Learning to Dance

“So please, enlighten me, Lieutenant. What in the galaxy
caused you to bring that young lady on board my ship?”
Because she damned well wouldn’t let me do otherwise
was what he wanted to say, but that wasn’t quite right.
“There was nowhere else for her to go, sir. Her entire
village was destroyed. There are still robots on the ground,
and no bunkers for miles.” He saw the girl again, swinging
defiantly from that tree branch amidst the smouldering
ruins of her life. “She would have died.”
The Commander didn’t respond, but raised an eyebrow
and Up knew exactly what she was thinking – why should
that matter to him? He'd laughed at death a thousand times
over and had just lost seven good men. Who cared about
some Mexican girl who could scream like a banshee in the
face of certain death? He set the glass down on the desk, a
little harder than he’d meant to.
“Permission to speak freely, sir.”
The Commander waved her hand.
“What’s the harm in it? We’ll be back at the Academy
within a couple of weeks and I can’t see her being much
trouble. Clearly she doesn't eat much.”
“And what shall we do with her when we get to the
Academy?”
“The refugee centre will set her up with something, give
her a roof over her head at least. There’s nothing for her
here, and we’re halfway to the next station anyway. We
can’t just kick her off the ship now.”
Commander Li looked unimpressed. “As was surely
your plan, Lieutenant.” She sighed. “I guess that’s settled,
then. You’d better go collect her from sickbay.”
Up stood, then paused. “What – why? Shouldn’t she stay
there?”
“The medics tell me she’s not seriously hurt. The beds
there are full of our own men, and we’ve just established