«Pardoned,» Franklen gummed, but Silva went on.
«Let’s see, how many battles have you fought against the Griks that are swoopin’ down? You’ll at least agree they’re worse than ’Cats, won’t you?» There was no response. Dennis started counting on his fingers.
«Well, let’s see. I seen — helped — the ’Cats fight like hell to save Big Sal from a gob as big as the one Mr. Ellis fought through. Which you was in the brig waiting for Captain Kaufman to come back aboard if what I hear is true. Skipped that one, didn’t you? Even stayed in the brig as ‘insubordinate’ the whole time the ship was laid up here and made no effort to give a hand.»
«We were screwed, Silva, you dumb son of a bitch! Just look around yourself! The stupid ’Cats around here wouldn’t talk to us. They didn’t even care about the Griks until it was too late. All they cared about was fightin’ each other.» He spat a gobbet of blood. «Ellis weren’t no officer. He couldn’t get anything sorted out between ’em. And I did too agree to work on the ship.»
«You agreed to work on the ship — for a pardon,» Gray glowered, «because the ship was so shorthanded. Mr. Ellis should’a hung you. Instead, your skipper forgave you and let you loose. Figgers ‘let bygones be bygones and we’re all together now.’ My God, after seeing that field in front of the city how could you think anything else? But you sat out the battle on shore. Again. Even when it started to fall apart and everybody went to fight.»
Silva raised his eyebrows. «So on top of everything else, you really are a coward.» He shook his head. «Except where little girls are concerned. All you could think of, the first time nobody’s really watchin’ you, was grabbin’ up some. child and tearin’ her up like that. What were you gonna do next? You couldn’t have let her live.»
There was a sharp intake of breath and suddenly everyone in the tent knew Silva was right.
«Nah, Silva,» Franklen gushed. «It wasn’t like that! I wouldn’t’a really hurt her. I just wanted a piece — like you got!»
«Silva no have ‘piece,’ you piece of shit!» Her glare moved to encompass her brother as well. «He have friend. We make big joke, scare Chack. Scare Captain too, have big laugh. but we more than friends too.» Now she was talking directly to her brother. «Okay with you, the Captain.» She glanced at Pam. «Or anybody, that’s fine. Not okay?» She blinked sublime unconcern. «Still okay with Risa.»
«Now see,» Franklen whined, «I got no problem with that! That’s what» He was almost dead before Silva and Chack could pull Risa off him and move her back across the tent.
Gray, Donaghey, Laney, and Steele were kneeling over the unconscious form as if deciding what to do with a dead snake, when Silva and Chack returned. Silva didn’t come right out and say «Sorry about that,» but his body language did. He did apologize for «using up all the air so far.»
«Hell. You just said what everybody was thinking,» said Gray. «Make no mistake. This is a trial. He’s admitted what he done, and you pointed out it would have been a lot worse if he hadn’t got caught.»
«Who caught him, anyway?»
«Steele. Sheer luck. He was runnin’ a final check before he went on deck for the party and heard her cries. Damn, he’s got good ears! Franklen had her down in Mahan’s steering engine room to show her the ‘machines.’ Hell, they can’t resist that. It’s like offerin’ ’em candy.»
Silva felt another uncharacteristic twinge of guilt.
«How much of me and Risa ‘carrying on’ mighta, you know, contributed?»
Several faces became unreadable.
«I don’t reckon any,» said Gray at last. «For one thing, nobody really knew what you were up to, and I guess we still don’t. I’d just as soon keep it that way. ‘More than just friends’ can mean anything. Outside this tent, they still won’t know that much.» His eyes bored into Laney’s. «Besides, whatever it was, it sure wasn’t.» He spit on Franklen as the man groaned and began to come to. «Like this.»
«So,» Chack said at last, «what shall we do with this creature?» For the first time in a long time, he didn’t appear to be thinking about Silva when he said the word «creature.» Maybe he’d started to think over what his sister and friend had said — or maybe their «relationship» had finally been put in perspective for him. «We’ve already decided we can’t make an example of him, which is actually a shame. There are more than a few of my people who don’t think of humans as ‘people’ either.»
«That’s changing fast enough. We’ve spilled enough blood together. Besides, most of the ones who feel that way are on the other side of that wall, yonder, or they’ve run off.» Franklen was fully conscious again when Gray finished. «And pretty soon, there’ll be one less of ours who feels like that.»
«Let’s ask the girl,» Laney suddenly blurted. They were the first words he spoke. Donaghey nodded.
«Yeah. Let’s see what she wants to do with him.» Franklen began to thrash and moan, but the bloody gag went back in his mouth and Chack and Laney held him again. Having made the suggestion, Laney was more than willing to let others carry it out. The last thing he wanted to do, in his heart of hearts, was speak to a teenage rape victim of Franklen, who had awakened and was looking back. «And I want to eat his eyes.»
Donaghey glanced at his watch. «Whatever we do, and whatever she eats, we better get on with it. Sooner or later some officer is going to figure out there’s a hell of a lot of Indians running around without any chiefs to tell ’em what to do.»
«Right,» agreed Gray. «Call ’em in and we’ll sort this out.»
Except for Russ Chapelle and the Lemurian Marines, everyone else managed to squeeze in the tent. They made solicitous comments as they passed by «Blossom,» but had only hard stares for their former shipmate.
«We ain’t gonna have no jury,» Gray said. «The ‘accused’ was caught in the act, admitted what he done, and invited Mr. Steele to ‘get some’ himself. No one has since heard him deny he raped and brutalized one of our young female allies. He is guilty, so I won’t even call for a vote. The only thing we have left to decide is punishment.»
Steele sighed. «We’re kind of in the same boat there. There’s only one punishment for what he did, and he probably would’ve done worse before he was finished.»
«I never figured chiefs had so much power,» Laney whispered. «This ain’t in the book!»
«No, it ain’t,» Gray growled. «There’re lots of things that ain’t in the book. This world we’ve wound up in, for one. But chiefs have always ‘handled’ things.» Gray looked at Donaghey. «And this ain’t the first time we handled somethin’ like this. Sometimes problems just have to go away and Franklen’s turned himself into one of those problems tonight. With all that’s at stake, we can’t dump this on the captain.»
«It will even look better from our point of view,» confirmed Chack, speaking very close to Franklen’s ear, «if news of this. event comes forward over time. It will show your people honor your leader and the alliance, but you also honor a youngling’s virtue enough not to wait until the ‘time is right’ to sort things out.» Blossom bristled at the «youngling,» but Chack blinked reassuringly. «You are still a youngling — I am scarcely beyond that myself — but you are also a Marine.»
«So, how are we gonna do it?» Silva asked, ever practical and to the point. «I’d kinda’ like to get some more dancin’ in before the party winds down.»
«We can’t shoot him, for obvious reasons,» Donaghey mused.
«Easiest thing is to take him down to the water and just throw him in. Let the flashies have him,» said Silva. «Where’d ol’ Al Jolson go? Hell if I know. Musta’ got drunk that night at the propeller party and fell in the water. Yeah, seen him swipin’ everybody’s half-empty seep cups when they was dancin’. Serves the bastard right.»