Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (51 page)

“Aye
aye captain,” O'Mallory said, sounding nettled but resigned to her fate. Irons
saw her grind her teeth together as she turned away.

“You'll
have your hands full putting those emitters back in place chief,” Irons said,
touching her shoulder as she started to walk past him. She slowed and then
nodded.

“I'll
have Petunia's crew lend me a hand. She's experienced,” she said gruffly. Irons
nodded as she walked out. He turned to the captain. The captain continued to
study the central plot, staring at the station.

“She'll
get over it,” the captain said softly after a moment. Irons nodded slowly.
Sometimes being the boss wasn't about pleasing people. It was about making sure
the right people were where they were supposed to be and on task. You couldn't
please everyone.

Sometimes
being in charge was also about reining people in, checking their impulsive
spirits before they did something stupid or dangerous that put themselves or
the ship in danger. And it was about watching someone go out, follow your
orders, do something you think is okay and find out that it was dangerous and
they paid the penalty... and then having to live with it and move on. Sometimes
it sucked to be the captain.

Technically
first away missions really weren't a place for a Fleet admiral either.
Especially ones going into the unknown like this. Derelicts were a dangerous
place to explore even for experienced crews. Taking greenhorns in there... He
hid a mental wince.

“Captain,”
Esmay said holding up her hand.

“No.
And before anyone else asked, no. No bridge officers,” the captain said with a
firm shake of her head. Esmay deflated, dropping her raised hand. “Admiral, you
are in charge of the mission. I'll give you Barry in a shuttle and the Scarab.
Take a crew in your shuttle and Barry will take a group in one of ours he will
select. He'll hold the docks while you have a look.”

“Aye
captain,” Iron replied with a nod.

“Volunteers
only,” the captain said, looking over his shoulder to Irons. “We don't know
what to expect in there,” he said.

“That's
true,” Sprite said. “I can't get anything on the communications. Nothing but
static,” she said.

“So
much for life,” Esmay muttered.

“We'll
have to go with full bio-contamination protocols,” Irons said as he headed for
the door. “I'll need at least one medic on hand and another on standby. Also a
place to quarantine until the doctor checks everyone over,” he said as he
mentally started sketching out a TOE and list of possible people.

“I'll
see to it,” the exec said with a nod.

“Inform
doctor Numiria she and her understudies are to stay here. Find a willing nurse
or medic,” the captain said as Irons exited the bridge. Irons grimaced at that
and then nodded. A medic would do better than a doctor. A doctor really didn't
have a place in this. Not unless they had to pick up the pieces. He'd rather
not risk one of their three doctors in this endeavor. Hopefully their services
wouldn't be needed.

Irons
found some of the volunteers on the way. People approached him as he made his
way to his quarters for his suit and then to the boat bay. He's amused by how
fast they had had heard the news. “Scuttlebutt doing its usual best of getting
the word around,” Irons said. Most of the people were good people but not
really engineers or people he was familiar with though.

“At
light speed,” Sprite echoed amused as well.

He
entered the boat bay with his gear on and paused in the entry hatch. There were
over two dozen people milling about both shuttles. He'd really expected only a
dozen or so people. Obviously people were interested in exploring, even at the
risk it presented.

The
chimp Savo waved to him as he tried hard to scratch at an itch. His contortions
have a few of the people around him moving safely out of reach of an elbow or
flaying arm. More than one person was amused at the sight.

“Damn
things. I hate wearing a monkey suit,” Savo muttered as the admiral came over.
He was bristling at all the attention he was getting which was only making the
situation worse.

“Why?”
Gus asked, grinning. “Looks good on you,” he said.

“Funny,”
Savo said, stopping his scratching session to bare canines at the kid. Gus
gulped. More than one person laughed at that. After a moment Savo seemed to
settle down.

“I'm
your security chief if you're wondering,” Savo said, coming over when Irons
paused near the center of the bay. Irons nodded. The chimp's suit was a general
purpose design that had seen better days. However it still looked functional.

“Suit
integrity test before we board folks. That means full test and top off now and
after. I want any leaks identified and repaired now, not when we're over there
and can't do crap about it. So start on that,” Barry said, coming over.

“You're
on this?” Irons asked turning to the boat chief. He had been surprised that the
captain had volunteered Barry's services.

“I'll
take boat two,” the big guy said, jerking his thumb to the second cargo
shuttle. It was the one Irons had repaired with him at Triang. “I'd take the
banana boat in honor of our resident ape, she needs a test ride, but now's not
the time,” he said with a tight lipped smile to Savo. The chimp gave him a one
fingered salute before using the finger to pick at his ear.

“Besides
it doesn't have the room for any cargo,” Irons said with a nod. “Do you really
think you can salvage much?” he asked.

“You
never know what you'll find in a place like this. We've done it before. No
problem,” Barry said with a dismissive shrug. The chimp looked up at him and
then snorted softly.

“Well,
it's not really,” Barry said defensively. Then he smiled. “At least for me. I
stay with the shuttle,” he said.

“Great,”
Savo said in disgust. “Real hero,” he said.

“Someone's
got to bring your furry butt over there and back you know Savo,” Barry said
with a small smile.

“Shit,
you would mention that!” Savo practically shrieked, trying to claw at his ass.
Barry snorted. He shook his head and looked at Irons. Savo's antics were doing
wonders in getting people over the opening night jitters.

“You
know, I always wondered why they didn't make chimps bald. Same for other Neo's.
It'd make shedding a thing of the past,” Barry said amused and clearly teasing.

“A
question for another time,” Irons said. “Though you could shave if you wanted
to Savo,” he said to the chimp. The chimp glared and then slowly shook his
head, teeth bared again. Again the one fingered salute at the suggestion, this
time aimed at the admiral. People around them chuckled.

“Oh?
Well, it's just a thought,” Irons said mock sweetly. Barry chuckled. So did the
rest of the group as they gathered around.

Irons
looked around. There were four other shooters, one of them he recognized as the
tall Amazonian Teela. She was checking her rifle. She was cool and
professional. She would be an asset Irons thought as he nodded. He looked at
the other crew.

Yvonne
was head of the engineers; she would assess the equipment and see if it was
salvageable. She was over with a freckled red head he recognized as an
apprentice engineer. From the look of the kid he had some sort of special
attachment to her.

Franko
the tall Terran male was the second in command of the techs. He was a pain in
the ass but he did okay with electronics. The squat black man near Franko was
Adam Dart. He was the life support tech; hopefully they could find a
compartment or section that would allow him to put his skills in use.

Al
was also going, Irons noted. Al was second in command of security for the ship,
which meant Savo was second in command. It looked like the big heavy worlder
was riding with Barry though. He was stacking gear and checking weapons near
Barry's shuttle.

Gus
was tagging along as Irons copilot. From the look on his face he was pretty
eager to get his hands on the launch. The admiral hid a grimace as he watched
the kid practically dancing next to his shuttle.

“Kid
looks like he's doing the pee pee dance,” Savo said nodding to Gus. Irons
snorted. Savo turned to Irons with a snort. “I'm riding with you it looks. You
and that little shit if he can find a potty that is. Great.”

“Gotta
love this outfit,” Sprite said. She was in good spirits as well it seemed.
Irons nodded.

“We've
got most of the people,” Savo said looking around. He pointed to Franko, Adam,
Yvonne, and a dozen of the others. “Crew one,” he said, waving to them with a
hand. The crew one team looked up at his call and nodded.

“Crew
two Barry, Al for security, Art for engineering, Marco for life support, CJ as
copilot and um... six or seven others I think.”

“Great.”

“It's
a start,” Savo said. “Which we'll do as soon as certain people get their acts
together!” he said pitching his voice so everyone in the bay could hear it.
Yvonne looked over her shoulder to him waved and then continued talking to Art
as she helped him suit up.

“Now
look Art, this is your first away mission. I know you're excited. Just keep a
cool head no matter what happens,” Yvonne said, helping the lad into his suit.
The boy was using a heavily patched orange generic suit, one that she herself
had used many times before. Art was a good kid but he was a little too excited
to think straight and focus.

“I
don't see why we need to wear these things,” Art muttered. He didn't like
having to suit up; the damn thing stank of sweat and burnt insulation. Whoever
had used it last had also gone a bit heavy on the garlic.

“Hook
the catheter and rear end up too stinky,” Yvonne ordered.

Art
made a face. The catheters were incredibly painful, they were intrusive, and
he, like just about everyone else hated using the damn things. “Do I have to?
Are we really going to be in this
that
long?” he demanded wrinkling his
nose as he stared at her.

“Yes
Art,” she said patiently, averting her eyes as he made the necessary
connections. He grimaced in distaste but did it with a professional albeit
reluctant hand. She forced herself not to check, even though she badly wanted
to. Technically protocol said she should but some connections you didn't buddy
check, you took on faith. “We're going to be in the suits a minimum of forty
eight hours. Maybe longer. Maybe a week if we're not lucky,” she explained
patiently.

“Spirit
of... That long?” Art demanded, pausing and looking up at her with wide eyes.

She
tried hard not to roll her eyes. Didn't he read the brief? No, he had probably
been too excited. “Yes. Quarantine.”

“Why?”
he demanded. “No one has...”

She
grimaced. “People or something are alive over there. Remember what happened
last year when we merged crews? People on both sides started getting sick. A
few died. Remember that? Uncle Milt?”

Art
bit his lip. Finally he looked down and nodded.

“It
turned out that the crews each had their own immunity to diseases, but when you
mixed the two the other crew didn't have immunity. So we caught what they were
carrying, and vice versa.”

“Oh.”

“So
yeah, we're in the suits. If you don't want to go just say so. Mom and dad
wouldn't mind you sitting this one out,” she said, hopefully.

That
hit him where he lived; boys were all about pride and proving they weren't
afraid. Proving that they were men. “No way!” he said, looking up defiantly.
“I'm going!”

“Okay,”
she said with a sigh and ruffled his hair. “Just be careful okay?” she asked.
He nodded. “Go on then.” She ruffled his hair once more. He irritably brushed
her hand aside and then she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He made a
disgusted face and noise and she smiled as he moved away wiping at the cheek.

She
watched him leave fondly. Barry punched the lad in the arm and then ruffled the
lad's hair. Art took it better from Barry than from Yvonne though. It must be a
guy thing she thought with a mental snort. Barry waved and then ushered the
aboard. Barry caught her look and nodded. He'll do okay, she thought with a
pang. He'll do okay, she thought, hoped... prayed.

What
Art didn't know was that he was her son. Not her brother, her
son
.  Her
flesh and blood, hers. She'd been twelve when a smooth talking piece of trash
had talked her into bed over a bottle of hooch. She'd been too young. Too young
and too full of what she thought was love to understand. He'd told her it would
be fine. That they didn't need protection, protection was for sissies. She
believed him when he had said he'd pull out before hand. She closed her eyes in
all too familiar pain. She found out differently.

Her
parents had tried to argue with her about him. They saw the signs, they knew...
but she'd snuck around and met him anyway. She thought she knew everything. She
knew that they didn't understand, they were old and senile and she knew what
she was doing. She thought... god how stupid youth can be sometimes. Always we
think that we're unique, that our parents don't know anything, they were too
old to understand. You don't learn until you were older that with age came a
sort of wisdom from experience. Life's experiences passed down through the
ages. Some learned by listening. Others had to learn the lessons over again the
hard way.