William Forstchen - Article 23

"And if you can't take it, plebe, ship out now!" Seay shouted, and Alice finally straightened back up. "That'll be double watch tonight, four hours straight, midnight to four, do you read me?"

"Yes, sir!" and Justin felt a wave of pity. She'd get less than two hours sleep tonight before having to fall out for the first day of classes. A bad first day could set her up for the whole semester.

"All right, you ship's rats. One hour till chow.

Make sure your rooms are shipshape or Weak Knees here will have company on watch. Fall out!"

Brian swept down the corridor; everyone was silent until he finally turned the corner and disappeared.

"Boy, he's even worse than this summer," Matt groaned, leaning forward and letting his knees bend. "And I thought he was gonna be

OK."

"Never trust an upper."

Justin turned and looked at his new roommate and nodded in half-agreement.

"Well, lets get squared away," Matt suggested as he opened the door and led the way into their room. Justin stepped in and looked around. It was slightly bigger than the room he had shared with Matt and Pradeep during the summer, with two double bunks lining one wall, four desks and the holo field on a second, and the closets occupying the third. Justin and Matt had already flipped for who got top or lower Matt won, a decided plus for him since lower bunks tended to get sat upon by visitors.

"Hey, Uncle, what's been happening?" Matt asked as he headed for his bunk and started to unfold his linens to make his bed. The holo computer field on the opposite wall lit up.

"Cadet Everett, good to see you back," Uncle replied. "And I see Cadets Singh, Bell, and Colson as well."

Justin looked over at his new roommate as the computer announced who he was. Colson nodded. There was something familiar about the name but he couldn't quite place it.

"Now as to your question, Matt, about what is happening? If you are referring to the overall state of the universe, there have been two supernovas sighted in Andromeda. Within our own Milky Way, a most curious change of pulse rate in a quasar was reported yesterday. Within our solar system"

"Relax, Uncle," Matt chortled, "I mean, just with you. You know, the old human greeting, 'what's new'? "

"Ah, with me. It's been decidedly boring with nearly everyone gone until this morning. My human support team installed ten thousand tril new holo cubes into my deep-core memory while you were away. Wonderful feeling, sort of like stretching and finding more room. I also received an upload of 19th-century photographs, several hundred thousand of them. Fascinating, you humans back in your primitive days. I even uploaded a new archive of early movies from your 1930s and 40s I love Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. That's about all. I take it you enjoyed your trip to Earth?"

Matt launched into a description of his experiences and Justin, smiling, half-listened to the embellishments surrounding their canoe trip down Sugar Creek, the visit to the Purdue Campus, and walks through Indiana cornfields.

"Sounds like you really liked Earth," Colson suddenly interrupted.

"Yeah, never been there before," Matt replied. "Kind of strange to have a steady gravity, and a bit of a closed-in feeling. But I loved the smells in the air, especially when we had a barbecue, and the sound of the birds singing the hour before dawn. And dawn I never imagined such colors, the oranges and reds streaking the sky. The thun-derstorms and the rainbow afterwards, it was great."

Colson nodded tolerantly. "So the colonial boy finally gets back to the center of things."

"What do you mean?" Justin asked cautiously.

"Just that. It's good for offworlders to come back to Earth and realize where the center and power of things truly are."

"Say, Colson," Pradeep interrupted. "It's Wendell Colson III, isn't it?"

Golson nodded.

'Tour father's on the Space Security Council."

"The same."

Matt looked at him closely, his face darkening.

"And your family owns Colson Construction, don't they?"

"What of it?"

Justin looked over at Matt and sensed something building.

"Just that they make the worst damn habitat units and ship pods in the system."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Colson replied coolly.

"Just that," Matt snapped back. "Substandard construction. Gasket seals prematurely aging and blowing. You people knew about it, should have issued recalls, but didn't."

"That was all cleared up." Colson answered as if Matt were barely worth talking to. "I don't see why you're getting all upset."

"Upset?" Matt snapped back. "Me upset? Wouldn't you be upset if your pod blew and your parents shoved you into an airlock, then stayed on the other side because the three of you couldn't survive in that tiny room, and you were there for weeks watching them float in vacuum?"

Matt's voice went up sharply and he drew closer to Colson. Justin stepped between them.

"Investigations cleared my family of any wrong doing," Colson replied sharply.

Justin could see the rage in Matt's eyes and understand it. Yet he knew it was unfair to blame someone his own age for an incident that happened years ago.

"Cool it down, Matt," Justin said, pushing him back. He looked at Matt, and to his surprise he could see tears forming. "Cool it," Justin whispered, "it's not his fault."

Matt nodded and started to lower his head.

"And besides," Colson offered, "it was most likely their own damn fault anyhow that they got killed."

Matt surged back up again. Justin turned to face Colson, struggling with the desire to simply let Matt go.

"That was uncalled-for," Pradeep now interjected. "So both of you, calm down."

"Calm? Of course I'm calm," Colson replied smoothly. "Just keep that sailor boy away from me. Offworlders, they're all alike, always ready to blame their woes on those who do the real work."

"Just what is that crack supposed to mean?" Justin asked,

"Why, it's obviously the truth, Bell," Colson snapped back.

"Elaborate on this?" Pradeep asked softly. "I'm curious."

Justin looked back at Matt, who was staring with cold rage at Colson.

"He isn't worth it," Justin whispered. "Hit him and you're out of here. Now go to the head, cool off and then come back" Justin pushed Matt to the door. Matt started to turn, but to his own surprise Justin actually managed to shove him out into the corridor.

Matt started back for the door, but Justin stopped him.

"Look, you can't blame Mr. Stuck-up, in there for what happened to your parents."

"Yeah, I know. I was off the handle, but what he said about them killing themselves. That's what got me."

"I understand. But we've got to live with each other."

"Well, there's more. His old man is one of the guys really stoking this crisis."

"How so?"

"He's on the Security Council Board for Space. He's the guy calling everyone out here ungrateful traitors and pushing for the Service to preemptively intervene at any colony where known separatist leaders might be located."

Surprised, Justin looked back to the room. The door was half-open and Pradeep and Colson were obviously in a hot debate.

"That would be war," Justin said.

"Darn straight, and Justin between us, it'd throw me over to their side once and for all."

Justin looked back into the room and thought he saw a flicker of interest from Colson. The cadet half-turned away from Pradeep, and then turned back.

"Well, the Service would never buy it," Justin whispered. "That's a straight-out violation of freedom of speech. You can't arrest someone for saying a change of government or in the status of the colonies is needed. Only if they move to overthrow the government, only then."

"Tell that to Colson the third in there," Matt snapped. "He's a chip off the old block, it seems. Beyond that, his family did kill many a good sailor. The investigation showed that they knew the seals were degrading quicker than the specs said, but they never issued a recall since it would have cost them millions. So the seals blew, dozens died, and they managed to cover it up."