"Your word of honor as—"
"A woman! Do you understand?"
Silence again. Their eyes met. The Master's were first to lower.
"Your life is spared," he answered. "That is a concession to your sex, madam. Had you been a man, I would inevitably have put you to death. As it is, you shall live. And you shall remain with us—"
"Thank God for that!"
"Till we reach land. There you must leave Nissr."
"I shall not leave it alive," the woman declared, her eyes showing dilated pupils of resentment, of anger. "I haven't come this far to be thrown aside like a bit of worthless gear!"
"You and your machine will be cast off, over the first land we touch," the Master repeated doggedly. "Whatever information you may give, cannot injure us, and—"
"Stop! Not another word like that, to me!"
Her eyes were blazing now; her right fist quivered in air.