His heart thumped against his ribs. His skin prickled, the back of his neck tingling as R's fingers rested on his chest.

He might have blamed the nature of what R was, the risk involved with getting so close. The grisly picture the boy's face painted, so broken and bloody, but it was the stare that weighted him. Frank and unblinking.

He could almost hear the question in his head. The accusation. The concern.

Thickly, he swallowed, Adam's Apple lurching in his throat.

"I don't like it, R. Life an' death, it ain't a game. It's a decision that shouldn't be left up to any one man... but here, in this place..." He glanced away, at the dark alien trees, the pool of light creeping closer across the wet earth. "I can't see much other choice. Not when it comes down to him er them."

He turned back, blue eyes meeting R's pale ones again. A heavy stare. Decided.

"We all got er lines, an' that's mine. Wrong er right, I ain't gonna risk their lives, for his."