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as he sat up.
    "You will address me as Captain Hartley."
    "You're an ass, Kennet Hartley. A pretentious, pompous, self-centered, self-righteous ass." Silver sat up and rubbed his sore head. "Damn Marines."
    "You may find that your attitude is insupportable in your present circumstances. You are charged with attacking Admiral Stevenson. Your actions were recorded and will be displayed at your trial. Now I ask you again: Why did you attack Admiral Stevenson?"
    "That will be all, Captain. I'm quite all right," a woman's voice said and Captain Hartley snapped to his feet.
    "Admiral, you shouldn't be up! This man's assault was…"
    "…Not an assault at all, Ken. I simply fainted when I saw him."
    The captain looked at the admiral and shook his head. "But Ma'am, the Marines said…"
    "The Marines were mistaken. It was just a shock to see my dead ex-husband-"
    "Ex-husband? But I thought--Sterling?" he asked, finally looking closely at the man sitting on the bed.
    "Yeah, Ken, it's me."
    "But you're--"
    "Long story, Ken."
    "Release him at once," the admiral commanded, and two Navy Masters-At-Arms moved forward to obey her order. "Come with me, Sterling. You have some explaining to do."
    Silver ran his tongue around the inside of his teeth and said, "Yes, Ma'am," as he followed her out of the brig. The admiral was silent as she led him down corridors that were far too ship-shape to be on NHSP-1. He didn't need to ask where he was. The layout of a CSS-SN Carrier was all too familiar to him. A Marine saw them coming and opened the door she was guarding, before stepping aside. When they had passed she shut the door and returned to attention.
    Admiral Stevenson turned and looked at Silver, then slapped his face as hard as she could. She shouted, "I cried for three days when they said you were dead, you bastard!" Tears welled in her eyes as she stepped back with both fists clenched at her sides. "You didn't change your beneficiary! They tracked me down. They chased me to Columbia, to the Army-Navy game! They told me that you'd been killed in an airfoil accident and that I was still your beneficiary! I had to sign for the million credits because you left no other heirs and now your credit chip was keyed to me and I was told that I owed some scumbag named Pahna Mah two million credits and--" She broke down then and walked into his open arms.
    Silver held his ex-wife as she cried, caressing her back and making soothing noises. Wow she’s really upset. I should have sent her a message. She finally calmed down and he eased his hold on her. "Ann, it was all a lie. Pahna Mah is a cheat and a liar. I beat his crooked games on the Flaming 'O', so he beat me and made me disappear. I was sold into servitude on a small freighter instead of killed, and he took my chip to get his money back. I guess the Bank of New Switzerland wouldn't break the encoding for him."
    "Sterling, why didn't you…"
    "Because I'm dead, Ann. They cultured enough DNA to satisfy an inquest and proved I died. You know how hard it would be to prove that they were crooks and it was all their doing. I'd probably be charged with fraud for faking my own death. At the very least they would accuse me of being a clone or a construct. I have no desire to suffer through the tests that they would do to prove it. I have a new, sort-of legal identity now. Sterling Albert Stevenson died on Hobson's, and Silver Llewellyn Garand was born."
    Ann looked into his eyes for a moment. "You could have sent me a message. I guess that explains a few things, like how your credit chip ended up with thirty million credits on it. So, what am I supposed to do with you now?" she asked as she stepped away from him.
    "I'm the navigator on a good little ship. Really little." He grinned and chuckled. "The captain put up a thousand credits to keep me alive, and I'm inclined to stay with her and her crew for a while."
    "What about Pahna Mah and his bill? I can't just ignore it."
    Silver smiled and Annette stepped