A FLOOD OF NEW INFORMATION

This is an AU based on the third-season episode entitled The Space Destructors.

            Smith had really done it this time. He had caused Will to fall into an alien machine that had turned him into a cyborg. Robinson and West had managed to rescue Will and return him to normal. But then came the time of their reckoning with Smith. The two men had privately discussed the matter, and then Robinson had led Smith away from the ship to be permanently banished.

            As the time came for them to part, Smith said, "You're very kind, Professor. Kinder than I deserve under the circumstances."

            "It's good of you to say that," Robinson responded neutrally.

            "No, really. The Major is always wanting to beat me. You might have let him. Or even helped him. I know you've been tempted occasionally, yourself."

            "I won't deny that."

            "I'm terrified of it."

            "I know."

            "On the other hand, I might have a better chance of surviving that than I would eternal banishment, mightn't I?"

            "I don't know, Smith. Don and I discussed the possibility of doing that instead, as a matter of fact."

            At those words, Smith had a momentary mental image of West's angry face discussing beating in Smith's fragile face. He shuddered and turned away, suddenly unwilling to look Robinson in the face, either.

            John went on, "It's an option we're willing to offer you instead of banishment."

            Smith turned tear-filled eyes back to Robinson, imagining all too vividly the horror of the two formidable men heartlessly beating a very vulnerable Smith.

            "I figured that you would prefer banishment," John concluded, and turned to go.

            "Wait! Please!"

            John turned back to him. "Yes?"

            "I don't want you to leave me!"

            "Well, Smith, it's one or the other," John said evenly.

            "There's no third alternative?"

            "I'm afraid not."

            "Well..., umm...," Smith stammered, "just hypothetically...."

            "Hypothetically," John agreed.

            "If I submit to the beating...," he said, and shivered involuntarily, "...will you take care of me, afterward?"

            "Of course," John responded automatically.

            "And I can stay with you?"

            "Yes."

            "I...." Smith had run out of questions, but he clearly wasn't ready to commit himself to the more violent alternative.

            John wasn't going to make it easy for him. "You have to make the choice, Smith. Either you go back with me, or you don't." He watched the older man struggle with the agonizing decision. Smith seemed rooted to the spot, and unable to utter a sound. At length, Robinson turned away again, and began to walk back to the Jupiter II. Presently, he heard soft, delicate footsteps behind him. He turned, and saw an emotionally-tortured Smith following behind him. The latter stopped dead in his tracks and regarded him out of wet, glazed eyes.

            "You've decided, then?"

            "I can't be left alone out there!" Smith's face streamed with tears as his eyes spilled over in his fright.

            "All right." Robinson relented on his decision not to make it any easier on Smith. He put an encouraging arm around his shoulders and urged him on. "Let's go find Don."

            Smith obeyed, sobbing.

            "Don?" John addressed him, at the drill site.

            West looked up mildly, and then frowned when he saw Smith. "Yeah?" he asked guardedly.

            "Remember we discussed two options on punishing Smith?"

            "Yeah?" Don's frown was beginning to lift as his eyebrows rose.

            "Well, Smith and I talked it over, and I decided to let him choose. He chose the beating."

            West broke into a radiant smile. He went close to the two and stared into a red face streaked with both wet and dried-on tears.

            Smith stammered hastily, "Well, I...prefer to say that I...chose against banishment." He endured West's enjoyment for a moment, and then he turned and buried his tender face in Robinson's shoulder, now crying so hard that he was gasping for breath.

            Robinson tolerated it briefly, and then he gently but firmly disengaged. "Now we had a bargain. I told you it was one or the other. I let you make the choice. You made it. Now face up to it."

            Smith wailed.

            "Now stand between us." Robinson positioned him, and then raised a fist.

            West grinned from the other side of Smith, and drew back one of his own.

            Smith looked frantically from one man to the other. His spine spasmed in terror. "So...much...fear," he muttered insensibly. Then, he promptly and unexpectedly peed himself. The action was born of total panic, and was as much of a shock to him as it was to his two intended attackers.

            John and Don stared aghast as the yellow stain spread in all directions through his trousers. For that matter, so did Smith.

            "Oh no, no!" he mumbled in mortification, trying ineffectually to cover it with his hands.

            The two men registered his humiliation, recognizing the accident as the completely involuntary one that it was. They therefore escorted him, ashamed but unharmed, back to the ship to clean up, deciding that he'd been punished enough.