Several chairs were kicked over and Jason held up his hand as if signaling his friends not to do anything.
"Listen, buddy," Jason replied. "You heard what Kirha said. This whole thing is a sham. The Baron's talking us into laying our necks on the chopping block and he'll be back with the axe. In fact I think some people in this government are so stupid they're even helping him sharpen the blade and drawing the line on our necks for us, and you'll be there to help them.
"Are you saying that President Rodham and I are traitors?"
"No, just stupid."
"If there's a traitor around it's you and people like you," Torg snapped. "It's time to shut the hell up and get behind the government. Those who disagree now with Rodham are traitors.
"I was never behind our government," Jason replied. "I was out in front of it, laying my hide on the line. Maybe you people back here on Earth have forgotten what a real gut-busting war is all about. Yeah, you've paid your taxes for it, bought your war bonds, and lord knows sent enough of your sons and daughters off to die in it.
"You're damn straight," Torg replied, "my wife's brother got killed in it, and more than one of my students, and for what?"
"For what? Listen, buddy, out on the frontier, on the colonial worlds we damn well knew for what. We saw it up front and up close. We knew that if the Kilrathi ever got through the thin line of fighters and carriers our worlds could be scorched to a cinder. I saw enough worlds like that. You folks back here on Earth maybe have forgotten that."
"Not all of us," Elaine interjected. "I want peace, and I'd like to believe the Baron, but I can understand what you're saying, Captain."
"It's Jason."
She smiled and Jason could sense Torg bristling that someone in his entourage was siding with the enemy.
"Then if you want war so damn much, why are you drinking with this Kilrathi?"
Jason started to laugh.
"You just don't get it, do you?"
"Listen, doc," a pilot said, coming up to join the argument. "If I had met this Kilrathi in a fight, him and me out there in the middle of it, I'd have killed him without a second thought and I bet he'd have done the same to me."
Kirha grinned and nodded.
"But that's my duty and it was his duty. I can hate his Empire, I can hate what it does, but I can tell you this, at least the Cats serving in the fleet, the pilots the crews of the ships usually fought honorably. Imperial legion assault troops, now they're a different breed, but not him, at least I hope not."
"I was with the fleet," Kirha announced proudly.
The pilot nodded.
"And I respect him. At least he shared the same things I did, the fear, the months of waiting, the moments of sheer terror. I have more in common with him than I do with armchair philosophers like you who think you know about war. You professor types kill me. You think just because you get that Ph. D. you're God almighty and everyone is supposed to kneel and call you doctor. Some of the biggest fools I ever met when it came to war and politics I usually found back in the classrooms. You fill your students' minds with a bunch of crap about a world you don't even understand. You don't have a clue as to just how nasty the real universe is, and then you attack those who are protecting you from the darkness that would rip your guts out if it had the chance."
"You're just another ignorant military brute," Torg sneered.
The pilot snapped.
"I spent four years at the Fleet Academy and six years in advanced training. I have the equal of a doctorate in aerospace engineering and nine years of combat tours," the pilot snapped. "As for this Kirha, I'll buy him a drink anytime. As for you, the damn thing is I'll die defending you when this war starts again, and that kind of makes me want to puke right now."
Torg hesitated for a second, unable to reply.
"Let's get out of here," Torg finally announced, looking back to his friends. "There's just no sense in arguing with people like this."
"What do you mean people like this?" Ian interjected.
"You know what I mean."
"No, enlighten me."
"War mongers, that's what you are. You get your kicks out of it, and then live high on the hog, taking your hundred a week pension out of the taxpayers like me. If I had my way, we'd have ended this war years ago and then spent the money for things that really count and not waste it on your high tech war toys that are good for nothing but killing."
"I thought freedom was worth something," Doomsday interjected "Enough of my friends died for it. Enough of my friends died so you could come here and play tourist and speak your piece. That's the problem with people like you. You forget all too quickly just how expensive freedom really is and then curse at the very people who gave it to you. No wonder I'm always depressed," and he turned away.
"Now I know where I've heard your name," Torg snapped, ignoring Doomsday and looking back at Jason. "It wasn't that holo movie, it's that you're one of Admiral Tolwyn's hangers-on. He's just the type I'm talking about and he got exactly what he deserved. In fact I agree with the Baron, he should have been executed."
Even as he finished speaking he realized he had overstepped his bounds. Jason stood up and Ian put out his hand to restrain him. The bar went as silent as a tomb.
Torg backed away a step.
"Come on, let's get out of here," he snapped, trying to exit with a display of bravado and contempt and failing miserably.
"He turned and headed for the door and then looked back nervously over his shoulder.
"Elaine."
"Go on, Torg, just get out of here. Haven't you done enough already?"
Torg quickly went out the door and then started talking loudly again, denouncing Tolwyn and the military to his followers.
Jason turned back to the bar as Elaine came up to his side.
"I'm sorry, Jason."
"Why don't you just go, he whispered, trying to control the anger in his voice.
"Jason," and she touched him on the shoulder.
He looked over at her, shrugging his shoulder so that she drew her hand away.
"He's a jerk," she said
"I'd call him something else," Kirha said, and she smiled.
"Listen, Jason. There's always some people like him around."
"Well, he sure seemed like one of your friends."
She laughed softly.
"Like hell. He's a professor on some stupid committee that's supposed to look at turning over some of the bases here on the moon to civilian use. I'm up here on assignment to cover it."
"A reporter?"
"Yeah, a writer of sorts, my magazine wants me to do a story on the project. That's how I wound up with him this afternoon."
"Oh great, another member of the press," Doomsday mumbled.
She laughed
"We're not all idiots," she replied, "and what you heard from Torg isn't what most people think. Sure, we want peace, but most of us, myself included, are still suspicious of this whole thing. And I'll tell you this, you might have your idiots like Torg ranting and raving on some campus and boring the hell out of his students but he's a joke to anyone with real sense. Nine out of ten people are damn proud of you. My older brother put in two tours with the Marines till he got invalided out and I'm proud of him. Ordinary folks aren't big on talking about it, but they feel it inside," and as she spoke tears came to her eyes.
"Well, the way the papers and holo stations report it, it doesn't seem that way," Jason said
"You know and I know the full story never really gets told, and didn't your mother ever tell you don't believe everything you read?"