A Spaceman

Chapter 32--Card School of Body Disposal

"How'd you sleep last night?" Tom asks, as we walk to the laundry, our mesh laundry bags slung over our shoulders.

"Quite well, thank you, and you?" I ask. The brig is always nice and peaceful. Especially after a good murder.

"Fine," she says, flatly. Rather flat after our kiss last night. Then again, she could have gotten in trouble as well.

"Did they get you in trouble last night?" I ask.

"No, the MTIs assured me it was your fault," she says, calmly.

"Right, then," I say, shrugging, "Will you kiss me again? Only I quite liked it."

"Shhh---" she hisses, looking around, "Not now."

"Oh why not there's nobody----Kip go away," I say, with a groan, seeing him and Leavitt come around the corner with laundry bags.

"You're supposed to address me as sir or something," Kip says, not at all concerned, as they come upon us.

"Good Morning, sir, where've you been?" Tom asks, politely.

"We've been collecting laundry from the MTIs, apparently we have to do it," Leavitt says, holding two bags of laundry over his shoulders, "Part of the next phase of training."

"Oh, lovely," Tom says, offering to take one.

"And apparently I have to supervise you," Kip says, "Come on, then, at least gets me out of the computer room."

"Right," I say. No kisses for Titus. Okay fine I can live with that. It isn't so very fair. But I can live with it.

"I remember reading that in our OCSMAN," Tom says, nodding to Leavitt, "We'll get Liesel to help us as well, then we'll be done in no time---and, who's Coruscant's leader now that Tyrell is gone?"

"I don't know," Leavitt says, "They didn't have a change of command ceremony---I guess that would be in poor taste."

"They just didn't appoint one," I explain, since I am apparently the only one who'd memorized the OCSMAN, I am going to forget it soon, though, it hasn't been all that helpful so far as brain space went.

"Why do you have to watch us?" Tom asks Kip.

"The MTIs are short handed, Ebbel decided not to report for duty this morning, not that you heard that from me," Kip says.

"Of course not," I say. I already knew.

"We shall have to iron their things, I suppose---I'm rotten at ironing," Leavitt says, as we walk into the laundry room. it's hot, as usual, and a few washing machines churn gently.

"Titus isn't, he can do that bit, and I'm good at rolling things so is Liesel," Tom says, going to an empty washer.

"Oh, thanks," I say, teasingly, tossing my SBUs, grass stained and a bit bloody from murdering Ebbel last night, into a washer. I drop in a packet of soap and turn it on.

"Well you are, you get it nice and neat," Tom says, sitting on top of her washer as Leavitt fiddles with his. He sighs, the one he picked isn't working, he goes to look for another empty one. He doesn't find an empty one.

**

"It smells in here," Kip says, leaning by the door and looking around lazily, "Aren't you guys supposed to clean in here?"

"I did just the other night," I say, opening a washer. The smell hits me before the sight does. For a half a second, I think it's just crumpled up clothes and SBUs. Then I realize it isn't. It so isn't.