Children of Steel (2 page)

Steve was George's longtime roommate, and
closest friend I guess, I was never sure what their relationship
was. They had been living together for as long as I could remember.
He worked here too, in the section that raised the Herbivores. He
was deathly afraid of most of us predators, including me.

"Tell him I'm still sorry about growling at
him all those times when I was little!" I laughed.

"Oh, he knows that. But I don't think he'll
ever forgive you for that trick with his ankle," he laughed himself
then. "Took me six months just to talk him into coming back here
again!"

"Well, goodbye then," I said.

"Goodbye Raj."

We shook hands and he left.

I quickly finished packing my belongings in
my travel bag. There really wasn't much, a few book tapes, family
pictures, a couple of uniforms, and some shorts. As I walked out of
the compound I looked around one last time. I had spent nearly all
of my life here, but this time I wouldn't be coming back. I walked
over to the transport center, showed my orders, and found an airbus
that was going to the field my new ship was at. I suddenly realized
that for the first time in my life I was alone. I wasn't being
chaperoned by an instructor or anybody. There weren’t other
students or family members with me. It was just me. I smiled to
myself, it felt good. I stood a little straighter and adjusted the
bag on my shoulder as I climbed on board.

Looking around at the other people on the
airbus, I noticed they were mostly company types. About ten of them
looked to be like me, new graduates ready for our first assignment.
I could smell their nervousness from where I sat, and knew I
smelled as bad myself. So I pulled out and reread the hard copy on
my orders as the airbus took me to the field, having no idea what
my new assignment held for me. I knew I was being assigned shuttle
pilot duties on a freighter, and what that implied, but that was
about it. I knew nothing about the ship or the people onboard
her.

The bus dropped me by the field entrance and
I showed my orders to the guard at the gate. He gave them a bored
once over and waved me through, so I started across the tarmac to
my first assignment.

The ship I was assigned to was the Astra. It
was a Transport and Cargo ship, depending on the current needs of
the company. My billet was junior shuttle pilot. I looked at the
huge bulk of it as I approached; it was in the middle of a swarm of
technicians, gantries, and machinery, with a few officers
supervising the whole thing.

I wound my way through the confusion and
walked up to the guard on duty at the boarding hatch, came to
attention and saluted.

"Warrant Third Class Rakir requests
permission to come aboard."

"Permission granted. The Captain wants to see
you in his dayroom, as soon as you can find it."

I walked aboard the ship,
my ship
, I
couldn't help but be excited, this was finally it. I was on my way
out into the real world at last. We’d all talked about this day
growing up in the crèche and I’d been jealous when my sibs had all
gone out there before me. Now I was finally here, I wondered what
Cassandra was up to. She’d been the one who really encouraged me to
go to shuttle training. I quickly found the Captain's day room,
straightened my uniform and knocked on the door and waited.

"Enter."

"Warrant Third Class Rakir reporting as
ordered Sir," I said saluting.

"At ease, sit down Mr. Rakir."

The room had a pleasant smell of wood to it,
probably from the desk. A brief glance around showed it to be
rather nice, no sign of the metal deck or bulkheads, pictures
decorated the walls, and an expensive computer sat on the desk. I
looked the Captain over next. He was human, which was what I
expected. Most, if not all of the important positions in the
corporation were staffed by humans. He looked to be about forty,
but with the age treatments that humans can afford he could have
easily been ninety. He was in good physical condition, had all of
his hair, and probably weighted about 170 lbs. He also had a fairly
pleasant scent as humans go. I sized him up more out of habit than
any conscious effort, he had the no nonsense look that my advanced
instructors had. Not someone to get mad obviously. I sat down in
the chair across from his desk and tried to keep my tail from
twitching.

"Welcome to the Astra, and the working half
of the company. First of all while this is not a military ship, the
company expects discipline and I expect all orders to be followed.
Uniforms are to be worn when shipboard and when on company duty. I
expect everybody to pitch in during loading and unloading
operations and in the event of a corporate action sidearms will be
issued to all warrant ranks and higher."

“Yes Sir,” I nodded. Corporate action was
euphemism for a military action, this may not be a military ship,
but it probably carried as much armament as one. The corporations
played for keeps.

"I want you to see the quartermaster and get
outfitted. He's not bad, and on this ship we try not to stiff you
animen with a lot of jacked up expenses. We have a good buyout rate
on board and I keep a good crew. Mind your manners and your
business and I guarantee your time here will be a profitable one.
Any questions?"

"No sir." I shook my head.

"Excited?"

"Uh, Yes Captain, very." My tail twitched and
I once again concentrated on making it behave.

He smiled then and leaned back in his chair
relaxing a little. "Listen I've been working for the company for
almost fifty years, and I've been Captain of this ship for more
than ten. So let me give you some advice. Keep your eyes open and
be real careful, I have about a forty percent attrition rate in new
ani's like yourself. Now I know you cats all think you're hell on
wheels, but this is dangerous work, that's why you're here and I
hate having to get replacements.” He leaned forward and looked
serious again. “Oh, and by the way, your predecessor lasted three
months. Got his neck broke in a bar fight, a real waste of talent
that.

"Good luck, Dismissed."

I stood up, saluted, and left. I decided that
I should probably find out a little more about my predecessor, and
soon. They had told us life could be rough, but no one had ever
mentioned that kind of thing.

I made my way back to the quartermaster's
office next; the Astra was a pretty big ship. It displaced about
fifty seven thousand tons. Its cargo holds could double as assault
ship bays and it always carried six such ships just in case. It had
a standing crew of about three hundred, and could carry another
five hundred troopers if need be. One thousand if you didn't mind
sleeping in the hallways.

I found the quartermasters' space and went
inside. The quartermaster was a Fox, which surprised me
considerably.

"Hi, I'm the new warrant, and the Captain
sent me down to get outfitted."

He looked up from his terminal and gave me
the slow once over.

"Ah, more fresh meat I see. Well come over
here to the counter and we'll see what you need."

As he walked over to the counter I noticed he
had a pretty good limp.

"You newbs are all pretty much the same, not
a pot to piss in."

"Yeah, that pretty well describes it; I guess
you know how it is."

"Nope, not me, I was a free born, not one of
you crèche specials."

That surprised me even more, I’d never run
into a freeborn before, I didn’t know that the company employed
them. Guess they had to work somewhere.

He took some measurements, looked at my I.D.
tag, then started to dig through the lockers and pile equipment on
the counter.

"Here ya' go. Vac suit, flight gear, survival
gear, ammunition. The guns are locked up in the forward weapon's
locker. Got a fighting knife?"

"No, why?"

"You're gonna need one here."

"What for?"

"Listen you're new here, and you got a good
position, some of the long timers might resent that. Especially the
security types, they're always looking to take down an officer or
warrant. Now they can't touch a human, that'd be a quick death. But
you're different; they can and will pick on you. Figure you might
be easy meat. Plus some of the places you’ll be taking leave on
aren’t the friendliest in the galaxy."

"I see," I said my eyes narrowing. "What
exactly happened to the guy I'm replacing?"

"Take it easy, don't get your ears back. He
got his neck broke in a bar fight."

"So I heard."

"Yeah, they don't know who did it, but I'd
place money on it being one of our more illustrious crew mates. He
was a raccoon and a little too smart for his own good. There are
quite a few leopards on board so I think you'll probably get a
little more respect."

"Thanks, I'll take the knife."

I checked the balance, spun it around my
fingers a couple of times, to show him I knew how to use it, and
then sheathed it and clipped it on my thigh.

"Anything else I should know?"

"Well you're billeted in three forward, F
deck. The equipment costs will be added to your bill."

"How much?"

"One hundred twenty three thousand."

"Ouch, isn't that a little steep?"

"Not really, the Vac suit's 60 thou, the
survival, com, and flight gear, plus the weapons make up the rest.
It's good equipment though and while I ain't a conscript like most,
I'm not going to shaft my own kind. The humans treat me just the
same as they'll treat you."

"Oh? How's the Captain?"

"Not bad, he's a decent sort, treats his
people well. Cross him though and he'll have you made into a
rug."

"Thanks," I said gathering up my gear. "I
appreciate the advice."

I walked out into the corridor with quite a
few new thoughts. I wasn't too surprised when I had learned about
the laxer discipline. All the military stiffness I was trained with
had slacked off a lot in the last year when I was being trained by
the company's shuttle people. The bit about the knife really
surprised me though. A lot of animen carry knives, humans do too.
Guns in spaceships could be dangerous, especially while in jump
drive. In training I had rarely had to carry one though, I had
always thought that the claws I was born with were more than
enough. But then claws are not really that good if you have to kill
someone, and in training there was always an instructor somewhere
nearby.

I found my quarters next, walked in and
looked around. It was a six by eight cubical. Everything in it was
designed to fold up or stow away, depending on what you needed, a
bed or a desk. Pretty spacious actually. I noticed there was a
shelf above my bed folded into the wall. The way it pulled out I
suspected it could be made into another bed, I guess if we ever
take on extra troops I'll be expected to double.

I set about putting my gear away, it seemed
strange now to have all this stuff to take care of. I'd have to get
to the forward weapons locker and examine the weapons I had just
bought. That was one of the drawbacks of the corporations, you had
to buy everything, and it could get expensive. You could also be
charged for equipment you broke or lost, but only if the
corporation determined that it was your fault.

I took out the picture of Cassandra, the only
girlfriend I ever really had, and placed it on the desk. She was
off somewhere working as a field intelligence operative, which
meant she was probably manning some listening post somewhere,
intercepting messages and electronically spying on some other
corporation's people or interests. She had left last year and I
hadn't heard from her since. I took out the group picture of my
entire crèche group next, all the family I had ever really had.
Again, I hadn't heard from any of them either, but it's about what
we expected. Mail doesn't travel well from planet to planet.

I checked the duty roster then and saw I was
due on shortly, so I changed into a clean uniform, grabbed my
flight gear and headed to the shuttle bay.

It took me a little while to track down the
Executive Officer, who may have been the busiest person on the
ship. I finally caught up with him down in the shuttle bay where he
was inspecting the ship's shuttle complement, and making sure that
the necessary repairs were being performed. I walked up and
saluted.

"Warrant Ensign Rakir reporting sir."

"Yeah, what do you want, I'm busy right
now."

"Well sir, I'm the new junior pilot onboard,
and I thought I should report in to you as soon as possible
sir."

"Ah, yes my new pilot, you're trained in
assault landings, not just the regular stuff, am I right?"

"That is correct sir."

"Good, we like to keep a full complement of
combat qualified fliers, just in case. OK, just a sec. Hey Chief!"
He yelled across the hanger.

"Yeah whaddaya want sir?"

"Come over here, I got your new pilot!"

Out of the office across the shuttle deck
strode the biggest Tiger I had ever seen, he must have weighed at
least 400 pounds and stood well over seven feet tall. Definitely
not someone I would want to mess with and I'm no lightweight
either.

"Chief Shandour, Warrant Rakir. He's your new
pilot; I want you to check him out ASAP."

"No problem commander, take care of it right
away." He then turned and looked me over. I looked back and tried
to get an idea of just how strong he probably was.

"Well at least you don't look underfed, let's
see how well you do on a check out flight. Follow me."

We went to the equipment room, and I was
outfitted with a G-suit, and a Flight helmet. The flight helmet
could be used on my vacuum suit in place of the standard unit. A
flight helmet was considerably more expensive then the standard
helmet as it was extremely lightweight, and had a special visor on
which the aircraft could display information. It and the rest of
the gear also cost another ten thousand credits. I had to admit the
rate I was spending money was making me a little worried, it was
still only my first day.