Interregnum (Children of Steel Book 2) Read online

  "Oh, I am?" He said folding his arms and just looking at me.

  "Dammit, Bal, she's my mate and you know damned well I've got a temper. I'd pop you one right now if we weren't out in public for taking such a smug attitude about it. I trust you enough not to ask what you're up to, but if it involves her, it involves me, understand?"

  Balizar nodded slowly. "I apologize, Raj, I didn't think you'd be this upset about it."

  He went and used a stall then, and I did the same.

  "So, tell me next time?"

  "Yes." he paused a moment, "Do you really think you could hit me?"

  I looked over at him, he was smiling.

  "I know I could hit you," I said and smiled back.

  We cleaned up and left, and when I sat down Cassandra gave me a curious look, but I just smiled, so she shrugged and we finished dinner.

  We spent about an hour after dinner walking around the city and looking at the sights. The humans on the street were not as friendly as those in the restaurant, but no one was actually rude to us.

  When we got back to the room later that night, Cassandra actually swept it for listening devices, and it wasn't much of a surprise that she didn't find any. The company really doesn't have the resources to spy on us, and if you think about it, it's kind of pointless in the long run.

  "So, did you talk to Bal?" She asked as we climbed into bed.

  "Yes," I nodded and pulled her over smiling.

  "Well, I didn't see any bruises on either one of you, so it must have gone well."

  "Yeah, I think it did. I think he understands that I worry about you, and he needs to let me know if you're going to be doing these kinds of things for him."

  Cassandra laughed, "Raj, it wasn't that big a deal."

  "It would have been, if we'd gotten caught," I pointed out, "And someone could easily have found out about why that backdoor was there, and just what you used it for all those years ago."

  "I wasn't worried about it; I knew we wouldn't be there long enough."

  "Uh-huh, and you knew that how?"

  "Bal told me what he needed and why. I agreed with him and volunteered after that."

  I nodded, "Well if you were sure that it was important, I'm okay with it. I just don't like surprises dear."

  "Okay. Did Bal tell you what it was about?"

  I shook my head, "No, it wasn't the place to have that kind of discussion, but if you're okay with it, that's good enough, I don't need to know the details." I pulled her close and kissed her then, and purred. "Now, about what we started back there...."

  12

  We spent two days on Earth, as apparently both the captain and Balizar had some sort of important meetings that they had to attend.

  When that was done, I flew us to the company base on the Moon that we were working out of, and then Cassandra and I spent the last three days of our leave touring several of the more interesting tourist sites on the Moon. The high-pressure underground cavern where you could rent wings and fly like a bird was actually rather interesting. Cassandra liked it the most; as she was lighter and smaller, it worked well for her. My own size and weight worked against me, I had to go with an extra large set of wings, but it was still fun.

  When we got back to the Astra, there were four cargo pods attached to it, and the main hold had been packed full. It was all high-end equipment, the very expensive technical gear that Earth specialized in producing. It didn't weight half as much as ore or any other raw material, but it was still worth a fortune. I guess during those two days we were on Earth that the captain had been doing everything he could to get us a high paying cargo.

  It was nice change not having to load cargo for once and I reported to the shuttle deck as we broke orbit, I hadn't met our new flight crew yet and was actually looking forward to seeing who we got.

  When I walked into our ready room, I was surprised to see everyone milling around somebody.

  "Hey, Raj!" Dave called, "We got Jerry back!"

  "Well, damn, there goes my shot at top pilot!" I laughed and walked up to the group.

  Sure enough, there was Jerry, he was wearing a leather flight jacket, aviator glasses, and his beak gave him his usual perpetual smirk. He looked exactly like the kick-ass pilot he was.

  "Jerry!" I said and shook hands with him, "Great to have you back! How'd we get so lucky?"

  "Well, they put 'ole Natal back into mothballs, but the good captain, she stopped by here first, anna' dropped off mosta' of the crew. As I already knew the Astra were on its way 'ere, I made sure to get me request in before she showed up."

  "Too bad we didn't get to see you out at Triste, I really wanted to thank you guys for saving our asses that day."

  "Well I'll be, ye' really have changed!" Jerry laughed as he shook my hand. "I guess they were right, ye' really have taken to married life!"

  "How's that?" I said grabbing a seat and sitting down as he took a seat and everyone else sat down as well.

  "Ye' used to be a lot more envious of me flying skills, now ye' are praising them!" He said with a nod and a wink.

  I shrugged, "Maybe. I just know that during the war I learned to appreciate those that are covering my butt."

  "Hey, how are those new fighters?" Dave asked, "Are they everything you hoped for?"

  Jerry nodded, "Yeah, they be most fantastic, I'mma already missing it now that the powers that be ha' finally sent me back to the commerce fleet."

  "How many did you shoot down back there at Triste anyway?" Carol asked, "Everyone here was telling me that they'd be shocked if you got less than a dozen."

  Jerry laughed, "It tweren't that many, I had a lotta good competition, the other ones I were flying with were mighty fine pilots too."

  "But it was close, wasn't it?" Dave teased.

  I grinned, along with everyone else, as Jerry actually looked embarrassed, "Well, aye. But t'were a lotta nice targets ta' pick from!"

  He looked back at me, "I hear ye' had a rather good day there as well, Raj."

  Dave laughed and I shook my head, "I spent half the battle flying around like a maniac on the deck in full AB, dodging buildings, trees, and missiles."

  "Aye, but ye' still bagged three of 'em," Jerry pointed out, "patience is the bigger half of the game, the other half be not getting shot down. And ye' distracted so many of the enemy, with all that dodging ye' were doing down there onna the deck, that me fellow pilots were able to pick off a lotta easy kills."

  I nodded, "I saw the recreation of the dogfight later, after we left. But at the time all I could think of was how outnumbered we were, and was just trying not to get tagged. I had no idea until later just how many of them were after me, I just knew I was in the thick of it. When you guys came down and made that pass, it let me get back on the attack."

  We got introduced to Jerry's WSO next, she was fairly new, Jerry's fighter apparently had been a single-seater, so when he got here he'd gone down to the local WSO training facility and pretty much just picked the best one he could find. Her name was Janice, and she was an ocelot. I'd never met one before, she was a bit smaller, more fox sized, and from the way she looked at Jerry, she probably thought he was a god.

  Then again, I think a lot of us felt that way too, there were a lot of medals on that jacket of his; he'd obviously been very busy during the war.

  The flight out was as quiet as the flight in, but we made better time, as the pods were a lot lighter than what we'd brought in, with only the tech gear in them. When we made jump, the captain announced our destination: Alexandria.

  I looked around the Squadron room, "I've never been there, anyone?"

  Dave shook his head surprising me, Dave was pretty well traveled.

  "I've been there," Rasha said waving a hand.

  "Great! So, what's it like?"

  Rasha shrugged, "It's a lot like Hobson, only not as friendly to us. But for the most part, behave yourself, stay out of trouble, stick to the ani districts and no one will have any trouble. It's one of the older settle
ments, so it's pretty built up."

  Everyone nodded.

  "Wasn't Sagert based out of there?" Dave asked.

  "The company we rescued?" Jeb asked.

  "Yeah, that one."

  "I think they were incorporated there, but that's about all I remember. Why?"

  "Eh, just wonder if they'd have rather ended up there, than back at Earth."

  "I doubt any of them will be staying back on Earth for long," Chief Shandour said coming into the room, "They'll be broken up and sent out to join the general workforce."

  "Broken up?" I asked surprised.

  "After what they went through, you don't want to keep any of them together; they'll just commiserate over how bad it was. Better to separate them all, put them with new people, and let them start over."

  I shrugged, I guess it made sense, but what did I know?

  "Okay, today's schedule calls for EP sims, Jerry and Janice are up first, being the new team. The rest of you can spend your time going over the dash ones and working on your team skills."

  "Yes, Chief," we all said and I went over to sit with Dave and we both got to work.

  The trip to Alexandria was enjoyable, there were no real surprises expected, we had a good paying cargo, and it looked like the Astra would be getting back into its normal routine soon, which is what we all wanted: A return to normal.

  I did a little research on Alexandria and I learned that is was a sector headquarters for Tri-Star, not unlike Hobson's Choice was. It was not normally on the Astra's trading route, but the Astra was the only ship able to haul such a large cargo that was in Earth orbit during the time we were there, so the captain was able to get us assigned.

  This meant that there should be a lot of opportunities for a good cargo out of Alexandria, as well as a lot of current information on what trade was available at different planets throughout the region.

  It also meant was that we were finally going to lose the extra people onboard. One hundred of them were being re-assigned, most of them going back to school for the training that they'd missed when they'd been sent out early to take part in the war.

  "I'm gonna miss being here on the Astra," Trig said as we all relaxed at the monthly clan meeting.

  "I'm going to miss getting paid," Midnight grumbled. "It's going to suck running up debt again."

  "Well at least we got to knock a few course off here on the Astra," Thaksin said. "That'll save us a few bucks."

  "Count your blessings," Sharazad said with a smile. "Schooling is a lot cheaper out on Alexandria than on Earth."

  "Really? I didn't know that." Midnight said.

  "Wages are higher on Earth, so they have to charge you more."

  "Huh, glad we aren't training there then, but I would have thought it cheaper for the company to train us there, rather than to ship us off to Alexandria."

  "Lack of course space," Balizar said. "It would have caused all sorts of schedule problems, and as we were already going to Alexandria by that point, it was just cheaper to take you with us."

  I was hit by a sudden sneaking suspicion. "Is that so?" I whispered in Cassandra's ear and gave her a little squeeze. She just giggled.

  I looked over at Balizar then, who just smiled at me.

  I started to wonder just who really ran the Astra? If the Captain knew about this? I'd be surprised if he didn't; Captain King struck me as a pretty sharp human, the few times I'd dealt with him.

  But this definitely put a lot of things in a new light.

  I looked up and noticed Balizar was watching me, a thoughtful expression on his face. I sighed and rolled my eyes, I knew that expression, and it usually meant trouble, as in the kind I'd been trying to avoid for the last seven months.

  The rest of the trip was unremarkable, except for my beating Jerry at poker the first time we all sat down and played after breakout. He laughed and I was never able to sucker him in by using my tail again. But even just doing it once made me feel pretty good.

  It took us two days to unload the Astra, there wasn't a stevedore's union here, so we had to do the work ourselves, as normal.

  When we finally got it all done, I went back to my room to get my stuff to take planetside for leave when I got pinged on the ship's com.

  "Yes?"

  "Meet me down by storage locker thirty-six 'B'," Balizar's voice came out of the speaker.

  "I was about to go down to join Cassandra," I sighed.

  "Bring your gear bag, we'll be going down. I need help with a delivery."

  "Roger," I said and put the com back in my pocket. The 'B' or beta storage lockers were on the deck above the cargo deck, they usually held ship's gear or ship's spares. So I got my bag, put on a clean jumpsuit and went down to see what Balizar needed.

  "Ah good. Give me a hand here, Raj," Balizar said as I walked up, he had a small pallet hauler in the passageway, and he was opening the door to the storage locker.

  I grabbed the controls and steered the hauler in behind him.

  "That one," he said and pointed to a rather large piece of equipment in the center of the small locker. It was about eight feet long, three feet wide, three foot high. It made me think of a coffin.

  As I slid the hauler under it, and raised it off the floor, I had a sudden unpleasant thought.

  "Is this Josu's body?" I said.

  "Yup, been keeping him down here on ice until the time was right."

  "What?!" I stopped and looked at Balizar; he was unplugging something from the side of the box. "Why is his body even still here?"

  "Raj," Balizar sighed, "That's not a coffin, it's a medical stasis unit."

  "You mean he's still alive?" I said hopefully.

  "I popped him in here after you left him with me."

  "So what are we doing?" I asked and started to maneuver the hauler out of the room.

  "His home crèche is here. I figured if anybody could put him back together, they had the best shot." Balizar said.

  I got it out into the hallway, "Where are we going?"

  "Assault bay. We need a VTOL for this."

  I nodded, and then I looked around. "Um, does the captain know about this?" I asked softly.

  "Course he does. Mike and I have been working together a long time now, we don't keep secrets from each other."

  "And that little bit of course manipulation back in Brazil?" I grumbled.

  Balizar laughed, "He didn't ask about the how, just agreed with doing it. Those kids we had onboard all did a good job. Screwing them with a high bill would have been a slap in the face."

  I nodded and navigated the hauler into the lift, and took us to the shuttle bay, then wheeled the hauler out. When we got there, there was a shuttle set and ready to go, so I rolled it up inside, then Balizar helped me strap it down.

  I went and got my helmet out of the equipment room, then joined Balizar in the cockpit and called shuttle control.

  Thirty minutes later, I was flying over the city, I'd given traffic control the address Balizar had told me, and they directed me to a small field in the middle of a complex of six buildings.

  "Land on the roof of that one," Balizar told me, and pointed to a landing pad on one of the buildings.

  I nodded, it would be a bit of a tight fit, and I had to spin us around so that the back would be near the lift entry that was on the roof.

  "Okay, lower the ramp," Balizar said and slipped out of his seat and went down to the hold.

  I hit the switch, checked the gear to make sure the load was level, shut it down and then went back to join him.

  "So, Mister Balizar," An older looking woman came up the ramp. "I see you've brought back one of our children. I understand there was a problem?"

  Balizar nodded and handed her a data stick, "It's all in there. We thought that maybe waking up here, back home, might help him recover."

  "I'm surprised that your company would care," she said, and I could see that she really was surprised. She turned and waved to two large bear animen, who came in and started to rem
ove the unit.

  "Well, it took me a while, but I convinced the accountants that it would be cheaper to rehabilitate him than to replace him."

  She smiled and nodded, "Good for you. I'll read this before we wake him up. Anything else I should know?"

  "I used a few post hypnotic suggestions on him when I put him in there. I listed them at the end of the file."

  "Do you think that might help?" she asked looking at Balizar a little curious.

  "I have a little experience with these units; it has worked in the past."

  "Okay, who should I notify when he's ready?" She asked as the two workers wheeled the unit down the ramp and past the open doors of the lift.

  "It's all there in the file," Balizar looked at his watch. "I really must be going. Thank you very much for agreeing to help us with this Ma'am, we appreciate it very much."

  "Oh, so do I, Mister Balizar, just because we sell them, doesn't mean we don't care about them."

  She turned and followed the workers, and I hit the switch for the ramp and we both went back to the cockpit. I took off once I was sure that they were no longer on the roof and flew us to the company's field.

  "So, no questions?" Balizar asked from the back seat.

  "Just one I guess." I replied.

  "And?"

  "So, does the captain really run the ship? Or do you?"

  I looked up at the mirror and saw Balizar grinning, "Oh, he runs it. I just help him to run it better."

  13

  Alexandria was a nice planet, the people weren't really all that bad, and no one went out of their way to give you trouble. We spent two days there on leave, then had to get back to work loading the Astra for another run. We were loaded with two full troop modules, five hundred personnel on each, for a full thousand. Of that, about fifty or so were security team personnel, the rest were all technicians, laborers, and skilled construction workers.

  As Balizar had said months ago, the war had caused a lot of resources, or as I liked to call them 'people,' to be moved and relocated. Now that the war was over, all of those people had to be redeployed. So we got a thousand passengers, along with three cargo pods full of gear that also needed relocation.