A Spaceman

Chapter 38--She hasn't got a lot to say

"Really? Do you feel better now? Really?" Wilde was less than pleased to be woken by two bloody cadets and one neat one. I was nearly livid to be woken by Wilde, two bloody cadets, and one neat one. "We have another dead person here now. IA might as well just open a branch right here --- as often as you three find bodies."

"Ma'am, I'm sorry," Leavitt feels bad.

"Ma'am, I didn't mean to kill her," Tom says.

"Ma'am, I've got it all recorded," guess who said that. just guess.

"Of course you do," I say. I'm in no mood to be formal.

"Okay, I'll ask, how and why?" Harris is leaning in the doorway, looking tired and disgusted.

"Sir, Leavitt said I make noise in my sleep so I was recording it to study," Card says.

"You were seriously going to watch a video of you sleeping?" Harris asks.

"Yes sir, I don't get to be there when I'm sleeping so I thought it'd be interesting," Card says.

"Of course you did," I say.

"Tom you admit you did strangle her?" Wilde asks.

"Yes, ma'am. she was threatening cadets Card and Leavitt with the gun and knife I was afraid for their lives," Tom says.

"Okay---how did he get fully dressed when you two are still in PT?" I ask, gesturing at Card.

"Sir, he got dressed while I finished fighting her, sir in his defense he also got me the first aid kit," Tom says.

"Sir, in his condemnation he didn't untie me," Leavitt says.

"Cadet Leavitt, why is that such a calamity still? You weren't being raped anymore," Card says.

"Cadet Card if it has to be explained to you---"

"Okay, stop talking," I say, waving a hand at all of them. I seriously need a drink. Maybe after this Hawking will let me have one.

"All right, all three of you go with Harris, he'll get you clean things to change into with the exception of Card who is already clean, you're spending the night in another dorm for now, we'll get IA to close off the scene, no Cadet Card you cannot have the tablet back in the foreseeable future since there is a crime recorded on it you'll be issued another one," she says the last bit when Titus looks crestfallen and glances at his bunk where his precious tablet lies quietly recording all this idiocy. Leavitt was right he did love the thing. Didn't mean less bodies for us though. hmm, maybe he isn't the anti-Christ. You know, maybe he is. maybe he isn't.

"Yes, ma'am," they say, in unison, doing their best to step out of the room without stepping on the body or in the blood.

"Right, I'll go and get IA," Wilde says.

"I'm going to a bar."

"You're coming with me."

"I'm going to a bar."

"You're coming with me."

"Yeah, I'm going to a bar."

"You're coming with me."

"Really think I'm going to a bar."

"You're coming with me."

Needless to say I go with her.

**

"Any idea why she did it?" I ask, as I lead the cadets out of the dorms. Leavitt and Card look depressed about that. Poor things they were probably liking having their own room, city trash that they were they'd probably shared a room with more than one other person most of their lives. Now it's covered in blood. Oh well.