In twenty days, Derran used the first free Friday night, to run to Spacetop, the small town next to the Space Port. He chose to enter the first bar he saw, and then was startled right there on the entrance.

"What are you kids doing here?" Derran asked as he stepped in, seeing Wrankies, Fkiss, and Siya sitting around a cheap table, drinking from a big pitch of golden beer. "Aren't you too young for that? Plus, you are getting up tomorrow to start the last part of your training, and..." Derran stopped himself, then turned his head around thinking.

"Oh, well. After everything you've been through during the last year, I guess you deserve it." he said as he set down next to them.

He waived to the waiter asking for a double shot of the locally brewed bourbon.

“Where have you been, Sergeant? You’ve been gone for a long time.” Wrankies, noticing how relaxed Derran became, decided to inquire.

Derran nailed the shot that just arrived, and asked for another. “You really want to know?”

The tone of Derran’s voice implied there was a lot more to it. But Wrankies failed to register it. “Yes. Of course. Siya was just saying that you probably went back to the planet to honor your deal.”

Derran looked at Siya. She decided not to say anything, noting that something is off.

“No, she was wrong, and if you betted, she lost.”

They all chuckled at that and the girl admitted that she will pay the next round.

“Actually I asked a friend of mine to do that in my place.” Derran’s voice was too cold. Siya knew it. “I had some other things to do.”

“Come on, tell us, did you go and see your lady? Where did you go?” Siya put a hand on Wrankies, trying to tell him not to press for it.

“I had some unfinished business to do.” The second glass of bourbon was on the table, but Derran just stared at it.

“Yeah, you want to collaborate on that, Sergeant?” Fkiss didn’t catch Siya’s look to keep quiet. “Come on, Sergeant, we are war-bodies now…”

“Well, if you put it like that, maybe you have a right to know…”

Derran down the shot, and then took Fkiss's half-full glass out of his hand and emptied it as well. He then poured himself a glass of beer and emptied it too.

“Who says beer does not go down with bourbon?”

They all knew then that the things were off, and nobody dared to chuckle again. “I went to… to see a person that I needed to clear something with…a guy that planted that bomb in my closet.”

“You – You found him? You found who it was?” Fkiss asked in disbelief.

"Sure, sure I did. It wasn't that difficult to do. I mean all that spaceshit I told you about leaving it to the commission, it was all to get you and them off my back. There was really never a chance for me to let that one go. That kid died because of me. Too many people died around me." Wrankies did not even think to encourage him to talk anymore, but words came out nevertheless. "Once I set down and thought about it, I figured out the possibilities, what to look for… I asked some of my old friends in the army intelligence to give me scans of the skies during that period. There were only supply vessels docking on the spaceport during that period. I thought for a while what if someone landed a small space ship directly on the planet... But those vessels are rare and expensive, and didn't fit the profile of a killer… "

They looked at him, not fully understanding it. "Such an expensive traveling arrangement would imply that the assassin was very professional, highly-skilled, which we all know, he was not. The explosive he used, my size, positioning, I mean, if I was any shorter, that could only give me one nasty haircut, you know… A dumbass…"

“So, I thought what a dumbass would do. I paid a visit to the captain of the supply ship that came during that time. At first, he didn’t want to collaborate on his recent passenger list, but I kind of persuaded him to change his mind.”

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Derran poured himself another glass. “So, after some persuasion, he told me who paid him five thousand credits to hitch a ride and not be on a passenger list, and then… I went to find that lucky guy.”

“And…?”

“And, he was lucky no more.” Derran emptied another glass. “I found him in the same shitty space station where the captain left him, whoring and drinking away like there is no tomorrow…”

“Was there…Was there a tomorrow for him?”

“After killing Virkle, should there be…? Besides, do you think that was the last time he would have tried to do something that stupid again? How many would he kill next time?”

Derran finished the last of the beer. "Well, that shit is not good for you anyway," he murmured before continuing. "But, before that had happened, he was very interested in opening up. Strange how much even the smallest of chainsaws can open a man's mouth."

“Strange, yeah, yeah, really strange.” Fkiss suddenly nervous words seemed stuck on his lips.

“He was paid a hundred thousand credits…Didn’t really know I was worth all that much…to do it…”

“By whom?”

“Remember the kid that died during the first week of training, when he stepped on a landmine…? We never found out was it his detector that didn’t work right or he didn’t pay much attention when I thought you guys how to use them....”

“His father?”

"Yes. For the death of his kid, he decided to go out and contract someone else to die… to kill someone else, life for life, I guess. I think that is how they look at it from Sira VI where they came from or some shit like that."

“What did you do with him?”

"I actually never had a chance to talk to him… He actually took his own life about two months ago. I guess after he found out I was still kicking and that he hired a killer who killed an innocent boy. Strange. You know in a way, I doubt that the man like him had actually hired a killer. I bet it must have been the boy's mother, the one that pushed for it… But not much I could do about that. Plus, enough tragedy had already happened. Time might be her best punishment. I sent the file to be processed by the police on Sira VI. But I seriously doubt they will ever get anything done on that account. Maybe it's better that way."

Derran sighed and pushed his chin against his own chest. “I did what I thought was right… and to hell with the rest…”

"Hey kids..." the man, two heads taller than Fkiss, turned around from standing at the bar and called them. "To all of you." He said and raised the cup with the funny shinning cocktail inside. He seemed already too drunk.

"Do you know the man you are sitting next to, do you know who he is?" The man continued speaking way too loud for someone who was not drunk.

"Yes-"

"I tell you who he is!" The man stopped Siya from answering..."He is the hero of the battle of Vazz! The great hero who saved us all!" the man approached them in unsteady step, ready to fall down any second "Except, I know better. I was there. I know, the real Sergeant Derran. He is no hero! He is a coward! The only reason he because he tried to hide underground."

"Yes, you are right!" Derran got up and leaned toward him. "That is the truth, everything you said is the truth... Except..." He stood next to the drunken man looking him in the eyes." Except that you were not there. You were not there, chicken face. You could never have been there for you look too stupid to even know how to calculate a droid flight, and I swear, I do not know of anyone so stupid get in the army and live to talk about it."

“You are the stupid one,” the man replied.

“That is true, that is true as well. And I’m certainly not a hero, and never will be. Don’t want these kids here playing heroes either… don’t you know, man, whose mother is the first to cry?”

“You are just a scum, the murdering scum!” the man drunkenly raised his voice.

“Well, you speak the truth again. I am the scum and I am the murderer, and…” Derran looked at him with a sudden indifference. “What the fuck should I do with you then?”

All three candidates set there, unable to move, waiting to see who is going to throw the first punch. Two men stared at each other. Then the drunk put his glass down, and suddenly with a very firm, sober step walked out of the bar.

“Damn, I am losing my edge. I probably should have called him ‘father of his sister’, tell him… whatever else … I never thought he would just leave. It could have been a good fight.” Derran said as he watched him leave.

“He was two heads taller than you… could have nailed you to the floor.”

“Yeah,” Derran said, and only then took his hand out of his jacket pocket. They all glanced at a part of a gun’s handle there. “But since that is not going to happen, I will buy the next round, and then you can drag my sorry-drunk-ass home.”