Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (2 page)

“No.
Just to keep you confined to quarters until we entered hyper. And out of touch
with the rest of the star system. Which we obviously failed to do.”

“Obviously,”
Sprite responded acidly. “Which is a good thing. The truth does need to be
told.”

“Yes
it does,” the captain sighed.  He'd been forced to watch the entire sordid
affair before gaining access to his ship again. He hadn't been happy about his
part in it and he planned on bringing that up as soon as he could. He'd been
tempted on several occasions to turn the ship around, but he had reluctantly
decided against it. For whatever reason Irons had gone along with it and they
were committed now. “And now that I've seen it for myself I understand your
point of view. However you must understand mine.”

“This
is your playground. I get it,” Sprite replied exasperated.  If the others could
have seen her avatar they would have seen her rolling her eyes. Irons decided
it was just as well that he was the only one that could.

Irons
looked up to the speaker then shook his head and returned his attention to the
two men. “I'd like something to do besides sitting and reading though.”

The
security chief blinked at him. Irons shrugged. “I like to keep busy. I'm not
known for managing my free time very well.” Sprite chuckled from the overhead.
He smiled a little at that.

“Oh,
that can be arranged,” the chief said nodding. “I'm sure we can find something
for you to do to contribute while staying out of the way of the crew.”

“You
think this is wise sir?” Ed asked as they walked down the corridor back to the
bridge. He nodded to the occasional steward or junior officer in passing but
kept pace with his captain. He had a lot more on his mind than letting the crew
bow, salute, or otherwise stroke his ego.

“Ed
do you honestly think you can keep them contained? If he puts his mind to it he
could tear this ship apart and there isn't a damn thing we can do to stop it.”
The captain's lips formed a grimace. He knew it, didn't like it, and knew why
he had mixed emotions about the subject.

It
really did suck, not just for the Admiral, but for him as well. He really
didn't want to be the hard ass, but he had his orders and intended to obey
them. He nodded to one of the new crew. He couldn't place the name damn it.
That bothered him, not knowing, not being able to put a name to a face. He
needed to get to know his juniors better.

At
least things were looking up. Destiny was clean and running smoothly. Well,
almost smoothly, they still had a lot of issues with equipment breaking in.
Still seeing the green walls clean and unstained was amazing in it's way. He
had never thought that the stains would come out without being painted over. He
smiled and nodded in approval of a work party servicing a cleaning bot at a
robotics station.

The
old girl looked good. He owed Irons for that. For his survival and for his
freedom as well. He wasn't sure where this was going to lead now. Obviously he
was going to have to take it one day at a time and try to mediate any problems.
Ed was going to have his hands full keeping a lid on an already dangerous
situation.

The
security chief's jaw tightened. “But ah...”

The
captain turned to the security officer. “He's a man of honor Ed, he'll behave
if we do. If we don't give him a reason he won't cause a problem. Let's not
give him a reason.” His eyes flicked to the ceiling.

“You
mean he needs us as much as we need him. The crew I mean,” Ed said, glancing
back the way they had come. He got the message, don't say anything they would
regret when the damn AI was listening.

The
captain shook his head. Ed of all people should appreciate in just how
dangerous a situation they were in. Diplomacy was the order of the day here.
Getting along with the Admiral and his AI was vital. “Don't bet your life on
it. I'm sure he and his AI could run this ship in a pinch if he was the only
one on board. No this is a prison for him, but only because he's allowing it.
Treat him with respect and kid gloves Ed, that's an order.”

“Yes
sir.” Ed clearly didn't like it, but he was a good man, he'd follow the order.

“Did
you see the vid?”

“Who
hasn't?” the security chief asked with a mixture of annoyance and disparity.
“I'm still having issues getting it cleaned out. People who refuse to watch it
are getting dogged until they do.” He didn't like that, didn't like that they
were locked out. And the AI having such control of their systems? It had cut
through his firewalls like they weren't even there! He had people on that but
they were scratching their heads. Obviously they had a lot left to learn about
AI.

“Tough
for them. I'm going to make an announcement...”

“Ah,
sir, about that, I'd hold off. Keep neutral if possible,” Ed said tugging his
collar a bit and looking around to make sure they weren't in ear shot of anyone
else.

“Ed...”
the captain sighed and shook his head. “Fine give me a reason.”

“I'm
not happy about it, but Notuma is right.” Charlie Notuma was the purser, cargo
master, and passenger director on the ship. “Well, it's like this. We need to
get along, I get that. But if we bend over backwards to kiss his ass we'll piss
off the people who got rid of him in the first place. And they are the one's
signing our pay checks.”

“Damn.”
There was a moment of silence as the captain digested that.

“Diplomacy
then. I'll keep out of it unless there is a problem. I'm counting on you to
make sure there isn't one.”

“Yes
sir,” Ed said as they parted company.

“So
there you are! This is where you've been hiding Admiral?” a deep gravelly voice
said. He turned, setting the tuber aside and picked up another.

“I'm
not hiding from anyone,” he said carefully to the balding Neo chimp. “Chief
Bailey is it?” he asked as he peeled the new tuber. The chief was a big
bruiser, with silvering fur on his shoulders and back. His skull was a little
long in the back. There were definite traces of Gorilla in his body. He looked
a bit goofy with his ears sticking out and down like they were. Irons had seen
his thumbnail jacket. The chimp was the chief engineer of the ship and from the
look of some of the courses he'd taken, quite good at his job.

“Yeah,
for my sins,” the chimp shook his head  and blew a long deep breath out. “I
thought you were confined to quarters?” he asked after a moment. He looked
around the store room.

“Why?”
Irons asked shaking his head. “We're out of the system, and as I pointed out,
sitting in a cabin for the trip is a tad boring.”

“So
this is the best they could find for you?” the chimp said, crossing his long
arms and tapping his fingers against his biceps. He wrinkled his broad nose at
the pile of tubers. He looked around. Irons and a pair of Neo cats were packed
in a rather full supply closet. That was good of course, even though they had
food replicators they hadn't installed all that many yet. Also it was nice to
have fresh food over something reconstituted from his own shit. It was stocked
right to the ceiling with boxes of gear. More boxes were in the back of the
aisle space, all organized apparently. There was a sink by the door. He glanced
at it. It was clean, but the area around it was dirty. He shook his simian
head.

“Hey
if you're going to be back  here you have to wear a hair net. Full body net for
you fuzzballs,” an annoyed cook said coming in behind him and brandishing a
ladle.  The cook had a stained white uniform on and a chef's hat.

The
chief shook his head and looked over to the two lionesses who were covered in a
head to toe hair net nearby. The two females were cutting the tubers and
looking extremely annoyed at the menial task. They didn't look at all
comfortable about their dress either, or it could be the human style stool, it
probably dug into their buttocks after a while.

Come
to think of it, it could be the company. Or the predators cutting up herbivore
food. He wasn't sure, and didn't care in any case.  “Looks like a freaking
burka. Thanks but no thanks.” He shook his head. “Admiral you wanna blow this
pop stand?” he asked, jerking his thumb to the door.

“I
thought you'd never ask,” Irons said with feeling. One shift was more than
enough of this. He'd had enough of this chicken shit years and years ago as a
boot and as enlisted. He got up and took his apron off. “Let me wash the
starches off and I'll join you Chief.”

“Um,
yeah, good idea. I'll be in hyper. We've got a problem.”

“A
harmonic. I know.”

The
chief froze then shook his head. He glanced over his shoulder as Irons made his
way to the sink. “I keep forgetting you of all people would,” he winced. “Sorry
that didn't come out right. I'll meet you in main engineering.”

“No
problem,” Irons said, washing his hands. He used the lye soap to get the sticky
starch residue off his hands and forearms. Technically he could have let the
nanites clean him up, but he wanted to conform as much as possible. Besides, it
felt good.

“Seriously,
that was the best they could find? Peeling potatoes?” the chief muttered
watching as the Admiral came into engineering country a few minutes later. He
caught a few of his crew giving him dirty looks. A few were shooting rather
ugly looks toward the Admiral. He sighed.

Even
though they knew that Irons was innocent they were still pissed at him. He
wasn't sure why. Irons had done nothing wrong. Sure there was a stigma attached
to running, and that whole nasty accusation was going to haunt him. But he'd
proven it untrue damn it!

For
some it was the AI and the Admiral's intrusion that bothered them. Sprite's
little flick had cut a few people to the raw, they didn't like to be forced to
watch something they didn't want to watch. They didn't like it that she'd taken
control of the ship and forced everyone to watch it. Even though she'd been
right about it.

He
looked over to the slightly overweight assistant. Harry was bald as a new born
human baby's hiney. He was a nice guy, a bit stuffy sometimes but he got the
job done which was more important in Bailey's eyes than anything else.

“This
fat bald guy is my assistant. Harry. For some damn reason someone with more
humor than sense names a bald guy Harry,” the chimp grinned as he waved airily
in Harry's general direction.

“Cute
chief, real cute. Prejudice comes in all forms, and is usually undeserved,”
Harry said, shaking his bald head. “I'll have you know I was named long before
I went bald and I think you had something to do with my going bald. All the
hair pulling out incidents.” He nodded politely to the Admiral.

“Speaking
from experience?” Bailey asked. “Look Admiral can you take a look at the
systems? Or better yet ask ah...”

“Sprite?
Or Proteus?” Irons suggested, clearly amused. He shrugged.

“Yeah,
sure, what ever you want to call her. It. Um...”

“Okay,
I'll be over here,” Irons said waving to an unoccupied console. Bailey nodded
as he left. Irons looked around, noting the clean but utilitarian space.
Engineering country was about getting the job done, about making sure
everything worked and keeping it that way. To see the space clean and
relatively neat was good. It meant some of the crew and especially their
officers had an eye for detail. He wondered how much of an eye.

Harry
watched him go and  pursed his lips. He looked around, seeing the other looks.
Then he looked at his boss. Bailey was also taking in the looks and didn't look
happy. Damn it all, he had a good crew but they couldn't see past their noses
sometimes.

He
was one of the few people original to the ship. A descendant of generations of
chimps, with the occasional black sheep of a gorilla or gene morphed human
tucked away in his genome somewhere or another. Maybe even an orangutan judging
from his late cousin Quebert.

The
simian chief grimaced. “I don't see what their problem is, he dumped the entire
thing on the net for all to see,” he said shaking a hand out and throwing them
up. “Damn it...”

“Still
doesn't make it true,” Harry said shaking his head. Bailey eyed him. “Hey, you
and I both know a vid feed can be faked. But yeah, after he saved our asses I'd
say giving him the benefit of the doubt is in order. Besides, he's got quiet a
lot of evidence in his corner anyway.”

“True,”
Bailey grimaced. He hadn't anticipated the faked vid angle. Skeptics took all
kinds and apparently denied even the best evidence. “I just wish I knew why
they rushed us out of drydock to run him out of town. We needed more time to
nail down the hyperdrive. That alone tells me he's on the level. I should never
have signed off on this.” He really wasn't happy about it. But for some reason
the powers that be had pressured the captain and the pressure had rolled down
hill as it always does. Do they ever bother to listen to engineers? Of course
not! And when they don't and it breaks who get's to fix it while they bitch and
whine cause it broke down? Why an engineer of course! He winced, connecting the
thought to Irons suddenly. Maybe he had a lot more in common with the big guy.
A lot more than he initially thought.