Children of Steel

by John Van Stry

  I looked at the selection of players that they had available, I was surprised at the sizes and even the prices of some of the equipment. I could spend a fortune in here easily! At that point one of the sales people noticed my confusion and came over to offer assistance.

  "May I help you sir?" She asked.

  I looked around at the large supply of equipment, "Yes, you sure can. I'm thinking of buying a player of some kind, but to be honest I have no idea what to get." I gave her my best confused look, which in this case was rather easy.

  She gave me a smile, "I can see you don't have any experience with stereo equipment."

  "Is that what it's called?"

  "Most of it, it's the most generally used type of a system using just two speakers, a right channel and a left channel." she explained, "There are systems that use more speakers to give a better sound, but even those are referred to as 'stereo' in the broad sense."

  "I see, I think. So it's basically split to one channel per ear?" I wasn't totally stupid.

  "Basically that's it, how much were you thinking of spending?"

  "I want something that's small, I work aboard ship. But I do want something of good quality," I could see her eyes glint at the thought of that! "Not too expensive though! This is my first ahh, 'Stereo'."

  "You won't want something too cheap," she explained, leading me to a section that contained much smaller units. "Your hearing is better than a human’s, so you'll be much more likely to pick up imperfections that are in a cheaper unit."

  I took her word for this, and just hoped I didn't get taken as well.

  "This would probably be a good set for you," she showed me a unit that was about twelve inches long, six high, and six deep. "This unit will accept both memory disks and the standard digital tape; it will also record on either medium if you wish to make copies." She indicated two small speakers that sat on either side of the unit, they were each six inch cubes. "These are the speakers; they can be attached to the back for storage or carrying. This unit is very popular with ship's crew members like yourself."

  I looked it over, and was fairly compact, and looked well built, it had a very sturdy polymer shell and would hopefully take a lot of abuse without breaking. "How good is it?" I had nothing to compare it with.

  "It has a frequency response from zero to well past anything you could hear, believe me!" she smiled, and showed me the literature that accompanied the unit. "Here, let me play something for you." She turned it on then, and while I didn't know music very well, it did sound good.

  I listened to it for a few minutes while looking over the spec sheet. The frequency range was well out of my hearing range alright. I was familiar with some of the other concepts, such as distortion, power, and channel separation, from my technical studies. I wasn't too sure how they applied here, but it did seem to be a very good piece of equipment indeed.

  "It does sound good," I admitted, "and these spec's look very impressive, but how does it compare to the other units you have?" Maybe a little comparison would help me figure out if I was getting a good deal, I figured.

  "Here, let me play that piece of music on some of the other sets we have." So saying she removed the disk that was in the unit, and played it on several different stereos in the shop. I did notice some differences when she showed me one of the big six speaker stereos, but I expected that.

  We went back to the stereo she had originally shown me, "So how much is it?"

  "Five thousand dollars" she said without batting an eye.

  "Five thousand!" I said shocked, "That's nearly as much as a good set of armor." I looked at the unit again, it looked pretty small for that price.

  She continued on non-plussed, "It is water proof, fireproof, can withstand a forty 'G' shock, has a rechargeable internal power cell, can convert power from any standard hook up, comes with a headset, and is guaranteed for twenty years." She picked it up and threw it across the room. It bounced off the wall before it came to a rest, but kept playing.

  I was impressed, "Okay, four thousand." I countered, she smiled and we haggled a little bit. It ended up costing forty-five hundred, and she gave me a carrying case for it as well as a case of blank memory disks. They brought out a new one in a box; I opened it and gave it a quick test, then thanked her and left.

  I took a cab back to the company barracks, as I didn't feel like carrying it all the way back. I stashed the stuff in my room and then went in search of the cafeteria for dinner.

  The rest of my leave was just one continuous party; I didn't sleep in the barracks at all. I ended up at one party at one of the local schools that lasted for two days. That turned out to be fairly profitable as I met a psychology professor and I talked to him about my temper for a while. He thought that mediation was a good idea, but suggested I try it twice a day for about twenty minutes, instead of just once. That also fit better into my regular schedule.

  I did get to see a few of the other islands around the area, and enjoyed a few liaisons with some of the local women. Most of the people were just unbelievably friendly and I got quite a few offers to spend the night at somebody's place that were totally non-sexual, I even made a couple of new friends.

  Needless to say, that when the time came to leave we were all sorry to be going, but everybody was in a good mood. Loading went pretty quickly, as most of the cargo here was fairly lightweight. I did get to set my stereo up in my room and started going through the ship library's music selection. I found that my tastes tended to run mostly to classical and jazz fusion. Rock was nice, as well as some of the martial music, but it had a tendency to make me a little hyper, so I stayed away from those mostly.

  After we left Lyceum, we made two more stops that really weren't of much notice. We stayed at both planets for about five days a piece getting three days of actual leave at each, and spent most of our time on the company's grounds, or sticking to the highly segregated animen section of town. Both of these places were a lot more like Earth, with animen being tolerated as long as we remembered our place and didn't get out of line.

  So it was about five months after we had left Lyceum that we finally came back to Hobson's Choice. I was excited to be back to a place where we were accepted. Also I wanted to see how Kathy was doing. Both Dave and Rudy were excited too, though Gabe was ecstatic. It had been more than sixteen months since we had been here last.

  I gathered from the rest of the crew that Hobson was a regular stop for this ship and one that normally took place sooner than this. But we had been thrown off our planned route by circumstance, so here we were. Of course those same people offered that Lyceum was not a regular stop for this ship, so we should count our blessings.

  Most ships, mine included, tended to work in only one region of space. This way everybody became familiar with the necessary procedures for dealing with the planets there. It also allowed the company to divest some control into regional centers which, with the time delay in communications, worked more efficiently.

  We made orbit around Hobson's without incident, and commenced unloading immediately. The unloading took about six days; everybody was in a real rush to get finished. I got the distinct impression that quite a few of the crew had girlfriends or boyfriends here. Once we were finished we were all given two weeks leave, which everybody greeted with enthusiasm.

  I sat through the mandatory 'local practices' briefing, there weren't any questions this time as the crew hadn't changed at all since we were last here. Neither had the briefing. It was about noon Thursday, and I had already touched bases with Gabe and Dave who wanted to go to The Lining, the bar we had been to last time. They were going to call Karen and Terry, so I thought I'd call Kathy and see if she'd come too.

  I felt a little trepidation as I made the call, after all I had been gone well over a year, and she may very well have decided that she had something better to do. I waited while the phone rang, unsure of what to say.

  "Hello?" I heard a women's voice answer the phone, I think it was Kathy's, but it ha
d been a while.

  "Hello, this is Raj Rakir, is Kathy there?" I asked, somewhat uncomfortably.

  "Hi Raj, where have you been?" She sounded happy at least, "It's been so long, I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to hear from you again!"

  "We just got in an hour ago. I'm sorry I haven't been around, but it isn't anything I have any control over." I said apologetically.

  "Oh I know that, I was just afraid something might have happened to you. Kathy told me that she usually sees Gabe every nine months or so, and of course the company never tells when a ship is due in."

  "Well, we had an exciting tour this time. I was wondering if you'd like to meet me tonight, Gabe and Dave were going to call Karen and Terry, and I though maybe we could join them?" Now I'd find out just where I stood.

  "Sure Raj! I'd love to. I'll get in touch with the girls, and find out what the plan is."

  Suddenly I felt a lot better; I hadn't realized just how much it meant to me until she said yes. "I think we're going to head to The Lining right away, it’s been a while since we've been to a decent bar so I think the plan is to meet there."

  "Okay, I'll see you there around eight unless Karen and Terry have other plans."

  "Fine, I'll be looking forward to seeing you later then. Bye"

  "Bye, Oh! check your mail!" she added cryptically just before she hung up.

  I went and found Gabe and Dave, they had gotten in touch with the girls and they were going to meet us at the Bar. We grabbed a cab and when I insisted on a detour to the central post office, they weren't too hard to convince.

  Once there I checked the mail, besides the normal letter for any family member, there were two other pieces as well. I looked over the envelopes, one was from Sunil which was not too much of a surprise, the other was from Cassandra! I sat down and ripped it open immediately.

  I read the letter over quickly, and then a second time a little slower. She had come through here four months ago, our little fracas on Arboral had caused a shift in the company's deployment of personnel. She couldn't write where she was bound unfortunately, but I was happy to see that she was in the same relative sector at least.

  She had heard about Nepal, the company was always quick with death notices. She had also received news that Kali was fully recovered and doing well, that took a load off my mind. After that she spent a page telling me what she could about what she had been doing since we had parted.

  The last part surprised me a bit; she had looked up Kathy as I had mentioned her in the Family mail. I hadn't considered that possibility! She said she felt it was her duty to check up on me, and I started to get a little worried, but as I read on she said that she approved of Kathy and even liked her. I breathed a sigh of relief at that, we had both agreed that celibacy was out of the question, but I hadn't wanted to put it to the test.

  Finally she told me that she missed me, that she hoped we could get a joint assignment together in the future, and that I had better take care of myself and not get shot down again! I wondered how she had heard about that? She had also enclosed a recent picture, which I looked at longingly.

  I put Sunil's letter in my pocket with her picture, and quickly scanned the Family letter. Both Sunil and Cassandra had added to it, I read their brief comments, added my own, and 'remailed' it. I then found Gabe and Dave who were waiting for me in the lobby.

  "I take it you got some mail?" asked Gabe noticing my grin.

  "Sure did!" I showed them Cassandra's letter, and once we had gotten another cab I read Sunil's too.

  His was just a summary of what had been happening on his ship, and where he had been. He had seen some action himself, against another company on some place called Talis four. He was doing well and while he was here he had looked up Kathy too. He said I had excellent taste in humans and hoped I didn't mind. At first I found that last bit a little cryptic, but then I figured it out and had to laugh.

  "What's so funny?" asked Dave.

  "Oh nothing, just something my brother wrote that's all," I smiled. It wasn't any of his business anyway; I just hope we didn't come here at the same time. It would be embarrassing at the very least, if we should both try and date the same girl at the same time.

  We got to the place around four, found a couple of seats at the bar and ordered some beers. It was nice to just hang out and relax for a while, we talked to some of the regulars and around six we stepped out for a little while to get some food. Seven o'clock found us back at the bar and working on some more beers, by the time the girls showed up I had a slight buzz on and was feeling pretty good.

  "Raj! It's been too long," said Kathy stepping up and putting her arms around me. I hugged her back and kissed her, I didn't think anybody would complain. I noticed Gabe and Karen weren't even coming up for air.

  "It has been a while hasn't it?" I said looking down at her. I noticed she was dressed the same way as when we had first met, all in black, wearing a one piece jump suit that showed off her athletic figure. I also noticed she still had the ring I had bought her.

  "Raj, Dave, how are you two doing?" asked Karen after finally breaking away from Gabe.

  We all said hello and exchanged hugs and kisses. After that Dave led us to a booth in the back section and we all sat down together. I found I was having a hard time keeping my hands off of Kathy, and she was pressing up against me pretty tightly as well.

  After about an hour of small talk and some beer, it was obvious that everybody else was having the same problems. We had to remind Gabe that this wasn't Lyceum, and that if he started doing it at the table somebody would probably call the police. So we all decided to head back to Karen and Terry's early.

  When we got there, Karen dragged Gabe into her room, and Terry did the same with Dave. Kathy and I didn't bother to even get the blankets from the closet, just grabbed each other and fell on the couch. After a couple of hours I did go and get the blankets and pillows, but we didn't go to sleep till much later.

  The next morning we awoke fairly late and after a quick shower I found myself lying on the couch getting a massage, with my tail wrapped around her as she straddled my butt. I remembered that after our first night together we had ended up the same way, and remarked on that to her.

  "Well it must have worked last time, because you came back right?" Kathy said giggling.

  "Can't argue with success I guess. So what did you think of Sunil and Cassandra." I asked curious, and purred a little as she worked up around my neck.

  "I was surprised that Sunil was so much like you, I thought that crèche mates weren't related?"

  "Actually they usually use the same basic template a couple of times with only minor changes, before they make any major ones. Two of my brothers, Sunil and Randell both look a lot like me."

  "Oh, I didn't know that. Cassandra was really nice, we got along pretty well, but she made it clear that you were her personal property and this was just a loan." She laughed at that.

  "That didn't bother you?" I asked surprised.

  "No, why should it?" she bent over then and nipped me on the ear. "I already knew that you planned to, uh what is it? Lifemate?"

  "Yes," I replied.

  "... with her when you could," she continued, "and I think you know that I don't plan to marry a Leopard. She just wanted to make sure about the last I guess. What surprised me the most was that she didn't mind about us. A lot of human girls would have, but then I got the impression she had quite a few boyfriends herself."

  "Saving one's self for marriage is definitely not a Leopard tradition!" I laughed, and then rolled over and showed her so myself.

  Afterwards we went into the kitchen and joined Dave and Terry, who were already there. I got Kathy a cup of coffee and grabbed one for myself. I sat down by the window and Kathy sat on my lap wearing a robe she had brought with her, it was green silk and set off her eyes rather nicely. It also showed her other charms as well, I must admit.

  I felt quite content sitting there and drinking my coffee, as Ka
thy scratched behind one of my ears. I looked at Dave and Terry who were both relaxing in the chair across the table, they both appeared content as well, sitting in the late morning sunlight.

  "Sleep well?" Inquired Terry with a satiated smile.

  "Quite well thank you," I replied nuzzling Kathy's ear as she giggled. "Think we'll see Gabe or Karen again today?"

  "I don't know," said Dave smiling himself, "I'm really beginning to have my suspicions about those two."

  "Well, you guy's have been gone along time," said Terry.

  "And we didn't know who was coming back either," added Kathy. "There were a lot of rumors floating around here a while back about were you went."

  "Yeah, and what happened there too," finished Terry.

  "I don't know, I think there's a little more to it than that," replied Dave. "I have a strange feeling that Gabe and Karen are starting to get serious. After all he did go meet her folks last time we were here." He looked at the girls and me after he said that.

  "Do you really think so?" I asked surprised, and to be honest a little shocked too.

  "Hey, I work with the guy! I think I know him pretty well, and I think so. What do you think Terry?"

  "Weellll, to be honest Karen stopped dating humans about three years ago, claimed her step-brothers had spoiled her," she looked at the rest of us a little embarrassed. "I think Karen was pretty wild growing up. Anyway, she always looks forward to Gabe's arrivals and when we heard the rumors, she was pretty worried."

  "Just what were the rumors?" I asked. I was interested on just how much of what happened had spread around. I knew that the ship's crew would do their best to tell everybody in town.

  "That you went straight to combat from here and that it was with an anti-animen group. Rumor was that a lot of people on both sides were killed too."

  "I thought I noticed some scars under your fur on your back this morning," Kathy said quietly. "Were you hurt bad?"

  "I'm alright now," I said giving her a little squeeze, "but I did have one really bad day."