jars of thick tar. Many had been dispatched to where Rene had led the rescue of the Penshae captives but they spread in all directions as a precaution. Evidence of the slavers, even the tracks of their vehicles, had to be eradicated to the best of the Syshin's ability.

"Lasha!" Enro boomed. He was not angry but the chatter and sounds of so many bodies moving in confined spaces made it hard for any to hear.

No more than two minutes passed before a female Syshin arrived at the door. She was young, yet clearly an adult, and beautiful even by the standards of humanoids of different species. Lasha's plumage was a silken spun gold, darker than Solae's hair color but no less luminous, that blended into a vibrant emerald green. Enro spoke a few words to her in Syshi before nodding to Rene and going back from whence they came- there were two corpses left next to the burning sugar cane fields that could not be ignored.

"Come, come quickly," Lasha urged. She had taken Solae from Enro but strained more with the dead weight than he said. "Kadal is in the infirmary," she said with nearly perfect common. Unlike most of the encampment she worked closely with the Stellar Empire's other citizens and was more polished in the imperial tongue. "He is between two paths," Lasha added quietly, "so we will use my room."

The hall was crowded but once the Syshin saw Lasha carrying Solae and Rene trailing behind they could not move out of the way quickly enough. Wide eyes watched them pass with rapt attention and bated breath. No longer were they mere curious strangers- they were heroes in their own right. To stand in couple's way as they sought healing would have stained the honor of whomever was so unlucky as to be frozen in awe. Lasha turned to the right before they reached the hold, leading Rene into a room where a male Syshin (her bonded and mate) waited for them.

It was more spacious than what had been given to Rene and Solae before the assault on the slavers. A bed large enough to accommodate the larger frames of two Syshin was elevated on a sturdy wood frame and pressed against the outer wall. It had been dressed with linens that were rough to human touch but so well insulated that in the winter the Syshin would not be uncomfortably cold with the drop in temperature (to which they were sensitive more than heat). Two basins were against one of the other walls, one made of earthen materials and smaller in size, one constructed of wood that had been covered in multiple layers of lacquer and meant for washing. Roots, bulbs of exotic vegetables, dried flowers and fruit, sticks of incense, and fresh herbs hung from the ceiling and were suspended at various lengths. There was a sweet, soothing aroma that was wholly intentional.

Lasha's mate yanked the cloth off the bed so Lasha could lay Solae on the bare mattress. Once this had been done he stepped out of the way as she pulled a hidden drawer from the bed's frame and looked for the supplies required to mend her patients. "I do not know when she will wake, so we will do what we can before she does. I must have these removed," she said, pointing to the pants that were stained with blood. "As her bonded, this you must do," she instructed. Clucking her tongue at her mate, Lasha shooed him successfully out of the room.

Turning her back to give Rene privacy she washed her hands in the smaller basin and pulled a mortar and pestle from a shelf to her left. The healer Syshin plucked several components from dangling strings that were placed in the bowl with two small vials she had extracted from her drawer storage. When ground together they formed a thick brown paste speckled with purple whose scent was remarkably pungent. Lasha sprinkled a fine dust in after a moment to reduce the smell; she did not want Solae to wake before they had stanched the bleeding of her thigh.

"Are you in pain? I can give you a medicine while you wait," she offered off-handedly as the continued to work. "You will stay here so that when she wakes she is not scared, and so we can make her drink a treatment for the bruises." The skin on Solae's exposed left arm was blossoming an angry magenta from where she had fallen onto it when she struck the ground at a high velocity. It was by no means a threat to her life but it would make a great deal of ordinary tasks painful until it healed.

Rene down beside the bed on a stool of carven root wood. The piece was slightly too tall for a human anatomy but it served well enough. His eyes were on Solae but his thoughts were on Oanh Park’s warning about the increased dangers of shock for someone of her exquisite engineering. It didn’t seem that she was hurt too badly but it might not be obvious until it was too late. It took a moment for the girl, Lasha’s, words to penetrate the haze of his mind.

“What? No I don’t think…” he paused to take stock of his injuries, uncatalogued while the adrenaline and fear had coursed through him. Vines and branches had scraped and scratched him bloody. His boot was soaked crimson from where fragments of riverstone had lacerated his leg. His forearms were singed, filling the room with a faint stink of burning hair. A black rind of metal, deposited on his hands from the driving bands of the rifle, itched but wasn’t really painful.

“I’m fine,” he lied, not wishing to take the Syshin’s attention away from Solae. Instead he picked up a pair of simple pliers and peeled his trouser leg away from the bloody flesh. Gingerly, he tugged a fragment of stone free. It hurt but had the vaguely pleasurable quality one sometimes felt removing thorn. He began repeating the process as best he could, wishing he had a few more doses of Min Ho’s hormone booster. When he had removed all the fragments he took a jar of herb smelling ungent that Lasha offered him and slathered it over the skin. It stung, which he hoped was a sign of its efficacy and not a warning that it was toxic to humans.

“You are hurt,” Lasha observed with a frown. Rene began to wash his remaining injuries, the water growing black with dirt and grime. He winced as he rubbed more of the salve onto his friction burned arm.

“Yeah, well, you should see the other guy,” he told the alien in one of the many variations of the ancient joke. The Lasha blink in blank incomprehension. Rene made a dismissive gesture that was probably every bit as effective as his attempt a humor.

“I’m more worried about So… about my bonded,” he told her truthfully. Lasha nodded in understanding and took a cloth dipped cool water and began to bathe Solae’s forehead. The noblewoman’s chest continued to rise and fall gently. Rene had no idea what she had been injected with, but it didn’t appear to be repressing her respiratory system. Had the drug been tailored to Syshin it might have been worse, but he guessed it was an off the shelf analgesic. Maybe some mix of animal tranquilizers.

“Does it bother you?” Lasha asked suddenly. Rene blinked in confusion.

“That she is hurt, of course it…” but the Syshin was already shaking her head.

“Among The People, it is a great trauma to take a life,” she explained, “That is why the Inyorin dye their plumes black, to show they are willing to face it.” Rene nodded in understanding.

“Did it bother me to kill the slavers?” he asked. Marine training was very thorough. Most humans were instinctively reluctant to harm others, they would instinctively shoot to miss or strike to wound rather than to kill. Rene and his fellows spent hours shooting at human like targets and on holographic ranges which provided even more realism so that when the moment came they would be prepared to do what they needed to. He tried to picture the men he had shot in his mind. All he could summon up was gray confusion and blurry faces in a sight picture. He shrugged his shoulders uncomfortablely. It seemed a long step from the person he had once thought he was.

“I guess it didn’t,” he admitted. Lasha shivered slightly at the words.

“I suppose I am Inyorin among my people,” he went on, feeling an obscure need to justify himself to the beautiful alien. That was sort of true he supposed, he had volunteered, although not out of some burning desire to protect the community. Amellia’s bloodied body flashed before his eyes and he squeezed them shut in instinctive, if useless defence. It figured that he could remember that body.

“Many of your people kill,” Lasha commented, “that is why you have an empire.” Rene nodded but didn’t speak. What did you say to that?

An hour passed without Solae waking but Rene noticed that her breathing had grown deeper and more regular and the color returned more quickly when he pressed on her fingernails. Without knowing what the slavers had used or in what dosage it was hard to know if she were metabolizing the drug fast or slow, but she was clearly recovering. Rene allowed himself to relax by slow increments with each small improvement.

“We have taken a prisoner Rene Bonded of Solae,” Enro rumbled, waking Rene from a light doze. His eye flicked to Solae, reassuring himself that she was still there before his conscious mind processed the words. The Syshin was smeared with mud and his clothing was torn and stained. An ugly red mark, perhaps the equivalent of a bruise or a lump, distended the side of his head, although if the contusion caused him any discomfort he didn’t show it.

“A prisoner?” he asked, puzzled as to what use the Syshin had for a prisoner.

“The man who fell from the railbridge, broken legs and ribs.” Rene had a dim recollection of a plasmabolt bursting beneath one of Solae’s captor feet, splinters of wood and metal spraying up into his legs and toppling him to the rocks below. Rene, focused completely on Solae, hadn’t given the man a second thought. He had been out of the equation and didn’t matter. Except apparently he did.

“We will…” Enro made a series of burbling trills which Rene couldn’t understand. The Marine nodded more as a placeholder than in agreement to the unknown sentiment. Enro was about to go on when Solae suddenly coughed. Rene was by her side in an instant leaning over her when her eyes fluttered open. He let out a long relieved breath.

“Maybe there is something to that sleeping beauty story afterall.”

Solae stood before the Empress on her gilded throne as ornate tapestries fluttered in the invisible wind. They were alone in the massive room yet all she could see the polished floor, the ruler of the Stellar Empire adorned in luxurious fabrics that had been draped with a delicate attention to detail, and the massive seat on which she presided over official affairs. Inky tendrils on the edges of the marquise's vision threatened to expose the dream as an act of fiction yet she dismissed their existence each time they crept forward.

"I request that Rene Quentain be kept in my company, your excellence," she heard herself say with the impeccable polish of the courts. As decorum dictated she swept herself down in a bow, for she was wearing a suit rather than gown, and waited pensively for the approval that she felt must be coming. The war was over. As a pivotal piece to the success the empire had in reclaiming New Concordia, Solae was confidant that a reward would be granted to her for the loyalty with which she acted. No longer was Solae just one of many with titles that afforded them prestige; she was a name that spread across several sectors and dripped off the lips of the most prominent courtiers. She was known.

"Keep him by your side?" the Empress asked derisively as her cold gaze pierced Solae's lifted eyes. Her face turned a dark shade of purple as it elongated and bulged monstrously. "You poor dear, you know that keeping him here with you will kill him. You will kill him, Solae Falia."

Solae stumbled back in abject horror as the Empress contorted and metamorphosed into bubbling mounds of gelatinous ooze that grew. A hollow, echoing peel of laughter resounded as numerous arms extended from the creature and pointed to her feet. The body of a man lay inches from her feet that had not been there before. Her breaths became labored as she intuitively recognized the back splattered in blood. Rene rolled over and turned his head in her direction. Two milky white orbs that had been clouded with death stared at her as a crackled, rotting mouth wrenched itself open.

"How many more people have to die before it is your turn, Solae? How many must suffer? You did this! For you to live see what has been lost!" it spat with accusation. From the void above her head fell every employee of the Imperial Embassy, her parents, the few friends she had in the nobility in Armistice, and Lord Armon. With each sickening smack of bone and flesh impacting the floor she backpedaled. Each was horrifically scarred in ways only a brutal imagination could create. Their lifeless shells mimicked Marlene as she had succumbed to the embrace of death with pain etched on her features.

"No, no, no..." she chanted to herself before she turned and sprinted.

As instantly as it had appeared the throne room vanished, her psyche melting her into a dense jungle not unlike the one she had been in when she had been waiting for Rene to return from the assault. Amber Horizon was not in sight and the trees, vines, and underbrush stretched into a endless cage of landscape. Her legs burned from the exertion that lasted veritable hours in easily doctored timeline of the subconscious. Solae stopped to catch her breath, her lungs screaming for air, when she spotted shadows leering at her. She stood and spun around but they were in every direction; there was no escape.

"What a fine prize," one amorphous shade purred at her malevolently.

"We'll bend her over so many times she'll never be upright again!" one boasted as it cackled to itself. "Even the dogs will have her before we collect our bounty!"

Reality grabbed her firmly, shaking her out of the nightmare, and jolted her back to consciousness without even a flickering sensation of warning. Her eyes opened but she was not aware first the first precious few seconds. Each sense had to be roused from its chemically-induced slumber which led to her awareness being stifled as stimulus trickled in. Before all else she was aware of a lumpy mattress on which she had been laid. Scent came next, foreign odors filling her nostrils, and then with painstaking delay were the vision and hearing that Solae relied upon so heavily.

"No, no, no," she choked with such despair that Enro stepped back respectively and Lasha had to stop herself from springing into action. With the marquise's last memory being capture, and the threats upon her involving non-consensual acts presumably on a mattress, it was exceedingly clear that the safety of the room was lost on her. In a blind panic Solae reached down, her fingers closing over the fresh bandaging on her thigh, the unspoken threat being that she would rip into the wound in hopes medical distress would stay the captors she believed were upon her.

"Solae, I'm here," Rene reassured as she took the offending hand into his own calmly but with concern.

Initially she started to wrench away but, at the sight of him injured yet quite alive, tears filled her eyes. His talking corpse was still fresh in her mind with its allegations she heralded the grim reaper itself. Rationally she knew that it was an illusion manifesting from her deepest fears- but there had been shreds of truth buried within the hellish visions. "Rene," she confirmed as she relaxed and sank back into the mattress.

"How do you feel?" Lasha asked delicately in the common tongue.

"I... I just had a bad dream," Solae said with minimization that every soul in the cramped quarters knew her to be trying to avoid any further explanation. "I'm fine now," she then convinced herself as she pushed herself to sitting upright and moved to slide off the edge of the bed.

“Whoa,” Rene said, putting a supporting arm around Solae’s back as she sat up. He exchanged worried glances with Lasha but the Syshin did not appear to be particularly concerned. With the ease of long practice she began crushing unfamiliar herbs in a stone pestle, their sharp and bitter aroma’s tickling the humans sinuses. Once they greenish brown mess was judged to be appropriately pulverized she poured the crystal clear water into the pestle. The water shimmer briefly as the oils that the pounding had freed floated on the surface of the water. She let it steep for a moment before pouring it carefully through a piece of fine porous cloth which acted as a strainer. The resulting mixture was greenish cloudy brew.

“You drink this,” she commanded, pushing the cup into Solae’s hands. Although she could likely sit up by herself Rene was reluctant to remove his supporting arm. His heart had nearly stopped when he had heard her scream and in his mind she hadn’t really returned safely until she spoke. Solae took the cup and drank, making a face that indicated that it was about as pleasant to drink as it looked.

“I don’t want to question your skills Lasha,” Rene began carefully. The Syshin girl planted both fists on her hips, a guesture that seemed particularly alien because of the way her multi jointed arms bent. To a human mind it looked as though her arms were broken in several places.

“We trade healing to farmers sometimes. Many are worse off than your bonded Rene Bonded of Solae,” the girl said forcefully enough to chagrin the marine. In a gesture of courtly acknowledgement, he inclined his head, a traditional way of acknowledging a correction and asking pardon. Being near Solae evidently recalled him to the mannerisms of his childhood and he wasn’t entirely sure that was a good thing. Solae gagged slightly but finished the remainder of the drink with stoic determination before placing the earthenware cup down with a slight thump. Lasha watched her suspiciously for a moment as though she might attempt to spit the mixture back up and then relaxed.

“I’m glad you are alright,” Rene declared, wrapping Solae in a careful hug.

“When I saw they had taken you, I…” Rene trailed off uncertain of how to end the sentence. For a moment all he could see were the faces of her captors above the sight of his weapon, cruel and triumphant. He could not let her fall into the hands of such men, not even if it meant his own life.

“Rene Bonded of Solae killed many men,” Lasha observed in a neutral voice, clearly uncomfortable with the concept of killing but wanting to credit him. Syshin morals, like human ones, often found themselves I’ll suited to the situations the world forced them to face. Rene shrugged his shoulders, uncomfortable with even faint praise for such an act. Hopefully the Syshin were out their right now, burying the corpses where they would never be found. The disappearance of a party of slavers would be far more useful in protecting the encampment in the future than a pile of bodies would be.

“Solae of the Empire deserves praise also,” Enro declared as he emerged from the corridor. He made a strangely formal bow to the diplomat, pressing his palms together tightly and leaning forward until the plumage at each elbow touched before straightening. The elder Syshin as very clean now, a marked contrast to his dishevelment after the battle. Rene wondered if it were personal preference or a cultural drive.

“Without her bravery, the second group of slavers might have taken many of us. They would have had no mercy when they learned had befallen their fellows,” Enro observed. Rene nodded his agreement, although truthfully would have prefered she not expose herself to such risk. He had sound tactical reasons he could have come up with but the truth was that he couldn’t bear to think of Solae coming to harm. Try as he might to suppress his feeling for her, they still filled his mind more times than they didn’t.

"You are kind," Solae said, clearing her throat as the liquid medicine she had just swallowed stubbornly clung to the back of her throat. "But having the courage to run pales in comparison to the bravery of your people and..," she paused, eyes flitting to Rene briefly before returning to Enro, "my bonded. There is a story I read once about two sisters who walked the same path, seeking to unite their country in a time before the empire. One refused to fight, using her words to spread peace and unity, while the other was a warrior. The one who spoke brought many together but not all. One was enraged and wanted the power she had, so he threatened her. When she refused to help him, he cut down a man. Still she refused, imploring him to be compassionate. He cut down a woman. She continued to refuse, invoking his empathy. He cut down a child. She pleaded with him for mercy. As he moved to cut her down, the warrior cut him down. When she was asked why she intervened, when the one who spoke was spreading word how they ought not to fight, the warrior said she stained her hands so the one who spoke did not need to. I believe that is much like our world. The Inyorin and Rene have killed so that others could be saved and protected. I only ran."

Lasha and Enro listened to the tale quietly. While the moral was still at odds with Lasha's personal beliefs as a healer she understood what the noblewoman was trying to say. There was some truth in that it was easier for a virtuous soul to talk, to heal, to nurture than it was for them to harm another even if the cause was righteous.

Enro bobbed his head appreciatively. "You are different from the other humans we have met, Solae of the Empire," he declared. The tone of his statement was a clearly a compliment rather than an insult. End results of the would-be assault on Amber Horizon were better than any Syshin had anticipated and the two imperial citizens that had contributed heavily were humble. Their genuine disposition and willingness to sacrifice meant that their names would be as close to heroes as humans could be in their community.

"I am of my people, but I am not my people," Solae remarked wryly. It was a proverb that was uttered more frequently in diplomatic relations and the courts than rural reaches of the sector. The meaning, however, was not lost on the less sophisticated speakers of the common tongue. Solae was purposefully creating a distance between herself and other humans' actions while still acknowledging she was of the species.

"If you mean to ask her to translate for the captive, you should do it now. They should both rest," Lasha told Enro sternly. They conversed in common for Rene's sake so as not to be rude. Although Enro was her superior in their culture, as healer he deferred to her when the health of the wounded needed to be taken into consideration.

"He speaks too quickly for us to understand," Enro said to Solae in explanation as he shook his head. Most of the Syshin spoke with relative fluency but as with many languages the speed of the speaker could greatly affect comprehension of the listener.

"We have two rooms with the metal doors still," Lasha interrupted. "I will make one of them ready for you so you may have privacy more like your people." The two rooms in question had not been fully converted to Syshin living quarters as the population had not expanded in such a way it was necessary. Along with the 'pruning' of their population that was done incidentally or planned by Armistice their culture valued sharing of space between familial members that were not yet bonded or had lost a mate.

Lasha exited the room, moving past Enro briskly, and Solae took this as her endorsement to stand of her own accord. Rene moved to support her arm but she shrank back slightly as guilt played upon her features. With the fog of confusion lifted from her mind she was overwhelmed with how many things caused an aching guilt: that Rene put himself in danger for her, that he was injured because of her, that he killed because of her, that his future could be jeopardized by her, that she had worried him, and that she could not separate herself from him no matter how hard she tried. To keep touching him would invoke a longing for his continued comfort. Were she to close herself she would still clearly see the purple-faced monstrous Empress as her accusations echoed in her ears.

"You should lay down," she told Rene quietly. "Please do not push yourself for my sake," she added rather hypocritically.

Rene stiffend slightly as Solae seemed to shrink away from his offered support. His face stilled as his mind was unable to translate the mixture of motions that played across her features. A little pang of hurt sprang up inside of him but he ruthlessly smothered the emotion. Alot had happened in the past few hours perhaps it made her view him in a different light, perhaps being in something more like her traditional role had reminded her that by most Imperial standards, their relationship was inappropriate. Once he was certain she wouldn’t fall he withdrew his arm.

“I was able to get some rest while you were out,” he told her stating the facts without quite telling the truth. He had at least been sitting down most of the time. Pain pulsed in his leg with the beat of his heart but it seemed to be lessening, perhaps as a result of the Syshin ointment he had applied before bandaging it. He was a little scratched up, but it was nothing that would have excused him from even peacetime duty.

The followed Enro back through the low corridors. Their route took them back through the lush green garden that had once been the main hold. Rene tried to imagine what it had been like when the super freighter had been filled with containers of cargo but found the effort almost beggared his imagination. The Syshin transformation of the place as so complete that even the gentle curve of the hull had been terraced with river stone and adobe, alowing the trees and shrubs to climb partway up the hull. He wondered how many other Syshin settlements dotted across the face of New Concordia were suffering the same kind of attacks as the one this one had endured last night. Those settlements wouldn’t have the advantage of modern human weapons to aid in their defence. His knuckles popped and he realised he had been clenching his fists. With a deep breath he forced himself to relax. Rene had no illusions that the Stellar Empire were the forces of Right and Justice in the universe. No one who grew up in the halls of power did, but just he wished he could whistle up a platoon of Marines to teach the locals what was what. Not that he, with his background, would ever be put in charge of anything more complicated than a latrine detail. His eyes cut to Solae who was speaking to Enro in Syshi, a feat that still seemed amazing. He didn’t have a platoon, but he was going to see her safe no matter what. He tried to ignore the sting of her newfound distance.

They entered a series of narrowing corridors to the rear of the great vessel. The tangle of ancient pipes and gutted consoles made it clear that this had once been the engineering section. The Syshin had their own control systems retrofitted to the originals, mostly antiquated and simple consoles that would have been hopelessly insufficient for a star ship but evidently were more than satisfactory for operating the colony’s simple electrical and water systems. Not only were the consoles cheap but they were much easier to maintain without dedicated technical staff. The quality of the air differed sublty as the moved along the corridors, the earthy scents of dirt and plants giving way to the petrochemical tang of ancient lubricants and the plasticy smell of warm electronics.

The prisoner was held in what might have once been an arms locker. Two spear armed Syshin, black feathered Inyrio, stood guard over a woven bamboo lattice that covered the door. Wire ties, incongruously cheerful in red, blue and yellow, secured each cross piece. The original door had either seized or long gone unpowered. Rene could pick out the line of rust in the doors channels, though the panel must have been retracted or removed. Both Inyrio pivoted outwards as they approached, giving the trio a clear path. Rene smelt the prisoner before he saw him. The man was a little taller than Rene but lacked his defined musculature. He had a scraggly beard and mustache that still held river mud and twigs, despite evident effort to comb them out. A Syshin healer, less skilled than Lasha, had bound his legs with bandages of woven plant fibre. Rene remembered the way the plasma bolt had splashed up over the man's legs, he doubtless had burns as well as splinters of timber and iron from where the rail bridge had been vaporized. The fellow was lucky to be alive, though he probably didn’t appreciate that fact just at the moment. He wore no shirt and had several tatoos although time and slackness of flesh distorted them to unrecognisable blurs against his tan skin.

“You!” the prisoner yelled as Solae came into view. He leaped to his feet without thinking and the blood drained from his face as his injured legs took his weight. With a screech of animal pain the prisoner collapsed gasping to the ground. After a moment he pushed himself into a sitting position, teeth grinding against te pain. Rene’s face was as blank and cold as an insects. This man had abducted Solae with the intent of violating her and then passing her off into the vilest of slavery. For all the information he might provide, Rene couldn’t help but wish that his bolt had punched the man in the chest.

“You can’t leave me here with the chooks! They are animals!” The prisoner snarled. Rene had heard the word ‘Chooks’ shouted before and hadn’t thought anything of it, now he realised that it must be some sort of racial epithet aimed at the Syshin. Rene knew from interrogation classes that his unsmiling visage would be more use than any threat he could deliver so he stood stoically silent, allowing Solae to conduct the interview.

"They are called Syshin," Solae said coldly in a voice so full of frigid contempt that the Inyorin, despite having poor common tongue comprehension, flinched at the tone Solae had assumed. All warmth had drained from her features; she truly appeared every bit the detached marquise as she stared the prisoner impassively. What empathy Solae had for the rest of the living world could not root itself in this depraved individual. The fable of the two sisters immediately sprung to mind and she considered that this heavily injured man in front of her exemplified the type of person that would need to be killed in order for their evil to be mitigated for the safety of all.

"I only see one animal in front of me," the highborn noblewoman continued as she knelt on the floor. Even with the bindings Solae was cautious to stay close to Rene in the unlikely event their captive broke free. As she did not intend to appeal to his humanity it was extremely likely his emotions would flare into vitriol that would flood his body with adrenaline. Surges of wrath had been known to, on occasion, produce superhuman bursts of strength. "And I am looking at him. The Syshin do not enslave their own kind or others for sexual gratification. Only a beast could be so primal."

"You bitch!" the prisoner cursed as he spat towards her feet. A vein throbbed in his forehead and his muscles tensed reflexively. He was not used to being bound, much less when someone was provoking him with insults. Had he been free he would have unquestionably harmed Solae either through brute force or the type of torture she had so recently alluded to. His gaze flickered up at the soldier who was a statue of unfeeling and injured protector of the diplomat. Every ounce of him seethed malevolence and his eyes did not conceal his murderous intentions.

"I would think carefully about what you call the person who is here to determine what to do with you," she remarked icily. "The Syshin try not to take a life unless they have to, but I am not certain that the man behind me is quite so forgiving as they are. What were you going to do with the female Syshin you were abducting? Keep them as pets?"

Enro made a face that displayed displeasure at any Syshin being a pet but he remained silent; Solae was being abrasive so as to make the man's tongue loose. As she was more proficient with conversation and manipulation of this sort he would follow her lead- no matter how insulting the line of questioning was. The blonde lady of the Stellar Empire had proven her compassion and loyalty towards his people so he was obliged to trust it would not falter now or in the future.

"You're out of your fucking mind if you think we'd keep them at the plantation!" he erupted, taking her words as a sort of personal insult. The slaver would have ravaged Solae, and subjected her to physical atrocities, but the Syshin did not appeal to him as much as his cliente. Keeping them near the place they had been taken from would be almost as bad as business as keeping the merchandise indefinitely. "You are out of your depth," he growled. "I could take this whole place, including you and that pretty boy behind you, off world and turn a tidy profit before you could blink. The whole damn world is looking for you- at least with me you'd have had a fun ride before being the duke's slut."

As the prisoner's face turned purple with malice and spittle flew off his lips Solae felt herself flinch both at the visual change and the reference to Rene. The man immediately recognized her momentarily weakness and laughed, capitalizing on the rush of power he had when he realized the hopelessness of the scion and her lackey marine. "That's no hired gun, is it? Tell me, pretty boy, do you want to know how your little missus squirmed when me and my men pinned her to the ground? You stupid shits- you're already dead and you don't even know it!"

Solae stood and turned towards Enro before the slaver could see glistening tears forming in the edges of her eyes. Her voice was still hard as she spoke to the slaver behind her. "I'll see that you're more restrained before we continue," she stated before turning down the hall and out of his sight. Enro motioned to the Inyorin, chattering in Syshi, as they debated what more they could do to make their prisoner uncomfortable and unable to move that would not outright kill him.

Rene stood unmoving as Solae and Enro departed. The prisoner grinned at him, clearly thinking he had won some sort of victory. Cages made some men brave, or at least so afraid that it came across as bravery. The Inyorin on guard continued to speak in their own language, though they cast occasional concerned glances at the two humans. Rene’s face was the same expressionless mask it had been since the interview began but it seemed to have hardened in some way that was difficult to describe.

“Gonna come in here and rough me up?” the prisoner demanded. Limping to the bambo bars and wrapping his work worn hands around the greenish strips. Rene considered it. Corp doctrine discouraged casual torture. It wasn’t a matter of squeamishness, low tech beatings rarely delivered reliable information, plus every now and then the interrogators grew over zealous and killed a prisoner. He didn’t doubt that if Bowie had been here instead of him, the big marine would have gleefully kicked the man to death. Right at this moment Rene could see the appeal of the simple release of physical violence. It would feel really good to open the bars and lash out, give physical vent to the pain, the fear, the frustrations of the last several days. In his minds eye he could see the man’s breath exploding from his chest, feel his ribs crack under his boots.

Nobility is the mastery of one’s self. How many times had he head that axiom? He could see old Chaipon, the grey haired swordmistress who had been in charge of his training at arms, sword up in a guard position after delivering a stinging blow. While only a minor member of the nobillity herself, she held her honor and that of her charges above her own life. The axiom had been her answer to any pain or misfortune that had befallen her student, when he had been wounded on a hunt, when his heart had been broken, when they had buried his mother. How would Chaiphon have handled a situation like this? Would she have given in to such an impulse. A cool clarity settled over Rene’s mind. He would beat this man to death if he needed to, but he wasn’t going to do it to gratify his own anger. A De Quentain didn’t lower themselves to such things.

“Well? How about it soldier boy? Not so tough without a gun in your hands!” the prisoner yelled, rattling the bars between whitening knuckles. Rene stood silent for a moment and then a slow smile began to spread across his face. It was an icy lupine grin bereft of fellowship, the kind of smile one might see on the face of a shark, unyielding and inhuman. The prisoner flinched back, more shocked by the expression than any explosion of brutality. Rene turned on his heel and strode from the room without another word. He wondered if somewhere beyond the bounds of life Chaiphon and Bowie were smiling too.

Rene caught up to Solae and Enro as they crossed the main hold. The space appeared to be filling with Syshin whose exuberance was obvious even to Rene. What he was coming to recognise as bonded pairs danced together among the irregular orchards of tropical fruit trees. Children climbed and capered with enthusiasm, scrambling through the foliage in games to informal to be given names. They were celebrating a victory and the safe return of those whom had been snatched away from them. Rene smiled wanly, wondering if they could count the nights events as the first Imperial victory of the Rebellion. Certainly elements of the Imperial Army had been present, the Supreme Commander of Imperial forces on New Concordia and the Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the Imperial Court, even if both those positions had been arrived at through attrition rather than more conventional methods of promotion.

“He must have a ship, if he is bragging about getting Syshin offworld,” Solae was saying when Rene fell in beside her. She glanced at him but he couldn’t tell what it as she was feeling. Anyone would be rattled by the events of the last several hours, he knew he was though he, like her, was trained to keep a lid on it. That was an astute observation that Rene himself had missed, it stood to reason though when he thought about it. Enro drooped a little at her words, doubtless the alien leader had hoped to recover his people, an all but impossible task if they had been taken off world and scattered the Stars knew where.

They reached the small cleared area at the base of council area where they had first been given an audience. Nari sat in the dirt, cross legged before a low table of greyish white soapstone. Atop the table were piled a variety of dishes unfamiliar to Rene, though the smell of spices was pungent enough to make his stomach grumble. Syshin cooking seemed to be mainly vegetarian in nature, though Rene was not enough of a judge to be certain. Lasha and her mate emerged from the council building as they approached. The healer did not look particularly happy to see her patients, for whom she had prescribed rest, still up and about though she was obviously unwilling to relitigate the point in front of Enro and Nari. The matriarch rose to her full height, the movement alien to human eyes as successive sets of joints straightened, and clapped her hands together with the sound of a miniature thunderclap. The revelers slowed and stopped, even the children obeying the signal without complaint, though a few took a last moment to tag their opponent or launch improvised missiles at each other. Nari began to speak in slow sonorous Syshi, unintelligible to Rene, but at the conclusion of the speech a weird rasping cheer sounded from the crowd.

“She is naming you friends and…Sy’nara,” Enro translated with a helpless shrug for the Syshi word for which he evidently had no Imperial equivalent. Rene, far out of his diplomatic depth, could only look to Soale.

"It's a title of veneration- not totally unlike a title, but rather than be given it at birth, it must be earned. It is a great honor. The only humans I know of that the Syshin would dare to call Sy'nara are some of the first people of the empire that lived with their communities as they created textbooks to understand the language." It was a time that was not included in formal accounts of the 'Syshin acquisition' but could not be buried in secrecy. A dozen linguists had been tasked with decoding the Syshin's methods of communication and, to speed the process, they had immersed themselves. Time among the gentle giants had made them fond of the aliens. A few had been so reluctant to return to their place among humanity they had willingly stayed behind and become some of the first diplomats that established relations between the races. This was not without recourse from the then-Emperor and Empress. People were no longer encouraged to live with the Syshin and social stigma prevented curiosity from taking hold of most. Distance was prescribed for all discussions with and of the subjugated beings.

Solae politely inclined her head to the crowd of gathered Syshin as they cheered at the couple who had been newly anointed with what prestige the Syshin could grant in their culture. Rene, following her lead, did the same. Nari allowed this congratulation to continue for only a short time before she raised her arms and let them fall slowly indicating a call for quiet. Enro stood yet by Solae's side but he exchanged glances with his twin without letting a single syllable fall from his lips. Their silent communication imparted thoughts from one to the other and, with another sweep of her arms, Nari moved from the table. The Syshi on her tongue was yet foreign to Rene but he could discern the meaning well enough: it was time to feast.

All eyes turned towards Rene and Solae. There was an expectation the guests, the humans who had led them to victory, would fill their bowls first. "Please, we ask the children are allowed before us so we may gather our thoughts," Solae said gracefully in Syshi. There was some murmuring and, before any parents could object, a cluster of rambunctious youth bee-lined for the soapstone laden with dishes. Adults followed after them with light chastisement on their lips but the protocol had been broken- and anger could not weigh on their hearts when there was such joy to be found in their successes.

"I'm not sure I can eat," Solae confessed to Rene quietly. Her stomach was churning at the sight of the bound prisoner, at the memories his countenance conjured, at the nightmare that had so chillingly foretold Rene's corpse laying at her feet. The marquise shivered and Enro raised a brow but said nothing. It was not his place to comment.

"I will have Lasha fill bowls for you since you do not know our foods," Enro offered. "Please sit," he requested as he motioned towards a lush space of grass that was conspicuously unoccupied. No Syshin would intrude on a place where the noblewoman and her soldier bonded might need to rest while they ate. Solae opened her mouth as if to reassure that his generosity was not needed but the elder Syshin had already departed her side.

"I'm sorry," Solae said as she knelt and then sat on the patch of grass. Though it was only vegetation she almost felt guilty for sitting upon it because it was so well-tended it was bursting with color and life. "You're hurt because of me, aren't you?" Her face was still carefully controlled such that no one glancing their way would see a flash of feeling and feel compelled to interject themselves into the private discussion. Despite the restraint of her features, her voice was laden with guilt.

"I didn't mean to..," she took a shuddering breath as she tried to get herself under control. The day had been full of surges in adrenaline as they were first pressed under sugar cane, anxiously waiting for their stop as they wondered if they would have the misfortune of being discovered, then meeting with Syshin who were wary of them and within their rights to turn them away, then in armed conflict with slavers who had nearly spirited Solae to a life of unspeakable horrors. She oscillated between fatigue, steeled determination to persevere, and tittering with the energy of fried nerves. "I didn't think about the harm I put you in, that I am putting you into, and now it is all I can think about."

Enro approached with two matching earthenware bowls and cups sized for Syshin children but more appropriate for humans than the larger physiques (and digestive systems) of adult Syshin. Each had been polished with lacquer until it glistened and glimmered in the light that was afforded to them by the lamps strewn around the disabled starship. Crystalline water was contained in each cup and each bowl had been piled high with an assortment of cooked vegetables, a bread made of rice rather than wheat, and a medley of fruits from the grove just outside the hull of the encampment. "When you are done one of my people will show you to your room," he told them and excused himself again.

Solae did not move to eat and instead simply stared down at the offering as her stomach knitted tighter with all she suppressed within.

Rene reclined back on the grass. He took a piece of fruit he more or less recognised from the gardens and orchards of the peasants he had seen along his old patrol route. It was about the size of his clenched fist, bright red and covered with red tendrils that gave it a spikey aspect. None of the nearby Syshin were eating them so he took his best guess and bit into the fruit. The husk cracked beneath his teeth to give way to a translucent white flesh that was both tart and sweet in equal measure. Removing it from his mouth he peeled the thing and ate it, discovering a hard stone pit as he got to the center. It was always a good idea to take on calories when you could, particularly when you didn’t know when your next meal would be.

He wiped his hand on the grass and then reached up to take Solae’s smaller hand in his own, his eyes were sober and serious as he considered what she was saying. She was worried that he would get hurt because of her? Truely, Solae was not like the other noblewomen he had met. Cultured, erudite and beautiful they might be, but concern for others would have been an alien concept to them. He felt something in his chest he hadn’t in a long time, something that pained and thrilled him in equal parts.

“I got hurt,” he agreed, flexing his arm to reveal the bandage Lasha had placed over one of the vine burns he had picked up. His leg throbbed a little when he was thinking about it but truthfully he had been hurt worse in training and been expected to report the next day.

“But it wasn’t because of you,” he disagreed, looking directly into her eyes and trying to avoid being hypnotized by her lovely face.

“I could say it was my duty or whatever, which it is but truthfully I would have done the same thing for anyone who would risk their life to help these people,” he made a broad gesture to the Syshin as they feasted. Like most of the upper classes he had been bred to have a healthy suspicion of aliens but his fall from grace had provided him with educational opportunities his peers didn’t have. Or perhaps simply gave him more empathy for the downtrodden.

“Which is what you did Solae,” he assured the marqessa earnestly.

“You risked your life, more than your life, to save them. If it hadn’t been for you drawing them away the Stars know how many Syshin would be dead or enslaved now. Worse some of the others might have gotten away in the chaos and we would have an army here right now.” Every word he spoke was the truth, although it didn’t quite convey the whole story.

“I’ll trade a few bumps and bruises for that any day,” he paused considering his next words carefully.

“For a long time after… after I joined, I wished that they would assign me to combat,” he admitted. It felt like he was confessing a weakness which made him uncomfortable.

“I guess I hoped that… well you know, I could die gloriously on the field of battle,” he went on. It came out in a rush, an embarrassing, almost childish thing to admit to, but again the the truth. Unfortunately the marines made sure his assignments were in peaceful backwaters, no one wanted a disgraced aristocrat to have a chance to gain martial glory. Such men had led rebellions in the past, he was probably lucky he hadn’t gone out an airlock some dark night just to be sure.

“I don’t want that anymore Solae. I care for you. I want to live to get you to safety. The fact that you were willing to risk worse than death makes you special. To these people and to me,” he fell silent, wishing that all the oratorical lessons he had been forced to endure were of more use to him when he really needed them. To the void with it, sometimes clever words were no substitute for the truth.

That the life of a marine was dangerous was not something new to her. Despite the courage required to join the armed services they were labeled as 'crazy' and 'unhinged' by the elites who had no illusions about why they joined in the first place. Were the volunteers not criminals trying to expunge their records and earn new identities such stereotypes might not prevail. This made it easier for the highborn to justify why they were thrown in hazards with little thought as to bodily harm; after all, they were violent offenders more often than not and any violence visited on them was undoubtedly earned in their past.

But Rene was blessedly different. The murder accusation against him was false and thus he was one of the rare innocents thrust into a merciless situation he did not deserve. Humble and heroic he would have made a fine poster child for positive public relations had there not been evidence damning him (false though it might be). If she were in charge of such press releases she would have made it her life's goal to clear his name and plaster his face on every piece of propaganda so that marines were not so callously judged. Hell, if she survived this war she might very well politically maneuver herself to do just that. Who could or would stop her? No duke or duchess was tripping over themselves to aligned with the mercenaries employed by the empire.

Seeing him injured made her heart ache more than the Gids that had sought to capture her or the slavers that were ready to pillage Amber Horizon. He was not depraved or without morals. Perhaps it was because someone so virtuous survived that until today she had been able to shrug off the deaths of others more easily. They were flawed, arrogant, selfish, corrupt, and embodiments of sins that the Stellar Empire would swear its citizens would not indulge. Now that even Rene, gleaming as he seemed to her, was vulnerable she felt panic rise in her throat with bile. Nothing and no one was safe.

"I care for you too," she said quietly. "I'm just... today we almost lost," Solae remarked somberly. In the back of her mind Solae had always rationally known that they could fail and that either one of them could die- or worse. It was not until she had been pinned to the ground, screaming, that the reality of this she felt the impact of the realization so acutely.

"Even if you would have done it for someone else, I can't ignore that today that 'someone' was me. My mother must be rolling in her grave to hear me say this," she added, hoping her morbidity would inject humor into the serious confessions they were making, "but to know others are wounded or dead so that fate or purpose might allow me to live... it's haunting. It's not very noble of me to say that, is it? Perhaps I ought to have joined the marines as well," she jested. Both of them knew she wouldn't last a week if she had.

"I don't feel special," she sighed. "The Syshin deserve more and I am embarrassed it took me so long to come here, and that others refuse to see it. In our grand mansions I can't help but wonder if we're isolating ourselves as we hide from worse things than cutthroat politics. Even with the bounty on my head I am not all that worse off than a female Syshin on an average day."

Her eyes roamed around before landing back on the untouched bowl. It would be rude to reject the offered meal but her mouth was still dry. No matter how she tried to convince herself she needed to eat she could not find the willpower to do so. "I'm glad you didn't die gloriously on the fields of battle, Rene. Truly glad."

Without their noticing Lasha had sidled up and now stood over her patients. Disapproval was etched on her features as she crossed her arms in an unnatural way to make certain her displeasure was even more obvious. The healer cleared her throat so as to gain the attention of both humans. "Eat. Eat and retire. If you can not eat here, take your food to your rooms. You can not heal without food," she firmly asserted as she motioned towards the assorted vittles.

Rene bowed his head in aquiecene, picking up a slice of bread and biting into it obediently. It was coarser than what humans would consider normal but it was still warm and strangely tasty. In an effort to combat the chalky texture he tried dipping it in a redish sauce which turned out to be some sort of fruit chutney, spicy and pleasantly sweet. Unconsciously his mind shifted to the dangers that lay ahead. His focus was on Solae but there was a bigger picture to consider. His jaw masticated the tough bread stoically as he thought.

“It isn’t just for you,” he said at last, referring to the risks he and others had run for her.

“If the Empire isn’t warned about what's happening in this sector, there will be more attacks like this. You are the only one who can do that,” the words crystallized in his mind as he spoke them. Solae represented a double edged sword. If the enemy took her, they could use her and her bloodline to utilize the PEA system. That would lengthen the war, inevitable once the Empire learned of the rebellion, by months or years. It was even an outside possibility that the existence of an organized and successful rebellion here would spark others and light a fuse that would bring the Stellar Empire down, paving the way for a second Collapse which might mean the end of humans as an intergalactic species. As a child Rene had read the surviving archives of the Collapse, a cataclysmic war which had spread famine and disease across human space and led to the death of trillions. It was only chance that humanity hadn’t stumbled into the darkness of extinction the first time around. The other side of the blade was that if Solae were able to get in contact with the Stellar Empire, over the PEA or in person, she would trigger a swift and decisive counterstrike. Only someone of her rank and position bypass the ponderous byzantine bureaucracy and galvanize the Imperial Leadership into action. In a perfect world that was the function of the nobility, to provide the exception to the rules that allowed the Empire to stomach crisis.

“When this is over, it will be your voice that speaks for New Concordia, maybe for the whole Eastern Cross. You can make it better for the Syshin, for everyone. The kind of attack that happened here will be happening everywhere the rebels are flying their banners. You can stop that. We can stop that.” Rene trailed off a little embarrassed to catch himself giving a speech. It occurred to him that escape through the Stars alone knew how many occupied jump points might not be the best move. The PEA on New Concordia had been destroyed in the attack on the embassy, but there were others. If he and Solae could reach one they could call for help and then hide out till reinforcements arrived. He swallowed the bread with an effort of will.

“You should eat, you need to keep your strength up,” he told her, taking a drink to wash the chalky taste from his throat. He plucked a mango from the platter and drew his knife. Rather than power the blade on he drew the steel over the peel in a long sinuous stroke. The greenish red peel curved away from the yellow heart of the fruit in a single long strip. As he finished the cut the peel curled up into the approximate shape of a rose, a little warped because of the not quite circular shape. Rene had learned to do it with an apple. It was the kind of gallantry which had been common at the Imperial court five years ago, though he doubted it was still current. Fashioned changed and he had been out of those circles for a long time. He passed the little rose to Solae with one hand and set the peeled mango down on her plate with the other, fingers tacky with the syrupy juice. Inspite of his training he grinned boyishly, pleased that he could call upon a skill which had lain dormant so long.

“And for the record, I think you would have made a great marine. Certainly you would have been a considerable boost to the morale of a certain Private First Class Quentain.”

Solae could not help but laugh at Rene's declaration she'd make a great marine. He was clearly trying to improve her spirits and, fortunately, he had succeeded both with the rather absurd faith in her person and his peeled mango flower. "I think there might be more to being a female marine than being a morale booster for one specific brother in arms. Just a wild guess, though," she said with a roll of the eyes. Born a nobleman he had not exactly been groomed for the life that had been thrust on him, but he was still infinitely better suited than Solae would have been. Women on both side of the family were delicate waifs. The beauty that was so heavily genetically modified valued a slight frame over one with more muscle, flexibility over strength, and small shoulders rather than broad. With enough effort it was possible to become a marine- just not a good one.

"You can use all the pretty words you want, Rene Quentain, but even if what I am doing, and what you are doing, is not just for me personally, I am still a person. And this person, regardless of the circumstances, is quite allowed to have feelings regarding the state of the people that protect her regardless of their motivations."

Since the bounty had been posted she had been aware that she was not merely Solae but a tool for the PEA that would determine the success or failure of the rebellion. No one would be so desperate to find her unless she was a pivotal piece they could not do without. The marquise could still vividly remember sitting in an overly grand meeting room as one of her superiors droned on about the changes in security procedures. A viscount immediately to her right had been so dismissive of any threat meriting this change in protocol that he had spent the entire hour and a half messaging his fiancee in the Vital Records Hall. Not one person in attendance considered the scenario that faced her now. As elites they arrogantly believed themselves invincible and immune to attacks. War was waged on peasants and fought by soldiers.

Solae was a key both damned and blessed. If she failed she lost herself, Rene, and the lives of countless others. If she succeeded she would be a hero while those that carried her to victory went unrecognized.

"If we make it out this alive, and I become the voice of New Concordia, I may have all the marriage proposals Mother wanted for me. The moment I make it known I intend to fight for the rights of Syshin... well, I dare say I will solve that dilemma," she remarked. And it would. Though she would be theoretically catapulted in status, prestige, and renown to sufficiently affect the plight of the subjugated race, it would not be well-received. People would be reluctant to give up those that worked harder than humans and for far less pay. Only a Syshin uprising- which was a distinct possibility in the future- would make stubborn minds and hearts reconsider. The current social climate made it more convenient to ignore the bigotry than object.

Because of Rene's insistence (and very effective method of persuasion with boyish charms) Solae ate all her food, albeit more slowly than was normal, and the earthenware was whisked away by their hosts almost the second they finished. A roughly teenage Syshin led them towards a less used section of the ship and to a set of mechanical doors that still functioned despite their disuse. One had Syshi scrawled on the surface indicating it was a secured storage room for the rare valuable kept at Amber Horizon. Syshin were more sentimental than monetary in what they considered worth such exceptional shielding; as such the door was more a symbol of the effort than meant as a deterrent itself.

"Yours," the Syshin explained and pointed to the other door which had been left unadorned. Rene stepped forward and pressed the small console that surprisingly had been left intact. The door groaned quietly as it slid open obediently and revealed the room that had been prepared for them as best as the Syshin could. A mattress had been placed on the floor with two blankets composed of discarded garments that had been cut into geometric shapes and sewn together. Two basins, one for each human, were in the corner for washing of hands and faces, and a jug of water for drinking stood beside them on the floor. It was tight quarters but more than sufficient for a single night of rest.

Solae let out a slow breath as the door closed behind them. Surprisingly it blocked out the sound of the jubilation still ongoing in the main hold. "Just like Lord Armon's manor, don't you think?" she asked as she flopped down in the middle of the makeshift bed.