Cowboy shrugged and smiled, drawing a round of laughter from the assemblage.
“Anyway,” he continued, “Paw used to say anytime there was a fight, both sides would insist the other side started it. Usually they weren’t even tryin’ to cover up or anythin’; they really believed it was the other folks doin”. More often ‘n not, my paw never could sort out whose fault it really was.”
He paused to look around the room.
“Now Ah’m not sayin’ it’s always our fault when there’s a fight, but Ah don’t think we kin always say it’s the Groundhogs’ fault neither. What’s more, Ah don’t think that even if we tried to investigate each problem that anyone’d believe we was bein’ fair and impartial. Heck, Ah don’t think we’d believe it ourselves.”
“But we can’t just ignore it!” Blackjack roared, surging to his feet again. “Just because I don’t have a plan doesn’t mean we should just sit back and do nothing. Our crews are being discriminated against. We owe it to them to take some kind of firm action.”
Several voices rose in both support and protest, but Tambu cut the growing pandemonium short.
“Jelly,” he said, “I believe you’re next as soon as we have some quiet.”
“Thank you, sir.” The old man bowed as the voices died down around him. “I would contest Mr.
–
Blackjack’s last comment, I do not feel our crews are being singled out for special treatment.”
There were several growls at this; but for the most part, the audience held its peace, waiting for the old captain to have his say.
“Mr. Cowboy’s father was a policeman. Well, I was a policeman, too. Incidents such as those which have been recounted here, beatings, attempted rapes, minor extortion by spaceport personnel, are not unique to members of our fleet. Police blotters are filled to overflowing with such cases, and have been since long before our fleet was established. The areas we most often frequent planetside-the bars, the places of amusement which surround the spaceports-have always experienced a higher than average occurrence of such crimes. I feel we are reacting emotionally because our friends and families are directly involved. I am concerned, as all of you are, but I cannot believe we are victims of a vast conspiracy on the part of the planets, or that the authorities sanction such activities against us.”