Fedora sat quietly resting her back against the cold surface of the wash trough.  She had redressed in her torn blouse and pants which were now sticky with the blood of the strange youth.  Terinu sat cross legged a little way away from her wrapping a crude rag bandage around his damaged wrist.

            “Thank you,” she whispered.

            Terinu shrugged.

            “I mean it,” she insisted carefully keeping her voice low.  “You have been my saviour today.  In more ways then you know.”

            Terinu knotted the bandage and said nothing.

            Unperturbed Fedora continued.  “Do you know where we were heading to when your vessel captured ours?  My father was taking me to be married to a man on Regulas Minor.  A man I have never met and who is three times my age.  My father arranged for me to marry him so that our company would profit by association with him."

            "Oh," murmured Terinu easing on his jacket.  "Sorry to interrupt your wedding plans."

            Fedora smiled.  It was the first smile he had seen from her since she boarded the Marauder.  It made her look quite pretty despite her reddened eyes and tangled hair.  "No, no, not at all!  I am happy, very happy."

            Terinu raised an enquiring eyebrow.  Maybe the poor wench had been driven mad after all.

            Seeing his confusion Fedora cautiously crept up next to him and leaned forward to explain.

            "You see, when I return to my father he will believe that I have been stripped of my maidenhood as no doubt you intended that awful monster to think.  In my culture such an act, had it occurred, would have rendered me unmarriageable to a man of the status of Abran Sventic, the man to whom my father betrothed me.  I will not have to marry him after all."

            Terinu considered her words.  "So what yer tellin' me is your old man sees ya' as damaged goods so he can't barter ya' off to his business mate.  Why, what's the big deal?"

            Fedora sighed.  "A man who is honourable and well respected cannot marry a woman who is anything less than pure."

            "And by pure ya' mean she hasn't done it with anyone yet."

            Fedora nodded.

            Terinu sniffed. "What a bloody stupid culture."  He leaned back gingerly on his hands and considered her.  "So the weddin's off.  What will ya' do now?"

            The dark haired girl smiled again.  "I am nearly sixteen, an age when I may have a choice.  By the laws of my people if I am disgraced by the touch of a man and not bound in wedlock I can petition for the life of a shamed woman.  I will be cast out from my family.  It is a life of banishment."

            "That don't sound like any kinda' fraggin' plan to me," Terinu frowned.  "How in nova ya' gonna' survive?"

            Fedora's face lit up.   "On the contrary, it is a life I have not dared dream about: a life which I can share with him."

            "Him?  Oh yeah.  Ya' mean that vulpine guy."

            Fedora blushed.

            Terinu grinned despite himself.  "Yeah I seen the way you two were lookin' at each other.  Like some sappy holo-vid tragedy."

            "Tarent.  He has been my playmate, my confident, for almost all of my life.   He kept me sane when I thought I'd go mad with frustration."  Fedora smoothed her crumpled trousers.  "We would talk of, oh, silly things.  Such as travelling together to his home on Vulpine Prime, walking along the sands of a place he called the Turtle Coast.  I have never been to a sea, but he described it so well I can almost picture it.  Now I shall be able to see it for myself."

            "Ya' know," said Terinu. "Ya could have saved yourself all this crap by giving yer old man the slip before now."

            "You mean run away?"  Fedora whispered horrified.  "Oh no, that would be unthinkable!  I am not permitted to leave my father's estate unaccompanied and if I did manage to escape where would I hide?  My father would have hunted us down.  Tarent would be deported and I..."  Fedora lowered her head, her voice barely audible.  "My father would have killed me with his own hands for the terrible dishonour I had brought onto his name."

            "Hu?"  Terinu stared at her incredulously.  "Yer yankin' m' tail."

            "No, I'm not," Fedora shook her head.  "It is the duty of a father to restore the family's honour.  So you see Tarent and I had to be so very careful.  Our dreams could only ever be just that."

            The smile crept back onto her face.  "But now it will be different.  Now I can have the status of a shamed woman declared on myself and no one will care where I go or what I do."

            "Ya' ain't gonna' convince yer dad of anything with that stupid great grin on yer face," snorted Terinu.  "I didn't go through all this shit just to end up swinging in the fraggin' boiler room and, believe me, ya' wouldn't like to be 'shamed' fer real by any of this mob."

            Fedora's expression sobered.  "I'm sorry; I forgot I'm still in danger here."  She regarded Terinu with serious eyes and recalled how terrified she had been of him only a short while ago.  "Please," she begged softly.  "There is no one else here who can protect me, I... I know I ask for you to place yourself in more danger, but please..."

            Terinu looked at her and sighed.  "I must be fraggin' nuts.  Look, ya' should be okay as long as Brook's thinks stuff happened.  Outside a' that I'll do what I can, but I ain't promising nothin'."