Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (64 page)

“Ah.”

“Usually
more than two.” He held up two fingers and then slowly raised another. “Another
one is only seemingly unguarded. The eggs are dummies. Either artificial or
infertile eggs. If anything bites into them they stink to high heaven alerting
the pack of danger.”

“Lovely,”
Myers said.

“You're
a scientist and you didn't know this?” the admiral asked, raising an inquiring
eyebrow.

“I'm
not an anthropologist. How did you know this admiral?” Myers asked.

“A
class in war college. I had a perverse teacher. Learning about the nest was a
learning experience. The nest that is obvious is a trap.”

“Ah,”
Sid said with a shrug.

“Strategy.
One of the things he pointed out was that the being that breached an egg was
marked. He drew a comparison to die markers for cash credits.”

“Um...
oh,” Sid's face cleared. He nodded. “Got it.”

“Right.
The pack could track the perp anywhere. Once you got that stuff on you it took
a nanite scrub to get it off,” the admiral replied with a disgusted face.

“Wow.”

“Yeah,”
Irons said with a grimace. “What I'm getting at is the alien's won’t leave
their territory or their nests. If we can identify their territorial limits
then we can find the nests at the center of this.”

“Ah.”

“Identify
them and we can box them. Throw a bot or something at a nest and they will call
in everyone to protect the nest. That will leave their borders clear and make
it easier to contain all of them.”

“Or
have a bot breach the dummy nest,” Myers said with a nod. “Break a couple of
eggs and then lead them into a trap.”

“That's
another good idea,” Irons said in surprise. Myers smiled.

“You
mean I catch on quick for an old guy,” he said.

The
admiral snorted and waved a hand. “We're
all
old. Age, wisdom,
experience, and treachery beat youth and vigor all the time. We just need to
apply what we know under the right circumstances,” Irons said.

“Well
I'll look into their territory. I'll get you a rough map in an hour or two,”
Myers said. “I had one at one time but it's a couple of centuries out of date.”

“Okay.”

“The
people are a problem though. What do we do about them?” Sid asked tiredly. He
was afraid of the answer.

“Same
deal. Not a kill or contain box. Well, a contain box definitely. But it would
be better if we can contact them. Get them to settle down and start helping
instead of hindering,” the admiral replied firmly.

“Yeah,
that's a wish.”

Sid
looked at Myers. “It's a start.” Myer's eyes fell.

“What
do we do with them once we've got them contained?” Myers asked, looking up from
whatever he had been pursuing.

“We
make the trap smaller and smaller until they are in a manageable space.”

“And
then?” Myers asked.

“One
thing at a time. One step at a time. We've got to get them contained first,”
Sprite said. “Though if I know the admiral he's already got some ideas in that
regard.”

“You
know me so well commander,” Irons said with a smile.

The
captain came on the bridge and scowled as he walked around to his chair. He
nodded to the steward who handed him a cup of coffee and then withdrew quietly.
Looks were exchanged between the bridge crew. They could feel the quiet
frustration and anger radiating from the captain.

“This
has gone on long enough,” he said finally. “How long has it been?”

“About
two days since the admiral went over sir,” Hir'ruk said. Two of his four eyes
swiveled to look at the screen built into his station. “The admiral's AI has
sent another progress report. They've made minimum progress. I believe they are
still in the getting to know one another stage,” he said, shrugging his upper arms
in second degree uncertainty.

The
captain frowned. He took a sip of coffee and sat back staring at the station on
his view screen. They weren't doing anything just sitting here watching the
station drift. “We should leave,” he said finally.

“Captain?”
Esmay said in surprised dismay, turning to him. “Sir?”

“We
should leave,” the captain said, indicating her with his cup. “Plot a course to
the planet. We've been here long enough,” he ordered.

“Captain,”
she started to protest but when his scowl blackened at her protest she turned
and punched in the data and started plotting a course.

“Captain,
we need to give it more time. He's only one man,” Mr. Warner said from his
side. Which was true. Irons was working on containing the Dilgarth and the
tribes but so far it wasn't working out very well. He was one man after all,
trying to move around shutting doors and rounding up any leakers. The captain
turned on him.

“I've
given it enough time. We've lost far too many people over there. No, it's a
waste.”

“Captain,
we've had hundreds, thousands of requests to...”

“To
do what? Leave? See! I told you so!”

“Captain,”
Warner sighed patiently. “No, the requests are to
join
the admiral.
Despite what happened our people
want
to help.”

“Really,”
the captain said blinking in surprise. “I find that hard to believe,” he said
dubiously. He took another sip of coffee.

“I'll
go,” the normally quiet steward said raising his hand. “If I'm needed. I don't
mind.”

The
captain and some of the crew turned to him in surprise. “You'd go Bob? Spirit
of space why?” Blackhawk asked.

“It...
we talked about building another ship or station. Well, there's a station right
over there,” Bob said indicating the view screen. “Already built and waiting
empty. Yes it's messed up, it's got issues, it's dangerous, we all know that.
We've lived with it here on Kiev for my entire life.”

“True,”
Warner said with a nod to the lad. A lot of the younger generation were
interested in the station, if only to do something new and exciting. The threat
of danger had thrown some, but many had realized they lived with danger on the
ship their entire life. The efforts of Irons and the engineers made life easier
on the ship, but it was still dangerous in some ways. They were working to
change that though.

The
captain stared at the lad. “Why...”

“It's
something new. Exciting. Something...” Esmay's face worked and her hands spread
helplessly as she turned to face the captain.  “We've been working on this ship
since the admiral came on board. We've restored a lot,” Esmay said indicating
her console and then the rest of the bridge. “Imagine what we could do on that
station!” she indicated the station's image with one wave of a hand.

“You'd
go?” The captain asked, suddenly aghast. He didn't want to lose his chief
navigator.

She
shook her head. “No sir. There is no call for a navigator over there,” she
said, smiling slightly. “My home is here. But for others... This ship only
needs a crew of two hundred at best. Actually, she shipped with around a
hundred and forty before the Xeno war. That left a lot of people with too much
time on their hands. Time they could use fixing that up,” she said indicating
the station again.

“And
since it's a station they wouldn't go far. We could come visit them,” Hir'ruk
murmured. His mandibles clacked a few times. “Trade,” he said.

Warner
snorted. “Trade hell, I wonder if with the admiral's help we can get more of
this ship turned around. Can you imagine what a class four industrial
replicator could do for us?”

“So
you're thinking beyond salvage?” The captain asked. He'd thought that was why
they had gone into the station in the first place. Apparently others hadn't. He
wondered if Irons had thought of it in the same way.

“I'd
say salvaging the station as a whole is a better deal captain,” Warner said.

“Would
you go?” The captain asked, genuinely curious.

Warner
smiled. “No,” he said looking around. “I prefer to travel. I think my parents
wouldn't mind settling down. Same for some of the other old folks.”

“It's
something to consider captain,” Esmay said, practically holding her breath in
anticipation.

“Besides,
we can't go anywhere anyway,” Blackhawk said.

“He's
got a shuttle. He can catch up,” the captain said.

Blackhawk
shook his head. “Begging the captain's pardon but I don't think that launch has
the range to go across the system. But that wasn't what I meant. The drive is
currently offline for repairs.”

Captain
Chambers sat up straight. This was news to him. He scowled blackly. “Oh?” he
set his cup down in his cup holder.

Blackhawk
shrugged. “O'Mallory took the drive down yesterday evening to clean it and
rebuild what she can with what the admiral has taught us. Something about
clearing the electrical screens of debris that's built up, clearing fouled
lines and replacing leaking fittings and lines. Then a tune up.”

“Why
wasn't I told?” the captain demanded, hands gripping the arm rests. His
knuckles were turning white.

Warner
sighed. The captain turned to him. “Captain, we were told in a meeting. It's
been on the agenda. We just thought we'd be in orbit when the drive was
offline.”

“I
don't like sitting here helpless,” the captain muttered.

Warner
frowned and shook his head. “I don't either. But I'd rather be out here
drifting than in orbit. If say a pirate came along and we were in orbit we'd be
too deep to escape. But out here...”

“We
can still go into hyper until the drive's repaired,” Esmay said nodding. “Very
true,” she said thoughtfully.

“Very
well,” the captain grumped.

“It
really is on the agenda captain,” Warner said soothingly.

“Let
me see that again then,” the captain said.

“I'll
upload it to your inbox,” Warner said. The captain gave him a cool look. “Oooor
I can upload it to a tablet now,” he said going to the rear station to find an
unused tablet.

“That
should keep him busy and us here for a day or so longer,” Warner murmured to
the engineering tech sitting at the engineering station. “Tell your boss not to
drag it out too long, and to get on the horn with Irons to get some results.”

“Will
do sir,” the tech said with a nod.

“So,
what are the others doing?” Sprite asked. Averies had shifted from working on
the index to helping her with the AI when she'd showed him how to integrate
creeper bots.

Most
of the usable net was partitioned between the cybers and AI. Data wasn't shared
and some systems had been overwritten for personal use. She'd had her virtual
hands slapped twice when she tried to repair the damage someone had done.

“Most
likely still arguing over whether to help or not,” Averies said absently. She
signaled amusement and then faltered.

“Wait,
even the AI?” she asked, now confused. To help or not should be a simple thing
for any AI to respond to.

“They
and some of the others are looking for legal precedence for you and the
admiral's actions,” Averies said.

“You're
kidding me!” she demanded.

“Oh,
they are also filing motions. Or at least working on briefs,” Averies replied,
clearly amused.

“For?”

“The
eventual law suits,” Averies said absently.

“You...
seriously... you're joking right?” she asked, confused and more than a little
annoyed.

“Oh
very serious. Usurpation of authority, interference in state matters... Illegal
seizure and destruction of private property. It goes downhill from there.”

“You're
not kidding,” she said staring at the human. Averies didn't like a body, but he
did have floating hands, mouth, and a pair of eyes.

“I
kid you not. They are patiently waiting for you to get the long range
communications going so they can file their motions,” Averies said, tugging at
a code string.

“Motions.”
Sprite felt something she rarely ever felt, anger. She hated thinking she was
that human to feel emotions. Emotions clouded your judgment, they made you
partial. They made you... fallible. She hated thinking that something like that
could bring her to making a mistake. And now like a vicious loop she was angry
about being angry. Great.

“So...
let me get this straight. They aren't happy about us being here. Why didn't
they say so?”

“Some
did. But most were caught up in the moment. And really, something has to be
done.”

“So...”

“So.”

“Talk
about looking a gift horse in the mouth,” she muttered finally.

“More
like kicking it in the teeth,” he said in agreement.