Interregnum (Children of Steel Book 2) Read online

  We spent the next hour going over our duty schedule for the next month. With the Astra recently having undergone repairs, there were a lot of things that now needed to be inspected, calibrated, reset, or even refitted with the ship now in jump. Some of those were just checks on the systems now that they'd been shaken down on the flight out, but others were things that could not be properly set in normal space. All of these things had to be done in addition to the normal work that had to be performed onboard ship during any voyage.

  My own schedule would be a little different than the rest of the team as I now had a watch to pull on the bridge as part of the helmsman training courses I was taking. That of course made my schedule a lot busier, as those training courses would be held during my off-duty time. Of course I was still expected to pull the same work details as the other flight crewmembers during my off-duty time.

  The normal duty schedule on the Astra was twelve on, twelve off. During the twelve on, you worked your normal duty station, and performed your rated job. During your twelve off, you worked a half-shift of six hours supplementing other duty teams with whatever secondary skills you might have, doing general ship's maintenance, drilling with ship security if you were so rated (and I was) and engaging in any extra training or duties that you might have assigned to you.

  That left about six hours of personal time, which I spent eating, sleeping, working out, and studying my course work. Cassandra's schedule coincided with mine, so we usually spent our free time together. Sunday was the only day that the schedule varied, as there was only a two-hour general maintenance required for the off-shift personnel.

  Of course the extra watch I had to sit on the bridge sometimes cut into my six hours of personal time, but I really didn't mind all that much because coming back to the Astra after serving several years on the Falcon was like coming home.

  Plus every night when I went to bed, Cassandra was there with me.

  They unsealed the second troop module to let the workers out, now that it was no longer necessary to keep it a secret from the crew or any prying eyes that might have noticed before we left port. They were mostly technicians and equipment operators, there were two shuttle pilots, but they were regular cargo pilots, not assault types, so I didn't have a lot in common with them. As for the makeup of the group, there were no leopards, or I think any big cats at all in it, so I really didn't mix with them. No common interests really.

  During the first week we were in jump however, I’d noticed that I was getting looks from a lot of the troopers who we’d taken onboard whenever I ran across them. My guess was Brasile and Hess were probably telling stories and I suspected my present demeanor wasn’t living up to the image that the stories presented.

  "So you’re the ‘Terror of Falcon block’?" A rather beefy wolf asked sitting down next to me in the cafeteria while Cassandra and I were eating lunch about eight days into jump.

  I nodded, "Well, that is I used to be."

  "You don’t look that tough to me," he said looking me over.

  I shrugged, "I was a lot angrier back then."

  "More like Hess and the others from Falcon block are just telling stories," he laughed.

  Cassandra leaned forward then so she could see around me and looked him over. "Five thousand credits you don’t last ten minutes against him in a match." She purred and then sat back and returned to eating her food.

  "What! Ten minutes!" He said laughing. "Sounds like easy money to me!"

  I looked him over and nodded, "It is, especially as you wouldn’t last five," and I smiled at him rather evilly. Something I’d found I could still do, but then I had had a lot of practice.

  He growled and looked outraged. "You wouldn’t last a minute against me!"

  I shrugged and went back to my steak. "I won’t hold it against you, if you’re too afraid."

  "I’m not afraid of anything, especially not some overgrown cat!" he said standing up. "I’ll take that bet."

  I looked up and saw Hess grinning on the other side of the table. I winked at him.

  "Well, let’s go down to the main gym and find out then." I turned to Hess, "Think you could find Colonel Johnson to ref for us?"

  "Sure thing, Raj!" And he got up and left the table.

  "Ready, Hon?" I asked Cassandra.

  She nodded and got up, so I stood up as well. Looking around I saw a quite a few of the new troops get up from their tables to follow us.

  When we got to the gym, I was rather surprised that there was quite the crowd there. I hadn’t fought an onboard challenge since I’d come back to the Astra. Of course I had gone to several fight bars with Cassandra and a few of the others back on Hobson, plus I was now sparring with Chief Shandour several times a week.

  I went over to the far side of the room and stretched a few times to warm up, as I watched the wolf. He shadow boxed a few times and did a few dodges. I could see he was a little slower moving left than to the right. I wondered if he was faking it to throw me off, or if he didn’t realize what he was giving away?

  "Hey, Raj, see you didn’t waste anytime!" Colonel Johnson said coming into the room.

  "Eh, gotta defend the honor of the block and all that," I said grinning at him.

  "Try not to break him okay?" Colonel Johnson said, and the wolf just growled.

  "Bets?"

  "My Mate’s handling mine," I said and nodded to Cassandra.

  "Ah yes! Cassandra, finally I get to meet the fem that tamed the monster!"

  I shook my head and sighed as Cassandra placed a few bets, and covered a few more that came in.

  "Fight!" Colonel Johnson called out a moment later and the wolf charged.

  I stood my ground until he was almost on me, then I dodged to his left to see if he had been faking it, or not.

  Turns out he hadn’t been. I did a sidekick to the back of his knee, collapsing it as the joint bent like it was meant to. This caused him to lean back as he stumbled off balance, and putting my right hand on the right side of his head as I shuffled in closer, I brought my forearm around and gave him a rather hard elbow strike to the left side of his head.

  That stunned him for a moment, so pivoting on my left leg I spun clockwise, and leaning over I extended my right leg and caught him on the forehead with my heel.

  He went down and stayed there, eyes glazed.

  "You okay?" I asked looking down at him.

  I could see out of the corner of my eyes that a lot of the troops were looking rather shocked, except for those that knew me, who were high-fiving.

  He blinked a few times and shook his head.

  "What happened?" he said slowly as his eyes cleared.

  "You lost," I said. "I’m Raj by the way, you are?"

  "Dan," He replied raising a paw and rubbing his forehead. "What did you hit me with? A club?"

  I helped him sit up. "Pretty much."

  He looked at me slowly, "Can you teach me how to do that?"

  I laughed, "First smart thing you’ve said since I’ve met you, Dan! Sure. Check my schedule on the ship’s net and pick out whatever works for you."

  I looked around the assembled group. "Any other takers? I don’t have to report in for another fifteen minutes."

  "I’d like to go a few rounds," a tiger said. "But not right now. I have duty in fifteen as well."

  I nodded, "Okay."

  I helped Dan stand up and led him over to Colonel Johnson who handed Cassandra a rather large wad of cash.

  "I’m going to have to talk to the captain to see if I can borrow you for some advanced hand-to-hand courses, Raj," he said smiling.

  I nodded, "Sure thing."

  "Just make sure you don’t talk to him about borrowing Raj for anything else," Cassandra said sweetly.

  "Or?" Colonel Johnson asked curiously.

  "You really don’t want to know, Colonel," I said and started pushing Cassandra towards the exit as she started to growl. "Trust me on that...."

  Cassandra laughed after we had left the gym and
I gave her a kiss.

  "How much do you have there?" I asked her.

  "Only thirty kay. You knocked him out too quickly for me to get any more side bets in," she grumbled.

  "You’re almost as bad as Herza!" I snickered and gave her a hug when she gave me a dirty look as I mentioned Herza’s name.

  "If you teach them to fight, you’re not going to be able to make any money off of them," she grumbled.

  I nodded, "Yes, but it isn’t really fair of me if I don’t teach them. They’re combat troops, Hon, and some of what I will teach them might save their lives."

  She nodded and sighed, "Point taken."

  3

  Colonel Johnson did get to 'borrow' me for advanced hand-to-hand instruction; it showed up on my schedule the next day, replacing two hours of technical and general assignments on my 'off-duty' roster.

  When I showed up for my first class, the group there was a lot larger than I had expected. There were fifty assembled there in the main gym.

  "Well, this is a surprise," I said looking at all of them. Dan, the wolf I'd bested the other day was there, as well as the tiger who'd expressed an interest in a match.

  "Did you volunteer to be here, or were you assigned?" I asked the group in general.

  "What difference does it make?" One of the leopards asked.

  "All of the difference in the world. And when I ask a question, I expect an answer, understand?" I replied addressing him.

  "Or what?" He asked puffing up a bit.

  "Okay, you're first." I said motioning him over, "The rest of you fan out and stand against the walls."

  "First for what?" He asked sauntering forward.

  "This," I said and punched him in the face. He stumbled backwards a few feet, and landed on his ass growling.

  "Listen up!" I said loudly to the class, as my opponent gathered himself up, getting back to his feet. "This is the advanced hand-to-hand combat class!"

  He stood then and as he took a step towards me, I side-skipped towards him and side-kicked him in the chest, blasting him back into the wall, which he hit with a loud "ooof!"

  "I am your instructor, and you will treat me with respect, or I will kick your face in," I dodged to the side as he pushed off the wall to attack me and dropping low, I spun around, letting my right leg lash out and knocked his legs out from under him. As he fell to the floor I jumped on his back, grabbed his hair, and pulled his head back hard and pulled my marker-knife across his throat, leaving a nice bright red mark as I put a knee in his back. The marker-knife was an old idea that I had only seen used in some of the more advanced classes, it left an ink mark across fur or skin when drawn over it, and was damned hard to wash off.

  "Now what did you do wrong?" I growled in his ear.

  "You ambushed me!" he growled back in pain.

  "No, you acted rashly and stupidly," I told him and the rest of the class. "You approached a known dangerous opponent without caution or respect."

  "How was I to know you were dangerous?"

  I pulled his head back a little more and just shook my head. "What is the name of this class?" I sighed looking at the others who were all watching.

  "Advanced hand-to-hand combat training, Sir!" They all responded.

  "Get up," I said releasing my hold and getting back up quickly, "and go stand against the wall."

  He growled, but he got up and went.

  I clipped the marker knife back to the leg of my coverall. "Okay, now again. Did you all volunteer, or were you assigned this class?"

  "Assigned, Sir!" They called out.

  "Better. Now, show of hands, how many here have seen combat?"

  I looked around, everyone's hands were up.

  I nodded, "And how many of you have seen hand-to-hand combat?"

  Only two people's hands went up. One was the tiger's. I turned to him, "What happened?"

  "Gun jammed while taking out a machinegun emplacement, Sir," he said.

  "Did you have fun?" I asked

  "Sir?" he said looking scandalized.

  I smiled, not one of the friendly smiles that I know I was rather fond of these days, but one of the nastier ones that I favored back when I was in Falcon Block. I thought about that a moment; had it only been a few months ago? Suddenly it felt like it had been years.

  "I asked, if you had fun, gutting and cutting up those ani-hating bastards with your claws and your knife," I said with a low growl, still smiling.

  He looked embarrassed, but he nodded, "Yes, yes, sir, I enjoyed it."

  I looked around at the rest of the room, they weren't looking at me the same way as they had when I came into the room, and a few of them were pressing back against the wall now, instead of just leaning back on it.

  "There are two key things to remember when you are engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy," I said walking back to the center of the room and looking at all of them. "The first is that you are going to win, you are going to win no matter what. That you will prevail! And not because losing means you are going to die, die with some other bastard's knife stuck in you, but because you love it, you love it with the same passion that you love your girlfriend or boyfriend, you love getting in there nice and close and turning the enemy into so much dead meat!

  "It's not enough to be good at it; it's not enough to want to see the enemy dead. Guess what? They're good at it too, maybe even better than you, and believe me, they want to see you dead too. Hand-to-hand combat is personal, as personal as taking a lover, and if you don't love it, you won't be good at it; you won't give it your all. You'll be just like a two-dollar whore, your heart's not in it, you're only gonna do a half-assed job.

  "The second rule is that there is no timid! You are a bad, crazy, psycho, sick motherfucker and you are going to kill them all with a smile on your lips and a song in your heart and you are going to let their god sort them out later! You hold nothing back, you fear nothing, and you never hesitate.

  "Attitude is the fight, understand?"

  The all stared at me a moment.

  "Understand?" I yelled at them.

  "Yessir!" They all said, but I could see that they didn't.

  "I have you all for thirty days. In those thirty days I'm supposed to teach you how to be better fighters, better warriors, make you into killing machines that cannot be stopped. I can teach you the basics, I can set you on the path, but as with all things, some lessons must be learned deep inside before you can believe."

  I turned towards one of the groups that had formed along one of the walls. Neither the tiger nor the other one who had been in unarmed combat were in it. This group has also seemed to be a bit more shocked by what I had said to them.

  "Time for an object lesson." I motioned towards them, "You eight, do you think you can take me?"

  They all gaped a moment, looked at each other, and then looked at me and sort of laughed.

  "The rules are simple," I said pulling my marker knife out, "I get a mark on your neck or head, you're dead. Two on your body, or three anywhere else, and you're out as well.

  "Oh, and its full contact," they all looked a bit surprised then as they realized I wasn't joking. "Fight!" I laughed and attacked.

  I ran right into the middle of them, I wasn't all that worried, yes it would hurt, and I'd probably get a few nice bruises and maybe even a broken bone or two, but I was cheating. Eight on one can look pretty scary, but if three of them were able to engage me at the same time, I would be impressed; I doubted that they'd ever fought as a team before in close quarters. They would be more likely to get in each other's way than to be able to hit me. Plus they weren't expecting it.

  I however had none of that to worry about; everyone around me was a target, so I didn't have to worry about who I was hitting. And while I wasn't as angry as I used to be, to be honest I wasn't really angry at all, I wasn't trying to kill them either.

  Besides, I hadn't had a good challenge in months.

  I got two of them across the throat before the others even real
ized that I was not going to wait for them to get their act together and that this was a serious fight. I think I broke an arm or two and almost a leg as the others started to fight back, but I was carving them up with the marker and leaving bright red trails on their bodies followed up by a dot on their foreheads, just to be obnoxious. I was down to only three of them within less than a minute, before they realized that I had to get two hits, and they could use each other as cover at least once. At least they figured that much out.

  I was using claws, teeth, legs, arms, tail, absolutely everything that I had and I never stopped moving for an instant. I was cutting them up with my free hand to put the fear of getting hurt in their heads along with the fear of the marker.

  I could see the shock in their eyes, they had heard the stories, and now they were seeing that there really was a maniac in their midst. But I will give them this much, they didn't back down, they stood their ground and fought back. It took me two minutes to knock just one of them out, and by then I was bleeding from a half dozen cuts and my left wrist felt like it was broken.

  The last two rushed me then and I head butted one so hard that I saw stars, he staggered back so I reversed to face the other one and used my old spinning hook kick trick on him, and he went down hard, shaking his head as he tried to get his wits back. I marked him on the forehead with a dot as I jumped over him, then turned back towards the last one and charged, he had recovered quickly, so I used a spinning kick to move him back, followed up with a couple of crescent kicks to his hands to keep his guard open, then flicked the marker at him, making a nice large red dot right between the eyes.

  I stopped and looked around, all of them were now marked, and several of them were down on the floor recovering from my attacks. I motioned to the medics I'd arranged for in advance. I'd never seen a hand-to-hand course that didn't cause injuries, especially the advanced courses, so I'd made sure to invite them. I'm sure they appreciated the practice as well.

  I limped back to the center of the room as the medics went to look over the ones I'd just beaten up, and I looked around at the rest of the class.