Colonel Kraft strolled into the barracks and looked around before he spotted Rhodes sitting at the table with Dietz, Lauer, and Coulter.

Fuentes sat at the computer terminal doing something. He worked on it all the time now.

Oakes spent a lot of time by himself these days. He spent most of every day either walking around the station or just sitting in isolated spots away from everyone.

Thackery sat at the other table. She kept as far away from everyone as she possibly could without ever actually leaving the barracks.

She glared and wrinkled her nose and lip at her comrades as much as ever, but she glared and wrinkled her nose at the surroundings just as much.

She kept scraping her face across her shoulder and grimacing when the metal scratched against metal.

Rhodes and the others cut her a wide berth. None of them tried to talk to her and she never initiated any conversation.

Rhodes, Lauer, Dietz, and Coulter no longer played The Ship, The Captain, and The Crew. That kind of light-hearted entertainment no longer seemed to fit what this battalion was all about.

They talked about other subjects when they talked at all. They talked about life in the Legion, campaigns they’d been on, people they knew, and different jobs, ranks, and posts they’d held in different parts of the Treaty of Aemon Cluster.

Their conversation occasionally ranged to their lives and families back on Preinea, but not often.

The battalion members spent most of their time interfacing with each other’s SAMs. The SAMs shared their conversation. No one in the battalion hid anything from each other or the other SAMs anymore.

Even Thackery interfaced between Koenig and the other SAMs. She listened to every word they said to each other.

No one wanted to take the chance that one of the SAMs might malfunction without anyone realizing it.

If a SAM malfunctioned—or if a person malfunctioned—everyone wanted to know about it right away with no delay because they hadn’t been interfacing at the time.

Even Oakes stayed interfaced with the others even while he was out of the room. He let the others keep track of where he was and what he was doing.

He even let them listen in on his conversations with Dash just to make sure everything was working the way it should.

Dietz sat with Rhodes, Lauer, and Coulter. Dietz joined in their conversation, but not as much as he used to. He had become much quieter and more reserved.

Rhodes didn’t understand why, but Dietz never did anything to cause concern. Rhodes sensed the rest of the battalion keeping as close an eye on Dietz as Rhodes did. They would have pounced on him if he so much as cracked a grin at the wrong time.

He didn’t. Either he really knew how to behave or he must have changed. Rhodes couldn’t tell which it was, but his decision to give Dietz a chance seemed to be paying off—for now.

Rhodes never let his guard down around Dietz. Their interface gave Rhodes a bird’s-eye view straight inside Dietz’s head.

Rhodes watched Dietz like a hawk. The whole battalion kept Zen under a microscope to make sure he didn’t feed Dietz any more wacky ideas.

Colonel Kraft took in the scene with one glance and wandered over to the table. He was the first member of the Coleridge Station staff to set foot in the barracks since Rhodes got shot.

Stolen novel; please report.

“I’d like a word with you, Captain, if you don’t mind,” Kraft began.

Rhodes didn’t look up. “Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of these people. I’m sure whatever you have to say affects them as much as it affects me.”

Kraft compressed his lips for an instant and then blurted out, “All right. If that’s the way you want it, I have an idea about how to correct the malfunctions in Rhinehart’s and Henshaw’s SAMs.”

Now Rhodes really did look up. “You do? What’s your idea?”

“We’ll need you and your SAMs to interface between them,” Kraft replied. “You and the other SAMs will be able to detect any malfunction. If you can’t, you’ll be able to see whether the SAMs are functioning correctly. You all know these SAMs better than we do—better than the doctors do.”

“What did I tell you?!” Fisher crowed. “You see? I’m not crazy after all.”

“We would need to wake up Rhinehart and Henshaw for that,” Rhodes told Kraft. “Are you prepared to take that risk?”

“The brass doesn’t want to, but I think it will be worth it if we can get Rhinehart and Henshaw back. The only alternative is to leave them offline indefinitely. None of us wants that. I mean, if it doesn’t work, we’ll have to take them offline anyway. Then we won’t have lost anything. We have nothing to lose at this point. That’s the way I see it.”

“I told you so!” Fisher exclaimed again.

“You can stop saying that now,” Wild rasped. “We heard you the first time.”

“So….do you have authorization from General Brewster to wake up Rhinehart and Henshaw?” Rhodes asked Kraft.

“Yes, I have it. I just needed to make sure all of you were on board. I mean…..if anything goes wrong, Rhinehart and Henshaw could malfunction again. They could….you know…..try to kill one of you again.”

Rhodes glanced around the circle of faces. Fuentes wasn’t working on the terminal anymore. He looked up and listened to the conversation. So did Thackery.

Rhodes checked the interface with Oakes. He was back at the loading dock, but he listened to the conversation with Kraft.

“I’m in,” he told Rhodes. “It will be worth it if we can get Rhinehart and Henshaw back. We stopped them once before. We can stop them again.”

Rhodes looked up at Kraft. “All right. We’ll do it.”

“Don’t you need to discuss it amongst yourselves first?” Kraft asked.

“We just did. When do you want to wake them up?”

Kraft blinked at him and then shrugged it off. “As soon as possible—maybe this afternoon if you aren’t too busy.”

“We aren’t busy. Just tell us when you want us to be there and we’ll be there.”

“Uh….okay. How about three o’clock this afternoon?” Kraft asked.

Rhodes nodded. “That sounds good. We’ll be there.”

No one said anything until he left. Oakes stood up from the loading dock and started walking back to the barracks. He walked faster than he usually did.

“Rhinehart and Henshaw better not try to kill anybody again,” Murphy growled.

“If I’m right about Rocky malfunctioning and switching back to his original appearance, then that should be easy to correct,” Fisher pointed out.

“Maybe we can get the technicians to reprogram the SAM’s appearance before we wake up Rhinehart,” Coulter suggested.

“That leaves Koen,” Rhodes added. “If he really has turned into a murderous freak, we might not be able to do anything about him. He’ll just keep trying to kill Georgie until he succeeds.”

“Then what will we do?” Coulter asked.

Rhodes shrugged. “I don’t see that we’ll be able to do anything. We can’t leave her in a conversion cycle for the rest of forever. It would be better to take her offline.”

“I can’t believe we’re even talking about this,” Murphy husked. “I can’t think of taking anyone offline.”

“I guess we’re about to find out,” Rhodes replied.

Just then, Oakes came back. The group talked about Rhinehart and Henshaw until it was time to go down to the lab.

Colonel Kraft met them there and everyone gathered around the two capsules. Rhinehart and Henshaw hadn’t moved since Rhodes woke up.

Dr. Irvine attended them. Rhodes didn’t trust the other two doctors. He’d already made up his mind never to let Dr. Neiland lay a finger on him ever again.

“Can you change Rocky’s appearance?” Rhodes asked Irvine.

Irvine frowned. “How do you mean?”

“Change his programming so he looks different. Make him look like a Khikvid—and change his voice. Make it softer, lower, and less echoing.”

Irvine scowled over his computer equipment. “It isn’t protocol to tamper with a SAM’s unique identity. They’re sentient beings. They have a right to determine their own appearance and presentation.”

“Not if their presentation puts us in danger,” Oakes pointed out.

“What makes you think Rocky’s presentation is putting Rhinehart in danger?” Irvine asked.

“Both times Rhinehart threatened Rocky were when Rocky was using his original voice and appearance. Rocky and Rhinehart were fine after Rocky changed the way he looked and sounded. Just try it—please. I’m sure Rocky wouldn’t want anything as superficial as that to put Rhinehart at risk.”

Irvine shrugged and worked on his equipment for a while. “Okay. I changed it.”

“Now make both SAMs as small as possible. Program them not to speak until we give the word. Let Rhinehart and Henshaw wake up first before they see their SAMs.”

“Aren’t you supposed to interface with them?” Kraft asked.

“We don’t want to interface with them before Rhinehart and Henshaw wake up.” Rhodes nodded to the doctor. “You can wake them up now.”

End of Chapter 36.