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chickens scurried around.   Normally this would have excited me.   The air felt too heavy on my shoulders to enjoy it.   I looked, but all I could think about was Elentinus as the ruthless conqueror.
    I knew what the Dak-Hiliah had done to Earth before I got here.   It hadn’t mattered before.   I was a girl kidnapped out of her home and time.   Of course my kidnappers were evil.   I was just glad one was nice to me and that I was going to be able to survive the ordeal.
    Now I had to reckon with everything I’d learned.   Inga pushed me out of my safe bystander mode.   I couldn’t justify not helping her out of loyalty to my husband.  
    My husband was evil.
    That thought made my legs weak.   I loved Elentinus.   He was good to me.   We joked together and got wild in bed.  
    I felt safe with him.
    But he was Earth’s conqueror—and completely unrepentant.
    “Maritza.”
    Elentinus’ voice snapped me out of my daze.
    “The only reason we attacked Earth was because we were facing extinction.   If we didn’t conquer them, there was no hope for our survival.”
    I looked at him.   If I was paranoid I would have thought he could read minds.   I knew better.   We were on the same wavelength again.
    “Do you have as good a reason for all the other worlds the Dak-Hiliah conquered?”
    He looked into my eyes a moment, and then turned away.   “No.”
    My shoulders rose and fell with a deep sigh.
    “Maritza.”   Elentinus took my hand.   “I’m not proud of everything in our history, but I led this war because our existence depended on it.”
    I nodded.   In a way I was touched at how badly he wanted my approval.   Elentinus kept proving his love for me was genuine.   He made it hard for me to stand against him.
    But it was the right thing to do.
    Esther and Magpie led us into the nearest barrack.   We went through a lobby area first which had been converted into a daycare.   Toddlers played together on the floor while several women kept watch.   I saw some cribs along the back wall.   The rest of the building was a gigantic mess hall with long tables.   It was only a quarter full.   I could smell bread baking.   About a thousand people, mostly women, turned to look at us and point.   There were as many people knitting or crafting as there were eating.   Esther was talking about how they milled their grains and how many kilos of produce came out of the gardens, but I was still distracted.
    Out the back were open dirt fields that had white lines painted for sports.   I thought it was soccer, but there were four goals instead of two.   A loud group of girls were kicking around a ball in one of the fields.   Elentinus took my arm.   I realized our group had moved on to the next barrack.
    We came in the back directly into living quarters.   About 200 double bunk beds stretched out in front of us in two lines.   Most of the top bunks had bare mattresses.   The bottom bunks all had blankets hanging from the top bunks to serve as curtains.   This had obviously been a military barrack once, but all the order was gone.   Personal items were piled high on homemade shelves against the walls.   The beds that were visible were sloppily made.   We walked down the center aisle glancing down each row.   Some of the lower bunks had the beds removed in exchange for three cribs.   The apparent mothers had bunks on either side and above it.   I saw both men and women in the area.   This explained the need for the curtains.         
    “Elen, how can you let them live in such disorder?” Nayjoor said.   “The whole place stinks.”
    There was a bit of a college dorm funk, but nothing catastrophic.  
    “So long as they meet my obligations I don’t dictate how they conduct their personal lives.”
    “You’re too lenient.   This place is ripe for a revolt.”
    “My leniency is precisely why they don’t revolt.”
    I smiled.
    “I would be happy to live here,” Inga said.
    “Bah.