"I still outrank you, Major." I emphasized the last. "Has the Army busted my theater rank back to sergeant yet? No? Then, I'm still a full bird colonel, and unless you've had your ears closed," I left out the curse word because I didn't want him to leave, he being the only human I'd seen in days, "the Ruhar raided Earth, they hit us, to degrade our industrial capacity, so we wouldn't be quite so useful to the lizards. They didn't hit cities, they didn't even hit military bases, they just hit industrial infrastructure, power stations, and refineries. If the Ruhar hadn't hit us first, the lizards would have appeared in the sky, told us we're working for them now, and then wiped out a couple hundred thousand people to make their point. The only reason we didn't realize from the start that we're now slaves to the Kristang, is we were so grateful for them chasing away the Ruhar. The hamsters did the Kristang a favor. We humans don't mean a damned thing to either side. You've heard the rumors of what's going on back home? From the fortune cookies? Shanghai? Paris? San Francisco?"

"Rumors." Cochrane protested lamely.

"Rumors I believe, a lot more than I believe the censored crap our supposed allies allow UNEF HQ to tell us. What's next for me? I've been waiting here for days."

Cochrane glanced away, then met my eyes. "Firing squad, tomorrow morning, for the remaining male prisoners."

"Male prisoners?"

He let out a long breath. "Male prisoners are simply shot. Women, they, you know the Kristang attitude toward females. A woman with authority over men is bad enough, but a woman who defies orders from men? The Kristang can't stand it, it drives them absolutely batshit crazy, and they're making an example. Women prisoners are stripped naked, tortured and hanged. Slowly." He looked like he was going to puke. "They made us watch, they made UNEF Command watch, yesterday."

"Oh, shit. And you didn't do anything?"