Children of Steel (29 page)

"Don't worry about the shuttle son," the
Captain said reading my mind. "Those defenses were supposed to be
pacified by that time, so it wasn't your fault. As it was, you
managed to save most of the cargo and I'm going to recommend you
for a bonus."

"Thank you sir!" That was more than I could
have hoped for, and I know my surprise showed.

"Don't act so surprised, you went above and
beyond normal duty on that, and the company likes to see such
action rewarded. Especially when the equipment saved is
valuable."

"Yes sir." I didn't think he needed to know
that I really didn't have any choice about bailing out.

"Anyway as I was saying, the Colonel's
attempt to assassinate me was totally unexpected. I honestly
thought he was going to surrender and save his own skin, or at
least that of his troops. Looking back at what has been uncovered
now, I can see that we were dealing with fanatics. If I had known
that I would have realized that surrender was out of the question
for them.

"I want to thank you Mister Rakir, both
personally and as the company representative, for your actions. You
most probably saved my life."

"Sir," I said a little nervously, "I was just
doing what I was trained to sir."

"I
saw
how quick you responded there
Mister, and I saw you getting shot by those bullets meant for me.
You didn't have to do that, your quick reactions and quick thinking
got me out of there before the enemy's forces could grab me."

"I think the other two who were there deserve
a lot of the credit for getting you out sir." I said honestly, "I
really wasn't capable of much more at that point sir."

"Don't worry; they've been rewarded for their
part, which I admit was also outstanding. But your actions were the
most important and they were both very quick to point that out. I
would like to know one thing however." He looked at me closely.

"What sir?" I was very nervous now; I think I
knew what was coming.

"How did you manage to draw your pistol so
quickly? The Colonel's was barely out when you shot him."

"Well sir," I answered carefully and
nervously too, if the truth came out I'd be in definite trouble. "I
could see he was getting more and more edgy as you were talking, so
I put my hand on the hilt of my gun. Then, when he jumped, I just
pulled and fired before I stood up. It was his taking time to jump
up that gave me the chance, sir."

"How did you know he was going to pull his
gun?" he asked suspiciously.

"I saw his shoulder moving down on that side
sir as he started to jump up," I lied, "I figured it could only
mean one thing." I waited a second while he thought about that.

"Yes, I guess that would have been the
obvious thing. Next time I'll watch out for that. Though I hope
there never is a next time."

I nodded and breathed an inner sigh of relief
as he bought it, and continued on.

"Now as to your reward," he reached over and
picked up a small box on his desk and handed it to me. "You are
hereby promoted to Warrant Second Class, with the appropriate raise
in pay. I am also going to recommend you for the company's
outstanding performance award, one for each of your actions of the
day." He stood up and I quickly did the same.

"Congratulations Warrant Second Class!" He
finished and saluted.

I returned the salute and then shook his
offered hand.

"Thank you very much sir!" I was a bit dazed
by the whole thing.

"You earned it Mister Rakir," he sat back
down behind his desk. "Dismissed!"

I saluted again, and left the room. I opened
the box and looked inside. There was a new set of rank insignia,
and I changed mine right there in the hallway.

I went and found Terease next. She was still
on board working on the ship's drive repairs. I ran into Shooma as
soon as I crossed into engineering territory.

"Hi Raj," he noticed my rank tabs, "hey,
congratulations on the promotion."

"Thanks, you seen Terease around?"

"Sure, have a seat I'll go get her." He
indicated a seat over in the engineering office.

I went over and sat down, I could see a lot
of blueprints and drawings were scattered all over the tables in
the office. They were obviously still pretty busy, but I really
couldn't make heads or tails of the whole affair.

"Raj!" I heard a minute later and turned to
see Terease entering the room. "I heard you were going to be around
today!"

I gave her a hug and she looked me over.

"You look okay, I heard about your getting
hurt."

"That was a few weeks ago, I've pretty much
recovered since then. How's everything going up here?" I asked.

"Pretty busy as far as work goes. The drive
is finished, but we're still testing our repairs." she gave me
another hug. "It's also real lonely up here too. I've only seen
Banner once in the last month, and the only company I've had are
Sharazad and Kate."

"Yeah, I guess it is pretty lonely with most
everybody on the planet."

"They won't let me go down until the drive is
finished either!" she pouted. "Both Kate and Sharazad get to go
down once a week."

"I'll chase after Banner when I get back down
I promise." I couldn't wait anymore, "Notice anything different on
my uniform?"

"Umm let me see," she looked me all over, "I
don't think so." she teased.

"My rank!" I said exasperated, "I've been
promoted!"

"Oh, That!" she grinned, "Yes I noticed,
congratulations Raj!" and she gave me a kiss. "How long are you up
for anyway?"

"Until tomorrow, I have to do a couple of
practice sims so I can be cleared to fly again." I looked at my
watch. "I'm supposed to do that after lunch. Want to join me?"

"Sure, I need a break. Just a sec." She went
over to the intercom, picked it up and called somebody. After
talking about some engineering thing for a minute she told them she
was taking lunch, and we left.

We sat and talked about what had been going
on, while eating our lunch. Terease told me just how much had been
removed and taken down to the surface. She also told me that we'd
be ready to leave in a couple of days.

"Any idea when we're actually going?" I
asked.

"Not really, but I'd guess it'll be soon.
There's a Tri-star ship just a few days away, they broke out
yesterday. They're supposed to have the remaining support personnel
on board. I think we'll be leaving a few days after they make
orbit."

We finished our lunches then and went our
separate ways. As I headed down to the Shuttle area, I couldn't
help but notice how empty the ship seemed. About eighty percent of
the crew was still planet side working on getting the complex back
in order. The defenses had been completed about a week ago, now
everybody was trying to get the rest of the place fixed up before
we left. They had restarted the mines only a couple of days ago,
but with the extra security people that were going to be stationed
around there was talk about increasing production to help cover the
extra costs.

The sims went off with out a hitch. Mostly it
was just a rehash of the crash I had been through during the
attack, but they did go over some of the basics just to make sure I
hadn't gotten rusty during my recovery. When I got back to my
cabin, I checked my messages and found that I was expected at
Sharazad's cabin that evening. Kate and Terease would be there as
well.

It was a fun evening, even if there were only
the four of us. We talked about nothing in particular, but I could
tell they were all pretty lonely. But it looked like it'd all be
over soon anyway. It felt kind of good to be sleeping in my own
cabin again that night, Terease joined me and we both slept very
soundly.

The next morning I had an early breakfast,
and then headed back down to the surface. This time I was the
pilot, and it felt good to be flying again. I hadn't been able to
do any flying since I had crashed with all the work that had to be
done. There hadn't been much flying going on in the last two weeks
anyway, just a flight up to the Astra every other day.

The Astra was declared ready for jump four
days later, and Terease was able to come down and see both Banner
and the planet. Mostly she just saw Banner. We were all notified
that we were shipping out three days later.

I was pretty busy helping to shuttle up all
the ship’s crew and our prisoners for the next couple of days. We
were leaving five of the surviving assault shuttles behind, as well
as the remaining cargo shuttle. They had only one cargo shuttle of
their own left after the battle.

I had several goodbyes to say myself, first
of all to my sister Kali who was still recovering, then my sister
Lisa, as B Company was going to be providing security for a while.
And finally to Fran, the shuttle pilot from B Company, whom I was
still seeing occasionally.

I walked into the hospital and headed down to
the intensive care unit, were Kali had been since I had first found
her.

"Hi Raj," she said from the bed, "I guess
this is goodbye again huh?"

I looked at her, she was doing much better
now than when I had first seen her. The Doctor had even told me
that they would be able to move her into a regular ward in a couple
of days.

"Yes Kali, I guess its goodbye again." I
smiled wistfully, I really wanted to be able to stay until my
sister was whole again. "The next time we meet you'll have your
legs back and be as beautiful as ever."

"I'm really going to miss you Raj, especially
now that I'm going to be moved into a regular ward and allowed
outside once in a while." she said sadly.

"That's alright, Lisa'll be here and at least
I got to be here during the worst of it."

"You always seem to show up for the 'worst of
it'," she smiled.

"Hey, that's my job. Now I just want you to
behave and get better. When I do get to come by here again I want
to see you healthy, okay?"

"Okay!"

I gave her a hug then and we said goodbye one
last time and I left. I ran into her Doctor on the way out.

"Doctor Crenshaw," I said, "may I have a word
with you before I leave please?"

"Sure Mr. Rakir, there isn't anything wrong
now is there?" she looked at me suspiciously, I know she was still
mad about my behavior during the first time we had met.

"No, no problems at all. I just wanted to let
you know I was leaving and wanted to ask a small favor." I said
politely.

"Ask a favor?" she cocked her head to the
side a little, "Not make a demand?"

"Yes, a favor. One I hope you'll have no
problems with either."

"Well it depends, just what do you want me to
do?" she asked suspiciously.

"Just make sure my sister Lisa keeps
visiting, and if she should stop, tell her you'll tell me about
it."

"Do you really think she will stop visiting?"
asked Doctor Crenshaw sarcastically.

"No, not anymore, but I bet you she'll ask if
I talked to you about it!" I laughed, "She doesn't think I trust
her."

"Do you?" she gave me a penetrating
glance.

"I think so; she's changed a lot since
leaving the crèche. Anyway thanks again for saving my sister,
goodbye Doc."

"Goodbye Mr. Rakir, and you're welcome."

I was kind of surprised I didn't hear an
added 'and good riddance', but we only really butted heads that one
time.

My next stop was to say goodbye to Lisa. We
had gotten along fairly well and had only fought once.
Unfortunately it was yesterday, and I had thrashed her pretty good
too. I guess we all have a tendency to fall back into old habits at
times. I walked into her barracks, and was surprised when a male
leopard about my age stopped me.

"Excuse me but you're not welcome here." He
said eyeing me up and down.

"Oh?" I smiled down at him, I must have had
four inches and maybe fifty pounds on him. "And why might that be?
Is my sister putting you up to this, or are you just trying to win
points on your own?"

He bristled a little at that.

"She's still in bed, recovering from what you
did to her yesterday." He stepped in front of me as I tried to walk
past him. "I think it would be better if you left."

"I think it would be healthier if you minded
your own damn business." I snarled as my temper kicked in, I didn’t
like people who messed in family affairs and I was quickly getting
mad at this guy now. "She's probably still in bed because she's off
today, not that any of this is
your
business."

I moved to push past him, and he grabbed my
arm. That was it! I spun around and gave him a back kick to the
stomach without even thinking about it. He 'woofed' out his breath
then, and tried to jump back for fighting space, but I had reversed
his grip and was now holding his arm myself.

Yanking him off balance, I punched him in the
face a few times, then spun him around while he was still dizzy and
banged his head against the wall a few more times for good measure.
He was still struggling, trying to get a grip on me, but he wasn't
nearly as strong as I was.

I grabbed the belt on the back of his shorts
with one hand and the scruff of his neck with the other. With a big
heave, I picked him bodily off the ground and held him over my
head. I'm glad that the ceilings were high in here. I then marched
off to my sister's room, where I used his head to knock on the
door.

"Yes?" I heard a familiar male voice from
inside.

"Jemaal, could you please tell my sister that
I would like to say goodbye?" I said keeping the still struggling
interloper balanced above my head.

"Sure just a sec." A moment later the door
opened, "Come on ... what the hell?!" Jemaal looked at the guy I
was holding in the air, and I could see Lisa sitting on the bed
start to laugh.