Island Worlds by John Maddox Roberts, Eric Kotani

day, young man. I'm Captain Moore, the enlistment officer."
    "Enlistment officer?" Thor said. "I'm Thor Taggart."
    The tangled gray eyebrows raised fractionally. "Taggart. I might have known. Those genes stand out. Was General Taggart your grandfather?"
    "Yes. I never knew him, though."
    "I saw him a few times when I was an enlisted man. I served under two of your uncles and one of your aunts as well. Are you considering carrying on the family tradition and taking up the military profession?"
    "To tell you the truth," Thor said, "I just got to Luna a few hours ago. I've been looking into the possibilities of extra-terrestrial employment and happened to notice your office. Just what is Sálamis?"
    "Sálamis is an asteroid, approximately twenty kilometers by five kilometers by two, which has become a military establishment. A man your age could do worse than enroll in our academy. After a four-year course you would enter the outerworld armed forces as a commissioned officer."
    "Actually, I've spent all the years I want to in universities. Ah, I was wondering, just what do you do? Last I heard, there was no employment for a military force out there. The Space Force and Marines, such as they are, seem to have a monopoly."
    "That will change, in time," Moore said, calmly. "Someday, there will be a call for an organized military arm among the space settlements. Until that time, we keep the military tradition alive."
    "But, how is all this financed? Are you mercenaries?"
    Moore regarded him frostily. "If you mean are we hired guns for anyone with a private war to fight, the answer is decidedly 'No.' We take an occasional security mission, just to keep in practice, but we would never undertake aggressive operations. We have an endowment and find our funding to be adequate." He smiled ruefully. "You'll have noticed that I'm pretty old for a company-grade officer. When I retired from the Spacer Marines, I was a lieutenant colonel. As always, promotion is slow in peacetime. That, too, is a situation I expect to change before long. Until then, there are always a few who prefer the military life."
    "If you don't mind my asking, why did you resign a field-grade commission to start at the bottom out here?"
    "Actually, I do mind. But I'll make an exception since you're a relative of some of my favorite C.O.'s. I spent my career watching a proud service become a petty police force putting down brushfire insurgencies on Earth and harassing honest settlers out here. Pretty soon, we were going to be down to rounding up political dissidents and guarding them in detention camps. I didn't want to stick around to see that, so I resigned and emigrated. I'd rather spend a career toting a rifle as a private than see my profession prostituted. So that's my story. Now I'll give you some advice. On Sálamis, we go by the old Foreign Legion rules: Never ask a man about his past."
    "I'll remember that. And I appreciate your candor. By the way, do they really let you carry a sidearm around here?"
    Moore smiled and sat back in his chair. "Only after they've confiscated the power pack. But it's part of an officer's uniform so I wear it anyway. Keep us in mind, Mr. Taggart. You may decide that a military career is what you need after all."
    "I'll think about it." As he reached the door, Thor turned back. "By the way, have you ever heard of—oh, forget it."
    "You mean Martin Shaw?" Moore asked.
    "Yes," Thor said, surprised.
    "I never heard of him either," said Moore, solemnly.
    By the time Thor had located a clothier's and purchased a pair of soft boots, it was near the end of shift. He decided to give the Earthlight Room a try. The lobby of the Hilton was empty and the same impossibly thin Chinese girl was behind the desk.
    "Any messages for me, Miss Fu?" he asked.
    She looked up blankly, then smiled. "'Oh, you must be Mr. Taggart."
    "Don't you remember?"
    "I'm not Ambrosia. I'm her sister. We're twins," she added, unnecessarily.
    "Don't tell me, let me guess.