Tooley headed to the end of the boarding ramp and held out her hand. Aberas looked at her expectantly.

“What? You want to test my blood, test it,” Tooley said. Aberas held the device out in her direction, but did not take a step forward. The two locked eyes and stared each other down, but unfortunately, Tooley had a lot more to lose. She muttered a curse and then stuck her finger into the glass tube.

“This feels like an unnecessary- ow, motherfucker,” Tooley said. She drew a bleeding fingertip back from the tube. “You did that on purpose.”

“We don’t use this very often, I’m afraid, the needle may have gotten dull,” Aberas said. He barely tried to hide a delighted smile. “Most of those who use our spaceport have an established pedigree.”

“You do realize how weird it is that you think of people as having ‘pedigrees’, right?” Tooley said. “Like, you hear your own voice when you say that stuff, don’t you?”

“Some of us have reason to be proud of our heritage, Tooley Keeber Obertas,” Aberas said. He looked down at the genetic testing device and appraised the results. “Though apparently you don’t have quite as much to be ashamed of as I thought. Congratulations. You’re a true, pure-blooded Sturit.”

“Hooray,” Tooley said. “So can my crew step off the fucking ramp, now?”

“Under your supervision, yes,” Aberas said. “And ours, of course.”

Corey took a step off the loading bay ramp and off the landing platform entirely. He stepped onto the dark, stony soil of Turitha and really dug his heels in. As expected, the nearby guards sneered at his audacity. Kamak made slightly less of a show of being an offworlder defiling their sacred soil, but he still did it.

“Alright, Doprel, keep an eye on the ship for us,” Kamak said. “And, with your permission, Aberas, we-”

“My name is Aberas Velin Dotel, and you will address me as such, in full, at all times,” Aberas hissed.

“Yeah, you have to use the full name every time,” Tooley said. “It’s super rude not to.”

“Thank you for reminding them, Tooley,” Aberas said. “Now, if you’d like to correct yourself?”

“With your permission, Aberas Velin Dotel,” Kamak began. Now it was his turn to inject his words with disdain. “We’d like to go see Tooley’s father. We have reason to believe he’s in danger.”

“Yes, the council made us aware of your ‘suspicions’,” Aberas said. He gestured towards the spaceport gate, and led them, and the contingent of armed Sturit guard, in that direction. “The Council has arranged for a personal investigation, but I believe you’ll find he is perfectly safe. We have monitored each and every entrant to this port for months, and with only one exception-”

A very pointed and very dirty look got shot in Tooley’s direction.

“-all entrants have been pure-blooded Sturit in good standing,” Aberas concluded.

“About that,” Corey said. He felt like he would regret asking, but he was curious about it. “What do you mean when you say ‘pure-blooded’? I heard that you guys com- ‘purified your species’ ages ago.”

He’d been about to say ‘committed genocide’ but people who did genocide typically didn’t refer to it as genocide, and he was still obligated to play nice. He could go back to calling the Sturit genocidal pieces of shit as soon as he wasn’t surrounded by half a dozen genocidal pieces of shit who were holding very large guns.

“Ah, yes, well, as surely as the forces of evolution introduced certain genetic mistakes in the first place, it is unfortunately capable of introducing such genetic mistakes again,” Aberas explained. “It has become an especially common problem on the colony worlds. Without proper breeding regulation, some of those offworlders have drifted into things that can barely be called Sturit.”

Corey was right. He did regret asking.

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“If we want to maintain the integrity of our species, it will need more direct control,” Aberas said. “That is where we Primarchs differ from the Structuralists. Those imbeciles would have the Sturit conquer the stars, inevitably diluting our physical and cultural purity. We are content to remain on our homeworld, safe in our superiority.”

They at least weren’t actively genocidal, Corey thought to himself. Technically better than the Structuralists. Now he could see why the Council were more eager to work with these ‘Primarchs’. Better the planet was controlled by those who’d stay on Turitha and ignore the universe than those who’d eventually wage war on the ‘lesser races’.

Aberas led them through the spaceport gates, and down the rocky slope into the city proper. Corey took a quick look around to take in the sights. As unpleasant as the circumstances (and everything else) were, it was nice to have an opportunity to explore Tooley’s homeworld. He’d often been curious about life on Turitha, but rarely dared to test her patience by asking.

As one might expect from the sloped, rocky terrain, most dwellings were either built on ledges or built into the slopes of the mountains themselves. A large number of steep ramps connected the different levels, with a few pedestrians and vehicles passing up and down in either direction. Many of the vehicles had treads, presumably for more traction on the slopes, and the pedestrians were dressed lightly. Very lightly. Corey saw a Sturit woman walking their way, holding the hand of a young girl who was gawking curiously at the outsiders. He examined their clothing for exactly two seconds before averting his gaze so hard and fast his neck hurt.

“I see you’re one of those cultures,” Kamak said, as the half-naked girls passed by.

“The kind where women know their place, yes,” Aberas said.

“Even the little ones?” Corey hissed. That girl couldn’t have been more than five or six years old. Some people back on Earth would’ve had an aneurysm seeing her clothes, if such things could even be called clothes.

“When the world was laid out by the Six High Ones, dominion was given unto Men,” Aberas said. “Women are to be viewed, and to be used, as we see fit.”

Tooley clenched her jaw and glanced sideways at one of the guards, who was making no secret of staring at her chest.

“Try it,” Tooley said. “See what happens.”

“I’ll try anything once,” the guard said. He leaned back and took an equally obvious look at Tooley’s rear. “Maybe twice.”

Some of the other guards snickered at the joke. Corey felt like he was back in high school, except the horny teenagers had big guns now. If the whole planet was like this, Corey could see why Tooley wanted to nuke it from orbit. She kept her fists clenched and walked a little closer to Corey and Farsus.

“You know, Aberas Velin Dotel, I have always been curious about the Sturit religious tradition,” Farsus said. What little he did know, he found loathsome, but Farsus’ curiosity extended beyond his own personal comfort zone. “Offworld sources on the topic are rare. Is it mostly an oral tradition, or are there perhaps bibles, manuscripts, collected philosophical teachings, that would be available for purchase?”

“Not to an offworlder,” Aberas said. “The Six High Ones are not kind to those outside the chosen people. If Enlightenment brought you closer to them, they would destroy you.”

“Well. Then I suppose I thank you for not allowing me that Enlightenment,” Farsus said.

“Oh, we don’t do it for your sake,” Aberas clarified. “The High Ones would be annoyed having to annihilate offworlders all the time.”

“Ah.”

Corey bit his tongue. Even their gods were racist. Tooley scoffed at the deific bigotry.

“It’d be totally fine with the Seventh Hi-”

Tooley couldn’t even finish the blasphemy before Aberas spun around and slapped her in the face so hard it knocked her to the ground. Corey nearly jumped to her defense, but Kamak had the reflexes to grab him and put him in a headlock before he could make the situation any worse. Farsus further put himself between Corey and Tooley as Aberas grabbed her by the collar and pulled Tooley to her feet.

“You indulge in whatever degeneracy you want when you are offworld,” Aberas hissed. “But this is a sacred place, and I will not tolerate your blasphemy, do you understand? Do you apologize?”

Tooley wiped some dust from the street off her face and glared at Aberas without a word.

“Don’t let your diplomatic connections swell your ego any further,” Aberas said. “You’re not untouchable. In either meaning of the word. You don’t have the temperament of a proper mother, but cut out your tongue and I think Ribad Valen Norin would be happy to have you as a concubine.”

The guard who had mocked her earlier leered at Tooley once again. Corey nearly fought his way out of Kamak’s grip, and Kamak nearly let him.

“Do you understand?” Aberas repeated. “Do you apologize?”

Tooley continued her defiant stare, but a quivering lip betrayed that she recognized her situation. She was no fighter, and the fighters she did have on her side were outgunned.

“I understand my transgressions,” Tooley said. “And I plead penance.”

“Oh, you paid attention in etiquette class, how lovely,” Aberas said. He released his death grip on her collar. “Shame you didn’t put more effort into it. If your soul were half as pleasant as your body, you might’ve made a decent wife.”

Tooley bit her tongue and said nothing. Kamak released Corey and let him go to her side. She was fine, physically. Her ego was the only thing wounded. Aberas continued to lead the march, and Tooley followed. In her head, she started calculating trajectories and velocities necessary to bombard him from orbit and escape the planetary defenses. It would deny her the satisfaction of watching Aberas bleed out personally, but knowing he was dead would be good enough.