Interregnum (Children of Steel Book 2) Read online

One of the problems with breakout was that it messed up the normal duty rotation. This breakout took place in the middle of when I'd normally be asleep, so in two hours I'd have to report for my alert cycle. Add to that we were short a crew pilot now, so every third cycle I'd be pulling a double shift.

  "Think they'll have a replacement crew member for us when we get there?" I asked.

  "Probably," Dave said, "The Company does have one of its training centers here after all, so I'm sure there will be a replacement waiting for us."

  I nodded and got in line to get some food. Cassandra came down as we were in line and I waved her over.

  "Hi, Hon, Dave," She said and gave me a hug.

  "Hi, Cassy," Dave said.

  "Hi, Hon," I hugged her back.

  "I'd like to fly down and visit George, once we get leave, okay?"

  I blinked surprised. "Well sure, if you want to."

  "George?" Dave asked.

  "Our crèche guidance counselor," Cassandra said.

  "Oh, your company uncle," Dave said nodding. "That's not really a bad idea, haven't seen mine in ages. Wonder if she's still working?"

  "Only one way to find out," Cassandra said.

  Dave nodded, "Sure, I'm game. Company crèche in Brazil, right?"

  Cassandra and I both nodded.

  "I wonder if anyone else would want to go."

  "Ask around and let me know, I'll set the trip up once we're a lot closer to making orbit." Cassandra said.

  Dave nodded and smiled, "Thanks, I'll do that."

  After we'd eaten and Dave had left I looked at Cassandra, "So what brought this on?"

  "What?" She said and grinned at me.

  "Wanting to see George."

  "Oh, maybe I just want to show him that I can indeed pick them," she laughed and then idly ran a finger through my chest fur, pushing the zipper of my fly suit down a little further.

  "You know, I still have ninety minutes before I have to report back to the flight deck," I growled playfully.

  "Sounds like a plan to me!" She laughed and we both left for our quarters rather hurriedly.

  # # #

  The Astra ended up in orbit around the moon, and I got a front row seat to the whole process as I was assigned to the backup helm station on the bridge as we first entered orbit, then transferred into a lower orbit near an ore procession facility. We didn't even have to unload the ore, they just sent out tugs to take the cargo pods off the ship.

  Once that was done, we moved into another orbit, and more tugs were sent out to take the troop transport modules off to where ever they were going to process the now former employees of Capitol Mines. Company shuttles also started to offload the Tualatin facility survivors, to be processed into Tri-Star as they were all now corporate employees like the rest of us.

  While they were all in significantly better shape now than when we had picked them up, Tri-Star wanted to put them all through physical and mental screenings, to make sure they were fit for duty, and if not, to address whatever problems that they now had.

  Once that was all completed we were all given five days leave. I was rather surprised that the extra crew we had were not also going to be offloaded here, but they were given the same orders as the rest of us.

  As for the trip down to the company's Brazil headquarters, Cassandra and I ended up being joined by Dave, Rasha, Carol, Jake, Lyle, Mist, Trig, Midnight, Shepherd, Thaksin, and most interestingly: Balizar, Sharazad, and the captain!

  "We have business at the Brazil offices," Captain King told me and nodded towards Balizar and Sharazad, "So we thought we'd just tag along."

  "No complaints from us, Captain Sir!" Cassandra said and saluted.

  "Seeing as there are a group of us, I made arrangements for one of the regular cargo shuttles," Balizar said. "It'll be a lot easier than catching a ride down to the Moon, and then a second one to Brazil. You don't mind flying, do you, Raj?"

  I shook my head, "Not at all, Bal." I turned to Dave, "Care to help?"

  "Sure," Dave said and nodded, and we all went down to the rear cargo bay and the captain signed out the shuttle.

  I brought Cassandra up into the cockpit with me, and Dave brought Rasha as well. The cargo shuttles are pretty roomy, and the cockpit has two pilot positions, as well as a radio operator, flight engineer, and a pair of jump seats. I stuck Cassandra in the copilot seat, Dave took the flight engineer spot, and Rasha grabbed the radio operator.

  "Everyone okay back there?" I called over the main intercom to the main hold, which had two dozen jump seats set up in it.

  "We're good to go," Carol called back.

  "Okay, be warned, leaving gravity!"

  Dave fired up the engines as I checked to make sure we were sealed up, then I called shuttle control, which opened the hatch for us, and we left.

  The flight down to Brazil was pretty standard. I got us onto a fast track, so it only took us about ninety minutes to get to the atmosphere, and then about another twenty or so to get down through that and land.

  "Wow," I said as we came in on the standard approach, "This brings back memories; I must have flown this approach at least a hundred times while training here. Nothing has changed."

  "I don't think they're allowed to add anything anymore," Dave said. "Zoning laws or something like that. I think they have a building to tree ratio or maybe it's a building to open space."

  I shrugged and lowered the gear, "I don't know, I just kind of like it." I turned on the intercom, "Prepare to land," I warned everyone.

  It didn't take long to get the shuttle parked and everything squared away. They sent two vehicles out to pick us up. A car for the captain, Balizar, and Sharazad, and a small bus for the rest of us.

  "Don't forget to slave your coms to the company network," Balizar told us as their car pulled up. "Once we finish our business, we can go into town for dinner together."

  We all nodded, "Yes Sir," and then we saluted the captain, "Have a good day, Captain."

  Captain King smiled and waved to us, then got into the car as it stopped, followed by Balizar and Sharazad. It then drove off and left us waiting for the bus as we stood in the shade under one of the shuttle's wings.

  We only had to wait a few minutes before the bus showed up and we got onboard.

  "Where too?" The driver, a human, asked.

  "The Williams building please," Cassandra told him.

  "Why would you want to go there?" He asked surprised as he started to drive off.

  "We grew up there," Cassandra said sitting down behind him. "Thought it might be nice to visit some of the people who raised us."

  The driver nodded, "Ah, I'll bet they'll be happy to see you, we don't get a lot of kids coming back to visit. Course that's probably due more to the attitudes of a lot of the more provincial types we get around here."

  "Well, we all did grow up here, so we're familiar with that."

  "Well San Palo is a lot more accepting, what with the company's presence here in the area, but if you go off campus, do check with the gate guards about where you're going first. They'll let you know what's safe, and what isn't."

  "Don't we need a standards and practices briefing?" Rasha asked.

  "Show of hands, who didn't grow up here?" The driver asked and then looked up in the mirror. Only Rasha had her hand up.

  "You others keep an eye on her, okay?" He said and smiled.

  "Don't worry, we will," Dave said.

  We pulled up in front of the Williams building, which was the dormitory for all of the creche kids here at the company's Brazil location. It was a pretty large building, ten stories high, and covered an area equal to a couple of football pitches.

  We all just stood there and looked at it for a moment.

  "Feels kind of weird to think of this as 'home' doesn't it?" Dave said.

  "Sure does," I agreed.

  "Well, let's go inside," Cassandra said and grabbed my arm and led me in through the doors.

  The lobby was the same as I remembered it
; there were two guards, and a receptionist, all human.

  "Can I help you?" The receptionist asked.

  "Hi, we all grew up here, and we were wondering if we could visit with our aunts or uncles, assuming of course they're still here." Cassandra said rather pleasantly and handed over her company ID.

  The receptionist held out her hand and motion to the others, so we all passed her ours as well.

  "I see your ship just came in," She said looking at her display as she quickly scanned each of the ID's.

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "Okay, I notified each of your uncles," she said and handed back our ID's. "Find a seat and they'll be down shortly. Please be on your best behavior, the children here can always use good role models.

  "Dave?" She said and looked towards Dave and Rasha.

  "Yes, Ma'am?"

  "Cecelia is no longer working here as an Aunt, she is however still employed and works on the campus. I've called for a car, so if you go out front they'll take you to visit with her."

  "Can I bring my friend?" he asked and motioned to Rasha.

  "Of course."

  Dave nodded and left and we all found a seat. About ten minutes later George showed up and Cassandra and I went over and hugged him.

  "Cassy! Raj! Of all people! It's so nice to see you! Did you two really get mated?"

  We smiled and nodded as he touched each of our mating earrings.

  "Please, come, come inside and visit. I want to hear all about it!"

  We waved to the others, I knew they had different company uncles, and we followed George inside and up to his office. Everything was the same as I remembered it, though there were a couple of new pictures on George's desk. We spent the next hour or so having a pleasant visit with George, and updating him on the rest of our little family. He was sorry to hear about Nepal's death, but happy to hear that everyone else was doing so well.

  He also dropped a couple of hints that he was very happy to hear that I had done so well, and was continuing to do well. I suspect that he either knew I was a cull, or had his own suspicions on the subject, having been a counselor and company uncle for so many years.

  "Oh don't worry, we can find our way out," Cassandra said when we got up to leave, "You current group must be getting close to graduation, I would think."

  "Actually they pushed my last group out early," he sighed, "that war really caused a lot of issues for all of us. My new group are all six now, and they're running me ragged of course."

  We both nodded and smiled, shook hands, hugged, and left.

  "Come on, Raj, I want to check something out," Cassandra whispered to me as we left.

  I gave a small nod and followed, wondering what she might be interested in.

  George's office had been on the sixth floor, Cassandra led me to one of the stairwells, and we went down, following the crowd of kids.

  We didn't leave the stairwell until we were two sublevels down, which was where the technical training labs were. There were still a lot of kids, the species variation was about what I remembered it to be, and the age spread was probably around eight to twelve. I noticed we were getting a lot of looks, as we were in our ship uniforms. But no one was saying anything to us; they probably figured we were instructors.

  I continued to follow Cassandra as we walked down the hallway, and then turned down a side corridor. The number of kids in the halls quickly went to zero as they all went to their classes before the next hour started.

  "Where are we going?" I said.

  "Where do you think?" she grinned at me, and then stopped in front of an access door to one of the maintenance corridors. She looked both ways, I did as well, there was no one around. Then she tricked the lock rather deftly, and went inside, pulling me after her.

  I looked around; I remembered this place of course. It was one of the spots we used to sneak into after lights out to do those kinds of things that the 'adults' wouldn't approve of. And from the looks of things, it still was being used for that.

  "Aren't we a little old for this?" I said looking around as I followed her down to the far end.

  "If anyone asks, we were taking a little stroll down memory lane," Cassandra told me, and then stopped and looked around.

  "Ah, here we are. Lift me up onto your shoulders please Raj."

  I looked at where we were, and what was above us. I remembered this place.

  "Cassy," I said a little worried.

  "Raj, we don't have time for this, do it," She said giving me the look that told me not to argue with her.

  I sighed and picked her up and put her on my shoulders.

  "Perfect," she said and popped the access panel that was up near the ceiling. "I do think you've grown some since last time Raj," she teased.

  "What are you doing?" I whispered.

  "Give me a minute," she said, obviously distracted.

  As I watched she pulled out a couple of data jumpers and plugged them into the node that was behind the access panel. Then pulled out her tablet and hooked it up.

  "Great! They never found it!" she purred and started tapping on her tablet.

  "Never found what?" I said, but I already knew the answer.

  "My back door," she continued to purr softly as she entered more commands on her tablet.

  I grumbled but didn't say anything; instead I watched the door and concentrated on listening to the hallway. After twenty or thirty seconds I started to hear footsteps. As the kids didn't wear shoes, it meant trouble.

  "Someone's coming," I growled softly.

  "One second," Cassandra said, and she popped the jumpers out, closed the panel and latched it. "Down!"

  I dropped her down, and as the handle on the door turned, we grabbed each other and started kissing.

  "Hey! What are you...?"

  We stopped and looked up; it was one of the human security guards.

  "Oh, uhmm," Cassandra's ears went out to the sides and her tail curled, "We were just uhmm."

  "Reliving a couple of memories," I growled, "Sheesh, you guys always used to knock first!"

  The guard actually looked embarrassed, "Look, I'm sorry, but the new dean has us cracking down on the kids, so when the monitors pick up motion in the area, we have to come down and check it out."

  We untangled ourselves, and made a show of 'straightening up' our jumpsuits. I looked around for the motion detector, and popping off the cover cut the data wire.

  "What are you doing?" he said looking at me in surprise.

  "Giving you guys an excuse not to find the kids. What else?" I said and smiled at him.

  "Shall we?" Cassandra said to me.

  "Yeah, let's go." I agreed nodding.

  The guard looked at us as we left the access way and then at the motion detector, and then back at us.

  "Oh come on, they're kids. They need their little getaways, their secrets," Cassandra told the guard. "I bet you used to do the same things when you were a child.

  The guard just sighed and nodded, "Yeah, the older guards have said as much. And it's not like I broke it, right?"

  We went back up to the main floor and met up with the others who were waiting, having just finished with their own reunions.

  Cassandra had her com unit out and looked up at the rest of us. "Balizar wants to meet us at the main gate in an hour. He's taking us into the city for dinner. He said to remember to sign in for rooms; we'll be here a couple of days."

  I pulled out my own com and sent Dave a message so he'd know what we were doing, and then I followed the others outside. There was a bus stop out front, and we took that to the visitor barracks to reserve rooms for a couple of days.

  "What was that all about," I whispered into Cassandra's ear when we moved away from the others for a moment as they signed in.

  "I'll tell you later," she smiled.

  "Cassy," I gave a soft growl.

  "Balizar needed a favor."

  My ears went up in surprise, "He knew?"

  She nodded.

  I gave her
a hug and a kiss.

  "And don't go punching him," Cassandra warned with a smile.

  "I'll think about it," I smiled back.

  Cassandra just sighed.

  We all met up at that gate as planned, surprisingly, even the captain showed up. Sharazad had arranged for a small bus for all of us, and we rode that into the city, where we ended up at a rather nice Indian restaurant.

  The city was interesting, Cassandra and I sat near the front, I found it interesting that Captain King, Balizar, and Sharazad were sitting together and talking quite a bit. I had no idea that they were such good friends, but apparently, they were.

  "Yes, I know it's a stereotype," Balizar said standing up and turning to the rest of us as the driver stopped in front of the restaurant. "Asian leopards, Asian food, but I haven't been able to find good Indian food for years, and this place is one of the best."

  We all got up and followed the three of them, Balizar, Sharazad, and the captain, inside. The maitre d met us as we entered and were steered to a semi-private area, with one long table. As there were fifteen of us, it made sense to me, I don't think they were necessarily trying to segregate us from the rest of the customers.

  Captain King sat at the head of the table, with Balizar on his right, and Sharazad on his left, and the rest of us just sort of randomly filled in.

  The food turned out to be rather good, I really knew nothing about Indian food, but Balizar and Sharazad apparently knew quite a bit, so we followed their guidance on what to order, and we weren't disappointed.

  The service at the restaurant was also rather good, and the staff were all very friendly. It was a little strange at first, as they were all human, but none of them had the kind of attitude that I'd been warned about on Earth back in my days growing up here.

  When Balizar got up and excused himself to go to the bathroom, I got up and followed him in as well.

  "Yes Raj?" He asked when we got inside.

  "Did you ask my mate to do you a favor today?" I said and I gave him a look that I know was less than friendly.

  Balizar looked at me unfazed, but I wasn't surprised by that, no one had ever seen him upset. "Why?"

  I growled, "If you are going to ask her to do these things, you are going to tell me about it, and you are going to involve me."