Children of Steel (25 page)

"Hey, the Doc said nothing strenuous, didn't
you hear?" I protested smiling.

"Would you rather sleep alone? And I promise
to be gentle, okay?" She gave me a feigned look of innocence.

"Fine, fine. I really don't want to be alone
anyway." We left the building and she pushed me up to a truck that
was loading supplies from the ship.

We were able to hitch a ride without a
problem, Herza and I sitting in the front with the driver. From his
uniform I could see he was one of the local's.

"Hey, thanks for getting us out alive," he
said shaking my hand.

"No problem," I said returning the handshake
left handed, I turned back to Herza as I eased back into the seat.
"So what happened anyway? After I was shot I mean, and why'd they
come back for me? I mean shouldn't they have been protecting the
Captain?"

"They came back for you because they knew the
enemy would have killed you as soon as they found out you weren't
human. Seems they thought you were important for some reason, and
were hoping to take you hostage."

"I guess they couldn't see my tail from
across the field, I had my visor down and locked and was sitting
most of the time. But wasn't it a big risk for a lowly Warrant
third class?"

"The Captain was safe, as soon as he got past
our front lines, so they weren't risking anything. Remember, nobody
in this organization abandons anyone if they can help it."

"Well I appreciate it, believe me. What
happened next?"

"While they were fighting to get you, the
Captain made up an announcement saying that if everybody didn't
surrender by six, They'd never get another chance.

"Then they spent the next two hours making
sure everybody heard it, and the order went out to take prisoners.
By six most of them had surrendered, and the majority of the
remainder suicided. A few holdouts were left, and those were
cleaned out by midnight."

"It's hard to believe that mob could even
take this place over!"

"They didn't," supplied the driver, "they
were the occupation forces." I looked at him with disbelief.

"That's right Raj," said Herza, "Their main
forces left about two weeks before we got here it turns out. They
were the real bastards; most of the people here didn't take part in
the murders."

"I know the Colonel did," I replied hotly,
"He said as much just before I killed him." I noticed the driver
turned for a second and gave me another look.

"Balizar mentioned to me that the Captain was
surprised at how quickly you drew and shot him. That the Colonel's
gun was only just coming out of the holster when you nailed him."
Herza looked at me suspiciously.

"Ummm, well if you both promise to keep it to
yourselves, I'll tell you something." I looked at the driver, then
Herza.

"Hey, I hated them all. I won't tell," He
said.

"And you know better then to doubt
me
Raj," added Herza.

"Well the truth is I kind of lost it. I had
my gun in my hand already, and as soon as he started to rise I
decided to kill him." I admitted.

"Whose gun came out first?" asked Herza.

"Well, mine was hidden by the table and he
was grabbing his as it came out from underneath. So I guess
technically he began drawing first."

"If the Captain asks, tell him you drew when
the other guy jumped."

"I don't know, I mean, I shot him as he was
still rising. If he hadn't gone his gun, I think I probably would
have shot him anyway." I said quietly.

"Listen Raj, in this business it's results
that count. Balizar said the Captain was sure he was going to be
shot the second that Hassenbock got up. So just keep to that story
and act humble, the Captain was impressed. Balizar even told me
that the Captain put you in for a bonus, so just go along with it.
Tell him that you saw his shoulder dipping and figured he was
drawing."

"You know, he was going to try them only for
the human murders," I told Herza quietly. "He was willing to forget
the others."

"There was no way they'd surrender otherwise
Raj," she said quietly, "and everybody knew it. Balizar said the
Captain figured he'd still get the worst offenders that way and he
didn’t want to lose anymore of his people. But they really blew
that deal, now they're being tried for everything."

"Yeah," said the driver with a big grin, "By
an animan Judge, with animen juries!"

"You're kidding?" I started laughing then,
but had to stop again as it hurt a lot.

"That's right, Balizar is the prosecutor, and
Lieutenant Colonel Dane is the judge." she smiled too, "They hung
seventeen people this morning. They were the only ones taken alive
who were guilty of murder. The rest are probably going to be let
live, but I expect to see quite a lot of public floggings over the
next few weeks."

We had arrived at the Central complex by now
and as we pulled up to the guard station, I could see quite a few
troops patrolling the grounds. They weren't taking any chances; I
could see other groups already working on new defenses.

"This is where we get out. Thanks for the
ride!" Herza said to the driver.

He wished us good luck, and I climbed down
carefully into my wheelchair. She then started to push me over to
the guard post. I saw Lisa coming running over.

"Raj!" she came up and gave me a hug.

"Oww! Hey not so hard, please!" I yelped.

"Ooops! Sorry, I'm just happy to see you out
of that hospital bed. You weren't a very pretty sight, believe
me!"

"I didn't enjoy it either. Thanks for coming
though, even if I didn't know it."

"Well Jemaal told me you were there, so I
came by once I was off duty. He was one of the guy's that saved
your butt you know!" she beamed at that.

"Actually I didn't. Tell him thanks," I gave
her a grin, "I hope you're being nice to him."

"Oh, I thanked him quite thoroughly believe
me!" she grinned, "As a matter of fact I believe he's getting
thanked again tonight too!"

We talked a little bit then about what
happened to each of us. Herza told about her part in assaulting one
of the mines, and how they had found people being treated as slaves
and forced to work.

Lisa told about the assault on the spaceport
and the later work against the center. It seemed she had been
pretty busy and even Herza was impressed. I think my sister really
was turning out to be an excellent soldier.

I then recounted my own story, which was
considerably shorter. By then quite a few off duty troops had
gathered around, it seemed that everybody thought I was some kind
of a hero. I guess my sister had exaggerated the events, and I did
my best to play them down. After all I had seen maybe thirty
seconds of actual fighting and had spent the rest of my time behind
a concrete table.

"It's not the quantity, it's the quality!"
Herza whispered into my ear.

I said my goodbyes then; I was really getting
hungry and tired. I had been there almost two hours. Lisa flagged
down a vehicle entering the area, and we got a lift over to the
Barracks.

Once there we went to the cafeteria and I ate
as much as I could squeeze down, which wasn't as much as usual. I
guess my stomach had shrunk a little while I was in the
hospital.

"Am I really a hero?" I asked Herza when she
got me back to her room.

"For today at least my lovely big Tom." she
smiled at me again. "The Captain let it be known that you nailed
the top dog, and saved his butt. It's good for moral, everybody
likes a hero, and we got quite a few after this operation." She
dumped my bag out on the floor then.

"Ugh what a mess," she started sorting
through it. "Well the outer shell on the Helmet's a loss, let's
see." she held up my armor, the jumpsuit that holds it together had
been cut to shreds by the medical team, and it was covered heavily
with my dried blood. "This is almost a total write off. At least
the some of the plates in the back weren't ruined.

"You boots and gloves are still okay, I don't
see your med kit. Oh, and here's your watch." she tossed it to me;
it was as covered with blood as everything else. I started to clean
it off, and watched as she separated the good from the bad, and
tossed the junk into a garbage chute.

"Save those rank tabs!" I warned her before
she tossed them too. "I've got to return those to Colonel Dane. He
said they were lucky, and now I believe him!" I climbed onto the
bed and yawned, lying down and closing my eyes. "I'm going to take
a nap, wake me for supper okay?"

"Don't worry love," she smiled slyly, "I'll
wake you."

I fell asleep immediately, and it seemed only
a little while later that I was awakened by somebody fondling and
licking a certain part of my anatomy. I open my eyes and looked
down, Herza smiled back at me.

"Time to wake up love." she whispered, and
went back to what she was doing.

I looked at my watch, and saw it was almost
seven; I had been asleep nearly four hours. I reached down with my
left hand, and stroked Herza's head. It was a rather nice way to be
awakened, and she was
very
good at it.

A little while later, she helped me into the
shower down the hall. She helped me clean, and when the bandages
fell away, I had a lot of bald patches all over my body. The Doctor
had really gone to town with the shears; my shoulder and stomach
were totally bare. "So much for my nice coat." I sighed.

"Don't worry, it grows back. At least the
important parts are still there and working."

Back at her room, she got out one of the
uniforms Terease had sent down. Thankfully she had sent coveralls,
and not shorts. I really didn't want everybody to see me shaved in
all those spots.

"At least the fur will cover the scars" I
remarked to Herza as she pushed me to the cafeteria.

"Tell me about it, you should see the ones
I've got on my back. I got caught in a bad explosion, and you'd
never guess that Banner's left hand is a clone replacement."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"He got it shot off three years ago. The Doc
had a new one on in three months. It didn't even cost him a
fortune."

She stopped talking then as we had arrived. I
looked around and was surprised to see most of the clan, and half
the shuttle crews there. Everybody cheered and waved, I really
couldn't believe the fuss, but it felt really good and I ate it
up.

"Welcome back to the land of the living Raj,"
Said Balizar standing up. "You had us all worried there for
awhile."

"Umm, thanks everybody, I really appreciate
the welcome. But could I get some
food
please? I'm
famished!"

Everybody laughed and Katrine brought over a
tray of food and gave it to me. I fell to with a relish and
listened to everybody's stories of the last few days. I could feel
a little of my strength coming back, now that I had eaten a couple
of meals, I felt I'd probably be able to walk around some
tomorrow.

"How many people did we lose?" I asked
Balizar once I had slowed down my eating.

"About thirty dead, and another forty
severely injured like yourself. The walking wounded are about sixty
or so, mostly minor stuff like shrapnel cuts and the like. We lost
two of the shuttles, yours was one of course and the other was
piloted by Wendy and Sun. Wendy was killed when they were hit, Sun
got out okay."

Wendy and Sun were the two wolves who had
come up with B Company. I looked at Dave and saw he was kind of
withdrawn. He had been seeing Wendy since they had been introduced
on the shuttle deck.

"Hal was injured when a missile detonated by
his shuttle, but he managed to land it without crashing and it's
expected to be back in service soon. Mist isn't here because she's
in the hospital at the complex here. She got herself shot up while
cleaning out a pocket of those who wouldn't surrender."

"How bad is she?" I asked worried.

"Not as bad as you were, but she had both her
femur's shattered, so she's going to be in traction for another day
or two. The doctors are pretty busy still, and reconstructing major
bones takes a few days."

Gabe came over and sat down, and nodded
towards Dave.

"I heard Balizar filling you in about Wendy,"
he said quietly.

"How's Dave doing anyway?" I asked, stuffing
the last of my food in my mouth.

"Not too bad anymore, but he's still kind of
down about it. You should have seen him two day's ago, I had to get
a bunch of his clan members help me drag him out of bed. Nobody
realized they had gotten so close so fast."

"How'd it happen anyway?"

"Two waves after you got shot down, they were
flying ground support. The whole schedule had to be shuffled after
you and Rudy got nailed.

"Anyway, they were making a pass on the
Spaceport, softening up an artillery position that had a squad
pinned down. Well, there was missile unit in that hanger that's now
so much smoke, and it tagged them as they went by. The only reason
Sun survived was that the warhead on the missile hadn't armed yet,
they were that close. But it took off a wing, and Sun just barely
got out. Either the sequencer didn't work, or there just wasn't
time, Wendy never got out."

"Poor Dave, I'd hate to be him right now,"
was about all I could think of to say. I thought Gabe gave me a
strange look there for a second, but I guess I was imagining
it.

"Well it's a tough life we live sometimes,"
was Gabe's response.

"Don't I know it!" I laughed looking at
myself. "So is there any good news?"

"Weeell, there are about thirty single female
foxes here for starters," Gabe grinned at me changing the subject.
"And we're going to be here at least a month."

"A month?" I was surprised, "Why so
long?"

"It'll take that long to fix the jump drive
and get this place into a more fortified state. They actually lost
about twenty percent of the population here."