The Ascent

Chapter 42

"We lost some good people!" the tall one shouted.

"One was my fiancé," the woman said.

"And my brother!" the other man said.

"Ah." Relief flooded through me as I realized this wasn't about the Battle of Kuzikos. I addressed the court. "Your honor, I believe I know what this is about and can explain."

Ashbless glanced at my lawyer who had risen with wide warning eyes. "I don't think it's..."

"It's already a matter of record." I shrugged.

"Continue," Ashbless said.

"Approaching the system in question, we came across the light cruiser North Wind which had broken down. Lacking the needed parts we ordered the Leroy Kelso in orbit about the planet to go back and help them, but they refused because their commander was indisposed and their sub was down on the planet."

"Our yeast strains were dying," the pear-shaped man blurted out. "We'd had nothing to eat for days."

"And the algae," the woman said. "Our O2 levels were critically low."

I paused until they were finished with their interruptions, and continued. "Another ship was sent back to help, but when the fleet later started to leave, pirates moved in to attack the North Wind and I was forced to take my flagship back to drive them off. Once we got the North Wind moving, the pirates pursued us to the planet where I found the Leroy Kelso had remained behind. I tried to contact them, but they refused to respond. Fearing a mutiny, I send Force Commander Kouvaras over to secure the ship."

"It wasn't a mutiny," the tall one objected. "The ship's sub- commander had ordered the crew to abandon the ship."

"Once we had obtained control of the ship, we ordered the crew on the planet's surface to return and prevented others, such as these, from leaving."

"You had no authority!" the woman began.

"You weren't even in our chain of command," the tall one said.

"The crew on the planet refused to return and, with the number of pirate ships growing, we were forced to leave them behind."

"Who gave you the right?" the woman demanded. "Who gave you the power to decide whether we go or stay—who lives or dies?"

The injustice of these coward accusations became too much. "You did!" I snapped. "When the fleet voted to treat everyone who tried to desert as traitors. And before that, when Sherman and the others were murdered, you followed me eagerly enough then! Who was it that prevented the fleet from surrendering? Who did you look to when we fought our way through The Swords territory? Who had to get you past the blockades and out of the traps? Did any of you complain then?" I glanced up at the cameras recording the trial. These weren't the only spacer who had been complaining.

"But now that you imagine yourselves safe, suddenly nothing I do is good enough! And, I've noticed, the most cowardly in battle then are the most aggressive with the accusations now. I swear I have never seen such an ungrateful group of people. By all rights I should be back on Mars in a nice cushy job. I wasn't even officially a part of this expedition when it started. I came as an observer, as a favor to a friend. I could have just left when Shines Like the Sun was killed. I would have been home months ago. But I stayed to rescue you. I'm wishing, now that I hadn't, or that I'd left you on that planet. Then you wouldn't be here to accuse me, though I'm sure you'd have complained to the pirates that I hadn't come back to save you."

Their eyes slowly dropped to the floor during my tirade or turned away. As I stopped and stared at the tops of their heads or the sides of their faces, Commander Ashbless cleared his throat.