The Peacemaker winced when he saw Treffon.
“This is unacceptable,” Treffon informed him. “There were no fights when we were here last week; the situation has deteriorated, and I will not tolerate it. We will donate housing structures to keep the different groups separate so they are less likely to clash.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do they have enough food?”
“They have plenty of food. We serve meals three times a day, and they can eat as much as they want.” The guard sounded aggrieved.
“What are you doing to keep these people busy?”
“Well, we…we were playing holovids for them in the main hall, but they kept getting into fights with each other, so we stopped offering the holovids. As a punishment.” The guard scowled and looked away. “It’s not our fault the cyborgs are poisoning their solar system.”
“Right. Well done.” Treffon’s tone was laden with sarcasm. He glanced at the overflowing trash that had been tossed all over the camp. Then he marched over to a table, climbed onto it, and bellowed, “Attention!” At the same time, he sent out a blast of mild anger – not enough to cause them pain, but enough to make them take notice.
The chatter and caterwauling ceased instantly.
“The next time I witness an assault or a crime against another person, there will be no detention hut. I will end you right on the spot. Understood?”
There were murmurs of assent.
“I can’t hear you! I expect a yes, sir!”
“Yes, sir!” came from all corners of the camp.
“Now. I am sure you do not wish to live in a garbage dump. We will begin cleanup immediately. Come forward so I can start organizing cleaning crews.”
He quickly formed ten cleaning crews and assigned captains. He had the guard turn off the communications damper, and called Tristao to tell him to send ten guards and to request the same of the Wor-Lans.
Then he glanced over at Violet, and saw the way she was looking at him. Her earlier look of annoyance had been replaced by one of approval.
He felt a swelling of happiness deep within him. It made him feel warm all over.
The glow of happiness was replaced just as quickly by a dark cloud of gloom. He would find out who was trying to kill her, and he would kill them, and then she would be safe again.
And then she would leave.
And find “the one”, as she put it. And she would have a wedding or pair-bond ceremony, depending on who she found. And he would go to the ceremony and kill the man who’d dared lay his hands on—
No!
He quickly banished the mental image of himself bashing in the head of some quailing male. Where had that thought come from? Of course he would not do that. He could not deny Violet her happiness.
He deliberately avoided meeting her gaze, and walked over to the opposite end of the compound. He was a master at denying his feelings, his true desires. Being close to Violet felt too right and good. He would not allow himself to get used to it.
He nodded his approval at a skinny stalk-like alien who was picking up trash.
“Well done,” he said to it, and the alien responded with a trill of happiness.
“Treffon?”
He started. He hadn’t noticed Violet walking up behind him. What was wrong with him? He’d been concentrating so hard on not paying attention to her, on not wanting her, that he had let his guard down.
He had never, ever, not even as a cub, let his guard down like that. He hadn’t dared. His father had sent assassins to test his readiness, to ensure that he was ever vigilant. And if he had failed to detect, evade and kill them, his father would have allowed them to kill Treffon. Treffon’s two older brothers had been killed that way – with the full support of Treffon’s mother. Treffon’s father never tired of reminding him of that.
Treffon had wept when his first brother had died. His father had responded by breaking every bone in Treffon’s body and tossing his limp body into the middle of a forest to survive or die, he did not care which.
That was the last time Treffon had cried.