Children of Steel (27 page)

I got up and kissed her forehead, then headed
for the door. After it was closed the Doctor started to lecture me
about bothering seriously ill patients, and obeying Doctor's
orders, and all that crap. I grabbed a roller bandage off a nearby
cart and stuck it in her mouth.

"Shut up, I've had this lecture before, and
now that I'm an adult I'm not listening to it again."

"How dare you ..." she began, pulling it
out.

"I dare because I am her brother and have the
right too," I started, staring her down. Which was not an easy feat
as I was dead tired. "It would appear that the only things keeping
my sister alive are a lot of work and a lot of will. I thank you
for the work, but she's the one providing the will, and that needs
support. Have you ever spent a month in the hospital, all alone
with no one to talk too? All alone, sure you were going to
die?"

"And you have I suppose?" she asked, still a
little hostile, but her wind was running down. I had her.

"Yes, I have. And she knows it too. They had
told everybody that I
wasn't
coming back, and wouldn't allow
anybody to visit me either." I turned to look at Herza for a
second. She was flabbergasted, "That's why I have a tendency to go
ballistic some times, at least that's what the psych guy told me,"
she just nodded.

"So I'm going to continue to visit her, and I
want to be called when she regains consciousness. Please?" I
wheedled a little bit on the last. After all I didn't want her mad
at me. At least not any madder than she already was.

"Ah hell," she sighed. "You do have the right
to, and your other sister warned me you wouldn't take no for an
answer. But if you go and get her upset, or start messing with her
treatment, I'll put you in the next bed! You understand?" Her voice
raised on the last threat.

"I can live with that I think." As a child I
learned that Doctor's have to be put in their place, they often
tend to think of themselves as minor Deities. But you had to humor
them too, just in case.

"Good, come up to my office." We both
followed her there and sat down once inside. I was grateful for the
rest.

"What happened to her, and who did it?" I
asked. That was the next question I wanted answered.

"She had her legs crushed, very slowly, and
was then systematically cut up. The only reason she's alive was
that at first they wanted everybody to see what happens to anyone
who disobeyed them. She wouldn't sleep with the Colonel, and fought
him when he tried to take her anyway, so he did this."

"I definitely killed him too quickly," was
all I could think of to say.

"You said at first," put in Herza, picking up
on what I had missed, "what does that mean?"

"Well, they were just going to let her die
then. But a few of the nurses and Doctors that were still allowed
to work stuck her in a back closet, and did their damnedest to try
and keep her alive. We actually managed to save a few that way
thanks to the help of a few of the human nurses, who got real upset
when they saw the things their bosses were capable of."

"You mean that some of the people here
actually defied their leader?" asked Herza.

"Only a few, most either went merrily along,
or just ignored anything they didn't like," she shook here head.
"It's just truly amazing the things that some humans can ignore,
forget, or just plain pretend never happened."

"And they call us animals!" Was all Herza
could say.

"What's her prognosis now?" I asked, getting
back to my sister.

"Pretty good I think, she's survived so far
and now that we can give her proper care, I expect her to make a
total recovery. But she'll need some time in physical therapy to
recover her strength. As for the mental damage, I don't know. She
went through quite a bit."

"When do you expect her to regain
consciousness?"

"Probably in a day or two. All the physical
trauma to her head has been repaired now, so it shouldn't be
long."

"I'll be back again later," I said, "around
dinner. Please let the staff know I'll be around a lot from now
on."

"And if I don't?" She asked cocking her
head.

"You'll have to explain to Dr. Feurst why all
his handiwork on me got messed up." I smiled and got up to leave.
"Thank you for saving my sister Doctor, I appreciate it."

I shook her hand, and left with Herza. Once
we got outside of the Hospital, I leaned on Herza.

"Tired?" she asked looking at me.

"A little, I want to go examine my brother's
personal effects. Who knows where they would be?" I asked looking
around.

"Security is the best guess. I'm supposed to
be on duty now, so is it all right if I leave you there?"

"Yeah, that's fine. I don't want to get you
in any more trouble."

She led me around the building, and over to a
smaller one that had its front door blown off.

"They still haven't fixed the door yet, but
this is the place. I'll see you at dinner okay?" Herza asked.

"I'll be fine, see you at dinner."

I waved goodbye, and walked inside. I found
the front desk, and leaned against it, until somebody finally
noticed me.

"You okay? Need any help?"

"I'm okay, still recovering. But I do need
some help, I want to claim whatever personal belongings of my
brother's that may still exist," I told him.

He looked at my name tag, "Same last name?
Rakir?"

"That's correct, first name Nepal. I also
want to check on my sister's belongings. She's in the hospital,
first name Kali."

"I'll get one of the local security people to
help you. I don't know what they're doing about that. Have a seat;
you look like you could use it."

"Thanks," I said sitting down.

He headed into the back, and came out with a
middle aged female badger in uniform. Her insignia showed her to be
a member of the complex's forces.

"Hi there Mr. Rakir, my name is Lyotta. I'm
in charge of taking care of the dead and their belongings."

I rose and shook her hand then sat back
down.

"Do you have anything on either of them?" I
asked, "I doubt they had much to start with, but I felt I should
check."

"Well, your brother's gear was confiscated by
the enemy, so who knows what happened to it. The same for his
personal effects mostly. After the invasion, they moved into our
quarters and pretty much trashed our personal belongings.

"I knew Nepal though, and I honestly don't
think he really had that much. Just some photos and correspondence
as I recall."

"How did he die anyway? Was it an execution?"
I asked quietly.

"Yes it was. They killed most of the male
security forces as soon as everybody had surrendered. I guess they
were worried about any possible escapes, or riots. The only reason
I think they didn't kill the women and the technicians was so we
could work in the mines. How's your sister doing anyway?"

"She looks bad, but the doctor says she'll
make it," I looked at her. "Anything of hers survive either?"

"I doubt it," she said shaking her head. "But
there's still a lot of cleaning up to do. Anything could turn up
from either of them, so come back in a couple of weeks and
see."

"Thanks. You people seem to be bouncing back
pretty quickly." I told her.

"Better to work than to think about who we
lost. Everybody here lost somebody, be glad your sister's
okay."

"I am, believe me, I am." I got up to leave
then. "Thanks again!" and walked outside.

I wandered around for a while, learning the
layout of the place. I really had no idea when I was supposed to go
back on duty or what I was to do. I decided to tackle that later,
but for now I just walked around looking at the damage from the
battles that had taken place here.

I finally sat down in the same courtyard that
had been the scene of the failed negotiations. I guess from my
point of view they had succeeded pretty damn well. Somebody had
righted the table and chairs. The table itself was pitted and
scarred from the rounds it had stopped, and some holes from those
it hadn't. I guess that hand grenade hadn't been nice to it
either.

I drew my knife, and for the lack of anything
to do, I carved my name in big letters across the table. I was
about half way through, when somebody in a police uniform showed
up.

"What may I ask, do you think you're doing?"
she asked me.

I looked up at her. "Signing my work?" and I
went back to working on the 'J'. The concrete was pretty hard and
it was really dulling the blade.

"Oh, really? Do you always sign your work?"
She asked sarcastically.

"Why not?" I laughed gesturing at the blood
stains still on the chairs and ground, "I put a lot of blood and
sweat into it already." I tilted the table over a bit, "That's my
own personal stock." I sighed pointing to the stains on the
bottom.

"Kind of morbid, aren't you?" she sat down in
one of the other chairs.

"I don't know," I said finishing my work.
"I've gone through a lot these last days. First I was shot down,
then shot up, patched together physically, pulled apart mentally."
I looked it over with a critical eye, "And just this morning, I
find out I lost a brother to these butchers and almost a sister
too. I really don't know how I feel."

"Survivor’s Guilt. There's a lot of that
going around right now." she admitted sadly, "I lost a couple of
good friends myself. At least it's over now."

"I don't think it's over yet, not by a long
shot. I want to find these shits and kill every last one." I looked
around the courtyard. "What did they do with the bodies
anyway?"

"Which ones?" she looked surprised at the
sudden change.

"The Colonel and his staff," I laughed, "I
mean I left them right here and now they're gone!"

"You really are sick, you know that? I gather
they went into a mass grave. They were pretty messy actually.

I stopped and thought a second; I was acting
a little strange. "Excuse me; I think I really have been acting
like a fool."

"That's okay," She gave me a sidelong look;
"after the bodies were buried I wanted to dance on their graves.
Some actually did."

"I thought us animen were supposed to be
above that kind of thing." I smiled thinking about the sight of
that.

"We're really not all that different from
them you know, and that's what bother's most of them."

"But we
are
different!" I
asserted.

"We
look
different," she corrected, "I
mean what is really different about you? You've got retractable
claws, a fur coat, a tail, and a leopard's head. That's all just
cosmetic's really."

"But I'm faster, stronger and tougher than
they are!" I argued.

"Maybe a little bit, but those are more
likely due to training than the Gene splicer’s work. No we're much
more alike than some people can stand, make that some 'humans' can
stand. But look at history some time; you'll see that persecution
and prejudice are old human tricks."

"Then why in the world did they create us?" I
asked hotly.

"Somebody has to do the dirty work, and the
ignorant masses became enlightened. Nobody who's really smart wants
this work, too many don't come back, but we're trained to like it
from birth."

"So why do you keep doing it if you're so
enlightened?" I asked suspiciously.

"I wasn't asked, and I suspect you weren't
either. I'm actually a geologist by training and I'm filling in
here until things get back to normal. But to be totally honest, I
do like the work. Maybe that's another thing that bothers these
people, we may be the ones taking the chances, but we're the ones
getting the experience."

I stopped and considered what she had said.
Yes the corporations created us because many people wouldn’t give
up their sedate and safe lives back on earth, where they could live
long healthy lives. Even those who would come into space and
colonize the many far flung planets didn’t want to take any more
chances than they necessarily had to. So they had to create a work
force, and they created us. They were getting to the point where
the human race couldn’t continue to expand without us and in some
places couldn’t even just live in the status quo. So there were
those that resented us, hated us, and wanted us gone. But they
never thought about what would happen if we weren’t there, they
never thought about that.

"Well, it's something to think about anyway."
I got up, and so did she, "I better get going, I'll see you
around."

She nodded and we headed our separate
ways.

I went and had something to eat then, and
after a short nap I eventually ended up at the gym, where I
exercised carefully until it was time to go see Kali again. I was
happy with my progress, I remembered the doctor's advice and didn't
push it, still I was rapidly recovering my stamina.

The walk back to the Hospital was uneventful
and I didn't even have to stop and catch my breath on the way. I
entered unharassed and made my way down to my sister's room. I sat
down by her head, found a comb and started to groom her head. Most
of the rest of her body was covered by bandages so it was about the
only thing I could comb. I talked quietly as I worked and found
myself beginning to unwind; I hadn't realized just how upset I was
until then.

After spending an hour, I told her I would be
back in the morning and gave her a little kiss goodbye. I could
have sworn I felt her hand move when I squeezed it as I got up to
leave, but I wasn't sure. I was quite surprised to run into the
Doctor as I was going down the corridor on my way out.

"Ah Mr. Rakir, have a good visit?"

"As good as can be expected I guess. Do you
really think she'll come out soon?" I asked.