H’lim glanced at her sharply, then inclined his head. “But the ultimate authority lies with Dr. Colby, no?”

“Your escape tonight,” said Colby, “and the method you used to accomplish it, are already recorded on Earth. Ultimately, they will decide your fate, and by now they probably believe we’re in your thrall as well as disease-ridden. Nothing we say will sway their decisions.”

An icy lump formed in Titus’s guts. They’ll nuke the station! But where on Earth could they find a hot bomb? He said, “Meanwhile, we have to live together. We can’t stand here and work out the details. After a couple of good meals and a night’s sleep, we can negotiate more sensibly. Carol?”

Cautiously, she said, “It may be necessary for me to replace Titus, Abbot, and Inea with others.”

“I trust Titus and Abbot well enough to keep this promise,” H’lim said. “It’s an extreme one, you understand? Perhaps I could accept someone else, but please don’t choose at random. I won’t extend a promise I might not be able to keep.”

Colby stepped closer and searched behind H’lim’s dark glasses for some clue in his eyes. Then she nodded. “Titus is right. He’s made his promise so small because he intends to keep it. But, H’lim, why do you trust these three?”

H’lim asked, “Is there anyone here who doesn’t?”

The room stirred with nervous laughter, and from it came the distinct chorus of approval for the three. Titus felt Abbot tense, undoubtedly feeling naked when he didn’t dare use Influence. Finally, Colby said, “Well, I agree. And Titus is right. It’s been too long a day. We’ll hammer out terms of parole at the department heads’ meeting tomorrow, and I’ll expect you to attend, Dr. H’lim.”

“The family name is used with the title for those who do original work in science? I should be then Dr. Sa’ar.”

It was a small thing for him to offer, but it somehow softened the hostility in the room. “Dr. Sa’ar,” repeated Colby, then strode toward the door, firing orders right and left. When the door finally closed behind her, she had posted four guards outside, guards who would follow H’lim about, both to protect him and to protect people from him.

Inea, Titus, and Abbot were left with H’lim, who had stood ramrod straight through the whole confrontation. But now he sagged back against a desk, burying his face in his hands. “Titus,” he warned, “I’m so hungry.”

Abbot opened his mouth, but Titus cut him off. “I’ll take him to my apartment and feed him. You and Inea go rig up his bed for him.”

“You sure you can handle it?” asked Abbot of Titus.

“I’ll go with you, Titus,” said Inea.

“No!” protested H’lim. “Just-just get away from me, Inea. Please.”

She stepped back. “You sound like Titus!”

Abbot understood. He beckoned Inea. “Come on, let’s not make it any harder for him. Life is going to be bad enough around here, after this.” He led Inea to the door, trying to convince her to trust him.

As H’lim and Titus followed, H’lim said, “I’ve panicked the herd with my ineptitude?”

“Yeah. You saw Carol shake off Abbot’s lightest touch. It’ll be a long time until she’ll be unsuspecting again, and Abbot doesn’t know how to manage without Influence.”

“He’s going to have trouble-feeding?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know. We all do what we must. Come on.” He led H’lim and the four Brink’s guards to his apartment, ignoring the wary looks and hard stares the party drew. Leaving the four men outside, he entered and held the door for H’lim who waited on the threshold, one hand raised as if resting on glass. “Come in, H’lim, and welcome.” Cloaking his words, he added, “I didn’t know if you’d feel the threshold.”

H’lim nodded. “What I can’t stand about that room they have me in-it’s like trying to live in a hallway.”

“Humans don’t sense the threshold as we do. Even if you had a proper room, they’d come and go like that.”

“I have to stop it, Titus, or I’ll surely go mad.”

“We’ll arrange something tomorrow.” As he prepared the blood, he asked, “Do you really sense magnetic noise, as Abbot said?” He gestured for H’lim to sit at the table.

“Yes,” the luren answered.

Titus folded his arms and leaned back against the sink. “I don’t. How bad is it for you?”

He looked away. “If Abbot’s truly built a bed, I will discover that soon.”

“You can trust Abbot’s gadgets. What can I do to help?”

“Take my mind off it. Tell me why you took Inea from me.” He looked young, lost and alone, bewildered and scared.

“I’ll try.” Titus started with how Abbot had taken Mirelle from him, and how he’d vowed never to do that, and then had no other choice. He struggled to explain what Inea meant to him, and was relieved when the microwave bleeped.

“I think I understand,” said H’lim. “She is both mate and orl to you. It must be intolerable.”

“No,” said Titus, holding the pitcher and wishing Inea were there to infuse it instead of his having to do it himself. She’s safer with Abbot. H’lim would gain ectoplasm, but Titus would only lose in this meal. “No, H’lim, it’s the only tolerable situation for me.”

“I-see.”

As they shared the meal, Titus observed, “You’ve become pretty good manipulating humans without using Influence. I can’t believe you learned it from me that quickly.”

“I’m a stock breeder and a merchant. Though non-luren don’t have much use for my stock, I deal with them for supplies. They frown on the use of Influence in business.”

“I can imagine.” Vivid pictures danced through Titus’s mind of a galaxy where luren were ostracized and feared. “Shall I make up another pitcher?”

“No. Your supply is low and it won’t be long until there is Orl blood. I will share it with you, and Abbot.”

“They’ll keep a close accounting.”

“I’ll tell them I need more than I do. I must help you, as you must help Abbot if he has trouble. He has offered you his stringers more than once.”

“I’ve explained why I can’t accept.”

“Yes.” H’lim toyed with the last drop of blood in his glass. “If you know where Inea got that thing she used on me-”

“The cross?” Titus laughed. He told H’lim how she’d done the same to him and why. “It helps, but it is in even more limited supply than blood!”

“A religious object,” he mused. Eyes veiled, he paused to think and Titus waited, avid for any clue to H’lim’s religion. “Well,” said H’lim, changing the subject, “there may be another way I can help. I note that you, more than Abbot even, tend to produce a bit of your own sustenance. Perhaps this is a trait from your human ancestry. You said once that you have more human ancestors than Abbot does.”

Titus knew he produced his own blood faster than Abbot did, but ectoplasm too? “How could you see such a thing? I really have to study your eyes!”

“And I have to study your genes-your real ones, not the fabrication in the medical records. There’s a stimulant we use on orl, you might call it a-booster for blood and ectoplasm both. I can adapt it to work on you through your human traits. Just get me tissue from you and from Abbot, and convince Dr. Colby to allow me access to a laboratory.”

Titus was hungry enough that the idea didn’t seem too exotic. “They’ll balk at turning you loose in a laboratory.”

“Tell them I’m improving my food supply. It’ll be true, after all, for if you’re supplied, you’ll provide for me.”

That simple trust moved Titus more deeply than he could believe possible. It sustained him throughout the tedious business of tuning Abbot’s field generator, through H’lim’s hysterical relief when he tried it, through Inea’s impatience as he insisted on stopping at his office to record his report for Connie, and through the argument with Inea when she proposed asking another human to volunteer to support H’lim.

“What’s the matter with you?” she demanded when Titus refused to consider it. “He’s starving, and he won’t even insist on taking the volunteer to bed!”