Children of Steel (34 page)

"Sure, I want to get out of this uniform
first; I suggest that you do the same. We'll meet back here in say,
ten minutes?"

"Okay, what should we wear?"

"I really wouldn't wear anything more than
your I.D. tag's, I'm not, you can charge anything you buy to your
shipboard account."

"You serious?" Asked Mist.

"Sure, you'll see quite a few of us without
clothing, humans too. The weather's fine for it and like the lady
said, carrying weapons around here isn't really necessary. Not that
some of us really need them!" He gave both Mist and I pointed looks
when he said that.

"Okay, I guess we'll meet back here
then."

It didn't take me long to shuck my things and
return to the common room. Mist was with me, and it was nice to
only have to worry about our I.D. Tags, they were usually worn
around our necks anyway.

Gabe showed up shortly after we did, I was
surprised to see one of the few single female foxes from the ship
with him. He introduced her as Tania. Dave showed up shortly after
in the company of a female wolf, she was one of Dave's steady
girlfriends on the ship and we were all acquainted with her, her
name was Laurie. We exchanged greetings, and then headed for the
exit.

"Well, where to Dave?" Gabe asked, "You're
the one who's been here before."

"I know of a nice place down by the beach
where we can get something to eat. How's that?"

We all agreed with the idea of food. It had
been awhile since we had anything other then company food. Now
don't get me wrong it isn't bad, but the menu and the atmosphere
leave a little something to be desired after a while.

Once we left the local plant, we got a taxi
down to the shore. It wasn't very far and five minutes later we
were walking along the boardwalk by the beach. Dave was right about
our lack of attire not being a problem. Like I've said before,
there really isn't anything wrong with most animen going sans
clothes, we are after all covered in fur, but some places still
have some uptight taboos.

Here it was a different story, most of the
animen we saw weren't dressed, and some humans weren't either. Most
of those who were wearing clothes weren't wearing all that much.
The weather being what it was I could understand the local's
preferences though.

"I guess the local rep was right about the
lack of taboos," I said as we walked along.

"You haven't seen the half of it," Dave
smiled. "With all of the schools and such around here this place is
what they used to refer to as a 'college town'. People have a
tendency to get pretty wild and the parties the younger people
throw are not to be believed sometimes."

"Sounds like fun to me," Said Gabe hopefully.
"Especially after New Johannesburg. What a bleak and boring place
that was, you should have seen the locals there Raj. They don't
have to keep animen out by force; I can't see any of us living in
such an uptight society. Hell, I don't see how
they
can!"

Dave found the place he was looking for and
led us 'inside'. It was an open air cafe, and we ended up sitting
by the railing with a good view of the beach. It was about seven
local time, with another hour or two before sunset yet. We ordered
dinner and smoked something narcotic that Mist ordered while we
waited for our food.

Whatever it was, it definitely made us all
hungry and did nothing to diminish the flavor of the food. We sat
around after that sampling some of the different substances that
the bar had available. I didn't have much experience with
recreational drugs myself, beyond those that were company approved
of course, which amounted to a few stimulants and painkillers. Some
of the stimulants were pretty powerful in speeding your reactions
up, but made you feel like crap the next day.

I did ask Mist if these were addictive at one
point.

"No, if it's addictive they're required to
tell you when you order," said Dave, "otherwise it could be
construed as a violent act against you."

"Really?" I was surprised about that, "How
come?"

"Addictive drugs do some pretty bad things to
your mind, or your body. Sometimes both. So nobody carries them as
a rule, that plus the fact that the people here aren't dumb enough
to harm themselves that much. These things," and he indicated the
inhalers we were presently trying, "don't have any bad side
effects, and can even be purged from your system in minutes with an
antidote quite painlessly."

"Yeah Raj," added Mist. "They're pretty much
like beer or anything else. Also, inhalers never last more than an
hour, if that long, and if you don't like it just ask the bartender
for the antidote."

That sounded okay to me and I really liked
the idea of the bartender having the antidote. Beer and alcohol had
antidotes too, but they weren't exactly nice to the body. Then
again, beer and alcohol weren't always nice to the body, but they
had been around forever, so nobody could really do away with
them.

By this time the stars had come out and we
were all sitting around pleasantly buzzed enjoying the weather.
Mist suddenly leaned over to me and whispered in my ear.

"Look over there, by the trees at ten
o'clock, are those people doing what I think they are?" she
giggled.

I looked over and let my eyes adjust. I could
see what looked like a man and a woman and they definitely were
engaged in rather amorous behavior. "Sure does, I guess that's okay
here too."

The rest followed my gaze and we all smiled
and laughed ourselves, but twenty minutes later found us all
deciding to go find our own sections of beach as well. Mist and I
hopefully found something a little more private than that anonymous
couple.

Mist and I slept on the beach that night. The
weather was ideal for it and we both enjoyed a swim the following
morning. I wasn't surprised to see several other people from the
ship that had obviously done the same, this place was the closest
to paradise that I had ever been. I could see why they had given
everybody a warning about jumping ship before they cut us
loose.

We washed the salt water off at one of the
many public showers that lined the beaches, and then went in search
of breakfast. We saw quite a few familiar faces from the ship while
trying to decide what to have and ended up joining Banner and
Terease, who we ran into at a place that claimed to specialize in
sushi.

I wasn't surprised to see that the rest of
the morning's clientele were all predator species like ourselves. I
don't know of any humans that can stomach raw meat or fish for
breakfast. Actually I had been kind of surprised to find out that
sushi had been around a lot longer than we had, I guess some humans
had taste after all.

"I didn't see either of you back at the
barracks last night," said Terease, "where'd you spend the
night?"

"On the beach," smiled Mist. "The weather
here is quite mild at night. And you'd be surprised at just how
many other people did it too, you should try it."

Terease looked surprised at that, "I hadn't
thought about that to be honest, but it does sound interesting,"
she gave Banner a smile. "Maybe we'll give it a try."

"So how did you know that we weren't back
last night?" I asked Terease, "Was anybody looking for us this
morning?"

"Actually," replied Banner, "Balizar was
looking for you this morning Raj."

"I hope I'm not in trouble again," I said
with a groan.

"No, actually it was about the bonuses and
awards the Captain had put you in for. Seems the response finally
came through, and he thought you'd like to see it."

"Did I get anything?" I had forgotten all
about that.

"I don't know, he wouldn't say. But he did
leave a letter in your room with the results."

"I guess I'll have to head back there later
on and find out." I was really pretty curious about it, especially
now that a reply had finally been received. "I wonder if I got
anything? He put me in for two performance awards and one
bonus."

"You probably got both of the awards," said
Mist. "The bonus is a little harder to judge."

"Yeah, I’m sure you got the awards," added
Banner, "and from my experience you'll probably get at least a
small bonus."

Terease and I looked at both of them. "How
can you be so sure about the awards?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Easy," smiled Banner, "those don't cost the
company anything really, they're just brownie points. The more you
collect, the better chance you have of getting a requested
assignment or extra training."

"But the bonus costs them right?" asked
Terease.

"Of course, plus it means he's that much
closer to buyout. They do try to be fair, I'll admit. But you'll
get less than you would have been fined if they had decided against
you."

"Well anything is better than nothing!" I
admitted with a smile, "I'll let you know what it is when I read
it." I promised them. "As for now, let's eat. I'm starved!"

With that we fell to, eating our breakfasts.
I just couldn't help but think about what that letter could
possibly say, my curiosity growing every second. By the time we had
finished, I couldn't wait anymore and decided to head back to my
room in the barracks and find out. Mist elected to stay with Banner
and Terease, so I said goodbye and we went our separate ways.

When I got back, I found the letter Banner
had mentioned in my room. I opened it quickly and read it. First it
confirmed my shipboard promotion, which was within the Captain's
authority to grant. It next went on to award me both of the
outstanding performance awards, just as Banner and Mist had
predicted. I read on further to see if I had received any kind of
bonus. Sure enough I had! I guess it wasn't a lot by company
standards, but it was enough by mine, they had awarded me a bonus
of thirty five thousand to be credited to my shipboard account.
That would more then cover the equipment I had replaced, I was
pretty happy about that, new armor wasn’t cheap after all.

I accessed the room's computer terminal and
immediately had twenty thousand of it applied to my company
account. I didn't want word of the total amount to be spread
around, and the shipboard accounts always seemed to be public
knowledge. I also wanted to apply it to my buyout; after all, every
little bit helps. I did keep some though, I felt it might be time
to spend a little on myself, get some custom equipment of my own
perhaps. I had a decent piece of change in my shipboard account, so
maybe it was time for a little shopping. I'd have to give the
matter some thought for sure.

After doing my day's exercise and meditation,
I decided to head out and look around for a while. The island we
were on was a fairly good size, about thirty miles wide and maybe
seventy long. It was part of a chain and the largest one in this
area, which explains why the local spaceport was here I guess.

I was surprised at the attitudes and
reactions I found, nobody really seemed to care that I wasn't human
and I saw a lot of mingling between humans and ani’s. It wasn't
that it was more than I had witnessed on Hobson's, but that it
seemed to be everywhere. I also noticed that the locals all seemed
to be very open minded, I eavesdropped on several conversations
that I happened to walk pass and heard some very interesting things
being discussed.

I started to look at what the shops had to
offer then, as I figured I might as well start thinking about what
I should get. I started off looking at just things for work.
Finding a store that specialized in the martial arts, I walked in
and browsed around. Buying a few pouches for the throwing stars and
another dozen cost very little, so I continued to browse.

I was very tempted by the swords that they
displayed, but I couldn't see much practical use for one. I also
didn't know how to wield one anyway. I liked the nunchuks, they
looked like fun to practice with so I bought those and an
instruction manual.

I left the store having spent less then fifty
dollars. I could see why the Martial arts were so popular; they
didn't cost much money, just time. Something I could easily afford
with months in jump space.

I continued down the street with my purchases
from the shop. I still had money to spend, quite a lot to be
honest, and I really didn't think I needed anything in the way of
combat equipment or flying equipment. The company supplied pretty
good stuff at a decent price and I was fully equipped, so I really
didn't need any. So what to buy? I was entitled to about three
cubic feet of personal equipment, space was a big concern onboard
the ship, and that did include clothes, but not any other work
related equipment. What I owned could be fit in the pockets of one
flight suit, and still most of the pockets would be empty. And here
I was out shopping alone, for the first time in my life too!

I wandered around until six that night,
surprised by just how many things there are that one can buy. I
found books to be rather quaint, I'd rather have it on a memory
disk, less space and weight that way. Fancy clothes were kind of
interesting, as were shoes, but I really didn't have a need for
that kind of thing.

I continued through all sort's of different
odds and ends; Toy Stores, (who had the
time
?); Luggage
Stores, (What for? a duffel bag suffices); Video Stores, (One of
Tri-Star's biggest operations after mining was entertainment, the
ship had an extensive video library); and hundreds of other things.
Then I found a music shop.

I found the idea of music very intriguing to
say the least. I didn't own any kind of playing device, so I had
never perused the ship's library to see what was there. I had been
exposed to some music in my education of course and I must admit
some of it I found very enjoyable. I’d just never gotten a decent
player to listen to it with.