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point of view of the
deserters. But they don’t have any income, and their money would
soon run out.”
    “ Yeah.” Faber was looking
all round the room and its few diners, romantic couples and several
single males, and then he turned his attention back to the
conversation.
    Two more troopers, Khan and Freeman,
arrived and grabbed seats with a nod towards their end of the
table. They began talking in low tones and looking around in
interest. After ship life, the place was not just big, but
unusually dark inside, something they weren’t used to outside of
their own berths. Shipboard, it was lights-on twenty-four-seven.
Hernandez showed up and took her seat wordlessly, hair still wet
from a shower.
    At last a group of crew members,
sounding for all the world like a bunch of tourists, came in and
Newton looked around for the waiters, obligingly waiting in the
wings in their long-tailed frock coats, bottle-green, and with
white linen towels hanging over one arm.
    The gang was all here. The last chair
was dragged into place and they looked at him
expectantly.
    So this was like
fatherhood.
    Newton was the one paying all the bills
around here.
    “ All right, people. Listen
up.”
    They were to have nothing over fifty
credits, no alcohol other than that which the Lieutenant ordered,
(a gentle reminder of who he was,) and dinner would be concluded
within a reasonable time. The mission would begin first thing in
the morning for most, and he listed those working
tonight.
    Other than that, they could order
anything they liked and the dinner would be informal.
    The noise in there picked up
considerably after that. The waiters pounced.
    Having studied the menu, Newton guts
rumbled at the thoughts of a salad, a real salad, with vegetables
picked only days before from a garden in actual soil and not
produced in strings under lights and growing in nutritional
fluids.
    As for what else he might have, he was
leaning towards the roast beef, but on impulse decided on
country-fried chicken and all the trimmings. Looking down the table
at the young and cheerful faces, he felt a strangely fatherly glow
about them. All of them, really. Maybe a ship really was a big
family, but there was nothing quite like being on the ground. He
needed their help, if they could only give it.
    So far, it wasn’t all bad. This was how
the other half lived.
     
    ***
     
    The rationale behind the large command
component was the fact that it allowed for three separate
groups.
    Each party would be in the charge of
two senior ranks.
    Newton’s own patrol went
well.
    Taking the four greenest troopers, and
Jackson as second, they left the lobby at nine p.m. precisely and
turned right at the sidewalk.
    Adopting a simple squad-in-column
formation, they went up the main street in pairs set two metres
apart, with Newton in the lead, nodding pleasantly at pedestrians
and with the rest in listening mode. Jackson was apparently finding
the whole thing vastly entertaining going by his rude commentary.
Newton grinned and lived with it, although if anyone else chimed
in, he would squash them good.
    None of these four impressed him that
way. They didn’t have that much nerve. They were scared kids with
guns and badges.
    They were doing the main drag, and the
first of several bars was just up the street. Jackson brought up
the rear, sauntering along at a relaxed pace, and every so often
casually glancing to the rear as the troopers on the outside
observed the other side of the street and those on the inside
looked into shop windows and kept an eye out for alleys and
possible tripping hazards.
     
    ***
     
    “ So you bought them a beer.
Good for you.”
    “ Ah, yes, sir.”
    Lieutenant Shapiro was reporting in
from the privacy of his own room.
    He went on as the Commander gazed back,
seemingly pleased and asking few questions so far.
    “ Tomorrow we’ll do a number
of restaurants and coffee shops. The other teams are looking for
apartment buildings, and the sort of places where