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armistice. Yet, it was his ship, it was in fact, since Kilrah, the only thing
he really loved.
He could have stayed longer, but then farewells should never be drawn out.
Leaving the bridge without a backward glance he went into his cabin and
hoisted the duffel bag off his bed The room looked sterile now, just another
standard ship's room, painted the usual light green, with one closet, a bed, a
desk, and a computer terminal and holo projection box.
The few pictures on his desk, his brother and himself taken before Joshua had
gone off to the Marines, and died on Khorsan, a faded two dimensional image of
his mother and father taken on the day they were married, and a shot of
Svetlana that one of her friends in the Marines had sent along after her
death they were in his duffel.
He closed the door behind him and walked down the now dimmed corridors. He
passed the flight ready room and had a flash memory of his first day aboard,
chewing out his new pilots, and passed on into the hangar deck. The Rapiers,
Ferrets, and Sabres lined the deck and it felt strange to hear the silence. No
engines humming, no shouted commands blaring over the loudspeakers, the
hissing roar of the catapult or the thunderclap of engines kicking in
afterburners on a hot launch. It was a silence that was as complete and deeply
disturbing as if he were walking through a tomb.
He turned to face the bulkhead and the roll of honor listing all those
who had died while serving aboard the ship. Coming to attention he saluted the
honor roll and then noticed that the commissioning flag which should be to the
right of the honor roll was missing. He felt a flicker of anger over that,
wondering who had taken it down, and turning started for the airlock door
which was secured to the shipyard docking station.
Turning the corner, he saw a small line of men and women waiting for him:
Doomsday, Sparks (his head of fighter maintenance), Kevin Tolwyn, and last of
all Ian Hunter looking strange indeed dressed in civilian mufti, having been
already retired from the fleet the day before. The group came to attention,
saluted, and Kevin stepped forward to hand Jason a folded flag, the
commissioning pennant of
Tarawa
.
"Thought you'd want this, sir," Kevin said with a grin. "Someday you might
want to hang it back up again."
"Thanks, Kevin."
To one side he saw a group of technicians, the mothballing crew, who would
finish the shut down of the ship for cold storage. Though the government had
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agreed to the armistice and with it an immediate cut back of fifty percent of
the active fleet, at least they were not taking the ships out and simply
cutting them up as the Kilrathi had first suggested;
the military had managed to stop that mad idea. It had become a major fly in
the ointment in the four weeks since the armistice, with the Kilrathi
threatening to pull out of the peace talks but so far the civilian government
had not budged, though Jamison was screaming for even deeper cutbacks. The
inactive fleet was therefore, at least for the moment, secured, the ships
hooked to orbital bases for power and maintenance.
Rodham, however, had agreed to the ship's crews being paid off and assigned to
inactive reserves as a cost cutting measure, a fact which meant that hundreds
of thousands of highly trained personnel were being pulled from their ships
and demobilized as quickly as ships were pulled from the front and sent to the
main bases either above Earth, Sirius, or out at Carnovean Station.
He turned to face back down the corridor and bowed his head for a moment.
"Good-bye, my friends," he whispered, remembering all those who in a way would
be forever young, and forever bound to his ship. Fighting back the tears he
turned without another word and went through the airlock, his friends
following in silence.
* * *
"Rear Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, approach the court."
Walking stiffly, Geoff came up before the court martial officers and saluted.
Admiral Banbridge, as the presiding officer, stood up, his hands shaking as he
unfolded a single sheet of paper.
"Rear Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, it is the decision of this court that you have
been found guilty of disobedience of fleet orders, in that you knowingly
attacked a vessel of the Kilrathi Empire after being made fully aware of
General Order number 2312A, ordering the suspension of all hostilities.
"It is the decision of this court that you hereby be stripped of your rank and
suffer a dishonorable discharge with the loss of all privileges and honors due
your rank."
Banbridge lowered his head and nodded. A Marine captain came forward and took
Tolwyn's ceremonial sword, which had rested on the desk of the court martial
officers since the opening of the trial. He placed the tip of the sword on the
ground and held it at an angle. Raising his foot he slammed his heel down on
the side of the blade, snapping it in half. The crack of the sword breaking
echoed through the chamber and Geoff winced at the sound. The Marine tossed
the hilt of the sword on the floor by Geoff's feet and then stepped up to
Geoff.
The Marine looked him straight in the eyes and Geoff could see that the man
hated what he was about to do.
Grabbing hold of the insignias of rank on Geoff s shoulders the Marine tore
them off with a violent jerking motion so that Geoff swayed and struggled to
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