one of the three hunters who'd fared so poorly in the lounge fight strode forward, saying: "look at yourself, sir. you're beaten and battered, and that's captain moore's work. did her sex matter then?"
barling reddened, said nothing.
"we have a pressing need for a leader," steiner continued. "our behavior cannot be chaotic. the leader must plan for us, and we must be prepared to carry out those plans with no hesitation. we must have faith in our leader."
teejay joined them, grinning. "thank you, mr. steiner. there was a time not long ago when what you've just finished saying would have meant more to me than anything. literally, more than anything. but would you think it strange if you hear that i don't think that now?"
"what do you mean?" steiner demanded.
"i'm a twenty-second century female, strong as a man and proud of it. too proud, mr. steiner, for i've spent my whole life trying to prove it. plenty of men have cursed me for it, i'll bet, and i guess they were right.
"so i don't want that job you offer. it took a kind of free-for-all brawl to make me realize it, but a woman's still a woman, and that's one thing i had to learn. i fought your captain barling and i beat him. probably, i could do it again. but i—well, i was fighting with captain barling and saying to myself all the time, 'this is stupid. what are you—a girl—doing this for? don't you know you shouldn't go around fighting like a man?'" steve noticed in the dim light that teejay had begun to blush. "i hate to bare my life before you like this, mr. steiner, but the way it adds up i've suddenly found i've had enough of fighting and galavanting around. so the answer is no: i won't be your captain. the way i feel now, i can't be."
"where does that leave us?" steiner asked her sullenly. "we don't think captain barling can do the job, whatever the job turns out to be. it's one thing to serve on a largely automatic ship under captain barling, but another thing to have to take his orders here—wherever we are."
"may i make a suggestion?" teejay asked. and, after steiner nodded and most of the men grumbled their assent: "there are two men here who can lead us the way we should be led. one is kevin mcgann, exec of the gordak; the other is steve stedman."
a stir of surprise passed among the men. it was one thing to offer their allegiance to the captain of another ship—and an unusual thing at that—but quite another to offer it to a couple of men they hardly knew. the men began heated discussions once more, louder this time, and teejay drew steve off into a corner.
"does that surprise you?"
"it sure does, teejay. on both counts. but i'll tell you this: i think i could like you a lot better in your new role, and—teejay?"
"what?" her voice was soft and he felt her hand snuggle into his.
"i—i like you plenty right now." he slid his arms around her waist, drew her toward him, one small part of his mind expecting a roundhouse right-handed wallop from the old teejay. but she merely sighed contentedly and slipped her arms around his neck. he kissed her—tentatively at first—then long and deep, and teejay's eyes were all aglow when he finished.
"you lug," she said, "if you didn't do something like that, and soon, i was going to be an amazon just once more to make you do it."
someone—steve saw it was steiner—stood before them clearing his throat. "captain moore?"
"yes?" teejay hardly saw him.
"the men have decided to accept your recommendation. mcgann and stedman it is, captain moore. they bark and we'll jump. and we'll be hoping something comes of it."
"if it's at all possible, they'll get us out of here," teejay predicted, and squeezed steve's hand.
"any orders, sir?" steiner looked at steve.
"umm-mm, no. except that we'd like to have this corner to ourselves for a while."
"done," said steiner, smiling and striding away.
"i have one order," kevin called out loudly, and silence fell on the room quite abruptly. "let's all get the hell to sleep before we're too tired to do anything when morning comes."
