Children of Steel

by John Van Stry

  "I'll help you, and the clan will help you. That's why it's there. Now just lie down and relax, I have to see about getting that ringworm taken care of."

  I stuffed her uniform in my laundry bag with my own, so it would come back here in the morning, and went out to the collection area. I was in luck; they hadn't come yet, so I tossed it in. I then went over to Balizar's quarters and rang for entry. I hoped that the meeting had broken up, as I didn't want anybody to know.

  No answer, I rang again, twice.

  "This had better be good!" I heard a few seconds later, as the door opened, "Raj, I would think you would know better than to bother somebody after a clan meeting!"

  "Sorry, but I got a real problem, and I need your help."

  "You could have called on the intercom," he grumbled.

  "Not for this."

  "What did you do, kill her?" he looked at me a little askance.

  "No. She's got ringworm, a real bad case."

  His eyes opened a little wider, and he took a step back from the door. "Get in here," I walked in and he closed the door behind me. "Damn if this gets out, nobody will want to get near her or you for that matter. Okay, I'll get some medicine sent over in the morning. I'll have one of the girls bring it."

  "Hell no! If they find out, I'll be sleeping alone for good!"

  "I see your point," he said considering, "and if I tell Banner or Lyle, they'll never get near Terease with a ten foot pole." He thought for a second, "I know, I'll get Kate to take care of it, she's a biologist it'll be right up her alley."

  "Good, also somebody's going to have to go down to her room and clean it. I'm not gonna' let her go back till that's been done."

  "I guess I can handle that, now if you'll excuse me?" I noticed Sharazad's eyes glowing from over by the bed in the dark. He opened the door and I started out.

  "Oh, bring a mask." I said, and left. I got back to my room, and was relieved to find Terease still there.

  "I was afraid you might not be here when I got back."

  "Might I point out that you took my uniform, and the robe? I believe that Captain has a standing order about people wandering through the ship sans clothing." She replied somewhat sarcastically.

  "Well to be honest, I kind of forgot about that."

  "Well, I would like to borrow it so I can go back to my room please?"

  "Actually, I think it would be better if you stayed here."

  "Do I have a choice?" she said, eyes narrowing.

  "Noooo, but until I get your quarters cleaned, I think you should stay. Also I have somebody coming by in the morning with some medicine."

  "So where do I sleep?"

  "On the bed, where else?"

  "And just where are you going to sleep?" I could hear a faint growl in that statement.

  "Don't get your fur in a ruff. It pulls out, look." I pulled the extension out on the bed. "Now come on, let's get some sleep."

  She laid down on far side of the bed, "Just keep your distance," she growled.

  "Good night," I said, and turned out the lights.

  As I dosed off I figured that I hadn't done too bad. At least she was spending time with somebody, and she hadn't even tried to kill me, yet.

  Suddenly I wasn't so tired anymore.

  4

  When I awoke next morning I was quite surprised to find something warm and comfortable curled up against me. I opened my eyes and looked down to see Terease snuggled against me, with my arm around her. That she was over on my side of the bed did not lessen my anticipation of the impending fireworks, which started with a sharp pain in my wrist even as I realized that she was now awake.

  "You're on my side of the bed!" I said. No luck, she just bit harder.

  "Umm, I'm sorry?" I tried.

  She started to growl. I realized this was going to be one of those things that you just wished were over, so I rolled off the bed onto the floor. She landed on top of me when I hit the floor, claws out, but she had to let go of my wrist so she could turn to face me. I batted her hands away from my face, and let her straddle my stomach, then I tucked my head hard into her stomach while kicking down with my legs for momentum.

  I heard the 'whoosh' of expelled air as I knocked her breath away, and continued my forward motion going by pushing against the floor with my hands. Shortly thereafter I was on top on her, with her hands pinned to the floor, and her legs in a scissors lock.

  She struggled for a few seconds, then the glazed look left her eyes.

  "Finished?" I asked.

  "One of these days I'm going to get you." she replied with a snarl.

  "Probably, but why don't you wait till you're stronger and know how?"

  "Let me up, please?"

  "Truce?"

  "Only if you keep your hands to yourself." she was still kind of snarling the words.

  "Hey, I kept to my side!"

  "How do I know you didn't pull me over?"

  "Easy, what contagious skin condition is all over your back?"

  Her eyes widened as I finished, "and now my chest?" I got up and helped her to her feet. "And another thing, when you've got a good grip like that, you shouldn't let go." I looked at my wrist, it was bleeding but not too bad.

  "I'm sorry, I just thought that you were going to try something," came a very soft reply.

  "Let's make a deal, I won't try to screw you, and you don't try to kill me. Okay?" I said while licking the blood off my wrist and looking for something to wrap it with.

  "Okay, but I'm still going to get you just on general principles alone," she said with a faint smile.

  "Fine, just as long as it isn't crippling, I won't complain. Wait here and I'll go see if your uniform came back from the laundry."

  I grabbed my robe and went out to the laundry area, and got my bag. It was clean and on the way back to the room I ran into Kate.

  "Good morning Raj."

  "Ah Kate, you're a life saver, come on in."

  "You didn't waste anytime did you Raj?" she said giving me a sly look outside the door.

  "Listen," I said showing her my wrist, "I got this just for getting too close last night."

  "Let me see that a sec," she took my wrist and looked at it, "umm, nice bite. Bleeding's stopped. Hurt much?"

  "Like you wouldn't believe. But I'm hoping we may have reached a temporary truce. Come on in." I opened the door and showed her in.

  "Terease, I believe you know Kate?"

  "Hi Kate," came a very quiet reply.

  "Hello Terease. Well let’s see the damage," she set down her bag and took out a portable lamp. "You want to get the lights Raj?"

  "Sure what's that?" I asked as I turned down the room lights.

  "Fluorescent light, here watch."

  She turned it on and played it over Terease's body. You could see large yellow splotches all over.

  "The fungus is fluorescent," she pulled a spray canister out of her bag. "Close your eyes Terease." She then went around spraying all of the glowing areas on her body.

  "Okay Raj, your turn." She pointed the light at me and I looked down. My chest and arms were glowing.

  "Ah hell, how bad is it?"

  "Close your eyes," I did and she started spraying. "Well you only just got it, so you won't lose too much fur. It'll just get a little thin. Week or so and nobody will notice."

  "Is that all that has to be done?" asked Terease

  "No, here take these," she handed each of us a small plastic bottle. "Anti-fungal, take one a day in the morning for a week. The spray should kill most of the fungus in a couple of minutes. The pills will get the rest of it. Here look."

  She played the light over Terease's body again, and the patches were rapidly breaking up and shrinking.

  "Thanks Kate, I owe you one," I said.

  "No problem Raj, give that spray a few more minutes to work before you get dressed, and you young lady had better start taking a little better care of yourself. I'll see you two later." With that she dropped her stuff back in her bag and
got up to go.

  "Thank you Kate.”

  "You're welcome Terease. Bye."

  I showed her out of the room, and turned the lights back up.

  "Well, let’s go get some breakfast. Okay?"

  "Sure," she said with a shy smile, "Okay."

  We gave the spray a few more minutes, then put on our uniform coveralls and went down to the mess.

  It was busy down at the mess, and we both had to wait in line. I again presumed to pick for both of us, but she didn't seem to mind. I made sure I took a lot of food this time, I was pretty hungry too.

  We carried our trays over to a table in the corner, and fell to with a relish. At least she was eating well now. A couple of weeks and about twenty pounds, and she'll look fine. Of course somebody was going to have to start teaching her to fight and in the beginning I might as well be the one. Eventually I'd have to see about getting Banner or Herza to teach her, but there wasn't any rush yet.

  I noticed that as people started to sit at our table she slid just a little closer towards me. I guess I was getting to be the lesser of two evils. I heard a "Hey Raj, what's up?" and turned around to see Gabe heading over.

  "Oh, hi Gabe pull up a seat."

  He sat down across the table from us. "So, who's your friend? I don't recall seeing you anywhere."

  "Gabe, this is Terease, Terease this is my friend Gabriel. He's another one of the ship's shuttle pilots."

  "Hi Gabriel." she replied shyly.

  "Hello Terease," he gave a little bow, "any friend of Raj's is a friend of mine!" He turned to me, "Raj, I heard we're gonna be doing EP sims today."

  I groaned, "Ugh, I hate 'Ten Thousand Ways to Die', with a passion."

  "Well, at least we're in jump drive, so if you get grounded it's no biggie."

  "Excuse me, but what's an EP sim?"

  I was so surprised to hear Terease I nearly choked on my food, Gabe didn't hesitate to explain.

  "Oh, that's where they set up every disaster that the warped minds of the Company's Flight instructors can come up with in the flight simulators. If you get killed you're grounded for the day, and if you loose a ship that they feel was savable, you have to make a presentation on what you did wrong."

  By now I had my food back under control, "Yeah, mess up enough times and they can even ground you for good."

  "Sounds horrid. Glad I'm an engineer."

  "An engineer huh? I didn't know that Leopards went in for that brainy stuff." said Gabe.

  "Well," Terease said quietly with a shy smile, "It's not that hard."

  "Oh? I haven't the foggiest notion of how, or even why the jump drive works, do you Raj?"

  "I just fly 'em I don't fix 'em." I said smiling between bites.

  "Oh, it's not that difficult," she began and launched into a technical discussion that lost me after about 10 seconds. I looked over at Gabe and could see he was starting to get a little glazed around the eyes too. He looked at me and I gave him a wink. I looked down the table at the few other people sitting around, they looked pretty impressed too. Lost, but impressed.

  When she finally came up for air about two minutes later Gabe said, "Well, I can see where all the brains are at this table, you lost me way, way back."

  She looked over at me and I shrugged "Hey, I'd think you'd be the first to agree that I'm no genius."

  "Yes, but you do have your fine points," she smiled, and then continued on very quietly, "and if I ever find one I'll let you know."

  Gabe started to laugh, and I grabbed my chest "Ah, I've been mortally wounded," and laughed too.

  Even Terease joined in a little, and I felt that maybe I'd live through this after all. We continued making small talk, and then got up to go our own ways. I walked with Terease a little ways down the corridor.

  "Um, what time does your shift end?" I asked.

  "Should be the same as yours, about 1800 why?"

  "Well, I thought you may like to start learning how to fight so you can fulfill that threat of yours someday."

  "Do I have a choice?" she asked with a smile

  "No, but this time I'm not the one doing the enforcing, Balizar, as security head, insists that all crew members know how to defend themselves. I've been volunteered for the duty."

  "Okay, where should I meet you?"

  "My cabin, I'll have to see about a private gym. I don't want anybody to see your back yet. Or how inexperienced you are, some of the people on board might get bad ideas."

  "Well, I have to stop by my cabin to get a few things, and then I'll meet you at yours."

  "Oh, before I forget I uh, sent somebody down to clean your cabin."

  "You What!?" She stopped and glared at me.

  I checked the hallway to make sure nobody was in earshot, it was clear both ways.

  "Well, I didn't want you to pick up any of that stuff again. Also let's face it, the place stinks. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that you can't get back in it for a couple of days either. We don't want people to find out the real reason it's been cleaned, do we?" The last I said more as I plea than a request.

  "Oh, okay." she grumbled "But don't try to be nice, it makes it hard for me to keep planning my revenge."

  "After this morning’s bite I was kind of hoping you'd call it even."

  "That evened out the shower," I winced as she reminded me of that. "Everything else is still under consideration."

  With that we parted ways and I headed down to the shuttle deck to pick up my gear, and see what they had planned for us. Sure enough Gabe had been right, and on a Sunday too! Well at least it was an easy duty day. I found an open terminal, and sent a mail message to Balizar, telling him I thought I should take care of Terease's training, as she had none. Hopefully he'd have it on her schedule by the time she checked and I'd get away with that little bit of a fib. Then I grabbed my stuff and headed for the Simulator deck.

  I found Ron grabbing the first unlucky victims and setting them up for their runs. As there were only two Simulators and eight crews it was going to take awhile. I looked around for Rudy, and found him talking with Gabe and his WSO, Dave. Dave was a gray wolf and about ten year's older then us, he stood about five eleven, average for a Wolf actually. He was a pretty good guy and even though he was one of the older hands he didn’t mind hanging out with us. He also had been around quite a lot apparently and was always a good source of information.

  "Hey guy's what's up?"

  "We are," said Rudy, "We got the next one in about thirty minutes."

  "Good, I hate waiting for these things."

  "So, Gabe tells us you got a new conquest?"

  "The conquest part is still under debate, she's a tougher nut to crack than you'd think."

  "Oh?" said Gabe, "she seemed to be sitting pretty close to you there at the table."

  "I think that was due to your overpowering presence Gabe, you just scared her into my arms!" I chuckled.

  "Well, she looks pretty nice, a little underfed though, there isn't anything wrong with her is there?"

  Un-oh, I knew Gabe was pretty sharp, I was afraid he might notice that. "Nah," I lied "it's her first assignment and she was working so hard trying to make a good impression, that she let herself get run down and caught some flu. Then she felt like an idiot, so she wouldn't go see the med about it. You know how the brainy types can be."

  "Yeah, and combine that with one of you stubborn Leopard types, and I can see where that'd happen. I guess that explains why I haven't seen her before either."

  "She came aboard the Engineering module while we were all dirtside. If it hadn't been for the clan meeting, we would never have met. She's still a little shy."

  "Well if she sticks around you that'll change," said Rudy. "One thing you aren't, and that's shy."

  "Obnoxious is a little more like it." Said Dave with a smile.

  "To know me is to loath me, huh? Then how come I get all the girls?"

  "When we figure that one out we'll all be rich," quipped Rudy "come on, lets review som
e of this stuff just in case. It's our first EP sim together so you know they're gonna lay on the team work stuff pretty heavy."

  I agreed with him on that so we sat down and started to run down everything that was in the manual and even practiced a few of the more common things just to tune up our team work.

  Much later as I headed back to my room, I thought about the sim session we had just completed. I hadn't done too poorly, and neither had Rudy. Dave though had to do a speech on the two-man ejection sequencer, after he bailed out and left an ‘unconscious’ Gabe behind.

  I found Terease sitting on my bed as I entered my quarters; she was looking at my family pictures, the group photo and the photo of Cassandra and myself.

  "Is this your family?" she asked, gesturing to the first picture.

  "Yeah, that's us. That picture was taken just before I left for shuttle training and the others left for their new assignments."

  "Who's the girl?"

  "That's Cassandra my sister, and one true love." I said with a sigh.

  "Your sister? Isn't that incest or something?" She had a real sour expression on her face.

  "You don't know about crèches do you?" I sounded a little disgusted now myself.

  "No, why?"

  "Nobody in a crèche family is actually related. No parents."

  "What do you mean, 'No parents'?"

  "Just that, none, nada, zip."

  "Then how were you born?"

  "Listen," I said sitting down on my desk, "My mother was a test tube, and my father was a DNA extruding machine. I was conceived by a committee, and planned by a technician. Where did you think I came from?" I asked embarrassed. Talking about such things wasn’t exactly socially acceptable.

  "I honestly never gave it any thought," she replied abashed, "I mean, I know about genetic engineering and all. I've just never met anybody before who was."

  I laughed out loud at that! "Haven't met anybody? Terease, nearly every animan on the ship is a crèche baby!"

  "What? But nobody ever says anything about it."

  "It's not considered polite conversation, you'll notice nobody ever asks you about your parents either."

  "I guess that would also be the reason the clan's are so important to everybody."

  "Pretty much, the Clans watch out for their members, help all the different species get along with each other, keep us from running afoul of human laws, and actually handle most legal matters allowing the human courts to mostly ignore us."