"Why?" Logan crept back, inching up the metal hull. The blood pumps
under the skirts of the tables pulsed across the warm silence. "Does
it hurt, the truth? Your son'd be proud of you, okay. Ha!" He coughed
and spat. "He was so damn ashamed of you he went and signed up for
space combat. So he got lost from his ship during a battle." Logan
licked his lips very carefully. "So, to make up for it, you signed on a
Morgue Ship. Try to find his body. Try to make amends. I know you. You
wouldn't join the Space Warriors to fight. No guts for that. Had to
get a nice easy job on a morgue ship--"
Lines appeared in Brandon's gaunt cheeks, his eyes were closed, the
lids pale. He said, and tried to believe it himself, "Someone has to
pick up the bodies after the battle. They can't go flying on forever in
their own orbits. They deserve burial."
The bitterness of Logan struck even deeper. "Who are you tryin' to
convince?" He was on his feet now. "Me, it's different. I got a right
to running this ship. I was in the other war."
"You're a liar," Brandon retorted. "You hunted radium in the asteroids
with a mineral tug. You took this Morgue Ship job so you could go right
on hunting radium, picking up bodies on the side."
Logan laughed softly, but not humorously. "So what? Least I'm no
coward. I'll burn anybody gets in my way." He thought it over.
"Unless," he added, "they give me a little money."
Brandon turned away, feeling ill. He forced himself to climb up the
rungs toward that air-lock, where that fresh body lay, newly still-born
from space by the retrieving-claw. His palms let wet shining prints
on the rungs. His climbing feet made a soft noise in the cold metal
silence.
The body lay in the cold air-lock's center, as thousands had lain
before. Its posture was one of easy slumber, relaxed and not speaking
ever again.
* * * * *
Brandon took in his breath. Numbly he realized it was not his son.
Every time a new body was found he feared and yet hoped it would be
Richard. Richard of the easy laughter and good smile and dark curly
hair. Richard who was now floating off somewhere toward some far
eternity.
Brandon's eyes dilated. He went to his knees and with efficient darts
of his eyes, he covered the vital points of this strange uniform with
the young body inside it. His heart pounded briefly, and when he got
up again he acted like he had been struck in the face. He walked
unsteadily to the rungs.
"Logan," he called down the hole in a numbed voice. "Logan, come up
here. Quick."
Logan climbed lazily up, emitting grunts and smoke.
"Look here," said Brandon, kneeling again by the body.