59.
good you can do."
"Thank you, sir," North said again. "Sometime if you have time, I would enjoy reminiscing with you about my father. After I graduate, if you prefer."
"Good Lord, lad, you've got confidence!" said the Commandant. "I won't wait long. Give you a couple of years, and this whole thing will be forgotten except in the records. You might as well go home now, and catch up on your studies."
"Yes, sir!" Rising, North saluted, and this time the Commandant stood and gave him the full salute. Both men smiled, and North turned and left. North was returning home, when he saw two stretcher-bearers winging toward the hospital with a covered stretcher.
"Not another accident!" thought North. He later learned it was no accident. Almost the same time as he was finishing his talk with the Commandant, the psychiatrist who had tested him had been talking with the fencing instructor, telling him why North had attacked him. He noticed that the officer was getting more and more upset. In the mid of a sentance, the officer hurridly told the doctor he had to sign off, and broke the connection. The doctor was trained enough to recognize a man at the breaking point. He quickly called the officer's quarters and asked they send someone to the officer's room until he could get there. The other officer arrived at the instructor's quarters and found the door open. He walked in and saw the instructor sitting on his bed looking at the point of his dagger. The officer tried to get to the weapon but he didn't make it. Just before his hands snatched it away, it discharged. The instructor had had enough sense left to get it on low yield, but this setting at that range still had enough power to incinerate his face and most of his brain, too, and flash blind the officer trying to grab it. The blind man struggled to the communicator and summoned stretcher bearers. There would be no charges against Northern Star.
The six months probation passed, and everyone almost forgot the incident, but several instructors and cadets that had been very friendly to North started giving him a great deal of distance. Sometimes, having a certain notation in your records can be useful!
** ** **