Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (27 page)

“Oh
that's rich, that fat moron on a farm world?” Liam laughed suddenly. Several of
the others followed suit.

“Yeah,
okay so maybe a quick death is too good for him. Making him suffer... maybe
that isn't so bad,” Shelby said thoughtfully.

Liam
chuckled and pointed his finger at her. “Admit it Sheila you'd love to put a
dart up his ass, but seeing him sweat in the muck on a farm, or begging on a
street corner...” He picked up his cup. “Alms...Alms...” Shelby batted the cup
aside while her lips turned up in a small smile.

“Okay
you got me.” She sighed. “The only thing I will regret about this plan is I
won’t be there to see him suffer,” she said softly.

“Living
well is the best Shelby, both reward and punishment,” her father said.
“Rewarding for us, punishment for him.” He waved it off. “Let's get back to the
machine shops. Now that number three is up, can we shift priority to industrial
replicator two?” He looked around the room as they picked up their memo pads to
scroll through their notes.

The
Admiral sat back with a smile and small nod to Logan.

He
made his way through the bustling crowd but slowed when a pair of security
drones hovered over a group of children. The kids scattered in all directions.
“Just how many of these drones are there?” he asked watching another warily.

“The
station's original compliment was one hundred . I have seen twenty six in
active service since we have repaired the station's reactors,” Sprite reported.
“I guess that they are a case for doing a job too well,” the AI replied after a
moment.

“You
think?” the Admiral dryly commented.

“We
alone?”

“By
that do you mean is anyone listening?” Sprite asked. “In answer, no, your
good,” she said from his HUD.

“I
want each of those drones reprogrammed,” he said eying one warily. Defender was
online as well.

“Um...”

“Back
door. An override we can tap in an emergency.”

“And
how do you propose we do that?” Sprite asked.

“By
we I mean you. I'd say the next time they go to recharge. Or create a virus of
your own. Whatever works.”

“Okay.
That might work,” Sprite said, sounding amused. “I didn't think you'd go for
the hacker route. Devious.”

“Well,
we're sure not going to build or repair any of those damn things. Make sure
that gets passed around too.”

“Already
done. There have been requests for parts by Smithy. I've shunted them as low
priority.”

“Good
for you. Keep up the good work.”

“We
aim to please,” Sprite replied. He nodded and kept walking.

"How
goes it?" the Admiral asked leaning over the young woman's shoulder. He
was making the rounds after checking in. This was his third stop this hour.

She
seemed to start in fright then shook her self and settle back down. "I've
got it." She tapped the controls.

"Good,"
he nodded as he studied the pixie haired blond. The young woman was too slim,
with a short frame. She'd missed a few meals over time. Or there was something
lacking in her nutritional intake.

"You're
Angie right?" he asked. She looked up and nodded.

"What
can I do your you? Admiral right?" she asked warily.

He
smiled. "I'm not like the Port Admiral, Angie, I am a Fleet Admiral."

She
rolled her eyes. "Is there a difference? Besides I don't see any fleets
around here." She waved. He chuckled.

"Touché'."
She looked confused. "It means well said," he smiled. "But no, I
am the real deal, I am a sleeper, not a civilian pretender." He waved to
indicate the upper decks. She nodded and turned back to her station.

"If
you say so. I've got the replicators initialized. We're feeding the first
priority list in now. Last time we made a hash out of it until we chased down a
bug in the software. Some virus rewrote the nanites to randomly flip their z or
x axis..." She waved. "It was nasty. Not as bad as the one that made
them dance the Makerana what ever that was, but still annoying. Glad it was
just a test run. Hopefully we've got it sorted out. If this fix doesn't work
then we'll have to purge the nanites and do a rebuild with what we've got left
in the reserve reservoir. Which is almost gone, I have no idea where we are
going to get more." She sighed. He looked at her. "I am one of the assistants
remember? I know all about this stuff. I started in here in replicator
one." She waved to indicate the industrial replicator beyond them.

"Right.
Well, once we get a handle on critical parts, we're going to expand our base
and build a couple helium three platforms I have in my database," he held
up his right arm.

She
nodded. "How are we going to power these? Solar?" She looked
confused. "No that won’t work." She shook her head dismissing her
first thought then looking up at him. He cleared his throat.

"Actually,
Sergio picked up an asteroid with a high concentration of uranium. I think we
can do a RWG or two along with a capacitor bank and plasma bottle for each
platform along with some solar panels. That should allow us to power the
platforms. We

can
even add a fuel cell to tap the excess hydrogen once it is up and
running," he explained. He jacked into the nearby console and projected a
holo of the platform, highlighting the power and reactors.

She
studied it with a low whistle. "Right, okay, I think we can do this."
She studied it. "It looks simple. The truss should be a piece of cake. Our
metal storage is at ten percent, more than enough for something like this. I'm
not sure about the rest though." She waved.

"Well,
Sergio will plant the first two in the nearest gas giant. They will suck in the
atmosphere to inflate these." He pointed to the gas bags. The holo zoomed
out. "The heated gas will keep it afloat. You're right though, it is a
primitive design, it is actually from the twenty first century." She looked
up at him in surprise. He smiled. "If it isn't broken, why fix it?"
he asked with a shrug. She nodded slowly.

"And
here I thought it would be some super complicated techno toy that has a million
parts that each can break." She shook her head.

He
chuckled. "Oh there are plenty of problem areas. But if we build it right,
and if we build in some redundancy we can hopefully avoid the worst pitfalls.
This design has been used for centuries after all. I bet this system had dozens
before the war." He shrugged. She nodded.

"Right
well, I've got twenty more minutes on this emitter then I can start on the
core... no, let’s see..” she thumbed through the list. "Aha!" She
tapped in the order then highlighted an area beside the emitter currently
growing.

"One
of the spar segments?" he asked. He'd uploaded the plan, and she'd run
with it.

"Yeah,
I can build a few parts at a time. The emitter looks good, but we won’t know
for sure till we run a diagnostic on it. Might as well give this a shot
too."

She
hit enter and sat back with a happy smile. Slowly the truss segment started to
form. "Good enough, let me know how it goes." He nodded to her and
left.

"Admiral
heads up, we've got company." Defender warned. A red iris on his HUD
blinked then a map opened. Several red dots on the map were projected.

"Hostile?"
he asked looking up. He was on his way to check in with Logan in engineering.
He had thought taking the long route to get a better feel for the station would
be good. Perhaps he'd been mistaken.

"No
indication. I have however received a power spike on one person." He
nodded at Defenders explanation.

"Right."
He nodded to a passing tech. He turned the corner and noticed a couple in the
shadow of a nearby entryway.

"Can
I help you two?" he asked as he paused. The man seemed to jerk then look
down. The woman patted his arm. The man cleared his throat.

"Were
you serious about the job Admiral?" Sprite grabbed an image of the couple,
enhanced it, then ran a facial recognition against everyone he had met. She
came up with a match with a pair of people in the gang he had met on his first
day. He nodded.

"Yes.
You and the young lady wish employment?" he asked. The man nodded. The
woman cradled her belly.

"Sensors
detect the woman is pregnant Admiral. Judging from her size in her second or
third trimester," Sprite reported. He nodded.

 "Right.
Do you have quarters?" he asked. Another tech passed them slowing down. He
noted the tech and waved them on.  The tech moved off slowly, glancing over his
shoulder. Looky looes. Irons thought dryly.

"No
I'm ah.." The man looked away.

"We
were thrown out several months ago. Security came around for us but our
neighbors warned us before they caught us." She tilted her chin up in
defiance. “Matt here was in the machine shops. My name is Sara, I was studying
to be a nurse. I've served as a midwife and EMT for the poor sections."
She waved to the area around them. He nodded.

"Right.
Sprite quarters?" he asked.

"I've
got just the thing. The old community college campus two decks down. Map coming
right up. Take the next right, then pass three intersections then down two
ladders," Sprite plotted a map.

"Right
follow me folks," he waved and led the way. After a moment they followed.

“The
entire deck has been abandoned Admiral, with the exception of the medical
clinic. Life support was lost on the deck during the crisis and is only just
now being restored. Some of the areas were heavily used,” Sprite reported as he
stepped over a pile of trash.

It
took twenty minutes to get to the right corridor. It was dark, with
intermittent gravity and some rank smells. "Thanks a lot Sprite," the
Admiral growled. "Okay folks, we're going to be doing a lot of fixing
up." He indicated the nearby door. "Matt, since you have hands on experience,
I'm going to show you some tricks to fix what you can then let you two settle
in." He opened the door. A horrible stench came out. "Great. Nice.
Remind me to thank you for this later Sprite," he sighed.

"I've
got a pair of cleaning bots on the way. In fact here they are now," Sprite
replied. The woman dodged a flying saucer with a startled oath. It floated to
the door, spun, then entered. it's companion started on the hallway.

"Right,
don't mind them, they’re going to do some of the cleaning." He entered the
quarters. "Definitely a fixer upper," he sighed. "Sprite does
the food replicator work?" he asked. Matt reluctantly followed him in. The
first bot was using it's ultrasonics on the kitchenette. A safety light showed
where the ultrasonic beam was pointed.

"No
Admiral. It does have power however."

He
tapped the controls. "Right." He morphed his right arm and let
Proteus go to work on the panel. Matt stared at him. "Don't worry about
the arm, you'll get used to it. Sara right?" The haggard looking woman
leaned her head in.

"Yes?"
she asked timidly. He could hear her stomach growl.

"Sara,
I'm going to get this fixed then you can get a bite to eat and settle in. I
want you to report to the hospital for a full check up as soon as the doctor
gives you an appointment." Proteus finished and his arm fell to his side.
"All fixed." He tapped the controls. After a moment a trio of
sandwiches appeared. He took one and handed one each to the couple. He took a
bite out of the third then pointed. "Door is in there. From the smell the
refresher is out. We can fix that or the AI WILL find you better
quarters." He looked up.

"It's
fixable. I think. I can't detect a blockage in the water lines," Sprite
reported. He nodded. "Most likely the sewer was shut off and mold grew. It
will take time to fix. We'll get you some fresh clothes and bedding." He
tapped the food replicator. After a moment a trio of drinks appeared.

"Matt,
can you handle electrical or plumbing repair?" the Admiral asked studying
the burly man as he handed Sara a drink. Matt nodded.

"I
did take a course on basics when Chief Logan had it. It's been a while
though." He shrugged. “I think I can learn on the job though.”

"Right.
I can show you how to check the lights and basics and you can work on the
corridor right?" he asked. Matt studied the glass then shrugged and
nodded.

"If
I have the parts. It's not like this is a priority though," he said with a
grimace.

"Well,
some of the simple plastic parts I will show you how to make with the
replicator. The rest I will have the AI set up a method for you to requisition.
First off, do you know of anyone else who would like a job?" he smiled to
Matt.

Matt
nodded warily. "This is legit right?"  he asked.

The
Admiral nodded. "Yup, I've got a blanket authority on the station. If you
know of a few people with the right skills, why don't you go find them after
Sara's appointment. Set them up in the quarters here in this corridor and get
them to work cleaning and repairing this area. I'll be along next shift to
check on things." He watched as the duo seemed to stiffen.