Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (70 page)

“No.”

“Didn't
your crew run into some water a while back?” A tech asked. Irons turned to her.

“It's
a thought,” he said with a smile. He'd wondered where they would get fuel;
there was an answer right there under his nose. It showed how tired he was.
He'd been dreading trying to get the fuel from the Kiev. He knew Blur would
balk and really he couldn't blame them.

“It's
going to take a while to get this diagnostic finished,” Riff said. “Why don't
you...” he turned to see Irons had plugged into the controls. “Oh.”

“Proteus.
Preliminary report is on your screen now,” Irons said, using his left hand to
indicate the screen near the Tauren. “You were right, fuel and damage to her
electronics. Minor damage I think. We can get it sorted out soon.”

“Good,”
Riff said.

“The
good news is she's been offline for seven centuries so there is no impedance
problem. The bad news is she's tricky to handle. We need a team with an AI to
handle the finicky details,” the admiral said as he scanned the system. From
the looks of things it wasn't half bad. A lot better than he'd expected at any
rate. He... hell
they
might be able to get it up in a couple of shifts
with any luck. But that still left the matter of a power watch.

“I
can get one of the dumb AI to run this,” Sprite said. “Once we patch a
communications link in for them to use. They'll need memory though. Memory and
processors,” she said. Clio was still offline; they didn't really have memory
for her. Technically all the dumb AI should be offline, especially the damn law
AI. They were doing nothing but take up processor cycles and memory space.
“Clio would like a home of her own.”

“Which
we can also provide,” Irons said, looking around. He spotted the burnt out bank
of computer parts. “I think we need to look that over and start pulling parts,”
he said pointing to the bank. Riff grunted, looking down at his screen. He
tapped it a few times, scrolling through the list.

“Long
list,” Riff said as a tech hesitantly went over to the computer banks. She
knelt, running a hand over the case. She shook her head in distaste. From the
look of her expression the entire bank was trashed.

“And
getting longer by the minute,” Irons said. “I've put in the priorities to the
replicators. Our people should start running parts here soon. We'll need to
secure this area though.”

“Which
means tack welding some doors and hatch covers,” a tech said with a grin.
“Gotcha. Can we get more light in here?” he asked, indicating the lighting.
Right now they were using their suit lights and a couple of portable lights to
light the area around them. The rest of the reactor was Stygian black, a
foreboding cave like thing that preyed on their primitive hind brains.

“We'll
see what we can do. Or at least get some more portable lights in here,” Irons
said. He got an e-mail. “First load is already on its way. We'll have to
backtrack the data lines if there is a break in between ops and here though,”
he cautioned.

“Great,”
the communication's tech muttered. From the sound of it the tech wasn't at all
happy about sticking his hands into any dark spaces.

Riff
snorted. He couldn't blame him, not in the slightest. He leaned over and picked
up his tool kit and turned. “Let's get to work then. I'm going to check the
fuel injectors while we can. See if anything's plugged up or frozen. I don't
like the look of the actuators. One looks like it froze wide open, the other is
partially closed. Gotta fix that.”

“Good
point,” Irons said with a nod.

Riff
asked him about the cybers while they work. Parts have been running back and
forth for an hour but the supply chain is long and there is competition for
resources. Having only one small industrial replicator and one small food
replicator was a pain in the ass. A lot of parts were just too big for the
replicator to handle. They'd have to either break them down or use what they've
got and hope for the best. There was also no way they could get the large parts
through the station's companionways. The larger companionways were
unpressurized. No way.

Irons
told him he was not sure. They had been in the system for a while. He wasn't
sure how sane they were. “Honestly,” he started to say and then looked around
with his sensors. Right now they were in a dead spot; the cybers couldn't hear
or see them. That was good, he didn't want to be overheard. “Honestly I'm not
sure how sane they are or how reliable.”

Riff
snorted and pulled his glasses down to look at Irons directly. “But they can't
hear us now can they?”

“No,
so we can talk candidly,” Irons replied.

“Just
checking,” Riff said, putting his glasses back in place. “Are they safe to work
with is what I'm wondering.”

“Not
sure. We'll find out soon enough,” Irons replied. “A few mean well. A few are
worth keeping around. But the damn lawyers are getting on my nerves.”

“That's
what I was afraid you'd say.”

“Boss,
got a problem here, actuator is frozen,” a tech replied. “And Danger Dan's got
issues. Something hinky's going on with the communications.”

“Great,”
Irons replied getting up. “I'll help Dan,” he said heading to the communication
tech.

“Let
me check my notes,” Riff muttered.

They
approached the thin communications tech. The tech was muttering darkly, fingers
dancing over the virtual keyboard in front of him. “Problem Dan?” Riff asked.

“Something's
hinky here,” he said.

“Really?”
Riff asked with a patient sigh. “Why don't you tell me all about it instead of
fixing it?”

“That...
okay that's not fair. I'm trying to report something and you're being an ass,”
Dan said rounding on the Tauren. Irons held up a hand.

“Something
I'm missing?” he asked before the Tauren's temper could flare fully.

“Danger
Dan. Accident prone. One of his accidents left me in sickbay with burns,” Riff
said with a growl. Irons nodded. Great, the two had a history.

“I
said I was sorry,” Dan squirmed under his gaze. “And hey, who would have
thought an arc could go that far?”

“And
didn't singe a hair on your head and you were closer,” Riff growled in disgust.

Dan
spread his hands. “I'm not the one wearing body jewelry. At least you learned
not to,” he said.

“Yeah
after that,” Riff said, tugging on his ear where he had a scar. The arc had
ripped through the chain earing he'd had. The chain had gone from his ear to
his nostril. It had then jumped to a plasma conduit he'd been standing under.
The voltage had been high but the amperage had been low. Just enough to singe
and do damage, not quite enough to kill. At least not a Tauren. A human would
have ended up dead.

“So
what's the problem?” Irons asked.

“If
I didn't know any better I'd say someone's pranking me. It's definitely someone
or something in the net. I keep getting all kinds of crap.”

Riff
gave him a dubious look. Dan spread his hands apart and stepped aside so they
could see the virtual screen in front of him. A log played out. “See?” he said
pointing a finger to a string of code. “Now watch,” he said, tapping at the
controls. “I've got a firewall up right?” he said. Something immediately
started battering at it the moment he brought the computer node online.

“That's
not Draco,” Sprite said.

“You're
sure?” Irons asked. He was leery about the rogue AI. It was somewhere in the
station net, supposedly isolated from the rest of the system. Poking around
like this without knowing where the damn thing was didn't help his nerves any.

“Yes.
That's organic. The timing is off for an AI. An AI would do rapid fire pings,
tens of thousands every microsecond until the firewall was overwhelmed and went
down. This is limited. It's chaotic as well, not random but not static either.
An organic is behind it,” Sprite reported.

“Someone
looking for more room?”

“Or
something trying to help?” Riff asked.

“I'm
not sure about either. It could be a person being nosy. But I don't know. Try
this. Try putting up a read me file onto the firewall. Just a warning sign. See
what happens,” Sprite suggested. She hated that she couldn't get into the
system either. She was looking at it from the outside, through the eyes and
sensors of the admiral. At least until he jacked in.

Irons
watched as Dan typed a quick note out and then attached it to the Firewall. The
pings stopped for a few seconds and then resumed.

“Yes,
that's an organic intelligence,” Sprite said smugly, though she wasn't so sure
about the intelligence part. “No way an AI would take that long to assimilate
new data,” she said.

“Which
begs the question who. And why,” Irons said. “Can you find out?”

“Me?”
Dan asked surprised.

“No,
Sprite,” he asked.

“Not
here. I can't get a link. We're too far out,” Sprite said in disgust.

“Which
isn't a comforting thought,” Riff said. “No back up to call. Or for them to
call us,” he said.

The
admiral nodded. “Yeah, something to fix. Which means fixing this,” Irons said
waving to the communications system. “All right. Dan right?” Dan nodded. “I
want you to set up a firewall system in between this and the mains,” he said
indicating the main computer bank someone else was working on rebuilding. “I
want you to route everything to that temporary system and not to the main
system.”

“Why?”
Dan asked. “Not that I can't do it but why?”

“I
want a hard firewall.”

“All
right. I'll have to disconnect the lines then,” he said indicating the mess of
ODN cables on the right side of the board. Irons nodded.

“Get
started on it then,” he said. They'd have to find another method of
transferring the AI Sprite had in mind to this subnet. One thing at a time he
thought. “But mark where everything goes so we can rebuild it later,” he said
as Dan reached for a plug.

Dan
stopped and then sighed. He reached into his kit and pulled a marker and tape.
“Take all the fun out of it,” he said with a grunt.

“And
be careful. ODN lines only pass light but it looks like something chewed
through some of the electrical lines under them,” the admiral cautioned.

Dan
peered close and then swore, snatching his hand back. “Shit,” he said over and
over. Irons snorted as he turned to Riff. He'd seen it right off but apparently
Danger Dan hadn't.

“I'll
go with the next load back. I need to check in with admin anyway,” Irons told
the Tauren.

“Okay,”
Riff said with a head bob.

“Can
you hold the fort here?” Irons asked. The Tauren nodded again, giving Dan
another look. “Just as long as I don't need a medic on standby. Just in case I
think I'll be in another room.” Irons snorted.

“All
right then,” he said going over to the half unloaded cart. “Back in a jiff.”

“Bring
some food and a beer back. Or hell, just the beer,” Riff said with a grunt.
“One or two more loads and we'll be ready to try this. I'd say an hour, two
hours tops. So get the move on,” Riff said.

“Gotcha.
So if I want to be here for the party...”

“Get
your ass in gear. Bingo.”

Irons
made his way to the admin. The tech pushing the push pull jack was chatty the
entire way. Irons grunted at appropriate intervals, not really interested in
holding a conversation. He's tired, he realized that now. He's tired and the
kid is nervous. He could keep going on, but he knew he needed sleep soon.

His
senses told him someone was playing shatter rock at excessive volume even
before he reached the hatch to admin. When it opened the wash of sound was like
a slap in the face. The tech with him scowled and paused, covering his ears.

“Cut
that racket off now!” Irons bellowed, amplified voice cutting over the so
called music easily. A tech looked their way and then hastily reached over and
yanked the jack. The music died suddenly.

More
than one tech looked up and clapped when that happened. A few pulled out
earplugs. “Well sooory,” the tech said, looking sheepish and annoyed. “Excuse
me for having an appreciation for fine music,” he said.

“And
excuse me for liking my hearing intact,” Irons growled to the Veraxin. “Who
left you in charge here?” he asked.

“Apparently
you did,” the Veraxin said. Irons frowned. My mistake he thought.

He
held up a finger. “Okay. No more shatter rock. You want to hear that then put
it on a portable music player and listen to it with ear buds tapped to your
body,” he said. Veraxin's lacked normal ears. They could hear through their
skin and hands.

“I
can't. To truly hear the music it must be felt as much as heard,” the tech
said.

“Then
do it on your time off. Not here. Not now. Report,” he said looking around the
room.