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"No foolin'? So you're a slave?"
"I used to be."
"They put chains on you? Make you kiss your master's foot?"
"Don't be silly!"
"Look who's talking! You know what, Trader boy? I heard about that mark -- and I think you had it tattooed yourself. To make big talk. Like that one about how you blasted a bandit ship."
Thorby cut his shower short and got out.
At dinner Thorby was helping himself from a bowl of mashed potatoes. He heard Peebie call out something but his ears filtered out "Decibel's" endless noise.
Peebie repeated it "Hey, Slave! Pass the potatoes! You know who I mean! Dig the dirt out of your ears!"
Thorby passed him the potatoes, bowl and all, in a flat trajectory, open face of the bowl plus potatoes making perfect contact with the open face of Decibel.
The charge against Thorby was "Assaulting a Superior Officer, the Ship then being in Space in a Condition of Combat Readiness." Peebie appeared as complaining witness.
Colonel Brisby stared over the mast desk and his jaw muscles worked. He listened to Peebie's account: "I asked him to pass the potatoes . . . and he hit me in the face with them."
"That was all?"
"Well, sir, maybe I didn't say please. But that's no reason --"
"Never mind the conclusions. The fight go any farther?"
"No, sir. They separated us."
"Very well. Baslim, what have you to say for yourself?"
"Nothing, sir
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