Children of Steel (50 page)

"Just keep your hands to yourself!" she
snarled.

"Stuff it!" I said and grabbed her and
snuggled up from behind. She hissed, but was also too tired to do
anything. "What's gotten into you all of the sudden?"

"You," she said quietly, "I'm sorry, it's
just I'm hypersensitive at the moment, and I'm afraid your going to
want to have sex again and suddenly the idea really bothers
me."

"Does that mean you're out of heat?" I asked
yawning happily, I hadn't slept a wink in three day's.

"It means I've conceived Raj."

"You sure?" I mumbled sleepily.

"I'm sure, believe me. Just be warned, I'm
extremely testy. So you better behave for the next day or two." She
mumbled back.

We were both asleep in seconds.

I awoke ten hours later, feeling famished.
Herza was still out like a light, so I made my way down to the mess
and did my best to eat everything in sight. I dropped her off some
food on the way back, and then went to check on my room.

The smell still lingered somewhat, so I
grabbed all my uniforms and threw them in the laundry. Fortunately
I had one clean one waiting in the rack to be picked up from three
days ago, so I had something to wear. I then went to Balizar’s
office to apologize for my behavior before heading back to work. It
was about two hours into my normal shift.

"Don't worry about it Raj," he said grinning,
"I've been through it myself, it happens to most of us sooner or
later."

"I thought you didn't have any children," I
asked confused.

"Not with Sharazad I don't, but I do from an
earlier relationship. It was under slightly different circumstances
however. Anyway, don't worry about it. It's just one of those
things that make us different."

"Does everybody lose control like I did?" I
felt real embarrassed about my behavior, or rather my lack of
it.

"Ah, you're just young that's all. But it
does tend to bring out the worse in some. That's why some breeds
are not supposed to come in heat onboard ship. At least not without
letting me know."

"Did Herza let you know in advance?" I asked
curious.

"Oh sure, she's not that stupid. But she was
supposed to call me the minute it started, so I could make sure
you'd be excused from duty."

"Yeah, I guess I wouldn't have given much
thought to work," I admitted embarrassed.

"Work hell, you get so covered with those
damn pheromones that she produces you could start a riot. That was
why I had food brought to your room, to keep either of you from
stinking up the ship. I had kind of hoped she wouldn't come in
until we had made Hobson's though."

He then told me that the pheromones took
about a day to break down and I should be able to go back to my own
quarters by shift's end, I thanked him and left.

It was about twenty hours from breakout at
that point and as I walked into the flight room I got a few
snickers from those on duty, plus one or two snide remarks.

"Someday I'm going to experience privacy," I
sighed sitting down next to Gabe, Rudy, and Dave, "And the shock is
going to kill me."

"It's not so much that we're having a good
laugh at your expense Raj," said Gabe cheerfully.

"Oh?" I asked lifting an eyebrow to look at
him.

"No, it's more like our personal survival,
knowing when to steer well clear of you."

"Yeah," added Dave grinning, "The
embarrassment part is just an extra!"

"You would think those damn geneticists could
have made the whole thing a little easier on the mind," I grumbled,
but not unhappily. While I might feel guilty about it, I had to
admit to myself at least that I had thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Aren't instincts a bitch?" Laughed Gabe,
"Glad it wasn't me!"

"So where are we in tomorrow's line up?" I
asked Rudy changing the subject.

"Number two," he said unhappily.

"Well that's not too bad I guess," I could
see as well as hear that he wasn't too pleased about it. "So why so
gloomy?"

"Because if anything happens we're guaranteed
to go out, and this being the end of my tour, I just
know
something will." he grumped.

"Hey cheer up; it’s a settled system, so you
won't have to worry about me eating you!" I smiled showing all my
teeth.

"Oh that reminds me, the last pack of food on
your pallet is poisoned," He smiled.

"How do you know that?" I asked amazed.

"You think I was going to take any chances?"
He laughed at my expression.

I got up and went down to the shuttle I was
assigned to for tomorrow and checked the food. I dug the bottom one
off the stack and looked it over. I couldn't find any sign of
tampering, but I tossed it in the waste chute anyway and went back
up to the flight room.

"Well?" asked Gabe holding in laughter.

"I think I'm being subject to abuse above and
beyond the call." I growled as I sat back down.

"I was just teasing Raj," Rudy laughed, "You
don't think I'd actually tamper with the rations do you?"

I looked him over carefully, then pinched him
on the stomach.

"Ouch!" he said jumping up, "What in the hell
did you do that for!"

"Who knows how many of those boxes you
tampered? Maybe I should just eat you first." I looked him over
again, "How much do you owe now anyway?"

"Ha ha, very funny," he glared without
laughing, "I knew I should have waited till we were dirtside to
pull that trick on you."

"Honestly, I'm hurt. Do you really think I
would eat you?" I leaned over and whispered to Dave just loud
enough to be overheard, "What do you think? Would he be better
marinated or just thrown in a stew?"

"Stew is what I had planned for Gabe here
myself," he said jerking a thumb at him, "But he keeps balking
every time I try to smuggle a stew pot onboard."

"Heeyyy!" Said Gabe turning around, "I told
you I wanted to be marinated in red wine or it's hands off!" he
laughed.

"What is this? Chefs anonymous?" Asked Jerry
from the next table.

We degenerated pretty quickly into a
comparison of made up menus after that. The only interesting thing
was seeing who the main course was. It didn't last too long, as the
Chief came in and threaten to make soup out of our testicles if we
didn't get back to studying the breakout plan.

At about twelve hours prior, everybody was
sent off to get some rest. My quarters turned out to be safe, so I
was pretty happy to crash and get some sleep. I was still rather
tired.

We were strapped in and waiting, the
shuttle's systems were all up and running, I had the engines warmed
up and ready to go. We just sat there watching the countdown.

"Bet you a week's pay we launch," Rudy said
checking the systems on the two ship killers we were carrying.

"What makes you so sure?" I asked, "And as
long as you're at it check the LRGM's too." We carried four of them
on the outboard stations.

"Because we're carrying a really rich load,
and everybody knows where we're going," he said as he complied and
checked those as well.

"You really think so?" I asked, and just then
the count hit zero and we came out. I released the safeties then
and turned to look at one of the displays that had been giving me
trouble. It was working fine now, and suddenly I heard a loud
"Shit!" from Rudy, and we jerked forward in the rack.

"Pre-Launch!" I yelled, and we went through
the five steps of the checklist in less than a second. I just had
time to look up when we got kicked out too.

I ran the throttles up to full, hit the
Master Arm on my panel and yanked the key off my neck and stuck it
in the slot on the right console. I then gave the display my full
attention, and started to follow the vector being supplied by the
Astra's com laser.

"What is it?" I asked as I moved us into
position, we were two seconds behind lead and Jerry would be two
seconds behind us.

"Looks like a medium freighter with damn big
engines," we both started reading the feed that the Astra was still
able to supply us.

"Prepare to lose all communications," came
Katrine's voice over the laser feed. "We will initiate laser
defense in ten seconds. The ship has not been identified, but has
changed its course to an intercept. It is to be considered hostile,
arm all Nukes. Repeat, target is
hostile
, arm all Nukes. You
are free to fire at your discretion."

The nukes were our SK’s of course, five
megatons each.I checked the state information that the Astra had
just provided us with, and then the data cut off as the Laser
defenses were activated.

I grabbed the key, "On three! One, Two,
Three," I turned my key and in the back Rudy turned his. A brief
warning horn bleeped in my headset and a yellow and black trefoil
lit on my armament's panel.

"Okay Raj, everything looks good. I've got a
positive track on the target, and our short range com units are
registering both Klien's and Jerry's ships".

That was good, we had short range com lasers
that could track them as well, but a missile could lock on to those
and really ruin our day. They'd try to jam us though, just as soon
as we got close enough.

"Alpha flight, this is Alpha lead," That was
Klien calling us.

"Two," I replied thumbing the button on the
throttle.

"Three." That was Jerry.

"Execute tango one, repeat, execute tango
one. Out."

"Alpha two, tango one." I replied.

"Alpha three, tango one."

"Well, look's like we're going all the way
in," Rudy said.

"Look's like," I depressurized the cabin,
locked out the uncoded radio and turned the ECM to 'active'. "It's
show time!"

We were about eighty miles from the Astra at
this point, and still a good thousand from the Target. But it was
closing fast, as it had to go by us to get at the Astra. We were
still burning at full throttle and I started a vector change,
following lead. This was to allow us to stay with the target once
it closed rather than making a fast pass at it and then having to
waste a long time coming back to make another one.

It would allow us to get as close as we
wanted, and use as many weapons as possible on them, even our self
guiding thirty millimeter machine guns which can play havoc on a
ship's sensors.

Of course the bad part was that they'd be
able to do the same to us, and we hadn't even seen a sign of their
attack shuttles yet.

"What's the Astra doing?" I asked Rudy, not
wanting to take my eyes off the target, which was being displayed
in my helmet.

"Burning for the gravity well like a big
dog," he fed the data to a small window on my display, "I guess the
Captain decided to make for the local defenses rather than try to
go back into jump. There goes Bravo flight!"

I checked the window he had given me and saw
the flash of a ship leaving the Astra, which looked more like a
cloud now that the sandcasters were going full bore.

"Any sign of the opposition's forces?" I
asked.

"Not yet, I suspect they're being held in
until they close."

They were about three hundred miles now, and
suddenly their engine stopped. "Look's like they're going to flip
for a deccel burn." I flipped the laser shield on the canopy down
for a sec to check if the cameras agreed with my eyes.

"They'll start launching real soon then!"

I flipped the shield back up satisfied. "At
least they don't have any high powered laser gear."

"Yeah, or they'd be trying to fry us for
sure."

I saw several dots detach from the Target
then, and the ECM's indicators started flashing like crazy.

"Setting up a missile screen," Rudy said from
the back, "I don't think it's anything we can't handle with the
jammers and the disposables. I don't see their shuttles yet
though."

We continued to close the gap, but as both
the target was slowing and our vector was changing, it took several
minutes. It seemed like an hour. When we were about one hundred
miles away, at the edge of our ship killer's range, they launched
their shuttles.

"Damn!" I breathed, "I count six, no they
just launched another," I started some evasive maneuvers then as we
had just reached the missile screen. Rudy handled the jammers and I
tried not to let anything come too close. By the time we had gotten
past the screen I could see there were seven shuttles, of which
three were definitely headed our way. The other four looked like
they were going to make for the Astra. We were eighty miles
out.

"Alpha Flight, start run," came Klien's voice
over the radio.

"Two," I replied and pushed the throttles
back up to military.

"Three," replied Jerry, probably doing the
same.

The plan was pretty simple now, Jerry and I
were the only ones in the group with ship killers on board. Klein
was loaded with about ten LRGM's and was supposed to clear a path
through for us.

We closed with the shuttles about ten seconds
later, they launched at us, trying to protect their ship, and we
launched back at them. Kind of cut and dried when you think about
it. The next ten seconds were kind of hectic, as both sides tried
everything they could to keep from getting fried.

The end score was two of theirs to one of
ours, Klien didn't make it.

"Look like anybody alive over there?" I asked
Rudy after we had passed through.

"Couldn't tell, but that second shuttle of
theirs doesn't look too badly damaged, so keep an eye on it."

The one shuttle that had survived was looping
back after us, but it wouldn't be a problem for a while. The ship
ahead was a different story however.

They started in with the short range lasers
first, and a whole bunch of missiles next. I launched my first ship
killer at thirty miles out just to give them something else to
worry about, and started doing evasive maneuvers like crazy. The
lasers were doing a job on us, but they retargeted their missiles
on the ship killer, so we survived a little longer.