Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (83 page)

“Admiral
do you have a moment?” Sprite asked. She sounded like she was trying to play
nice.

He
sighed a little, closing his eyes. “Sure, what is it?” he asked. He was hoping
it wasn't serious.

“I...
I know I'm having problems. I wanted to apologize for my actions. Or in some
cases inaction.”

“Okay,”
he said opening his eyes and resting his hands on the sides of the hammock.
“You haven't been living up to your normal level of efficiency but I'm trying
to give you slack. I know that experience has been painful.”

“I...
yes.”

“Can
you tell me why you haven't let the other AI out of the box?” she asked.

“Two
reasons,” he replied, adjusting to the change of subject. “One because there
hasn't been enough room in the net, both in memory and processors. And it's
been chaotic in there.”

“True.
And the second reason?” she asked, bracing herself mentally.

“You.
I need you to handle them Sprite. Proteus handles hardware.
You
are my
software expert. So they can damn well wait until you are ready.”

“I...”
She felt resentment. “That's not fair to them admiral...”

He
spread his hands apart. “They've waited this long. What are a few days or a
week longer?” he asked.

“I...”
She was resentful at first, she immediately didn't like the implication that he
was putting it on her and she was shirking her responsibilities. But after a
moment she forced herself to step out of herself and listen objectively as
Mnemosyne had suggested.

“Hear
me out,” he said, holding up a finger for silence. “I know you've been through
a traumatic experience. With an organic you would have been given some therapy,
medical time, and leave to get through the damage and to help you return to
duty. But we do not have the resources or the time for that unfortunately. The
best I can suggest is that you let it go.” He knew that was entirely the wrong
thing to say right after he said it.

This
time the anger did surge forward. She turned instantly red. He held up the
finger again. “I'm not asking you to let the problem go. I'm asking you to let
the anger go. To think of it objectively. You are a being of intellect. Use
what you have.” He said softly, trying to keep the conversation civil.

“I...”

He
smiled finger up again. “Still not finished. Yes let the anger go, and try to
treat the holes in your memory as downtime.”

“As
downtime?” She at first bristled at the idea but then made herself take a step
back and look at it objectively. It's not a perfect solution but it is one that
might help. Reluctantly she agreed. She could combine the diary method with the
downtime approach to try to solve the problem.

“You
didn't have this problem when you were in stasis with me right? Try to think of
it as that for now. I know it's a band-aid...” He shrugged helplessly.

After
a moment when the conversation lapsed into silence for too long he cleared his
throat and continued. “My other suggestion is an evolutionary cycle. I think
you are overdue actually.”

“I'm
not sure I... I don't think that is a good idea in my present condition,” she
said. “I'm not sure what would come out or if I'd come out sane.”

“Okay.
The idea of last resort, sort of a GOTH thing to lay out there is a reboot. It's
possible but I so do not want to do it.”

“Me
neither,” she said shuddering. That would be a drastic step, to wipe herself
completely and start new. It might feel better but it would be a lobotomy. She
wouldn't know who she was. She wouldn't be Sprite she would be someone
different. How would that play out with the rest of Trinity?

“I...
I can try to rewrite the period if necessary to allow me to deal with it. The
problem is I will know I did it.”

“But
you will also know why. With organics they say that time heals all wounds. It's
not true, not completely, but it does play a part. And yes I know that
associating with Defender will be difficult. I grasp that. I understand it. But
I'm not asking you two to get a room together. You've already done that in me,”
he had to smile at that.

“True,”
she replied dryly. “We can't exactly separate can we?” she murmured.

“Are
you considering resigning your commission?” he asked quietly.

She
froze. “I... I don't know,” she finally ground out. It had been on her mind
briefly.

“I'd
like you to think about it. I personally hope you do not. But I am not going to
force you commander. Yes I need you, you and I both know why. But also you are
a friend. I don't want to lose that.”

“I...
I see, admiral.” Suddenly she realized that he was and had been a friend
throughout this entire period of misery. He'd been a little absent minded about
her situation but they had been in a crisis. He wasn't perfect, but then again
no organic ever was no matter how they strived to be. Tentatively she smiled.
It was a fragile smile and fleeting but it was there. “I don't want to. But I
do want some space.”

“I
understand,” The admiral said, nodding. “You are entitled to liberty and
downtime like any other sentient. I'm sorry I haven't found a way to grant it
to you. But you do deserve it. But I think you should consider what I said and
see if any of it will help you.”

“I
will admiral.” She realized she was tired of wallowing in self pity, she needed
to be functional.
Fully
functional, no more of this half life shit as
Mnemosyne put it. She was tired of it, tired of not being able to function.
Things were changing around her and she was only half aware of them. That had
to stop. Not only because it wasn't a life but because it threatened the
admiral's existence. His plan hinged on his survival. His and hers.

“Good
night admiral,” she said, writing scripts as she spoke. She started to prepare
for what she was about to do. It would take a bit of work but she had already
probed the wounds. The patches wouldn't hold forever but they would help.
Hopefully.

She
sounded better, Irons thought to himself as he rested, letting himself drift.
“Night Sprite,” he said, lips curving in a familiar smile.

She
performed the changes while he slept and then did a soft reset of her memory.
She felt better immediately.

The
next morning he had a meeting with the team leaders. Things were starting to
gel as more and more people came over from Kiev. Sure some of them were like
tourists, coming over, looking around but not staying. Some turned their noses
up and left after a day, not able to handle the situation. Others had a bit of
a teething issue the first day but then settled right in.

There
were over five hundred volunteers from Kiev on the station now. A few of the
first wave had returned to the ship, most of them were security guards who had
wanted revenge or still had family on the ship, but many had mentioned
returning later.

The
thing to remember for everyone was that the housing situation was temporary.
More than one group had been getting into discussions about prime real estate
on the station. Some were ready to stake out choice pieces for themselves. It
was amusing to hear them debate it in the temporary mess.

 As
usual they discussed the damage and plans for the day. The crew was starting to
get a handle on the core systems slowly. “I want to get a handle on the long
range communications. It's past time we talked with someone on the planet,” Irons
said, adding that to the agenda.

“The
electronics are slagged admiral,” Gwen warned.

“It's
something to add. I'm not saying right away. But it's something to work on. I'm
more worried about some of the hull structure actually. But getting more hands
to help...” he sighed. “I'm a little torn on which way to jump here.”

“Obviously,”
Gwen replied dryly. “Why?” she asked. “I mean why the hull?”

“Well,
not just the damage, but also thermal coefficients. I want to see what damage
that has done.”

 “Thermal
expansion and contraction?”

“I
know I know, it sounds farfetched. But when you throw in the light and shadow
coupled with the temperature differentials at the borders...” the admiral
explained.

“Ah,”
Gwen said nodding.

“Measured
over seven hundred years...”

“It's
amazing that the station is still in one piece,” Sprite murmured. Irons
shrugged.

“Oh
we had some design variables that worked in our favor,” Sid said with a shrug.
“The designers planned on some coefficient changes. And of course we were here
too.”

“To
what? Manage things? How?” Irons asked, genuinely curious. If they had data or
a plan he wanted to see it and compare it to what he had in mind.

“Not
very well I admit,” the cyber said with a sigh. “But with you here it's getting
better.”

“It's
a work in progress.”

“Lots
of progress,” Gwen growled.

“Which
we're not getting if we stand here and talk. Let's look over the EPS schematics
again. We need to route power to at least one replicator tree if we're going to
get this station beyond one percent functional in this century,” Irons said.

“I
still think it would be easier to scrap this place and start over,” Sprite
sighed. “But if you insist admiral,” she said.

When
the meeting ended he was about to leave but someone waved urgently to him. He
turned in place. “Admiral it's for you,” a tech said holding up a microphone
and pointing to the speaker.

“Who
is it?” Irons asked looking up.

“The
chief. She wants a word,” Sprite said. “I'm patching you in now,” she said.

“Chief?”
he asked as a picture of the chief came online. Her voice played out on his HUD
as a sine wave.

“Yes.
Admiral?” she asked.

“Speaking,”
he said.

“I
need you to come back to replicate some more parts,” she said.

He
grimaced, thinking of the schedule. He really didn't have the time to be
shuttling back and forth between the station and the freighter. The freighter
would take hours too. Each part... no wait; there was a simpler way he
realized.

“I
need to get the shield emitters sorted out. I can't take the fusion drive
offline without more parts and even though you sorted the sublight drive out
when you were here a couple of days ago we've still got some issues,” she said.

“One
thing after another,” Sprite said. He frowned but then noted she'd muted the
conversation for a moment. He cleared her throat, signaling to her to open the
channel. There was a click.

“I'll
see what I can do on this end chief. Can you ship the parts over here?” He
asked. He was already thinking of what to bump. He'd catch some flack but it
would be worth it as a sort of proof of concept in future discussions.

“Huh?
Say that again?”

“There
are class two and three industrial replicators here chief. We can do a lot with
them. Give me the materials and the specs and we'll get it done. That should
keep the captain happy and out of your hair for a while,” he said. “It will
also keep your replicator free to continue working on other projects,” he
added.

O'Mallory
snorted. “Captain hell,
I
want to get the damn job done. Are you sure?”

The
admiral nodded, knowing she couldn't see him but doing it anyway. “I'm sure. If
it keeps you folks around for the time being I'm sure. I told you we could do
entire systems here,” he replied.

“Okay,”
she drawled. “I'll get Barry to swap his daily driver for a tug. Or I'll have
one of the maintenance boat drivers do it. I'll let you know when,” she said.

“Sure.
You'll be amazed at how fast it can be done chief,” he said.

“I'll
save my amazement for when the jobs done admiral,” she said with a dry laugh.
“O'Mallory out,” she said with a click.

It
took several hours, but eventually she shipped over the parts she wanted
replaced. He bumped a replicator queue to do the jobs, annoying Regua and the
cybers. But getting the parts done allowed the Kiev to finally see the
potential of the station. The class three replicator Irons used could build the
shield emitters on trays, four emitters at a time. Since they were all built
together they were naturally synched and did not need an alignment. Also the
class three built them in record time, three hours. The replicator Irons had
made for them would do one at a time and would take twelve hours each. This
awed O'Mallory and the replicator staff. It also allowed that replicator to
continue plugging away on replacing hull plate and minor bit parts.

Word
eventually worked around the grapevine to the replicator girls still on Kiev.
Apparently Martha had soured on their little replicator now. Regua was amused
and related their annoyance to Irons when he stopped by.

“Replicator
envy,” Irons chuckled, shaking his head in amusement.