Hairballs (A Cat Among Dragons Story) by Boykin Alma

Author:Boykin, Alma [Boykin, Alma]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Military, Human Wave
ISBN: 9780991687732
Publisher: IndieBookLauncher
Published: 2013-01-14T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

Five weeks later, back at the Runaway Comet, Rada sat alone at a table in a dark corner of the room, nursing aching muscles and a snifter of karpotl. “How are you feeling?” She twisted around to see Soliman Ssiliar approaching her table with a beer-like drink in one hand and a plate of meat and something green in the other. “Stay seated, Hairball.”

“Hairball, sir?”

“Your new nickname, Ni Drako. Everyone’s taken to calling you ‘Gupta’s Hairball’ after seeing the video. Even the Old Bird uses it.” The reptile gave her a gaping grin as Rada groaned, covering her face with her hands. “To repeat, how are you feeling?”

She waited until he’d settled down into the seat before replying. “Sore, sir.” The month of hard labor reminded Rada why she’d scraped and fought to get a commission.

“I don’t think I could do it anymore, not for a month,” a deep voice commented and Ahriman Gupta pulled a heavy chair up to the table. “Sit, Rada. And that and the next drink are on Adamski’s tab, his orders.” As Rada stared at the horn-nosed head of communications and intelligence, he explained. “You and your partners in foolishness saved the regiment a lot of money. The light and heavy infantry officers loved that kit, with a few caveats. What you found terminated their love.” Gupta snorted and drank some of his pale beverage. “What fool of a computer programmer thought soldiers did not need to be able to crouch and pick things up?”

Soliman added, “Or fight hand-to-hand while in exo-armor. If life were fair, the designer would be paying us for finding the flaws before someone got killed. Can you imagine what would have happened if someone built like Lt. Hamsa got caught the way dar Ohrkan was?”

“He’d die, sir,” Rada said, tone flat. “We ran a simulation of that the next morning, as part of the preparation for the presentation. It would have broken Hamsa’s carapace in two before he could trigger an emergency override. Hamsa wanted to kill the software designer.”

Soliman hissed, “Did you tell the Old Bird?”

“Yori did.” Rada had gone straight from the presentation to the supply depot to begin an eighteen-hour shift, so she’d missed the follow-up reports.

The two senior officers fell silent, thinking. Soliman pushed the plate to Rada and gestured for her to help herself to the meat, which she did.

After several minutes of quiet chewing and drinking, Gupta set down his glass. “You do understand why we had to punish you so severely?”

Rada considered the matter. “Yes, sir.”

Gupta gestured to Morlee and pointed at Rada. A few seconds later Sleerko replaced Rada’s empty snifter with a full one, and set a glass of water beside the plate of snacks. Rada frowned but kept her peace. Only uncouth fools got drunk on karpotl. Civilized people sipped and savored the complex flavors in the distillation. Soliman excused himself to have a word with Sleerko.

“He’s never going to give up, is he?” Gupta asked under his breath, shaking his head slightly.

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