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sight of her in the nearby looking glass. Her head was bowed as the water rushed over her. Fascinated, he watched her touch the soap and make a lather. The frosted glass on the shower door hid most of her body, the parts not normally on display anyway, but she slowly and surely soaped herself from head to toe in an orderly fashion, paying attention to the shrapnel wounds in her calf without even a flinch.
    H er hair was longer than he’d thought. He noticed it when she got out of the enclosure and wrapped herself in the drying cloth. Back still turned, he spoke. “Clothes are there. They’re probably too big, but there’s a belt too. We’ll be in Mirage shortly so we’ll get you something more appropriate there.”
    “Thank you.”
    He slowly turned, waiting for her to stop him if she hadn’t gotten dressed all the way yet. Clean she was even more alluring. More wounded too. Her eyes had smudges beneath.
    “How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”
    She took his arm as they left, leaning into his body. “Don’t know. I keep track.
Kept
track, back in the … place.”
    He clicked his teeth together, anger rushing through him. “I can’t promise you anything truly good until we get to Mirage. But we’ve got protein bars. Looks like you might need some.”
    Her laugh was the barest whisper. “Probably.” She hesitated when he guided her to the table in the small break room.
    “What? You don’t know me, but I do want to help.”
    She pursed her lips, concentrating. “What will happen now?”
    He swallowed as he put a glass of watered-down juice in front of her. He didn’t want her to get sick, even as he wanted her to eat.“We’ll stop in Mirage. Federation personnel will want to meet with you. Doctors probably as well to give you a checkup. They’ll handle a debriefing as well. They can do it rather quickly via brain scan.”
    She paled so much it alarmed him. Shaking her head nearly violently, she snarled,
“No doctors.”
    “Not like those back there. I promise. You’ll be under when they do the scans.”
    She shook so hard she couldn’t hold the glass without spilling.
    He knelt before her, putting his palms on her knees. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. You have my word.”
    He had no right making that promise, but he had, and he would keep it no matter what.
    Hannah Black had become his in a very real way. He didn’t understand the whys of it beyond the fact that it had been he who’d saved her back on Parron. But he knew it was more. She needed his protection. And he’d give it to her.

Chapter 2
    W eary to his bones, Julian rolled from the bed it seemed like he’d only just fallen into. People had come in. Vincenz’s voice was clear.
    But his normally calm, metered tone had sharpened.
Odd.
    Pulling on pants, Julian moved toward the talking, pausing to button and zip at the doorway. Across the large space, Vincenz stood, holding an apparently unconscious woman as he argued with two soldiers, one a med-tech. The woman’s hands were bandaged and her clothes, obviously borrowed, swallowed her body.
    “
I said no
. I promised her I’d stay with her. She’s going to be right here.” Vincenz forced his way past two Federation soldiers and into a room just off the main comm and command center of the house.
    “She needs to be debriefed. We can take her to a med center where she’ll get real help. We need to know what she knows.” The soldier spread his hands, totally reasonable.
    But the look on Vincenz’s face was
not
. He was so fierce, Julianstepped forward to intercede. To offer his force to make whatever Vincenz wanted happen.
    “What’s going on?”
    Vincenz put her down carefully and turned back to Julian. “This is Hannah. They kept her in a lab for nearly a standard year in almost total isolation. She’s … she’s fragile. And deathly afraid of doctors right now. I’m sure you can understand that.” Vincenz turned his attention back to the med-tech.
    “We can