The small group were gathered at the table where they watched the tape conclude. Hamall stood up then walked away with his hands in fists walking off his anger. Sanchisko sat there at the table still in shock. Wyrt, Kenanan, and Bobellis had equal looks of disgust. Carly had her arms folded looking down toward the table. Watson was still in cryostasis. Madalyn came to the center of the long conference table. There was the back drop of space from behind them. No one knew what to say about the situation that they had.

"We have to turn this ship around and go back to Earth," Madalyn said.

"Doctor," Hamall said, pinching his forehead coming to a stop by the windows. "We can't go back empty handed."

"When it comes to a officer directly ordering a old man to be mistreated," Wyrt said. "We can make a exception."

"Retrieving the Robinsons's corpses has been the only thing that he has talked about off duty," Hamall said, lowering his hand down looking toward the group. "That will make him less cooperative with the Military Police."

"We are not going to ask for a court martial," Madalyn said. "We just want a different retrieval team on this mission who isn't so connected to this mission that they ask a android to handle a criminal into their prison pod," she looked toward Bobellis. "You can pilot us back home."

"You want me to pilot this ship in hyper drive and send this old man directly into the hands of people who will now want to look at his hands?" Bobellis asked. "No," he shook his hands. "No one has noticed so far those hands so no one should. If they did, what kind of hell would we be making for him?"

The group shared glances reconsidering their positions on the matter.

Bobellis leaned back into the chair folding his arms.

"Sure," Bobelis continued. "he is a criminal."

The group nodded in agreement.

"But. . ." Bobellis started. "I am pretty sure he has gone through enough after being out of his pod for a year." he leaned forward placing his arms on the edge of the table. "He doesn't seem to be in pain." Bobellis pointed his index finger toward the screen. "I get the feeling that if they try to reconstruct his fingers then they will make him be in pain."

Grimaces appeared on the officer's faces exchanging glances with each other.

"How can you be so sure of that?" Madalyn said. "You're not a doctor. He won't be in pain after the surgery."

"It's a gut feeling, doc," Bobellis said.

"Gut feeling my ass," Madalyn said. "You know something."

"The way he moves his fingers," Bobellis said. "It's like. . ." he shook his head. "It's human then it's not."

"You mean to say that his spine isn't human," Madalyn said.

"I don't know what I am saying," Bobellis said. "It is the way his hands were fixed."

"Fixed," Madalyn said, glaring a hole through Bobellis's chest.

"I am no scientist," Bobellis said. "He has been living with those hands for so long that if they are surgically corrected then everything would be out of whack. Bones set at the wrong parts. New bones removed." he shook his hand. "I know you're going to say that pain killers would take away that pain but it would go beyond internal pain but psychological, you know, he hasn't used human typical hands for thirty-one years and he would need rigorous therapy for that. Would the prison cover that?" he scanned the group one by one. "Are any of you willing to cover that? You have to be part of it because the united states space corps and air force won't lay a dollar on him."

There was silence.

"It's a big iffy when we return to Earth with him," Bobellis said.

"Do we have the right to point out his hands to Doctor Weaver and let her take care of it instead of the prison taking the long route to approve of it?" Sanchisko asked, carrying on the thought.

The group pondered the question rather deeply.

"Hand surgery is what the prison won't cover unless it got in the way of his incarceration," Bobellis said, then nodded toward Sanchisko.

"Do we have the right to change his life?" Sanchisko asked. "Can we speak for him? Can we make decisions for him? This is not our place. This is a decision that his family and himself would have to make. He doesn't have any family on Earth." Silence was in the room as they listened to him intently. "Is this a moral and ethical decision that strangers can make?" he shook his head. "It's his hands, his decision. He must have a say in it. What gives us the right to do this without discussing this subject with him?"

Hamall nodded, then sighed.

"And Ryan?" Hamall asked.

"We shouldn't show them the footage but deal with Major Watson our way rather than the military way," Bobellis said. "My opinion," he shrugged. "Our way is by giving him a bad rep back on Earth on his performance during the mission. Hurts him professionally."

There was silence in the conference room that absorbed in the information.

"What is wrong with his hands?" Wyrt asked, leaning against the table with a raised eyebrow.

Bobellis wore a look of disbelief raising a brow.

"Were you not paying attention to the screen?" Bobellis asked.

"We weren't paying attention to his hands," Sanchisko said, softly. "We didn't need to," the man got up from the chair then walked toward the set up square tv. "No one has." he came to a stop beside the screen then gestured toward it. "His face and wrist is all everyone looks at when it comes to him." he earned nods. "No one will pay attention to his fingers but to what the android is doing right here. The only one in this ship who is required to face a court martial would be the criminal, if he were still in the air force, for loss of property. Legally, Ryan has not committed a crime but the prisoner in transport has."

"And this time we have evidence," Hamall said, gesturing toward the bagged cleaver and over to the big compact screen. "Not a journal."

"Seeing as how he is serving a life sentence, I vote we delete the evidence," Kenanan said. "Put the meat cleaver away. Make sure he heals on his own while we are in stasis, turn the residential deck into a prison deck, and forget about this episode.:" Madalyn wore a horrified expression on her face at hearing this come from her colleague. She didn't know what to say. "That Alexa Anne was planned to be removed after our return, anyway, even if the criminal tried to tell what happened, I am pretty sure no one will believe him."

There was a uncomfortable silence in the room.

"What?" Kenanan asked.

"No evidence to back him up, just a missing android," Bobellis said, clasping his hands together. "I don't know what to think about that."

"It feels eerie," Carly said. "Thirty-second anniversary being spent like that?"

"No one believing him when he is telling the truth," Wyrt said. "That is depressing to think about."

"That would be soul crushing," Hamall said.

Sanchisko remained silent back in his seat.

"Unlike this situation, Doctor Smith killed people," Kenanan said. "The jury found him guilty."

"What if he wasn't?" Madalyn asked. "Everyone saw the bio show, right?"

"Everyone in here has," Hamall said, with slow nods in agreement.

Wyrt rolled his eyes.

"We are not a jury at his retrial," Wyrt said. "That is not our place to decide on."

"Much as we like to debate about it," Carly agreed.

"Whatever the truth is. . . ." Hamall had a sigh. "We will never know. That is the difference between this and that situation; we know, we have seen it, and we can forget about it," he looked toward doctor shaking her head. "We have to remove the cameras. United States Space Corps has been meaning to do that for a long time."

Hamall had his eyes on the doctor.

"Anything else need to be addressed in this emergency meeting?" Hamall asked.

"No," Madalyn said.

"We will delete all video records and save the tape for better purposes as suggested by Kenanan," Hamall said, then stood up. "This meeting is adjoined." He faced the doctor as the group began to depart from the conference room going through the doorway leading into the bridge. "He must be cuffed until we get into stasis and put that anti-bridge shocker back into his head. It's illegal to have it out."

"I did the operation before we woke up everyone, Captain," Madalyn said. "He is in his quarters resting. He can heal on his own."

Kenanan glanced from Madalyn to Hamall as though they had grown two heads.

"I suggested a prison deck with the thought in mind that he be watched over," Kenanan said. "I didn't mean to leave him alone."

"Your concerns are warranted, Lieutenant," Hamall said. "But he is in no position to require a eye on him."

"The last time we had a prisoner who could not feel pain got out of their cryostasis pod and killed the new kid," Kenanan said. "Given what he did on the screen and how he accomplished it . . . . he might be capable of doing that."

"I am sure he won't," Madalyn said. "He was doing it out of his best interests."

"Best interests might have changed," Kenanan argued.

"His pod malfunctions according to the logs," Madalyn said. "And if he had called for help after being awakened from it a third time, he might have been hurt worse than the first time. A very one sided, unfair beating that could break some bones-"

"Now that would be prosecutable," Hamall said. "That is elder abuse," he looked over toward Kenanan. "Must you always be this nosy?"

"It's how I keep my job," Kenanan said, with a smile then walked off.

Hamall sighed, shaking his head.

"Can't record that this meeting happened?" Madalyn asked. "Otherwise, this is a cover up."

"It's not a cover up," Hamall said. "It's forgiveness. Look at it that way."

"I am not sure that Mr Smith will see it that way," Madalyn said, then walked off in the direction of the doors.

Hamall picked up a slinkie from the table then tossed it against the wall where it bounced back at him and hit him at the face.

"Ow!" Hamall yelped.