Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Impressive,” Cora said, dabbing at her mouth with her napkin.

  “He's incredible. Even before he was injured.”

  “How'd that happen? I thought the implants... cybernetics were voluntary?” Cora asked.

  The exec looked at his father. Taylor Warner shook his head in amusement. “Irons isn't the type. He was too busy even before the terrorist attack to take the downtime. From what I heard they usually had to order him to take his accumulated leave time. They'd lock him out and drop him someplace.”

  “That only happened once,” his wife said with a small smile. That surprised the Chambers family. Rasha rarely ever spoke.

  “And from what I heard the admiral was up to his elbows in mischief despite it,” Warner said with a laugh.

  “True,” his wife said with a small moue. The Captain and his wife looked from one to the other in amused curiosity.

  Taylor waved a dismissive hand. “Long story. It boils down to that idle hands make for the devil's work. He's brilliant when he wants or needs to be. He tends to look at something and turn it on its head or follow the KISS principle. He calls KISS the ultimate crap cutter.”

  “KISS?” Cora asked.

  “Keep It Simple Stupid,” the exec supplied with a small smile.

  Cora blinked and then her lips puckered in an amused smile. “Oh.”

  “Engineers are usually fond of making things overly complicated and horribly difficult to run let alone repair. Irons isn't like that. He's a big fan of the modular concept. A bigger fan of self repairing systems and an innovator. He has several ship and station designs to his credit. Or should I say had.”

  “You were talking about his implants? Before?” Cora suggested, trying to get them back on topic.

  Taylor shrugged. “Oh them. He's picked up injuries at different times in his career. Pirates, terrorists, and the Xenos. Normally a person who is injured received a cloned replacement part. The problem is it took weeks to grow parts, and months sometimes to go through rehabilitation learning to reuse and dial the body part in properly. When a hospital is swarming with wounded during a crisis such as a war they tended to take short cuts.”

  “Ouch,” Cora said, eyes wide.

  Taylor nodded. “Yes well, it's only temporary for most of them. Something to at least get them out and about until they can get the time to replace the parts. I'm not sure of the full story, he hasn't told us you see, but apparently they asked him to volunteer to try something new.”

  “And being an innovator he went for it?” The exec asked. “Dad?”

  “I'm... I'm not sure how much I can get into. Security and all,” Taylor said cautiously, giving his son an apologetic look. The captain glanced his wife and the exec in surprise. Security? At this time?

  “I know I know, it's been centuries, but somethings die hard. Habits and all. What I can say is that the implants have stepped up his game exponentially.”

  Taylor Warner's eyes turned to the captain. “Captain. Give Irons his head and he'll have this ship in tip top condition in next to no time. Give him a willing group of people to train and they will know how to keep her up for the next seven centuries.”

  “That I'd like to see,” the captain said with a nod. “If it is possible. He was finally getting over his anger and loathing at Irons. It's hard to be the bigger man when Irons had already taken the honor.

  “Oh it's possible all right. Just give it time. Reserve judgment if you must. The best we can do is try to live up to his example. The man really is a miracle worker.”

  “It's part of being an engineer or being a doctor,” Taylor Warner said quietly with a small smile. His wife smiled a little as she took a sip of tea.

  Captain Chambers called the bridge meeting to order the next morning. The meeting was attended by bridge officers and some of the senior ship's counsel. The room was too small for everyone so half attend virtually. This was something they hadn't been able to do in such numbers until now. The captain wasn't sure he was happy about all the changes. With everyone attending it made the meeting very political and slow to get started. It was something else to blame Irons for. He realized he needed to stop blaming Irons and criticizing the admiral for bringing change to his life. Change was good in small doses but this was all coming at them fast. It was hard to cope.

  They went around the room discussing department status and objectives. All the department heads were upbeat. The captain was surprised that things were going so well. Only the cargo master Blur and the surly gardener seemed put out over the changes.

  “In closing I believe we'll have the drive back online again in two days. Three at the most. From there we're going to focus on the long range sensors and shield emitters.”

  “Has the admiral approved of the additional usage of his replicator?” Cora asked sipping from her drink. She normally didn't attend the council meetings but had elected to join this one. Captain Chambers wasn't sure why.

  O'Mallory sat and looked across the table to the woman with an arched eyebrow. “He hasn't said we can't.”

  “I'm fairly sure he's all for it,” Warner said dryly, doodling on his tablet with his free hand. The room's attention turned to him. “If he had any problems he'd let us know. Since rebuilding the hyperdrive is his idea I think he's in line with the other repairs. They go hand in hand correct?” O'Mallory nodded in response.

  “We are hemorrhaging material. Material we need. Captain I have to protest the needless waste!” Blur stood and shuffled back and forth. He wanted to pace but couldn't. O'Mallory scowled at him.

  The captain tried not to sigh as he rocked his chair a little. The chair squeaked. He'd have to get someone to oil the springs again.

  “I don't see any waste. All the things we've done are for the benefit of the ship and crew,” O'Mallory growled glaring at the Telerite.

  “But. But! But... we need that material! What are we going to trade with?!” We need food too! Food, fuel...”

  “We're not broke,” O'Mallory said in disgust. “Just because we haven't broken a profit here on the planet doesn't mean we haven't profited in other ways.”

  “Why don't you continue with your report and we can decide for ourselves,” the captain said stopping his rocking to stare the chief down. Ever since this Irons character had shown up O'Mallory had become more and more decisive and firm. In other words an all around pain in the ass.

  “Blur...” Cora gave the Telerite an encouraging look. He nodded and launched into his report.

  The report boiled down to his unhappiness over not having the materials he wanted to use to trade to Triang. Without the materials he was short for what they would need to trade to Antigua and Centennial.

  The Captain wasn't sure what to do. When Blur wound down Cora tapped her chin in thought attracting the attention of the room. They continued to murmur back and forth but everyone was curious about what she was going to say as purser. Sometimes it helped to have the wife of the captain taking on multiple roles on a ship. “Perhaps we can bring the admiral in on this. You know, see what he suggests.”

  “No,” the captain said firmly. He had to draw a line somewhere.

  “Why not?” she asked. “Maybe we can lease his replicator? Make a few parts that the ground siders would want? Have you thought of that?” she asked, looking at the Telerite. From his look and manner she was pretty sure the answer was no. She'd heard he had wanted to borrow the admiral's shuttle to make some of the runs but the admiral had refused. He had compromised by taking the time to repair one of the other aerospace craft though. She looked at her husband.

  “No,” He refused shaking his head. “We've asked enough of him,” the captain said firmly. He wasn't sure what Irons game was and he didn't want to get in any deeper with the man than he had to. He didn't like feeling indebted to the man. The man was just too odd. No one was this altruistic right?

  Warner reluctantly nodded. Cora pursed her lips but lets the matter drop for now.

  “Okay. You said we've
got the power systems rebuilt or in the process of being rebuilt. I understand you are no longer using raw material but using the broken pieces and melting them down. I take it that is slowing your repairs chief?”

  “A lot. We'll deal with it,” O'Mallory said with a shrug.

  “How are the life support repairs?”

  “Coming along nicely. We've even reclaimed some of the abandoned areas and repaired some of the breaches. I'm hoping to have the ship buttoned up completely before we break orbit. Or at least before we enter hyper,” O'Mallory reported.

  “That would be nice,” Hir'ruk chattered. The loss of heat and life support volatiles was a constant headache for ops. Having more space would draw more power from the reactor but it would also spread out the load on the life support system.

  “Can we use this extra space?” Cora asked.

  “For what?”

  “Making things. Storage, I don't know,” Cora frowned slightly and looked at Blur. The Telerite looked uncertain. “Perhaps we can use the space to make more of the things Antigua would like? Purchase the raw materials at a discount from the planet and make them ourselves? We've got a lot of idle hands to put to work you know.”

  “That's a possibility,” Blur said cautiously. Cora blinked. That was the shortest statement she'd ever heard the Telerite utter. He must really be considering it. Good.

  “We've got four more days in orbit. Do you think that you will have all the repairs done by then?” she asked turning to the chief.

  O’Mallory nodded. The woman looked tired but determined. “The interior repairs we can do as we go. The fusion drive repairs will have to wait. We need more time. We're replacing her electronics but that's about all we can do right now. I'll need at least two weeks of down time to rebuild the engines.”

  “You can do that?” Hir'ruk asked shocked and amazed. His true hands waved in first degree disbelief.

  O'Mallory turned to the Veraxin in amusement. “With Irons on our side just about anything is possible.” The captain felt an echo of his conversations with the senior Warners. Perhaps they had been on the level about the man... he brushed the thought aside.

  O'Mallory brought them up to speed on the planned shield and hull repairs. Many were amazed and enthused. The Captain still wasn't happy about the hyperdrive repair. “What if something goes wrong? Are you certain he'll have that drive working chief? If something is wrong we're stuck.”

  “Then he'll fix it,” O'Mallory said with a dismissive wave. She'd long ago given up any contention that Irons couldn't do what he said he could. Give the man enough power and material and he could damn well build a starship from scratch if he wanted to do so.

  “What if he can't?” Hir'ruk demands shrugging his upper shoulders in second level emphasis to make it clear it was important but he wasn't confident about the question himself.

  “The only ones on this ship capable of repairing or building a hyperdrive are Irons and my parents,” Warner pointed out. “Dad rebuilt our drive twice before he was injured and forced to retire. He even got us up an octave remember? If he could do that with basic officer’s implants and limited training what can Irons do?”

  “You mean what can't he do right?” O'Mallory asked. “I've realized the man is a walking factory. He's got the Midas touch when it came to machines. I honestly think given enough time Kiev will be factory new, or damn close to it,” she said firmly. This statement forced the captain to pause for thought.

  “He wants to get us up to Beta band but I'm not sure he'll make it before we leave. I'm pretty sure we'll pick up three or four octaves though,” she said nodding to Esmay and then to Blackhawk. The chief navigator pursed her lips in a silent whistle. Blackhawk nodded.

  “Why not the extra band?” The captain's wife asked. She wasn't disappointed but was interested in the answer. From the sound of her question she wanted the answer aired.

  O'Mallory frowned, clearly annoyed. She didn't like their efforts undermined or questioned. Her people with the admiral's help were pulling off miracles. “Something is better than nothing.”

  “I know that. I still want an answer.”

  “The hyperdrive is only one part of the whole system. Granted it's what gets us into hyperspace, but with poor shields and sensors... and our computer net the way it is we can't really handle a higher band. At least not now. He also is concerned about the hull structure. He said he wanted a hull inspection inside and out to make sure the superstructure can handle the load before we tried for beta. I agreed. I still do.”

  “Kiev was never a warship. What does he want from us?” The captain demanded shaking his head.

  O'Mallory frowned again. “Kiev did fine in the Beta bands before the war. We just had to step down our speed over the centuries. He's restoring that. I'm looking forward to what else he can pull off.”

  “We're pulling the sensors to rebuild them,” the sensor officer said.

  “I don't like the idea of being blind,” the captain musses darkly.

  “Neither does he captain. We had a kilometer range with our sensors. They'd degraded that much. A bit better in hyper but that was because of the lensing effect,” O'Mallory explained.

  “True.”

  “He's rebuilt the lidar and radar arrays. Recalibrated both. Our optical network was in need of electronic repair, they're working on that now,” the Veraxin sensor officer chittered.

  “So we're blind right now?” the captain demanded. This was the first he had heard of this and he was clearly unhappy.

  “Oh no, we've got the lidar like I said.” The Veraxin pulled up the sensor feed and turned the tablet to show them. “See? One hundred thousand kilometers fine detail, one million kilometers is rough detail. Very good. Much, much better.” He waved his antenna and lower arms in emphasis.

  “But lidar and radar are practically useless in hyper,” the captain said.

  “Practically and completely are two very different things. But you are correct,” O'Mallory admitted. “Which is why I'm going to see what he can do with the hyper sensors after this shift.”

  “Can we make our deadline?”

  “It's a self imposed deadline. We'll make it or we'll extend it,” Warner said with a shrug. Blur looked ready to object but he knew better than to run off at the mouth around the captain and other bridge officers.

  “If we pick up a few octaves we'll more than make up for the loss in time. We may even come in earlier than we planned.”

  “But. But. But we need the materials!”

  “He's restricted himself to rebuilding with preexisting materials. That's slowed us down a bit though. We have to take the existing equipment off line, unplug it, remove it and then melt it down and reforge it into what we need. And then we have to install it, test it, and then integrate it with the other existing equipment. That's a lot of time.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Some things we can't do. Some of the larger arrays are too large to remake with his small replicator,” she admitted and then sighed.

  “Can he make a bigger one?” The captain's wife asked.

  O'Mallory looked at her as she brushed her bangs back. She glanced at Warner. Warner shrugged and gave her a small nod. The captain's wife didn't miss that subtle cue.

  “He can. He's actually the only one in the galaxy who can.”

  “Oh?” The captain's wife asked as the others sat up in surprise.

  “He's an engineering flag officer. He's got the keys imbedded in his implants and neural net. All the keys apparently,” O'Mallory explained.

  “Not quite. He did admit he doesn't have medical nanite keys,” the doctor said with a grimace. “But I see your point.” Her ears flicked to her friend.

  “Correct. He is a very precious resource. One we've got to protect. For the future,” Warner said with a nod.

  Blur blinked and then almost as one the staff nodded.

  The admiral took a turn and paused. If he'd been moving any faster he would have run head on to the being fillin
g the hatch in front of him.

  “Make a hole,” the Tauren rumbled. Irons stepped back and to the side, then side stepped to a recessed hatch and flattened against it. He was supposed to be working on the hyper sensors but things were going slow. He had a lot of idle time as he waited for parts to be transported from here to there and for parts to be melted down and remade.

  The Tauren was big, easily filling the companionway even without having a box tucked under each arm. He had blond fur on the top of his head. He chuffed as he passed Irons.

  “Yo Torg!” A tech called just as he passed. Irons sucked in his gut as the Tauren turned and looked back the way he had come.

  “Don't forget to torque down the...”

  “Yeah yeah, I know,” He rumbled waving a hand. “To spec. Yes, I know. I won't snap the bolts. I'm not Riff.”

  “Just so you know,” the tech answered sounding concerned. Torg snorted again, great nostrils dilating and then turned.

  “What are you looking at?” he rumbled, looking down at Irons.

  “Just waiting for you to get out of the way,” Irons replied.

  “Watch yourself little man,” the Tauren rumbled and then stomped off. His hooves made clanging sounds on the deck.

  “Well! That was interesting,” Sprite said. For some reason she sounded pleased. He wasn't sure if it was her perverse sense of humor kicking in or not.

  “So?”

  “He's a Tauren admiral,” Sprite said unnecessarily as he continued on to the drive room.

  “Yes I know. Hard to miss. Again so?”

  “So there is a bolo out on his species admiral.”

  Irons slowed his headlong stride a bit. “Come again?”

  “I've flagged the encounter,” Sprite replied absently.

  “Why the Be On the Look Out?” Irons asked patiently.

  “Admiral, there was a Tauren Marine who lost his entire clan in Pyrax. The Port a prince massacre remember? There had been some talk that he was the last of his species and a bolo had been put out.”

  “Oh,” Iron said and then nodded, looking on to where the Tauren had disappeared. “Glad there is another. He's a he though I think.”