My first officer gives me an approving smile. “Well negotiated, Commander. You even had me fooled for a minute.”

“And myself,” I say honestly.

After everything is concluded with the ship we just took, and the Water people have all been transported and accepted by the Imperials, I call it a day, leave the bridge, and walk back to my quarters. It’s later than usual, and I’m tired.

I buzz for Volunteer 4711, and she arrives promptly.

But she does not smile as broadly as before, and I know why, but to her credit, she says nothing as she begins undressing me. It is just a strange silence between us, but the silence is speaking.

Although her silence does not last long. When she begins unfastening my shoes, she says, her voice breaking, “I know I should be nothing but grateful, but it hurts me you sold other Water people. Who did you sell them to?”

When I step out of my trousers and shoes, I look down at her as she kneels on the floor and explain to her as simply as I can. “People who are like Water people, but a different color. They will be treated well. Would you rather they be sent to farms like you?” I do not mean to sound bitter, but I did not want this for her people either. I fear the Imperials will make them pets, even though it is illegal now.

“No, not the farm,” she says and wipes some stray tears from her face as she stands.

Surprising even myself, I take her small hands in mine. “I will never sell you. They asked for you too. They wanted to take you, and I said ‘no.’ But I could not do that for the others. It was too much money. Understand?”

She is looking up at me with her fantastic brown eyes, the color of tree bark and earth that springs life from it, and I wish I did not have to hurt her. However, I would rather she know the truth than a lie. I sold Water people for a profit. But I cannot even say the full sentence out loud to her.

“I understand,” she says and wiggles her hands free from mine as if I am tainted now. Perhaps in her mind, I am. It is her prerogative. No one is clean from anything in the galaxy.

I stay standing there naked while she fetches my pajamas. When she comes back and dresses me, she asks, “Can you show me, Imperial people?” I have her computer purposely locked, except for her language program, and selfishly I do not want her to know about Imperials. I worry she might want to join them as it is known they are genetically the same as Water people, and their Empire is one of the most powerful in the galaxy.

“Another time,” I say. But now I feel like I owe her, which is strange because I saved her from her life on the farm in exchange for saving my life. We are equal. We owe each other nothing, yet my heart wants to give her something for what I have done today.