Children of Steel (31 page)

It was good to spend the time talking and
socializing and getting to know them a little better, I knew the
people on the flight deck better than I knew the members of my own
clan it seemed sometimes. The ship was finished by the Tuesday
after that, the drive having been retuned, the removed equipment
replaced, and six cargo pods full of processed materials attached
to the Astra's frame.

With that much cargo, the Astra wasn't going
to be able to make much speed; our next trip was definitely going
to be a long, slow one. Ships leaving Tau Delta weren't usually so
heavily loaded down, but as we had been pulled off our planned run,
the Captain figured this would be a good way to make up on the
profits that the company had lost with our being out of normal
service. The local management agreed with this, and the
Corporation's Headquarters had sent a list of several places where
we could go depending on when we were ready to leave.

Unfortunately for us, it would mean a very
long time in jump space unless we were going someplace close. It
took us two and a half weeks just to accelerate to a speed where we
could enter jump, and once there the Captain passed the bad news.
We'd be in jump for eighteen weeks, more than four months.

He did tell us that the profit made from this
trip would more than make up for what was lost by the Company's
diverting us, and help pay a lot towards the cost of the fighting
as well. That may not really sound like much I know, but we all had
a vested interest here.

The Company split all of its groups into
separate fiscal units, so it could determine if that unit was
operating at a profit or a loss. Of course, it didn't just take
monetary gains into consideration, there were always other things
of value to the corporation too, like information, or security for
example. So each ship was split into its own group and a ship that
didn't make a profit, didn't get a bonus come the end of its fiscal
year. Those bonuses were split amongst the crew as an incentive and
while it may not amount to much, every little bit counts.

So we all grumbled a little, but we agreed
with the Captain. Tri-Star would reward us for the combat and cut
us slack for the time we had to spend at the planet, but the nearly
two months we spent getting to a company shipyard and getting
repaired would hurt us.

Life on board the Astra settled into its
usual routine, with everybody working long hard shifts. We still
had a lot of work to do installing the replacement equipment; the
Captain figured that as long as we were going on a long run, we
might as well do the work ourselves and not lose more time in the
repair dock.

That took us almost two months as we had to
take care of our normal shipboard duties as well, but at least it
kept us busy. By the time we were approaching breakout, everybody
was getting pretty antsy. I heard one of the Doc's refer to it as
'Cabin fever', though I really don't know what that meant. I just
knew that it had been nearly seven months since anybody had set
foot on a planet's surface, and about nine since anybody had any
leave.

As for myself, I worked out as hard as I
could near the end of the trip. I found myself getting a little
short of temper a few times, so I tried to exercise it out hoping
if I did lose it, I'd be too tired to really do anything. It was a
couple of weeks before breakout when the Captain released the
information as to where we were going and unfortunately that was
when the troubled started.

"New Johannesburg!" Exclaimed Dave, "Of all
the places we could be going, why did they pick that?"

"Because they pay a high price for what we're
carrying," replied Rudy. "What's so bad about it anyway?"

"You ever been there before?"

"Of course not, you know this is my first
assignment."

"How about the rest of you?" Dave asked the
rest of us. There were about eight of us sitting around the flight
room, a bunch of scattered no's were his reply, except for
Jerry.

"Could be worse, could be New Sahara." Jerry
said to Dave.

"I guess you're right on that," he
grimaced.

"Would one of you kindly tell us what we're
supposed to be upset about?" put in Gabe.

"We have absolutely no rights on New
Johannesburg," Dave told us. "And they don't like us very much
there either."

"Just how bad can it be?" I asked.

"Bad." he shrugged, "Attacking a human, even
in self defense is punishable by long prison terms, fraternizing
with human women will get you the same, if you're not lynched first
of course. You can't possess any weapons, even knives, and you're
not allowed to own anything or go anywhere without a pass."

"They also don't allow us animen ta' stay on
their wee planet for more than a single year, and then only if ya’
work for an off planet corporation," added Jerry.

"So you mean that there won't be any locals
to fraternize with," Rudy stated glumly.

"No, none at all," said Dave sullenly. "But
it gets worse."

"How?" somebody asked.

"Well you see now," said Jerry, "without
bein' able to keep a large animen work force at the local company
operation, they have ta' hire a lot of local types."

"So even on company grounds you won't be
totally safe." finished Dave.

"You mean they'll be all over the place?" I
asked them.

"Not everywhere, they don't want much to do
with us either," responded Dave. "But expect to run into them
anyplace outside of the Barracks or the local Headquarters
building. They're not allowed into either of those as Tri-Star
doesn't exactly trust them. But they pay well, as only a few corps
will even do business with them."

"What was the bit about New Sahara?" asked
Klein.

"Oh, on New Sahara they have the same
attitude plus slavery is legal, we're considered property there and
they have very loose laws about theft."

"Ugh, I hope we don't go there next," Gabe
put in.

"Rumor is, human slavery is legal there too,
so don't feel too bad." Dave replied smiling.

"How do they get away with that?" I wondered
out loud.

"Easy, nobody wants to go there. The place is
mostly desert and rock, the people are nomadic and very hard to
find."

"You've been there too Dave?"

"No, but I've heard about it and I have no
wish to."

Everybody on ship quickly learned about what
kind of reception was to be expected upon planet fall. Needless to
say everybody was in a pretty sour mood about the whole thing and
morale was at its lowest point since I had been assigned to the
ship. In response to everybody’s low spirits, clan meetings were
being held twice a month now. Also everybody was being kept as busy
as possible so that they wouldn't have the time, or energy, to
cause problems.

As an officer aboard ship, I found myself
having to stop several fights that I came across in the
passageways. I didn't really relish being put in such a position,
but the order had come down that we were to help keep the peace.
Now the difference between officers and regular crew was not that
great among the animen and even less when you were a warrant
officer like me, if any of them took a poke at me they probably
wouldn't get in any serious trouble. This was the reason why I
didn't really care for the extra responsibility.

Needless to say that in a couple of the
fights I broke up, somebody did take a swing at me. In both cases I
managed to keep my temper, but I did bounce one of them off the
wall pretty hard. By the time breakout came, I was glad to be stuck
in the flight room most of the time. I had several run ins with the
wolverine I had 'bounced' and he was definitely getting to be a
problem. If he kept it up I was going to have a talk with his clan
head.

Breakout was pretty nerve racking, as we were
really too heavily loaded to get away from anyone who might attack
us. So we were all pretty keyed up down in the shuttle bay when we
went through it. The sigh of relief that went through the ship
afterwards lasted for several days. But it was going to take us
almost two weeks to get into orbit, and everybody was once again
keyed up. My nerves were stretched pretty thin as well.

The traditional poker game went on as usual
and I played more to keep my mind off things than to win. Everyone
else seemed to be in pretty much the same mood, so there really
weren't any big loser's, though Jerry did win big as usual.

I was on my way back to my quarters after my
shift on the flight deck one day, when I ran into one of the ship's
more disreputable Tigers in the corridor. He was blocking the way
and I had a funny feeling that he wasn't going to move either.

"Okay, what's the problem?" I asked looking
him up and down. He was a pretty good size; he had three inches on
me and probably forty or so pounds.

"You are," he said returning my look.

"I don't recall my having any run ins with
you, or any other Tigers for that matter."

"No, but you have been giving one of my
friends a hard time, and I thought it might be time somebody taught
you a lesson." He started to drop into a fighting stance.

"What in the hell are you talking about?" I
asked confused.

"You officer types are all the same, get a
little rank and you think you're god!" and with that he rushed
me.

I side stepped as good as I could and blocked
the punch he threw at me. I really didn't want to fight, but I
obviously wasn't going to get a choice in the matter. So I dropped
into a fighting stance myself, and we began to look for
openings.

"Do you mind saying who?" I asked, and leaped
in with a quick kick to the groin. He blocked that, but I got a
follow up jab to the head in.

He took it without even noticing and
countered with a quick flurry of his own. I suddenly realized this
fight wasn't going to be an easy one, and that if I lost it, there
was nobody to bail me out.

We continued to feel each other out for the
next couple of minutes and as we started to cut each other up with
our claws I got a sneaky feeling as to who put him up to it. "That
damn Wolverine who's been bugging me put you up to this didn't
he?"

He charged in at that remark so I figured I
hit the target on that one. We traded blows again and I was really
starting to get mad, "Why can't that ass wipe fight his own
battles?" I spit out, shuffling in to land a couple of hard blows
myself.

"Afraid to fight someone your own size, huh?"
he gloated as he landed a good hook to my head.

I back peddled quickly, shaking my head to
clear it. He moved in quickly seeing his advantage and trying to
press it home. I had to cover up and took quite a few blows to the
arms and body and was starting to get hurt now. My control slipped
and I totally lost my cool, my anger literally filled me up. I
quickly grabbed him in a clench and gave him a head butt, while
bringing my knee up hard to his groin.

He pushed me away, but I came back in
swinging, kicking and clawing for all I was worth. I managed to
keep him on the defense and backed him up almost to the wall. He
came back at me then, but I used my speed to dodge most of his
blows, and those that connected never landed solid. I suddenly
remembered what Herza said about determination. I
knew
I was
going to win this fight and refused to think about any other
possible outcome.

I continued to be able to press my attack
after each of his flurries. I had managed to get a few good kicks
in on his left knee, and he was starting to favor it. My other
attacks were also beginning to show some effects and I could see
that I was wearing him down. I waited until I had another good
opening, then came in fast and gave his left knee as hard a
roundhouse kick as possible.

He grabbed me just as I was rewarded with a
loud snap for my efforts. He managed to land several hard blows and
rakes to my chest as he went down, possibly breaking some ribs but
I was to far gone around the bend to care about pain or blood
anymore. I landed two good elbow shots to his face then and easily
broke his grip, dancing out of range.

I looked him over; he was on one knee, with
blood starting to flow from his face. The elbows had really hit the
mark. I came in again and hit him with a spinning back kick right
to the face. He was pretty dazed now and I started to work around
behind him, so I could finish him off.

He roared then and threw himself at me in a
frenzy. I was surprised that he was still able to do it but he
wasn't agile enough with the broken knee so I was able to stop him
with a flurry of jabs to the face while dodging to the side. As he
went by I hit him as hard as I could with a spinning backfist to
the back of the head. I then jumped on him and pounded his head
into the deck a few times for good measure.

By the time I had him in a good arm lock, I
realized that he was out cold. I took a couple of seconds to catch
my breath, then grabbing his good leg, I dragged him down towards
the flight room. When I walked into the room it went silent almost
immediately.

"Holy shit Raj, what happened to you?" gasped
Dave.

I dragged my burden over to the Chief, he
looked at me first then the tiger I was dragging, who was leaving a
nice bloody smear on the deck. "Just what happened here Raj?" he
asked pushing his chair back from the table.

"He ran into a brick wall," I said looking
him straight in the eye. "As his clan head, I suggest that you
might want to have a word with him about the wisdom of such
things." I dropped the leg leaving him bleeding there and turned
around to walk out.

"You better see the doctor, you don't look
too good yourself," he replied.

"Right after I have a little chat with
somebody," I growled on the way out.

It took me about ten minutes to find who I
was looking for. He was in the main aft rec area, probably waiting
for his friend to show up and tell how he had thrashed me. He must
have heard the gasps as I walked into the room, because he looked
up and saw me before I was halfway there. He got up immediately and
started to run for one of the exits, I was sore, bruised, and at
least two of my ribs were broken. I was also as mad as hell, I
jumped up onto the tables and ran him down just as he cleared the
exit.