New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (41 page)

"Freeport?" Jennie
looked confused.  They were looking at the image of the capital of the planet.

"Yeah, the spaceport, or the
one that grew out after the cities were smashed," Molly sighed.
"You'd think they'd name it something original!" She tapped her
console.

"Okay, why does the purser
call them hicks and hillbillies?" Jennie asked. Jennie pulled up an
overhead shot of the continent.

"That planet is about as
flat as I have ever seen, with only those mountains here and here..." She
pointed.

"It's an archaic term,"
a familiar male voice rumbled in amusement. The Admiral sat down next to them.
He cradled a cup of coffee. "Something from the North Americans I
guess." He shrugged. "I wasn't much into history unless it was
engineering or war related."

Molly snorted. "Yeah, I
think we figured that out," she said dryly.

He chuckled then sobered. “The
capital of New Texas used to be Nouveau Houston, I guess it was destroyed,” he
said, eyes sad. He pulled up the view of the planet. Sprite overlaid a map of
the cities onto the sphere. There were a lot of craters pock marking the
surface. “Yeah...” He shook his head.

Jennie nodded. “What a waste.”

The hatch opened and the Chief
came in. He looked over to her standing there in the entry way, looking over
the dojo. "Can we help you Chief?" he asked. The guards looked over
warily. The padding had been repaired and patched. New and old training
equipment were neatly shelved. She just waved and kept looking. "All
right," he said when she didn't say anything. He turned back to the class.

"Now, to disarm an opponent
with a weapon you first need to assess the situation and the opponent,” he
continued, ignoring the chief as she looked around. He waved to the guard
holding the mock knife. “Now, from her stance, I can deduce she's done this
before." A few chuckled at this. He caught the Chief watching them. He
nodded to her. "Come at me," he ordered. She blinked and lunged with
the knife. He turned into her reach. She tried to twist to cut him, but his arm
blocked hers, pushing her away.

"Now, I'm inside her reach
and guard," he said. His hand snaked out, poking her solar plexus. The
woman gasped. His free hand grabbed her extended knife hand. In a second he had
flipped her up over him and to the tarmac. He held onto her though, and knelt
on her arm holding the knife. He raised an arm to a killing stroke. "And
now you have them at your mercy."

She dropped the knife and tapped
the mat. He nodded and got up, then helped her to sit. She was gasping. He
straightened and pulled his gi belt tighter. "That was a simple move used
in many martial arts. I'll teach it to you," he said.

He caught the Chief's eyes. She
was looking a little confused. "Why?" she finally asked, genuinely
curious. The class turned to her.

 He shrugged. "Why
not?" he asked. Her face worked. The class kept looking back and forth
between the two of them. "Because I can, they asked, and I needed the
workout," he said dryly. He patted his stomach. "Getting a little flabby
with all of Cookies' cooking," he joked. Some of the girls laughed at
that. "Besides, the ship's safety may depend on it," he said.

She nodded.  That was an argument
she could understand."Room for one more?" she asked with a curious
note in her voice.

He nodded. "Yes ma'am."
He pointed to the side room. "There are extra gi uniforms in there with
privacy to change ma'am," he told her. She nodded and left.

"I think she just wants to
take a stab at you Admiral," one of the girls said quietly.

He shrugged. "Wouldn't be
the first, won’t be the last," he replied. "But, I have my
ways," he said, making it sound evil. A few of the girls chuckled.
"All right, why don't you ladies work on the basic training kata to warm
up a little?" He stepped off the mat and watched as they got to their feet
and stretched.

He watched the ritual unfold from
the hangar control room. The pilot brought the shuttle in smartly, landing with
the rear hatch facing the door. When the hatch was closed the straw boss was
the first on the hangar deck. The pilot dropped the ramp and smiled, handing
her a stalk of what looked like grass with a bow and flourish.

Taki smiled, took the grass stalk
and clamped one end between her teeth. "All right girls, let’s get her
unloaded," she said. The work crew sprang into action. In a few moments he
watched amazed and dismayed to see them float out plastic containers. Another
group was rolling out what looked like wooden barrels! The girls had a song
going. He shook his head.

"I must have missed this
last time," he murmured.

Jennie looked over. "Well,
we were kinda busy with hull repairs," she said.

He grimaced. "Well, we need
to work out a better system," he said. She nodded.

The loading of the two meter tall
neo-cattle and neo-buffalo was a headache all in itself. "Captain, this is
the last one, we're getting the bull calf in now. With these we can pay the
port fees and buy all the goods on Proxima that we want!" Vanessa said.
She looked smug. The Captain nodded sagely. They were approaching the hatch.

"They're in there?" she
asked. The Captain pointed to the door.

The Chief nodded. "Watch
out!" someone screamed. The hatch clanged. In a moment it opened and a
guard stumbled out coughing blood.

The Chief ran to her. "What
the hell?" There was a crash then angry bellow.

 "Look out! It’s
loose!" The bull rushed through the hatch, tossing a rope around its neck.
Another rope dangled from its waist. It bucked, kicking back and forth, then
ran down the corridor. It knocked over a cart loaded with glassware, smashing
glass all over the floor.

The startled crew member reared
back. The bull smashed through the glass, then lashed out a kick in passing.
The woman went down, coughing. "Damn!" the chief snarled. The
emergency door slammed shut in front of the bull. "Okay," the chief
said, clearly furious. The Chief helped her guard to her feet. "Where is
it?" she demanded as she turned. "Gram, get out of here." She
thrust the guard behind her.

A woman came out of her room,
clutching a towel around her waist dripping wet. "What the hell is going
on here?"she said. She shrieked at the sight of the bull and backed up.
The bull tossed its head and she was tossed like a rag doll. She landed san's
towel sobbing in the corridor. The bull entered her quarters and began smashing
things.

"Great. What else could go
wrong?" the chief said. The bull exited and turned to face them. Muttering
an oath the Chief lunged in front of her Captain.

"Get out of here!" she
screamed, drawing her gun.

"Not on your life little
one," the captain said. The bull charged. A bulkhead door slammed down
behind it. "Well, that didn't work," she said.

The Admiral entered at a full
run, slamming into the bull. It twisted, trying to gore him with its horns.
"Oh no you don't,” he snarled. Veins popped under his skin as he got a
grip on the horns.

"I always liked to take the
bull by the horns, but this is ridiculous," he grunted twisting.

"Get it down!" the
woman in the entryway called. She was looping a lasso.

"Get clear, I'll shoot
it," the Chief called.

"Easier said than
done," the Admiral grunted.  If he let go the animal would go right
through him.

He went down on his left knee,
but the bulls head went down as well. With a bawl it sank to the ground, then
onto its side. "Good," the Admiral grunted. He held it there.

 The animal's tongue lolled out,
and then its eye rolled white. "Oh, now you want to be friends?" he
grunted as it panted. The woman with the lasso managed to catch the rear
hooves. Another woman went in, roping them together. A front hoof clipped her
in the back. She hissed, but managed to finish her lashings.

The woman holding the lasso kept
it taut. "Wish I had something to tie this off too," she grunted.
"Get another rope on the front legs," she ordered. The Admiral felt a
rope brush his back, then drop beside him.

"Watch it," he grunted.

"I got one leg," the
woman called. She pulled the rope taught, then followed the lead wrangler's
directions and roped it to the rear feet.

“I have the head," another
girl called. The Admiral looked up to see the girl had managed to fish out the
rope from under the animal's side and then tied it off to a knee knocker.

"Okay, will that hold?"
he asked. She nodded.

"Wait," the lead
wrangler said.

Another rope was wrapped around
the beast's neck then tied off at an opposite corner. "There, you can let
go now," she said. He tentatively loosened his grip. The animal thrashed,
but couldn't stand.

"Okay." He sat back,
out of reach of the horns and hooves.

"Right in the nick of
time," the Captain observed.

He sighed, rubbing his left arm.
"I was in the neighborhood," he said.

She nodded. "I take it, that
is was you with the overhead doors?" she asked. He nodded. "It almost
worked," he said. He groaned a bit as he got to his feet. He'd tried to
use the internal force fields but they took too long to spin up so he had given
up on them.

"You okay?" He asked as
he turned to the injured the guard. Blood dribbled from her mouth.

"No, lost some teeth and my
jaw hurts," she ground out. She sat down on a knee knocker, one hand on
her mouth.

“Probably broken," he
grunted. "I hope the others are okay," he said turning. He winced,
rubbing his shoulder. "Going to feel that for a while," he said a bit
theatrically. In truth Proteus was already flooding the torn abused muscles and
ligaments with repairing nanites. He'd be fine in minutes but he didn't want
them to know that.

"Not one of your better
ideas Vanessa," the Captain said as she turned to the purser but she
wasn't near. "Where did she go?" she asked as she  looked around. The
purser peaked her head out of a cabin door down the corridor.

"Is it safe?" she asked
with a tremor in her voice.

Several people chuckled.
"Yeah. Now that your guest is trussed up," the captain said dryly.
The Captain shook her head as the purser approached. "Not one of your
better ideas," she said again. She shook her head.

"Yeah..." Vanessa
looked away. "I just realized that."

The Admiral leaned against the
bulkhead and waved off a medic. "Next time I recommend just the embryos or
sperm and ova." The Captain looked up at him.

The purser turned confused.
"What do you mean?"

He smiled politely at their
confusion. "Well, you can purchase embryos and fetuses, or sperm and ova.
Transporting them is easier; you can fit thousands in a one hundred centimeter
cube," he said. He waved his hands to approximate the size.

The purser looked startled.
"How do you know this?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I dated
a vet a long..." his face became pensive. "Long time ago," he
finished softly. "That's how we did it back then most of the time anyway.
It sure beats getting beaten to death." He waved to the medic attending
the injured. The Chief looked up and nodded.

The guard gave a weak thumbs up.
"I'm all for that," she mumbled.

"That's a calf?" the
captain asked. The Captain studied the animal as the crew lifted it onto a
hover pallet with tractors. The animal bawled piteously.

"Believe it or not, but yes
it is," the purser nodded. "Captain, maybe we should adjourn...”

The Captain waved the idea of
retreat away. "Not just yet." She studied the animal.

"It is about six months old
according to the records," the Chief wrangler said over her shoulder.

"How did it get loose if you
don't mind my asking?" the Chief asked, with a bite in her tone.

The wrangler sighed. "He got
mixed in with the cows, and one's in heat," she replied with a grimace.
She shook her head, taking off her hat and then wiping her brow. The crew
wrestled the cargo pallet through the hatch.

"We had to set up a separate
bull pen for him, and we were transferring him when he got loose." She
shook her head. "He was as calm as a newborn coming up!" she said in
disgust. She put the hat back on. "The cows shit and peed themselves dry
all the way up on the shuttle. He came up like it was nothin." She
followed the animals in.

The Captain and purser followed.
The crew had managed to get the animal into the pen. They removed him from the
cargo pallet, moved it to one side then began the dangerous but necessary
procedure of releasing him. The Chief wrangler did the last knot after the
others had cleared out, and then leapt back. The bull sat there for a moment
twitching.

"See if he wants some
water," the wrangler ordered. In a moment a bucket was splashed into the
trough. The bull sat up, sniffing. "Come on Beauregard; get your titanic
ass up," the wrangler smacked his rump smartly. His hide rippled and he
looked over to her. "Don't you want some water big boy?" she cajoled.
She petted his side.

He started to rise and she
hastily backed away. She made it through the gate before he was up. He shook,
and then went to the water trough. "Bet he sulks for a while," she
said with a grin and then shook her head.

"How much bigger will he
get?" the Captain asked.

"Oh, about three or four
times bigger. Our ancestors made him that way. Genetic engineering I think they
called it," the wrangler answered, wrinkling her nose. She watched with
her hands on the top railing. "Don't give him too much just yet, let him
settle,” she told her helpers. She turned to the Captain.

"Freeport is the center of
the slaughtering trade now," she said. She shook her head. "Biggest
round up you ever did see!" She took out a handkerchief and wiped at her
sweaty neck.