Children of Steel Read Free Page A

decent sort, treats his
people well. Cross him though and he'll have you made into a
rug."
    "Thanks," I said gathering up my gear. "I
appreciate the advice."
    I walked out into the corridor with quite a
few new thoughts. I wasn't too surprised when I had learned about
the laxer discipline. All the military stiffness I was trained with
had slacked off a lot in the last year when I was being trained by
the company's shuttle people. The bit about the knife really
surprised me though. A lot of animen carry knives, humans do too.
Guns in spaceships could be dangerous, especially while in jump
drive. In training I had rarely had to carry one though, I had
always thought that the claws I was born with were more than
enough. But then claws are not really that good if you have to kill
someone, and in training there was always an instructor somewhere
nearby.
    I found my quarters next, walked in and
looked around. It was a six by eight cubical. Everything in it was
designed to fold up or stow away, depending on what you needed, a
bed or a desk. Pretty spacious actually. I noticed there was a
shelf above my bed folded into the wall. The way it pulled out I
suspected it could be made into another bed, I guess if we ever
take on extra troops I'll be expected to double.
    I set about putting my gear away, it seemed
strange now to have all this stuff to take care of. I'd have to get
to the forward weapons locker and examine the weapons I had just
bought. That was one of the drawbacks of the corporations, you had
to buy everything, and it could get expensive. You could also be
charged for equipment you broke or lost, but only if the
corporation determined that it was your fault.
    I took out the picture of Cassandra, the only
girlfriend I ever really had, and placed it on the desk. She was
off somewhere working as a field intelligence operative, which
meant she was probably manning some listening post somewhere,
intercepting messages and electronically spying on some other
corporation's people or interests. She had left last year and I
hadn't heard from her since. I took out the group picture of my
entire crèche group next, all the family I had ever really had.
Again, I hadn't heard from any of them either, but it's about what
we expected. Mail doesn't travel well from planet to planet.
    I checked the duty roster then and saw I was
due on shortly, so I changed into a clean uniform, grabbed my
flight gear and headed to the shuttle bay.
    It took me a little while to track down the
Executive Officer, who may have been the busiest person on the
ship. I finally caught up with him down in the shuttle bay where he
was inspecting the ship's shuttle complement, and making sure that
the necessary repairs were being performed. I walked up and
saluted.
    "Warrant Ensign Rakir reporting sir."
    "Yeah, what do you want, I'm busy right
now."
    "Well sir, I'm the new junior pilot onboard,
and I thought I should report in to you as soon as possible
sir."
    "Ah, yes my new pilot, you're trained in
assault landings, not just the regular stuff, am I right?"
    "That is correct sir."
    "Good, we like to keep a full complement of
combat qualified fliers, just in case. OK, just a sec. Hey Chief!"
He yelled across the hanger.
    "Yeah whaddaya want sir?"
    "Come over here, I got your new pilot!"
    Out of the office across the shuttle deck
strode the biggest Tiger I had ever seen, he must have weighed at
least 400 pounds and stood well over seven feet tall. Definitely
not someone I would want to mess with and I'm no lightweight
either.
    "Chief Shandour, Warrant Rakir. He's your new
pilot; I want you to check him out ASAP."
    "No problem commander, take care of it right
away." He then turned and looked me over. I looked back and tried
to get an idea of just how strong he probably was.
    "Well at least you don't look underfed, let's
see how well you do on a check out flight. Follow me."
    We went to the equipment room, and I was
outfitted with a G-suit, and a Flight helmet. The flight