McAfree had a busy day the next day.

In the morning she went down to the medical bay to see Dr. Kang and Lieutenant-Commander Mitzner. It turned out that Dr. Kang had already checked himself out. She should have guessed.

Mitzner was lying on a bed, her leg in a cast. She was positively livid about it.

"Why does Dr. Kang get to leave already?" she asked McAfree, as though she could answer "They've trapped me here with this cast. I've healed from worse breaks than this without a cast."

"What are you going to do about the arm?" asked McAfree "Are you going to get a cybernetic one or will it grow back or something?"

"Neither," said Mitzner "I'll get a new one cloned the next time we're in the Core."

"You'd need to wait forever for that," said McAfree.

"That's fine," replied Mitzner.

"But you could get a temporary cybernetic arm in the meantime," insisted McAfree.

"It wouldn't be *my* arm," said Mitzner.

McAfree rolled her eyes.

"You really owe me for that one, Lieutenant-Commander," she said "That was the most terrible experience of my life. My fetish for repulsor towers is completely ruined now."

"Yeah, I know," said Mitzner "I really do. But the 'one' I owe you is non-transferable. I will not end up with Dr. Kang holding a favor of this gravity over my head because you sold it to him."

"Oh don't worry about that," said McAfree "I'm going to hold on to this forever. Your are going to both admire and fear the Machiavellian scope of my opportunism in cashing this in."

"Thanks for the visit, McAfree," said Mitzner.

* * *

In the late afternoon the Captain summoned McAfree to her office.

"This morning we administered an ad hoc election to select a committee to draft a constitution for the people of this moon," the Captain told her.

"Oh," said McAfree "Neat."

"They've asked for an adviser from the Foundation to help draft it," said the Captain.

"I bet," said McAfree.

"The committee want you to be that adviser," said the Captain.

"What?" asked McAfree, almost startled "Why?"

"You stood up to the so-called Emperor in a way they all must have secretly wished they could have. You're a hero to them."

"That's not very smart of them is it?" said McAfree "But if we're going to wait around here while they draft a constitution anyway I might as well do the only interesting thing there will be to do. I'm in."

"As always McAfree your youthful enthusiasm is a delight," said the Captain.

"Do they care that I don't know anything about constitutions?" asked McAfree.

"The Exploration Fleet has a number of constitution templates for just this kind of situation," said the Captain "I can make these available to you."

"Great," said McAfree "When do I start?"

"The first meeting is tomorrow," said the Captain.

* * *

That evening McAfree finally ran into Dr. Kang in the Science Department.

"You did a good job following the protocol for when I get shot," said Dr. Kang.

"I've had practice," deadpanned McAfree.

"Saving my life prevented what would have been a tragedy for all humanity," continued Dr. Kang "You should be pleased with yourself."

"You're welcome," said McAfree.

"Aside from mere animal survival, how do you rate the outcome of this little encounter?" asked Dr. Kang.

Dr. Kang didn't ever show enough genuine interest in McAfree's opinion to disguise when he was testing her.

"Well personally I spent too much time in the man's presence to harbor any illusions that Hercules Gormenghast deserved to live, but beyond that eliminating the Gormenghast Dynasty as potential figureheads removed a powerful piece from the board, and one that could only ever benefit our enemies."

"Your reasoning is sound but your entire chain of thought is destroyed by an inaccurate data point," said Dr. Kang "Hercules Gormenghast is alive."

"What?" demanded McAfree.

"Most of his bones were broken by a blast from a high power concussion cannon but he survived. He's in the secured medical facility inside the brig right now. Isn't that interesting."

"So what's the Captain's plan then?" asked McAfree "Take him back to the Core? To stand trial? In the heart of the old Galactic Empire where he's as dangerous as he can possibly be?"

"You know how Captain Littlecrow is an idealist," said Dr. Kang.

"So what are we going to do about it?" demanded McAfree.

"The same thing we always do," said Dr. Kang "Assimilate this new information and keep our eyes open for opportunities to leverage it. Until we have a clear idea of what repairing our relationship with the Council would even look like we can't discount any potential tool."

"He's certainly a tool," said McAfree.

End: Imperator Galactica