Breaking Ranks

Samantha: Sitting in Judgment

The bag rustled again, grating at my ears, as if the smell wasn't bad enough. Finally I turned around and glared. "Are you two eating popcorn?"

Potter gave me a surprised look. "Yeah. Why not? It's a good show."

We were in the break room now, all padded chairs and displays and clinical sterility. Well, aside from the drink cans and popcorn littering the table. Kaltran belched as Potter offered some popcorn. I waved it aside.

"Seems a bit wrong to just be eating here as people are fighting and dying down below," I said after a moment.

Kaltran shrugged. "Oh, they're always up to shit like that. You get used to it."

I wasn't sure that I liked that thought. But this was the life I had chosen, wasn't it? Sitting in judgment over the passengers did mean watching over them, after all. And it wasn't as though we could stop all the fighting. I mean, we couldn't, could we? The Empire could barely even control the Inner Core, though it wasn't something you could talk about.

"They're just barbarians, anyway," Potter said.

"But haven't we made them barbarians? What if we let them know the truth? Would they still be barbarians then?"

Potter grimaced as if this discussion pained him. "You think too much, Samantha. Have a drink."

"I think I'll pass."

A chime sounded, and the sergeant entered through the sliding door. He wore a plain gray shirt ringed with sweat and had clearly just come from the attached fitness center. He quirked an eye at Kaltran and Potter. "Is that popcorn?"

Kaltran chuckled. "That's just what she said. Want some?"

Sergeant Gunnarson ignored him, looking around the room. "Where's Henderson?"

"He's in the restroom," Potter said, watching the scene below him. "Hey Kaltran, want to make a bet? I bet the attackers can take the town."

"We're supposed to be ready to deploy within five minutes if we have to," Sergeant Gunnarson groused to himself. "Is he taking a nap in there?"

He stalked out of the room and I breathed a sigh of relief. I never liked having him around. Kaltran and Potter were like two overgrown boys but at least they didn't outrank me. They might still call me rookie, from time to time, but we'd all earned our places here the same way.

"Take it now or take it in general?" Kaltran asked.

"Tonight, let's say," Potter said, tossing popcorn in his mouth. "I bet they can take the city tonight."

"Alright, you're on. Four ration credits?"

"Yeah, four rations."

Silence fell as we watched the scene for a moment. The attackers had hit one of the walls hard all of a sudden, and in an hour's fighting had pushed their way into the city in one sector. Yet sluggish though the response seemed, a column of cavalry had made their way through the narrow streets and were now fighting the intruders to a standstill. The battle seemed a mess, nothing clean or orderly about it. In one section in the very middle the defenders actually still held the wall, and it seemed as though the enemy had decided to simply flow around that point. I zoomed in out of curiosity but the quality was too poor to make out individual figures.

"Who wins the bet if they negotiate a truce?" I asked after a moment. Like one they swiveled to face me, their faces looking vaguely astonished. Potter spoke up after a moment.

"Huh, I hadn't thought of that."

A chime sounded, and Kaltran turned to look at it. It was his data slate and he turned the alarm off. "We're off duty in ten minutes." He stretched and yawned. "Kind of want to see how this assault turns out. Oh well," he said, gathering up the empty drink cans in his big arms and trotting off.

"Hey Sam, do you have plans after this?" Potter asked, his voice strangely hesitant.

I yawned like Kaltran. "Yeah, shit, shower, shave. Then sleep like the dead. Why?"

"Ah. Yeah, me too."

I rubbed my eyes, trying to keep myself from yawning again. I tried to think of how long I had been awake. I had snatched a few hours of sleep in the forest but it seemed like the lieutenant wanted us constantly moving when we were on the ground. I thought my endurance had been good but this was going to take some getting used to.

Not to mention, I still didn't feel comfortable with what we'd done to those refugees. I've never claimed to be an especially compassionate person. Never had the urge to train in the Medical Section or join the periodic medical relief expeditions that made their way belowdecks under flag of truce to treat a few unfortunate underdeckers and pass out birth control. But still.

There was enforcing Regulations on the Mutineers, and then there was executing a few people huddling together for comfort. Just didn't seem the same to me.

"So why even ask," I said to Potter.

He busied himself by cleaning up the fallen popcorn. "Yeah."