Disclaimer: I have no claim whatsoever many of these characters.

Orders

by Helen W.

"Shoot him," he'd said, and Greer had done so, without hesitation.

Had the soldier been responding to his authority, his certainty, or to the logic of the situation? Whatever the cause, Rush sensed that that action had somehow brought Greer into his orbit; Greer was his now, as much as he was anybody's. What would it take to solidify this?

"Eli, do it now!" He'd had to order Eli twice to block the gate, or was it three times? Though without the calcium carbonate the lad would have been as dead aboard the Destiny as on the planet. Surely Eli had known this.

But even as Eli had accepted his praise in the gateroom, Rush had realized that next time there would be more questions, not fewer.

What was the difference? Was it their character, their training, the circumstances, or something else entirely?

It was actually pretty interesting stuff, this human behavior in extremis.

* * * THE END * * *

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