"No kidding." The book snorted. "That's what happens when the government doesn't have any POWER. Security answers to Command, Command doesn't do anything, and all I can do is go, 'hey, quit being idiots.'"

He looked purposefully from the two awaiting Punishment, to the increasingly hostile around them. "And then look what you get. A bunch of maniacs who want to throw away the entire war for the sake of rebelling." Zetta sighed. "You guys at least can DO things like tell the ship to detain this guy or that guy. All we've got is our ability to talk sense to them. Guess how well THAT's going."