Children of Steel (13 page)

Sure enough, just inside the trees so it
couldn't be seen from the air, was a lean to, a fire pit, and even
a wood pile.

"There's an outhouse down that trail," She
pointed off to the left at a small footpath, "so nobody has to
rough it
too
much. Now let’s go swimming!" She said with a
mischievous smile and started stripping off her clothes.

The others did the same and I followed suit.
Everybody ran down and dove in and we all swam around, just goofing
off and having a good time. By the time we had gotten out and dried
off, the sun was starting to go down behind the mountains.

"Anybody got anything against spending the
night here?" asked Karen. "No? I thought so. Who wants to go get
the packs out of the copter?"

Gabe volunteered so Dave and I got started on
putting together a fire in the fire pit while Karen went and gave
Gabe a hand.

By the time Gabe got back to the campsite, we
had pretty well cleaned up the area. Karen and Terry took the food
we’d brought along from their apartment and put together a fairly
enjoyable meal cooking over the fire. While we ate Karen told us
about some of the parties her and her brother’s used to have up
here with their friends. Afterwards we sat around the campfire for
a while and talked about the differences between our life styles. I
could tell that Karen and Terry had both been through this before,
but Kathy and I were both pretty curious about some things. Mostly
because neither of us had had the chance to mingle with the other’s
specie before, at least not socially. Kathy had a definite edge
though, as animen were common here. For the most part my exposure
to humans had been carefully regulated as I had grown up.

We had put down a few beers, when Gabe asked
quietly.

"So fell like talking about it now Raj?"

"Uh, talking about what?" I asked, but had a
pretty good idea.

"Your size, everybody's dying to know. If you
don't mind talking about it that is." He looked at me, curiosity
burning in his eyes.

"Gabe, you must be the most prying person I
ever met. Anyway, I don't think anybody is really that interested."
I said, grinning to disarm my words.

"Well, actually," said Kathy, "I wouldn't
mind hearing it. That is if you don't mind telling us."

I looked around the fire, and everyone else
agreed. I was surprised that anybody would be that interested in
me. I thought back to the whole incident, staring into the fire
while I did so. I was unsure as to just how much of it to tell
them, did I really want people to know the whole story? I looked at
my two crewmates. They were the only ones who could really spread
it around, but several people had already commented on my size, so
something would have to be said. I made a decision.

"Basically the story's in two parts." I
looked at Dave and Gabe, "The first part I don't want being spread
around okay?"

Everybody agreed to that, and I looked
pointedly at Gabe.

"I mean it, if one of you two spreads this
around the ship, I'll cut out your tongue."

"Hey, quit looking at me! I may talk a lot,
but you know I'm no fink." Gabe said.

"I can keep a secret don't worry," said
Dave.

"Okay, and I just wanted to make sure that
you knew I was serious Gabe." I laid on my back and put my head in
Kathy's lap, now that I had everybody's attention, looking up at
the stars and her face.

"When I was about two, there was this nursery
attendant who worked the night shift. I had never liked him, he
smelled bad. But hey, I was just a kit what did I know? Anyway he
was always messing with my sisters, fusing over them and such while
they were in their beds. At first it really wasn't anything bad,
but eventually he zeroed in on my sister Cassandra.

"This had all gone on over a period of weeks,
and we were pretty small and uneducated. After a while he would
fuss with her at night for quite sometime, and the last time he had
caused her to start crying and hissing. My bed was next to hers,
and somehow I had gotten the idea I was her protector," I smiled.
"Probably from one of those stories that they read you in the
crèche. They were always filling us with tales of heroic deeds and
such."

"Psychological programming I bet," Terry put
in.

"Maybe,” I shrugged “I don't know. But I had
always liked those stories anyway, and liked to picture myself as
the hero. Anyhow, I told the head nursery attendant the next day,
'Grandma Lilton' her name was. A real good person."

"I knew her," Dave said, "she worked in my
crèche when I was just a pup."

"I didn't know you were from the company's
earth crèche Dave.” I said looking over to see him nod. “Anyway no
more interruptions okay? Where was I? Oh, I remember. She said it
was probably nothing and not to worry about it. But to tell her if
it happened again. Anyway that night he did it again, but this time
when she started to cry, he wouldn't leave her alone. And when she
started to yell, he covered her mouth with his hand and told her to
be quiet.

"I knew that whatever he was doing it was
hurting her and it was bad. So I crawled down to the floor, over to
him and bit his ankle. Hard."

I stopped for a second, finished what was
left of my beer, and closed my eyes.

"I can remember that part like it was only
yesterday. He stopped what he was doing to her and started beating
me with his fists. That was when I made my first mistake and let
go. He punted me across the floor into a wall. That was only the
beginning though, he started hitting me with his hands next. I
guess he was planning on making it look like I fell down or
something, but he was working me over pretty good.

"Anyhow I managed to get hold of his thumb
somehow and this time I didn't let go. He started beating me
against the wall, the table anything, and one time when he hit me
down on the table I was actually able to bite it off. You should
have heard him scream, that drew a crowd, and by then of course all
my brothers and sisters were raising a real ruckus.

"I was unconscious by the time anybody got
there and didn't wake up for who knows how long. When I did I was
in a hospital bed, totally unable to move, with tubes running all
over. I found out years later just how many bones he had broken,
and that the doctors were surprised I was even alive. I guess I owe
the team who designed me for that.

"So I find out, from Grandma, that he claims
I bit him and he panicked. I had a hard time telling her what
really happened, as my jaw was broken and I could barely speak.
Looking back, I don't think they believed me, you know the
reputation that Leopards have. So I'm lying there in bed, when
suddenly in comes the bad guy, his hand in a cast from surgery.
There's nobody around, and he comes right up to my bed and tells me
that I'm going to be 'put down' in the morning.

"He then goes on to explain what 'put down'
means. That I'm going to be killed. Not just because I'm so busted
up that they can't fix me. But because I attacked him and an animal
that doesn't know its place must be destroyed.

"He was still gloating when Grandma came into
the room. He shut up right away and she told him to get out. I then
asked her if what he said was true, that I was going to be killed
in the morning. From the shocked expression on her face, I guessed
he wasn't lying."

"What a cruel bastard," Kathy said quietly
and started to stroke my head.

"Well she told me not to worry, it wasn't
over yet and I should watch the observation window. A little while
later she shows up out there with the bad guy and all of the sudden
hits him in the crotch with her cane. When he bent over, she laid
into his head with a will. It took two big orderlies to pull her
off."

"She was a tough one wasn't she?" Dave put in
quietly from his side of the fire.

"I'll say, later that night she shows up with
the doctor and a couple of others, and has me tell them what he had
said to me. She then turns to them and said something about how if
he's innocent, why is he in here terrorizing this child? A little
while later she came back with just the doctor, and told me they
believed me, and that he wouldn't be around to hurt anybody
else.

"I felt better about that, but I asked the
doctor if it was true that I was too hurt to be fixed, and if I was
'put down' who'd protect my sisters and brothers? I guess that was
too much for her 'cause she left the room real quick, and Grandma
Lilton smiled at me and said that I'd be fine and not to worry.

"That's the first part of the story, the part
my records list as a 'bad accident', the part I don’t want shared."
I moved my head a little bit. "Right down there Kathy," she started
scratching lower on my neck. "Ahh, that's it. The next morning the
doctor shows up with a needle, and tells me real quiet, that she's
going to use something special on me, and I'm not to tell anybody.
She also shows me some basic exercises to do and tells me to do
them as much as possible.

"This went on twice a day for a month, and
then after the casts came off, once a day for another month."

"What was in the needle?" asked Karen.

"Growth hormones. They're not supposed to be
used on animen children cause it's considered a waste of resources.
Normal company policy is to euthanize any kit or cub that badly
injured, and save the money."

"How cold!" Said Kathy angrily, “That just
isn't right!"

"Oh I don't know, what kind of life could a
crippled animan have really? It's a tough world we live in, and a
tough life we have to live. Grandma Lilton told me much later that
if I hadn't healed so well, I would have still been euthanized. She
also told me that the doctor felt so bad about what had been done
to me, that when I seemed more worried about the others than
myself, she couldn't take it. So she stole the hormones from the
main hospital.

"So that's part of the reason I'm larger than
normal. She used a standard human dose on me, and it was more than
I needed for the bones to heal."

"What's the other reason?" asked Gabe.

"Oh that's simple," I laughed out loud, "I
was so terrified of dying, that when she told me that exercise
would help, I never stopped. Do you know that this is the first day
since then that I haven't spent at least an hour working out? The
only reason I can think of for the bold front I put up for the
doctor was all the pain killers I was on."

"So what ever happened to that guy?" asked
Kathy.

"Beats me, I still had to pay for his thumb,
it's on my bill."

"You're kidding! They charged you for that?"
She sounded very indignant about it.

"I don't think child abuse or murder laws
applied to animen then. So I think the company just shuffled him
off somewhere.

"But the one thing I'll always remember, is
that Grandma Lilton and that Doctor both risked getting fired, or
worse, for me. And just before she retired, Grandma Lilton told me
that the company had always been good to her and it was her
responsibility to get rid of those people who were bad for the
company. She also said that I should never blame the company for
the bad deeds of the same such individuals, that the company is
what we make it."

"I don't know, it sounds like more propaganda
to me." Said Terry.

"I disagree," said Dave, "she never said
anything like that to me. But I agree with the sentiment, Tri-Star
is the only family I've got, and I want to take care of it."

"I feel the same way." added Gabe, "Sure,
they slap us with a bill for everything. That's the same deal for
all of us in any company. But they don't stick it to us like some
places do. I've talked with some folks at some of the other corps
and I tell you, I think we've got it pretty good."

"So does that explain why you're such a good
fighter Raj?" Kathy asked me.

"Probably. I know I learned that I didn't
like being nearly beat to death. So I studied real hard at the
combat and fighting courses. Did so well that I got to go to pilot
training."

"I don't know," said Terry, "it still sounds
like company propaganda and brainwashing to me."

"I don't know that we're all that much
different." I said, "I mean you have to work for a living just like
I do. I just don't have any choice as to my employer. But then
again, I don't have to worry about being fired or laid off
either."

"Just being killed." responded Terry.

"Hey, when you're built like me, it's not
much of a worry," I replied flexing my arm and showing my
claws.

"Anyway," said Gabe grinning, "if it wasn't
for Tri-Star, we wouldn't be here, and you'd be very lonely tonight
indeed. Right?"

Everybody laughed at that, and as the fire
burned down we climbed into the sleeping bags that the girls had
brought. Kathy and I spent the night out under the stars, and had
another pleasant evening indeed.

The next morning I awoke again feeling very
rested. I had always enjoyed sleeping outside, but only got the
opportunity while in combat training. The others awoke shortly
after I did and after a quick morning swim, we finished off the
remaining food from the night before.

It was about seven o'clock local time then,
and as it was a Monday the girls had classes that day at school. So
we got back in the copter and Gabe flew us back into the city. We
all parted back at Karen and Terry's apartment, but not before
Kathy gave me her phone number asking me to call before I shipped
out.

The three of us then started the long walk
back across town. Paying for the copter had pretty much cleaned
Gabe and myself out as far as money was concerned. We wanted to
save what little cash we had left for the bars. After all, it could
be a year or more before we got to another place as nice as
this.