open

completely as I can. What will come of that, I don't know, but I suggest that it behooves all of President Tonkovic's friends to convince her that there are matters here on Kornati which require her urgent attention."
* * *
"Sir? Do you have a minute?"
"What is it, Lajos?" Aivars Terekhov replied, glancing up from the paperwork on his computer display to find Surgeon Commander Orban looking in through the open hatch of his bridge briefing room.
"Sir, I don't know if this is important, but I thought I should mention it to you."
"Mention what to me?" Terekhov raised one eyebrow and half-turned towards the hatch with his elbow on the briefing room table.
"Well, Sir," Orban said slowly, "normally, under the Beowulf Code, what a patient says under heavy medication is privileged doctor-patient information."
Terekhov felt his muscles freeze. The r