“Captain! Did you know that my partner’s down in our room with a bandage on his head? That the doc says he might even have a minor concussion?”
“I’m aware of that.”
“And did you know that bitch Brandy did it to him?”
“I’d heard that, too.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
Phule regarded her levelly.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? But she-“
“Since I figure doing nothing is better than seeing your partner brought up on charges.”
Super Gnat blinked, hesitating in her tirade.
“Charges? I don’t understand, Captain.”
“Sit down, Gnat,” Phule instructed calmly. “If I take official notice of what happened, then I’ll have to acknowledge all the eyewitness accounts of Tusk-anini launching an attack on Sergeant Brandy … an attack that ended when she knocked him cold defending herself. I don’t want to have to do that, so unless that bitch, as you called her, decides to press charges, I’m willing to pretend the whole thing never happened.”
The Gnat frowned fiercely for a moment, then shook her head.
“I can’t believe it, Captain. They’ve got to be lying. Tusk-anini is the gentlest soul in this whole company. What’d he want to take off after Brandy for?”
“Let me ask you a question,” the commander said slowly. “Would you want to tangle with Brandy?”
The little Legionnaire twisted her mouth into a grimace.
“That’s one I’d walk around if there was any way,” she admitted. “Even if I kept my head and remembered what I learned in those classes I was tellin’ you about, she’d probably peel me like a grape. That’s one mean lady.”