A Spaceman

Chapter 27--Dog People

"So, own up, who started it?" I ask, standing in front of the bloodied and bruised cadets. Card is holding a bloody rag to his nose and Leavitt is clasping a hand over a chewed on arm.

"Ma'am I did."

"Ma'am I did." they look at each other in surprise. I am surprised too, usually they blame each other.

"Ma'am I threw the first punch," Leavitt says.

"Ma'am, I antagonized him," Card says.

"Why? Both of you?" I ask.

"Ma'am, he antagonized me," Leavitt says.

"Ma'am, I felt like it," Card says.

"Explain," I say.

"Ma'am he said---"

"No, not you, Card, why did you feel like it?" I ask him.

"Ma'am I was bored and it gives me great pleasure to antagonize people," Card says.

"And why couldn't you resist the temptation to punch him?" I ask Leavitt.

"Ma'am, I have been for quite some time now," Leavitt says.

"Are you going to try to kill each other again, or have you got it out of your system?" I ask.

"Ma'am we're good," Card says.

"Yes, ma'am, got it all out," Leavitt says.

"If you feel the need to antagonize somebody again, Card, let me know," I say to him, "We will ship you to the Northern rim where you can antagonize the enemy to your heart's content."

"Yes, ma'am, thank you ma'am, that would be excellent Ma'am," Card says eagerly. He probably would love it too.

"Leavitt, would it help if you utilized a punching bag instead of Card? Do you think you could do that?" I ask.

"Yes, ma'am," he says.

"Okay, go to your flights," I say, turning around. They stare at me for a minute before obeying.

"You didn't give them the brig?" Ebbel asks, amused.

"No, it hasn't done Card any good so far, and they both confessed, we expect a lot out of sixteen year old boys. And I certainly don't blame Leavitt for wanting to wipe the floor with Card, if I had to live with Card, he probably wouldn't be alive, and I couldn't punish Card because as Thorn says, he's brilliant, he's only being him, and he'll be excellent, if we can all survive training and get him to the front lines where he can be his peculiar, brilliant self to the enemy and not to us," I say.

"Can't argue with you there," Ebbel says, shrugging, "Still, they can learn."

"Oh, let them learn another night. They'll be split up into their individual training units after this," I say, shrugging, "Then we don't have to have them in a group again."

"Not till after tomorrow night, we have one more night with these miserable, miserable people all under one roof," Ebbel says.

"You're starting to sound like Thorn," I chastise him.

"I've clearly spent too much time around him," he sighs, "Honestly, though, this group has got me. Sometimes I feel like the world would be a better place if this whole building blew up."

"Shh don't say that around Thorn, he probably thinks that it will," I say.

Of course, that point, I had no way of knowing that it actually would.