Children of Steel (9 page)

She nodded.

“Also, it will take several days for us to
reach the area patrolled by Hobson’s own forces. Until then someone
could try and jump us.”

“But then we’d see them coming."

“True, and that would give us more of an
advantage, but it still wouldn’t stop them.”

“Well couldn’t the Captain just return to
Jump Space if we come out too close to a pirate?”

I nodded pausing to swallow another piece of
sausage. “If the conditions are right, sure. That’s part of our job
in the shuttles, to either destroy the attacker, drive them off, or
give the Captain enough time to make another jump.”

We continued eating for another minute, I
could see the gears turning and waited for the inevitable
question.

“If the Captain takes the ship back into jump
space, what happens to the shuttles?” She asked after a minute.

“We’ll get left behind of course.”

“Oh…”

“It’s not that bad. Those assault shuttles
are fairly roomy and we pack emergency rations. So either we land
or wait for rescue.”

“But a shuttle doesn’t have the power to burn
off the kinds of speeds it would have inherited from the
Astra!”

“Rudy’s pretty good with math and orbital
mechanics aren’t that tough that I can’t do them either.” I
chuckled “I think we’d have a pretty good chance at a sling shot
braking maneuver.”

She shuddered at that. “I’m glad I’m in
Engineering. You wouldn’t ever catch me doing that kind of
thing.”

I smiled, “I don’t know, I kind of feel the
same way about engineering."

She smirked, “You would.”

“Well on this trip I don’t think it’s going
to be much of an issue. Hobson’s Choice has a pretty well
established government and an actual space navy that patrols the
more strategic breakout areas. Plus I’ve heard that they won’t deal
with any corporations they find pirating in their system.”

“Well just be careful, okay?"

“Of course.” I gave her a hug, “wouldn’t want
to let you miss out on your revenge now, would I?”

She smiled, “You’d better not!”

The rest of breakfast passed quietly and
saying my goodbyes I headed down to the shuttle bay. From that
point on I was on alert for the rest of the flight.

Being that I was the new guy I was in the
bottom of the rotation and assigned the most dangerous position,
shuttle number one. I found Rudy my WSO and we suited up and went
down to the launch rack to check the shuttle over.

After convincing ourselves everything was in
order we got in and powered up all of the electrical systems using
external power. I wasn't going to start engines until the shuttle
bay had been depressurized and we were near breakout. As I went
through my checklist I saw the other crews boarding their shuttles
as well. I double-checked the safeties on the ten Laser/Radar
Guided Missiles we were carrying; the lead shuttle was expected to
open a path for the next two in the flight, they carried the ship
killers. Rudy opened the hatch behind his seat and confirmed that
the cargo area, which was usually rigged for troops, was presently
loaded with a thirty days supply of emergency rations.

I then opened a channel to shuttle control
and reported our ready status. After that I linked our computer up
to the ship’s guidance system so that we could be provided with all
the critical state information on the breakout. Information which
we would need to maneuver and eventually survive if we should have
to launch. Next I opened a channel to the bridge, again reported
our ready status and then started to watch the sensor feed that the
bridge was supplying. It would become live the second that we broke
out, which was only ten minutes away according to the ship's
clock.

"Shuttle control to all shuttles,
Depressurizing shuttle deck."

I sat and checked the pressure gauges, when
they got down to near zero I called control.

"Shuttle one to shuttle control, request
engine start."

"Shuttle one cleared engine start."

I checked the safeties on the launch rack,
and made sure they were engaged. If we got launched before breakout
we'd turn up way too far away, if we survived the transition of
course. I went through the engine start sequence as I heard
shuttles two and three request start clearances, and then four,
five, and six requested permission to hold at just prior to
ignition.

I checked the engines; they were both ticking
over normally, the core temperatures quickly evening out. I checked
the bay hatch in front of me. It was open, I found the view of jump
space to be unnerving so I looked down and checked the clock,
twenty seconds.

The bridge feed started a verbal countdown at
ten. At three seconds I ran the throttles up to full military power
and flipped my visor down. At zero I released the safeties on the
launch rack, as I saw the flash through my closed eyes. I flipped
up the visor then and started to watch the display.

The next thirty seconds would tell. If there
were any hostile contacts in that range, I would be launched. If
the ship couldn't run, we would fight it out. If the ship could
run, it would, without us.

Like I had told Terease at breakfast, I was
confident that I could use the planet's gravity well to burn off
enough speed to do a landing, in say two or three weeks. If the
Astra's vector was favorable when I got launched that is.

Otherwise we had food for thirty days, and
hopefully we'd get rescued by then. In this system, that was a
pretty good bet. After thirty days well, I think Rudy figured I'd
eat him.

At ten seconds I heard a call over the bridge
circuit.

"Contact, bearing 231 degrees, azimuth 43
degrees."

I checked the repeater, and looked at the
information as the ship's computer sorted it out.

"Range is increasing; object is identified as
an asteroid."

I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to
watching. Twenty seconds later I heard the announcement over the
bridge circuit.

"Secure from general quarters. Secure all
Shuttles'."

I reset the safeties, shut down the engines,
and started my checklist for securing the shuttle.

"Damn, I'm glad that's over," said Rudy

"Me too, of course it'll be a couple of days
till we're almost in orbit and totally in the clear."

"Yeah, but at least then we'll see them
coming in advance." he replied, then added as an afterthought, "And
the more speed we burn off the less likely I am to become cat
food!"

"Come on, do you really think I want to be
given the rest of your debt?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked
suspiciously.

"Oh don't you know?" I replied with a
sinister look as I opened my helmet, and looked at him in the
mirror. "If I eat you I have to pay for you too!"

"Ah you're pulling my leg."

"Of course," I continued with a smile, "for
someone as sour as you I could probably get a discount."

"Okay, okay I get the point; I won't mention
the cat food thing again."

I checked the gauges to make sure the shuttle
bay had pressure again, then opened the canopy.

"You know, if you're really worried about it,
smuggle on some extra food."

I thought I heard him mumble 'I did' but
really wasn't sure.

We went through the checklist again to make
sure the shuttle would be ready for an immediate launch. After all
it would still be three days until we would be safely in range of
Hobson's Navy, but unless somebody should breakout right near us,
we'd have a lot of advance notice.

Having completed the checklist, we climbed
out and went back to the flight room. From this point on, half the
crews would be on duty, and confined to the immediate vicinity.
This left four crews on duty at any given time. The nice part was
that my off time was my own for a change, as combat crews could be
called to duty at any moment.

The bad part was that it could be really
boring. I mean there's only so much drilling and emergency
procedures that you can go over before the stuff starts to get old.
At least we didn't have to wear G-suits, then it'd be boring and
uncomfortable too. So as it has probably gone on in flight rooms
and ready rooms through history, we started playing cards, poker
actually.

I had to admit I was new to the game, and as
we were playing for money, everybody was very happy to hear that. I
then realized that maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that to anyone
and kept my mouth shut. I didn't do too bad the first day, I only
lost a few dollars.

On the second day, I actually manage to win
some, and really started to enjoy the game. It was on the third day
however that I really got creamed. I not only lost the winnings of
the second day, but half of my cash on hand. It's a good thing that
most of my pay went straight to the bank, otherwise I could have
gotten into real trouble.

On the fourth day, we entered the safe zone
and all breathed a sigh of relief. We were still on duty, we would
be until we entered orbit, and of course the poker games continued.
I played a lot more carefully after my loss of the previous day,
but just couldn't seem to gain any ground. I'd win a little or lose
a little, but that was about it.

It seemed that every time I got a good hand,
everybody would fold pretty quickly. I had to admit I got a little
obsessed about it. I spent hours working on my 'poker face' in the
mirror. By the sixth day, I still wasn't doing any better. Well, at
least I wasn't losing big, but I did learn more about how the game
worked and how to judge other players. Gabe wasn't too bad, but he
had a tendency to bluff too much and ended up losing quite a bit
too. Just not as quickly as I had. Dave wasn't bad, he ended up
ahead, and Rudy turned out to be pretty good and ended up ahead
quite a bit.

But it was mostly the old timers who cleaned
up. The chief came in and out a bit, even played some himself, but
the big winner was Jerry, an eagle. He had been around quite a
while and was an excellent pilot; he had a good sense of humor,
told great jokes and stories and must have ended up with most of
what I lost.

I wanted to kill him.

So on the seventh day, as the saying goes, I
rested. I figured that if I lost too much more to him I'd go
berserk; I was already having to go down to the gym and work off my
anger and frustration fairly regularly by then. The last thing I
needed to have happen was for me to lose my temper in the flight
room, and worse yet I found the game was really kind of addictive.
I was surprised when Jerry came over to talk to me later on.

"Hey Raj, don't let it get to you. It's only
a game." I always wondered how an eagle got an Irish accent.

"That's easy for you to say, you're
winning."

"Somebody's got too, and don't blame me if
it's my lucky day."

"I really don't believe luck has anything to
do with it." I replied with a slight growl.

"Really now, you wouldn't be accusing us all
of cheating ya', would you?" He asked quietly.

I looked to see if anybody was listening to
our conversation. Nobody was watching us, but everybody's ears were
perked up. So I was pretty sure I had an audience and the last
thing I wanted to be branded was a sore loser.

"Listen," I said "I don't think anybody's
cheating; I just think I'm missing something important and I don't
know what it is. I haven't won a big hand from any of you older
guys since the second day, and yesterday I couldn't win one from
anybody."

"So?" he asked looking me in the eye.

"So until I figure out what I'm doing wrong,
I'm going to stop losing my money before I go broke. I've never
been to another planet before and I don't want to show up without
any money to spend!" And I looked him right back in the eye and
smiled as politely as I could. I could notice the others at the
table all relaxing out of the corner of my eye.

"Oh, well in that case I guess we can all
wait ‘til the outbound trip to get whatever money yea've got
left."

"Not if I can help it," I said. "After last
Wednesday, I'm going to avoid high stakes games, you guys can find
other sheep to shear."

"Hey, maybe it is that you're not so dumb
after all!" He laughed.

"Oh? Then how come it took me six days and
two-thirds of my spending money to figure it out?"

I heard quite a few snickers come from the
table at that comment.

"Some people," he replied with a wink, "never
do! Good luck!" and he went back over to the table and sat
down.

I noticed afterwards that the other
crewmembers were a bit more at ease around me. I guess not blowing
up and taking my losses like an adult helped, and that maybe I was
finally gaining acceptance among the other crews. If that was so,
then maybe the lost money was worth it.

We made orbit that night, so the poker game
ended while I was off shift. I can't say I was sorry, but I knew
it'd be back. I was just going to have to figure out what I was
doing wrong. I really hated losing, and I was too competitive to
just be a spectator. But then, we all were.

We started unloading the next day. One of the
two cargo modules was being totally unloaded here, and some of the
second was also destined for the company's local operation.
Unloading was going to take about two days. Fortunately the company
had a large holding here, so we weren't using just our own two
cargo shuttles, but had several more to help.

It also helped that the space dock was
company owned, so there was a lot less confusion going on.

Unloading went on around the clock and when I
wasn't helping to move crates around, I was doing a spell on one of
the cargo shuttles. I really hated flying them; it was like driving
a truck. They're big and boxy and don't handle well. You could fit
two assault shuttles in the back of one, if you squeezed, and they
take two pilots plus a navigator/engineer (one of the WSO's
usually), and a loadmaster. The loadmaster is just that, he makes
sure the load is put on right, and goes off right.