Karla knew this was just a memory. Knew there was nothing that she could do. Knew that she just had to sit there and endure, same as Tahiri.

Karla wasn't good at just accepting things.

She was crying, now, she couldn't help it. Every time those creatures--Karla couldn't bear to think of them as anything but that, not even wanting to claim the slight kinship of consifering them female--came for Tahiri, Karla would try to interpose herself, swatting them away, putting shields between them and Tahiri. It didn't work of course. Nothing did. But Karla couldn't stop trying.