ire corridor quickly, he slipped out of the office as once more the floor shook and trembled. Parts of the ceiling rained down on him as he made his way to the action. Just as he

disabled for good. Daniel grabbed the weapon, which was much larger than hi

ing, to stay out of sight. How they had managed it so quickly, Daniel did not know, but the scientists were all tied together by the neck, with the chains ends high up in the wall

d yanked one end of the chain from the wall. Mere seconds later the other end was loose

an open view on the attackers. He aimed the confiscated gun and fired at the front line of the invading force, taking out

educed to smoking bodies. The fight was over all of a sudden. The grou

d freed the ones that had been loc

d gloating at the success. "Are you satisfie

ase is liberated.

teen people wounded. Yes. A great job." Danie

la, " the man said, stabbing Daniel in the chest with

eration, you idiot. This was a simple hostage si

even protect a load of weapons against a handful of Qurgon pirates. Don'

pain of the memory, pain of the lives lost on this base. He

ded into the shuttles again and the journey home started. Daniel felt horrible; Phil and Kjella h

=

won't make things pretty: I doubt it will make a difference. General Rudyer is very

l nod

nst Daniel, for insubordination, leaving his designated station before no

count on being t

han..." The trainer did

inging coffee. "H

That sucks. Troy made mistakes and Daniel has

t up. And he

a hand on Daniel's

ppen and it happened." There were no people left alive that woul

obeying orders of the assigned leader. Troy had tried to make him responsible also for the death of some of the scientists, but that accusation had been rejected for of lack of proof

l, although the rule will be binding. The ruling is that you will be taken from the R1 group and no longer will follow the training. You will be detained in your cabin until a new designation for your person is foun

ring that was his uncle, who was marrie

as, do you have

She stared at the floor, not paying attention to Daniel. He sighed. This was not going to

s all. This sessi

Simple, cle

ess this, Daniela, " he whispered as he leaned on the table. "This takes away most opportunities to have f

ked away after picking up her

iel said. "I really do. But knowing you, that hope is in vain

Daniel in the eye, then walked off. Ludo was near, looking apologetic

=

t was unacceptable, they had told him, as 'trainer O'Shaughnessy has better things to do'. They just wanted to keep Daniel away from all things

e was becoming so boring that he would have gladly gone out to rake the bare planetoi

poke quietly so no one around would hear her. Using the built-in military band was prohibited when not on assignmen

in-Ho, who was trying very hard to finish his game o

orning.

soldier in full unifor

Daniel a

with

n't finished

in Chambers, sir. Now." The soldier looke

e you sure that you alone are capable of getti

soldier did not

ed the soldier to the of

the point. "We have looked at your case, and decided that it is not possible to m

That was an ind

ity from a rather remote star system in

General Catalogue of space objects, but most of

nd punched his keyboard for a while. "T

" Daniel was stumpe

you start throwing up when the

n't think

rminal will be granted access to everything we have on that place, you wil

k you

is name as he was at the door. "Zacharias.

is cabin which was closed and locked behind him. He hated that little

ee where they want to ship me off to..." A small blinking symbol attracted his attention. He t

. No modifications have been made to the

dier brother, " Ma

ght, what's this? Almost feverishly he tried to think of a reason why Malcolm of all people would send him a

canny ability to make people feel guilty by just saying things in a certain way. The bloody prick. "Things here

aniel's mood dropped below

linda told me we should get them a pet, and they wanted a poodle.

money, that is how you get y

d on your post. Really, amazing. Not even a

send notes to each other. He had totally missed it this year, as he had been on the mission that got interrupted by the Qurgon

big brother, " Malcolm sneered. "Cynthia of course came to you

willpower not to fling t