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as he stood and offered Dee his hand, “Please come with me, Darling.” Dee smiled, picked up her drink, and followed him out the door. The pilots gathered in the middle of the street were extremely nervous. The Marines surrounding them had their blasters energized. They were all trying to determine what was going on when one of them shouted. “It’s the Dark Officer.” Silence descended on them. Even the hundreds of restaurants, saloons, and bars had turned off their music and silence descended around the gathered pilots. They watched Drey exit the bar and leisurely walk out on the elevated front walk way. This was not good! Everyone had heard about his execution of a pilot for insubordination.
    Drey looked at the thousands of pilots and they saw his expression was flat and unemotional. After a long moment, he looked at the Colonel standing at the rear of the gathering and yelled, “If you burn every one of them, how long will it take to clean up the mess?”
    The Colonel paused and yelled back, “About thirty six hours, Sir.”
    Drey nodded slowly. “Couldn’t you do it any faster than that? I don’t want these businesses to suffer loss of income.”
    The Colonel thought about it and shook his head, “Not without calling in another battalion, Sir. Just eliminating the smell will require twenty four hours.”
    Drey nodded slowly and scratched his chin. “How long would it take to get them here?”
    “About ten hours, Sir.”
    The pilots listened to the discussion and felt immense fear. The Marines had their blasters raised and most of them thought they were going to die. Drey looked at the closest pilot to him and said, “Pilot, if I burn every one of you, do you think the others in your fleet might know the behavior you idiots have just been exhibiting here is not acceptable?”
    The pilot stared at Drey, took a deep breath and blew it out, “Yes Sir, I think they would.”
    The pilot standing next to the one that spoke said, “Please don’t burn us, Sir!”
    Drey raised his arm faster than the eye could follow and a blaster appeared. He shot the pilot who had pleaded for mercy in the arm, watched it fall to the ground, and said, “I don’t like to be interrupted. I wasn’t talking to you.” The pilot fell to the street screaming and Drey waited as two marines ran forward and carried him away. He looked at his blaster and said, “My aim is getting bad; I was aiming at his head.” He raised the blaster, sighted down the barrel, shook his head and put it away. He turned back to the pilot and said, “Where were we? Oh yeah, can you think of another way to get that message out?”
    The pilot looked at the screaming pilot being carried away and turned back to Drey, “I suspect you just delivered it in a fashion that everyone in Fleet will understand, Sir.”
    Drey stared at the pilot with raised eye brows, “You really think so?”
    “I do, Sir.”
    Drey looked out at the thousand pilots shaking his head, “You know; I like to take my wife out for an enjoyable evening and you idiots make that impossible.” He looked at the Colonel, started to say something, and then turned back to the pilots, “You have thirty six hours to clean up the mess you’ve made here. You will report back here at that time and, depending on how good a job you do cleaning up, I will consider allowing you poor excuses of a Union Warrior to live. If you don’t conduct yourselves as an officer and a gentleman in the future, we will not be discussing this issue again.” Drey looked down at the pilot and said, “Do you think your friends here understand what I’m telling them?”
    “I think you’ve been quite clear, Sir.”
    Drey looked at the huge gathering, “You will clean up the mess you’ve made and, at the conclusion of that, all of you will be given an opportunity to resign from the Navy. Should you choose to stay, your future transgressions will be treated quite severely.” Drey stared at them and said quietly,