Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (43 page)

“I'm
not sure I like that,” Hir'ruk said quietly.

“It's
good for security,” Teela said. Her boss was still sick and Art was dealing
with a family issue so she had been forced to attend this meeting. Doc had a
handle on it now, but the Naga wasn't into meetings. Besides, he was
recovering, or so he said.

“I
think we should look into it,” Cora said. She looked at her husband. He
shrugged. He was uncomfortable with the idea, but it was interesting to regain
something long thought lost. “Will it hurt?” Cora asked, looking at the AI and
then to the doctor.

“No,”
Sprite said, looking over her shoulder to the woman and then turning to better
see her. “Not at all. It's a capsule you take orally. When you go into your
sleep cycle the nanites grow the implant and then self destruct.”

“Nanites???”
Blur practically shrieked, standing. Warner gave him a warning look.

“Sit
down,” O'Mallory ordered. Martha wrinkled her nose.

“Nanites.
Tiny robots. They are programmed to do a job and then they take themselves
apart when it's done. You won’t even know they are dead even when you organics
give off waste,” Sprite replied, sounding a little disgusted by the Telerite's
near hysterics.

The
people around the table started talking. Most of the sentiment was against the
idea. Sprite shook her head.

“Organics.
Honestly. Superstitious ignorant savages,” she said in disgust and winked out.
That calmed the room down enough for them to express indignation over that
commentary.

“I...”
Numiria had ignored the babble since she was engrossed in looking up the
procedure on the tablet in her lap. She looked up and nodded. “She's right.
It's a noninvasive procedure. Well, it's simple, if you can call that simple.
Simple for Federation time I mean.”

“I'll
volunteer,” Warner said raising a hand. The exec snorted as everyone looked at
him in surprise. He shrugged it off. “My family can handle implants remember?”

“Right,”
the captain nodded. “I'd prefer someone else though...”

“The
good thing about having implants is that some of the equipment we can't
currently use without the admiral would come online. I wonder if he can give us
keys?” Martha asked.

“No,”
Sprite said from the overhead. “Not unless you enlist. It's embedded in him.”

“Oh,”
Martha said, shoulders hunching again. “So much for that then,” she muttered.

“I
was expecting it miss. It had to be asked,” Sprite said. “The crew of the Io 11
had similar questions when they went through the procedure. I'm uploading an
FAQ for you now,” she said.

“Okay,”
the captain said. He knocked on the table to get everyone's attention. When all
eyes were on him he nodded again. “I suggest we educate ourselves a bit before
we continue to react the way that we have.”

“Knowledge
is power,” Sprite said.

“Thank
you,” the captain said, looking up. He had just the hint of reproving
exasperation in his voice.

“Sorry
captain,” Sprite murmured.

“All
right then. Let's break this up and get back to work. Same time Tuesday,” he
said.

“Thank
you all,” Cora said as they got up.

“Dismissed,”
the captain said as they filed out.

Numiria
frowned at the display in front of her. She was in over her head, she knew it.
She rubbed her brow and then flicked her tail against her thigh impatiently.

“Problem?”
Light Touch asked looking up.

“You
could say that.”

“With
a patient?” Light Touch asked, immediately concerned. She paused and then
started coming over. She paused and then hopped up onto the desk. She looked at
the display and frowned. It was a neural cortex, one of a human. “Is that an
implant?”

“Yes.
The department heads want us to focus some of our efforts on recovering people
with implants. I thought we'd start with the Warners.”

“I
see,” Light Touch said, studying the readings. “I see scaring,” she mused,
fingers touching the imaging around the connective tissue.

The
doctor nodded. “I believe whatever knocked them both out was electrical in nature.
Which is part of my problem. I don't want to tamper with replacing neural
tissue. It's tricky to get it to incorporate and there are always issues with
loss in motor control or in this case memory.”

“I
see...” The elf mused. She pointed to an area and enhanced it. “Damage to the
speech centers...”

“This
is Mrs. Warner. She has trouble speaking for prolonged periods. Sometimes for
days. From my experience she gives off classic stroke symptoms. They both do.”

“A
possible aneurism brought on by the electrical stimulation?”

“Possibly.
We just don't know.”

“Do
the implants themselves work?” The elf asked, turning to the doctor.

“I...
you know, I don't think anyone found out. I believe once the accidents happened
they assumed they were burned out.”

“They
could access their implants and try to find out,” Light Touch suggested.

“I
think they did and it didn't work.”

“It
sounds like the neural pathway is broken. Or something in the hardware as well.
It's military issue. Should we go digging into it?”

“Why
not?” The doctor asked, looking at the elf.

“Because
I was reading up on implant tech and military issue is an entirely different
class than civilian grade. It has protocols protecting the user. Also
protecting data they may hold. If we tinker with them we might trigger a booby
trap. A suicide protocol.”

“Oh,”
Numiria said. Her eyes went wide as that statement echoed in her mind and
registered fully. “OH!” she said looking down at the elf. “We shouldn't mess
with them at all then!”

“Maybe.
Or we can ask Sprite to take a look,” Light Touch answered.

“Sprite?”

“Yes?”
The AI said from the speaker. They looked at it.

The
doctor frowned. “I... this is doctor Numiria.”

“I
know doctor. What is the problem?”

“I
assumed you were listening in,” Numiria said slowly.

“No,
I was occupied with other matters. Also medical records are considered
privileged. I try not to dabble too deeply,” the AI explained.

“Ah,
an AI with ethics,” Numiria said with a small smile.

“I
said I try doc, I don't necessarily succeed all the time,” Sprite said with an
amused smile in her voice. “May I?” she asked.

“By
all means,” Numiria said, sitting back. “We're asking you to consult on...”

“The
Warners. I'm looking at the open file now doctor. I'm not sure how I can help
you. I'm not a medical AI,” Sprite cautioned.

“There
were medical AI?” Numiria asked blinking. Her ears went back. She wasn't sure
she liked that. Then again a medical AI wouldn't make mistakes would it?

“We
can generalize or specialize at it suits us. It's all in our programming doctor
and how flexible we are. Some are more flexible than others,” Sprite explained
absently. She digested the reports immediately of course but it took even her
time to go over everything since she hadn't been programmed for medical
purposes. She had to sift through the medical texts, identifying things and
looking up the materials.

“Oh.”

“Implants.
I see why you are interested. Military issue isn't something to dabble in for
amateur’s doctor. Excuse me, doctors. Hello doctor Light Touch,” she said.

“How
did you know I was here?” Light Touch asked.

“I
guessed. I picked up your breathing through the microphone. Doc you really need
a camera. This is annoying,” Sprite said. She didn't like communicating with
just her voice.

“I'll
put it on my wish list,” the doctor said dryly. “About the implants? We had a
concern about the military variable. Which is one of the reasons we brought you
on board.”

“I'm
flattered. I suppose the only way to answer our questions is for me to access
their implants. Which I'll need to do in person. In the form of the admiral I
mean.”

“The
admiral...”

“He'll
need to jack in directly to which ever Warner you wish to start with. I suggest
the lieutenant; he's in better shape physically. The ensign's neural damage is
extensive. There is a great deal of scar tissue. Brain damage...” she sighed.
She knew it would be painful for the admiral to deal with the situation but if
he wanted to help them he'd have to get over that.

Numiria
blinked and then nodded. “I... yes. We can do that.”

“If
we're lucky his buffer was corrupted but his breakers took most of the damage
before failing. Whoever did this is a nasty piece of work,” Sprite said in
disgust.

Numiria
frowned. “I'm not certain of the circumstances of the injuries. I know that
they jacked into something and it well...”

“Bit
them. Fried them. It did it's best to kill them. Had they been civilian they
would have died,” Sprite replied.

“I
guess so,” the doctor said. Light Touch nodded.

“I
can prep for cloning if we need to,” Light Touch offered. “We have their
genetic information on file since the doctor initiated the physicals. It will
take some time to isolate the neural tissue we need to clone. We'll need
samples as well.”

“I
suggest you bring the Warners in with the admiral. We might be able to do
something about the damage,” Sprite said.

“All
right,” Numiria said with a nod. “I'll page them.”

“I've
alerted the admiral already,” Sprite said with an amused smile in her voice.
“He's on a job. He'll be here in a half hour. Forty minutes tops he said.”

“Thank
you,” Numiria said with a nod. “We'll see you again then.”

“Yes
it would be nice to actually
see
you,” Sprite said dryly before the
speaker clicked.

The
Warners smiled politely to the Admiral as he came to the hatch and knocked on
the doorway. The doctor turned and nodded and waved him in. “You wanted to see
me doctor?” the admiral asked. He'd told Taylor and Rasha to not pop and salute
each time he entered. They were after all out of uniform.

“I
did. Or rather your body,” she said.

He
hesitated coming over. “I haven't quite had it put that forward before doctor.
Okay not in a while anyway,” he said with a slight grin.

Numiria
froze and then looked down at the Warners who were laughing softly. The ensign
was giggling, hand over her mouth. Numiria shook her head, ears flat against
her skull in embarrassment. “Okay...”

“What
do you need doc?” Irons asked, sober now.

“Throttling
certain males would be a good start,” she grumbled. He just smiled at her. “You
and my husband are entirely too alike in the humor department. I think we need
to separate you two before it spreads any further,” she said firmly.

“I
think I've got him by date of birth actually doc,” Irons said with a smile.

“What
I'd like for you or more importantly your AI to do is check in on the Warner's
implants. Which requires a direct connection,” she said. “Sprite told me we
would need that.”

“Ah,”
Irons said with a nod of understanding, now completely sober. He looked at the
two Warners who were looking back at him. “Who wants to volunteer?” he asked.
They both knew the risks like he did.

“I
believe we wish to start with the lieutenant since he has the least amount of
damage,” Light Touch interjected.

“Okay,”
Irons nodded. “I suggest in an exam room. With a crash cart standing by just in
case,” he cautioned.

The
doctor looked uncertain. He held up a hand. “Purely a precaution doctor. We
don't know what is in there. A virus of some sort maybe. I'd like to not trip
any traps but you never know.”

“All
right,” she said nodding to Light Touch.

“I'll
see to it,” the elf said, hopping down and bouncing out.

“How
are the sleepers doing doc?” Irons asked.

“We
were just about to ask that,” the lieutenant said, getting up and then helping
his lady get up. They were frail, withered with age but still stubborn enough
to disdain helping hands from those around them. The ensign smiled lovingly to
her husband, tucking his arm in his and then together they shuffled to the
door. Taylor leaned heavily on his bamboo cane but apparently he could manage.

The
admiral got out of their way and followed with the doctor.

“We've
awoken twelve so far. We've had to well... write off ten so far. One we lost.
Nine others that were too far irradiated to recover. I'm holding off on about
two hundred patients who are beyond my ability to help,” Numiria explained
quietly.

“Okay...”

“The
twelve are doing well. We have them together as they work through their
recovery. So far so good.”