Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (50 page)

“
Everyone
listen up. Anyone who's done business here, I strongly suggest you
check your bank accounts now! Especially if you've done business with
this...” She wrinkled her nose at him. “Piece of trash
today.” She looked around to the crowd. A few people gave her
hostile stares; but a few others began to look down, and then pull
out a tablet or communicator and check.

“
Crap,”
the young man said, backing away.

“
Zack, Zack,
Zack, when are you going to learn?” Jen sighed shaking her
head. She turned to the marines. “He tried to drain your
account?”

“
Yes. Then
when that didn't work he hit me with another purchase.”

“
Oh, that's
new,” the sheriff said turning to the vendor. She glared at
him, hands on her holster, then turned and put her fingers in her
mouth and whistled a complex tune. A man's arm was raised out of the
crowd in a wave then someone began shouldering their way through the
crowd.

“
Zack...”

“
Hey, I'm
missing money too! My money's gone!” someone in the crowd said,
waving their communicator.

“
Mine too!”
another woman said looking up from her tablet. “It just went
through, just now!” she said pointing at the man. “Thief!”

“
I did no...”

“
Zack...”
Jen sighed. “Don't make this harder than it already is.”

Jethro looked
around, noting the crowd was getting a little ugly, but for once they
were on the same page. His roving eyes caught a shadowy figure
dressed in a cloak trying to move away however.

“
Hang on...”
He went over. The man spotted him coming and tried to bolt. Sergei
caught him easily and picked him up by the throat. The guy's legs
kicked and then he froze as the Liger went face to face with him and
growled. One sight of his bared teeth and the kid started whimpering.

Jethro grimaced as
the man's bowels let go. He shook his head. Jen was looking over to
them. He went over and pulled a tablet out of the man's satchel.
“Ah... hmmm What have we here...”

He jacked into it
and then scanned the contents. “Yup,” he looked up. “He's
been doing it. This piece of trash gives him the account info, or he
steals it.”

“
I didn't wire
it to him. I entered it,” a woman said, arms crossed. “So
they are in it together.”

“
Well, since
they're twins, I don't doubt it,” Jen said as the hood fell
back and the blond man tried to look at her in appeal. “You can
set him down gentle like. Not that he deserves it.”

Sergei let the kid
down and then stood back, arms crossed. “Not you too Alfred,
what's the matter with you? You're supposed to be the smart one!”
Jen asked, scowling. She drummed her fingers on her belt. “I
warned you both if this ever happened again...” She shook her
head.

“
Damn it.
You're my own nephews!” she sighed, looking down and covering
her face with her hand. She ran the hand through her bangs and then
looked up. The crowd wasn't very sympathetic.

“
Well, if I
gotta I gotta. The law is the law. You two get a one way trip out the
nearest airlock.”

“
No!”
Zack screamed, thrashing in Jeb's arms. “No aunt Jen, NO!”

“
You pinched
too many people boys. I gotta do it,” she sighed, following
behind Jeb. “Move,” she said, voice cold. The crowd
parted ways. Many were looking more than a little angry. The way was
clear to the nearest lock.

“
Ma'am.”

She looked back to
Jethro. “Your credits will be returned to you.”

“
Not what I
was after right now. Besides it's not mine, it's hers.” He
indicated the surprised lynx. “I was thinking. Perhaps there is
an alternative.”

“
And that is?”
she asked as Jeb stopped and looked back.

“
The corps
ma'am.”

“
Which is what
they'll be in a minute.”

“
No ma'am. The
marine corps. They can be straightened out. Rehabilitated. They can
be useful to society.” He cocked his head. “Direct their
energies to more... legal uses.”

“
Humph.”
She drummed her fingers on her pistol butt again. “You boys
okay with this?” she asked, turning to them. They nodded.
Considering the alternatives, life in the corps was a hell of a lot
better than sucking vacuum without a suit.

“
We'll take
them back with us. Believe me, boot camp isn't a picnic folks.
They'll be punished. Oh believe me. And if they act up... well...”
he grinned. It was a nasty, feral grin. On a predator it turned more
than one person's bladder into a trembling wreck. “We have ways
of dealing with that.”

“
Um... you
sure this is a good idea?” Sergei asked him over their link.

“
Yup,”
The panther nodded. SP's came out from the nearest airlock and stood
at attention. They each held an emergency general issue soft suit. He
pointed. “Which is it boys. Out that way?” he turned. “Or
that way?” He pointed to the airlock they had been headed for.

The boys looked at
each other, at their aunt and uncle and then pointed to the marines.

“
Good choice,”
he snorted.

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
Was this such
a good idea?” Hurranna asked over their link as they went back
to the bar.

“
What?”
he asked.

“
Um, well,
aren't you afraid of getting into hack when they show up uninvited on
Firefly? Setting an example of the corps being made up of criminals?”

“
How do you
think those SP's and skin suits showed up?” Sergei asked. “I
caught a little of it.”

“
What?”
she asked.

“
He tattled.
To the gunny. gunny must have called the Major.”

“
Who do you
think gave me the idea?” Jethro asked. “gunny Schultz
will take them in hand. It seemed a waste to kill those kids. They
are what, Fifteen? Sixteen?”

“
I want to
thank you for taking care of my boys,” a gruff voice said. They
turned to see an older looking blond woman standing there twirling
the tip of her single braid.

“
It didn't
seem right to waste their lives ma'am. The corps will set them
straight.”

“
I'd
appreciate that. I was always afraid something like this would
happen,” she sighed. “Zack is a bright one, always
scheming. Alfred...” She shook her head. “He's smart, but
he's a follower. Follows his brother, lets him do the thinking for
him,” she scowled and sucked in a shaky breath.

“
Perhaps this
will be a good learning experience then,” Hurranna said,
nodding to Jen behind the woman.

The woman looked
back to her sister and then her jaw tightened. Jen looked sad but
firm. “I don't blame you Jen, you warned and warned 'em often
enough. And goddess forbid, scaring them like the last time didn't
work. Not for more than a year. But I'd have never forgiven you if
you'd of gone through with it.”

“
I know,”
Jen sighed shaking her head. She felt like she needed a drink after
an episode like that.

“
But you'd
have done it anyway.”

“
It's my
duty,” she stared at her sister eye to eye.

“
And you do
your duty. You're right. You cut your kin enough slack, and they
stabbed you in the back for it often enough. I know. I know,”
the woman sighed. She smiled with broken yellowed teeth. “I
just hope this don't get them killed.”

“
It gave them
one more day of life. Look at it that way Lyd. That's all I can say,”
Jen said turning and moving off.

“
Thanks
again,” the mother said, turning and leaving.

“
Okay, that's
our good deed for the day. What's next?” Sergei joked.

“
Don't start,”
Hurranna snorted a relieved laugh.

Jethro went into the
brig, nodding to the guard by the door. “You two okay in here?”
he asked, coming around the corner to see the two teens lounging on
the racks.

“
Yeah,”
Alfred said, disinterestedly, staring up at the ceiling.

“
Yes sir,”
Zack said, jumping to his feet. He kicked his brother. “Get
up.”

“
Yeah yeah,”
Alfred sighed, getting to his feet. “Come here to gloat?”
he demanded sullenly.

“
No, just to
check on you. Your mom was worried.”

“
She was?”
Alfred asked, looking over to his brother. “Tell her we're
sorry,” his voice quavered a little.

Jethro sighed. “You
can tell her yourself when you’re on leave.” Which will
probably be in five or six months,” he grimaced.

“
Ouch,”
Zack said.

“
I gotta ask
though, you were caught before and warned, your aunt told us. But you
did it anyway... Why?”

“
Cause we had
to get out of there. See, we...” Zack shot a look to Alfred who
looked at him and then shrugged.

“
See we wanted
off. To see the galaxy. Go places, do things other than scrub toilets
and fix air leaks,” he sounded pretty disgusted.

“
Ah,”
Jethro nodded. Hurranna and Sergei came in. He turned and nodded to
them. “Well, you got your wish, you’re going to go places
and see things.” Little did they know that they'd probably
still end up scrubbing toilets and fixing air leaks.

“
Doesn't look
like much now,” Alfred said, kicking the bunk.

“
Have a little
patience bro, we did steal,” Zack sighed. “Having a pair
of thieves on board is probably making them nervous.”

“
No, not
really,” Jethro replied with an ear flick. “We weren't
angels either. Hell, half the people in the marines came from the
gangs like us.”

“
Oh?”

“
Stripper.
Also gang member and okay, occasional thief,” Hurranna said
raising a hand then going back to having her arms crossed in front of
her.

“
Enforcer.
Occasional bouncer, but I also blew stuff up from time to time. Still
do in the corps, but it's legal now,” Sergei said with a laugh.

“
And I was a
spy and an assassin,” Jethro said raising his hand. His claws
came out. The other two cats looked at him with amusement and then
back to the now goggling kids.

“
You're
serious,” Zack said, nudging his brother to shut his open
mouth.

“
As a heart
attack. Yeah, we did all that when we were growing up. But we're
marines now. We break things and kill people only when we're supposed
to.” Jethro said with a shrug. “and we've got a lot more
training.” He looked over to the others. “And more toys
to play with.”

“
Toys?”

“
Weapons,
powered combat armor, implants, vehicles...”

“
Powered... oh
wow!” Alfred eyes were wide. “That'd be stellar!”
He was practically hopping up and down in excitement.

“
Implants? Did
you say implants?!” Zack said blinking.

“
Yup.”

“
Who cares
man, I want a suit! That'd be stellar!” Alfred said pounding
one fist into the other. “Oh man!”

“
Yeah, just
got our suits running a week ago. They are cool. And yeah, we get to
go see the galaxy. So far we've just been all over Pyrax, but there
is a mission shaping up to go to some of the colonies. We may be on
it. I hope so,” Sergei said with a shrug.

“
Cool!”

“
It's not all
fun and games. Sometimes we have to stand around and play guard. Or
do a lot of class work. And yeah, scrub crap and do stuff that isn't
fun. That's all part of being an adult after all. Right now it's a
lot of learning and going out to save people.”

“
Like the
Cartwright’s?” Zack asked. The cats nodded as one. “Cool.
Yeah, I could live with that,” He nodded back and then he
grimaced as a thought struck him. “Not sure if mom will be okay
with us getting shot at though.”

“
It beats
sucking vacuum,” Hurranna said. “You two the only ones
she's got?”