Page 57 of Escape Velocity

Chapter Thirteen

She lifted her chin as she clutched the handles of the carry bag.

“You must punish me.”

He blinked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I tried to kill your friend. I will not feel right until you punish me for that.”

“I understand why you did it. He understands.”

“That doesn’t excuse me—or make me feel better.”

“I’m not going to punish you.”

“You must.”

“Or what?”

“I must do it.”

“And how would you punish yourself?”

She raised her chin. “With a knife. I must cut myself. Perhaps across the palm of my hand.”

He heard himself shout, “No.”

“Then you have to do what is your right.”

“Cut you?”

She kept her gaze steady. “You don’t have to do it that way.”

“Oh, good.”

“But I must be punished, one way or another. It is the code.”

He clenched his fists. “You’ve not on Naxion now. You don’t have to adhere to any code you learned there.”

“You are trying to be logical, but I feel the pressure in my chest. In my throat. I won’t feel better until I have satisfied the need for atonement.”

He muttered under his breath. “And what is it that you want me to do?”

“I have been thinking about it. When you rescued me on the station, you saw what those men did. They chained my arms to the wall. That’s what the guards always did when we rebelled. And then they whipped us.”

“Kahlad. That might be the way on Naxion. Not between you and me.”

“I don’t want to keep arguing about it. The sooner you punish me, the sooner it will be over.”

He clenched his teeth, wondering how he was going to get out of doing this. Then an idea came to him.

“It has to be a whipping?”

“Or cutting. What else would it be?”

“I guess you have to let me be the judge of that.”

“Where can you fasten me to the wall?”

---