William Forstchen - Article 23

"Remember, that gets read to us before every chapel or assembly. He read it to us before we embarked."

"There's no official emergency," Justin whispered and his voice trailed off. MacKenzie was claiming that just such a message had been partially received before communications were lost. Beyond that, they were heading into a sector where a military action might very well be under way at this very moment.

"That's nuts. Hey, he might be crazy, but he isn't completely off his rocker. He harms one hair on your head and his career is zero, finished, and he knows that. You don't just go around hanging cadets from the yardarm in this day and age."

'They don't hang them, they space them," Matt replied and tried to force a smile. "Hey, I'm a member of the Vacuum Breathers' club, remember, so it won't be anything new to me."

"Just relax," Justin said. "And try to keep the others cheered up. They look up to you."

"Yeah, right, I think I landed most of them in hot water as it is."

"Look, buddy, they see you as the leader, and so do I. If you lose heart we're all sunk."

Matt smiled.

"You still my friend after this?"

Justin punched him lightly on the shoulder.

Matt grabbed Justin's hand and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Thanks, buddy, it's good to know I still have at least one friend in this crazy universe."

Justin squeezed Matt's hand, embarrassed and not sure what to say.

"I'll be back later with more food. You just hang in there."

"Ain't going no place else." Matt tried to laugh, but it came out hollow.

Returning to the main deck, he was surprised to see that the lounge area was cleared, the ship as silent as a tomb. On his way down the corridor he saw doorways open, cadets inside, some studying, most just whispering among themselves. He wasn't surprised when O'Brian reached out from the galley and grabbed him, saying loudly, " Bell, I need help in here."

As Justin slid the door shut he saw Tanya, her face wan, and even more to his surprise, Flight Lieutenant Hemenez was there.

" Hemenez here is down to pick up some food," O'Brian announced loudly, "now move lively and heat those containers up. We can't keep the Captain waiting."

Justin drew closer.

"How are they?" Hemenez asked.

"Pretty scared."

"They should be," she hissed.

O'Brian made a show of noisily pulling out containers of food and stacking them up while humming loudly to the music blaring from the computer.

"What's going on?" Justin asked.

"Article Twenty-Three," Tanya interjected.

"I know, that's the one he cited when he arrested Matt and Madison."

"No, the last part," Hemenez stated. "He needs to force agreement from the other officers according to the regulations."

"For what?" Justin asked nervously.

"The Captain wants to execute Matt and the other eight cadets!"

Try as he might, Justin couldn't get to sleep; the net felt like a trap, closing him in.

"Tanya, you awake?" he finally whispered.

"Yeah, can't sleep either."

In the darkness he could barely see her as she unzipped from her net. Soft music filled the room Justin recognized it as Prince Igor. He unzipped, then floated over by her side and settled down.

"What are we going to do, Tanya?" he sighed.

"I don't know any more, I'm scared, Justin, really scared."

"Still think this is a simulation?"

"Well, if it is, I wish to hell Thorsson would pop the hatch and come in. This is going too damn far."

"Too damn far," Justin agreed.

" MacKenzie is off his rocker. We both know Matt and the others are innocent."

"We know, but he sure doesn't. I think he was just waiting for a chance to do something like this. Getting cut off, then Colson running and squealing like a stuck pig. MacKenzie wants vengeance, wants to prove something. Colson gave him the excuse to act."

"But vengeance on who, Justin? Matt Everett? He wouldn't harm a fly."

"O'Brian told me a lot about his wife. Maybe it's that. I don't know there's something really weird about him when it comes to cadets our age. Maybe something happened when he was a kid and now it's playing back out.

"I've been reading that book he assigned to me. I can understand what he sees in it, Ahab believing that he sees an evil no one else can comprehend. Enlisting his crew, even the virtuous Starbuck to destroy what he hates. I think what's left of his rational thinking is convinced that executing Matt and the others will show firmness to the rest of the Fleet. It will force the crisis out into the open, and then let the cards fall where they may. He has no patience for the slow approach like Thorsson. He wants it settled now."

"But he must know Matt is innocent."

"No, he doesn't. He's got this sick obsession with people our age. Convinced nearly all of us are deceitful, untrustworthy. Every school always seems to have a teacher like that, always lurking, trying to catch somebody and thereby prove themselves correct. So Matt and the others fit the bill for the crimes MacKenzie imagines."

"And he takes in the one sniveling rat who really is untrustworthy. Has anyone tried to talk to Colson?"

Justin shook his head. "He can't be reached. He lives up in officer country now. Guess MacKenzie, or Colson figures that if he wandered around back here with us low- lifes he'd get torn apart."

"I think I'd kill him myself if I could," Tanya hissed.

Justin was startled by the hatred in her voice. This whole thing was going completely out of control on both sides. It was strange how only days ago they were all straight and proper cadets, at least on the surface. It only took several days aboard this ship, with its fear and mistrust and a little discomfort thrown in due to the anti-radiation suits, and everyone was supping over the edge.

Their classes always emphasized honor, self-sacrifice, and the unspoken acceptance of the concept that one would willingly lay down his life for a comrade or for anyone in peril. Yet it didn't take long to change all that around. Those not arrested were cowed, divided into whispering groups.

He wondered if senior cadets would have behaved the same way. Petronovich seemed to have sided with the Captain. Did that therefore mean that in some perverted way the Captain was right after all? He wrestled with that thought. Petronovich had gone all the way through the Academy, and had done so with honor. He was a friend of Brian Seay's, and though everyone might grumble about Brian, Justin knew that he himself would not hesitate to follow the senior cadet's lead.

He wondered if Brian would have sided with MacKenzie or offered some resistance. Some inner voice told him that if Brian had been aboard this ship, chances were he'd be down below locked up with the others. Everything MacKenzie had done so far was a violation of Fleet Procedures singling out offworld cadets, the strange questioning, acting after listening only to Colson and no one else, the manner of Matt's arrest and the interviews afterwards, and above all else the decision to execute the nine cadets without benefit of a formal hearing. No, Brian would be down in the brig.

So how did it get to this? Was most of humanity made up of sheep that cower and turn their heads the moment a wolf emerges? History seemed to show that was the case; in fact, many preferred the wolf especially when he singled out a target that was unpopular with some.

Yet we are the generation of space, at least that's what Thorsson keeps preaching. The disdain MacKenzie showed for Thorsson Justin wondered if in fact the Academy was in a dream, and the attitude of MacKenzie was more the norm. If so, what then of honor and comradeship? He remembered Thorsson's story of Confederate Sergeant Kirkland who, during the Battle of Fredericksburg, dropped his rifle, took the canteens from his friends, and crawled out into the open to give water to wounded Union soldiers. Thorsson had dwelt on that, asking if they could reach the same level, to risk their lives to give comfort to a fallen enemy.