Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (12 page)

“Now,
the wedge will cut out in a few minutes. You could point it at a nearby planet
but that won’t get you much acceleration unless you are close. The gas giant is
the closest planet now.” Irons tapped the map and looked it over. “We can
either coast to the rock, which will take about twelve hours, or you can use
the plasma rocket to...” He felt a jerk as Sergio tapped the plasma rocket and
accelerated them. “Right.” Irons grunted.

“Home
by dinner,” Sergio answered. Irons chuckled.

“Okay,
scanning the rock... we're going to need to calculate her mass and volume, then
her approximate center of gravity to find the proper place to dock so we can
apply thrust.” He watched as the lidar scan scrolled then built a three
dimensional map of the rock. “Okay, she's a beauty, about two hundred and forty
three metric tons. Oval shape, looks like she's got a few dimples. I can't tell
from this distance how solid she is though.” He watched as the gravity scan
came in.

“Wedge
is off, nodes on standby. Wait, they are coming back up?” Sergio asked. The
Admiral grunted. “You’re in range of the asteroid to grab it with the wedge.
Just remember, every action...”

 “Has
an equal and opposite reaction. I got it.” Sergio punched a course change then
tapped the joystick. Then he cut the plasma drive and pitched over. The nodes
cut in and they spun around the rock.

“Do
you have a spot picked out?” Sergio asked.

The
Admiral nodded. “Feeding course correction now. See that pair of bumps there?
There is a flat spot in between; we can't see it because of the shadow.” Sergio
craned his neck in the suit then stared for a moment.

“Can
you do it?” the Admiral asked.

“Yeah,
I got it.” The craft slowed then the OMS tapped. “I keep forgetting.” Sergio
locked the OMS down and then used the wedge. He pushed and pulled until they
were aligned, then used the tractors at the front of the craft to dock.

“We're
down. Tractors engaged. We're going to need to use the plasma rocket to give a
thrust on a five degree angle for a three point four second burn, at ninety
percent then negative three by three for a one point two second burn at seventy
seven percent, pause for one minute then straight out for a two minute twenty
three second burn at ninety eight point one percent,” Irons explained as he
tapped his course.

“Roger.
Burn one commencing now,” Sergio replied. The plasma thruster angled then fired
for a few seconds. They felt the acceleration, and then it faded away to almost
nothing. The rocket angled again, fired, and then realigned and fired again.
“We're burning through a lot of fuel you know,” Sergio warned.

“Can't
be helped. We'll get it back. We can insist on a cut of the fuel from this
rock. It should top you off nicely,” the Admiral explained.

“Roger.”

“Okay,
something else. Do you know about relativity?” he asked, looking at his young
co-pilot.

“Only
a little.”

“Okay,
the faster we go, that is, the closer we get to C, that's the speed of light,
the more time and space bends. For us time will slow, while outside it will
continue on. For us it will seem like we've only been out for hours.”

“Okay.
You lost me,” Sergio said shaking his head.

“Ever
get into trouble for not being home on time but you thought you were?”

“Um..
now that you mention it..”

“Right.
The clocks weren't off. Oh they were, but that was because you went fast. The
faster you go, the slower time travels for you.”

“Which
explains that,” Sergio grimaced. “I kept telling mom I was on time,” he
mumbled.

“But
you went for a rock far away and boosted both ways?”

“Yeah,”
Sergio muttered, then checked the readouts. He looked up to the top panel then
down.

“And
when you got back the clock didn't back you up?”

“No.”
Sergio grimaced.

“That
is because it reset when you got back to the station. It should have
compensated for the time difference on its own, but it didn't. So when the
computer detected an anomaly in the time stamp files it corrected it on its
own.”

“Which
got me in trouble.” Sergio frowned, then smiled a little. “I'll have to
remember that one. It'd make a great excuse.”

“Which
your mother won’t buy in a million years young man,” Irons chuckled.

“Probably
not.” Sergio chuckled.

Two
hours later they entered the perimeter of the station. “Anvil to 552Q what are
you doing?” A testy voice called over the radio. The Admiral smiled.

“This
is 552 we're bringing in a carbonaceous chondrite for processing into water and
material. Is there a problem with that?” He left the question hanging.

“Admiral
is that you?” He looked and saw that Io was transmitting on a side band. He
smiled. “Good to hear from you Io. Yes it's me. Sergio and I were just taking
the Valdez tug out for a spin around the neighborhood.” He nodded to Sergio.

“Is
that the ship?” Sergio craned his neck. They passed under the ship as they fell
into orbit around the station. “My god, she's beautiful,” Sergio murmured. He
was amazed by the clean lines of the ship. “She looks brand new!”

“Why
thank you,” Io seemed to preen over the link. Sergio blushed.

“Open
mike,” the Admiral chuckled.

A
voice cleared after a moment. “Right, 552 you're good. Next time let us know
what you’re doing ahead of time though?” The testy voice rose in pitch with
exasperation.

 Sergio
grinned. “No promises Wally, I didn't know myself.” He chuckled.

“Bring
her down to the level thirty three mining port. We'll take her from there.” The
controller ordered.

“Anvil
this is 552, just to be clear, this rock settles all debts of the Valdez
family, and they get a ten percent cut of all materials for later use or we
send her back,” the Admiral called.

Sergio
looked at him. “What are you doing?” he asked in surprise.

“Making
sure they understand the rules,” the Admiral smiled.

The
controller returned. “Right. The XO agrees to the contract. He's even throwing
in one month free rent and unlimited use of the lifts.” The controller made it
sound like a big deal.

Irons
chuckled. “Roger that. Make sure we get the first cut of the water, we're
almost bone dry here. We'll need it to go out looking for more tomorrow.” He
looked at the fuel readouts. Sergio nodded.

“We
can use the OMS to get back to the barn, but it eats fuel. We won’t have enough
to go shopping again until we get that fuel,” Sergio sighed.

“Roger
that 552, we'll let them know. Over and out.” The controller signed off.

“Admiral,
um, 552, can you get us a rock? Maybe a couple of chlorides that size and a
platinum one?” Io asked. Irons laughed at Sergio's stunned expression.

“I
think we can come to an arrangement. I do believe there is a tab though, not
sure what else they would like. Another tug perhaps?” He looked over to Sergio
whose eyes were round. Suddenly he blushed and looked down at his controls.

“We'll
get back to you Io. Let's get this job finished without getting banged up,” the
Admiral replied.

“Roger,
Io out,” she replied.

“I
never heard a ship AI. I mean the station AI would make calls over the intercom
from time to time but...” Sergio shook his head as he gently steered the craft
and its ponderous load to the waiting dock. Lights came up and he grimaced,
looking away from the bright glare until the window polarized.

“She's
new actually. Still young,” the Admiral answered.

“New?”
Sergio asked mistiming an OMS burn. He corrected it then slowed his approach.

“Talk
about it later. Focus now,” Iron's ordered as space suited workers piled out of
the nearby airlock. Some jetted to the rock and began firing pitons into the
rock and running lines back to the platform. From the looks of the crew they
were practiced at this sort of thing. The suits were old though and had seen
better days. Most likely hand me downs.

“So
you were saying?” Sergio asked as he pitched the tug up and over a broken gantry
arm and under a shredded radiator twenty minutes later.

“Well,
the crew and I rebuilt the ship. Her previous captain scrammed the AI core when
she was abandoned, so we had to rebuild it. I and my implants wrote a new AI
core. She's not military grade, but she is a good AI.” He looked away. 

Sergio
shook his head. “Is there any way we could...” He ran his hands over his
controls.

“There
is an AI in this already. I improved it when we rebuilt the electronics. It's
adaptive, but not a smart AI.” The Admiral watched as Sergio expertly turned
and backed into open bay. He tapped the controls once more and the craft
settled to the floor with a gentle bump and grind.

“Doors
closing,” they heard over the radio. The two of them looked up from their
controls then tried to look out the side window. Mrs. Valdez was in the control
booth. Glaring.

“Crap
its mom. She looks pissed too,” Sergio muttered with a sense of dread. The
Admiral shook his head hiding a smile.

“We
didn't miss dinner; I don't see what the big deal is...” Sergio grumped as he
washed the dishes. The XO had even turned the water back on for them. He wasn't
sure if he should be glad or not. Sergio clearly wasn't.

The
Admiral shook his head. “I think we gave her a scare. Don't worry about it.” He
dried the dish and put it away.

“Yeah
well, next time you wash, I dry.” Sergio grumped. The Admiral chuckled.

A
few hours later he came in from the workshop. He nodded politely to Anita
sitting at the table then got himself a cup of coffee from the replicator.

“Thanks
for fixing the shields and wedge. My father in law died during a solar flare.
It's been a nightmare for me, wondering if Sergio or Jorge would end up the
same way every time they go out,” Anita said softly, cleaning the counters.

The
Admiral nodded drinking a cup of coffee. “How did they get the tug back?” he
asked.

“Papa
knew he was dead. He flew the tug as close as he could to the station, then
pitched it over so a rock was between it and the sun when the flare hit. It
didn't help him, but it saved most of the electronics.” She sighed.

“Jorge
went out after the flare and brought the tug and rock in. The bastards upstairs
were more concerned about the rock than my father in law.” She looked up full
of bitter anger. He nodded. “We cleaned the suit; Sergio was using it until you
had Io make new ones. Thank you for that too.” She looked away. He patted his
arm as he set the cup into the sink.

“No
problem.” He walked off.

“Why
is the wedge so important? And why can't I use it next to the station. It's
much bigger than the tug!” Sergio grumped while the Admiral was working on an
emitter.

“Well,
let’s have a little demo shall we?” He asked. “Plug that in for me will you?”
He held up a power plug.

“Two-twenty
or one-ten?” Sergio asked.

“Oh
two-twenty definitely.” The Admiral smiled as the young man complied. He
watched as the capacitor charged. When the light lit green he nodded.  “Okay,
now, what we have here is a basic emitter right?” He looked over to Sergio who
nodded amused. “Right, now, this emitter is about ten kilos. That tool chest
over there is what? One hundred? Two hundred?” He looked over to Sergio. “Now,
let's see what happens when I do this.”

He
fed a program into the emitter then stepped hastily back. “Get behind me.” He
ordered just as the emitter came on. It locked onto the nearby mass of the tool
chest and began to pull itself toward it. The chest started skating across the
floor toward it shaking the entire time. The emitter rose up off the work bench
as it switched polarity. Suddenly the tool chest was thrown backwards. The
emitter spun around for a moment, then its gyrations whipped the power cord out
and it settled to the deck with a clang and clatter. Blue sparks flew from it
for a moment.

The
tool chest shook teetered then crashed to the deck spilling tools everywhere.
“Nasty,” Sergio replied. His sister poked her head in.

“Mom
says to keep it down in... “ Her eyes went round then she looked at them. “I'm
not cleaning THAT up.” She backed away. “Someone's in troubbbbleee.” She raced
off. Sergio grimaced.

“Little
tattle tale.” He sighed. The Admiral chuckled as they walked over to survey the
mess.

“So
you see, the composition has to be solid or you’re in trouble. If that had been
a soft asteroid, one made up of pebbles it would have been a real mess. You get
the idea though right?” he asked as he lifted the chest back onto its wheels.
It squeaked as he set it down.