I stared at her in silence until she began to cock her head quizzically.
“Is your hand-burner functional?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you provide cover fire for Ahk when he was caught by the Leapers?”
“It would have been against direct orders.”
“What orders?”
She cocked her head in question again.
“Your orders, Commander. Before we left you gave us specific orders to avoid contact with the Enemy and to enter into combat only in self-defense. I was not threatened in that situation, so to open fire would have been in direct disobedience of your orders.”
I considered this for several moments before continuing with my questioning.
“Are you then claiming that had I not issued orders against contact with the Enemy that you would have given Ahk supporting fire?”
She paused for thought before answering.
“No. I still would have withheld fire.”
“Explain.”
“It has become quite apparent since our landing that the hand-burners could be a decisive factor in any battle with the Leapers. Realizing this, I could not justify depleting the power of my burner to benefit any single individual. Rather, I would feel obligated to preserve its power in lieu of a situation critical to the entire team. Secondly, priority had to be given to getting the report of our scouting mission back to the team. Entering into needless combat could have jeopardized the delivery of that report.”
“But your report was of no activity, a fact which was proven invalid by the Leaper’s attack.”
“On the contrary, Commander. The attack gave us something to report. By my inaction, I have survived to report definite Leaper activity in the area.”