Children of Steel (18 page)

"Let's go in and take a look." I said.

"Oh I don't know, it looks expensive." she
hesitated.

"So? It's my money, relax." and dragged her
inside.

I signaled the owner, who came over and asked
if he could be of assistance.

"Yes, could we see that leopard's head ring
please?"

"Ahh yes, I should have guessed." He smiled,
"There's an artist in the valley who makes these," he got it out
and handed it to Kathy, "she makes quite a few different types
actually."

"What metal is this?" asked Kathy, looking
closely at the ring, and trying it on.

"A perfect fit!" He smiled even broader. I
guess he could see a sale coming from a mile away. "It's black
chrome, that's why it shines so well. The eyes are made from small
emeralds."

"How much?" I asked him. Kathy was still
looking at it on her finger, and toying with it.

"Oh I could not let it go for less than five
hundred sir." he responded.

Kathy started to say something, but I put my
hand on her arm to quiet her. I made a very low counter offer, and
after a little haggling I got it for three fifty.

"Done!" he said smiling while I got out the
cash.

"Raj! Are you sure you can afford this?"
Kathy whispered as we headed for the door.

"I just want you to have something to
remember me by," I smiled, "who knows when we'll see each other
again?"

"Or if, right?" She gave me a hug, "Thank you
very much."

We had come to the place I was looking for by
then, the same restaurant that Herza had taken me to after the
fights Monday night.

"I could see you liked it, and so could he.
So I wasn't about to let you leave without it." I led her inside
the restaurant and we were seated at a nice table in the back.

Dinner was a nice affair, the food was pretty
good and the company excellent. We had started a little early, so
we got to watch the place fill up as we ate. I was quite surprised
to see a lot of humans among the clientele. When I mentioned it to
our waitress, a very pretty and petite fox, she smiled and said
that 'To most people, it's the quality of the food that counts'. I
guess so.

We finished around eight, and I asked Kathy
if she wanted to go to the club we had first met at, or maybe
someplace else.

"Actually," she gave me a sexy smile, "I've
got a different idea."

"And what would that be?" I wasn't sure what
she had in mind.

"Karen lent me the key to her place while
she's away. Let's go there," She took my hand and led me outside.
So I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes, okay?

"That's fine with me, but it is kind of early
yet."

"You
are
leaving tomorrow right?" she
asked as I flagged down a cab, I didn't feel like any run-ins
tonight.

"Yes, I have to be back before noon." One
pulled up fairly quickly and I opened the door and helped her
in.

"Well," she said as I got in next to her,
"What I have planned is going to take all night!" and she started
kissing me and doing little things with her hands.

I responded whole heartedly.

We didn't fall asleep that night until the
morning sun started to come through the curtains. When I finally
drifted off I had Kathy curled up in my arms and tucked under my
chin with my tail curled possessively around her.

We were awakened by Karen knocking on the
door about ten.

"Is it safe to come in?" she asked through
the door.

"Wait, a sec." I replied laughing, "I'll see
if we can't think of something lewd."

"In that case!" she opened the door and
walked in. We were lying naked on the bed, of course in my case it
really didn't matter.

"Oh, good morning." said a groggy Kathy as
she woke up, "Any coffee out there yet?"

"Yes, Gabe's brewing it."

"Good." and she got up and walked naked out
into the kitchen.

I guess nudity wasn't really such a taboo
among some humans either.

"You two have a good night?" asked Karen
smiling.

"Yes actually, and thanks for the use of the
apartment," I got up and started to head for the kitchen, I could
smell the coffee now. "Where'd you go anyway?"

I walked into the kitchen, and saw Gabe, Dave
and Terry. Dave was giving Kathy an appreciative look. I walked up
and put my arms around her from behind.

"We went out to my folks place for a couple
of days," she said following me into the kitchen. "I wanted to get
away from this place for a while, and the rest came along."

"Too bad you weren't around Raj," said Gabe,
"her folks are really nice, and they've got a really large
spread."

"Sounds interesting," I said. "The whole clan
went out to some 'Cats only' place in the mountains. It was pretty
nice too."

Kathy handed me a cup of coffee and rubbed up
against me while we drank. I looked at the clock, by cab we could
get to the plant with time to spare if we left by ten thirty. I
finished the coffee and looked down at Kathy, she smiled and rubbed
back into me again.

"What time are you guy's leaving anyway?" I
asked doing a little rubbing myself.

"In a half hour I guess," said Dave laughing.
"So you two better hurry."

We bolted for the bedroom, leaving the rest
laughing in the kitchen. It was the nicest goodbye anybody ever
said to me, even if it was a little rushed.

The ride back was uneventful; Gabe and Dave
told me about their trip, and Karen's parents. It sounded like they
did have a pretty good time, and I wondered a little about Gabe and
Karen, but figured that was due to Banner and Terease getting
hitched. We reported in with a little time to spare and I even got
to take a quick shower.

The whole process of ferrying everybody back
up to the Astra was done in a few trips. We spent the next twenty
hours shipping cargo and the occasional late arrival. Gabe told me
later that he was surprised that nobody had jumped ship, but Rudy
said that with all the animen and the big company influence you
probably wouldn't get away with it.

The two biggest surprises we had were that
first, when we got to the Astra, we saw that the second Cargo
module was gone and replaced with a troop module. Word was
officially passed to us that it was empty, and that on our next
stop we were to pick up a company of Tri-Star's troops.

The second was the human who had dropped Rudy
off at the plant. Not only was she a really attractive human girl,
but she looked pretty rich too. On top of that Rudy was exhausted.
I still think furless tails are ugly, but I guess there's no
accounting for taste, huh?

When the loading had been completed, we got
the shuttles squared away while the ship was prepared for
departure. Six hours later we broke orbit and were on our way.

About half a day later I came on duty in the
shuttle bay. We were back on alert, but going out was a lot safer
than coming in because even if someone should break out near us,
their vector would be opposite of ours. So they'd be moving away
too quickly to attack.

When I got into the flight room I was
surprised to see that the poker game was already back in full
swing.

"Hey Raj," said one of the other pilots,
"pull up a chair we could use your money!" The others laughed a bit
at that.

"Sure." I walked over to the table, and
pulling a robe out of my helmet bag, I wrapped my tail around my
waist put it on and sat down.

"Now," I said smiling wickedly, "shut up and
deal!"

The whole group broke up at that, and it took
a few minutes for the laughing to die down.

"Who talked?" asked the same pilot who had
invited me to play, he was a wolf named Klein.

"Between a couple of hints and a few things a
girl I met said, I managed to figure it out on my own." I had to
laugh then too. "I even managed to win some money, so let's
play!"

The trip out turned out to be uneventful. As
for the gambling, I held my own fairly well, and while I did manage
a couple of good wins, in the end I was still down about thirty
dollars. Now if I could only learn when to fold, I might start to
end up ahead.

Life returned to normal pretty quickly after
we left Hobson's. The girls were taking turns spending their nights
with me, which I really enjoyed, it's always nice to share your bed
with a pretty woman, even if sometimes you're only sleeping.

On the night we were to go into jump, I was
quite surprised to find Terease, of all people, in my room.

"What are you doing here? Anything wrong?" I
asked concerned.

"No, Banner has to work through the night
shift tonight, and he knows I hate to sleep alone now. As he also
knows that you won't lay a hand on me, he suggested I come here."
she smiled happily at me, "I'm so glad he's mine, he's always so
concerned about me!"

"You did do pretty well, I have to admit. Any
idea what he's up too?"

"He said it was secret, but as Balizar is
working with him, I figure it has to do with the troops in the
module we're carrying." She whispered in my ear.

"What?" I was shocked, and a little confused.
"Wait a second, that's empty, they told us so before we left."

"Raj, I work in engineering remember? That
thing is drawing full life support, I noticed the power loss when I
was doing some drive tests." She gave me a conspiratorial look.

"Then why didn't they tell us?" I think my
confusion was showing now.

"Because silly, they want to surprise
someone. There's probably a spy at that dock, or something like
that. I bet they announce it, as well as our actual destination as
soon as we're in jump," she suddenly looked very worried.

"What's wrong?" I asked concerned.

"This means that Banner's going to have to
fight I guess. I hope nothing happens to him," she laid down on the
bed.

"Don't worry," I said turning out the light,
and curling up next to her. "He's an old Pro. If anybody's going to
get it, it'll most likely be one of the new guys." As soon as I
said it, I realized whom I was talking about. But the excitement of
possibly seeing action out weighted the fear.

"Oh! I hadn't thought about that!" she turned
to me in the dark. "You better be careful too then. After all, I
still need to get my revenge."

I fell asleep wondering, just where we were
really going, just what we were going to do, and just who were we
going to do it to.

We were awakened later that night by Banner,
who mumbled something about getting done early. It was a little
tight for three, but as we were just sleeping it was actually kind
of comfortable.

The next morning the three of us went down
for breakfast together. I could tell from the rhythm of the ship
that we were in jump now.

"So," I asked Banner, as we walked into the
mess, "when do we meet the troops?"

"Right now," he replied, and I looked up to
notice there were a lot of new faces in the room. "We unsealed the
access hatches last night, right after we went into jump. They're
all pretty happy to be out of that module and have access to the
ship and a real mess.

"When did you figure it out anyway?"

"Don't look at me, ask your mate here." I
indicated Terease who was trying to look innocent.

"How'd you figure it out? I only learned
yesterday myself!"

She told him while we waited on line in the
mess. It was a much longer line than usual, the addition of another
five hundred or so troops made a big difference. The mess was
packed, but from the looks of it, a lot of the new troops were
almost done. The mess itself could handle about one fifty or so, as
the crew normally didn't all eat together. With addition of all
these extra people I could see that we were all going to have to
eat in shifts.

I looked around at the hundred or so troops
that were there. There were a lot of tigers, lions, and leopards
among them and quite a few rhinos too. They looked like a pretty
tough crowd, real Billy Bad Asses. We finally got our breakfasts
and found a spot on one of the tables that was mostly full of our
new guests. I noticed that Terease sat between Banner and me, but I
didn't blame her.

The Tiger I was sitting next to was friendly
enough; he spotted the wings on my uniform right off and wanted to
know how good the shuttle crews were on board. I answered his
questions and asked a few of my own. I found out that there were
only two extra shuttles in the Module's small bay, and they had
brought crews for both of them.

He also told me just how cramped it was stuck
in there for the week that acceleration had taken us. He didn't
know where we were going yet either, and as he was a Captain I
figured it must be important.

After telling him about the makeup of the
hundred or so troops we had on board, he told me about his group.
They turned out to be tough sounding group all right. About two
hundred big Cats, almost a hundred Rhino's, about another hundred
Wolves, and the remaining hundred made up of specialists; Eagles,
Weasels, Badgers, and Beavers mostly. The last two groups being
sappers.

"How did somebody as big and tough looking as
yourself end up a shuttle pilot?" He asked giving me a good look
over.

"Well to be honest, when I graduated from
advanced, I was surprised at the offer myself. But my instructor's
told me it was a good idea, so I took it."

"You went through advanced?" He looked a
little surprised, "I wonder why they stuck you on a ship then? I
would have expected them to put you with a combat group like
us."

"Really?" I had to admit that sounded pretty
exciting, "I got the impression that I was a last minute fill in."
I lowered my voice, "The guy I replaced kept busting on the ship's
Tigers and had an accident."