Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (76 page)

“What
is he doing?” Kenny asked. Kenny Kennet was a low level paper pusher, really a
paralegal who had been an up and coming bureaucrat being groomed for higher
things until the station had been lost. He was still considered the youngest,
the kid, the one no one really listened to even though he had spent the last
seven centuries in hell right along with them.

Of
course the Fu's occasionally did listen to him, or at least appeared to do so.
He was therefore fanatically loyal to Yan Fu, acting as his assistant when ever
Mrs. Fu was unavailable.

Emily
tapped at the power systems, highlighting them. “He's routing power. What he's
going to do is jump start that reactor. I'm not sure how, I'm not an engineer.
But once he does I see they are already staking out a couple of replicators
nearby. They'll use the power to run the replicators.”

“Can
they do that?” Marisa asked.

Averies
grunted. “Of course they can. It will take a little re routing... which is why
they need control of admin. And our help of course.”

“Of
course. I'll file the necessary documents to cover their actions,” Kenny said
with a nod.

Sid,
Averies, and Myers gave him a contemptuous look. The Stewards did as well. They
didn't give a damn for the paper pushers. They focused on keeping what they
could functioning. They were the closest people to engineers left alive in
their clique.

“We
still haven't addressed his actions,” Elyria said. She looked at her partner
Nina who nodded. “His actions were barbaric.”

“They
were necessary,” Emily said cool and calm. “However heartbreaking they were to
us, they were long overdue.”

“May
I humbly point out that he went straight to killing, as is his nature? When he
is pressed he reduces to baser impulses,” Yan Fu said, hands tucked behind his
back.

“What
did you expect? He's military. They all shoot first and ask questions later,”
Kennet replied, backing Yan Fu as usual.

“Did
he even consider the options?” D'red asked.

“I
don't know. Did any of us? We thought of it sure, we drew up plans, but we
never acted on them. We never tried,” Myers growled. What to do about the
insane ones had been a topic they had hashed and rehashed to death over the
past seven centuries.

“Oh
we tried,” Sid said. He looked at the Fu's. “Didn't we? We tried to shut them
down. The insane... We did try.” He turned to look at the others. “For some
reason Draco blocked us, locked us out. We couldn't access their systems
through the net. I even tried to cut the power to their pods through subsystems
remember? But if I had it would have killed Nina here,” he said nodding to the
ghostly woman. The woman stared at him. She didn't like being reminded of that
incident.

“Perhaps
it would have been for the best. Living like this for the past seven hundred
years... this... we are shadows of our former selves,” Nina murmured.

“Don't
say that,” Elyria said, looking at her and taking her virtual hand. “We'll get
it back. Back the way things were. You'll see,” she said, eyes burning into
Nina's.

Emily
looked at the pair and then to the others. “
We
I doubt. We talk and talk
but in the end do nothing but get in the way. Irons on the other hand... he's
going to do it. With or without our help. So, the question is, do we help?”

“What
if we don't? Will he do to us what he did to the others?” Kennet asked, now
unsure. He glanced at Yan Fu. Fu stroked his beard.

“I
don't think he'll do that,” Sid said shaking his head. “I'm fairly certain he
won’t.” The Stewards blinked, unsure.

“I
for one am helping,” Emily murmured. Sid nodded.

“As
am I,” Doctor Trask said. The others looked at her in shocked surprise. She
shrugged and smiled a little. “This is pointless. As all our meetings have been
for centuries. We talk and talk. We plan. We get nothing done. It's time to
help those who can. Help or step aside and make room for those willing to try,”
she said firmly and disappeared.

“We
should file a brief. Keep it on hand. Update it. Gather evidence in case of an
investigation,” Fu murmured, bowing slightly to the lawyers of the group.

“You
would,” Sid grumbled. He shook his head as his wife rested a restraining hand
on his. “Fine, whatever. Keep my name off it. If anyone wants to I'll file an
affidavit
supporting
his actions. What he did he did for the best. For
the safety of this station. You all know it.”

“It
is only a precaution,” D'red said, shaking his head. He was of course covering
the council's actions in case of a liability suit.

“We
do not agree. We side with Irons,” Rachael growled, looking at her husband. The
bears nodded to a few others. “We go to help. Do what you want.” Together they
disappeared.

“I've
got to check on my garden. With all the activity...” Ripper didn't look happy.
The Gashg looked at the others, moving his eye stalks. “I am unhappy with what
has happened in that our friends are dead. But I will support the majority.
Keep me informed with a memo,” he said and then he too disappeared.

“Just
a precaution?” Nina asked.

“Call
it a way to cover the station from liability in case of a lawsuit for his
actions,” Fu murmured diplomatically.

“Oh,
if that's all it is. Then we shouldn't have anything to worry about right?”
Elysia said.

Sid
wasn't so sure. Others were on the fence. They agree to wait and watch.
Eventually the meeting broke up. Sprite monitored part of the conversation but
didn't report it to the admiral.

“Admiral
we've got a problem,” Riff said over the link. Tired Irons paused and wiped
sweat off his brow as he looked up. He rested his hands on his thighs, back
against the wall. As usual, when they finally get a handle on things and things
were looking up Murphy rears his ugly and cursed head.

“Take
five for a bit,” he said to the team. They nodded, also wiping sweat off their
brows. “What's the beef Riff?”

“The
plasma. We're ready for it. But I ran the calculations. If we take a standard
pull from your shuttle then it still won’t be enough for the reactor. Factor in
the transit time involved...”

“I
see,” Irons mused, rolling the problem over and over in his mind. A stupid idea
came to him. It was a show of how tired that he was that he latched onto it
right away. And who knows? Maybe it would work first try. And if it was stupid
and it worked... it wasn't stupid after all now was it?

“I've
got an idea. I'll meet you at my shuttle. We'll make the pull. I assume you
have the container?” The admiral asked pursing his lips.

Riff
sighed. “Yes. But only one I was going to suggest we make another but that will
take a couple of hours and we don't have the super conductor material on hand.”

“I'll
take care of the other container. Let's just get this done,” he said. He looked
at the techs around him. “Sorry boys and girls, duty calls. Or at least Riff.”

“We'll
be fine here admiral,” Gwen said. She had a handful of ODN cables in her hand.
“If you could leave Proteus here we'll do just as well without you.”

“Sorry,
can't do that. We're sort of attached at the hip. I'll come by when this is
done,” he said.

“We'll
see. I'm betting this will take longer than you think,” she said with a sniff.
Her multitester was out, probing the lines. “Damn it I don't know which goes
where. We need someone on the other end of each of these,” she sighed. “So much
for easy, I wish the twit who had installed them had thought to label the
freakin things,” she growled.

“Keep
trying. See if one of the cybers or AI can help,” he suggested as he turned to
leave. She waved a meaty hand in dismissal. He shook his head and then
shrugged. Running line was always a pain in the ass. Diagnosing line was even
more of a pain in the ass. There was a reason techs hated the job with a
passion.

He
met Riff and the team at the hatch a few minutes later. He nodded to the guards
nearby. Guards were stationed at the locks and outside each place a team was. A
roving patrol wandered the corridors in between locations, keeping the tribes
and Dilgarth away. They checked in every fifteen minutes.

“Any
problems?” he asked, nodding to a guard with his hand on his rifle butt.

“Not
a problem admiral. Quiet. Not too too quiet but just...” he waved a hand in a
smooth motion. “Quiet. The right kind.”

“I
know what you mean,” Irons said with a nod. “Good. We'll just be a minute,” he
said nodding to the Tauren with the container. Two techs had it on a hover
pallet. It was a meter tall cylinder, about fifty centimeters wide. It was
silver, with read outs and warning markers all over it. Technically since they
were moving plasma they should have a flag man out front and behind in an
orange safety vest and red flashing lights and sirens. He however was too tired
to give a shit about the trimmings right now. Everyone knew to get the hell out
of their way anyway.

“I
can check my notes again...” Riff said. Irons waved that aside as he accessed
the lock and the hatch opened. “No, let's see here...” he said.

They
made the pull and then pushed the container to the reactor room as fast as they
can. It only took a half hour, but by the time they have arrived the plasma has
cooled by twenty percent.

“It's
still not enough,” the Tauren said shaking his head. “Are you planning on
loading it and making another run?” he asked, looking at the admiral. For some
reason the admiral had been drinking a lot of water, almost a gallon on the
walk here. That was a hell of a lot of water. A pee break was probably in order
but they didn't have time.

“Actually,
no,” Irons said taking the lid off the container. Riff raised his hand in
surprise at the bright light. Irons placed his right hand over the open
container.

“What
are you...?”

“Doing?”
Irons asked as his hand morphed. “This,” Irons said, triggering a plasma
charge. He kept it low, more of a bubble. He felt his energy reserves drop as
the plasma left his arm. It superheated the bubbling mass of electrons and
neutrons nicely though.

“Okay,
that worked,” he said stepping aside as a robot picked the container up and
loaded it.

“That
was crazy! Isn't it hot?” Riff demanded.

“Just
a bit, Irons said, shaking his hand. He chuckled, feeling a little giddy. Also
a little warm come to think of it. His entire body was warm despite the suit.

“What
the hell?” A tech asked, coming over and then backing away, shielding his face
from the intense heat.

“It
seemed like a good idea at the time,” Irons said with a grin. His shield
sparkled from the heat radiating off the plasma bottle. They needed to get it
contained ASAP.

“That
was awesome!” Riff said. “Did it work?”

The
admiral studied the container with his sensors. Proteus lit a green light on
his HUD. The admiral nodded. “Looks like it did. We'll find out. I can do it
again if we need to. I don't want to though. Draws a lot of fuel and energy
from me,” he said.

“Done
it often?” Riff asked, watching the robot as it loaded the container. The
container locked in place. A tech gave them a thumbs up with the light changed
from red to green.

“Actually,
no, first time,” Irons said. “I wasn't sure if it would work or not,” he
admitted with a wry twist of his lips.

“Admiral
you are either crazy or stupid lucky,” Riff said shaking his head. Irons
snorted.

“Seriously,
that was...” a tech said nearby, eyes wide.

The
admiral grinned. “If it's stupid and it works it's not stupid. Also if it's
crazy and it works...”

“It's
still crazy,” Riff answered with a heavy snort. “But it did work. Or at least
it might of. Time to find out.” He turned to the tech at the console.

“Plasma
stream has formed into a ribbon. It's about a micron thick but stable. Heat
transfer is ten percent per minute. We need fuel,” Dan said.

“Hydrogen
pellets super cooled, formed and ready,” another tech said, looking up from her
console.

“Then
inject. Ignite when they are in the chamber.”

“Fuel
injection commencing,” the tech said.

 “Lasers
charged... firing... We have contact with the stream...” Dan reported, intently
staring at his readings.

“Temperatures
are climbing rapidly! We're already at six now... seven hundred million Kelvin!
Climbing fast!”

“Ignition!
We have ignition!” The room rang with cheers.

Warner
looked up from the M'runi's station and grinned. The captain was coming out of
his day cabin and paused, adjusting the hem of his jacket. “What?” he asked.

“The
station has re-ignited one of its fusion reactors captain. She's alive once
more,” Warner reported.