Semper Mars(118)

Kaminski’s knees sagged, and his heart gave a surprised leap. If Garroway had wanted to, he could have hit them very hard indeed on the smuggling and reckless-endangerment charges. Conduct prejudicial was the age-old catchall charge, the one that could be stretched or chopped to fit just about anything the commanding officer wanted.

“Now,” Garroway said. “Where did the beer come from in the first place?”

“Uh, we bought it, sir,” Slidell said. “We all chipped in and bought it before we left Earth.”

“Do any of the three of you have anything to say in your own defense?”

“No, sir,” Slidell said.

“We did it, sir,” Fulbert said.

“No excuse, sir,” Kaminski added. He was relieved that Slidell was behaving himself. The guy had a sea lawyer’s attitude that could have gotten them all in real trouble. A couple of hours ago, though, Fulbert and Kaminski together had gone to Slider and told him in no uncertain terms that they weren’t going to go along with his nonsense, not this time. They would take their lumps and not try to wiggle out. Somehow, he didn’t think they could put much of anything over on Major Garroway. The guy was sharp.

“Anybody else have anything to say, one way or the other?”

“Uh, Major,” Captain Barnes said. “I’ll just say that these three are good men and hard workers. Neither Slidell nor Fulbert gave me any trouble while they were assigned here.”

“I’ve taken their records into account, Captain.” He looked at the three, then reached out, picked up the unopened can of beer, and brought it down sharply on the tabletop. “I find you three guilty as charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. All three of you are reduced in rank one grade, and restricted to base, save for necessary military duties, for fourteen days. You are also assigned extra duty for the next fourteen days, at your commanding officer’s discretion. The, ah, contraband, of course, is forfeit.”

Slidell’s face fell at that, but at this point, Kaminski didn’t give a damn about the beer. The major had all but let them off with a slap on the wrist.

“Do any of the three of you have anything to add?” They didn’t.

“Your first assigned extra duty will be to load the contraband—all of it—on board Harper’s Bizarre. Captain Barnes will tell you what needs to be done. Dismissed!”

Fourteen days restriction, when there wasn’t a damned place to go on this planet anyway? A one-grade reduction when enlisted rank was all but meaningless anyway? They’d gotten off scot-free!

Then he realized that he and Fulbert were now the only PFCs in a platoon heavy with corporals and sergeants, a private’s natural enemies.

And two weeks of cleaning out the heads. Maybe they hadn’t gotten off completely free….

1705 HOURS GMT

Garroway

Mars Prime

Candor Chasma

1537 hours MMT

As the three turned and walked away, Alexander unfolded his arms. “You went pretty easy on them, didn’t you, Major?”

“I’ll say he did,” Sergeant Ostrowsky said, laughing. “Being restricted to base on Mars doesn’t mean a damned thing when there’s no place else to go anyway!”

“There’s no real point,” Garroway said. “Technically, I suppose what they did constituted reckless endangerment, but we had a big enough safety margin in what we brought along and in our assigned mass allotment that no harm was done.”

Captain Barnes nodded. “They also didn’t go and get blind drunk, which some in their situation might have done. In fact, about the only thing I see they did that was really reprehensible was the two of them volunteering to come down here and give me a hand.”

“Yes,” Garroway said, grinning, “and in so doing, missing out on getting captured and going for a long walk in the Martian desert.” He shook his head. “I may never forgive them that one.”

“So why the nice-guy routine, Major?” Gunny Knox wanted to know. He rubbed his newly beardless chin. “Hell, back in the old Marines, those three’d’ve been skinned alive and hung out to dry.”

“The way I see it, Gunny, those three have contributed significantly to our effort here. In fact, they may have provided us with exactly what we need to beat Bergerac and his people.”

“What, sir?” Ostrowsky said, puzzled. “We’re going to give the UNers beer in exchange for the colonel?”

“Not quite, Sergeant. But we now have something we need very badly.”

“What’s that, Major?” Alexander asked.

“What every Marine prays for.” Garroway grinned. “Close air support.”