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the tasteless slime the ship provided her. When she did emerge, he ignored her, but she noticed as she waited for her tureen to fill that those green markings faded into life as he stared stonily at his computers, proof not only that he was aware of her, but also that he was still angry with her. She kept her distance, didn’t speak, and returned to her room as soon as she could.
    But there, reason insisted on making itself known. She could hide from him all day, sure she could, but this ship was just not that big. She was going to have to deal with him eventually, and if his routine stayed true to form, that stupid blue light would be going on tonight, whether she was ready to face him or not. She had to find some way of dealing with him.
    But he wouldn’t talk to her.
    She let logic browbeat excuses for a few hours, but as Earth rose luminous in her window, she gave up. She couldn’t hide from him for two years, and she sure couldn’t walk out on him and go home. She’d wasted enough time sitting in here and feeling sorry for herself. She had to try and talk to him.
    Vala had unfolded the narrow table from the wall so that he could sit and drink his dinner. He didn’t look happy to see her return to the bridge so soon, but he didn’t say anything, just curled around his tureen a little more aggressively and glared at the opposite wall.
    She started to pull up a chair and join up, but a dull throb from her bottom stopped her. Too early for that. She stood instead, fingers grappling at each other as she watched the green markings grow more and more strident over his skin.
    “I honestly don’t know what I did to make you so angry,” she said finally. “The least you could do is tell me, so I don’t do it again.”
    Silence.
    “You had some lofty things to say about how to make discipline effective. How effective is it to just randomly start shouting and beating on someone?”
    He threw her a scathing glare and then continued to stare down the wall.
    Skye stood there, feeling her own temper start to rise, as useless as that was to her in this situation. “Look at this!” she snapped suddenly, and spun around to yank down her pants and her panties. She’d gotten an eyeful herself in the shiny surface of the shower stall earlier and her poor bottom was just as red as a couple of cherries. “You don’t do that to someone without telling them why!”
    He ignored her, drank some slime.
    Skye covered herself in an angry yank. “You’re supposed to be the superior race, huh? Is this how your whole Empire is going to handle their first misunderstanding? Just beat the crap out of some—”
    Vala slammed down the tureen hard enough to spill even its thick contents. “I do not tolerate personal insults and I absolutely will not tolerate insults to the Empire!”
    “ What insults?” she exclaimed, throwing out her arms. “You were the one who made the mistake! I was just trying to show a little goddamn sensitivity and let you get some sleep!”
    He leapt up, broad streaks of green blazing all the way down his sides to his hips. “ How dare you !” he bellowed.
    “How dare I what ?” she shouted back, losing the battle to tears yet again. Twice in two days. She wanted to throw up. “Dammit, why did you even ask for a human if you were going to act like this? All you use me for is sex, and for all you’re getting out of me, you might as well be doing that yourself too!”
    He gaped at her yet again, absolutely thunderstruck for all of five full seconds. Then, the eruption. He slammed his fist down on the table hard enough to snap it right off the wall, sending his supper and his soup tureen crashing to the floor as he roared at her: “I am first-born of the House of Korokth, counted twelvth of the Kor’Mor caste! I served my Emperor fourteen years with distinction and took ten— ten !—enemy commanders during the War of Barakit! Emperor Vokalek himself has given me three of the eighteen medals I’ve earned