She shook her head. “What? Me? The others?”
“Not you. There are squads of Terrans here on Sol-1.”
“Oh good, let’s go get some help.”
He took a few steps toward her. “You misunderstand.”
“But my people, they’ll help me. That’s what they’ll do. I mean, I’m Lady Bianca. The mistress to the Emperor. They should do whatever I say.”
“They are soldiers. They are following their orders. And their orders are not to save you. They are to kill you.”
“And how do you know?”
“Because one told me before I removed his head.”
Her eyes widened, and she pulled away. “I don’t understand.”
“I am trying to spare you the details.”
She shook her head. “Don’t. I hate it when people try to protect me from what they think is my fragile nature. I can take more than you or anyone else can imagine. Why would they want to kill me?”
“The Terrans slaughtered all the Rhimodians on this planet. My fellow cyborgs who were here, mining. They were not soldiers. They come here to work until the eclipse, and they go home for three days, rest, and come back. And the Terrans slaughtered them as they prepared to shut the mines down for the next few days. You asked me why I killed the Terrans that I came across. That is why.”
She stood there, unmoving, but her expression shifting through many emotions, from anger to grief to sadness to fury.
Silence spread between them. The only sound was the fire crackling nearby.
Finally, she spoke. “I am sorry.”
“For?”
“For all of it. My people are violent. Passionate about what they want. They don’t always see the repercussions of what they do.”
“War is not passion. It is anger.”
She nodded. “Anger is passion. Just like tears are either pain or fury or both.” Energy is passion.”
“And your people are fighting for something that was never theirs.”
“That is not how the Emperor sees it.”
“Well, the Galactic Alliance gave us permission—”
She raised her hands. “Regardless of what either of our positions are, we are both stuck here, on this moon, freezing, I may add—”
“I am not freezing.”
“Well, I am. It is frigid, even by the fire.”
“If I am close to you, our body heat will keep each other warm.”
“Fine. Regardless. We are here, and now we must find a way to make peace between our people.”
“That was the reason for the peace treaty.”
“And look how that turned out.”
“Your Terran military fired on us.”
