Gap [1] The Real Story: The Gap into Conflict by Stephen R. Donaldson

looked at her features closely. Just to see what she would do, he ran the tips of his fingers along her cheek. She closed her eyes as if she were fighting a need to vomit.
    Grinning, he stepped back. “You hungry?”
    She opened her eyes and stared dismay at him.
    “Want to get up and move around?”
    No answer except dismay.
    “Want to get clean?”
    That reached her. A tiny hope twisted her mouth, and her eyes filled with tears.
    “Good.” He folded his arms, rested them on his belly. He was going to enjoy this. “Tell me what you did to them.”
    She surprised him. Something that looked like anger shone out through her tears; the muscles of her jaw knotted. In a voice so cracked and worn he could hardly hear it, she said, “You bastard. If you’re going to kill me, do it. Don’t make me lie here like this.”
    He wanted to hit her. That also would have been enjoyable. But he refrained because he wasn’t ready to go that far yet. She was still wearing a suit.
    Grinning again, he leaned closer to her and rasped, “You’re right. I’m a bastard. The worst bastard you’ll ever meet. And I’m going to let you lie there and stink until you tell me what you did to them. You had your guns all lined up. You were going to blast me apart. Then you crashed.
    “I want to know why. What did you do?”
    The memory hurt her. He was glad to see that. She turned her head as far away as she could inside the EVA suit. Tears dripped past her nose.
    Angus sucked his upper lip for a moment, then asked, “What’s your name?”
    She still didn’t speak. Probably trying to be tough. Or maybe she assumed he already knew the answer. After all, he must have seen the badge on her shipsuit.
    Roughly he reached one hand to her neck and jerked up her id tag. His computer could have read her entire public file from that tag, but all he wanted was the name.
    “Morn Hyland. Captain Davies motherfucking Hyland was your father. That right?”
    Now she was crying with her mouth as well as her eyes.
    “I shot him. But he was dead anyway.” Angus bent over her, whispered in her ear. “His ship crashed. He was going to die no matter what happened. I didn’t cause that. I didn’t have anything to do with it. It was your doing.
    “What did you do to them?”
    And she still didn’t speak. For the second time, he wanted to hit her. But that could wait. Instead he did something out of character. Without realizing it—entirely without realizing it—he took another small step along the course of his doom. He tried to explain himself.
    Almost softly, he said, “You know who I am. What I’ve got to lose. You know I can’t afford to let you loose until I know what I’m up against. I can’t do anything for you until I know what kind of danger you represent.”
    Almost gently, he returned her tag, then put a hand on her chin and turned her face toward him.
    The stark horror was back in her eyes.
    Her whisper was faraway and forlorn, lost in darkness. “I initiated self-destruct. From the auxiliary bridge.”
    His fingers clamped onto her jaw as if he could force her to tell the truth. He thrust his face close to hers. “You did what?”
    “We were chasing you.” Her gaze didn’t react to his proximity: the things that appalled her were so bright she couldn’t register anything else. “Dodging asteroids. G was awful. I thought we were going to break up. I was at my station. Auxiliary bridge. I thought the straps on my seat were going to tear. Or I was going to rupture.
    “Then it stopped.
    “I could see you on the screens. But I didn’t care. You destroyed that mining camp. I’d already seen you kill all those miners. I didn’t care. I should have cared, but I didn’t. The whole inside of my head was different.
    “I was floating, and everything was clear. Like a vision. It was like the universe spoke to me. I got the message, the truth.” Her stare remained fixed; but now she had to fight to keep her sobs down. “The