Children of Steel (3 page)

Twenty minutes later I was suited up and
ready to go. I met the Chief by his office door. In flight gear he
looked even bigger, if such a thing could be possible.

"Well Raj, Let's go."

"Okay chief."

"First rule, there is no rank among flight
crew once the mission starts, and it starts as soon as you leave
the equipment room. Call me Ron."

"Sure thing Ron, which one are we
taking?"

"Number 5 just finished a thousand hour
overhaul and needs a check flight. This way I kill two birds with
one stone."

"Which profile do you want to fly? The full
one or the 50,000 feet and below?"

"We'll do the full one; I want to see a full
assault re-entry with a practice drop run done over the south end
of the field. Use the practice LZ over there."

"Okay Ron you got it."

At that point we came up to shuttle five. It
looked pretty clean and was obviously well taken care of. Ron stood
back while I did the walk around. My first clue that this wasn't
training anymore and that I was finally in the 'real' world was
that he didn't follow me around, and there was nothing 'wrong' to
be found. I got out the logbook and looked at the entries to make
sure the shuttle was signed off and what all the previous problems
were. I made a mental note that everything was supposed to be
fixed, but that the main Gyro had a tendency to experience phase
lockup during small attitude adjustments and that it hadn't been
replaced, just reset.

"Okay Ron, I'm satisfied, want to look?"

"Hell no, who do you think signed it off this
morning? I know what's in there. Let's light the fire and go."

I took the pilot seat and Ron took the
Weapons Officer's position behind me. I ran through the pre-flight
checklist, the pre engine start, and finally the engine start. It
took me about thirty seconds, practice makes perfect.

Engine start when without a hitch, and as I
taxied carefully out onto the tarmac I felt a little nervous, while
this wasn’t a test like I’d gone through in training, it was still
a test of sorts. It was also my first non-training flight ever.

I called the tower for clearance and started
us down the runway for take off.

“Ring it out a little why don’t you Raj?” Ron
said from the back seat.

“Sure thing Ron!” I replied and moved the
throttles to full after burner, enjoying the way the shuttle jumped
into the air. It wasn’t long until we had passed fifty thousand
feet. Assault shuttles were fuel hogs, but they moved incredibly
fast for their size.

I leveled us off at eighty thousand and we
ran a few speed runs and a few other tests that Ron wanted run to
check the overhaul, then he told me to head for space.

I again got clearance, then started the
ascent part of the profile, starting the rockets as the turbo
ramjets started to die in the thin atmosphere of near space,
shutting them down and sealing them off.

I set up orbit when we reached a hundred
miles, and we killed some time as Ron quizzed me on all sorts of
emergencies and emergency procedures. Surprisingly all of them had
to do with combat damage for some reason.

Then it was time to fire the rockets and head
back to the field on an assault approach. These could be pretty
tough to fly, and were hard on the pilot. You normally came down
hot and fast and to an extremely low altitude for the speeds you
were traveling at. He didn’t say much of anything during it until
after I’d made my first landing and takeoff, then simply told me to
knock it off and head back to the ship.

As we climbed out of the cockpit I was pretty
nervous. It had been a lot less grueling than my final exam check
flight, but the results were a lot more important to me now.

“Well Chief?” I asked as we walked back
towards the equipment room.

"You'll do," he said as we started walking
back to the equipment room.

"That's it?"

"Yep that's it, welcome aboard." then he
turned to a rather large group that had suddenly formed behind us.
"Okay guys, he's one of ours now. Tank 'im."

I tried to put up a good fight as they
dragged me down the ramp in the age old tradition of flying units
everywhere, but as I hit the water I had to admit to myself that it
felt good to finally be part of a team.

Once I’d gotten myself a dry uniform I was
put to work to help stow the shuttles for flight. They all had to
be moved into their rack mechanism and secured. That took a full
shift, then after that was done I spent the next few days helping
to secure other things for flight, perform last minute checks, and
help seal the loading hatches that were normally not used in
space.

The Astra had been in dry-dock for almost
three months now, a number of the ship’s systems having to be
upgraded and a few repairs as well I guessed. Once we had
everything secured to the satisfaction of the Chief we were ordered
to our rooms to strap in. The Astra wasn’t a planet landing capable
ship, actually the part I was in was only the basic support module;
it contained most of the living areas for the crew, the forward
shuttle bay, and the various stations for most of the ship's crew.
This was made up mostly of shuttle crews, technicians, some
scientist's, security and a handful of assorted odd jobs.

The deep space drives of the Astra had stayed
in orbit when it had been brought down by tug for maintenance. That
part had undergone some extensive upgrades and maintenance as well
according to one of the other crewmembers. It contained most of the
engineering spaces, external framework and hydroponics areas, as
well as a second larger cargo hold, the bridge, and the ship's
boat.

The support module was not capable of lifting
off on its own, so everything and everyone was made secure while
four massive tugs linked up to us and hauled us back into orbit.
With out the power from the main drives there could be no
artificial gravity, so only those who had to be active were allowed
to be up and around.

The process of lifting us out of the
atmosphere and docking the support module with the drive section
took half a day. The ship had a superstructure that had to be
attached as well. Its purpose was for mounting cargo or transport
pods, allowing the Astra to haul more than its internal cargo bays
could hold. It slowed the ship down when pods were added of course,
but was an economical and easy way to add or remove cargo space
without having to make changes to the internal cargo holds.

The next day I was finally able to start on
what would be my normal duty cycle. I headed down to the shuttle
deck where I’d be spending most of my time from now on.

“Raj, over here,” the Chief called.

“Yes Chief.” I headed over to the entrance to
the flight briefing room.

“This is your new Weapon’s System Office,
Rudy.”

I shook hands with him; he was a possum,
which I found interesting as I’d never met a possum before. He
looked okay except for the lack of fur on his tail, which just
didn’t look right to me.

“I suggest you two start working on your team
work, you’re up for your first training simulation in four
hours.”

“Yes Chief,” we both said as he left us
there.

“He doesn’t waste anytime, does he?” I asked
my new WSO looking down at him. He came up to my shoulders.

“Not really, can’t say I’ve flown with any
leopards before,” he said as we found ourselves a spot to sit and
go over our checklists and our own little preferences for doing
things.

“That’s okay,” I smiled, “I haven’t flown
with any possums either. How’d you end up a WSO?”

He snorted at me, “I should ask how you ended
up a pilot, guys like you are usually the ones down in the
trenches. You probably bench press more than I weight.”

“Want to find out?” I asked a little harshly.
He started, eyes widening a little.

I sighed; this guy was going to be my
teammate in the cockpit, and someone I was going to have to count
on. Scaring him or pissing him off wasn’t a good way to get started
out.

“Sorry,” I apologized, “I got a lot of that
in flight school from the other students. I was the first in my
class in my combat school and my advanced combat school. Seeing as
I had high scores on my tech levels too and good ratings on my
dimensional skills they offered me a spot as a reward for my
outstanding performance.”

He nodded, relaxing once more, “Sorry, I
should have figured as much. To answer your question, I scored
really high on my technical tests; I was first in my class in
weapon’s systems. So they offered me this. So rather than building
bombs I get to drop them. Personally I kinda like it,” he
grinned.

I nodded. “Well I have to admit that being
one of those guys in the trenches was always what I had wanted. But
I was told I should take the training, and I’m glad I did, flying
turned out to be a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would
be.”

He chuckled and looked me up and down,
“Someone
told
you. I find it hard to believe.”

I flicked my ears in embarrassment, “She made
a very persuasive argument.”

“Girlfriend?”

I nodded, “Though I haven’t seen her since
she shipped out last year.”

He nodded to that and changed the subject,
“Well let’s get started on this. I’ve got a few more years in than
you do, so let me show you what I’ve learned.”

We spent the next four hours working on
teamwork skills for flying then. I’d never really had my own WSO
before, the guys you got in training were instructors, and they
just taught you what your WSO would need or could do for you.
Rudy’s experience helped, even if he’d only been on the job for a
couple of years. I listened carefully to what he said, not wanting
to repeat my mistake earlier and not letting myself get upset no
matter what he said. I learned quickly that he was sharp, and while
he’d make little jokes at his own expense or mine, there really
wasn’t a nasty bone in his body. I think I made him a bit nervous
too, but I was used to having that effect on people.

We did well on the sim, and were scheduled
for four hours a day the rest of the week so we could continue to
work on developing our teamwork. For the most part if we weren’t
talking about flying we didn’t really talk too much at all, he
tended more towards the quiet side.

I met the rest of the shuttle crews in fairly
short order, most of them were fairly senior compared to me, so it
was only natural I guess that I started hanging around with the
other junior pilot, a Fox named Gabriel, or ‘Gabe’ for short. We
actually hit it off pretty well and started to become good friends.
Gabe had been in about as long as Rudy. He clued me in on a few
things to watch out for as the junior pilot, and helped me learn a
few of the minor tasks that now that I was the junior most pilot he
got to pass on to me.

A few days later I was sitting in the empty
flight crew lounge studying some tech manuals when he walked
in.

"How's it going Raj?" He asked setting down
some paperwork and pulling up a chair.

"Not too bad Gabe, just looking over the new
changes. What's with you?"

"Same shit, different day. I hear we're
supposed to make Hobson's Choice in twelve weeks. Any info on
that?"

"About what I've heard."

"Great, I've been there before; you've got to
check it out. It's really something."

"Well, I've never been on another planet, so
that in itself sounds pretty thrilling to me."

"It's not just that, Hobson's is thirty
percent animan."

"So?"

"Man you really are fresh from the crèche,
aren't you?"

I glared at him a little, my ears going back
a bit. "I never claimed otherwise."

"Hey, don't get your fur in a ruff! If you
had got out more you would have noticed that on Earth, we're not
well liked. Heck in a lot of places we're not even allowed."

"Well, I will admit that I did lead a pretty
sheltered life in that aspect. Maybe the company does look out for
us?"

"Oh, there's no doubt about that, Tri-Star
actually treats us like we rate. But on Hobson's the vast majority
feel that way. They still got some Auntie-anns, but you won't dance
with the hangman for defending yourself in a fair fight."

Auntie-ann was slang for the anti-animen
people. On Earth they made up a pretty sizeable chunk of the
population and we’d been warned continually to avoid them. It was
nice to know that my instructors had been honest about their being
less of them on the other planets.

"And you think you would on Earth?"

"Damn right, Judge Lynch is out there and
waiting!"

"Ah, you're just being paranoid."

"Yeah, well one of my crèche mates got
lynched for sleeping with a human two years ago."

I looked up at him, "You serious?"

"Hell yes, did you know the company wouldn't
let us off the grounds without a two day long indoctrination
course? They didn't want anybody to get it again. But now on
Hobson's I know this bar where the human girls just throw
themselves at you. Something about the fur I guess," he smiled
wickedly.

"You're kidding?" I said shocked, "Human
women?" The thought was a bit disturbing, I’d never heard of such a
thing before.

He laughed, "Don't knock it till you've tried
it. Anyway it pisses off the Auntie-anns more than
hemorrhoids."

"Speaking of bars," I said while looking
around to make sure we were still alone, I decided to ask him about
my predecessor. "What really happened to the Raccoon I'm replacing
anyway?"

"He got his neck broke in a bar fight."

"Listen," I said quietly, "don't give me that
crap, I want to know how it happened. I don't want the same thing
to happen to me."

"Look," he replied just as quietly and taking
a look around the room himself, "it's one of those things better
left unsaid, the Captain was pissed as all hell about it and
nobody's going to go picking on a Leopard. Anyway you're working
out ok; nobody's taken a dislike to you. So stop worrying."