“It does not matter,” Aille said. “Soldiers on the battlefield endure whatever conditions present themselves. We have far more important things to concern us at this point.”
“He is testing you,” Yaut said.
Aille’s gaze flickered around the appallingly crude surroundings. “This sort of thing is beneath my notice. I do not choose to see these corners.”
“How can you miss them in this flood of light!” Yaut glared at the windows. “Can we not do something?”
Tamt stepped forward, her shoulders all eager-to-serve. “Let me,” she said. “I can go to the staff and secure coverings.”
“Coverings?” Yaut regarded her blankly.
“Human dwellings have such things,” the bodyguard said. “I have seen them. They call them ‘curtains,’ or sometimes ‘drapes.’ ”
“When were you ever in a human habitation?” Yaut said.
Tamt hesitated, her posture dissolving into meaningless unassociated elements. She did not speak for a moment. When she did, her voice was low. “Now and then,” was all she said.
Yaut’s ears lay flat with disapproval. “You too? What is this fascination with the natives? You will be ruined, if you are not careful, by the time you return to your kochan for reassignment.”
“That will not happen,” she said, her voice even lower. Just for an instant, her eyes flashed the shocking bright green of intense-shame. “Some time ago, I sent in my request to stay permanently. I have not heard the answer yet, but I am sure it will be granted.”
“Why did you make the request?” Yaut stepped closer, studying every angle of her body, the tilt of her ears, the twitch of whisker, the angle of shoulder and arm, leg and torso. In his experience, admittedly brief, this particular female was not able to think one thing while performing another. She should be able to keep nothing back.
Tamt gazed out the intolerably glaring windows, as though she could perceive something after all in that annoying blaze of light. “I am low status,” she said finally, “little wanted in the kochan-house, or anywhere else, for that matter. But, here, on Terra, humans will always speak to you, despite all unworthiness. I . . . am comfortable among them.”
“But they are uncouth!” Yaut could not contain his outrage. “You prefer such to your own kochan?”
She flinched, but did not meet his eyes. “You are valued,” she said. “Or else you would not be fraghta to our young Subcommandant. You do not know what it is like to be never seen, never called, never selected or even noticed.” She flattened her ears. “They dispatched me to Terra, to this subjugation which has no end, and never inquired after my successful placement or continued survival. In all the time I have been here, I have heard nothing from them. So, in the end, I decided to stay.” She turned away from the light, blinking. “I am sure they will not object.”
She must have been most unpromising when newly emerged, Yaut thought, to have been distanced so thoroughly from her kochan. Perhaps they had planned for her to die in struggle here, bringing honor to her own in at least that small measure, and she had even failed to achieve that.
“I will bring honor to the Subcommandant,” she said suddenly, as though he’d spoken his thoughts aloud. “I will make them all see him, in every way possible! No one shall overlook him, I promise!” She hastened to the door, keyed the field off, then on again behind her.
Aille stared after her, thoughtfulness written across his youthful face. “Interesting,” he said. “You seem to have grazed a nerve.”
” ‘Interesting,’ ” Yaut said dourly, “hardly covers it.”
“I do not understand.”
“If this one has found a reason to stay, so must have many others.” He turned his back on the garish spill of light and considered. “There is a thing which happens sometimes to Jao under extreme stress who have been too long from home, especially those of low status. They lose their sense of identity and lapse into slovenliness. When that happens, their kochan is shamed before all.”
“Really,” Aille said, “such a thing can hardly be common?”
“More common than anyone would like to admit,” Yaut said, “and you have already taken three humans into your service. Make certain no one has further reason to suspect it of you.”