Valdon stared at his daughter in disbelief.  “Fedora, what are you doing?!”

            Fedora turned to her father with the look of one betrayed.  “Was that all I ever was to you father.  A.... a chattel that only holds value if it is unblemished.  Father I have spent all my life trying to please you.  I wanted you to love me and be proud of me.  But I did not want to marry Abran Sventic for you.  I do not love him.  I do not even know him!”

            “Fedora...”

            “And I am disgusted with myself that my silence has condemned this boy to a fate he does not deserve.”   Fedora wavered for a moment as her eyes met Terinu's.  Did he understand?  Could he forgive?

            “Daughter, have you gone mad?” Valdon sputtered struggling to understand the sudden change in his child.  He pointed to the dark stained pile of cloth on the evidence table.  “What of the blood on your clothing?”

            “The blood is his, not mine,” Fedora said softly.  She turned to the assembled men in the pews and her voice rose.  “He pretended that he had ravished me to protect me from the other pirates.  The blood you see came from his veins.  He bled for my sake.  These garments,” she picked up the clothing and tossed them at her father's feet.  “Have the stains on them tested if you will.  You will see the truth of my words.”

            “Rashid Valdon,” the Magistrates voice cut through the tense air.  “Your daughter's words confound me.  Did you or did you not witness her rape?”

            Valdon hesitated.  He wrung his hands.  “I... I heard... I believed...”

            Magistrate Abelard's voice boomed.  “Did you see with your own eyes the very act you accuse the defendant of committing.”

            The big man's head lowered.  “I...  no your honour, the boy took her out of my sight.”

            “Hmmm,” Magistrate Abelard sat back in his chair and steepled his hands, his brow furrowed.

            “But, but...” Valdon turned back to his daughter.  “The Examination of Purity.  It showed that you were no longer a virgin.  How can that be?”

            There was a shuffling sound and Tarent, the younger, mocha furred vulpine slowly rose to his feet.  He trembled and licked his muzzle.  “I will answer that.”  His voice quavered but held a note of determination.  He padded over behind Fedora and rested his hands on her arms.  Her eyes closed at his touch and she leaned back into his chest.  She looked all but spent.

            Tarent cleared his throat.  “Master Valdon, Fedora knew you would demand the Examination of Purity be performed despite anything she could say to dissuade you.  We could not let you see the lie.  So we...” he swallowed.

            Valdon's face blanched white, then crimsoned and became a deep shade of outraged purple.  “You!” he hissed.  “I will have your flea riddled hide stripped from your body while you're heart still beats!”

            The older vulpine sprung to his feet.  “You will do no such thing!”

            “Herron Littleclaw, how dare you...”

            Herron ignored the man and continued darkly, a dangerous growl in his voice.  “You will not be permitted to harm my son.  The vulpine here are protected from your barbaric laws by the Treaty of Species.  By our law he must be tried in a vulpine court for any wrong doing and by a vulpine court his only crime is that of poor judgement.”

            The big man shook with the strength of his anger.  The older vulpine had spoken the truth.  Tarent Littleclaw was untouchable.  But he wasn't the only one responsible for this disgrace.

            Valdon turned to his daughter and thrust out his hand.  “This is beyond outrageous.  Justice has been made a lie this day.  I will not stand here and be humiliated any further.  Come Fedora. We are leaving!”

            “No father,” Fedora shrugged off Tarent's embrace to stand shaking but defiant in front of the monster who wore her father's robe.  “I will not.”

            Swiftly she turned to the Magistrate's table and bowed her head.  “Good Magistrate, I come to you on the first day of my sixteenth year.  I came to you as a disgraced woman touched by the hand of a man out of wedlock.  I beg you for the judgment of Banishment so that I may relieve my family of the burden of my shame.”

            “What!”  Valdon roared leaping forward only to find himself restrained in the strong arms of the court room guards.  “You cannot do this!  Magistrate Abelard I demand...”

            The Magistrates considered the girl before him.  A long minute passed.  Finally he spoke.  “I hear your plea, Fedora Valdon, daughter of Rashid Valdon.  In the light of the evidence I have heard in this court room today I recognize that you are indeed truly disgraced.”  There was a derisive edge to his words.  “I therefore sentence you to Banishment.  You may not wear the robes of chastity or the adornments of respectability. You may not walk in the honoured places and you must keep your head bowed when amongst your betters.  You are hereby banned from contacting any member of your family or their associates and to them you must be as dead.  Judgment has been passed.”

Abelard struck his gavel three times to finalize his pronouncement.

Fedora stood for several seconds shivering.  She kept her head bowed fighting to keep the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth from blossoming forth.  Tarent was suddenly behind her, breathing hard.  “Fedora,” he whispered.  She turned and threw her arms about his neck and buried her face in his soft fur.  They stood there insulated from the shouts of disgust that emanated from the pews.

“As for you, Terinu of the Ferin,” The Magistrate turned his gaze on the alien youth who, throughout the entire proceeding, had uttered no sound except for that one damning word.  “In the light of what I have heard today I retract my previous verdict and the punishment it entails.  But I find you guilty of perjury.  Lying to the court makes a mockery of our justice system.  Your punishment will be a fine of two hundred credits which you will be required to pay before you exit this court house.  Case dismissed.”

Leeza's eyes closed and she let out a lifetime of trapped breath as the Magistrate's gavel rang out for the last time.  Too emotionally battered to maintain her pose she leaned into Rufus and felt his warm arms surround her freezing shoulders.

“By the Holy Mother,” he whispered softly.

 

 

Leeza looked up from the snow fall of ship schematics that papered the floors and the couches of her apartment.  She had been attempting to study the original layout of the ignition system.  'Attempting' being the key word.  Her mind remained firmly stationed at least a million kilometres away.   A tap at the door brought her back to the present.  She looked up brightly as Rufus entered the room.  He pulled off his jacket and dropped it across one of the few remaining uncluttered chairs.

            “How did it go?” asked Leeza.

            "All well and good," replied Rufus smiling.  "Miss Fedora and that young chap Tarent have safely boarded a commercial space liner for Vulpine Prime."

            "Did you have any problems?"

            "Well the chaps at immigration were making a few unsettling noises about arranging a passport for the lass.  But I think the presence of the highest ranking vulpine currently on this dust bowl did encourage them to expedite things."

            Leeza smiled.  Viscount Ru'ofanius Brushtail didn't often pull rank but when he did he could have a surprisingly motivating effect, particularly on civil servants.  She sat back on her heels.  "Sixteen.  So young.  Too young to be away from your family."

            "Hmmm," Rufus crossed his arms and lent back on the side board.  "Normally I wouldn't hesitate to agree.  But in that young vixen's case I think she would be far better off several hundred light years away from her nearest and dearest.  The Littleclaw’s are a good sort, an honest clan.  I think she will be well received."

            He cocked his head.  "So how is our gallant young hero?  Has he spoken of the incident yet?"

            Leeza gave Rufus a thin pained smile.

            "Of course," he nodded in reply.

 

 

            She found him later that evening sitting in the court yard scraping off a century's worth of grime from a fusion duct assembly pin she had brought back home to clean.  Leeza watched the boy work for a moment longer while mentally steeling herself to handle the backwash of stress he would need to offload.  She walked down the cement path past a pair of raised garden beds and dropped down onto the grass beside him.  He glanced up at her and then turned back to picking the congealed dust out of the fasteners with a small spatula.

            "Hi there," she said with a cheerful confidence she didn't actually feel.

            "Hi," answered Terinu absently.

            "We were wondering where you got to.  I paid the bailiff and when I turned around you were gone."

            "Oh."

            Leeza tried again. "Fedora and Tarent were asking after you.  I think they would have liked to have had the opportunity to say thank you before they left."

            Terinu shrugged.

            There was an uncomfortable silence.

            Leeza thought of and instantly discarded half dozen possible topics to try and kick start something remotely like a dialogue. She broke off a few blades of grass and started splitting them.

            "Ya' doubted me."

            He said it blandly.  It took her completely off guard.

            "I'm sorry?"  Leeza asked confused.

            "I saw ya'," said Terinu.  "In the court room.  I saw yer eyes.  Ya' doubted me."

            Leeza's brain scrambled to assemble some kind of reply.  She felt a wave of guilt lapping at the edge of her conscience.  She had doubted him if only for a moment.  Damn it.

            "Well, Teri, it's not like you gave me any other options.  You wouldn't talk to me.  You admitted guilt to a crime you didn't commit.  What the nova was I supposed to think?"

            Terinu shrugged. "The worst by the looks of it."

            Damn him, damn him, damn him.  And damn him most because he was right.

            Leeza ran a hand through her short brown hair.  Her eyes wandered sightlessly over to the road below.  It was late evening and the traffic had died down to the occasional skimmer.  "You're right." she said finally.  "You're absolutely right.  I thought for a moment there that maybe... But, frell, I have never been so glad to be proved wrong.  And I'm sorry.  Really I am.  But try to understand: every time I think I have you figured out you go and do something that blows it all right out of the water.  Like today."  Leeza took a deep breath and plunged right in.  "You knew what the penalty for rape was here.  Regina told you.  You knew and yet you wouldn't say a single nova damned thing in your own defence.  Why?"

            Terinu let his hands drop into his lap.  "What did Fedora tell ya'?"

            Leeza thought for a moment.  "Pretty much everything I think.  We had a long talk after the court house closed."

            "Did she tell ya' what her old man would do if he found out she was gettin' serious with a guy?"

            Leeza nodded grimly.  "Yes, she told me."

            "Yeah," Terinu toyed with the spatula.  "Well say I did spill the whole thing.  Say even that they did believe me.  What then.  Her old man would’a murdered her fer the sake of his stupid fragged up honour.”

            He sighed and looked back down at the assembly pin and said under his breath.  “I can live with another beatin’.  I couldn’t live with that.”

            They sat in silence on the grass as the planets sun slowly dropped towards the horizon.

            “Teri,” Leeza spoke hesitantly.  “Can you tell me: would you have... I mean, if Brooks hadn’t been called away at the last minute... would you have, um, gone through with it?”

            Terinu stiffened.  He turned to her.  “What?”

            Leeza put up her hands, “Look I’m sorry, I have no right to...”

            “What the fragg do ya’ want from me?  Where the fragg do ya’ think I’ve been for the last eight years.”  Angrily Terinu spun the spatula into the ground.  “It’s so easy for you isn’t it.  Isn’t it, Admiral’s daughter!  Ya’ sit in yer ivory tower and ya’ think ya’ can pass judgment on me.”

            “I said I’m sorry,” whispered Leeza, startled by the strength of his reaction.

            They looked at each other for a long moment: the young engineer trying keep up with her duties while struggling to cope with fostering an emotionally damaged teenager and the boy from a long dead race who shouldn’t exist but did.  Something passed between the two of them, a shared weariness perhaps.  It had been an excruciating couple of days.  The tension drained from both of them because there was no strength left to hold it in place.

            Terinu turned away first.  He jerked the spatula out of the ground and picked the engine part out of his lap.  He looked at it without much interest.

            “Blake,” his voice was soft.

            “Yes, Teri,” murmured Leeza.

“If ya’ ask me a direct question I have to answer it, ya’ have that power over me.  So don’t ask me unless ya’ really sure ya’ want to know the answer.”