Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (52 page)

Her
mother had warned her about boys like him. As had others in their family group.
But she'd been attracted to his smooth charm, good looks, and bad boy
reputation. The more others told her to stay away the more intrigued she's
become. A sort of reverse psychology that only worked on the very naive.

It
hadn't lasted long of course. Forbidden fruit may have its allure but
eventually the taste palled. When he had found out she was pregnant he'd been
delighted. He'd made all the promises in the world to her. He'd calmed her
distress, made her feel loved and important again when she felt dirty and
betrayed. They'd talked of running away and being together when their parents
had put much upon them. It hadn't lasted three months though; she'd caught him
in bed with another girl, her best friend at the time Andrea. She'd been
devastated.

He'd
been contemptuous of her, snarling that she'd gotten fat and getting pregnant
was
her
fault. That she had been a dumb slut. Her father had intervened
and then their fathers had come to blows. Security had been involved and with
them came the captain.

The
captain had been grim with both of them. Andrea had been tested pregnant as
well, devastating the girl. Since each couple was allowed one child he had
tried to weasel out of it. But the captain had enforced the sterility rule. The
boy had angrily demanded to leave the ship. Since they were in hyper at the
time he'd been sterilized and then dropped off at their next port.

She'd
delivered Art after he'd been gone a week. She'd talked it over with her
parents; she had refused to give up the child. Andrea had committed suicide
when the bastard had left. Yvonne's parents had compromised with her. They
would adopt Art as their own and raise him so she could have some semblance of
a normal life. It had worked out. The crew knew he was adopted, Art knew he was
adopted, but no one told him who his biological parents were. The crew
respected her and she treasured that silence.

Now
she watched Art go out into the cold dark world and felt just a little bit of
anxiety over it. Going on a derelict was not for the faint of heart. Her son's
courage was commendable, but she wished he wasn't going. She wished his courage
was tempered with wisdom and insight into just what they could be getting into.
She sighed as Savo looked at her.

“Nothing,”
she said at his inquiring look.

“Deep
thoughts?” the chimp rumbled.

“A
little.” She looked at the other shuttle.

“He'll
be fine. He's a tough kid,” Savo said quietly.

“Can't
hide it can I?” she asked with a sideways smile. She tucked her helmet under
her arm and gathered her kit up from a tray near the door.

Savo
smiled and shook his head. “From him maybe, though I'm not sure why you are.
He's seventeen Yvonne; he's got a good head on his shoulders. He'll be okay,”
he said.

“I
hope so,” she whispered.

“A
little late to be thinking about that now,” Savo said giving her a brown eye.

“You're
right,” she said thinking about the red head and then about what was to come.
He had to try his wings out, prove himself
to
himself as much to the
crew. “Nothing to do about it now. Let's get going,” she said, indicating the
shuttle with her free hand. Together they climbed up the stairs into the
waiting shuttle.

Savo,
Yvonne, Gus, Adam Dart, Derrick, Franko, and a crew of ten others boarded the
launch with Irons. It was a tight fit with each of them wearing space suits and
carrying gear but he managed to get them all in. Gus rode shotgun with Irons as
his co-pilot. Yvonne took the shuttle's flight engineer seat.

Franko
was an electronics tech that had helped Irons out on various projects. The guy
was a mouthy pain in the ass, a coaster. He had little foundation in theory,
more of a plug and play guy and a why bother it's broke attitude that got under
the admiral's skin. Irons wondered why he had tagged along until he'd caught a
whisper between Franko and Adam about the first to get their hands on any loot
they find. He sniffed in disdain over the thought of that. Typical greed.

Derrick,
the big guy was a cool customer. Quiet, a cargo guy. Big hands, gentle as a
lamb to most people. He'd have his work cut out for him if they decided to
bring loot back to the ship.

Barry
took cargo shuttle 2 out while another pilot took the Scarab. Barry had a small
crew, just six people not including his flight crew of three. He would remain
in the shuttle with his copilot and shuttle engineer. Or at least that was the
plan Irons thought. Barry seemed as eager as everyone else to get into that
station.

Teela
was supposed to lead the second team but it seemed Art had tagged along with them.
Their task was to secure the dock and salvage anything useful in the immediate
area. In an emergency they would act as a ready reserve. The Scarab was
supposed to circle the station, looking for interesting bits to snag. Irons
nodded as they settled down into a semblance of order. They were professional
and had every outward appearance of having done this before. Good.

Savo's
wife led a crew out on the hull making repairs. She worked with O'Mallory to
plug in the two gravity emitters they had built during hyper.

The
second maintenance boat helped Petunia move the grav emitters as the away
mission got underway. It is on watch for any Dutchman incident and to back up
the away teams in case of need. Gus leaned over and waved to them as they pass
over the group. They were too busy to wave back of course.

“By
rights the solar panels shouldn't really be doing much. The light at this
distance is too diffuse to really matter,” Sprite said. They had exited the
ship without incident and made their way cautiously over to the station. Sprite
was feeding the crew the building map of the station. Everyone was intently
studying it. Well, everyone but Derrick one of the cargo haulers. The guy was
out cold and snoring up a storm.

“Tell
them that,” Irons said nodding his chin to the station. “I guess some energy is
better than nothing at all. And they appear to have some energy.”

Irons
used the shuttles to circle the station several times. Barry was impatient to
dock. He kept pointing out various docking ports and open shuttle bays over the
radio channel over the next twenty minutes as the admiral mapped the station.
Irons nodded politely but his attention wasn't on finding just the right dock.
He hadn't found it, at least not yet. Finally Barry got exasperated enough to go
off on him.

The
admiral listened to the rant for a minute and then waited for a pause. When
Barry stopped for breath he clicked his mike. “Barry cool your jets. We'll dock
when we're good and ready. Right now we're not ready. I want a detailed reading
on this thing, a map of the interior or as much of it as we can get. I'm
getting that now. I want to know as much about this station as I can get with
my sensors before we stick our heads into the proverbial lion’s den.”

“Roger,”
Barry replied, sounding sheepish.

“I
know you're eager. Just chill a bit. We don't want to go off half cocked. I
want to go in eyes open and with the best map and plan we can get from out
here.”

“Roger,”
was Barry's sober reply.

“I
did find something intriguing. Something... there are heat sources in there but
I can't refine the data at this distance and with so much metal in between us
and the signals. Whatever it is it's deep in the station, close to the core.
I'm also picking up some faint bio signals moving around,” Sprite reported.

“Moving?”
Irons asked shocked as he switched from the exterior communications to the AI.
Sprite put the readings on the shuttle's main view screen, overlaying the
current view and then zoomed in. He could see something moving around.
Definitely alive.

“Oh
now isn't that a kick. Our Ghost station really
is
haunted,” Sprite
said. The admiral couldn't help but agree. Suddenly things were a whole lot
more interesting and dangerous.

Instead
of finding a boat bay they docked to external airlocks on the ring. The spot
lights from the shuttle's washed over the locks. Irons did a careful and
thorough inspection to make sure the lock wasn't fouled. “Look! Look! Power!
The airlock! It's lighting up! Someone knows were here and is putting out the
welcome mat for us!” Gus said, getting excited when the lock lit up.

“Not
quite son,” Irons explained that it is just the florescent paint markers
reacting to the spot lights.

“Oh,”
Gus replied deflating in disappointment. Irons gave the lad an encouraging
smile and then lets the robotic arm do its work.

“You're
not doing it manually?” Gus asked surprised. He sounded a little disappointed.

The
admiral smiled and shook his head. “I have a docking arm for a reason. Normally
I'd let the station handle it. Since it can't we'll do it on our end.
Technically this is berthing not docking since we're using the arm.”

“Oh.”

“Yup,
just some trivia to pass the time,” Irons said with a smile. The kid looked at
him and then snorted. He was nervous, fidgeting in his seat a lot.

“What
we're really doing is letting the machinery do the work. That's what it's there
for after all. I know people like to show boat, but it's smarter and safer to
get the it done the right way,” the admiral explained, hoping the kid would
understand and listen. The arm reached out and found the node welded to the
airlock. It locked it's tip onto it and then pulled the shuttle in for a
perfect linkup of airlocks. There wasn't even a bump.

“What
about style?” Barry asked over the radio link.

“You
mean showboating?” Irons asked. Barry pitched end over end in front of them
making them instinctively duck. His shuttle spun a 360 before dropping down to
the lock. Irons shook his head. “At least he's pointing in the right
direction,” he said.

“Oh?”
Barry asked. “Oh so I am,” he said, looking over them to the Kiev out in the
dark beyond. There was a slight grin in his voice as he docked with a bump.
Irons winced as the collar around the dock compressed and then pushed back. He
could see ice cracking and drifting off like snow. “Any points for style?”
Barry asked with a grin in his voice.

“I'll
let you know if you've got docking integrity,” Irons said.

“Everyone's
a critic,” Barry said mockingly. The admiral's artificial eye zoomed in to view
the other shuttle's cockpit. Barry was busy flipping switches. “What do you
mean it won’t work?” he demanded over his shoulder. He turned to look at the
admiral's shuttle with a scowl. “How'd you know?” he demanded.

“The
bump. We felt it over here,” Irons said. “That and I saw ice drifting off.
Which meant expansion. Go look for another lock if that one won’t hold
pressure,” he ordered.

“Roger,”
Barry sighed, looking over his shoulder. His copilot looked nervous.

“That
means we'll be further apart,” Barry said after giving up and undocking after a
minute. “I don't like being out of mutual support range,” he said.

The
admiral frowned. Truth to tell he wasn't happy about the idea either. “Find a
dock Barry, one step at a time. I'd tell you to take mine after but I don't
want to have to pull people off the hard way if we run into more than we
bargained for,” he said.

“Roger,”
Barry said.

“Besides,
we find power on this station then we can always find a nice boat bay for you
to land in. Since you are so used to landing on air fields and boat bays,” the
admiral teased. He wasn't about to let Barry off the hook for his little bump.
At least not yet. Maybe a little ribbing would make Barry wise up some and
trust the machinery a little more.

“Funny,”
Barry growled. “I'm pulling back.”

“Scarab
one to um... Yvonne? Admiral? Who do I report to?” The confused pilot asked.

“Me,”
Yvonne said firmly. She glanced at the admiral's back but Irons didn't object.
“What do you need Scarab one?” she asked.

“I'm
sort of the third wheel here. Permission to get the hell out of dodge and go
play with Kiev?” the pilot asked. From the sound of it he sounded peeved.

“Do
we need him for anything?” Yvonne asked, looking at Irons.

The
admiral looked over his shoulder to her and studied her. “I don't think so. Not
right now. Can you ask them to do a survey of the solar panels, reactors, and
heat exchangers before they head out?”

“Sure,”
she said with a nod. “Can I ask why?”

“In
case we want to hook them back up. Fix any damaged ones,” Irons said. “Make
sure they send us the feed.”

“Oh.
Are we staying long?” Yvonne asked.

“Well,
there is an idea of putting a lot of the excess passengers off on a station or
another ship. Either building one or...” He indicated the station with his free
hand. She looked at the station and then blinked, suddenly the concept sunk in.

“Do
you think it's worth it?” she asked, ignoring Gus's gasp. Gus was staring at
the admiral.