Children of Steel Read online

  Our arrival at Lyceum was, as usual, without incident. By the time we had made orbit the crew was in particularly good spirits. It seemed that Lyceum was a very popular planet with animen; its main trade was in knowledge, research, and high tech equipment. I failed to see why this would make the place so popular, but Rudy said I'd see once we were there.

  As for our unloading operations, Lyceum had very strict quarantine rules. All equipment going down to the planet had to be inspected and run through some kind of decontamination, dependent on the nature of the cargo. We ourselves were subject to a physical, and our personal equipment inspected. Not that anything was illegal on the planet; they just didn't want any foreign organisms introduced to their ecosystem. It seemed that Lyceum had a very favorable one and many of the native species had not evolved very far.

  They also wanted to make sure that their population was as disease free as possible. This process took about ten hours, and took place right after we had off loaded what cargo we were delivering into the space docks.

  As I walked from the shuttle to the orientation briefing, I looked around at the local conditions. The temperature was about ninety degrees, and the local area would best be described as tropical. It was very comfortable, with a nice breeze that seemed to always blow. We were on an island, the majority of the locals having established all of their population centers on the numerous islands that made up the planet. There was only one major land mass that could be called a continent, and it wasn't very large either.

  At the briefing I found out the reason for crew's high spirits.

  "Welcome to Tri-Star Mining and Manufacturing's Lyceum installation!" Began the Otter who was giving the orientation with a decidedly upbeat tempo. "For those of you who have not been to Lyceum before let me start by going over the list of proscribed substances on the Planet: None! The list of local taboo's: also None!

  "The only way to land in real trouble here is to commit a violent crime against someone else, the basic law of the land is that you may do as you please as long as it doesn't hurt someone else," she paused a second then added with a smile, "Unless of course they consent!"

  There were a few snickers in the room at that remark.

  "What about weapons?" asked somebody from the back of the room.

  "Knives and such are okay, but I'll tell you right now it's a waste of time. As for firearm's, you have to take a proficiency test if you wish to carry one, again you're just wasting your time."

  "Why is it such a waste of time?" I inquired curiously.

  "Well there really isn't much violent crime here on Lyceum. You will see quite a bit of the local's carrying knives and such, that's part of the reason there isn't too much violent crime. Another reason is that everybody has a very high level of education here, which is this planet's trademark, as well as their biggest trade, knowledge. Thirdly, violent crime is severely punished, it is the belief of the locals that the people who practice violent crime aren't civilized, and don't deserve the benefits of civilization.

  "Needless to say it works fairly well. You are entitled to defend yourself of course, but if the court believes you were excessively or unnecessarily violent in that defense you may find yourself in a little trouble as well."

  "What about ani-basher's?" asked someone else, "are they a problem here"

  "No, hate crimes are illegal. You can say bad things about people all you want, but if you follow through on it you may be sued for suppression of civil rights and a hundred other things.

  "The people here like to think they have an informed, open, and intelligent society. You will find yourself with the same rights as everybody else, the only real prohibition here is that engineered people, read 'crèche born', are not automatically entitled to vote or hold office. That's just to keep any company from stacking the elections."

  "So in other words most animen can't vote here." I turned and saw it was Terease asking this question.

  "Not unless they are paid off, and pass a selection committee. But don't worry about that, even human immigrants have to pass the committee."

  "Sounds pretty good," I heard somebody say in the back.

  "One last thing before I let you go," she added, "Contracts are considered to be very important here. As you have a contract with the company, I wouldn't suggest trying to jump ship. They'll just turn you back over to us for the appropriate fine. That's it, enjoy your stay." She waved and left the room.

  People started to either leave then or congregate in small groups. I ended up with Mist, Gabe, and Dave.

  "Well, didn't I tell you this was a nice place?" said Dave.

  "It really does sound different," I admitted. "How about we go check it out?"

  "Sure, I want to get out of this uniform first; I suggest that you do the same. We'll meet back here in say, ten minutes?"

  "Okay, what should we wear?"

  "I really wouldn't wear anything more than your I.D. tag's, I'm not, you can charge anything you buy to your shipboard account."

  "You serious?" Asked Mist.

  "Sure, you'll see quite a few of us without clothing, humans too. The weather's fine for it and like the lady said, carrying weapons around here isn't really necessary. Not that some of us really need them!" He gave both Mist and I pointed looks when he said that.

  "Okay, I guess we'll meet back here then."

  It didn't take me long to shuck my things and return to the common room. Mist was with me, and it was nice to only have to worry about our I.D. Tags, they were usually worn around our necks anyway.

  Gabe showed up shortly after we did, I was surprised to see one of the few single female foxes from the ship with him. He introduced her as Tania. Dave showed up shortly after in the company of a female wolf, she was one of Dave's steady girlfriends on the ship and we were all acquainted with her, her name was Laurie. We exchanged greetings, and then headed for the exit.

  "Well, where to Dave?" Gabe asked, "You're the one who's been here before."

  "I know of a nice place down by the beach where we can get something to eat. How's that?"

  We all agreed with the idea of food. It had been awhile since we had anything other then company food. Now don't get me wrong it isn't bad, but the menu and the atmosphere leave a little something to be desired after a while.

  Once we left the local plant, we got a taxi down to the shore. It wasn't very far and five minutes later we were walking along the boardwalk by the beach. Dave was right about our lack of attire not being a problem. Like I've said before, there really isn't anything wrong with most animen going sans clothes, we are after all covered in fur, but some places still have some uptight taboos.

  Here it was a different story, most of the animen we saw weren't dressed, and some humans weren't either. Most of those who were wearing clothes weren't wearing all that much. The weather being what it was I could understand the local's preferences though.

  "I guess the local rep was right about the lack of taboos," I said as we walked along.

  "You haven't seen the half of it," Dave smiled. "With all of the schools and such around here this place is what they used to refer to as a 'college town'. People have a tendency to get pretty wild and the parties the younger people throw are not to be believed sometimes."

  "Sounds like fun to me," Said Gabe hopefully. "Especially after New Johannesburg. What a bleak and boring place that was, you should have seen the locals there Raj. They don't have to keep animen out by force; I can't see any of us living in such an uptight society. Hell, I don't see how they can!"

  Dave found the place he was looking for and led us 'inside'. It was an open air cafe, and we ended up sitting by the railing with a good view of the beach. It was about seven local time, with another hour or two before sunset yet. We ordered dinner and smoked something narcotic that Mist ordered while we waited for our food.

  Whatever it was, it definitely made us all hungry and did nothing to diminish the flavor of the food. We sat around after that sampling some of the different s
ubstances that the bar had available. I didn't have much experience with recreational drugs myself, beyond those that were company approved of course, which amounted to a few stimulants and painkillers. Some of the stimulants were pretty powerful in speeding your reactions up, but made you feel like crap the next day.

  I did ask Mist if these were addictive at one point.

  "No, if it's addictive they're required to tell you when you order," said Dave, "otherwise it could be construed as a violent act against you."

  "Really?" I was surprised about that, "How come?"

  "Addictive drugs do some pretty bad things to your mind, or your body. Sometimes both. So nobody carries them as a rule, that plus the fact that the people here aren't dumb enough to harm themselves that much. These things," and he indicated the inhalers we were presently trying, "don't have any bad side effects, and can even be purged from your system in minutes with an antidote quite painlessly."

  "Yeah Raj," added Mist. "They're pretty much like beer or anything else. Also, inhalers never last more than an hour, if that long, and if you don't like it just ask the bartender for the antidote."

  That sounded okay to me and I really liked the idea of the bartender having the antidote. Beer and alcohol had antidotes too, but they weren't exactly nice to the body. Then again, beer and alcohol weren't always nice to the body, but they had been around forever, so nobody could really do away with them.

  By this time the stars had come out and we were all sitting around pleasantly buzzed enjoying the weather. Mist suddenly leaned over to me and whispered in my ear.

  "Look over there, by the trees at ten o'clock, are those people doing what I think they are?" she giggled.

  I looked over and let my eyes adjust. I could see what looked like a man and a woman and they definitely were engaged in rather amorous behavior. "Sure does, I guess that's okay here too."

  The rest followed my gaze and we all smiled and laughed ourselves, but twenty minutes later found us all deciding to go find our own sections of beach as well. Mist and I hopefully found something a little more private than that anonymous couple.

  16

  Mist and I slept on the beach that night. The weather was ideal for it and we both enjoyed a swim the following morning. I wasn't surprised to see several other people from the ship that had obviously done the same, this place was the closest to paradise that I had ever been. I could see why they had given everybody a warning about jumping ship before they cut us loose.

  We washed the salt water off at one of the many public showers that lined the beaches, and then went in search of breakfast. We saw quite a few familiar faces from the ship while trying to decide what to have and ended up joining Banner and Terease, who we ran into at a place that claimed to specialize in sushi.

  I wasn't surprised to see that the rest of the morning's clientele were all predator species like ourselves. I don't know of any humans that can stomach raw meat or fish for breakfast. Actually I had been kind of surprised to find out that sushi had been around a lot longer than we had, I guess some humans had taste after all.

  "I didn't see either of you back at the barracks last night," said Terease, "where'd you spend the night?"

  "On the beach," smiled Mist. "The weather here is quite mild at night. And you'd be surprised at just how many other people did it too, you should try it."

  Terease looked surprised at that, "I hadn't thought about that to be honest, but it does sound interesting," she gave Banner a smile. "Maybe we'll give it a try."

  "So how did you know that we weren't back last night?" I asked Terease, "Was anybody looking for us this morning?"

  "Actually," replied Banner, "Balizar was looking for you this morning Raj."

  "I hope I'm not in trouble again," I said with a groan.

  "No, actually it was about the bonuses and awards the Captain had put you in for. Seems the response finally came through, and he thought you'd like to see it."

  "Did I get anything?" I had forgotten all about that.

  "I don't know, he wouldn't say. But he did leave a letter in your room with the results."

  "I guess I'll have to head back there later on and find out." I was really pretty curious about it, especially now that a reply had finally been received. "I wonder if I got anything? He put me in for two performance awards and one bonus."

  "You probably got both of the awards," said Mist. "The bonus is a little harder to judge."

  "Yeah, I’m sure you got the awards," added Banner, "and from my experience you'll probably get at least a small bonus."

  Terease and I looked at both of them. "How can you be so sure about the awards?" I asked out of curiosity.

  "Easy," smiled Banner, "those don't cost the company anything really, they're just brownie points. The more you collect, the better chance you have of getting a requested assignment or extra training."

  "But the bonus costs them right?" asked Terease.

  "Of course, plus it means he's that much closer to buyout. They do try to be fair, I'll admit. But you'll get less than you would have been fined if they had decided against you."

  "Well anything is better than nothing!" I admitted with a smile, "I'll let you know what it is when I read it." I promised them. "As for now, let's eat. I'm starved!"

  With that we fell to, eating our breakfasts. I just couldn't help but think about what that letter could possibly say, my curiosity growing every second. By the time we had finished, I couldn't wait anymore and decided to head back to my room in the barracks and find out. Mist elected to stay with Banner and Terease, so I said goodbye and we went our separate ways.

  When I got back, I found the letter Banner had mentioned in my room. I opened it quickly and read it. First it confirmed my shipboard promotion, which was within the Captain's authority to grant. It next went on to award me both of the outstanding performance awards, just as Banner and Mist had predicted. I read on further to see if I had received any kind of bonus. Sure enough I had! I guess it wasn't a lot by company standards, but it was enough by mine, they had awarded me a bonus of thirty five thousand to be credited to my shipboard account. That would more then cover the equipment I had replaced, I was pretty happy about that, new armor wasn’t cheap after all.

  I accessed the room's computer terminal and immediately had twenty thousand of it applied to my company account. I didn't want word of the total amount to be spread around, and the shipboard accounts always seemed to be public knowledge. I also wanted to apply it to my buyout; after all, every little bit helps. I did keep some though, I felt it might be time to spend a little on myself, get some custom equipment of my own perhaps. I had a decent piece of change in my shipboard account, so maybe it was time for a little shopping. I'd have to give the matter some thought for sure.

  After doing my day's exercise and meditation, I decided to head out and look around for a while. The island we were on was a fairly good size, about thirty miles wide and maybe seventy long. It was part of a chain and the largest one in this area, which explains why the local spaceport was here I guess.

  I was surprised at the attitudes and reactions I found, nobody really seemed to care that I wasn't human and I saw a lot of mingling between humans and ani’s. It wasn't that it was more than I had witnessed on Hobson's, but that it seemed to be everywhere. I also noticed that the locals all seemed to be very open minded, I eavesdropped on several conversations that I happened to walk pass and heard some very interesting things being discussed.

  I started to look at what the shops had to offer then, as I figured I might as well start thinking about what I should get. I started off looking at just things for work. Finding a store that specialized in the martial arts, I walked in and browsed around. Buying a few pouches for the throwing stars and another dozen cost very little, so I continued to browse.

  I was very tempted by the swords that they displayed, but I couldn't see much practical use for one. I also didn't know how to wield one anyway. I liked the nunchuks, they looked like fun to p
ractice with so I bought those and an instruction manual.

  I left the store having spent less then fifty dollars. I could see why the Martial arts were so popular; they didn't cost much money, just time. Something I could easily afford with months in jump space.

  I continued down the street with my purchases from the shop. I still had money to spend, quite a lot to be honest, and I really didn't think I needed anything in the way of combat equipment or flying equipment. The company supplied pretty good stuff at a decent price and I was fully equipped, so I really didn't need any. So what to buy? I was entitled to about three cubic feet of personal equipment, space was a big concern onboard the ship, and that did include clothes, but not any other work related equipment. What I owned could be fit in the pockets of one flight suit, and still most of the pockets would be empty. And here I was out shopping alone, for the first time in my life too!

  I wandered around until six that night, surprised by just how many things there are that one can buy. I found books to be rather quaint, I'd rather have it on a memory disk, less space and weight that way. Fancy clothes were kind of interesting, as were shoes, but I really didn't have a need for that kind of thing.

  I continued through all sort's of different odds and ends; Toy Stores, (who had the time?); Luggage Stores, (What for? a duffel bag suffices); Video Stores, (One of Tri-Star's biggest operations after mining was entertainment, the ship had an extensive video library); and hundreds of other things. Then I found a music shop.

  I found the idea of music very intriguing to say the least. I didn't own any kind of playing device, so I had never perused the ship's library to see what was there. I had been exposed to some music in my education of course and I must admit some of it I found very enjoyable. I’d just never gotten a decent player to listen to it with.