Children of Steel Page 23

  "Do you really think I'm better than you or Banner though?"

  "Maybe not better Raj, you do need more experience, but you should be able to beat us at least half the time. You practice and work out more than we do and your determination should be able to make up for your lack of experience.

  "I've also noticed you're working harder now than before we went to Arboral. But I think I can guess why that is. You've got better work habits than most leopards, and if you can apply some of that determination to your fighting, I think you'll really be something."

  "But I wonder if I'm too young yet sometimes."

  "You're approaching your peak physically, experience is good for making up when you lack in that department. Or when your opponent has more than you, and in your case that's not going to happen very often Raj, believe me." She chuckled at that.

  The rest of our time at Tiber base passed pretty quickly, I didn't do any fighting the next weekend and spent it with Katrine one day and Mist the next instead. I wanted to spend a little quality time with each of them, between working on the ship and going to fight bars in my spare time with Herza, which was her idea of a great date I guess, I didn’t get to do more than spend time in bed with them. Yeah, I’m sure for some people that’s a perfect relationship, but not me.

  It was good to spend the time talking and socializing and getting to know them a little better, I knew the people on the flight deck better than I knew the members of my own clan it seemed sometimes. The ship was finished by the Tuesday after that, the drive having been retuned, the removed equipment replaced, and six cargo pods full of processed materials attached to the Astra's frame.

  With that much cargo, the Astra wasn't going to be able to make much speed; our next trip was definitely going to be a long, slow one. Ships leaving Tau Delta weren't usually so heavily loaded down, but as we had been pulled off our planned run, the Captain figured this would be a good way to make up on the profits that the company had lost with our being out of normal service. The local management agreed with this, and the Corporation's Headquarters had sent a list of several places where we could go depending on when we were ready to leave.

  Unfortunately for us, it would mean a very long time in jump space unless we were going someplace close. It took us two and a half weeks just to accelerate to a speed where we could enter jump, and once there the Captain passed the bad news. We'd be in jump for eighteen weeks, more than four months.

  He did tell us that the profit made from this trip would more than make up for what was lost by the Company's diverting us, and help pay a lot towards the cost of the fighting as well. That may not really sound like much I know, but we all had a vested interest here.

  The Company split all of its groups into separate fiscal units, so it could determine if that unit was operating at a profit or a loss. Of course, it didn't just take monetary gains into consideration, there were always other things of value to the corporation too, like information, or security for example. So each ship was split into its own group and a ship that didn't make a profit, didn't get a bonus come the end of its fiscal year. Those bonuses were split amongst the crew as an incentive and while it may not amount to much, every little bit counts.

  So we all grumbled a little, but we agreed with the Captain. Tri-Star would reward us for the combat and cut us slack for the time we had to spend at the planet, but the nearly two months we spent getting to a company shipyard and getting repaired would hurt us.

  Life on board the Astra settled into its usual routine, with everybody working long hard shifts. We still had a lot of work to do installing the replacement equipment; the Captain figured that as long as we were going on a long run, we might as well do the work ourselves and not lose more time in the repair dock.

  That took us almost two months as we had to take care of our normal shipboard duties as well, but at least it kept us busy. By the time we were approaching breakout, everybody was getting pretty antsy. I heard one of the Doc's refer to it as 'Cabin fever', though I really don't know what that meant. I just knew that it had been nearly seven months since anybody had set foot on a planet's surface, and about nine since anybody had any leave.

  As for myself, I worked out as hard as I could near the end of the trip. I found myself getting a little short of temper a few times, so I tried to exercise it out hoping if I did lose it, I'd be too tired to really do anything. It was a couple of weeks before breakout when the Captain released the information as to where we were going and unfortunately that was when the troubled started.

  "New Johannesburg!" Exclaimed Dave, "Of all the places we could be going, why did they pick that?"

  "Because they pay a high price for what we're carrying," replied Rudy. "What's so bad about it anyway?"

  "You ever been there before?"

  "Of course not, you know this is my first assignment."

  "How about the rest of you?" Dave asked the rest of us. There were about eight of us sitting around the flight room, a bunch of scattered no's were his reply, except for Jerry.

  "Could be worse, could be New Sahara." Jerry said to Dave.

  "I guess you're right on that," he grimaced.

  "Would one of you kindly tell us what we're supposed to be upset about?" put in Gabe.

  "We have absolutely no rights on New Johannesburg," Dave told us. "And they don't like us very much there either."

  "Just how bad can it be?" I asked.

  "Bad." he shrugged, "Attacking a human, even in self defense is punishable by long prison terms, fraternizing with human women will get you the same, if you're not lynched first of course. You can't possess any weapons, even knives, and you're not allowed to own anything or go anywhere without a pass."

  "They also don't allow us animen ta' stay on their wee planet for more than a single year, and then only if ya’ work for an off planet corporation," added Jerry.

  "So you mean that there won't be any locals to fraternize with," Rudy stated glumly.

  "No, none at all," said Dave sullenly. "But it gets worse."

  "How?" somebody asked.

  "Well you see now," said Jerry, "without bein' able to keep a large animen work force at the local company operation, they have ta' hire a lot of local types."

  "So even on company grounds you won't be totally safe." finished Dave.

  "You mean they'll be all over the place?" I asked them.

  "Not everywhere, they don't want much to do with us either," responded Dave. "But expect to run into them anyplace outside of the Barracks or the local Headquarters building. They're not allowed into either of those as Tri-Star doesn't exactly trust them. But they pay well, as only a few corps will even do business with them."

  "What was the bit about New Sahara?" asked Klein.

  "Oh, on New Sahara they have the same attitude plus slavery is legal, we're considered property there and they have very loose laws about theft."

  "Ugh, I hope we don't go there next," Gabe put in.

  "Rumor is, human slavery is legal there too, so don't feel too bad." Dave replied smiling.

  "How do they get away with that?" I wondered out loud.

  "Easy, nobody wants to go there. The place is mostly desert and rock, the people are nomadic and very hard to find."

  "You've been there too Dave?"

  "No, but I've heard about it and I have no wish to."

  Everybody on ship quickly learned about what kind of reception was to be expected upon planet fall. Needless to say everybody was in a pretty sour mood about the whole thing and morale was at its lowest point since I had been assigned to the ship. In response to everybody’s low spirits, clan meetings were being held twice a month now. Also everybody was being kept as busy as possible so that they wouldn't have the time, or energy, to cause problems.

  As an officer aboard ship, I found myself having to stop several fights that I came across in the passageways. I didn't really relish being put in such a position, but the order had come down that we were to help keep the peace. Now the diffe
rence between officers and regular crew was not that great among the animen and even less when you were a warrant officer like me, if any of them took a poke at me they probably wouldn't get in any serious trouble. This was the reason why I didn't really care for the extra responsibility.

  Needless to say that in a couple of the fights I broke up, somebody did take a swing at me. In both cases I managed to keep my temper, but I did bounce one of them off the wall pretty hard. By the time breakout came, I was glad to be stuck in the flight room most of the time. I had several run ins with the wolverine I had 'bounced' and he was definitely getting to be a problem. If he kept it up I was going to have a talk with his clan head.

  Breakout was pretty nerve racking, as we were really too heavily loaded to get away from anyone who might attack us. So we were all pretty keyed up down in the shuttle bay when we went through it. The sigh of relief that went through the ship afterwards lasted for several days. But it was going to take us almost two weeks to get into orbit, and everybody was once again keyed up. My nerves were stretched pretty thin as well.

  The traditional poker game went on as usual and I played more to keep my mind off things than to win. Everyone else seemed to be in pretty much the same mood, so there really weren't any big loser's, though Jerry did win big as usual.

  I was on my way back to my quarters after my shift on the flight deck one day, when I ran into one of the ship's more disreputable Tigers in the corridor. He was blocking the way and I had a funny feeling that he wasn't going to move either.

  "Okay, what's the problem?" I asked looking him up and down. He was a pretty good size; he had three inches on me and probably forty or so pounds.

  "You are," he said returning my look.

  "I don't recall my having any run ins with you, or any other Tigers for that matter."

  "No, but you have been giving one of my friends a hard time, and I thought it might be time somebody taught you a lesson." He started to drop into a fighting stance.

  "What in the hell are you talking about?" I asked confused.

  "You officer types are all the same, get a little rank and you think you're god!" and with that he rushed me.

  I side stepped as good as I could and blocked the punch he threw at me. I really didn't want to fight, but I obviously wasn't going to get a choice in the matter. So I dropped into a fighting stance myself, and we began to look for openings.

  "Do you mind saying who?" I asked, and leaped in with a quick kick to the groin. He blocked that, but I got a follow up jab to the head in.

  He took it without even noticing and countered with a quick flurry of his own. I suddenly realized this fight wasn't going to be an easy one, and that if I lost it, there was nobody to bail me out.

  We continued to feel each other out for the next couple of minutes and as we started to cut each other up with our claws I got a sneaky feeling as to who put him up to it. "That damn Wolverine who's been bugging me put you up to this didn't he?"

  He charged in at that remark so I figured I hit the target on that one. We traded blows again and I was really starting to get mad, "Why can't that ass wipe fight his own battles?" I spit out, shuffling in to land a couple of hard blows myself.

  "Afraid to fight someone your own size, huh?" he gloated as he landed a good hook to my head.

  I back peddled quickly, shaking my head to clear it. He moved in quickly seeing his advantage and trying to press it home. I had to cover up and took quite a few blows to the arms and body and was starting to get hurt now. My control slipped and I totally lost my cool, my anger literally filled me up. I quickly grabbed him in a clench and gave him a head butt, while bringing my knee up hard to his groin.

  He pushed me away, but I came back in swinging, kicking and clawing for all I was worth. I managed to keep him on the defense and backed him up almost to the wall. He came back at me then, but I used my speed to dodge most of his blows, and those that connected never landed solid. I suddenly remembered what Herza said about determination. I knew I was going to win this fight and refused to think about any other possible outcome.

  I continued to be able to press my attack after each of his flurries. I had managed to get a few good kicks in on his left knee, and he was starting to favor it. My other attacks were also beginning to show some effects and I could see that I was wearing him down. I waited until I had another good opening, then came in fast and gave his left knee as hard a roundhouse kick as possible.

  He grabbed me just as I was rewarded with a loud snap for my efforts. He managed to land several hard blows and rakes to my chest as he went down, possibly breaking some ribs but I was to far gone around the bend to care about pain or blood anymore. I landed two good elbow shots to his face then and easily broke his grip, dancing out of range.

  I looked him over; he was on one knee, with blood starting to flow from his face. The elbows had really hit the mark. I came in again and hit him with a spinning back kick right to the face. He was pretty dazed now and I started to work around behind him, so I could finish him off.

  He roared then and threw himself at me in a frenzy. I was surprised that he was still able to do it but he wasn't agile enough with the broken knee so I was able to stop him with a flurry of jabs to the face while dodging to the side. As he went by I hit him as hard as I could with a spinning backfist to the back of the head. I then jumped on him and pounded his head into the deck a few times for good measure.

  By the time I had him in a good arm lock, I realized that he was out cold. I took a couple of seconds to catch my breath, then grabbing his good leg, I dragged him down towards the flight room. When I walked into the room it went silent almost immediately.

  "Holy shit Raj, what happened to you?" gasped Dave.

  I dragged my burden over to the Chief, he looked at me first then the tiger I was dragging, who was leaving a nice bloody smear on the deck. "Just what happened here Raj?" he asked pushing his chair back from the table.

  "He ran into a brick wall," I said looking him straight in the eye. "As his clan head, I suggest that you might want to have a word with him about the wisdom of such things." I dropped the leg leaving him bleeding there and turned around to walk out.

  "You better see the doctor, you don't look too good yourself," he replied.

  "Right after I have a little chat with somebody," I growled on the way out.

  It took me about ten minutes to find who I was looking for. He was in the main aft rec area, probably waiting for his friend to show up and tell how he had thrashed me. He must have heard the gasps as I walked into the room, because he looked up and saw me before I was halfway there. He got up immediately and started to run for one of the exits, I was sore, bruised, and at least two of my ribs were broken. I was also as mad as hell, I jumped up onto the tables and ran him down just as he cleared the exit.

  I landed on his back, and rode him down to the floor hard. I then got up, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and lifted him clear of the floor. As Wolverines went he wasn't a lightweight either, probably about one sixty or so. I used the momentum of the lift to smash his head into the wall.

  "Surprised to see me?" I smashed his head again. He made some kind of response but I really didn't hear it.

  "I'm sorry, but I don't think I understood that. You'll have to speak up!" He was still struggling so I smashed him against the wall again. By now a few people from the rec area were beginning to show up.

  "I don't like being ambushed, especially by third parties, understand?" I smashed him one more time for good measure, I noticed a little blood this time, and as I started to drag him away, I realized he had passed out. I picked him up an carried him down to his clan head's room, and knocked on the door.

  It opened, and a very shocked older wolverine stood there.

  "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

  I dropped my burden at his feet, "The meaning is that I had better not ever have any trouble with this one and he had better not ever send somebody after me again," I said h
eatedly back to him.

  He looked me over then and noticed my condition I guess, because he continued in a much calmer tone. "I see, he does have a tendency to get in trouble lately," he said indicating the wolverine at his feet, who was beginning to moan. "Are you going to press any charges?"

  "Hell no, but if he knows what's good for him he damn well better steer clear of me! I don't need this kind of aggravation!" I turned and walked away. The people from the rec area had followed me down the corridor, and everybody was quick to get out of the way. I sneaked a look to make sure there weren't any officers around; I didn't want this going any farther. Especially as now that I was starting to calm down, I realized I could probably get in trouble myself.

  I went back to my quarters, figuring I'd take a shower and then get some sleep. When I stepped in to get my robe I was surprised to find Balizar waiting there for me.

  "Just what in the hell did you think you were doing?" he demanded, as I closed the door behind me.

  "Defending myself, possibly my life," I admitted.

  "I'm not talking about the Tiger, I'm talking about the Wolverine you beat up in front of witnesses!" he growled.

  "I didn't mean to do that," I confessed guiltily, "I was just going to drag him down to his clan head and make a complaint. But when he took off like that, well for all I know he was going to go get somebody else after me and I just kind of lost it." I was really beginning to hurt now that the adrenaline had worn off. I noticed that the side of my head was still bleeding too.

  "I should have known you were going to do something like this when Chief Shandour called me. He said you looked really mad, but neither of us thought that there was a third party involved." he looked at me. "I'm going to have to have a talk with Drexel, he's the head of the Wolverine Clan. I don't think there will be anything official about this, but you are in trouble with me, understand?"

  "Yes Sir, I understand," I said quietly. My head was really beginning to throb, and those ribs hurt every time I breathed.