"No, there's a Chinese Army major they're promoting to lieutenant colonel. The Kristang were also pleased with the actions of a US Army captain, two Indians and one from the French. They all died in battle, so only the two of you are alive to receive the honor."

"This Chinese guy, he's only getting bumped up one grade? Why?" Hell, I was going straight from the lowest type of sergeant you could be to a full colonel.

"His unit defended a warehouse complex that used to belong to the Ruhar and UNEF is now using as a supply depot, apparently the Ruhar left something important behind when the Kristang took over, and they wanted back in there real bad. They couldn't risk damaging whatever is in the warehouses, so they landed troops and fought it out on the ground. This Major Chang was still in control of two warehouses when the Kristang fleet came back to chase the Ruhar away, but he lost eighty percent of his men. Including, rumor has it, the son of a high-ranking Chinese government official. That's why he's only getting one bump in grade. Look, Bishop, this will be what you make of it, you got that? You're a damned good sergeant, you did a good job with your EOT in Teskor, and no one is going to say you didn't earn some sort of a promotion by your actions here. This is good for humanity, we must have the Kristang thinking human troops are valuable."

The promotion ceremony took place at Fort Olympus, the UNEF HQ complex. I was astonished to see the place was pristine, the Ruhar hadn't touched it at all during the attack. Major Perkins, who accompanied me on the Dumbo flight to Olympus, said Ruhar prisoners told UNEF they'd not hit Olympus because they wanted UNEF command intact, so someone with authority could order all humans on Paradise to lay down their weapons. Which would have been easier to do, if the hamsters hadn't been jamming all of our communications. Who knows how aliens think, huh?

Meeting General Meers and the other senior commanders was not as intimidating as I expected, I was dreading a long, formal ceremony filled with speeches and me having to maintain either a menacing warrior scowl or a pleasant smile, whatever the UNEF public relations officer thought was appropriate. Instead, because only a small number of Kristang had been cleared to land on Paradise without full environment suits, there were no Kristang present at Olympus, and therefore the promotion ceremony was General Meers in his office pinning silver eagles on my uniform, with a half dozen other senior officers watching. After the brief ceremony, there was a delicious meal in the officers' mess, with steaks that tasted fresh, which I later learned was because they were irradiated and chilled rather than frozen, green beans that weren't the usual mushy Army fare, baked potatoes with real butter, chocolate cake, and real fresh-brewed coffee.