No, but also the ship, through one of those international misunderstandings, had ended up between opposing sides in the Chinese civil war. The ship got hit, the captain was killed, and others were injured, including Simon. He was bandaged by the ship’s doctor and was up and around within a few days. So besides protecting their dwindling food supply while they tried to figure out how get out of the mess they were in, there was the effect on the crew’s morale of “this small animal took a shrapnel wound and kept going.” Apparently he also curled up by wounded men in sick bay and purred at them.
Mooncustafer 