"The Philosopher's Drinking Song."
	By Lieutenant Commander B. Hobbes

Part II: "David Hume could out-consume Schopenhauer and Hegel. And
Whittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as sloshed as Schlegel. There's
nothing Nieizsche couldn't teach 'ya 'bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed."

	Hobbes sat down in the Officer's Club with a cup of earl grey tea. He
thought it was silly, but there was something relaxing to him about sitting
back and watch all the other officers come in and out. He was considering
learning to lip read and having even more fun. Hobbes sighed. In some
masochistic way, he had wished there were more for him to do. No members of
Gamma Squad except for himself and his Executive Officer, a First Lieutenant
Ceorl Morberg were on the ship, and he spent a lot of time with himself and
the Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Simon Gamwich.
	From his table, Hobbes could see Lieutenant Gamwich sitting alone at
the bar, nursing some type of beverage that Hobbes could not discern. A few
moments later, Lieutenant Morberg entered and looked around. On spotting
Gamwich, he hurried over and whispered something in his ear. The two looked
around suspiciously and headed out of the club.
	Hobbes decided to follow them. He was feeling particularly nosy this
morning or was it after noon. Gad! On a spaceship, you never knew what time
of day it was. He checked his chronometer. 0830. Yup, it was morning all
right. Hobbes downed his drink and followed them at a leisurely pace.
	After they left the Officer's Club, Morberg and Gamwich headed for
the Mag-Lev Carriage, at which point Hobbes stopped tailing them for a while.
Once they had gotten in, Hobbes asked the computer what deck they were headed
for.
	"Lieutenant Morberg and Lieutenant Gamwich are headed for Deck 18."
Answered the computer.
	Hobbes grabbed the next Lift and headed down to Deck 18. "What could
they be doing?" Hobbes asked himself. "Well, it is the Hangar Bay and Flight
Deck, they could be doing some diagnostics. But then, such things are
nominally done in the Maintenance Bay on Deck 19." The Lift's doors opened
with a pneumatic whoosh and Hobbes stepped out into the corridor. He entered
the Flight Deck and looked around. All he saw were a Petty Officer 2nd Class,
and two Petty Officer 3rd Classes. One was an Aviation Machinist's Mate, one
was an Aviation Ordinanceman, and the last was an Air Traffic Control
Technician. The ATC Tech was sitting in a little room in the back of the
Hangar. One of the Enlistedmen looked up and saw Hobbes.
	"Anything I can help you with, sir?"
	"Yes. Did you just see First Lieutenant Morberg and Lieutenant
Gamwich come in here."
	"No sir. We've been the only ones in here since the shift began at
0800 hours."
	"Hmm, Thanks for your help anyways." Hobbes said, and he exited. Once
the automatic double pocket doors closed behind him, he spoke aloud,
"Computer, give the location of Lieutenants Morberg and Gamwich."
	"Lieutenants Morberg and Gamwich are in the Cargo Bay."
	Hobbes politely thanked the computer and headed for the Cargo Bay.
Once inside, he hid behind some cargo barrels and crouched motionless. He
heard some voices, but couldn't make out what they were saying. Hobbes
stalked closer, staying hidden behind the rows of cargo barrels and cargo
crates. He was now within earshot of the voices. It was Lieutenant Morberg
Lieutenant Gamwich all right, but they were speaking in some strange
language. It seemed to be a mix of Germanic and Slavic languages. What's
more, there seemed to be a third voice. Cautiously, Hobbes peeked around the
corner and saw the two lieutenants sitting in front of a portable vid-comm
panel. He caught a few words of the conversation, like: Normandy, assignment,
through, with, using, this, ship, leave, set, time-bomb, rejoin, the, and
clans.
	The plucky Lieutenant Commander put 2 and 2 together. Hobbes was very
ungifted at math, and when he put 2 and 2 together, he usually came out with
an improper fraction. However this time he came up with 4. He hoped this was
the right answer.
	"Hey!" He said to himself. "Them's Pirate folks!" He quickly and
quietly armed his wrist blaster and stealthily crept up to the two now
identified Pirates until he was about five feet away from them. He raised his
arm until it was about level with the two Pirates and said, "I want you to
imagine that I have an extremely powerful wrist blaster in my possession."
	The Pirates swung around and stared at Hobbes. After a few moments,
one of them said, "But you do have an armed wrist blaster."
	"I didn't want to overtax your imagination."
	They both pulled out blasters and began shooting. Hobbes fired back
and managed to hit the Pirate formerly known as Lieutenant Gamwich, thus
stunning him. Lieutenant Morberg, on the other hand fled from Cargo Bay, with
Hobbes fast on his heels. Morberg entered into the Hangar Bay. He fired at
the Petty Officers and manually opened the hangar doors. When Hobbes entered,
Morberg was about to hijack Hobbes' Modified Police Enforcer E-Frame.
	"Oh no you don't!" Hobbes screamed as he tackled Morberg. The two
wrestled on the floor for a while until Morberg had Hobbes pinned. Morberg
grabbed Hobbes' head by the hair and started beating in against the deck.
Hobbes reached down in his boot, and retrieved the small Sgain Dubh from its
sheath. He then stabbed Morberg in the back repeatedly.
	Hobbes got up and plucked the dying Pirate off the floor by his shirt
collar and headed for the open hangar doors. With a quick heave-ho, Hobbes
tossed the Pirate into the cold, black void of space. "That's for messin'
with my 'frame." Hobbes yelled after him. Hobbes spoke into his wrist-comm
and said security team to the Cargo Bay. Medical Emergency in the Hangar
Bay." He then went over to the ATC panel and closed the hangar doors. He
sheathed his Sgian Dubh back in his boot and slumped unto the floor with a
sigh.
TBC...