Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (41 page)

"But
what can we do?" Janice asked still upset.

"You
can calm down for one thing." Irons looked at the pale woman then sighed.
"I'm going on a salvage mission. If it works we'll come back with a
warship." He tried to hide his amusement as Renee seemed to dismiss the
idea but Janice and a nearby nurse looked up in sudden hope.

"No
one can get on a warship." Renee dismissed the idea.

"I
can," Irons said looking around. The bay had gone quiet as many people
stopped to listen.

"You?
What makes you so special?" Renee asked with a snort. Her eyes looked at
him then cut away dismissively.

"Well
first off, these," Irons tapped his rank insignia on his collar. “Then
there is this." He held up his right arm and triggered its intro morph
program. Janice seemed to shrink back as his hand morphed into different tools
then back.

"What
the hell?" a nearby patient said trying to crawl back in his bed.

"Easy,"
a nurse urged, laying her hand on his chest. "He's just showing off
again." She turned a reproving glance onto the Admiral. He chuckled.

"For
those of you who don't know me, my name is John Henry Irons. Fleet Admiral of
the Federation navy." He pitched his voice so everyone in the bay could
hear it. An orderly bumped into a tray and it clattered to the ground. Several
people winced.

"Sorry,"
the orderly said and bent to pick up the fallen materials.

"That's
right. I am a sleeper. A Fleet Admiral, So I can get on to any Federation
warship." He returned his attention to Renee. She was studying him
intently. He turned and looked around. "Yes you've been abandoned here
folks, but that isn't the end of the problem, it's just the beginning. We're
looking for volunteers to man ships, fight, or to help build weapons and
materials." He turned and examined the stunned audience. "Think about
it." He turned and walked out without a further word.

"Admiral
do you trust them?" Sprite asked later.

"IF
they join us, we're going to have too... but Sprite?" Sprite's avatar
cocked her head at him. "Keep them separate. A few together are okay, but
not anyone that may mutiny or get into mischief. At least not until they've
assimilated more." The AI nodded and he went back to work.

“She'll
do.”  Gutierrez was smiling when he came out of the lock. He had just finished
a test flight out and around the station two hours ago. The sub-light tender
was three times larger than a Valdez utility tug and maneuvered slower. It was
going to be a long slow flight the Admiral realized. There wasn't going to be
any way around it either. It was about time, his original estimated launch
window had passed three times now.

“Slow
and steady wins the race.” Gutierrez said, unconsciously echoing his thoughts.
“Can we get to Firefly and back in time though?” he asked.

“Well,
if the pirates loot the planet then head out to us, it should take them about a
month or two to transit here since they have to go at the speed of their
slowest unit,” the Admiral replied.

“But
we don't know what speed exactly, right?” Gutierrez asked worriedly watching
Sergio dock the launch to the tug.

“No.
Well, I did have an estimate. I recognized one of the ships. She's a small
freighter. Most likely a class one hyper drive.”

“And
that means?” Sergio asked over the open channel.

“Mind
what you’re doing young snot,” Gutierrez growled.

“It
means alpha and low beta bands only. Low octaves. Transit time is six to eight
weeks minimum It all depends on the band and how well their ship is
functioning. Judging from my limited pool of data, I'd say at least six weeks,”
the Admiral replied.

“You
mean my data of course Admiral. After all, I'm the one that compiled transit
time for shipping after getting the data from Io, Carib Queen, and Anvil and
cross referencing it.” Sprite sounded amused. The Admiral smiled.

“Right,
so five days out, a week back. A week or two on either end to repair and stock
her with a crew. Could work,” Gutierrez said slowly, rubbing his chin.

“You
mean it better work. It's the only shot we've got,” Sergio said over the line.
They felt a bump as the launch docked. “Oops.”

“Whatdya
mean oops!” Gutierrez snarled. “If you scratched my paint I'll tan your hide,
one arm or not!” He got up and left the tender's cockpit to check. The Admiral
sighed.

“Going
to be a looooong trip,” Sprite said unenthusiastically.

“Yeah.
Chess anyone?” he asked smiling.

“So
a pair of Priests, a Rabbi, an Imam, and a Hindu walk into a dock...” Sprite
laughed.

Irons
scowled. “This is no time for jokes Sprite,” he growled looking down at the tablet.
They were doing the final boarding now. The last rushed parts were on their way
from the replicators.

“Who's
joking?” Sprite chuckled. Her HUD avatar pointed over his shoulder. 'Look for
yourself.” He turned to see the religious men entering the dock.

“Come
to give the ships your blessing?” Enrique said coming up behind them. Each of
the religious figures nodded. The two priests were already murmuring prayers.

“We
will pray for you Admiral, and your safe return,” the Rabbi said. Irons nodded.

“Thank
you. I know that is comforting.” He looked over to see a blushing Sergio being
blessed by his priest. The Hindu and imam took their turns blessing the ship.

“Thank
you father,” O'Reilly said softly.

The
father turned to the Admiral.  “Thank ye lad for doing this.” The Admiral
chuckled. “What?” he asked smiling.

“Your
accent, I gather you have quite an Irish flock,” Irons replied. The Father
chuckled in reply.

“Do
you have any ideas on when we can expect the pirates?” the Rabbi asked. Irons
turned back to him.

“One
month to two at the outside.” He shrugged. “It all depends on their intentions
and their hyper drives.”

“We
understand, is there anything else we and our congregations can do while we
wait?” the imam asked.

“You
could encourage your congregations to find a way to contribute if they aren't
already,” Irons smiled.

The
Hindu's eyes flashed. “Not all of us are cut out for slaughter young man.”

“I
wasn't suggesting that. I was suggesting they volunteer to serve. We need
people in every capacity. Cooks, nurses, welders, techs, engineers,
teachers...” he shrugged. The religious leaders nodded.

“Thank
you for your guidance. We will see what we can do,” the imam murmured. Irons
nodded as they left.

“Not
a big religious fan Admiral?” Enrique asked at his elbow.

He
grimaced. “I've never been an organized religious person. I save prayer for
when I am powerless to do anything.” He shrugged. “Prayer is nice, but in the
end you still need to do something about a problem if you can. Or at least deal
with the consequences,” he sighed.

“I
see you do use prayer,” Enrique smiled.

“Like
I said, when I don't have a way to do something. I'm an engineer though. It's
hard for me to give up when I know I can fix something.” He shrugged.

"Admiral,
I'm glad we're going to bring Firefly in. It doesn't sit right leaving the old
girl to drift out there in the dark alone for so long." Logan shook his
head.

"Yeah,
I know," Irons replied softly.

"I
would have tried, but I didn't want that slime ball getting his hands on
her," Logan growled. "She'll listen to you though, you've got a
better chance of talking to her than I did." Logan shrugged. Irons
chuckled.

"I'm
sure we can work something out. How is Shelby doing? I noticed the other
machine shops are all back online. She's got work parties swarming the hull
repairing everything they see," he chuckled. "Talk about enthusiasm.
Your daughter sure knows how to crack a whip."

Logan
chuckled. "Takes after her mother. She's officer material, no doubt about
it," he smiled.

"I'll
keep that in mind," Irons replied dryly. Logan gave him a look.

"You
do that. She's wasted here in the station nursing an old man and this
machinery," he waved. "No insult intended Admiral. She's good. Really
good. She can get the best out of her people. Knock off the rough edges, get
her some implant tech and she'd shine." He smiled.

Irons
nodded. "Right. While I'm gone, you've got all six reactors to balance
plus the repairs, do you think you can manage?"

Logan
looked concerned. "I never thought we'd get her back up and running,"
he sighed sitting back. "Yeah, I'll manage. Now that Smithy has been
reformatted and rebooted, the reactor watch is stable and we've even got
replacements trained. For the first time we've got more power then we know what
to do with!" He shook his head. chuckling.

"Well,
we can't have that. I'll just give you a general parts list to start making in
the fabricators when they are idle. Stockpile the parts for later use. I've
already set up a key code for you to use." The Admiral handed over a tablet.

"What's
on it?" Logan asked suspicious.

"Oh
the usual. Germaine things like gravity deck plates, life support parts, the
usual general parts any ship can use. But I tossed in a few mil spec parts to
get the ball rolling on the repairs." He smiled as Logan thumbed the list
and scowled through it. "Ah, yeah, I can do this. The parts idea is smart,
we can use a lot of this in the station too. Swap out a lot of the parts that
aren't working or sucking too much juice." He smiled. "I want to
overhaul and upgrade the station's shields too. I'm not a shield tech
though," he said shaking his head frowning.

"You're
doing fine. Take it one step at a time. I uploaded my lectures and tutorials to
the database and in the college database. Key up the shield tech ones for a
refresher if you think you need it," the Admiral smiled. Logan nodded.

"I'll
do that," Logan sighed with relief.

"Feel
free to add your own comments or information as well," Irons added as he
turned to finish with a crate of parts.

"You
are kidding me?" Logan said surprised.

The
Admiral turned. "Yes you. You and I are the foremost surviving experts
remember? If not us who?" He shrugged. "Besides, having someone
else's input helps immensely. You may catch things I missed or only lightly
touched because I took some basic knowledge for granted. Look for that and fill
in the blanks," he smiled.

Logan
nodded slowly. "All right, I'll give it a shot," he said. "Good
luck Admiral." He came to attention. Irons waved it off and held out his
hand.

"I
think we're all going to need as much luck as we can get." Logan shook his
hand. "I'll see you in a couple days," Irons said, then hefting the
crate he turned and walked out. Logan stared for a moment then shook himself
and went back to work.

He
smiled at the crew. There were eight volunteers. Sergio had volunteered to
pilot the launch. His uncle O'Reilly was going to handle life support. Captain
Gutierrez was in charge of the tender. Shelby was second in command. Angie was
in as an engineering tech. Jimmy and Wally were a pair of techs with power room
experience. Finally there was Dieter, an electronics tech and EMT. He was the
only one not looking excited or bored, he looked rather nervous. "Last
chance to stay home folks," the Admiral warned. He waited a moment then
nodded. "Right, let's get this show on the road then."

"Are
you sure about this? The ship is a mess Admiral," Sprite reported as the
long range sensor feeds began to get a return. It had taken them nearly a week
to get there, the small confines of the launch had some exhibiting classic
cabin fever. Fortunately Sergio had picked up on an ion trail and a flash of
reflected light for them to home in on.

"There
are some fishy things going on, like it is trying to spoof the long range
sensors... adjusting. We have a course lock," Sprite reported. He watched
the feed and grunted. "I don't think she had enough power to spoof us for
long Admiral. Once she noted our course the ECM went down," Sprite
reported softly.

"So
she still has power, and the AI is active. Good signs," Irons nodded.

"Maybe
in the long run, but we still need to get aboard," Sergio observed dryly.
Shelby chuckled. "Leave that to the Admiral."

Sergio
looked over his shoulder to her, then shrugged and went back to his
instruments. "Linking to the launch's communications. Opening a channel.
Activating IFF now. We're being pinged. IFF handshake protocol established.
Activity, interrogation of IFF by AI, presumed to be Firefly," Defender
reported.

"Firewall
set up. Handshake protocol accepted," Sprite reported. Irons nodded..

 "Time
to leave you here Gutierrez, we'll make final approach with the launch."
He nodded to Sergio.