Interregnum (Children of Steel Book 2)

by John Van Stry

  "Well, this stinks," I said to Cassandra, Dave, Marcus, and a few others who were having lunch in the mess with us.

  "Well, the captain did warn us that there weren't going to be a lot of paying missions this year," Cassandra said.

  "It's not that so much, as that it's so crowded we have to eat in shifts," I grumbled.

  "Raj is just upset because there's all those extra fem's onboard now, and he's mated so he can't enjoy it," Dave laughed.

  I glared at him.

  "Raj! Is that true?" Cassandra asked with a smirk.

  "Of course it's true!" Dave said, "Raj here was quite the female's tomcat, he had quite the reputation onboard the Astra."

  "Dave, you can be replaced with a machine that makes coffee, you know that, right?" I growled.

  Cassandra laughed, "Of course he was! You're just jealous because the fems don't line up for you, like they did for my mate." Cassandra rubbed up against me then in a very suggestive way, "and I enjoy it that they can't have him anymore, and that he's all mine," Cassandra added purring rather deeply.

  I perked right up and put my arm around her and kissed her nice and long. Long enough that Dave coughed and a few others made comments about 'getting a room'.

  I turned and smiled at Dave, who had his ears down and looked rather embarrassed. "Suck it up puppy," I purred, "That's what love looks like."

  "Yeah, yeah. Rub it in, Raj," he grumbled. "I swear, sometimes you two are so over the top that I think it's an act."

  "You should see Balizar and Sharazad at the clan meetings," Cassandra laughed, "Sometimes they put us to shame!"

  "It's a cat thing," said Marcus, who had joined us for lunch today. I didn't get to see him often, but he did join us on occasion. "Cat don't mate as often as a lot of you others do, usually we just pair up for a while and move on. So when it does happen, it's pretty intense."

  "I hadn't thought about that," Dave admitted.

  "How many mated couples do you know?"

  Dave paused a moment, "Just the three here on the Astra."

  "Exactly, mostly you'll just see regular pairs that have been together for a few years, sometimes even long enough to have raised cubs. Probably less than a third actually mate for life, most just pair up."

  Dave nodded.

  "So that makes the females even more envious of Cassy there," Marcus said with a smirk, "if Raj was just paired, they could at least try for a fling, but he's just flat out not interested anymore."

  Dave looked at me and I nodded, "I thought you knew that Dave."

  "Well," Dave sighed, "There's hearing and then there's seeing. And let's face it, Raj, you didn't seem to be the type who was going to limit himself." He glanced over at Cassandra and grinned, "Not that I'm saying you shouldn't. Just that, well Cassy there is well above your pay grade!"

  Cassandra laughed and I purred, "Which is why I'm not interested in anyone else."

  "Point taken."

  "So where do you think we're off to?" I asked changing the subject.

  "I'm sure the captain will let us know once we're in jump."

  "Eh, just ask the tech weenies on the pods," Marcus said. "They're not making much of a secret of it."

  We looked at him surprised. "Really?" Dave said.

  "Well, it's not like what we're hauling is that expensive a cargo, it's just personnel mostly, and some pretty standard support gear. Stealing it would cost more than its worth, and the people, well, with the war over; no one right now is looking to grab people. In fact, I hear there's a bit of a surplus right now."

  I nodded, and so did the others, that was the rumor going around.

  "Wonder if they're going to build a few more cargo ships?" I asked. That was the other rumor currently going around.

  "Well, they built those two cruisers, so I'd be betting that they'll build at least two more of the French class, like the Astra here, they have to move those captains somewhere, and if they don't give them something nice, they'll move to another corporation," Marcus said.

  I nodded again; Marcus was a lot smarter than I'd first thought, back when we'd first tangled, but during the war, he'd gone up through the enlisted ranks pretty far. He was a Master Sergeant now and apparently one hell of a technician as well.

  "So, where are we going?" Dave prompted.

  "Oh, Iverly is the next stop. They're doing a massive expansion there; rumor is its going to become another sector HQ. I think we're dropping everything off when we get there."

  "Iverly? That's over by Pharaoh's region of space. That's a long trip," Dave said pulling out his tablet and checking a few things, "Especially as loaded down as we are."

  "So what?" I said and looked at Dave, "After being crammed into the Falcon for a couple of years, this place is like a luxury hotel!"

  Dave smiled, "Yeah, there is that. And most of the woman here aren't bigger than me!"

  We all laughed at that, most of the fems on the Falcon had been Special Forces, like me, and they were neither weak, small, nor timid.

  "Well, let's go down to the ready room, we're back on shift in a few minutes." I said and gathering my gear I gave Cassandra a kiss and we all headed back to our duty stations.

  Dave was right; the trip to Iverly from Alexandria was a long one, especially loaded down as we were. The Astra was only pulling about one point eight lights, so it would take us almost fifteen weeks to get there. And while it wasn't too bad for the regular crew, the Astra was our home after all, the passengers started getting what the doc's called 'Cabin Fever' about ten weeks in, by twelve weeks all of the officers were carrying stun rods, and as I was a warrant officer, that included me as well. To try and help calm things down, they were having clan meetings every Saturday evening now, instead of just once a month.

  "Last time we were in this situation, it was a lot less pretty than this time," I said to Jeri as we were sitting duty on the bridge. Bridge duty under jump was a lot more relaxed, half the stations weren't even manned, and the officer of the watch was usually whoever was manning the helm. The captain ran the ship out of his office when we were in jump; the bridge was reduced to not much more than a communications center.

  "I wasn't onboard back then, what happened?" Jeri asked.

  I shrugged and told her some of it, leaving my own mishap out.

  "If it wasn't for the passengers, I don't think there'd be any problems on board right now," I said after I had finished.

  Jeri shrugged, "Well, in your story, none of the crew had set foot on a planet at that point in over six months or had leave in almost a year, but that's not the real reason the crew is taking it so well."

  "Oh? What is?"

  "It's the passengers," she said with a chuckle, "they're mostly ground pounders, and we're all space crew. So it's an 'us versus them' thing. Especially as there are a lot more of them than us. The Astra is our home, this is our tribe, and they’re the outsiders, so we're just uniting against the common foe.

  "If they weren't here, I'm sure we'd be having our own issues. However," she fingered the stun rod she was wearing, "I doubt we'd be issued these."

  I nodded, "I'm expecting fights to start happening soon. I've already had to break up a few arguments."

  "Better you than me," Jeri sighed. "I'm five foot nothing and weight less than half of what you do. Trying to stop a fight would hurt."

  "Well at least they're all techs and not soldiers or security types," I laughed, "so they're not really trained in hand-to-hand."

  "I would like to point out that I'm not trained in hand-to-hand either. At least they're all restricted from coming into officer country, so I don't have to mix with them much."

  I nodded, "Well, I would say to go down to the mess with a couple of friends, then at least if anything happens you won't be alone."

  "Way ahead of you on that one Raj, the otters are all traveling in groups as of the last clan meeting. Even the otters on the troop modules are getting a little concerned, we don't have issues with enclosed spaces like some of th
e others do, sort of a species thing I guess. But some of those other groups are getting antsy in the modules. So a couple of the females are sharing my room right now, and we're sticking together."

  "What, not putting together a harem of your own males?" I teased her.

  Jeri rolled her eyes, "We like to segregate into male and female groups socially. Like Humans do."

  "Huh, didn't know that." I looked up as our relief came onto the bridge. When in jump space, the massive bridge display was set to a neutral gray, with displays for all the ships systems arranged around the perimeter at eye level.

  Richoli reported in and relieved Jeri, I of course didn't have a relief as I was up here on training detail, so I signed out along with Jeri.

  "Need an escort back to your quarters?" I asked.

  "Thanks, Raj, I appreciate it."

  "No problem. Don't hesitate to buzz me if you need an escort, I don't mind."

  She nodded and the trip down to her cabin was uneventful, of course, she was close to the bridge, all the primary bridge crewmembers were.

  "When are you heading down for dinner?" She asked.

  "Actually I was going to grab Cassy and head down there right now."

  "Give me a minute and I'll join you, okay?"

  "Sure."

  She changed, and then we went and caught up with Cassandra and the three of us headed down to the mess.

  The line was a little longer than normal, but I didn't mind, sometimes it got a little backed up.

  "I really feel sorry for the cooks," Jeri sighed, "with this many people to feed; they must be working overtime just to keep up."

  "Yeah, well, they're failing if you ask me," Grumbled a bear that I didn't recognize. As I knew all of the Astra's bear clan, and as he wasn't wearing an Astra ship suit, it was clear he was one of our 'passengers'.

  "We only have a dozen cooks onboard the Astra, that's why we have to eat in shifts when we're carrying so many extra people," Jeri sighed. "They're doing the best that they can."

  "Well, their best isn't good enough!" The Bear growled, and a couple of other bears in the line nodded, friends of his I guess.

  "It still beats eating rations," Jeri said, sounding to me like she was trying to salvage the conversation. I looked at Cassandra who looked at me and sighed.

  "I'm not so sure about that!" he said and looked at Cassandra, "And what's your problem?"

  "I'm not the one with a problem here," Cassandra said, "I'm just waiting for dinner."

  "Oh, you looking to start something?" he said, and his friends started to mutter to each other and look a bit hostile as well.

  "Excuse me," I said raising my voice so that it would carry, "Let's keep the conversation pleasant."

  "What? I can't complain about the food on this scow?" He grumbled glaring at me.

  I smiled, "You can complain about it all you want, just don't start anything with the other crew members."

  "Hey, she was the one with a problem! I'm just trying to get some food here, and I would be too if this damn line wasn't moving so slow!"

  His friends nodded, one said: "Yeah! What's wrong with this place?" Another made a comment about making them 'wait for crappy food.' There looked to be about five of them, and they were all muttering to each other and just bitching about the line and life on the Astra. I just smiled pleasantly and ignored it.

  The line by now had made decent progress; we were getting pretty close to the start of the serving queue, a few more minutes and I was sure this whole thing would settle itself.

  I glanced at Cassandra and she got the message and moved around to the other side of me, away from the bear and his friends, Jeri doing the same.

  "What, something wrong with me?" he growled.

  "No," I said.

  "I didn't ask you, I asked her!" He said, and I could see his friends were encouraging him.

  "Hey, leopard girl, something wrong with me? Don't like the way I smell or something?"

  "Crewman," I warned him, and prayed that Cassandra would keep her mouth shut, another minute and we'd be there, and hopefully food would take his mind off of his problems and stop him running his mouth.

  "Hey! Why don't you mind your own business," he said brushing my arm aside, "I'm trying to ask your friend there what her problem is."

  "As you were, Crewman," I said and gave a little warning growl.

  "Or what?" he snarked at me, "Come on, babe," he said focusing back on Cassandra, who had her back to him, and was ignoring him completely. "You got a problem with me? You don't like bears or something you stuffy black bitch?"

  He pushed past me and grabbed her shoulder from behind.

  It was instant, I snapped.

  I grabbed both of his shoulders as I stepped back with my right foot, then I pulled hard, jerking him towards me, and I twisted, throwing him over my hip with all of my now enraged strength.

  He flew backwards a good ten feet and probably would have gone even further, except for the bulkhead that blocked his way. He made a rather pleasing sound as he hit it, and slid down to the floor, stunned.

  I saw motion out of the corner of my eye and growling I turned. Three of his friends were moving towards me. I whipped my stun rod out and broke it over the head of the first one, who went boneless from both the charge and the force of it, falling to the floor. I let the second one get a little closer, and then hit him with a left haymaker straight to the face. His lower body kept moving forward, but his head snapped back so hard from the force that he just fell onto his back, out cold.

  Cassandra stuck her stun rod into the third one, and held it against him, triggering several jolts as he went down thrashing. Everyone else just held up their hands, and took a couple of steps back.

  I turned back to the bear I had thrown into the wall. He was picking himself up, and he looked angry.

  "Sit your ass down!" I growled at him. "You are under arrest for assaulting a superior, someone call security."

  "Oh, I'll give you security, you cat bastard!"

  I sighed, I wasn't angry anymore, how could I be? He wasn't a threat to Cassandra now.

  He charged arms wide, head down.

  I stepped forward, into him, and got him with an uppercut to the face, which I followed quickly with a left hook to the head, then a right one.

  He started flailing at me, trying to hit me, I was in a fighting stance now, so I slipped in, gave him two left jabs to the face, kicked him in the crotch, and when he bent over I grabbed the back of his head and pushed his head down as I brought my right knee up hard.

  I winced as I felt things in his face break; I hadn't meant to hit him that hard! I grabbed one of his arms, and circled behind him, putting him into a hammerlock and kicking him in the back of the knee joint to force him down onto his knees.

  "Problem, Raj?"

  I looked up and saw Shooma, the bear that Terease worked with, he was the head Engineering on the Astra, as well as the head of the bear clan on the Astra.

  "Oh, hi, Shooma. I think I have it under control. Has anyone called security yet?"

  "Yes, someone has. What did he do?"

  The bear was still struggling, I tightened the hold more, pulling his head back as well with the arm I had around his neck.

  "He grabbed Cassandra from behind, while calling her a 'Bitch'," I sighed.

  "He did what!" Shooma said shocked, and moved around in front of bear I was holding. He wasn't struggling as much anymore, but then I had all of my weight kneeling down into the back of his left calf, and had his arm so far up his back it was almost breaking. I could tell he was hurting.

  "Prestan," Shooma said rather sternly, "You will apologize to Senior Warrant Officer Cassandra Rakir immediately!"

  "I'm not apologizing! She started it! That...."

  I squeezed a little and he wised up enough not to finish that sentence.

  "You will apologize, or I will have Raj break your arm!"

  "You wouldn't date!" Prestan growled.

  "Break his
arm, Raj," Shooma said calmly.

  "You sure?" I asked.

  "Well he did attack your mate, I feel it's only fair," Shooma said.

  "Okay," I said and started to apply pressure, I'd never broken an arm this way, I wondered how much it would take.

  "Wait... wait! I apologize!" Preston cried out in pain.

  I stopped and released a little pressure.

  "What was that?" Shooma asked, as several members of ship security came in, Hawkeye and two tigers, they started to secure the three on the floor.

  "I apologize to the Warrant Officer, Ma'am, I apologize for grabbing you."

  Cassandra nodded, "Apology accepted."

  I got off of his leg and stood, helping him up. One of the tigers secured his arms as well.

  "Thank you, Raj, for not crippling him," Shooma said.

  I felt my ears go down in embarrassment, "I should have stopped him before he grabbed Cassy, I really didn't want to hurt him."

  "Still, it shows restraint, I have warned several of our passengers that many of the Astra's regular crew are combat veterans," Shooma said, a little louder than before. I suddenly realized that we had quite an audience, the mess sat over a hundred, and there were people gathered around the doorways as well. "What did you do again?"

  "Special ops, three years of living in Hell," I sighed, playing it up a little. "Again, I'm sorry about hurting him; I tried to get him to calm down."

  Shooma nodded, "I'm sure you did. I will have a talk with them on the way down to the sick bay."

  "Balizar wants to see you," Hawkeye said softly as the two tigers escorted the bears out of the mess area. The one I'd hit over the head was having problems walking, so Shooma was helping him.

  I sighed and nodded, "Oh my way."

  I went over to Cassandra and gave her a hug. "I'll see you later, time to get yelled at I guess."

  "I'll go with you," she said.

  "Cassy hon, I'll take care of it. Go eat dinner, and get me something if you can, alright?"

  "You sure?" She asked looking at me.

  "Yes, I'm sure. I'll be fine."

  "Okay," she gave me a hug and a kiss.