Interregnum (Children of Steel Book 2) Read online

  We sealed the hatch behind them, called the bridge, and then waited.

  An hour later, we were given gas masks, and sent inside while the atmosphere was regenerated.

  "Wow, what a mess," I sighed.

  "Yeah, they definitely trashed the place," Hawkeye agreed.

  "I wonder if it's this bad in the other module."

  "We can find out later, let me call for more help, then we can check out the rest of the module."

  I nodded and looked around as he did that. The modules were pretty much just a big barracks in a tube, blocked off into sections, with each section separated by a rest room facility with showers, and a small combination recreation, exercise, and mess area. They had a couple of food vending machines and microwave ovens to heat stuff, but no real food preparation equipment.

  In this section, all of the bedding had been pulled off the bunks, and a lot of it was destroyed. I think they were trying to figure out how to make weapons or something. Being technicians, they didn't have any of course. There was also a lot of gear strewn around, and most of that looked pretty well trashed as well.

  I counted at least hundred bodies, all were unconscious, quite a few were injured, we didn't find any dead, thankfully.

  Hawkeye pointed to the extra security members that joined us. "Start securing them," he said pointing to the unconscious rioters.

  He motioned to me, "Okay, let's check the next section."

  I nodded and followed, there were ten bunk sections, each designed for around fifty normally. The front section was a little different, as that's where the officers lived when a module contained troops.

  "Well this is a little better," Hawkeye commented when we got to the next set of bunks. The rest room and rec area's we had passed through had been left fairly untouched.

  I looked around, maybe half the beds had been pulled off, and there were probably fifty people here.

  The third section had almost no damage, and there were only a handful of people in it. The fourth, fifth, and six sections were deserted and barely damaged at all.

  The seventh section had been barricaded off from the rest of the module, someone had piled all of the mattresses up in the two entryways to block it off. It took us about ten minutes to clear a space so we could get inside, where we found over two hundred people.

  "Well, these folks made the right move," Hawkeye said. "Let's get their IDs and make sure that they don't get charged for any of this mess."

  I nodded, and set about scanning everyone's ident disk.

  "So what's the plan now?" I asked Hawkeye as we worked.

  "Everyone that rioted is going to be shackled to their bunk and sedated. Those that didn't will be taking care of those that did. All passengers are going to be restricted to the modules, and food will be delivered."

  "Wow, that's pretty rough."

  "Yeah, but that's how it goes. I heard you shot a few up by the bridge?"

  I nodded, "Yeah, ten of them, one of me, so I broke a bunch of legs. They'll be okay. I feel for the ones who went down to the main shuttle bay."

  "Yeah, from the sounds of it, Banner was a lot harder on them, than you were."

  "Well damaging the engines or changing mass in jump space is a lot more dangerous than falling out of jump space," I replied. "If they had gotten on the bridge, they wouldn't have been able to kill us; they'd have just made life difficult."

  "And messed with our bonus situation," Lyle said, coming up to help us record tags. He'd been quietly listening to our conversation as he'd worked through the sleepers in the last section.

  "Damn, I sure hope this doesn't mess up our bonuses!" Hawkeye swore.

  "Just have to see how much damage they did," I agreed with a sigh looking around for any I might have missed.

  14

  They were still cleaning up the mess when we came out of jump. Sitting alert was actually a welcome change of pace, and when we saw the level of defenses in the system, we all gave a sigh of relief, the war might have been over for almost a year now, but we were all still living with that mindset. Iverly was really quite a busy system; they even had a space dock.

  Because I was sitting alert, I didn't have to deal with cleaning up the mess, and there was quite a bit of petty vandalism that needed to be cleaned up or fixed, which was both annoying and insulting, this was our home after all. But because everyone else did have to deal with it, there was still a lot more work for those of us on alert to do than there usually was.

  "So, how bad is it?" I asked Cassandra. It was morning and we'd just woken up, I hadn't seen her in two days, and when I'd gotten to our cabin last night, she was already deep asleep. Like everyone else, she'd been working hard. Nobody wanted to spend anytime cleaning up the ship when we got into port, everyone wanted to be able to go take leave.

  "Three dead and one of those was an accident," she sighed. "I want to apologize hon."

  I looked at her surprised, "Apologize for what?"

  "For doubting you when you shot the folks in the legs. Yesterday when I was down in the med bay, I saw what they did to one of the bridge guards, they beat him up pretty bad, he's going to be laid up for over a week the docs told me."

  I gave her a hug, "I thought you'd be mad at me for being so curt with you at the time."

  She shook her head, "No, you're the one with the experience in fighting. Balizar said you took them out quickly and with a minimum of force, he said you could have legally killed them if you wanted to, because they were in a restricted zone."

  I nodded, "What were they doing up there anyway?"

  "They just wanted out of the ship and someone told them that the bridge is like standing in a huge open space when the displays are on." She sighed and stretched, and I watched, appreciating the view. "So that's why they went there."

  "What about the others?"

  "Well, apparently a couple of the rabble rousers who hadn't been brigged yet figured out that we were drugging their food, so they convinced a bunch to start eating and drinking like the rest of us crew were. Then once they’d shaken off the effects of the drugs the captain had the cooks put in the food, they decided to take over the ship to 'protect themselves'. They thought we were going to do worse things or something like that. None of the rioters are too clear on what they were thinking at that point."

  I nodded, "Yeah, cabin fever can really mess with your head. What about the leaders?"

  "Those are two of the dead. Banner got one of them fairly early on while defending engineering; his team put a serious beat down on the lead elements. So the rioters then switched to the shuttle bay in an attempt to run away. That's when he got the second one, and they stalled inside the hanger bay at that point with no one to rally them. But they were still dug in fairly well, so he shot six more, but not fatally at least, and when those six dropped, that's when the rioters finally started to break."

  I grabbed my robe and tossed Cassandra hers. "What was he shooting them with?"

  "A sniper rifle," Cassandra shook her head and sighed. "His team was armed with carbines. When the rioters attacked engineering, Banner's group came up from behind and took out the lead element immediately. Then he let the rioters retreat. He'd hoped that attack had broken their will."

  "Wow," I said as we headed for the showers.

  "Yeah, it was pretty nasty. The main gym has been turned over into a hospital ward, they shot up a couple of dozen rioters, they're all going to live, but the captain handed down a fifty thousand credit fine to every rioter that entered a restricted zone."

  "That's gonna hurt."

  Cassandra nodded, "All the ones who cleared out early, hid, or barricaded themselves away from the rioters are getting a letter of commendation for staying out of it. The ones who called security and warned us are getting a bonus."

  "How many of them rioted, anyway?"

  "Well as near as we can figure out, about half of them did, but only about three hundred came into the ship. The rest just sort of burned out in their modules aft
er they trashed the place. Of the ones that left the modules," she shrugged as we entered one of the shower stalls and hung up our bathrobes, "Maybe half followed those two leading things down to engineering. The rest just wandered around the ship, trashing stuff, or were like the small group at the bridge."

  "Well, they won't be our problem for much longer," I said and turned on the shower.

  "Yeah, but I feel sorry for them, being cooped up on a ship for months at a time is rough, at least we have jobs and work do to on it."

  I nodded, "Yeah, I know. It's why I hit the gym as much as I do."

  "Speaking of gyms," Cassandra said handing me the shampoo and turning her back to me. "What is this training you set me up for?"

  "Well, I asked Balizar to teach you the fighting style that they use."

  "Why'd you do that? I know how to fight."

  I smiled at her back as I started to scrub her fur with my hands, "Who do you think would win in a fight, me or Sharazad?"

  "Why you, easily," Cassandra laughed.

  "Don't be too sure," I said and started working my way down her legs and tail, "They train in secret, the one time I got Balizar to spar with me, I didn't last three seconds."

  "So why have them train me?" She asked turning around and facing me as I handed her the bottle, then I turned so she could do my back.

  "Well, if you're going to do more field type work for him like you did back on earth, I want you to be able to stand up to someone like me."

  "Do you think he's going to have me doing more of that?" Cassandra asked sounding curious.

  "Well, he agreed to have Shar train you, so maybe. Besides, he promised to train me once years ago, when I was 'older and more mature,'" I said mimicking Balizar's voice. "Well he knows I'd teach you anyway, once I learned it, so why not train you too?"

  "So does that mean he's going to teach you?"

  "I hope so," I smiled. "I haven't learned any knew fighting styles in years!"

  Cassandra sighed and slapped me on the butt.

  "You and your fighting," she teased.

  The next day I found an hour of my off-duty time had been re-scheduled to meet with Balizar in one of the smaller workout rooms that could be used privately. I got my pads, guards, and other sparring gear and met him there.

  "Thank you for taking me on as your student," I said and bowed respectfully to Balizar after I'd entered and locked the door.

  "Well, I did promise you I would consider it, and you have changed Raj, quite a bit. To be honest, I'm surprised you survived your time on the Falcon."

  "Well, the gods of the personnel office do seem to watch out for fools and little cubs," I grinned.

  "So what did it for you?"

  I stopped and looked at him, "I'm not sure I understand."

  Balizar grinned, "Of course you do. You had a 'moment', you woke up to who you are and what you are, and you made a decision to change your life. Indulge an old male, what happened?"

  I looked down a little embarrassed, "Well, it wasn't just one thing, but remember Aruba?"

  "Ah, yes, you two had a thing once, back on the Falcon?"

  "Yeah, she was riding me over some of my behavior, and well, it was either beat her to a pulp, or just start owning my actions. I realized that life still had something to offer me that I could rise above that which I was made to be."

  "And what was it that you were made to be?"

  "Um, I'd rather not say."

  He nodded. "How'd you figure it out?"

  "Sir?" I said looking up surprised.

  "You don't have to 'sir' me in private Raj, not now, or ever. I've read your records, I've watched you enough years, I doubt Cassy even knew what those tags meant in your file, or she'd have deleted them from your records back then.

  "So, how did you figure it out?"

  I sighed, "I was talking with an NCO from another company's infantry. We'd been working together for a while, he told me. Said he could see it in me."

  Balizar nodded, "They mess with us, they mess with us in a lot of different ways. It starts when you're designed, continues when you're schooled and trained, and then even after you're sent out into the world it continues.

  "It's what we all have to deal with; it is the price of our 'admission' to this life. Most don't know or don't care. But you know, now. So knowing what you know, being who you are, what do you plan to do next?"

  I blinked feeling a bit lost by the course of the conversation, "I though I was here to learn about a better way to subdue people."

  "I can't teach you what you need to know if I don't know what you need to learn," Balizar said looking at me very seriously. "What are your plan's, Raj? What is your next goal?"

  I thought about that a moment, "I just want to stay with Cassy, maybe... no definitely, have some cubs with her. Say in ten years or so, when we've built up enough time and experience to get a nice long assignment planetside."

  "And what's your next step in that goal?"

  I shrugged, "Honestly, I don't know. I guess I'll let Cassy decide, and I'll go from there."

  "You know about OODA loops right?"

  "You mean 'observe, orient, decide, act' right? They taught us that in assault pilot school."

  Balizar nodded, "You've applied it to your fighting as well, right?"

  I nodded, "Well, yeah. It's too valuable a lesson not to try and use it."

  "Everything in life is based on the loop, all of our actions, all of our interactions. How do you beat somebody when using the loop?"

  "Well you get inside their loop, you act first."

  "And how does that help you?"

  "Because they have to re-observe, re-orient, before they can decide and act."

  "So you keep them constantly in the O's, by always acting before they can decide or act themselves, right?"

  I nodded, "Of course."

  "But what if they're faster than you?" Balizar asked.

  "Umm, do something unexpected, throw off their observation, move so that their decision is no longer valid."

  Balizar nodded, "That is one way, but if they're faster than you, they'll still get back ahead of you soon enough. So what's another way?"

  "Um, throw off their observations?"

  Balizar nodded, "That can work, for a time, but it's not always dependable. The real answer is to mess with their orientation."

  I looked at him puzzled.

  "We all know how things are supposed to work, how we expect things to move, people to react, how a body moves and bends, how a fist strikes or a kick is delivered, we have filters in our minds based on our understanding of the world around us, and the training we have received. If you present your opponent with something that he cannot understand, cannot grasp, that doesn’t pass through his filters, how does he respond to it?"

  That stopped me a moment. "I, I don't know."

  "And you didn't when we sparred on the shuttle deck. What you saw made no sense, so you couldn't process it, probably couldn't even recall it. Am I right?"

  I nodded.

  "That is part of why Shar and I spar in private, if people get used to seeing what we do, then they can orient themselves to it. This is why what I teach you, you will use in private, or if in public, only briefly and away from cameras if at all possible.

  "I am not only going to train your body how to move in ways that are not natural, or which appear to not be natural, but I am going to train your mind to have less filters, to see the things that are un-seeable, because they are either too common, or don't make sense. I'm also going to teach you how to take advantage of other people's filters, to find the things that they won't see, and exploit them."

  "That, that's a lot," I said thinking about it.

  "The lessons you learn here, the same as the lessons you learned in your assault classes, your fighting classes, all of your combat classes, apply to all of the world around you. Everything is a conflict, everything is a competition. When you apply these rules to your life, to the world around you, you will
find that you have control over your own life, and your own destiny."

  I pondered that a moment, I'd brought the OODA philosophy to all of my fighting, armed, unarmed, not just the flying. I hadn't thought of bringing it to the rest of my life, but suddenly I could see the benefit.

  And now, I was going to learn how to refine those abilities even further?

  "I think I see why you wanted me to be older and a bit wiser," I said.

  Balizar smiled. "Like the great man once said: 'It's all in your head.' Now, let's get started."

  # # #

  "Well, am I glad that's over," I sighed and leaned back against one of the cargo bay bulkheads to catch my breath as we watched the cargo hatch close. We'd just finished unloading the main cargo bay. All of the modules, both cargo and troop, had been disconnected and hauled off several hours ago, after being emptied first of course. With the Astra connected to the space dock, we'd been able to unload directly, but with a fair number of our cargo movers still recovering from minor injuries received during their stint helping subdue the rioters, we'd been a bit short-handed.

  But everyone wanted to get the cargo off so we could be 'done' with this trip and 'done' with its problems. So even those of us who normally hated shipping cargo were quick to volunteer.

  "And people say audits are bad!" Lyle said, leaning back against the wall besides me. "I'll take one of those over this any day."

  The others standing around with us all agreed as we took a break, before heading back to our quarters.

  "Any idea how long a leave we're going to get?"

  "I'd think five days," I said stretching out my sore arms.

  "Nah, probably a week at least," Lyle said.

  "Yeah," Hobbs, one of the tigers agreed, "Captain is gonna give everyone a break for sure after this shit. He'll be worried about us more than the money."

  I thought about that, "I hope you're right, I could use a nice break right now."

  "You'll see!" Hobbs laughed and we all went off to hit the showers.