"It is morally wrong to let suckers keep their money, otherwise, they don't learn anything. And casinos? Come on, they're the ones ripping people off. I did say the important moral questions, didn't I? Money isn't important."

On my way to a meeting with the ambassadors from Britain and China, Skippy and I were accosted in a conference center hallway by Dr. Constantine. "Sergeant! Sergeant Bishop!" he called, out of breath. "I need to speak with you!"

"Oh, shit." I muttered under my breath, "I didn't know this jerk was here."

"I knew it," Skippy grumbled, "I reprogrammed his alarm so he'd wake up late, but he got up on time anyway, dammit."

"Sergeant, I wanted to say that I'm excited to be going on the mission, and I hope I'll have opportunities for further discussion with the," Constantine stumbled over his words, "with the, the Skippy."

I gave him my best frosty gaze. "It's Colonel Bishop," I pointed to the silver eagles on my collar. Eagles that again faced toward the olive branch rather than the arrows. "I'm commanding the mission. And I didn't see your name on the volunteer list."

"What?" He said, in shock over either me being in command, or his name not being on the list, or both. "I assure you-"

"Your name was on the list," Skippy explained, "but I deleted your name from the database. Colonel Joe doesn't like you, I don't like you, so you're not going."

"This can't be." Constantine sputtered. "Serg, Colonel, Bishop," he said my rank as if he could hardly believe it, "surely you understand that a, a, person, of your, rank," he was really struggling with the whole social skills thing, "cannot allow personal feelings to interfere with having the most qualified people on the, aboard, the ship, under, under your command. No offense, but I will talk to your superiors, they understand that it is vital we have our best people on this voyage." If he truly mean what he said, he very much needed to get a clue on the concept of 'no offense'.

"Talk to anyone you like," Skippy said acidly, "the only way to get up to the Dutchman is on a Thuranin dropship that I'll be piloting, and if you're aboard, that dropship isn't going anywhere."