Lucas shrugged. "It burned out, I guess."
Finn chuckled. "I might've known you'd screw up on the outside."
"At least I've managed to hang onto my bars," said Lucas, glancing at the silver insignia on his armband. "You seem to have misplaced yours."
"Hell, you may be an officer now," said Finn, "but you'll always be a grunt at heart. That's how it is when you come up the hard way. I'm damned glad to see you, Lucas. Welcome back."
"I'm glad to see you, too, Finn. What're you drinking?"
"What else?"
"Irish whiskey? Good, I'm buying. I see you've already got a sizable head start. Look, I'm not due to report in until 0600. If you've got nothing better to do than sit and drink, what say we have a few and then go out on the town?"
Finn grimaced. "I'd love to, kid, but I can't. I'm under house arrest."
"What? What for?"
"Striking a superior officer," said Finn.
"Again? How many times does that make, four?"
"Six," said Finn, wryly. "The ref made a point of reminding me."
"They brought you up before a referee for that!" said Lucas. "Who'd you hit, a general?"
"A light colonel," said Finn.
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but why?"
"Because he was a pompous military asshole, that's why," said Finn. "I had my blouse unbuttoned in the officer's club. And this runt of an administration desk jockey starts chewing me out about it. I told him to fuck off, so he sticks his face about two inches from my nose and starts screaming, spraying me with spit. So I just popped him one."
"And they dragged you up before a referee?"
"Well, no. Not exactly. That happened after the fracas with the M.P. s."
"What fracas?"
"Oh, you know, the standard bullshit. Resisting arrest, direct disobedience to a specific order, striking officers in the performance of their duty, damaging government property, and a few other things that they tacked on that I can't remember."
"Oh."
"Yeah. So I'm confined to quarters until further notice. The old man's been nice enough to give me some slack there, which is why I'm here, but I can't so much as go near the lift tubes. I've been cooling my heels for the better part of a week, waiting for the review board to meet. Been spending most of my time right here in the lounge, trying to drink up my back pay. It's kind of funny, actually. Remember the old days, when we scarcely had a moment to ourselves between assignments? Now that we're here in this 'elite' unit, it's nothing but hurry up and wait."
"You said the ref put you down for a review board," Lucas said. "What was the ref's recommendation?"
Finn grunted. "She was a real hard-assed bitch. Read me the riot act about all the 'previous irregularities' in my record. I think her exact words were, 'Perhaps you'd be better off in a nontemporal unit. Someplace where your flamboyant tendencies won't be quite so much of a disruptive influence.' You know what that means, don't you?"
"The Belt Command?"
"I'll lay you eight to one," said Finn. "If I could get my hands on a plate, so help me, I'd skip out to the underground."
"Not so loud, friend," Lucas said. "Somebody might hear you."
"Who gives a shit? I don't see how I could possibly be in any deeper than I am now."
"You can always get yourself in deeper," Lucas said. "It's the getting out that's not so easy. Maybe something can be done."
"Like what?"