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implemented. The object is to discourage conflicts before they occur.”
    “I can do that just fine without getting hit.”
    “This is not a negotiation. Here?” His claw brushed at her stomach and her hands flew up at once to cover herself.
    “No. I keep my organs there. Can’t I just promise to behave?”
    “It is unreasonable to expect there to be no conflict between us. I would like a firm understanding of expectations before we reach our inevitable difficulties. I dislike improvisation and I greatly dislike surprises. Here?”
    He was touching her back.
    Skye flinched away again. “Not there, it’s…look, why can’t we just solve our problems with mutual discussion and respect?”
    “Because this is not a partnership. You are not my equal. You are here to serve my needs. I do not plan to discuss things with you. Understand, human, that what we are doing here is as symbolic as it is vital to a peaceful assimilation. You will learn to live according to my ways, and my discipline shall be painful and uncompromising, an example to all humanity.”
    “How is this fair?”
    “It isn’t. In your own histories, when two peoples meet and make a treaty between them, even in peacetime, the strongest walks away with the better deal. The Empire is strongest. We are subjugating you, make no mistake, but we are doing so precisely because we wish to avoid a bloody conquest, whether you believe me or not. Here?”
    His hand brushed across her bottom.
    Skye hopped forward, one hand flying back to clutch protectively at her nether cheeks. “What, like a spanking? No!”
    He came back to stand in front of her, his eyes narrowing. “Explain this.”
    She didn’t want to, and it was on the tip of her tongue to refuse, but then she realized all at once that if he was here to study Earth’s satellites and all the information on the internet, he could easily find out about spankings for himself, and then he’d just punish her for not telling him. Stammering, she tried to explain whatever there was to explain about getting spanked, but it was difficult to think of the words when he was just standing there, staring narrowly into her eyes, silent.
    At last he said, “So there’s a precedent.”
    “Yeah, when you’re five!”
    “I don’t anticipate a frequent need.” He angled his head around to look at her bottom and grunted again. “I haven’t many demands. Pick up after yourself and don’t touch the controls, come when I send for you and do what you’re told. Don’t argue with me.”
    She opened her mouth for a final desperate protest, ready to suggest slapping her hands or, heck, slapping her snout, anything that was not the indignity of a spanking, but that might be construed as arguing with him. She closed it again unhappily and stared at her feet.
    “Do you have any questions?” he asked.
    She looked at him. “What’s your name?”
    He recoiled, as if this were the very last thing he’d expected to hear, as if wanting an introduction to the man you were going to be taking orders from, having sex with, and possibly getting spanked by for the next two years were just mind-boggling.
    “I’m Skye,” she said. “With an E.”
    His brow creased. “S…K, E?”
    “S, K, Y, E,” she corrected. “I guess I should have said, ‘With an extra E.’ Please, what do I call you?”
    Maybe it was the please. He didn’t relax exactly, but he did manage to disguise some of his obvious discomfort with this whole line of questioning, and after some delay during which he visibly grappled with it, he said, “Vala.”
    “It’s nice to meet you, Vala,” she said desperately.
    He stared at her, openly baffled, and said nothing.
    She went to her room.
     
    * * *
     
    She fell asleep.
    She didn’t mean to. Realistically, it was probably only noon when she got into bed, but she was tired—emotionally and physically sapped—and it was always the middle of the night outside every window. Although she’d made a point of