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you
and knock you down to cleaning toilets with a toothbrush.”
    Brett turned away, closed his eyes, and
gritted his teeth, wondering if he said any of that out loud, but
he was pretty sure he hadn’t. He tried to calm himself down, as he
had no doubt Mary could knock him down in rank and place him
wherever she felt.
    He had heard stories about a young officer
telling her to “fuck off,” and Mary got his rank reduced from a 7
to a 10. The kid ended up bagging piss and shit on a frozen
wasteland of a planet, used for training, until he abandoned his
position after only a week of doing it. Authorities found him in a
bar on another planet and sent him to a military prison for three
years.
    Brett took a deep breath and kept his eyes
forward.
     
    *****
     
    Travis smiled at George as he spoke with him.
George stared forward, concentrating on keeping the runner in
formation, not smiling, but that didn’t stop Travis from trying to
get one out of him.
    “Come on. You’re like a hundred years old.
You must have been with two women at one point or another?” Nope,
no smile. Nada. Zip. Zero.
    “Do you ever wonder why you’re still a rank
of 4?” George asked.
    “Nah, that don’t bother me. Seriously man, I
know you’re married and all, but two women, come on?”
    “It ain’t gonna happen. One, I love my wife
and would never even think of it, and two, I’m not the picture of
youth.”
    “You don’t have to be young. I know a place
you can go, and it’s not even that expensive.” Travis beamed.
    George turned and gave him a weak smile,
which Travis gladly accepted as victory.
    “The day I pay for sex,” George said, “is the
day you don’t.”
    “Oooh, good one. I’ll have you know I lived
with a chick for two years. But kudos, sir. Well played.”
    George turned forward again, but Travis
didn’t miss the corners of George’s mouth lifting higher into one
of the biggest smiles he had seen the man ever make.
    “Yeah,” George said, “but did you stop paying
for it with other women?”
    He shoots, he scores. “Sure.”
    “Yeah, right.”
     
    *****
     
    Michael and Cindy flew in silence. Cindy,
only twenty-two, thought of how she could work her way up the ranks
as quickly as possible, like Michael did. But she knew she could
not make his rank in only six years time. He started earlier than
she had. She admired him and knew that she could learn a lot just
watching him.
    He showed no signs of stress, so relaxed as
he throttled up and down with ease, subtle movements on the yoke,
countering every effort the runner made to break free. Effortless.
He looked lost in thought to her.
    She wondered if he ever had any fun outside
work, knowing he had not taken a vacation day in the year she had
known him and was pretty sure he never did. So dedicated and
disciplined. She had so much work to do to catch up.
    As they neared Lancer, a large door, three
stories high and wide, opened up just above where the SPARS ships
came off the platforms.
    The runner attempted a hard stop again.
Nobody screwed up this time. At least not that Cindy could tell by
the three-dimensional radar image before her of all the ships in
the vicinity, including Lancer. The runner was going nowhere but
inside Lancer.
    Inside Lancer’s docking bay, a large open
area revealed itself, with a glass ceiling, a glass floor, and four
glass walls. Below the glass floor, another level, with over twenty
SPARS ships parked on individual platforms.
    Above the glass ceiling, over twenty people
stood and watched the spectacle below them.
    The four escort ships did not follow the
others into the bay.
    As soon as they entered the bay, the door
slowly closed. The four ships surrounding the runner hovered in
mid-air, keeping the runner in check as the large door closed.
    With a loud THUD, the large bay door finally
sealed them in.
    Cindy watched Michael hit a release button
for the magnetic tow, as she was sure all the others did.
    Michael, George, Mary, and