Interregnum (Children of Steel Book 2) Read online

  I hugged her back and then headed up to Balizar's office. I walked in, saluted and stood at attention. "Reporting as ordered, Sir."

  "What just happened?" Balizar growled, looking up at me from his desk.

  I recited carefully everything to my best ability. When I got to the bear grabbing Cassandra I sighed and looked down at Balizar, "I admit I kinda lost my temper when he grabbed Cassy. I probably shouldn't have thrown him into the bulkhead that hard."

  "And after that?"

  I told him the rest of what happened, including what happened with Shooma.

  "I feel bad about the guy I hit over the head with the stun rod, I didn't realize I hit him that hard until it broke, also, I know I used a little too much force when I kneed the first guy in the face when he came back at me. I really didn't want to break any bones."

  Balizar sighed, "Well, he did lay hands on a superior officer, as well as your mate. When I got the report I was worried that we'd be dealing with a dead body or two."

  I nodded, "I do feel really bad about what happened, Sir. I mean I did try to derail it, or at least keep anything from happening. When he first pushed my arm out of the way, I let it slide, hoping that he'd not go any further than that."

  "Why didn't you do anything then?" Balizar asked me curious.

  "Oh, that's your fault," I said and smiled sweetly at him.

  "My fault? Just how is it my fault?"

  "Oh simple, you see, I'm a combat troop, an advanced hand-to-hand combat trooper and bare knuckle fighter. I know how to kill people; I know how to beat them to a pulp. But I do not know how to leave somebody lying stunned on their back wondering just what the hell happened to them."

  I smiled again. "Sir."

  "You still want to spar with me?" Balizar looked surprised.

  "I want to learn just what the hell it was you did to me. I don't have that kind of attack in my skill list. Everything I know is about speed, brute force, and lots and lots of repetition."

  Balizar thought about that a minute.

  "Raj, you may have a point. The fact that you kept your head, well, that says a lot. Four years ago, and I know that bear would be dead."

  "So you'll teach me?" I asked with a hopeful smile.

  "I'll think about it."

  "Can I bring Cassy?"

  Balizar stopped and blinked. "Why do you want Cassandra to learn?"

  "Do you think I could beat up Sharazad?"

  Balizar almost started to growl, then stopped, "I see your point. I'll talk to Sharazad about teaching Cassandra, as for you," he smiled, "I'll think about it."

  I saluted and smiled, "Thanks, Sir!"

  "Oh, one last thing, Raj," I stopped at the door and looked back.

  "You're on punishment detail for a week."

  I sighed, "Damn, I'd hoped to avoid that."

  "What, no complaints about being innocent?" Balizar chuckled.

  "I know you have to keep up appearances with the other clan heads, I'm sure they all remember the last time I got into a fight in public."

  "You're learning. Dismissed."

  "So you got punishment detail?" Jeb asked when I got down to the shuttle deck the next day.

  "Yeah," I nodded and shrugged, "I broke that one bear's skull when I hit him over the head with the stun rod. Sorta got a little carried away."

  "But they started it!"

  "Did Cassy get in trouble?" Dave asked, "I saw the way she let that one guy have it."

  "Nah, she just stunned the hell out of him, she didn't break any bones on him. Honestly, I think if it wasn't for that dust up of mine with Marcus a few years back, I'd have been in the clear. But you know Balizar, he doesn't want anyone to think he's going soft or playing favorites."

  "I suspect Shooma will try and talk him out of it," Chief Shandour said from the door to his office, I guess he'd been listening since I came in.

  I shrugged again, "Hey, if it makes our lives easier, I'm more than willing to do it." I grinned a little embarrassed, "but I really did throw that guy into the wall a lot harder than I should have. I was just kinda pissed that he'd grab Cassy like that."

  "The old Raj would have done a lot worse," the Chief pointed out.

  "Hmm, possibly," I said with a guilty look, "Cassy probably would have stopped me before I started pulling out their entrails.

  "Assuming you would have heard her," Dave laughed.

  "I always hear her, and listen to her," I said and gave a mock shiver, "Cassy has ways of getting even. Usually late at night. After you're asleep."

  "That is the voice of experience guys and gals," Chief Shandour said with a chuckle, "never piss off your mate or your lover, because you have to sleep; sooner or later...."

  Most of the crew got a laugh out of that.

  "I will say that I am happy that you restrained yourself, Raj. If that had been Tara, I'd have ripped his arm off."

  I looked at the Chief a bit shocked. "Seriously?"

  "Well, I would have warned him that he was talking to my mate the first time he snarked off to her. So, yes."

  "I'll keep that in mind for next, time, though I hope there won't be one." I said nodding.

  "What, ripping the arm off?" Dave teased.

  "No, warning that he's messing with my mate. I definitely should have told him." I shook my head, "Might have avoided the whole thing."

  "You know," Dave said shaking his head, "I'm not sure I can get used to this 'new' Raj. I sorta miss the proclivities for unexpected and explosive violence."

  "I was never unexpected," I mock growled.

  "Well, to those of us who knew you, it wasn't."

  I sighed, "How many more weeks until we get there?"

  "Too many," Chief Shandour said. "And the captain is starting to get a little concerned with our passengers. Tensions are up, so everyone is to be on their best behavior at all times, and keep your eyes open. All the known troublemakers are being watched closely, and are going to be brigged at the slightest excuse.

  "The trouble is, a lot of the passengers are getting bored, and we don't have any work for them to do. They were being run through some course work, to increase their skills, but a lot of that is finishing up, and that's a lot of idle hands. If it comes to a real problem, the captain is going to start availing himself of some of the more non-standard methods to deal with it.

  "However, certain members of the ship's crew, such are yourselves, are being warned in advance, as there may not be time to warn you in when these things are employed. So simply put, from this point forward, do not drink anything other than water on the mess deck. Also, don't eat any pork. Understood?"

  We all looked at each other, but nodded, "Yessir."

  "You are also ordered not to share this information with anyone, even if you think they have already been given it."

  "Yessir," we all nodded again.

  "Last of all, none of you are to set foot in the troop modules for any reason. If anything does happen, we suspect it will be in there, and we can't afford to have any of you too injured to fly. If you have a hot date, bring them back to your quarters."

  "Yessir."

  "All right, inspection time. Let's go check the shuttles."

  We all got up, went out to our individual shuttles, and spent the next several hours undoing, inspecting, and then resealing twenty-three separate inspection panels.

  "The captain must be pretty worried," I said to Dave when we got to the last panel on the nose. We were standing well away from the rest of the crews now.

  "Well, we have what, four, five, weeks left?" Dave said while carefully undoing the fasteners on the nose plate. "They're not ship's crew like the rest of us, and there are a lot of them. Can you imagine what a riot would do to the ship?"

  "I know, that worries me as well. I just never thought we'd run into this kind of a problem from our own people."

  Dave shrugged, "Here, hold this," he handed me the fastener tool, and carefully removed the plate. "Ever notice how few people really are deep spac
e rated? Not everyone is okay with being stuck inside a ship for month after month, with little time off, and only occasional leave."

  "Yeah, but we get paid extra for that," I said.

  "That's only because so few people qualify, that they have to offer a bonus to get us to accept the position. For most of the passengers onboard, I bet this is the longest they've ever been on a ship."

  "True."

  "And if they weren't here, we'd probably be having our own problems," He said with a snort.

  "Also true, but there are a lot less of us, and we know better than to do anything stupid."

  "Oh really?" Dave said and grinned at me.

  "Okay, okay, not to do anything stupid to the ship."

  The next few days were pretty quiet onboard. I noticed that a lot of the ship's crew was suddenly drinking water. I'd also noticed that coffeemakers had turned up at more than one duty station, to let people get their daily dose of caffeine.

  Trouble started on a Friday, late in the normal day routine. I got com'ed, as well as a lot of the other personnel who doubled as security. There was a fight in the mess, and it was growing. By the time I got there, it looked like about twenty were involved.

  "You six, over there," Chief Shandour pointed, and we went. More security showed up as we went to work taking out the fighters, a couple of which were ship's members. The moment we got near any of them, they just dropped and curled up in a ball on the floor, so we ignored them.

  It only took a few minutes to stun the rest of the fighters into submission. A few had gotten their hands on stun rods themselves, probably taking them from some of the security members early on in the fight, when they were still outnumbered.

  We quickly zip tied all of the offenders and moved them to one side of the now emptied mess hall. There were about seventeen of them.

  There were three security members who had gotten beaten pretty well; those were sent down to medical immediately.

  That left the five members of the ship's crew, who were sitting against the far wall, and being quietly interviewed by Banner.

  The medic's started treating everyone left in the room, starting with the bound and still only semi-conscious offenders, while the rest of us started to clean up the mess.

  By the time we got that finished Banner called us all over.

  "Okay, a couple of the passengers got into it with one of the ship's crew. It escalated from there. About half the people involved were actually trying to pull people apart and got caught up in it. Haul that group down to the brig, and I'll sort them out there. Then you can all report back to your regular duties."

  We all nodded and followed his orders.

  Saturday night there were two more confrontations, but those were broken up rather easily.

  Sunday I was in the mess with Cassandra and I noticed that several of the passengers looked a little bit tired.

  "Hey, how come none of you guys are eating the pork?" One of the guys in line next to me asked.

  "Because it costs extra," I lied.

  "What? I though the food was free?" He said looking around for a price list.

  "It is for passengers and guests. It's figured into your movement cost, which the company pays for. But this is our duty station; we have to pay for our grub. Yeah the pork is good, but I ain't paying the extra money for it, the mate and I have some serious buyout debt," I said and yawned.

  "Wow, sorry, I had no idea."

  "Eh, don't worry about it. Go ahead and enjoy yourself, doesn't bother me none."

  "Thanks!" he said, and I watched as him and his friends dug in on the pork, and the other crew members in line just gave me one of 'those' looks, and rolled their eyes.

  Whatever the captain had them put in the food, it must have worked, because for the next two weeks, things calmed down, but now all of the Astra's crew were walking around, all pent up with stress. We were a week from breakout and we had all started to view the passengers as ticking time bombs.

  Two nights before breakout, they rioted.

  "Shit!" I swore as the lights came up to full in our cabin, waking us both up, and the 'General Quarters' alarm sounded over the intercom.

  "All hands, all hands, we have a situation with several of the passengers. All passengers are restricted to their bunks; use whatever force is necessary to send them there. Any passengers found in restricted spaces are to be subdued immediately, deadly force is authorized in those areas only."

  I swore again, opened my locker, got my combat gear out, and started to put it on as the announcement repeated two more times. I looked over at Cassandra she was pulling her jump suit on, and then she grabbed a heavy vest to put on over it.

  Unit orders came over the intercom next, Cassandra and I were both to report to the bridge guard station. I could hear that the other units were being sent to engineering, the shuttle bays, and the captain's quarters.

  I put my helmet on and powered it up, slaving it to the shipboard com net. I checked Cassandra's gear, rechecked mine, then we unlocked the small safe and pulled out our stun rods and side arms.

  The side arms were specially designed for shipboard use; they fired a fifty caliber smart slug at low velocity. The slug would blossom out before impact and had about the same impact as a hard swung baseball bat. They were noisy, very limited in range, but they hurt like hell and broke bones. In close, a head shot would kill you; anything outside of ten feet was almost guaranteed to be non-lethal.

  "Let's go," I said and opened the door.

  The only people in the hallway were other ship's crew, most of them were geared up like Cassandra, only the warrant officer and higher ranks were armed with sidearms, the rest were just armed with stun rods.

  When we got near the bridge, there were about ten people trying to force the door.

  I pulled my pistol, "Leg shots," I told her.

  "Raj, we need to warn them first."

  I pulled the trigger five times in quick succession, and five of them fell to the floor screaming in pain. I was sure I'd broken a bone with each shot.

  "Put your hands up, or we will shoot you!" I yelled, then whispered to Cassandra, "There, I warned them."

  Three put their hands up. I shot the other two immediately.

  "Lay down," I motioned with the gun, they laid down.

  "Cover me, I'll secure them. Any of them try anything, headshot them." I growled to Cassandra.

  "Raj, that'll kill them!" Cassandra warned.

  "Exactly," I growled looking at them. I saw a lot of ears suddenly flatten, but at least Cassandra got the idea.

  "Okay," She said and took a stance with her back to the wall, so she would see anyone approaching from behind.

  "Now, listen up!" I growled and pulled out a bunch of zip ties. "Right now, you're just going to be fined, but this is a restricted area, if any of you resist further, you'll be killed. So lie still and you'll be sleeping in your own bunk tonight!"

  I then zipped all their hands behind their backs, and zipped their legs together as well. I went a little carefully on those whose legs I'd broken, but they got tied as well.

  "Check the bridge," I told Cassandra. She nodded and hit the door com.

  "Bridge, this is the portside guard station."

  "We see you. The bridge is clear, the guards are inside."

  "How is the starboard entrance?"

  "It's clear, that was the only group."

  "Orders?" Cassandra asked.

  "Standby for orders."

  Other crewmembers started to show up by then, and we sorted ourselves out by unit.

  Cassandra's unit and one other were moved into the bridge, another was left at each door, and the rest of us were sent to start sweeping the ship.

  For the next four hours, we moved slowly, deck by deck, checking every cabin, every office, every exercise room, and every space, no matter how small. We only came across two more of the passengers before we left officer country, and those were the two otters sharing Jeri's quarters. So we left them th
ere under orders not to leave.

  We linked up with the units from the captain's and other senior officer’s quarters, when we finished with officer country. They had apparently had a nice little riot to put down, but I gathered they hadn't used the same level of force that I had. Then again, those were not restricted areas.

  In the general crew quarters section, we came across a lot more passengers. Apparently quite a few were now bunking with the crew, either for romantic reasons, or because they knew something was up in the pods and they decided to try and steer clear. We locked them in the rooms where they were, again under orders not to go anywhere. All were happy to agree.

  "Okay, here's the plan," Hawkeye was in charge of the group, and we had just finished with the crew quarters. "Chief Shandour has got the assault shuttle deck locked down, and there haven’t been any issues there. Banner has secured the engineering spaces, and is in the process of trying to link up with Marcus's group, who are holding the lower shuttle deck; but they're having a tough time of it.

  "So I'm going to split off half of you to go re-enforce Marcus's team, don't stop for anything, if you see any problems, call it in. The rest of us will continue to hold these positions. Once those rear points have been secured, Banner will use his team to drive the rioters back, we'll leave the path to the pods open, and try to get them to retreat into there."

  "Then what?" Someone asked.

  "Then we gas them. Once they're all asleep, we'll go and secure our problem children. Everyone got that?"

  "Rog!" we all called.

  He detailed everyone then, I was lucky, I got to guard one of the access ways.

  It took another hour, from I was hearing over the com channels as I scanned them to get an idea of what was coming, a couple of the rioters were bound and determined to 'get off the ship' and were trying really hard to get onto one of the cargo shuttles and leave.

  A couple of the crew with me swore when they heard that, those people were probably going to end up psyched, I suspected that Banner might pull the trigger himself on a few of them right there.

  When the leaders were finally taken down, unconscious or otherwise, the rioters broke. They came streaming back up the ship, but when they saw us, their heart was no longer in it, so they took the route of least resistance, and went into the troop modules.