Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (46 page)

The
Admiral chuckled. "Well, they're new, make a list of things to do better
next time, but try to be diplomatic about it." He nodded to a passing
noncom and then stepped out into the dock.

"Admiral
a moment of your time!" a tech called sounding desperate. He waved to a
tech.

"Just
a minute I have a prior engagement." He walked over to Enrique and the
doctor. The doctor shook her head. Enrique smile was fit to bust his cheeks.

"I
never thought you'd do it, goddess she's a beaut!" Enrique chuckled,
smacking his hands together.

"Admiral,
are you sure she'll be a match?" the doctor asked.

"Once
we get things sorted out, and if we can dredge us some additional supporting
units, yes," he nodded. "Doc, I'd like you to check out sickbay. Did
you go over the implant tech information I got for you?" She nodded.

"I
don't have the facilities or micro skill... Wait are you saying..?" She
pointed to the ship. He smiled and nodded.

"That's
right. Firefly has inducted colonial trainees. The AI can aid your surgical
teams in upgrading the crew with implants once they are trained on the basic
techniques. Why don't you check out the sickbay with a team while I check in
here. I can meet you in an hour?" She nodded and rushed off into the ship.
He chuckled.

"Looks
like you made her day as well as mine," Enrique laughed. "Can we
really do implant tech? I mean, the Doc has been doing cloning and grafting
parts for years but implanting cybernetics..." He shook his head.

"I
admit it is a little different and a bit of a stretch, but I think she can
handle it," Irons smiled. He watched as an exoframe towed a pair of hoses
into the lock. "Right now we only have fusion two up. My micro reactor and
the reactor on the launch and tender are drained. She's got some major life
support damage,  hull damage, and most of her kinetic weapons have been
expended. That is the easy list. Repairing her drive pods, rebuilding fusion
one, and three, and her mam reactor are going to be headaches. Hell, the
missiles and armor damage will be as well," he sighed.

"I
took a look at Firefly's industrial plant, she can make her own parts and
resupply her missiles in time, but not in the time we have. How are things
here?" He turned to see Logan approaching. Logan smiled. He came to a
sharp parade rest and saluted, tears sparkling in the corners of his eyes. The
Admiral came to attention and returned the salute.

"Reporting
for duty Admiral," Logan said softly. He was dressed in a regulation navy
coverall.

"I
was just about to call you Logan. We've got our power issues licked for the
foreseeable future, but the industrial replicators hit a snag," Enrique
shrugged. "Why don't you tell him about it." He gave the engineer a
look.

"First
things first," the Admiral held up his hand. "Attention to orders!"
He intoned. Work noises around them stopped. Logan snapped back to attention.

"Chief
petty officer Horatio Logan, I Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons on this date do
commission you in the Federation navy with the rank of commander." Logan
looked to protest as the Admiral fished a commanders insignia out of his pocket
and then clipped it to his collar. His daughter came up behind the Admiral and
smiled.

"It
looks good on you daddy," ,he smiled.

"I
hope so," the Admiral turned on her. "Shelby Logan attention!"
She went stiff. "Shelby Logan as the only Federation flag officer during
a  time of war I hereby induct you into the Federation military with the
commission of Lieutenant commander." He turned and attached the pips to
her collar. Her father looked shocked.

"You
wanted it, now is your chance to make a new future," the Admiral said to
her softly. He stepped back and then came to attention. Horatio and Shelby
followed. He saluted and they saluted back. "Shelby, you're my acting
chief engineer of Firefly, get back to work. Horatio, your my acting XO of
Firefly. Get this mess sorted out," he nodded to the docks.

After
a moment the docks started to become noisy with the babble of people talking
and clapping. Logan nodded. "With your permission." He turned and
waved. "All right you lot, get back to work!" He started to point.
"Bailey get off your fat ass and get that load on board. Follow the ship's
guides and for heaven’s sake don't get lost. Marge get me a report from
replicator one then clear a path from it to the docks. Coordinate that with
Ops." He waved a good bye to the exec. "Let's move it people!"
He turned and waved to the group, urging them on. Several of the crowd clapped,
then went back to work. the Admiral smiled.

“Tote
that bail, load that barge,” Sprite said chuckling.

"Well,
I can see you have this in hand. I'll just get out of here before I get drafted
too," Enrique looked amused as he waved. "I'll catch you later
Admiral when things calm down." He made his way through the docks. Shelby
chuckled.

"Shelby
I need volunteers for Firefly's crew. One of your first orders is to find them
for me. I need a list of volunteers and your recommendations." Irons
studied her. She frowned.

"Recommendations?
For rank and position? Admiral I..." She was clearly overwhelmed. He held
up a hand.

“You
know these people. I am just getting to know them. I trust you. Get it done.
Give me a list. Firefly," he looked up, "did you get all that?" 
Firefly's avatar swirled into place beside him. A woman dropped her load with a
startled oath. The avatar looked at her then back to the Admiral.

"I
logged the orders Admiral. I'm glad we're getting a crew," the avatar
nodded to Shelby.

“I'm
honored to be a part of your new crew Firefly,” Shelby smiled.

"Work
with Shelby and her father. I want the enlisted and noncoms inducted ASAP. I'll
administer the oath in a mass ceremony when we get underway," Irons cocked
his head to the avatar.

"Very
well Admiral. You do realize none of the new crew have had medical,
psychological, or for that matter, intelligence background checks? Some of them
seem to have a very low level of basic education," the avatar cautioned.

"Start
with the base material and build upward. Any other objections?" the
Admiral asked with a tight smile.

"One,
regulations prohibit officers of the same relation to serve together on the
same ship or station Admiral. I believe you brought it up before though,"
Firefly finished. The Admiral nodded. "We'll work it out. I'll talk to
Horatio. How are your software repairs? Has Sprite and Smithy given you access
to my database?" He turned to watch a loader pass close by. He had to
dodge. The loader passed right through the holo avatar.

"Yes,
and I've even added to it. It helped a bit. I sent an archive to Smithy as
well. It is repairing it's systems as well," the AI reported.

"Right.
Not without protest of course," Sprite commented. He chuckled.

"The
doctor has reached sickbay. I've had to redirect a few tourists from the
weapons and off limits stations. I did instruct them to volunteer if they wish
to know more. Several seemed interested Admiral," Firefly reported.

Shelby
grimaced. "Give me an ID trace, I'll talk to them." She shook her
head, muttering and left. The Admiral chuckled.

"Looks
like someone's going to get reamed. Good. She's learning. Now we need a few
noncoms as a buffer," he nodded to the AI. The AI nodded back.

"Admiral,
it's good to see you." Irons turned and nodded to a comm. tech. "If
you’re looking for volunteers for Firefly, I'm in," she smiled.

He
chuckled. "Let me clear that with your boss and the exec." He patted
her shoulder and moved on.

He
had been getting a lot of happy people congratulating him or asking for
positions on Firefly on his way to Ops. He sat down at the main table and
waited as Enrique finished a conversation with a pair of techs. A steward set a
cup of coffee down at his elbow. "Thanks," he said and picked it up.

"Admiral,
that makes over three hundred volunteers in less than an hour. Not bad,"
Sprite reported. "We're not going to be able to vet them all and handle
everything else Admiral, I can sit in on some of the interviews for
you..." Sprite said. He hid a grimace behind his cup. He didn't want to
the Ops crew to see it.

"Right.
Remind Firefly, Horatio, and let Shelby know they have authority to recruit
enlisted and noncoms. I want to vet the noncoms though. They can recommend
officers, but final decision rests with me." He looked over to Enrique who
nodded and left the techs.

"We're
getting reports from all over the system, I'm glad you got back with that
tender, we need it almost as much as Firefly." Enrique looked tired and
flustered. "I never thought we'd have the kind of traffic we're building
up too." He shook his head.

"I
noticed we had a lot more traffic, there were several shuttles I didn't
recognize coming in," Irons smiled.

"The
pirate attack is all over the system by now, as is your mission to Firefly.
People are going nuts. There have been riots on three of the moon colonies. One
small colony lost life support and is dying." The exec looked bleak. Irons
was startled.

"How?"
he asked.

"Riot.
Someone hit something and it scrammed their reactor. By the time they got
batteries online the life support computers wouldn't reboot," the nearby
tech explained then shuddered. "Not a nice way to go, gasping for air in
the cold and dark." She shivered again. "I'm glad you managed to
prevent that here."

Enrique
saluted the admiral with his coffee mug. "Well, we had a lot of
help," Irons smiled and took a sip.

"Any
chance Io would come back?" Enrique asked.

"Hardly.
If they stuck to their timetable they should be on to their next stop by now.
No way they could have gotten word of the attack anyway. We're on our
own," Irons shrugged. "Which reminds me, I'm getting volunteers from
all over, including your staff," he smiled.

Enrique
grimaced then chuckled as he sat back. "Can't hold them down on the farm
forever I guess. Running Ops compared to being in a starship? Let alone a long
lost Federation warship?" he asked running his hands through his hair.
"I can't blame them. If you need them, let me know." He shrugged.
"Now that you've gotten Smithy straightened out we should be able to
manage," he smiled. Smithy waved a fist at him.

"I
heard that," the AI said. He turned. "I'd like to thank you and your
AI for rebuilding me Admiral. A few more years and I would have gone into
rampancy." The AI shook his head. He was no longer the wizened elderly
shell of a an AI. He was regaining his prime step by step with the station and
it showed.

"Glad
to help. I know we've got a lot to go over, let's get into it, I have to get
back to Firefly and then get some downtime." Irons sat back and listened
as the AI and exec took turns briefing him.

“Admiral,
Commander Logan has transferred several tons of uranium and about a kilogram of
semi-processed plutonium. I am making the components for the mines and missiles
now but I will need an officer's ID tag to go beyond the basic steps,” Firefly
reported. They had been at work transferring materials for the past two hours.

“And
by officer's ID tag you mean me since the Logan's aren't in the system,” Irons
chuckled.

“Well,
Commander Logan is, but his promotion will require an implant firmware upgrade
before I can accept his tags,” Firefly responded. He nodded.

“Right.
I'll be there as soon as I can.” He looked over to the Ops table then back.
“Any more on the ships?” he asked softly.

“Based
on the footage and sensor logs Sprite uploaded I have confirmed one of the
freighters is a Zanzibar class. They never installed anything above a class one
hyperdrive in the class. It is over eight hundred years old. Most likely this
one was a tramp freighter. I can't be positive without getting my own read, but
I would estimate the window of arrival as six to nine weeks from the initial
point of recording,” Firefly reported.

“Right,
so we've got another four to seven weeks on the outside to get things sorted
out. I'd say at least three, then a  four day transit to the jump point. That
gives us time for some working up exercises to get some of the kinks out. Maybe
even time to pick up another ship or two. Good.” He nodded. “Do you think they
will stick to jumping out and coming in slow?”

“Possible.
If they were wary they would cut the jump short by a couple of hundred million
kilometers and get the lay of the land before coming in. However if they are
avoiding wear on their equipment or are just overconfident, then they could
come in at the normal point. Pirates from our time would come in slow to judge
the target. However we can't assume that they will follow that model.”

“So
in other words, they come in cautiously or fat dumb and happy,” Irons sighed
running his hand through his hair. “That's a broad range of possibilities.”

“From
the general equipment status of most systems and the fact that they are hitting
a target that can't run, I would lean more to the fat dumb and happy modus
Admiral,” Sprite interjected. “We've seen a fair sampling of the general
knowledge and equipment maintenance levels in over a dozen systems. Since the
pirates are using antiquated equipment they must be pressing captured systems
and possibly personnel into their service.”