"Welcome to the free clinic." Bara turned to where Lon and Anishk stood in the doorway. "Your clinic, Doctors."

They came inside, followed by men carrying crates, equipment and furniture. Both still had the guilty expressions they'd worn when she met them in the back room at Dav's. But despite the guilt it had been easy to appeal to their sense of duty as doctors and persuade them that the free clinic was a good idea even if Sheni disagreed.

"Doctors, I know you feel bad about setting up in competition to Dr Sheni, but you know it's the right thing."

"Sheni is a good doctor," Anishk said, "I mean, just since coming here, I've learnt so much from her."

"I have nothing but admiration for her," Bara said at once, fearing they might waver. "She's served the community here well, for so many years. But the community is changing. If she can't adapt to that then someone else must. Don't you agree?"

They both nodded. "She is always talking about retiring anyway," Lon pointed out.

"Then she'll probably welcome this." Bara put her hands in her coat pockets and walked around the room, looking at the boxes and the equipment. All provided by her, as a service to the community.

And up here on level two. A deliberate strategy. Most of the clinic's patients would probably come initially from the cheap living quarters on level five, and having them coming up here might set a few cats among the pigeons. But if it had been down there on level five, the folks from the higher decks would have snubbed it just because of the location. Here it sat right in the heart of the lifer's community. They would come, eventually. Feeling ashamed at first, yes. But that word - free - had a power all its own.

She'd even leave a couple of guards here, to make sure those lifers felt safe.

"This is so generous of you, Captain." Anishk's words cut into her thoughts. Yes, Bara thought, yes it is. "Can I ask why you're doing it?"

"Why?" Do I need a reason? "I only want to help my fellow humans. I've seen so much suffering. Anything I can do to relieve that is my duty."

If you wanted to become the master then sometimes you had to start out as the servant.

"Now, my men will help you set up. Contact me if there's anything else you need." She shook the hands of the two doctors. "Tonight we will have dinner to celebrate. I will make a toast, to your future success."

The number of patients would be the mark of that success. Not only the number of patients the free clinic treated, but the number who left Sheni's and came here to her clinic instead.

Bara strode out, her bodyguards following her. Now, she had a call to make on her new friend. Major Jax.

~o~

"Lini," Major Jax called. "Please fetch us some tea."

"Thank you, Major," Bara said, as they sat on a sofa in Jax's office. "I trust there's been no more trouble."

"None, not since your men started guarding us."

"Oh that's good. And how are the boys doing? Behaving themselves?"

"Oh yes," Jax said quickly, making Bara frown. Did Jax fear Bara would take offence and withdraw her patronage if Jax made any complaints? It annoyed her that the brothel keeper would think her so capricious.

"Major, I expect the highest standards from my men. If you have any complaints I want to hear them. I will discipline the men if needed."

"Thank you." Jax looked relieved. "But, honestly, I haven't had any problems with any of them. They are a credit to you."

"Excellent."

The girl, Lini, Jax had called her, brought their tea. Bara made certain she remembered the girl's name and face. People could be terribly impressed by your remembering their name. Lini poured the tea into small glass cups and handed them to Jax and Bara.

Bara loved these small details of civilised life, the things that held back the dark tide that tried to overwhelm them all. Tea. Newspapers. Medicine. Which brought her to why she had really come here to see Jax.

"Oh, I wanted to tell you about something. I'm setting up a free clinic, so all the humans on the station will have access to medical care, even those who can't afford Dr Sheni's fees. The two young doctors who were working with Dr Sheni are running it."

Jax frowned for a moment. Perhaps she was about to say something about Sheni's fees not being very high, but then she apparently thought better of that.

"That's very admirable, Captain," Jax said. "I think a lot of the newcomers are likely to need that kind of help."

"They are exactly who I'm thinking of."

"Well, I'll be sure to spread the word. Perhaps we can give out information about it here."

"You can do more for me than that, Major." Bara sipped her tea. "I would like you and your staff to use the free clinic."

"What?" Jax and Lini exchanged a glance. "But, well, we've always used Dr Sheni. The girls are used to her. You understand that in this profession the medical care required is especially sensitive and the girls really do need a doctor they trust. I'm sure those young doctors will do very well, but I really would prefer to continue our current arrangement with Dr Sheni."

Jax finished with a rather sickly smile on her face.

"Perhaps you didn't quite understand what I said." Bara's words were still polite, but they had a crusting on frost on them. "I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. I would like you and all of your staff to use the free clinic. Do you understand me?"

"Ah, yes, I see. Thank you for, ah, clarifying, Captain." Jax visibly shivered. "I'll tell all of my staff to use the clinic."

"Excellent. Your example will encourage others. And after all, Major." she gave a sly smile. "The money the men save on medical expenses might find itself moving in your direction instead."

~o~

Maiga joined the late night coffee klatch in Chullan's. Wixa, Sheni, Jasini, and some others Maiga barely knew. Chervaz and Jaff were there too, though at a separate small table from the women.

"So when does this clinic actually open?" Jasini asked.

"The day after tomorrow," Chervaz said. "I, ah, have an invitation to go and look around tomorrow. To write a story about it for the paper."

"And are you going to?" Jasini asked in an accusing tone.

"It is an important development, and well, people on the station do need to know about the services."

"And Dr Sheni --"

"Doesn't mind." Sheni interrupted Jasini. "Honestly, I'm not worried. I look forward to your story, Mr Chervaz. Tell the doctors they can call me for a consult whenever they like."

Wixa chortled into her coffee cup and put it down. "Ooh yes, Bara would just love that!"

"I couldn't give two pins what Bara thinks," Sheni said, tone still mild, but her eyes took on a hardness. It melted as she sipped her cup of tea and she smiled again. "Anyway, it may mean I get to take some time off to hang out here with you girls."

"Who are you calling girls?" Jaff said, grinning.

"I just hope Bara is providing them with guards too as well as everything else." Seeing their puzzled faces, Sheni went on. "Free treatment, free drugs. Do I have to explain the possible trouble that can attract?"

"Oh marvellous," Wixa muttered, "Just what I want, a load of drug addicts wandering around my level."

"Are drugs a big problem here?" Maiga asked.

Sheni shrugged. "I get a few drug seeking types. Usually claiming some particular drug is the only thing that takes away the pain of some old injury they claim to have."

"But all those drifties coming in," Jasini said, "Now they are outside the military, who knows what kind of things they might be getting up to."

A little unfair, Maiga thought, to blame only the drifties. If they were using drugs, then they had to buy them from somewhere. And the well-established criminals on the station, the ones who organised supplies of drugs; they were lifers to a man.

"Hel-lo." Jaff said, perking up as if he'd just got his coffee intravenously. Looking around Maiga saw a young woman approaching their tables. It was obvious what had caught Jaff's attention; a pretty face framed by long, glossy, brown hair, creamy skin and a stunning figure.

"Dr Sheni," the young woman said. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

She glanced around looking for a chair, and Jaff at once jumped up to give her his, pulling it over to stand near Sheni's. Jaff found himself another chair while the beautiful young woman sat down. Jasini and a couple of the other women cast her disdainful looks, puzzling Maiga.

"Hello, Lini," Sheni said, "how are you?"

"Annoyed," Lini said. "Doctor, I just wanted to apologise to you. Well for all the girls, we all feel really bad about this."

"About what, dear?"

"Major Jax has told us we all have to use that new clinic that's opening. That we can't come to you any more. But it was that Captain Bara told Major Jax we had to use the clinic. Even the Major didn't want us to, but Bara insisted. It's not fair!"

Maiga noticed Chervaz writing in his notebook as the girl spoke. The snooty looks from the other women had changed into interested ones.

"Lon and Anishk are both fine doctors," Sheni said. "They'll take excellent care of you."

Lini snorted. "They both look like they've got sticks right up their asses. Doubt if they can find a cervix with a flashlight and an atlas."

Wixa shouldn't have been taking a sip of coffee at that point, since espresso was not suitable for inhalation. Jasini pounded her on the back as she choked and Chervaz, appearing glad of the diversion, went to the counter to fetch a glass of water.

"Well," Lini glanced around. "I can't stay, I just wanted you to know about this, and how angry all the girls are."

"I appreciate that, my dear."

"I'm pretty sure Major Jax doesn't like it either, but she just doesn't think she's got much choice." Lini stood up and nodded goodbye to them all, then turned and left. Jaff watched her until Wixa, no longer choking, threw a balled up napkin at him.

"Not on your salary. You can't even afford to dream about her."

"Wixa!" Jasini said, shocked, then turned to Sheni. "It seems to me that you're better off without having people like that coming into your clinic anyway."

"Jax and the girls are okay," Sheni said. "Anyway, I don't have the luxury of making those sorts of judgements. I treat the patient in front on me. That's my job." She glanced at her watch. "And it's time I got to bed. The free clinic isn't open yet, so I may still have a patient or two in the morning."

Jasini and most of the others left too, until only Maiga, Wixa, Chervaz and Jaff remained. They all moved to one table. Chullan gave them a look that suggested they might want to be drinking up and getting out of here too, while he rearranged and cleaned the vacated tables.

"So, Bara has Jax trapped in her web." Wixa said, ignoring the coffee house proprietor. "That could be troublesome."

"Why?" Maiga said, puzzled. "What's so important about Jax?"

"Are you kidding?" Wixa said. "There's nobody on this station better at intel gathering than those girls. Well aside from me of course."

"Intel?" Chervaz and Maiga shared a puzzled look. Jaff just looked intrigued.

Wixa rolled her eyes. "How naïve are you people? You know those women were part of the military. Which part did you think that was?"

Maiga couldn't say she'd thought about it much. She'd known some girls who'd vanished from military training back when she was at the academy. Always pretty girls. She'd found out later where they'd gone. It had never been something she'd approved of, training young women to sell themselves. Perhaps some preferred it to combat training though. Some choice! But she had never realised they fell under the umbrella of the intelligence services.

"Pillow talk," Jaff said.

"Exactly," Wixa said, nodding. "And not just gathering information either, but disseminating it. Things High Command wanted to spread surreptitiously rather than by an official announcement. And brothels on places like Jimmy, where so many people pass through and go on elsewhere, were just perfect for that. That place was an information hub."

"Really?" Chervaz scribbled his shorthand notes quickly as Wixa went on.

"In the end that worked against High Command," Wixa said. "Since of course, the same method could be used to spread information High Command didn't want circulated. Wanted to suppress in fact."

Maiga froze, her cup part way to her lips. She couldn't mean... surely not?

"The brothels were one of the main distribution points for spreading Ilyan's message."

"So do you think Bara is using them for the same thing?" Chervaz asked. "Intel gathering, even spreading information?"

"Very possible," Wixa said, nodding.

"Perhaps one of us should undertake a daring undercover mission to find out," Jaff suggested, grinning.

"Undercover is right." Wixa laughed.

"Tricky to wear a disguise though," Jaff said.

"I have to go."

Maiga stood up so quickly she knocked the table and the other three put their hands on it to steady it, as coffee sloshed on the varnished wood. She just wanted to get out and think about this for a while. Too many things whirled in her head and she needed to sort them out.

Chervaz stood up too. "Let me walk with you."

"No, I'm fine, please, I'd rather be alone for a moment."

She turned away from his disappointed face and hurried away.

~o~

Her quarters were too claustrophobic. She needed to see the stars. So, at almost 0200 hours, Maiga changed into her running gear and headed up to the circuit. She ran.

To hear Wixa say Ilyan's name, and talk about spreading his message, it had stirred too much in Maiga. Too much for her to sit at the table while they talked about him, in the past, as a historical figure. A dead historical figure.

She'd overheard such conversations a few times and had vowed that the first time someone said "I heard him speak once" that she would leave the station before another hour passed. In case they saw her face. In case they remembered.

But the idea of doing that grew less easy every day. She'd grown attached. To Wixa, to Chervaz, but just as much as to them, she'd grown attached to the station. It made her smile to see it when they came home from jobs. And there was the word: home. She'd started to see it as home.

She should leave now.

She ran on, faster, legs eating up the distance, no longer looking at the stars, gazing ahead, at the bulkheads, at the dark grey deck plating that jarred her joints with each step she took.

Attachment was a weakness. She knew that. It could keep her from leaving when she had to. She should leave now, before it became too hard. Before she let herself care too much for Wixa, for Chervaz, for the station.

Leave? And leave it to Bara to do what she wanted? Whatever that might be, it had to be bad news. Especially for those who'd lived here for years, who called their quarters "home" and filled them with possessions and decorations, just like the ones Wixa kept bringing for Maiga. She didn't want those, they tied her down. Maiga was a soldier, however much she wanted to put that behind her now. A soldier carried her life on her back.

And why should she care about thwarting Bara? You know why, a voice whispered deep inside. Because she's wrong. In so many ways, but worst of all she's wrong about Ilyan. She got his message all twisted up. If she's doing what she's doing even partly in his name, then someone who truly understood what he meant should be here to stop her.

A dark figure stood ahead of her, in a badly lit section, and she tensed for a moment, until she came closer and realised with a surprise that it was Chervaz. He leaned on the railing, looking down into the deserted plaza. Not totally deserted, Maiga caught a small movement under a lamp, a cat passing by.

Maiga stopped as Chervaz turned to see her and straightened up.

"You're out late," Maiga said, taking a long drink of water.

"Couldn't sleep." He watched her drink and she thought she heard him sigh as she moved the bottle down.

"Me neither. I like to run when I can't sleep."

"I should probably start doing that." Chervaz put a hand on his stomach. "I really have become slack with my training. Well, I'll admit," he laughed. "I was never terribly strict."

"You look okay to me." That made him blush and her smile. Well he did look okay. Perhaps heavier than he should be, nothing some strength training wouldn't fix. "Shall we walk?"

He fell into step beside her at once and offered her his arm. After a moment of hesitation she took it. They hadn't been alone together since the dinner a few days ago now, since she kissed him, and she had to wonder if he was hoping for another kiss soon. Was she ready for that? And more?

She had kept to herself since arriving at the station. There'd been no man in her life since Jadeth rescued her from Tesla's basement. What happened in there she preferred not to think about too much. But if she wanted to move on, allow the possibility of a lover in her life she had to face up to it.

Rape. There was the word. She had found ways to deal with it. Sometimes she just screamed at Tesla, screamed herself hoarse and that put him off. Other times she insulted and abused him until he couldn't stand it any more. She wondered since if she'd been trying to provoke him into killing her. And along with those strategies, she had training in resisting torture, mental techniques to simply be elsewhere, so that after it was done, she barely even remembered it.

Sometimes, he didn't touch her. He came into her cell and just sat in a chair and talked and snivelled about how sorry he was it had all happened this way, and begging her forgiveness. Those moments she hated him most of all. Nevertheless, she'd considered pretending to forgive him, pretending she welcomed him. If she could work on it gradually, make him believe she had come around to him, make him believe he could trust her enough to let her out of the restraints.

He'd have been dead within five seconds.

She was still jealous that Jadeth had been the one who got to finish him.

Shaking herself, she looked up at Chervaz. Could she trust him to be her first time since the cell? He was so soft-spoken and gentle. Surely he would be the same way in the bedroom? When would she have the courage to find out?

Not quite yet.

"So, you're going to visit the free clinic tomorrow?"

"Yes. I do feel bad about publicising it, when it's in direct competition with Dr Sheni, and especially of course when Bara is behind it all, but the paper..." He looked at her. "I have to put the truth in there. You understand that don't you? Even if the truth can hurt people I respect. If I don't do that, then I might as well close the thing down."

"I like your principles. No favouritism."

"That's exactly it. I think that's what Bara was after when she came to visit me."

Maiga frowned at the reminder of that and a flush rose to her cheeks. "Did she try to intimidate you?"

"Oh no. I mean not deliberately anyway. Well, I don't think so." He shook his head. "She did try to bribe me though."

"What?" Maiga stopped, making him stop and turn to face her. "Bribe?"

"She offered me a 'donation'. I had to tell her I don't take those. People buying advertising space is one thing, and even there, I have to be cautious. But I couldn't take a direct contribution like that and not expect her to ask something in return."

Maiga moved away from Chervaz and walked to the tall window. She looked out at space, the stars, the limitless night, the limitless darkness to disappear into.

Bara wanted allies. If she controlled the paper she'd have far too much power. The paper might be a romantic dream for Chervaz, but for Bara it would be no more than a tool. Or a weapon. Would she come after it again? Would she try again to make Chervaz her ally?

"Are you all right?"

Chervaz stood right behind her. She could feel the heat of his body close to hers, and see his reflection in the window. He touched her shoulder. Such large strong hands, and such a careful touch he had, as if afraid he would break her, fearing his own clumsiness.

He knew she was fragile. But the time to be fragile had come to an end. Now she had to be strong.

She turned into his arms and moved closer to him. She stretched up and he at once bent his head down into the kiss. Bara wanted allies. But she didn't get this one.

This one is mine.

When the kiss broke his brown eyes were wide, the pupils huge in the dim light and his skin had darkened with a flush.

"Maiga..."

"Ssh."

They kissed again. No words now. Words. Weaving them was his job and his passion. How he loved to talk and write. But now she wanted action from him, not words. After a moment she pulled away again and spoke in a whisper.

"Take me home."