A Spaceman

Chapter 18--And now back to Kepler

"You do realize you're being charged with not only entering space areas illegally, but also failure to follow orders, which amounts to treason, endangering a citizen as well as a minor, you're court martialed as well as out of Space Forces foreve?," I say, folding my arms as I stand over the bed.

"Yes, ma'am," Alexander says, nodding. He and I are in the hospital, where he's been for the last week not only suffering from pressurization sickness but also being treated for acid he got on himself helping Clarisse Slaughter as well as some sort of injury he got fighting with Quinn which was what it took to get Quinn to go with him. I've only just been allowed to see him.

"What you did was very stupid," I say.

"Yes, ma'am," he says, nodding, as he sits up straighter, he's under doctors orders to remain in bed with the IV for at least a few more hours.

"But it was also very brave," I say, with a slight smile, "And thanks to you we now have Starr back, when we might not have since he could have been killed. And thanks to you and Tess we have more information than we had before and if we had waited for support he'd have been gone, so, yeah, all in all, it's not going to be too bad for you. This all unofficial but, since we know why you did what you did, and you wouldn't be a great officer if you hadn't done what you did, so Commander Hawking is going to get you off as best she can. It's not all put through yet but, you're out, obviously, but no prison time, we should be able to get you off with community service hours and a fine or something like that."

"Thank you, ma'am," he says, smiling. He's so stupid, just a kid. A good, honest kid. I want to smile back but I remain stern.

"Your sister's come, she's put up bail for you, and says you can live with her till you get set, so once the doctors are done with you can go home with her if that's what you want," I say. His sister, a rather frazzled girl a bit younger than him, had loyally set bail and remained an unthinkable number of hours camped out in the hospital waiting to see him.

"Yes, thank you," he says, nodding, "But---can I ask, or can I see Lt. Starr? What are they doing with him?"

"He's under observations, in your initial statement, you said he seemed to be under the influence of drugs," I confirm.

"Yeah, he was talking nonsense," he says.

"It's possible, we couldn't determine anything you see, what the doctors are telling us is, that, it appears he's been given a blood transfusion, of something other than blood, we don't know what but it appears to be the same stuff as the brain washing victims," I say, as gently as I can.

"What do you mean?" North asks, worriedly, "You mean, he's not going to be all right?"

"We don't know the toll it will take on his system, they can't treat him with anything, he seems to get sicker no matter what fluids or anything they give him. he's refused all food. He's asking to see you, that's all," I say, grimly, "it doesn't look good, because of his time in captivity, he's definitely a suspect."

"What's going to be done with him?" Alexander asks.

"As you know we're at Milton SFB, so he's under lock and key for a while, they're going to keep running tests but, yeah, he's not going to be released in the foreseeable future," I say.

"He's going to be locked up like some kind of animal," he says, sadly, looking down.

"Unfortunately, that is the case. We're trying to make him more comfortable, but he's not resting at all for us," I say, "I return to the Capital day after tomorrow, once Commander Hawking and I conclude interviews here."

"How are the girls?" he asks, "They won't even let me see them."

"Nobody's interviewed them yet, but Clarisse is same situation as you, she's a minor so no fine or anything, she'll be set up with a civilian job. She says she can go home to her parents but we'll still give her house allowance for a bit," I say.