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turned, knowing he shouldn't, but he simply couldn't take it any longer. He put a finger into the man's face.
    "What have you been doing the last couple of years?"
    The man looked at him defiantly.
    "Working for the holos."
    "Where?"
    "On Earth. United Broadcasting."
    "While you've been sitting on your fat butt and grinning at the camera I've watched hundreds of thousands die. I've seen entire continents on fire from a thousand warhead bombardment, I've watched carriers bursting silently in space, a thousand men and women spilling out, their blood boiling in the vacuum. I've heard the screams of my comrades as their fighters burned, and they were trapped, unable to eject. I've lost more friends than you'll ever have, you belly crawling excuse for a worm. So don't you ever dare say to me, or anyone else, that we want a war. We know what the hell the price is while all you know is how to stuff your face and bloat your pride."
    He turned and stalked off, hearing more than one reporter chuckle and give a word of support, but most of them looked at him with a superior disdain, as if he was an arrogant ignorant child who had just thrown a tantrum.
    A Fleet public relations officer slipped in beside Jason, grabbed him by the arm and hustled him along.
    "That wasn't very smart, sir," she whispered in his ear, while at the same time smiling to the press, and quickly moved him back down the corridor.
    "Go to hell. I'm here as an aide to Admiral Tolwyn, but I'm not going to be insulted."
    "Then stick to your job as an aide, things are bad enough as is with the damned press without you making it worse," she hissed in his ear.
    Jason forced back an angry retort while the other officer seemed to instantly shift gears, smiling, holding up her hand to the press, repeating that they'd have a story soon enough and finally hustled Jason through a door.
    "Next time you need to find a bathroom, sir," the officer said quietly, "for heavens sake, don't wander into the press area. Those bastards are like sharks looking for blood."
    "Well, where the hell is the bathroom?"
    The officer shook her head.
    "No time. The meetings about to start up again and it wouldn't look good for you, a mere captain, to come wandering in late."
    Jason sighed and the officer pointed him to an airlock door.
    He suddenly felt self conscious.
    "Do I look all right?"
    She smiled, reaching up to adjust the Medal of Honor which hung from a blue sash around his throat.
    "Fine, sir, and paused for an instant. "And by the way I'm behind you one hundred per cent with what you said back there, sir."
    He forced a smile and went through the airlock and back into the conference room.
    For a frontier orbital base the room was richly appointed, with dark wood paneled walls, soft indirect lighting, and even a real oak table taking up most of the center of the room. The chairs around the conference table were all high backed, heavily cushioned and covered in the dark navy blue of the fleet. In front of each desk was a small ensign denoting the rank of the military officers present, and most of them were three and four stars.
    The short recess was nearly over and Jason moved to his position sitting directly behind Admiral Tolwyn. He looked over at Hunter, who Tolwyn had picked as his second aide for this meeting, and Ian winked.
    "Make it?"
    "No and I'm ready to burst," Jason groaned and Hunter smiled.
    Why Tolwyn had picked the two of them to serve as his aides at this meeting was beyond Jason. He knew the admiral's regular staff officers were seething over being cut out of this armistice meeting and Jason could only surmise that in part it was an act of friendship, to let him in at an historic moment, but also as a sort of window dressing for Tolwyn to have two of his most decorated and famous officers sitting directly behind him.
    He looked around the circular table and saw that nearly everyone was back from the short recess, aides sitting erect behind their superiors who were talking