Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (66 page)

"What,
oh the ones that came in with that gravity warhead?" he asked. She nodded.
"Fracticide. When the warhead went off it destroyed them too. Lucky thing
that they clustered them so close together like that. You could say the pirates
goofed there. If they had spread the follow up out a little so they arrived
after the gravity warhead had hit and outside it's warhead's radius it would
have blown us to pieces," he shrugged. “The bits will continue on their
way, out to the heliopause.”

"That's
why they say no plan survives contact with the enemy," Irons said. Harris
came in and stopped.

Dan
nodded slowly. "Didn't hear you come in sir." He started to stand but
Irons waved him back down.

"Sit.
I'm just dropping in for a minute. I'm on my way to a brief in ops now that
we're about to dock at the station.” He turned to Harris who was looking
thoughtful. They had just finished the post battle chores. Damocles was in
their drive shadow, the Valdez tugs were nestled against her, pushing and
pulling her into a stable orbit near the station.

"Thanks,
I think I needed that," Harris smiled.

"Anytime.
Has Logan gotten into position yet?" he asked.

Harris
closed his eyes, concentrating on his linkage. "Yes sir, He's picking up
speed now. Last report is all damage is accounted for." He opened his eyes
and looked thoughtful. "Thanks for this," he indicated the bridge.

"What
this?" Irons chuckled. "This is just the beginning. Unless you don't
want to be along for the ride?" he asked.

Harris
rapidly shook his head. "You're serious?" Irons just smiled.
"Count me in. IF only to see flag rank someday." Harris and Dan
chuckled.

“Someday
in the distant future,” Irons said chuckling as well. “But not as distant as
you think. You and the others are the new officer core. If we play our parts
right we could be seeing new ships being built in as little as three to five
years.”  He waved to the view of Damocles. “And ships that we captured will
need officers and crew. Including new captains.”

He
smiled as both men looked shocked. A few crew members near enough to hear
looked up and turned to him in surprise and sudden anticipation. Harris
whistled. “Think about it gentlemen,” Irons said, nodding as he turned and
walked out.

"Admiral
are you serious about all this?" He turned to see a woman standing there.
"I mean, can we really do this?" she asked. Scuttlebutt had been its
usual helpful and light speed self. Before he'd even gotten to ops the rumors
of what he had said to Harris on the bridge had swirled and grown to incredible
proportions.

He'd
managed to wade through the celebrating crew in the docks. His shoulders were
sore from all the back slapping and his cheeks were a bit sore from smiling so
much. But everyone needed to unwind. Morale had never been better.

He
paused to try to think of a diplomatic way of answering. "You're Tracy
right?" he asked. She nodded. "Enrique's assistant?" She nodded
confirmation again. "Right. The long and the short answer is yes.
IF.." He held up one finger.

"If?"
she asked looking confused.

"IF
we focus on an objective, IF we set up the industry and IF we have trained
motivated people to follow through," he nodded to her.

She
looked around sheepishly. "Sorry, I keep forgetting." She held up the
tablet. "But really! A shipyard?" she asked in disbelief. He
chuckled.

"I've
built many before and during the Xeno war. That and much more. Again, IF we
play our cards right, I don't see any obstacles to setting up a shipyard within
the next two or three years. Oh a small one, a repair slip really, nothing like
the major yards," he waved. She nodded.

"We're
already producing small craft," he smiled as he stepped aside to let a
pair of techs pass.

"We
are?" she asked, surprised.

"You
sound so surprised. Of course we are!" he waved. "We've repaired all
the small craft on the station, and many on the other colonies. Engineering and
the Valdez family have built a third tug, and have produced several work pods.
I am working with them on building a fuel tender now." He waved to
indicate the docks.

"But
that's small potatoes, what I mean is, a starship? Aren't we setting our goals
too high?" she asked.

He
chuckled. "It is a start. Besides, we're going to need a dry-dock
eventually to keep the starships Pyrax has fully functional." She blushed.

"But
what about this?" she pointed.

"The
planet? What about it?" he asked.

"Are
we really going to do it?" she asked. "Is it even possible?" She
sounded concerned.

He
shrugged. “It isn't really my field. I do know it is possible, but I am not
sure what your talking about. I've been busy.” She blushed at that. "I
understand there are several proposals on the table and being looked at and
brooded about. Most are from the archives. I believe a Dr. Genshi is looking
into them now.” He tried not to frown. Genshi was a self important physics
major. He had dedicated himself to the study of theoretical sciences and had
somehow scraped by before. Most likely by having some sugar mama somewhere. He
had an interesting hobby though, he wanted to terraform a world here in the
system. That alone probably got him a cookie tossed to him now and again, if
only to see if he could do it.

He
tried to shake the thought then cleared his throat. “I remember a few of the
proposals I ran across before the Carib Queen showed up. There are several
plans as I was saying. One is to terraform one or more of the moons to a
habitat. Another is to use micro black holes to move a planet into the
Goldilocks zone, that's the life bearing zone of the system." He paused.

She
nodded. "Right, and the third is to reform one of the planets. I don't see
how." She looked stubborn. He sighed.

"You'd
be amazed what people can do when they put their minds to it. And just think,
with a planet it would be easier to grow food, to raise families. No more
trying to keep the population in check." He waved to indicate the station.

"And
give our people room to expand and move the excess out. I like it," she
nodded. "But what about building more space colonies?" she asked
suddenly catching on.

He
nodded. "Good idea. Jot out a proposal and submit it to the next council
meeting," he replied.

She
looked shocked. "Me?" she asked, clutching the tablet to her chest.

"Why
not, it's your idea," he asked. She paled.

"All
right, I'll do it," she said, taking up the challenge. He smiled.

"That's
the spirit," he nodded to her. "Carry on." He left.

"That
was interesting," Sprite said. Irons nodded. He passed a tech who looked
up with a big grin. She gave him a jaunty salute. She made to congratulate him
but her partner elbowed her. She looked down embarrassed. He moved off, amused.

"Good
job. Keep your eye on your work. Keep up the good work," he murmured in
passing.

"That
conversation with miss Tracy is already hitting the station grapevine. Wanna
bet it will be in Knox's news hour tonight?" Sprite sounded amused. Irons
shook his head.

"Nothing
to bet with." He passed another tech who looked a little flustered.
"Anything I can do to help?" Irons asked.

The
tech looked up in alarm then gulped. "Ah, no sir, not really, just trying
to get a handle on this but I think the chip is busted." He waved.

Irons
looked. "Here let me take a look." He held up his right arm and let
Proteus go to work. The tech scrambled back on the seat of his pants eyes wide.
Irons turned and smiled.

"Yup,
UART looks good but the BIOS is fried. Also the backup clock battery is
dead." His fingers morphed back to normal. He held up his hand. "See?
All better," he nodded. "Get the BIOS replaced. It's a pop out. Looks
like something corrupted it in its last patch. The battery you can try to recharge.
If it won’t charge try swapping it out." He patted the man on the shoulder
as he got up and straightened. He looked around to see a crowd watching him.
"Back to work folks, nothing to see." He moved off as the tech
stammered his thanks.

"You
are a celebrity now. You ought to enjoy it," Sprite said.

"I
was a celebrity in the past, and when I stepped into this bollixed future. I
don't want it or need it," he shrugged.

"If
you’re going to rebuild the Federation then yes you do. Admiral, treat it as a
tool in your toolbox," Sprite informed him, sounding mulish.

"Don't
be trite," he muttered then sighed. "Okay, I get the idea." He
gave in, seeing her avatar on his HUD cross her arms and tap her toes. “But
it's we that will do it. WE. You, me, Firefly, and the others.”

"And
you'll listen to momma Sprite more often?" she asked. He glared.

"Your
over playing your hand you know that?" he muttered.

"Sorry,"
she answered not looking at all contrite. She sneaked a smirk.

"Don't
do it again," he said shaking his head.

Irons
looked up to Sprite on his HUD and set the file he had been reading aside. A
bookmark flashed and then the file faded away. “You look like you're full of
news.”

“I
do?” Sprite turned, looking at herself. “And I just had this suit taken in,”
she tisk tisked. He chuckled. She hadn't lost a bit of spunk.

“I've
been in the core files and just got into some of the port Admiral's private
stash.”

“Oh?”
Irons asked, eyebrow raised.

“Yes,
the usual trash, cronies to trust, blackmail material, contacts, that sort. It
goes back for generations. It took me a while to wade through it all. Now I
know what you mean by needing a cold shower.” She shivered a little. He nodded.

“I
did find something that is of interest, the Port Admiral's just after the
system was isolated kept a running log of which planets and systems survived
the war.”

“Oh?”

“I
cross referenced them with the one Logan set up as well as the one I compiled
from Io 11's surviving database and the one her captain turned over to you.
There are a few entries that aren't in the others.”

“Interesting.”
Irons nodded. “Show me.”

Sprite
smiled. “I thought you'd never ask.” She flickered then faded out and a holo of
the galaxy faded in. “Both sides struck the core worlds hard. Since they were
so heavily fortified most were taken out by Nova bombs in the last gasps of the
war.” She highlighted the dead zones and then faded them out.

Blue
dots sprang up in a line to Pyrax. “These are the systems we went to with Io 11
to get here. They are confirmed. These...” Green dots speckled the area around
that course and extended out into a loop. “These are the ones in Io's
databases. Now these..”

Another
group, this time in red popped up. “These are tentative ones from Commander
Logan's database.”

“I
see.” There were a few overlaps. He nodded. “Any information on individual
systems?”

“Minimal.
He had some clippings but not much. Apparently he got this from second and
third hand sources since he wasn't allowed near the docks.”

“Yeah.
Okay.”

“And
these..” New dots popped up. These are from the Port Admiral's database.” A few
were doubled up on others already known. “But again, little or no information
about them. What little information we have is either in the form of contact
information or is so out of date it is useless.”

“But
you can cross reference the data with the galactic maps I've got and give me a
base line?”

“Yes.
I've already compiled that,” sprite nodded. “And I've added Horath of course.”
She highlighted the empire. “Unfortunately we don't have much there.”

Irons
studied it. “What about the places the pirates have been?”

“Unfortunately
their navigational data didn't survive.”

“Okay.”
Irons thought for a moment. “What about cross referencing what we've got from
the prisoners and the rescued slaves? For instance we know they were at Agnosta.”

“Eh...
hmmm. Why didn't I think of that,” Sprite muttered. A window popped open and
dialog flashed. Names were highlighted then floated to the star map. More
systems were highlighted.

“Well,
if their starting point was Horath, here is their most likely course.” A yellow
line traced out their path from the empire to Pyrax through Agnosta. “Note they
did some zig zags here and here.” She highlighted three worlds.

“Based
on?”

“Based
on the galactic chart Admiral. There is no straight line course to some of
these from other colonies. This one has a black hole in the way, and this one
has that cluster...”

Irons
waved it away. “Right so without a proper hyper navigator they doubled back.
Okay. Are any of these worlds on the previous lists?”

“Yes
all but two. These are new.”