Guest Omake
Punishment Duty (by Bobnik)
Emily stared at the pair of PRT grunts in front of her. It was a work of art, that stare. She'd honed it in her own days as a trooper and an officer, and her timed as a Director had only whetted it. The stare could make hardened troopers wince and gangers whimper. It could shut Assault up two times out of three, and the ratio was improving. Once, on a really good day, she'd even managed to get Ianthe to look a little sheepish. Apart from her mind it was about the only thing that hadn't gotten softer since Ellisburg. Of course, she was getting back into shape but that would take a while.
"Tell me, Carlisle. What did you do wrong?"
The grunt straightened at hearing his name. "Ma'am. We pulled a practical joke on a superior officer."
"Incorrect. Stevens? Would you care to give it a try?"
The other grunt straightened. "Ma'am. We were caught pulling a practical joke on a superior officer."
"Correct. It saddens me that you think this kind of humour is something that should happen on duty, but it angers me that you were both incompetent enough to be caught."
She stared at them some more.
"You will both report to Vista, and receive training on the care and feeding of what I understand is rapidly becoming known as The Scary Door. You will be responsible for such for the next three months. Remember that it can apparently tell if the people petting it are insincere, so learn to love it. Unfortunately it's use as an interrogation tool has been vetoed as cruel and unusual. Oh, and Ianthe has come up with a test for tachyon allergies in humans; it is somewhat invasive, but considered a necessary precaution for prolonged exposure. Dismissed."