Lu Tang understood. Riker colony in Alpha Centauri had always had a pretty terrible reputation, and for good reason. The mines were staffed by criminal gangs and anyone who had the misfortune to end up there would be worked until their bodies gave up. Then they would be fed into the giant smelting furnaces. Waste not want not.
“You’re on your own when we get to the Fuller system,” Lu Tang replied, loud enough that the rest of the crew could hear. The last thing he needed was a bunch of dependents.
“Understood,” the Navigator said. He seemed happy just to be under the command of someone who knew what they were doing.
Lu Tang realized he was smiling. It was good to be respected once more. Not as he should be, of course, but at least he was recognized as being a leader. That was something he could use.
“I’ve plotted the course to the Fuller system and put the vessel on full auto. Think you can handle that until we reach the outer planets?”
A sulky-looking engineer nodded assent. “Of course.”
“Then I don’t expect to hear from any of you for forty-eight hours,” Lu Tang said.
“There will be food in the canteen downstairs,” a short man with bad teeth called out from the back of the room.
Lu Tang felt his stomach complain. “That would be good.”
As an Augment he could go much longer without food than any natural human. But his body still needed fuel, and it would be foolish to pass up any that might be available. That was what Lu Tang told himself five minutes later when he spooned bright orange goo onto his plate.
“What is it?”
“Curry,” a nervous young woman replied.
Lu Tang scowled. There had been a brief period of, oh, a century or two ago when people had rediscovered old Earth cooking. They had attempted to recreate the spices and scents of foods that had existed on the surface of the now frozen planet. Lu Tang had never particularly enjoyed the trend. With Augmented tastebuds any mismatch in flavors was almost painful. Thankfully, the fashion had eventually changed and people went back to plain algae-based cooking.
Every so often though he still encountered someone who wanted to make something like ‘curry’. He took a cautious mouthful. Yes, completely dire. But still, it was fuel. He shoveled it in, trying to swallow before his mouth could process the taste.
“Hey, that was my beer ration!” A man with a scar across his nose grabbed at another man’s bottle.
“No it’s not!” An older man pushed the aggressor in the chest.
“Guys, we have company,” the woman serving hissed, gesturing towards Lu Tang. But the men were either too drunk or didn’t care that their new boss was in the room.
The two men seemed to be determined to start a fight over nothing. They were now standing chest to chest and trading insults. How tiresome, Lu Tang thought. Testosterone really was one of the most difficult hormones to control.
There was a crashing sound as a table upended. Lu Tang kept eating his disgusting stew. As long as they didn’t interfere with his plans Lu Tang didn’t care if the men slit each other’s throats.
Lu Tang watched them without really seeing. He let his eyes wander the room while his mind was laser focused. For the past week he had thought of nothing other than how to get himself into the Fuller system. Now that he was nearly there, it was time to formulate the next stage of his plan. The problem was, this part depended on human beings. That made it unpredictable. So every possible combination of circumstances had to be calculated and factored into his plans. Lu Tang used his brain like a high-powered calculator, working out odds and ratios in the background while another part of his cortex dealt with more mundane matters. Like how to deal with the man who had just knocked him out of his chair.
The men had barely noticed that they had knocked over their fellow diner. They certainly noticed when Lu Tang got in between them. There was a loud crack and then another. Then there were howls of pain.
“I have broken each of your left arms. The radius bone, to be exact. It is a clean break and will mend soon enough. I suggest you visit the medical facility onboard and set up the Aidkit for bone repair.”
“We don’t have an Aidkit,” the female cook yelled, rushing over to help her crewmates.
Lu Tang blinked. “An Aidkit is standard on a vessel this size.”
“Eckhart sold it!” The man with the scarred nose cradled his injured arm and looked up the Augment in pain and fear.
“Ah. That is unfortunate. Well, you can use your good arms to make splints. Still, I expect you back at your posts within the hour. That is why I broke the non-dominant arm.”
“Well thank you, asshole,” one of the men spat at him.
Lu Tang grinned. “You’re welcome.”
Chapter 9
Biddy spooned some extra chili sauce onto her curry. Food when you were travelling on an interstellar flight was always pretty grim. Bland and more bland. She had seen men come to physical blows over the last of the chili sauce. That was why she kept her own stash in her office. The cruiser had enough rations to keep them going for months, and she had the feeling that the mining planets wouldn’t be the most exciting places to eat either.
The Fuller system. A carbuncle on the edge of the galaxy. Well, she had seen worse. Now she just had to make sure she
