Children of Steel (5 page)

Life abroad the Astra quickly settled into a
comfortable, and busy, routine. My schedule on regular days was
twelve on, twelve off. That's 'off regular duty', not 'off duty'.
Six of those hours were for extra duties, such as the one hour a
day Balizar required me to practice my combat training with the
regular security troops and sometimes he had me penned in for the
whole six! Or work on maintenance details, or supplement the
technical department, or whatever. Then there was my usual workout
time in the gym, plus an hour three times a week working with
Banner on my hand to hand combat skills. Needless to say everybody
was kept pretty busy, though on Sundays, duty was normally pretty
slack. Probably why the monthly Clan meetings were always held late
on Saturdays.

I didn't get to see as much of the Ship as I
would have liked to during that first month, I was just too busy
fitting in. I did get intimately familiar with the shuttle deck of
course and the gyms as well. The Gyms were an interesting affair,
they were actually multi-purpose rooms and only one of them was of
any size really. The rest were smaller affairs located wherever the
designers had felt there was wasted space. So they had some odd
floor patterns and were scattered around the ship, so finding
workout space wasn’t very difficult.

I did get to take Herza up on the challenge
that Banner had made for me. She benched three twenty on sheer grit
and will. I was impressed; I didn’t think she’d be able to do more
than two eighty. I sat down then and benched four hundred,
twice.

“Show off,” she grumbled but I noticed she
looked at me a bit differently than she had before.

I smiled back, “Don’t feel bad, I used to
work out with a tiger who regularly benched seven hundred, used to
make me feel like a weakling.”

“Yeah but people expect that of them, they’re
all bulk and no stamina.”

I nodded, “Yeah that was the only thing I
could usually beat him in, stamina tests.”

“You know I could use a workout partner,” she
said, “interested?”

I nodded, “Sure, I haven’t found one yet.”
Then I added with a grin, “especially a cute one who can
powerlift.”

“And who can kick your ass across the room,”
She smiled back.

“Well, I’ll have to work on that I
guess.”

“Let’s go hit the showers and get lunch.”

I nodded, “Sounds good.”

We got cleaned up and headed down to the
mess. The mess was pretty much like messes everywhere, a large room
with a moving wall, tables and a food service line. The only really
difference here was that the tables were attached to the floor, and
the food service area could be quickly secured as well. While loss
of gravity was rare in space, you still had to take precautions.
The mess was also one of the few places on the ship where they had
tried to disguise the fact that we were onboard a ship, a few fake
windows looking out onto some landscapes, a few plants, and a faint
background of nature sounds. It wasn't the greatest attempt, but at
least they had tried.

Herza and I started to make a regular
practice of working out a few times a week together. We ended up
sparring a lot of course, nothing conditions as well as actually
fighting. She didn’t try to teach me anything really, not wanting
to interfere with the stuff Banner was working on with me, but
sparring with her was always educational and I always learned
something from it. Eventually I hoped to stop her from beating me
all the time as well.

I did get to spend quite a bit of time with
Mist and Katrine as well, though that was more of a social affair.
Dating onboard a ship isn’t the easiest thing, and the only free
time I really had was my rack time. So I missed a lot of sleep, but
the opportunity to hold someone in your arms is more than ample
compensation and it did help ease some of the ache of Cassandra’s
not being there.

By the time of the next clan meeting I was
starting to feel like part of the crew. I had a few friends onboard
the ship now and was making more, I also felt at home with the clan
members. It had been nearly two months since I had graduated, and
we had been in space about five weeks. I felt I had transitioned
pretty well.

So I was kind of surprised when about halfway
through the meeting Balizar spoke up.

"Well, I was hoping it would work itself out,
but it seems we have a problem."

I froze, the only thing I could think of was
that I must have made some kind of mistake, but I couldn't think of
anything and my mind was racing.

Herza gave me a little kick, "Not you Raj.
Balizar what are you trying to do, scare the kid to death?"

"Huh? Oh sorry Raj! I don't mean you. It
seems that Terease isn't coming again."

I started to breathe again and listened to
what was going on.

"Well," began Kate "I talked with her again
this morning, and asked her to come but she seemed pretty
withdrawn."

"So, what should we do folks?" asked
Banner.

"Well, the only choice we have now is to drag
her out of her shell," said Sharazad. "And I would recommend
somebody her own age."

There was a lot of agreement with that and
that's when I noticed that everybody was looking at me. You ever
try to be small and insignificant? I found out that it doesn't work
once you've passed two hundred pounds.

"Uh, excuse me," I began, "Who is Terease,
and why are you all staring at me."

"Yes, I think you'll do," said Balizar. "Is
it agreed?"

"Is what agreed?" I asked again as everybody
else went 'aye'.

"Well, you get to go down to Terease's room
and bodily drag her out of it," smiled Herza.

"And who is Terease?" I was getting confused
again and worried too.

"Don't tease Raj, Herza." Said Balizar. "Okay
Raj, here's the story. Terease came aboard the same time you did.
She's a Leopard and legally falls under the jurisdiction of the
Clan, just as you do."

"I've never even seen her, where does she
work?"

"She works in engineering, and other than
that she never leaves her cabin."

"What not in two months?" I was shocked, how
could anybody stay holed up and alone that long?

"It seems that she has never been a member of
any clan. Her parents were killed in an accident on a science
station when she was about four. She was raised by a group of
humans there until she was ten and then was sent to an engineering
school. She was the only Leopard there, and I get the impression
from the records I was sent, that she has always been a loner."

"Anyway, if we don't bring her into the fold
she's probably going to go off the deep end," said Kate.

"So," I asked, "what am I supposed to do?" I
really was confused now. The thought that somebody didn't want to
be with their own kind, or anybody even, really made me worry.

"Actually, I think Herza had the right idea.
Just go down to her room and drag her out. Spend time with her
every day. You're about her age, so I think you have the best
chance of forming a one to one relationship with her."

"But what if she doesn't want to?"

"Don't give her a choice. Use force if you
have to. From what Shooma down in engineering tells me, she won't
be able to give you too much trouble."

I was still worried about this, "But what if
she goes to the Captain?"

"She can't, legally as long as you don't
rape, rob, or kill her, the Clan is the legal authority," said
Banner, "so either she puts up with you, or she has to come and put
up with us."

"Yes that's basically about it," continued
Balizar. "We don't care if she likes or hates you Raj ..."

"Gee thanks," I mumbled

"... the goal is that we get her to start
living a normal life before she either flips out, or gets caught in
a psych eval. I will not stand around and let that happen to one of
our own."

"Well, any advice?" I asked as I looked
around at their faces.

"Yeah," this was from Katrine who was
grinning, "be careful, I'd really miss you if you got your
'you-know-what' cut off!"

"Me too!" piped up Mist laughing.

"Gee thanks a lot." I mumbled, "Well I guess
I might as well go see what kind of trouble I'm in." I got up and
started for the door.

"You can wait till tomorrow Raj," said
Sharazad, "a few more hours won't make much of a difference."

I stopped and thought about it a second, but
I couldn't see myself being able to relax now.

"No, if I sit around and think about this
you'll have two whacked out leopards. I'll let you all know what
happens."

I walked out the door to a chorus of 'Good
Lucks' and her room number from Kate. The walk down gave me time to
think about what I was doing. The other drawback to being the
junior member of a clan is getting all the dirty jobs of course. So
how do you just barge in on someone who's decided to be a recluse?
Granted it was unhealthy, they used to tell us horror stories about
animen who went off the deep end, especially Leopards. Of all the
animen only Weasels have a worse reputation than us, but then
they're proud of it, we're not. The only thing that kept racing
through my mind was that at least if she went off the deep end now,
I'd be her first target.

I wondered then if she had any combat
training?

On that thought I came to her cabin door, and
knocked.

"Who is it?" came quietly from inside.

"Warrant Raj Rakir, May I come in?"

"What for?" Was it my imagination, or did she
sound nervous?

"Personal," I responded.

"No, go away I'm busy." Yes, she did sound
nervous.

"Thank you, but no," I opened the door and
walked in to her quarters.

The first think to hit me was the smell. It
was a clinging unhealthy rot, faint but nauseous. The second thing
to hit me was the book she was reading, right in the face. I looked
at it as it hit the floor, some kind of engineering text, must have
weighed about twenty pounds. The smell was worse.

"Who the hell do you think you are!" She
yelled. "Get out of my cabin."

I looked her over, she was about 5' 8",
average height for a Leopard, but she looked way too thin, kind of
drawn too. She still had her uniform overalls on and they were
clean. But her fur didn't look good, kind of patchy.

"Didn't you hear me?" she yelled again.

"Yes, actually I did and there's no need to
scream."

"Well then," she continued in a more normal
voice, "get out."

By this time she was standing right in front
of me. I looked down and smiled what I hoped was a good impression
of a nasty smile and grabbed her wrist.

"With pleasure," and I dragged her out into
the hall.

"WHY YOU LOUSY ..." She jumped me as I pulled
her down the hall, "I'm gonna ..."

I wouldn't have even called it a scuffle; I
just scooped her up into a fireman's carry over my shoulder and
kept going down the hall. Damn, was she light, skin and bones
mostly by my guess.

"Temper, temper now," I chided. "Screaming
and kicking aren't going to get you anywhere."

"What do you expect? Barging into my room and
dragging me out like that?" she growled.

"Well I'm sorry about that, but your room
stinks and that book had definite dislike for my face."

"Okay, I'm sorry about the book, now put me
down."

I decided that the mess was a good place to
start and turned down the hall in that direction.

"I'll think about it, now when was the last
time you had a decent meal?"

"I had some food just a little while ago,
why?"

"I'm not talking about that packaged crap I
noticed sitting on your desk, I'm talking real food."

"Damn it, put we down."

I stopped and set her down; we were at the
mess entrance anyway. I glanced inside, it was fairly empty but
they were still serving, good.

I felt something hit me in the back; I turned
around and looked at her. She was holding her foot and scowling, I
sighed.

"Come on, let's eat."

I pulled her inside and we walked over to the
serving line. I ordered for the both of us, got the food and found
a corner table away from the few people still there.

"What is this?" she looked at it kind of
disgusted.

"It's meat, vat grown in the culture
tanks."

"I don't eat meat, and it's not even
cooked!"

I looked at the food, most of us animen can
eat raw meat, and some do. This wasn't really raw, but it was
pretty rare and sitting in its own juices I guess it might look
raw.

"Listen," I explained patiently, "you are a
Leopard, a carnivore, not a Horse, or a Rabbit or a Gazelle, or any
of those. You were designed to eat meat and if you don't eat enough
you'll die. Those food supplements don't supply enough of the amino
acids you need."

"I've lived so far haven't I?"

"Looked in a mirror lately?" THAT got a real
good scowl! "Further more, if you don't eat it, I will sit on your
chest and force feed it to you in front of everybody."

"You wouldn't!"

I stood up. She looked at me startled and
started eating, so I sat back down. After she had eaten about half
I asked her, "Where did you ever get such a dumb idea?"

"The people who raised me were
vegetarians."

"It's a miracle you didn't die."

"I always took vitamin supplements, which
since I came on board I haven't been able to find. You know this
tastes pretty good actually."

She was eating pretty well at this point.

"That's because there aren't any vegetarian
Cats on board," she was almost done with hers, so I gave her mine,
which so far was untouched.

"Thanks," she started on mine with a will.
But then she looked like she hadn't had a decent meal in months.
Two months actually. "So, why are you doing this anyway? I don't
even know you."