"It's all right," says Corliss. "Perhaps it is for the best, you know. Efaen has every right to have a say in what happens to her own body. I can certainly understand that she's upset." A coy smile plays on his face. "You'd better not touch me, though. She's sworn to kill me if we come in contact."
---
Myitt steps up the ramp, covering her mouth with her elbow and coughing.
"Boy, you aren't kidding," she says hoarsely, wiping her stinging eyes as she follows Tora into the smoking cabin. She steps into the cramped storage space, squatting and lifting a cardboard flat of canned vegetables.
"Urgh," she grunts, starting to complain about how Tara's back will not appreciate this in the morning, but it dissolves into another fit of coughing.