William Forstchen: Article 23

His words echoed in the assembly hall like the crack of a rifle.

"If I hear of any cadet, staff, or faculty member who uses the word 'traitor' or otherwise attacks a shipmate for supporting either side, I can promise you that you will have a very swift passage home. Do I make myself clear on this?"

No one in the audience even dared to move. In his brief exposure to Thorsson over the summer Justin had come to regard the man as a stern but kindly grandfather. Now he was seeing another side, one that was as hard as steel, and, if needs be, capable of bringing down a career without batting an eye.

"I want to make something clear here and now. I pray to God every day that this crisis shall pass us by; that together we can go forward and explore space." He paused, and he leaned forward as if speaking personally to each cadet.

"But if that should not be, if in the weeks, months and years ahead this crisis should spin out of control and we find ourselves arrayed against each other, I want you to remember what I have said today more clearly than anything else you ever learn here at the Academy."

His voice dropped to a near-whisper and all present strained forward so as not to miss a single word.

"We were comrades, we are comrades, and we shall always remain comrades. Never forget that never!" said Thorsson, and his voice echoed in the assembly hall. "If on some terrible distant field of conflict you should find yourself facing those with whom you once served if you look across that open stretch of space and on the other side are comrades with whom you once bunked, shared a meal, and knew without hesitation that you'd share your last sip of water, your last gasp of air if that day should ever come, remember what we were here this morning. That we few were once shipmates, united in common cause. You will have to do your duty, as your training commands, and as your moral obligation requires, but do it with honor.

"And know that all conflicts end none can go on forever. There will come a day when you will have to bind up the wounds, care for the injured, orphaned, and widowed among your own comrades-in-arms. And then, together, continue the quest to the stars.

"If you live by that pledge, if you temper yourselves to honor, to charity and yes, to love, no conflict will ever divide you. Such things will pass, and I suspect that it will be you who shall make them pass if you remember. For there is a higher calling for all of you and that calling is simple it is a single word, and that is Destiny.

"You, the generations of the 21st century, are destined to save humankind from its follies on Earth, and the follies it contemplates on its path to the stars."

His words drifted away into silence. Justin felt a curious stinging in his eyes, and was embarrassed until he looked around and saw more than one of his classmates on the edge of tears as well. Thorsson surveyed his audience, his eyes shining.

"Good luck to all of you, and God bless you."

"Ship's company, attenshun!"

Justin came to his feet with the others and stood at rigid attention as Thorsson stepped down from the podium to stand with the faculty. Minutes later, to the barked commands of the upperclassmen, Justin filed out of the assembly hall and double-timed down the long corridors towards the first-year plebe barracks. He thought he knew the ship but was soon completely lost as they were led to a distant section that had been off limits during the summer session. Sector F-7, Deck Nine, with. 41 gravity. For Justin the gravity felt decidedly pleasant, but he could see more than one of the offworlders, especially those who had lived on the Moon or in zero-gravity environments, huffing a bit under the strain.

At last he started to recognize some of the side corridors, having passed through them briefly earlier in the day to drop off his gear. Turning into Corridor T, he and Matt came to the door of their room and, stopping on either side, the two snapped to attention.

Several minutes passed before Brian Seay appeared and stopped at the end of the corridor. The last of the cadets came racing past, looking nervously over at Brian as they stumbled into place by their rooms. Justin brightened as he saw Pradeep, their third roommate from the summer, fall into place beside them. Finally a cadet he vaguely recognized as having been with another company during scrub summer came and joined them. Justin gave him a sidelong glance. The cadet was tall and thin, with pale blue eyes and a look he found disquieting. It was a vague, undefinable something, a certain way of walking, an air of superior disdain, as if he were already a senior cadet forced to associate with mere plebes. The cadet gave Justin a sidelong glance, not friendly, but not hostile, either.

"All right, plebes, listen up and listen good."

Brian now started to walk slowly down the corridor.

"You are now Company A, Second Battalion, first-year plebes. Heaven knows how you made it this far just looking at you makes me want to get sick, turn in my stripes and jump ship with the first ore carrier heading out."

Brian started into his harangue about how disgusting, miserable, nauseating, and generally unpleasant they all were. In the distance Justin could hear echoes from other corridors, as company commanders from other units launched into similar tirades. At the beginning of the summer it had left him shaking and darn near in tears more than once; as Brian stopped in front of him, he felt a bit of the gut churn, and braced himself.

Brian fixed him with an icy gaze of disdain, as if he were looking at a loathsome insect. "Ah, the brains of the outfit," Brian snapped. "Passed Intro to Astro — Navigation by one point. Good heavens, Bell, if that stretched your pea brain, I can promise you that first-year Astro-Nav will make sure I don't have to look at your ugly face again come next semester. Boy, you are nothing but a hick from the cornfields of Indiana and when I'm done with you, you'll wish you had stayed there."

He continued on, harassing Matt over his accent, and then moved on, attempting to make life miserable for everyone. Half an hour later, after chewing everyone out, he went through the ritual of reading the ship's General Orders "Article Twenty-Three, If any member of the Service while aboard an active-duty ship conspires to commit mutiny, and such offense occurs in a time of war or emergency mobilization, the commanding officer shall have, within his powers, the right and privilege to summarily execute the offender, by agreement of those staff officers on board who are in good standing, if the actions of the offender do jeopardize the safety of the ship or mission of that ship. If a member of the Service under those above listed conditions should strike an officer, the punishment shall be summary execution with the agreement of those staff officers on board who are in good standing.' "

"Article Twenty-four"

Justin had heard the Articles, all twenty-five of them read off at every Sunday service, and he was expected to know all of them by heart. But there was something chilling about the ritual, which he knew dated back hundreds of years to the old sailing days of the British Royal Navy.

The reading completed, Brian waited for several minutes as if hoping that someone had to sneeze, twitch, or move. He was looking for a victim to make an example of. Justin knew that for some of the offworlders standing at attention in half-gravity must be agony, and someone finally buckled, leaning forward with a low moan. Justin shot a quick glance down the corridor as Brian closed in on the offender. It was Alice McKay, a cadet from one of the orbital colonies, and Seay launched into her so that she was in tears. Justin looked past her and finally saw the girl who had caused him so much troubled thought, Tanya Leonov. She was standing next to Alice, her eyes straight ahead.