Free John Maddox Roberts - Spacer: Window of Mind by John Maddox Roberts

encountered. Then she reminded herself that she didn't trust smiles. He glanced over her shoulder. "Ah, here comes the director to collect me. It seems I must go." He gave her a courtly bow and actually took her hand and kissed it. It didn't even occur to her to whip out a knife. "I hope we'll be seeing a lot of each other."
    She watched his retreating, caped back. Down, girl, she thought. This is the last thing you need.
    4
    "Hey, Tor, what do you know about court-martials?" Kiril and Torwald were walking aft through the hold towards the engine room. Michelle had decided that, since the thrusters were idle during their long haul to the edge of the system in the hold of the TFCS, Kiril could now go back and learn something of the engineering section.
    "The correct plural is 'courts-martial,' " said Torwald.
    "Don't be a pain. Come on, how do they work?"
    "Why the sudden interest?"
    "It's that schturtzl Izquierda. He's probably got it in for us, right? And it's because of this military trial, right? So I'd like to find out as much about this mess a? I can. After all. my neck's on the block, too."
    "All right," said Torwald with exaggerated patience, "just to set your mind at ease. A general court martial, the kind that tried Izquierda, is a board consisting of a varying number of officers, depending on what's available under wartime conditions. There's no jury. The senior officer is president of the court. There's a prosecutor, usually an officer from the JAG corps."
    "JAG?"
    "Judge Advocate General. And there's a defense attorney. In an emergency, though, any officer can be appointed to defend or prosecute. When the arguments are over, the board votes guilty or not guilty. Majority decides. In case of a tie, the president casts the deciding vote. They can drag on for weeks, but I've sat on courts held during battles and sieges that lasted a few minutes. A general court can order any punishment, including execution."
    "If that court found Izquierda guilty of what he did, why didn't they just stand him up against a wall and shoot him?"
    "They should have. However, if conditions permit, they have to allow the defendant time to appeal to a higher court. Izquierda appealed all the way to the Council and got off. I didn't hear about the incident or the trial until after the War, like most people. By the time Izquierda got his appeal through, people were sick of the War and just wanted to put it behind them. He must have counted on that."
    They came to a big hatch marked Engine Room. Torwald stuck his head inside and called out: "Ahoy, the black gang." Kiril shook her head. Spacers were full of archaic forms and usages. It seemed silly to hear that someone on a fairly modern space ship should have to hail the engine crew with a phrase from the ancient, coal-driven ocean vessels. They were a proud and touchy lot, though, so she kept her opinions to herself.
    Inside, she looked about with interest. The bulkheads, where they were not covered with readout plates, were white and immaculate. Towards the stern two pits housed the thrusters employed to get the ship clear of the solar system. Slung between them was a huge cone, its apex pointed towards the nose of the ship. Its tip was transparent, and inside she could see suspended a metallic mobius band.
    "What's that?" she asked, pointing toward the cone.
    "That's the Whooppee drive generator," said Achmed. The Arab sat next to Lafayette on a bench below a worktable. The two had disassembled an esoteric piece of apparatus and were cleaning it with tiny sonic disrupters. "This is the Fuel Flow Regulator, Kiril," Achmed continued. "It controls the flow of nuclear fuel to the two thrusters and makes sure they stay in balance." He pointed out the various parts of the instrument, and Kiril soaked it all up, fascinated. Torwald sat down and picked up a brush and a bottle of solvent and began helping the engineers. Work and instruction went on for an hour. Achmed did most of the talking.