14
STARTLING STORIES
himself for action.
“Wait!” she said.
Confused, he turned, only to find her gauntleted hand gesturing at his crotch.
“Get dressed first, for goodness sake…”
* * * *
“There’s nothing to worry about, you see,” Serendipidam said. “Officers will read from their mission statement. You’ll com-pare what’s said with the neurobrand issued to you, report any disparities, sign the rele-vant forms afterwards and return everything to the attending provost’s officer. Got it?”
Not getting it didn’t appear to be an op-tion. That was the Fleet for you, of course. Its unbreakable sinews might hold human-ity together across the interstellar diaspora, but bureaucracy clogged its arteries like the worst kind of administrative cholesterol. Heaven help you if you forgot to do the pa
