Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) (13 page)

“You think this is bad, remember, dad signed us up to do tricks
for the crowd on Landing day,” she said. Her brother started to swear softly.
She snorted, putting her hat on. “Kick the chocks, we've got work to do,” she
said, climbing into the cockpit.

...*...*...*...*...

Dirt side the Admiral made his delivery and then went into town
once more. He dropped off a solar panel and a pair of e-readers to the local
library, and another set to the school across the street. He remembered to give
the blue Neolion Hank McCoy the small replicator and another package of tools
as well as a solar panel. The lion was like a kid with a new toy as he examined
and exclaimed over the packages, turning them all about in his excitement.

“Just don't break it. And don't try to take it apart or make a
copy with it or it will lock up,” the admiral cautioned. The delicate hand paws
were examining every seam and control button.

“Oh I won't do that! I promise!”

“Not again anyway,” a chimp nearby laughed. “He did it once and it
froze.”

“Keys. It self-destructed,” the lion said, sounding sad.

“They're programmed to do that to prevent tampering,” the admiral
replied with a straight face.

“How do you fix one?” Hank asked.

The admiral snorted. He could see that question coming a long ways
off. “You get someone like me to do it. Someone with the keys,” Irons replied
sternly, tapping his chest for emphasis. Hank's eyes widened. “It's a pain in
the ass so don't break it. Don't try to take it apart either, otherwise it will
melt down. Remember to plug it in, use a good wireless tablet to control it,
and keep viruses away from it. And don't I mean DON'T!” Irons stressed, one finger
up looking sternly at the lion. “Don't try to make anything on the proscribed
list. That included weapons and other replicators. Got it?”

Hank bobbed a nod, tucking the precious device under his arm.

“And he'll remember to feed it, walk it every day, clean up after
it...” the chimp teased.

“Oh shut up Jerry,” Hank growled. Irons snorted.

“The other package is a solid state drive with engineering and
educational materials. Enjoy,” Irons said.

Hank's eyes widened and he nearly fumbled the replicator as he
tried to get his hands on the other package. The admiral sighed and shook his
head as he retreated.

“Another engineering student,” Sprite said chuckling.

“If he doesn't kill himself breaking something,” Irons replied,
looking over his shoulder. The chimp was teasing the lion, waving him into the
bar. Apparently the lion had a room in the hotel above and kept the bar's
equipment in working order as part of his room and board. Irons turned back to
his current delivery.

“Great, now if we only had something to use them with,” the
librarian said wryly. Irons looked at her. She was a frumpy Terran woman, not
quite obese but clearly she spent more time on a stool than on her feet. She
definitely had a pear shape. She had her brown hair up in a tight knot and wire
rim glasses with a gold chain connecting the ear pieces together. She sniffed
as he and the maintenance man finished making the connections.

“Each of these machines can link wirelessly to a network. They
also have small storage ability, so you can place oh, say they encyclopedia
Galactica or your catalog on them.”

“Catalog?” she asked suspiciously.

“Yes, you could input the basic information of each book or piece
of material and its location. That way a user can find it on their own.”

“What would I do?” she asked. “You clearly didn't think this
through,” she said looking down her nose at him.

Irons spread his hands apart. “I didn't think of it that's true.”
She sniffed in disdain. “It's a system that's been in use for over a thousand
years. I'm just explaining it.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, that way people can find things quickly.”

“I'll think about it.”

“If you are worried about your job don't be. You'll still be
needed to check books in, put them back on the shelves and other things. Then
of course there will always be someone who needs a question answered that the
machine can't answer... if it's in use by someone else for instance. And of
course it needs people to put the information in, in the first place.” He
turned. People were already lining up to see the machine.

“True,” she admitted, looking at the gathering crowd. He shrugged
as she left with a snort.

“She gone?” the maintenance guy said.

“For now.”

“Thank the spirit of space,” the man said fervently. “That dragon
is a serious pain in the ass.”

“Then why do you work for her?” Irons asked.

“Hell with that, I married her.” The guy said coming out. Irons
laughed softly. The old man shook his head. “I admit I was drunk. And she can
cook, but ugh.” The admiral chuckled a bit more until the dragon turned and
shushed him.

“Come on. I've got another stop. I'll show you the maintenance of
the panels. Outside,” the admiral said.

“Thank you,” the maintenance man said, getting his gear together.

“Oh, and you can tell her I'm leaving a copy of my e-books and
other material,” the admiral said, pointing to a plastic container of flash
drives.

“
You
tell her. I don't want to eat burnt food for a month.
I'll meet you outside where it's safe,” the maintenance guy said, hiking his
belt up and heading for the door. Irons chuckled again and shook his head.

...*...*...*...*...

Helen took Hank's call absentmindedly. She'd been ducking his call
for a week and felt guilty over it. She really had been busy, she told herself.
“What is it Hank?” she asked, signing a form a nurse handed her. The nurse took
it, flipped the page up to expose another section. She flipped through it,
noted the usual patient consent form and scribbled her signature.

“There.. this guy, he just gave me get this! A brand new
replicator!”

“Say again?” Helen asked, stopping and turning, hand on the
receiver. She hated that the thing was chained to the wall by a cord. Word was
that new telephone designs were in the works in Gotham but she had yet to see
the results.

“I said, a Terran sleeper just gave me a replicator!”

“He just up and
gave
it to you? What's the catch?” Helen
asked suspiciously. Hank McCoy was a nice fellow for a Neo. He'd been a class
or two behind her and also a protégée of Pratt before nasty bigotry had forced
him out of mainstream medicine. Now he worked from the sidelines, serving those
who fell through the cracks.

The sad thing Hank was a genius, both in medicine and in
technology. His specialty was prosthetics. Hank was the real reason she had
such progress with resurrecting all the medical appliances and science. He'd
found old files on medicine a scavenger had dug up in exchange for his
services, and had managed to not only repair, but also reverse engineer many
pieces of tech that their ancestors had taken for granted and later lost during
the Xeno war. Simple things like stents and IV's and other things that were now
becoming common place.

Which was why she took Hank's call. It wasn't the guilt over not
getting him back into mainstream medicine, or so she told herself. He served
the greater good where he was she thought, running an impatient hand through
her salty hair. She needed a shower she realized.

“Hank... is this for real? Legit?” she finally asked, rubbing her
brow.

“Yeah! I told you about this guy, he's a sleeper. He tracked down
Nohar and fixed him!”

Helen blew her breath out slowly and wiped her brow with a hand.
She vaguely remembered Nohar, the yellow Neotiger she'd met in Crater City a
few months ago. She counted to ten as Hank babbled on, describing the
encounter. “Wait, you said he's a sleeper? An officer? So they met?”

“No, he said he's an Admiral. Nohar was army infantry.”

“Oh. That's... I dunno. Okay. Go on.” She shooed a curious nurse
off with an impatient wave of a hand. She knew she was late for her rounds, she
didn't need a reminder.

“He said he'd give me a replicator if I gave a discount to
sleepers like Nohar and helped them. He just came by and gave me the
replicator. I just finished testing it. It works great! I can finally make the
parts I need! The parts you need!” Hank said excitedly. She could hear him
banging around in the background. Something clattered and he swore. “Oops.”

“Don't break anything Hank,” she sighed. “So this is legit?” she
felt a twinge of envy, Hank of all people was most likely to get his hands on a
replicator, after all he was a tech and had gotten four others, but all had
turned out to be dead duds. “You said it works?”

“Like a dream!” Hank replied with a grin in his voice. “Its' brand
new!”

“New you say? How can that be?”

“He's an admiral! He's got implants and prosthetics like Nohar. He
used them to fix Nohar's. Wait should I say that? Patient confidentiality?
Wait, um, forget um... oh crap...”

“You're fine Hank. No worries,” Helen replied patiently, stroking
the Neo lion's mental state to try to get him to calm down. Hank had gotten
himself in trouble because he forgot the necessities sometimes. “So you said he
just made it? Just now? How is that even possible?”

“He's got keys!” Hank replied, now sounding exasperated. “I
thought you of all people would figure that out!” he said.

“Sorry, it slipped passed me. I've had a busy week Hank. Okay, an
admiral you said. Huh. I wonder if he'll do another for us?”

“I'll ask him! I... crap I'll ask Nohar to find him for me. If I
can find him. Damn.”

“What's his name?” Helen asked. Maybe she could do an end run
around Hank. She didn't want to, he was good and always did good in his
community. But if a replicator was in play all bets were off. She had to look
after the greater good after all.

Besides, when the commissioners heard about it that replicator
would disappear. Hank would be lucky if he didn't lose his life in the process.

“Irons. I saw him go down the street. Oh bother. I'll see if I
can... no, I've got that client at four. Damn!”

“I'll look into it Hank. I'll try to stop by in a bit,” Helen
said, nodding to a pair of doctors and a nurse waving to her. Her finger tips
covered the phone speaker for a moment until she realized they were staying at
the end of the corridor for the moment. “I've got to go,” she said, taking her
eyes off them. “I've got a problem on my end Hank. If you see him let me know
again okay? Leave a note with the staff.”

“I will Helen, thanks for taking my call,” Hank replied, now more
subdued.

“Anytime for a friend and colleague Hank, you know that,” Helen
said and hung up. She turned, looking thoughtfully out the window for a moment.
“Irons, where have I heard that name before...?” she mused, turning as one of
the doctors cleared his throat. “Oh? Sorry, coming,” she said returning to the
here and now.

...*...*...*...*...

The admiral passed Nohar who was crouched in an alley watching
someone. The Neo cat was obviously on the job so Irons didn't stop to chat
though he was tempted to do so. He didn't want to draw attention to either of
them. “Admiral, don't forget supplies for when you're here,” Sprite reminded
him.

Irons grunted. “That's where I'm going now, the general store,” he
said, nodding his chin to the sign above the brick and mortar structure two
hundred meters away.

...*...*...*...*...

Nohar blinked as Irons passed, momentarily distracted by the
Terran. He was a strange sort, a nice guy, something Nohar wasn't used to
dealing with. He'd spent nearly sixty years on this mud ball, cynicism was a
survival trait. Usually nice guys either wanted something or were taken
advantage of. Hank was nice... as long as he had parts and money, or a really
neat puzzle to solve. He could be downright nasty though if you broke something
deliberately, or didn't take care of your stuff.

He looked over his shoulder to where Irons was going. He winced,
tracking him with his now fully functional cybernetic eye. If Irons was heading
to the store he was in for a bit of grief. For a brief moment he thought about
intervening before he shrugged it off. He turned, checking his intended prey.
Yup, still got the drapes closed. He chuffed softly.

He hated working in Hazard but you went where the money was. In
this case his client was fairly certain his wife was cheating on him when she
went on these shopping trips and visits to her sister here in Hazard. It hadn't
taken Nohar long to recognize the signs of an illicit liaison, but getting
evidence of that was tricky. The duo were cagy, coming and going separately
while avoiding any public displays of affection. He needed concrete
photographic proof if his client was going to pay up.

The problem was their liaison was in a Hodges hotel, and the one
thing he'd learned early on is you don't go messing around with anything
labeled Hodges on it. Not if you wanted to live past sun down around here. He
growled softly and then kept scanning the drapes for any sign of movement.