"Maybe if the sentence was rough enough, he'd resign rather than accept it," Captain Humpty suggested hopefully.

"Perhaps, but I wouldn't count on it. I, for one, don't like to bluff if I'm not willing to live with the consequences if it's called. "

"Well, we've got to do something to him," the major said. "After all the coverage he's gotten from the media, we'd look silly if we didn't make an example of him."

"Perhaps." The colonel smiled tightly.

Major Joshua scowled. "What do you mean by that... sir?"

"I mean it wouldn't be the first time a Legionnaire has been renamed to keep the media hounds off his track."

"You aren't seriously suggesting that we let him off scotfree, are you?" the captain broke in. "After what he's done? I don't favor ignoring-"

"I wasn't suggesting we let the lieutenant escape unscathed," Colonel Battleax interrupted hastily. "I merely think that in this particular situation, it might be wisest if we considered some alternatives to confinement in the stockade for punishment. Perhaps we could find a new assignment for our misfit... a tour sufficiently unpleasant that it would leave no doubt in his or anyone else's mind as to the opinion this court has of his little Wild West show."

The officers lapsed into silence then, as they searched their minds of a posting that would fill their needs.

"If he were a captain," the major said to himself, breaking the silence, "we could ship him off to the Omega crew."

"What was that, Major?" The colonel's voice was suddenly sharp.

Joshua blinked as if waking from a dream, jolted into remembering that the court president was from Headquarters.

"I... Nothing, sir. Just thinking out loud."