"Combat?" O'Brien screwed up his face.
"Yeh boy. Combat like we saw, with our backs to the wall and nine-tenths of the Galaxy howling for our heart's blood. Wonder if they'd change their minds about the force—" he jerked his thumb back towards the auditorium—"if it came again?"
"Dunno." Mike shrugged. "Maybe old Fitzsimmons wondered about us the same way when we went on our shake-down cruise. We were a sad bunch, I'll admit. But we didn't pan out too bad, did we Jack?"
The two officers had reached the observation deck. The Milky Way stretched a hazy filament across the heavens. Harrigan drew a long breath, hooked his thumbs in his belt and smiled.
"No, Mike, not bad at all, if I do say so. It was rugged while we were going through it, I suppose. But things have been quiet for so long now ... damn it, we did have fun, didn't we Mike?"
Mike grinned crookedly. "Fun is right. Remember the time Shorty Michaels caught those two Xantu ships flat-footed behind the Coal Sack?"
"Yeah. Blew 'em to Hell and back and found out later they were the two strongest ships in the Xantu fleet. If they had seen him first ... brother, he shook for a week after they told him."
Mike roared with laughter. "Battle wagons, and Shorty with a destroyer."
"And how about that time the gang of Zith stinkers ambushed us on Sirius V.... Were they surprised when their water-pistols didn't kill us! They didn't know that water isn't quite as fatal to a Terran as it is to a Zith."