Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (91 page)

O'Mallory
and Numiria weren't amused that their girlfriend Teela had made the jump to the
station with Adam her boyfriend, and their families. The blonde Adam Prince was
a nice guy, but he was a bit flighty even though he was built like a hunk from
one of her romance novels. He certainly had nice pecks anyway. 'For a human
that is' Numiria said at their last lunch date.

The
entire Prince family had made the jump actually. Randor and Marlena had been
asked to look into a manufacturing center and a security situation on the
planet and were now getting ready to investigate things there. They were
planning on taking Teela's mustached dad Duncan along for support. According to
the grapevine the border city of Eternia was being raided by a biker gang led
by a guy named Keldor and some beast man.

Duncan
and Randor would have their hands full with the gang. From the sound of it
Keldor was a tough cookie; he wore a skull helmet all the time and had the
people in the area scared out of their wits.

Marlena
was one of their better pilots even if she was a bit old. She'd surrendered her
position to Barry when she'd retired but apparently now she was planning on
taking a hand in setting up the space port near Eternia. Go figure.

Yesterday
Marlena had taken the four of them to the planet in a restored long ranged
shuttle she'd found in the station. She was supposed to drop them off and then
come back loaded with gear. Since Marlena rarely ever left Randor's side these
days O'Mallory was fairly certain she wouldn't come back.

Adam
was already making noises to follow along behind them. He'd moped about the
station for a while. Until he met a new friend exploring the station. When he
had heard his parents were in over their heads he had talked to his new side
kick, a young green and orange tiger named Kringer of all things. Apparently
the two had hit it off pretty well in some sort of confrontation in the
unexplored part of the station, much to the disgust of Teela. Kringer and Adam
were now inseparable.

O'Mallory
snorted. Okay, so she could see the appeal, she understood why Teela didn't
want to leave her dad behind, still it irked her to lose one of her
girlfriends, O'Mallory thought darkly. They'd lost over four thousand five
hundred people; she felt a pang of remorse over all the emptiness in the ship.
Damn near five really, and another seven or eight hundred were talking about
going. Half the sleepers who had awakened had jumped ship. If Numiria and her
hyena hubby jumped she'd be in a pickle.

She'd
expected them to, the hyena Lobo would be in his glory on the station; it was a
giant trash heap after all. She'd find out later what the deal was.

“Heard
about Teela,” Numiria said, coming up behind her and goosing her. O'Mallory
spun, surprised.

“What
are you doing here?” she asked, rubbing her sore rear. Figures Numiria would
know what she had been thinking about.

The
jackal smirked, wrinkling her muzzle and twitching her long ears. “Just figured
I'd stop by and let you know you can't get rid of me that easily,” she replied.

O'Mallory
eyes her suspiciously. “You reading my mind? They teach you some new trick in
all that sleep teaching?”

The
jackal laughed, shaking her head. She was relaxed, mainly because despite her
workload she had scheduled plenty of downtime for sleep teaching and was pretty
religious about keeping that time period and not interrupting it. Her gold
earrings chimed. “No silly, you are too easy to read. I just thought I'd let
you know Lobo's happy here. We're even talking about having pups now that we
can.”

“Figured
it out?”

“Well...
sort of. I talked with...” she looked around to the amused engineers around
them. “You know, I'll talk about it later.”

“Over
lunch?” O'Mallory asked.

The
jackal smiled as her ears flicked forward. “Deal. Usual place and time?”

“Deal,”
O'Mallory said with a nod of approval. The news made her feel elated. It was
like the sun had crested the horizon of that distant blue marble and a great
weight had been lifted from her chest. Her eyes pricked a little in relief.

“Great
then. See you then,” Numiria said leaving.

O'Mallory
watched her go, feeling a glow of relief. She rubbed at her stinging eyes and
then sniffed. It felt good that her best friend was sticking around. There had
been a lot of changes since the admiral had shown up. She wasn't sure she liked
some of them but some she loved. Apparently she had to take the good with the
bad and move on.

“Yvonne,”
she said turning to her assistant. Yvonne waved from across the room. She was
still dealing with her grief but she seemed to be getting a handle on it more
and more. At least she hadn't turned into a complete mess, just a minor one.
She was slightly bitter over the events on the station but seemed to be coping.
“Check on the drive one more time. I think we'll be heading out soon so we need
to be sure. I don't want any egg on our face if something goes wrong.”

“Yes
chief,” Yvonne replied with a nod.

“Right
then,” she said turning. Yvonne she knew she wasn't going to lose anytime soon.
The woman had a deep hatred of the station itself now. It was weird, Yvonne was
bitter over the loss of her son but didn't blame the people she blamed the
station itself. Go figure, she thought. “We've still got a hole to fill in
graveyard shift I think. George has a couple of iffy spots. Any prospects?” she
asked, reigning in her wandering thoughts to focus on what was important.

“I...
you know I'll get back to you on that,” Yvonne said, tapping her chin with her
index finger as she thought.

“Do
that. In the meantime let's see if we can track down Lobo and overhaul the
recycler plant on deck four again. I'm getting more complaints of a noxious
smell. Then we'll work on the control runs to the aft shield emitters. They are
still a little hinky and I don't like that...”

There
was a meeting with the tribal elders over jobs later that evening. The station
council was not very sympathetic as each tribal elder took a turn to lay out
their collective viewpoint. Romeo was civil; Juliet tried to be the peace
maker. Y'ru wasn't happy about the direction things were trending towards and
seemed to be the aggressive spokesman.

Politics
were rearing their ugly head Irons realized. The station council was now
asserting its control, flexing its muscles in a display to get everyone's
attention. The tribes really deserved a say in their future, he realized that.
He wondered if some of the council members did as well. Most remained quiet,
allowing Fu or D'red or someone else talk.

He
looked around the council room, taking a head count. Doctor Trask was constantly
busy now and was apparently going to miss the meeting again. The Berkhearts
were here since it is a human resource problem. Averies was there but looking
decidedly bored. He had data scrolling on a holo behind him, rude but an
obvious statement that he had other more important things to be doing with his
time.

Kenny
Kennet was a sycophant of the Fu's. He'd kiss their ass and vote whatever they
told him to do, like half of the rest of the council. He liked to fawn over the
Fu's though which apparently disgusted some. Irons wondered sometimes if it
stroked Fu's ego. None of the AI were present. Myers wasn't there again either.

Doctor
Trask and Myers had been missing a lot of meetings lately. Both for their own
reasons, but it was annoying sometimes. Trask he could understand, she was a
doctor and that was a vital service. But Myers sulked if science wasn't on the
agenda... Which normally it wasn’t. If it was, he dominated the discussion,
laying out his point of view and then browbeating the others into following
along. Or at least tried to do so anyway, most would be nice to his face but
then vote their conscious in a secret ballot. He'd seethe and sulk for the
following day getting little if nothing done.

The
AI had their own reasons for being busy. Dealing with organics was tedious for
some, what organics hashed out in hours a group of AI could hash out and reach
consensus on in microseconds. He didn't blame them for missing this even if
they did have the spare cycles to attend. No doubt they were auditing the
meeting with a bot though. He wished he could but he had to put the actual face
time in. Again another aspect of politics he hated.

He
listened with half an ear, absently studying the tribal elders. Each of the
leaders had a second with them, a witness or exec, he wasn't sure which. All of
them were dressed in green station uniforms but didn't look completely
comfortable in them just yet. Juliet was wearing her hair up in a pony tail and
had a necklace of Dilgarth teeth. Romeo had a Dilgarth claw knife belted to his
right hip but didn't have the necklace of teeth he had sported when he and
Irons had first met.

Y'ru
had a headdress on, one made up of feather's he'd picked up from somewhere. The
headdress was old. It took Irons about a minute to finally realize it's origin.
When he did he snorted softly. It was a chorus girl headdress from one of the
casinos. The Veraxin must have inherited it at some point. He wore it like a
bonnet, with Dilgarth talon claw knives belted on bandoliers across his upper chest.

His
practiced eyes studied the weapons. Of course they were useless against the
cybers but that wasn't really the point was it? To the cybers they were
contemptible, weapons which they as pacifists hated. To the tribes they were
links to their heritage. The disconnect was a big one there. Of course some of
the cybers would use the presence of weapons against them.

Fu
quietly but firmly pointed out that the tribes were uneducated and therefore
were given only tasked they can reasonably understand and perform. “Menial
tasks are the best way to prove what you can do. Obviously if you cannot handle
such simple tasks you are not ready for more responsibility.” He can be such a
pompous ass Irons realized, watching him sit there on a cushion, arms folded before
him.

Nettled
the tribal leaders were ready to object before the admiral interjected to
smooth things over. “The path to knowledge can begin at any stage of life,”
Irons pointed out. All eyes turn to him. “I suggest you...” he indicated the
tribal leaders and then the council. “
We
invest in additional education
for the tribes along with more sleep teaching headsets. Meanwhile the tribal
elders should encourage their people to learn more. Also human resources can
look into finding small assistant jobs to let your people grow into positions
of authority over time,” he suggested looking at the Berkhearts. Both nodded to
him. “Let them see the job and what it entails as an assistant, learn what is
required, and then slowly shoulder more of the responsibility.”

“That
is a wise idea,” Y'ru nodded signally second level agreement. “I know of
several positions where one of our people could take over and free up the
person doing the job for other tasks.”

“Please
send a list to the Berkhearts,” the admiral smiled, nodding to Sid and Emily.
Both nodded back but were noncommittal.

Doctor
Trask arrived in a swirl of light. She apologized softly as she took her seat.
“Sorry I was late. I noted the topic of discussion and thought I'd put my two
credits worth in,” she said, nodding a bow to those in the room.

“What's
that?” Sid asked, leaning forward to see her.

Doctor
Trask cocked her head. “Well, I think we need more routine medical checks and
Ident implants.” She glanced at Sid and then looked expectantly to the elders.

The
tribal elders were clearly disturbed by the suggestion at first. Romeo scowled.
Juliet looked at him and then to Y'ru.

 Doctor
Trask noted the resistance and smiled politely. “It is a relatively painless
exam. There is a blood test but that's the most pain you should get. The rest
is simple. A physical exam to see if there is anything wrong, if you feel pain
and where. Scans of your body to see if there is anything wrong. The scans are
with a machine outside your body, you've seen it,” she said indicating Y'ru.

The
Veraxin nodded. His granddaughter had been scanned after being injured. He had
been present for it. A ring had scanned her leg and then a view of the interior
of her leg had shown up on a screen for all to see. “As far as the implant
goes, all you have to do is swallow a pill for the implant. You'll do fine,”
she told them waving a dismissive hand.

Resentment
over being treated as children lingered in the air and body language of the
tribal elders. They left wordlessly when the meeting ended. After the meeting a
few of the council talked about the resentment and how to deal with it. The
admiral listened with half an ear, uninterested. They were not interested in
his opinion lately anyway.

Lately
his opinion of the station council had soured. Some of the more pragmatic and
realistic people had turned over their positions to idealists or turned in a
proxy to the Fu's. That was annoying. He regretted leaving the station council
in place and actually nurturing them. He'd thought it would be a way to get the
other cybers to participate but now he regretted their interference.