Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) (28 page)

Apparently that was a new innovation. He overheard people talking
about it, and the wonders of other things to come. Some seemed excited and
knowledgeable about the things Io 11 had delivered. Some even knew about
Phoenix.

When  several people recognized his clothing as from off world
they chatted him up. He exchange stories about space and history during the
evening picnic. He was amused when a few people picked his brains about various
things, most of them current tech for the planet. Some felt him out for getting
stuff out of him. He rebuffed that for now, he was here to relax. Besides, he
didn't have that much on him anyway.

He bumped into a fat man carrying scrolls and booklets while he
was on his way to the port-a-potty. The man had bifocal oval glasses and was
dressed in a rumpled gray coat. Other people nearby laughed at the rumpled man
on the ground. The man adjusted his glasses, looking a bit sheepish as he
gathered up his cane and then things. Irons helped him up. “Sorry, sorry, I'm a
bit absent minded,” the man said, gathering his things up with a groan. He was
short, barely one hundred and thirty centimeters with a shock of unkempt white
hair and bushy mustache. He was almost as round as he was tall it seemed. His
eyes twinkled and he had a jolly look to him though. If he had had a beard he
would have made an outstanding Santa.

“What are you up to now old timer? Trying to reinvent the wheel?”
someone in the crowd of people watching nearby teased.

“Now that would be silly!” The man said, rounding on his heckler.
Irons snorted.

“So you're an inventor?” Irons asked, handing over the cane. It
had a snowflake of all things on the pommel.

“No, more of an engineer,” the man said shaking his head. He
adjusted his glasses and then blinked finally noticing the admiral's different
appearance. “I must say are you an offworlder by any chance?” he asked,
suddenly excited, eyes wide.

The admiral snorted softly. “Yes. I am. John Irons, Fleet
Admiral.”

“You...” the man's eyes were round in wonder.

The admiral nodded. “I'm a sleeper.”

“Do you have a fleet?” the old man asked. The admiral shook his
head.

“I was in transit between systems the ship I was a passenger on
was ambushed. I managed to make it to a stasis pod. The good ship Io 11 picked
me up a few years ago and I've been going around doing what I can.”

“Io... oh! So they dropped you off?”

“No, I parted ways with them a while back. I've got my own ship
now,” the admiral said smiling. The man's eyes went wide in wonder.

“You don't say,” he gushed breathlessly. “It must be a wonder...
and such a letdown to live in our day and time,” he said.

“Not with people like you and I trying to make things better,” the
admiral said with a smile. Dewey blinked and then grinned.

“Well, I dare say you are a wonder. It's great to see someone of
like mind! Someone of vision!”

“I'm an engineering admiral, it comes with the territory,” Irons
replied with a snort.

“Oh I dare say, my manners my manners!” the man fluttered and then
juggled his things until he could reach out a hand. “Dewey. Dewey Keeper,” the
man said, smiling again.

“Pleased to meet you Mr. Keeper. Do you have a moment?”

“I... I'd love to talk but I simply must finish this I have a
presentation tomorrow...” Dewey said, feeling torn.

“I understand,” the admiral said nodding. “A suggestion?” he asked
smiling. Dewey blinked at him with blue guileless blue eyes. The portly man
reminded him of an old fellow he'd met as a youngster a long time ago.

“I'd suggest getting a valet case or brief case, or a tablet
computer,” Irons said with a smile to show he didn't mean to criticize.

“My that is an interesting idea. But the computer...”

“Well...” the admiral pulled out a flash stick. “This is a
computer and memory storage in one. It has a tiny computer in one end and you
can plug it into a flat screen or holo projector.” As he was talking he sent a
mental command to upload as much basic engineering knowledge and blueprints to
the terabyte memory as he could think of. Sprite helpfully filled in the blanks
in the blink of an eye.

Dewey reached for it and then paused. “I... It must cost a great
deal,” Dewey said, face falling.

“No,” the admiral chuckled handing the old man the three
centimeter long stick.  The admiral smiled. “I make them by the bucket load and
keep my pockets full of them. It's no trouble. Here,” he pulled out another and
handed it over. “A spare. They can link to each other too.”

“I don't know what to say!” Dewey said, genuinely touched.

“If it helps you out and helps you help others I'm all for it Mr.
Keeper,” the admiral said with a smile.

“Dewey, all my friends call me Dewey,” the man said smiling
broadly as he took the second chip.

“Dewey. And I'm John.”

“I...” Dewey looked torn. The admiral snorted softly.

“Go on. I'll be around for a week or so. Check the net to find me
if you'd like to look me up. Go play with that, It's a treasure chest I know
the itch to play with it is overwhelming.”

“So says experience,” Dewey replied with a smile. He wiggled his
mustache. “Go to the double X, tell them to put it on my tab,” he said, waving
a pudgy hand towards a nearby bar.

The admiral looked in the indicated direction and then shrugged.
“I was looking for a place to have a beer. I take it they have a good
selection?”

“Only the best in town!” Dewey said expansively. He grinned.
“Thank you John, thank you kindly. And I will look you up just as soon as I...
um...”

“Deal with work. I know,” the admiral replied with a nod. “Duty
before pleasure. I'll see you around Dewey,” he said nodding.

Dewey nodded and turned, hustling off. He had a short cane that
helped him move but his bent back seemed somehow strengthened.

“That was a nice thing you did,” a woman said nodding to the
retreating inventor. “Dewey's a sweet guy, smart.”

“I sensed that,” the admiral said with a smile. Each microcomputer
he handed out helped he knew, and in hands like Dewey's it would be
exponentially more of an impact to the population. At least he hoped it would.

“Come on, I was heading to the double X anyway,” she said tucking
her arm into his. He looked down at her in surprise. She had a simple yellow
dress on, something that contrasted with her black hair and green bonnet. She
was most likely in her forties from her look, a mother from her tone. “I'm
meeting my husband when he gets off shift there so we can talk.”

“Fine with me ma'am,” he smiled politely, bowing slightly and then
heading off with her.

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

The bar was fairly populated, as was expected. But it wasn't
packed, so he appreciated it. They sat at one of the wooden bars and made small
talk as they waited for their tray of beers. When it arrived he paid the tab
and smiled politely as they found a nearby table. They continued the small talk
about various things as they settled into the chairs and each took a swig of
the slightly flat beer.

“Audrey, Mrs. Audrey Halfson,” she introduced herself.

“Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Halfson,” the admiral replied smiling.

“So you're a sleeper? What was the past like?”

“The past is the past,” the admiral replied flippantly, shrugging
off the question as he took a pull of beer. When he dropped the mug from his
face he noted her dyspeptic expression and relented a little. “It's hard to
talk about.”

She looked sympathetic for a moment and patted his knee. “I
understand.”

“It's not just painful, it's the frame of reference. You see it in
movies and tridee recordings of course but it's not the same as being there.
Sure some of it was great, but some of it sucked too. In some ways I envy you,
you're not burdened by that, crushed and hemmed in by regulations and
expectations. Well, you do one have expectation.”

“We do?”

“The one every generation has, to make things better for
themselves and the next one coming in behind you. To make a better future for
your family.”

“I... see. I think I understand,” the woman said. Irons nodded.

“I thought you would. Parent?” he asked. She nodded. He nodded
back.

“Right now you've got your whole future ahead of you. The sky is
literally the limit. You can use what we did in the past to guide you, or go
your own way. It's entirely up to you.”

“True. But some things just don't work out. It's not all pie in
the sky... I don't know if I'm saying it right.”

“No,” he nodded and smiled sympathetically. “I understand where
you're coming from. Some things just don't work out as planned. They sound good
on paper but then when you start to put them into practice things get... well
out of hand.” He squirmed a little.

“Like Pyrax? I've heard of you. Admiral Irons.” She nodded
politely.

“I... yeah,” he sighed. “That could have happened better. I admit
I screwed up. I put myself in that situation and the politicians got me. I
should never have gone in without someone on hand, and I should have called the
marines in the moment I busted out. I didn't know about their threat of blowing
the colony until I confronted them. Had my people gained access to the colony
they would have secured the exits and it might have been different.”

“Hindsight is twenty twenty admiral,” Sprite reminded him. His
lips puckered in a sour expression before he nodded curtly.

“A friend reminded me of hindsight being twenty twenty. Being
perfect. I get that intellectually, but you can't help kicking yourself over
things like that. It's one way of learning from it and making sure it doesn't
happen again.”

“I heard they're still there, but things aren't as good. Something
about you not being there?”

“I've heard a few things about what's happened in Pyrax as well,”
Irons said cautiously, setting his stein down on a cork coaster and sitting
back. “I gamed out what I could have done, and I do kick myself for not digging
in and just swatting the bastards down and taking control. But I'm too.... I'm
a product of my generation. I was born in a republic, and I swore an oath to
uphold the constitution. We may not like what our civilian commanders do or
say, but we have to respect the office. I've got a duty, one bigger than my own
image or of the survival of one star system.”

His audience stared at him in surprise. He snorted. Pyrax was
still a bit of a black hole, a lot of ships had redirected away from the system
when Carib Queen's report had gone out. Only those in transit or from systems
that fed into Pyrax that Carib didn't go to had kept contact.

Of course it was always like that, someone was in transit when
news arrived, or they missed a warning. He'd expected it in Pyrax but that
hadn't happened. Apparently the system hadn't had a lot of traffic at the time.
Things were picking up however, now that word had spread of the pirate's
defeat.

Sprite had tried to gain some information, most of it was limited.
A freelance freighter had made the run up from Seti Alpha 4 after he'd left.
They'd transited to Gaston and later here to Epsilon with news of the pirate
squadron's demise and the Renaissance and his fall. Most of what had been
brooded about had been dismissed as wild stories. Still a bit had filtered into
the people.  Unfortunately they were a bit light on details on what had
happened after he'd left. Most of what Sprite had dug up was second or third
hand and none of it very helpful.

They knew for instance that governor Walker was still firmly in
charge and that the speaker had been in hiding with some of the assembly
involved in his exile. Some of those involved were denying it, others were
under arrest. They weren't looking for her very hard though, that much was
obvious.

Commander Logan had kept any news of the state of military affairs
as secret as possible. The admiral fully understood and agreed with him, no
sense letting the pirates know what their stats were, that was just stupid.
Still, he would have liked to have gotten some news, even if Logan was still
alive and in charge.

 “In the time I was in charge, a little seven standard months
before the system's new constitution was ratified and the new governor was
elected, I managed to get a lot of repairs in place, and set up the seed of a
decent navy. Unfortunately there wasn't any shipping in that time so the word
didn't get out to other systems.” He frowned.

“But you'll go back?”

The admiral shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. “Maybe
someday, but not now. No. The people behind my so called exile are still in
power, or those that served them or were secretly behind them are. No, I'll
work around the area, help where I can until I can find another system to start
another seed.”

“Like here?”

The admiral smiled. “It's a possibility,” he said, not admitting
it was a remote one. This system just wasn't suited for a space naval presence.
It had a very sparse asteroid belt and little interest in space. No, he'd
already written this system off. It would serve as a secondary seed, a place to
continue the expansion of the renewed Federation, but no, it wasn't a place
where he needed or wanted to set up shop. It was a good cross roads though so
it could serve other purposes right now.