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offense they can try to escape. If they succeed the Fleet will be in serious trouble with the authorities here – not to mention me personally. While we’re setting up this depot and bringing down everything from orbit, we can’t do without them, because the Marines can’t spare more people for rear-echelon duties. In fact, we may need these spacers for quite some time.”
    “I see the problem, Sir. How do we motivate them to stay here and work hard for us while treating them a whole lot better than typical prisoners, so as to keep them happy?”
    “That’s it in a nutshell, Gunny. We can’t use the usual carrot and stick approach; it’ll have to be much more carrot and much less stick. Our Marines will have to work with them as colleagues rather than bosses. What’s more, they’ll outnumber us. We have fourteen Marines here, including you, plus myself. There’ll be about a hundred prisoners. They’re not military – at least, I don’t think they are; it’s possible some have had military training, or may be reservists in Qianjin’s armed forces. Even so, they’re as professional as we are in their own way. We’ve got to recognize that and encourage them to behave that way. They’re probably used to heavy-handed prison guards. We daren’t handle them like that. Trouble is, I’ve got to keep our own people happy too. If they think I’m mollycoddling the prisoners they’ll resent it. What’s the best way to handle that?”
    Kinnear grinned. “You do like to paint yourself into corners, don’t you, Sir?” They both chuckled. “Seriously, though, I think there’s a way. Your job is to be the ‘big boss’ – the top dog. I’ll be the day-to-day supervisor. They can resent me all they like; it’s an NCO’s job to be the lightning rod sometimes. If necessary you’ll be the voice of reason to bring back balance. You tell us what to do, then get out of the way. I’ll break that down into tasks, treating all our people as professionals. I’ll encourage them to put forward their own ideas, too. While they’re at work, you and I can ‘manage by walking around’. Anyone with a problem can talk to me, and if I can’t sort it out, we’ll bring it to you. The prisoners can use their chargé as a liaison officer if they like.”
    “Good idea. I’m going to take him up on his offer to move in with us while the work’s going on.” Steve sipped his coffee appreciatively. “Thanks, Gunny. I like your approach. I’m also going to talk to the prisoners’ leaders before they get here. They formed two ships’ companies, so their skippers or other officers are bound to be among them. I’ll use them as team leaders for their own people. If they have better skills than we do – for example, their engineer officers and techs almost certainly know more than we do about power plants – we’ll put them in charge of those areas. That’ll prove we’re treating them as equals, and free up our people for other important work. How about using joint work parties – Marines and convicts all mixed together? We can divide them up according to their skills and the needs of the job, rather than where they come from.”
    “That’s a good idea, Sir. While you’re talking to the prisoners, I’ll make sure our people understand what we’re doing and why. I’ll tell them that if a prisoner’s in charge of a group, it’s because he or she is best qualified to do that job. They shouldn’t get bent out of shape about it.”
    “Will they accept that?”
    “I can be very persuasive when I want to be, Sir.”
    Steve laughed aloud. “I just bet you can! All right, Gunny. Thanks for your input. Let’s make this happen.”
    ~ ~ ~
    The officer in command of the transit prison was anything but happy to receive his orders. He plugged the data chip into a reader, scanned the text as it scrolled across the display, and scowled. “This can’t possibly be right! There must be some mistake. These are hard-core