Children of Steel (32 page)

I landed on his back, and rode him down to
the floor hard. I then got up, grabbing him by the scruff of the
neck and lifted him clear of the floor. As Wolverines went he
wasn't a lightweight either, probably about one sixty or so. I used
the momentum of the lift to smash his head into the wall.

"Surprised to see me?" I smashed his head
again. He made some kind of response but I really didn't hear
it.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I understood
that. You'll have to speak up!" He was still struggling so I
smashed him against the wall again. By now a few people from the
rec area were beginning to show up.

"I don't like being ambushed, especially by
third parties, understand?" I smashed him one more time for good
measure, I noticed a little blood this time, and as I started to
drag him away, I realized he had passed out. I picked him up an
carried him down to his clan head's room, and knocked on the
door.

It opened, and a very shocked older wolverine
stood there.

"What is the meaning of this?" he
demanded.

I dropped my burden at his feet, "The meaning
is that I had better not ever have any trouble with this one and he
had better not ever send somebody after me again," I said heatedly
back to him.

He looked me over then and noticed my
condition I guess, because he continued in a much calmer tone. "I
see, he does have a tendency to get in trouble lately," he said
indicating the wolverine at his feet, who was beginning to moan.
"Are you going to press any charges?"

"Hell no, but if he knows what's good for him
he damn well better steer clear of me! I don't need this kind of
aggravation!" I turned and walked away. The people from the rec
area had followed me down the corridor, and everybody was quick to
get out of the way. I sneaked a look to make sure there weren't any
officers around; I didn't want this going any farther. Especially
as now that I was starting to calm down, I realized I could
probably get in trouble myself.

I went back to my quarters, figuring I'd take
a shower and then get some sleep. When I stepped in to get my robe
I was surprised to find Balizar waiting there for me.

"Just what in the hell did you think you were
doing?" he demanded, as I closed the door behind me.

"Defending myself, possibly my life," I
admitted.

"I'm not talking about the Tiger, I'm talking
about the Wolverine you beat up in front of witnesses!" he
growled.

"I didn't mean to do that," I confessed
guiltily, "I was just going to drag him down to his clan head and
make a complaint. But when he took off like that, well for all I
know he was going to go get somebody else after me and I just kind
of lost it." I was really beginning to hurt now that the adrenaline
had worn off. I noticed that the side of my head was still bleeding
too.

"I should have known you were going to do
something like this when Chief Shandour called me. He said you
looked really mad, but neither of us thought that there was a third
party involved." he looked at me. "I'm going to have to have a talk
with Drexel, he's the head of the Wolverine Clan. I don't think
there will be anything official about this, but you are in trouble
with me, understand?"

"Yes Sir, I understand," I said quietly. My
head was really beginning to throb, and those ribs hurt every time
I breathed.

"Now get your sorry butt down to the doctor,
you look like hell," he said dropping the edge to his voice. "Raj,
your going after the other guy was the wrong thing to do. At least
not publically like that, you have to remember that as a Leopard
you already have one strike against you. You don't need a
reputation for uncontrollable behavior as well." I was surprised by
what he was saying.

"I've seen your records Raj, you've got a
real classic Leopard's temper. If you don't control it, you're
going to end up in real bad trouble and I'd hate to see that happen
to someone as talented as you."

"I'm sorry sir, but that fight really set me
off. It took everything I had to win, and I just sort of lost it
for a while there." I admitted painfully.

"Well, I guess I can kind of understand that.
I hope everybody else will. But you're still going to be punished;
I have to do something to make an impression on your thick skull.
As for winning the fight, I must admit I was surprised you could
beat up Marcus, He's a pretty tough character. I have to praise you
for that one," he admitted. "Herza told me you were a great
fighter, but I really didn't believe her."

I was a little surprised by the last, "Unn,
thank you sir." I said quietly.

"Now get down to the doctor and then stay in
your quarters until I send for you."

I said yes sir and went down to the sick bay.
The Doc took care of the broken ribs, I had three, plus two more
were cracked. Closed all the cuts and even gave me something for
all the aches and my bruised head. By the time I had cleaned up and
gotten to bed, the medicine was taking effect and I fell right into
a deep sleep.

I woke up early the next morning to Banner
knocking on my door.

"Come on in," I told him.

"Balizar sent me to get you," he told me as I
got dressed, "I'm to bring you to his office."

"Any idea what's going to happen to me?" I
asked quietly.

"Oh, don't worry too much Raj, nobody's filed
any complaints against you," he opened the door and I followed him
out. "Balizar just wants to make sure you learned your lesson, and
show the other Clans that he won't take any excuses for that kind
of behavior either."

"Yeah, I guess I did kind of push it, didn't
I?"

"Yep, you did," he turned and smiled at me.
"But if it's any consolation, the other two are being punished by
their Clans a lot worse than you probably will be. Everybody knows
that if you had brought it to the Captain, heads would have
rolled."

That made me worry a second, "Does the
Captain know?"

"Probably not yet, and by the time he does
it'll be pretty watered down."

We walked up to the door then and Banner
knocked twice, opened it, and showed me in. I walked in and looked
around; it was just Balizar, which made me a lot happier. I would
have really felt bad if this had to happen in front of
everybody.

"Good morning Raj," he said from behind his
desk.

"Good morning Sir."

"Banner you're excused now."

Banner just nodded and left.

"You know the reason you're here, so let me
start off by saying that I talked with both of the other Clans
involved and after hearing their information, I then talked with
the senior members of our Clan and we decided on a punishment.

"As to the fight with Marcus, you were
attacked and acted in self defense, so there was nothing wrong with
that. The Tiger Clan was grateful that you did not choose to make
an issue of it, as it would surely have cost him dearly. They are
still going to discipline him of course, this is not the first time
he has been involved in this sort of behavior."

I felt a little better about that; I didn't
think I had been out of line for that one.

"As for your beating of Silestri however, we
all feel, and I think you'll agree now, it was uncalled for. The
Wolverine Clan will not make an issue of it as he has admitted to
his compliance. Tempers are short right now onboard the ship, so
I'm not too surprised that he decided to go after you for breaking
up a fight he was winning, it is always easier to despise an
officer anyway.

"But that is all really beside the point. You
should have known better than to confront him at that time. You
should have either settled it later, in private when you were
calmer, or you should have brought it to his Clan head. Basically
what you did was an unprovoked attack. As for his running Raj, what
did you expect? You were madder than hell, and out weighed him by a
good ninety pounds. Not to mention that you were covered in
blood."

"Yes sir," I said quietly, and stared at the
floor. I hadn't thought about that at the time, but then I hadn't
been thinking at all really.

"Now you're young and inexperienced, but I've
seen your records and you do have a history of fighting. At least
you haven't made a habit of starting fights since you came onboard
and technically we could put this second one in the same category,
but I'm not going to. You're at a crucial stage in your development
Raj, and I feel that if we don't nip this is the bud and do
something to teach you to get a tighter rein on your temper, you're
going to get into even worse trouble.

"So it is our decision that you be confined
to your shipboard quarters, when you are off duty, for one
month."

My head came up at that! One month, that
meant I wouldn't be able to get any leave on New Johannesburg. I
had really been looking forward to getting out of the ship, even if
it had meant staying mostly on the company grounds. "Yes sir, I
understand," I replied to his look, but I couldn't help but be
upset.

Balizar looked at me a moment longer, "No
Raj, I don't think you do. I've seen animen go berserk, and I've
seen what happens to them. I don't want that to happen to you,
ever. I think this will make you think before you act next time.
You may go now."

I turned and left the room, thinking about
what he said on the way back to my quarters. I still had a half
hour before I was on duty and I guess I had to spend it there. I
decided not to go get breakfast; I really didn't feel like eating
anyhow.

Back at my room I got ready for my shift, we
were still a week from reaching orbit. I looked at myself in the
mirror, the side of my face was swollen but the cuts and gashes
were hidden by my fur at least. The uniform would hide the more
serious wounds, as for the broken ribs, they'd be better by the day
after tomorrow. I just hope I didn't get pulled off duty too.

I showed up for duty on time and everybody
congratulated me on winning the fight with Marcus. They teased me
about it a little and joked about the whole thing, it was easy to
see that they were impressed. As for the second incident, nobody
mentioned it; it was as if it had never happened. I really
appreciated that.

My shift went as normal though I lost pretty
big at poker, I wasn't really in a card playing mood. Actually I
felt pretty bad about the whole affair, I felt the punishment was a
little extreme and I was ashamed by my behavior. It would have been
nice if I could have blamed somebody else, but there wasn't anybody
else to blame.

About half way through the shift, I went down
to the shuttle bay to run some checks. Rudy, Gabe, and Dave showed
up shortly afterwards.

"Why so down Raj?" asked Gabe, "You won the
fight, and impressed the hell out of a lot of people. I wouldn't be
surprised if you found some of those female Tigers hanging around
your quarters soon!" He smiled at the last part.

"No, it's not that. It's what happened
afterwards," I admitted.

"What that part about beating up that
Wolverine? Hell Raj, everybody figures he deserved it."

"Not everybody," I grimaced. "My Clan thinks
I went a little too far with him."

"So what are they going to do?"

I looked at the three of them, "I've been
confined to quarters when I'm off duty, for a month."

"Bummer," said Dave. "That really isn't going
to let you do very much dirtside."

"I'm not going, I've been confined to my
shipboard
quarters." I said embarrassed.

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" Said Gabe, "I
mean you've been cooped up here just as long as the rest of us.
Probably part of the reason you got in trouble in the first
place."

I looked around to make sure it was still
just the three of us. "Well Balizar seems to feel that this might
be the start of a trend, and wants to 'Nip it in the bud'." Gabe
snorted at that, "I don't know Gabe, he's been around a lot longer
than I have, he may be right."

"Ah come on, you didn't do anything that bad.
You just pounded on somebody a little bit."

I had to smile at Gabe's stalwart defense;
it's nice to have friends. "I'm sorry Gabe, but looking back on it,
even I think I went a little too far. Why don't you ask Dave and
Rudy here what they think?"

He turned to them, "Well, what do you guy's
think? You've both been pretty quiet."

Dave spoke up first, "I don't know Gabe, I
can understand Balizar being really upset, it just wasn't the
smartest thing to do. But given the fight he just went through
though I really can't blame him."

"What about you Rudy?" Gabe said turning to
him. Rudy looked at me and then Gabe, and didn't look too happy
about it.

"Go ahead and say it Rudy," I put in, "I've
already admitted I was wrong, so I won't get upset if you
agree."

"It was stupid," he said quietly,
"
real
stupid. I know that guy had been busting on you ever
since you broke up that fight, but it was still a dumb thing to do.
A lot of people are going to wonder about you for a while now Raj.
It doesn't matter that he may have set you up, or that you were
upset after a real tough fight. You should have showed more
restraint, that you did it in front of witnesses just goes to prove
that it was dumb."

"So people are going to be afraid of me now?"
I asked concerned.

"Let's just say that now's a good time to lay
low and stay out of sight. It is not the people who know you that
you have to worry about, it’s those who don't."

"So you think my being confined to quarters
is a good idea then?" I had to admit what he said made some sense,
but I still wondered about the shipboard part.

"It is a good idea alright, especially the
shipboard part." Rudy said with a lopsided grin.