Irons smiled. “This is a factory station. A big one. We can build quite a bit with it. Like oh, another Kiev if you want.”
Her eyes went wide. There was another whistle of appreciation, this one low and long. He snorted and nodded firmly. He now had them onboard with the dream, now it was time to get them down to business. “Right. Which means the sooner we get a handle on things the sooner we can do things like that. Things like that and more. Much more,” he said smiling invitingly.
“Well all right then!” Riff said with a grin, smacking him hard enough on the shoulder to make him wince in pain. “Where's the nearest reactor?”
Barry undocked a minute before shuttle two and headed out, back to Kiev. The other shuttle crew was eager to get back to the barn, but he was more interested in the station. When he landed he was immediately swarmed by eager rambunctious people. Some of the people just want news, but others were loading up for the ride over.
“You've got to be kidding me,” Gus muttered looking at the crowd. More than one pair was arguing over who went first. One woman had luggage. “Do we have to let them in?” the kid asked.
“We deliver the goods. Get used to it kid,” Barry said with a head shake at the mayhem on the other side of the cockpit window.
“Let's get to work,” he said. Shuttle two was already taking on passengers. He went back to let them in.
They started by running small groups of twenty to thirty over. It was great that they were running paired flights; it meant that they only had to open and close the bay doors once for each flight.
After the third paired flight the captain frowned as Barry stopped the rush to refuel. Blur had put in some choice comments about the fuel usage. He really didn't want to listen to the carping. So far the station was a black hole. People and equipment were going over with no return on investment. He didn't like that. Blur didn't like it and was rather vocal about the situation. He really didn't like that he agreed with the annoying Telerite.
The captain grumbled about having so many people over there. “What if there is an emergency and they need to be evacuated all at once?”
Warner grimaced and then nodded grimly. The thought had occurred to him as well. “They know the risks sir. I laid it out to them and they wanted to go anyway.”
“Just so they know it might be a one way trip,” the captain said darkly. He for one had no intention of allowing his daughter over there.
Irons and Riff led a team of engineers and reactor techs to the nearest reactor. It was a small fusion reactor, really a back up for the mains. Of course a back up for the station was bigger than Kiev's. A lot bigger, nearly four times larger than the reactor on Kiev. Riff is immediately awed by the shier scale of the monster.
“I think...” Riff studied the read outs. The reactor control room was battered and dusty but functional. If it had power. Irons had plugged in his micro generator to provide the power. “I think it's got some minor damage but we'll know more when we finish the diagnostic. My credits are on it having run dry on fuel. Any ideas on that?” he asked looking at the admiral. The chief had only sent over a single barrel of slush hydrogen. That wouldn't even make this thing burp.
“No.”
“Didn't your crew run into some water a while back?” A tech asked. Irons turned to her.
“It's a thought,” he said with a smile. He'd wondered where they would get fuel; there was an answer right there under his nose. It showed how tired he was. He'd been dreading trying to get the fuel from the Kiev. He knew Blur would balk and really he couldn't blame them.
“It's going to take a while to get this diagnostic finished,” Riff said. “Why don't you...” he turned to see Irons had plugged into the controls. “Oh.”
“Proteus. Preliminary report is on your screen now,” Irons said, using his left hand to indicate the screen near the Tauren. “You were right, fuel and damage to her electronics. Minor damage I think. We can get it sorted out soon.”
“Good,” Riff said.
“The good news is she's been offline for seven centuries so there is no impedance problem. The bad news is she's tricky to handle. We need a team with an AI to handle the finicky details,” the admiral said as he scanned the system. From the looks of things it wasn't half bad. A lot better than he'd expected at any rate. He... hell they might be able to get it up in a couple of shifts with any luck. But that still left the matter of a power watch.
“I can get one of the dumb AI to run this,” Sprite said. “Once we patch a communications link in for them to use. They'll need memory though. Memory and processors,” she said. Clio was still offline; they didn't really have memory for her. Technically all the dumb AI should be offline, especially the damn law AI. They were doing nothing but take up processor cycles and memory space. “Clio would like a home of her own.”
“Which we can also provide,” Irons said, looking around. He spotted the burnt out bank of computer parts. “I think we need to look that over and start pulling parts,” he said pointing to the bank. Riff grunted, looking down at his screen. He tapped it a few times, scrolling through the list.
“Long list,” Riff said as a tech hesitantly went over to the computer banks. She knelt, running a hand over the case. She shook her head in distaste. From the look of her expression the entire bank was trashed.
“And getting longer by the minute,” Irons said. “I've put in the priorities to the replicators. Our people should start running parts here soon. We'll need to secure this area though.”
“Which means tack welding some doors and hatch covers,” a tech said with a grin. “Gotcha. Can we get more light in here?” he asked, indicating the lighting. Right now they were using their suit lights and a couple of portable lights to light the area around them. The rest of the reactor was Stygian black, a foreboding cave like thing that preyed on their primitive hind brains.
“We'll see what we can do. Or at least get some more portable lights in here,” Irons said. He got an e-mail. “First load is already on its way. We'll have to backtrack the data lines if there is a break in between ops and here though,” he cautioned.
“Great,” the communication's tech muttered. From the sound of it the tech wasn't at all happy about sticking his hands into any dark spaces.
Riff snorted. He couldn't blame him, not in the slightest. He leaned over and picked up his tool kit and turned. “Let's get to work then. I'm going to check the fuel injectors while we can. See if anything's plugged up or frozen. I don't like the look of the actuators. One looks like it froze wide open, the other is partially closed. Gotta fix that.”
“Good point,” Irons said with a nod.
Riff asked him about the cybers while they work. Parts have been running back and forth for an hour but the supply chain is long and there is competition for resources. Having only one small industrial replicator and one small food replicator was a pain in the ass. A lot of parts were just too big for the replicator to handle. They'd have to either break them down or use what they've got and hope for the best. There was also no way they could get the large parts through the station's companionways. The larger companionways were unpressurized. No way.
Irons told him he was not sure. They had been in the system for a while. He wasn't sure how sane they were. “Honestly,” he started to say and then looked around with his sensors. Right now they were in a dead spot; the cybers couldn't hear or see them. That was good, he didn't want to be overheard. “Honestly I'm not sure how sane they are or how reliable.”
Riff snorted and pulled his glasses down to look at Irons directly. “But they can't hear us now can they?”
“No, so we can talk candidly,” Irons replied.
“Just checking,” Riff said, putting his glasses back in place. “Are they safe to work with is what I'm wondering.”
“Not sure. We'll find out soon enough,” Irons replied. “A few mean well. A few are worth keeping around. But the damn lawyers are getting on my nerves.”
“That's what I was a
fraid you'd say.”
“Boss, got a problem here, actuator is frozen,” a tech replied. “And Danger Dan's got issues. Something hinky's going on with the communications.”
“Great,” Irons replied getting up. “I'll help Dan,” he said heading to the communication tech.
“Let me check my notes,” Riff muttered.
They approached the thin communications tech. The tech was muttering darkly, fingers dancing over the virtual keyboard in front of him. “Problem Dan?” Riff asked.
“Something's hinky here,” he said.
“Really?” Riff asked with a patient sigh. “Why don't you tell me all about it instead of fixing it?”
“That... okay that's not fair. I'm trying to report something and you're being an ass,” Dan said rounding on the Tauren. Irons held up a hand.
“Something I'm missing?” he asked before the Tauren's temper could flare fully.
“Danger Dan. Accident prone. One of his accidents left me in sickbay with burns,” Riff said with a growl. Irons nodded. Great, the two had a history.
“I said I was sorry,” Dan squirmed under his gaze. “And hey, who would have thought an arc could go that far?”
“And didn't singe a hair on your head and you were closer,” Riff growled in disgust.
Dan spread his hands. “I'm not the one wearing body jewelry. At least you learned not to,” he said.
“Yeah after that,” Riff said, tugging on his ear where he had a scar. The arc had ripped through the chain earing he'd had. The chain had gone from his ear to his nostril. It had then jumped to a plasma conduit he'd been standing under. The voltage had been high but the amperage had been low. Just enough to singe and do damage, not quite enough to kill. At least not a Tauren. A human would have ended up dead.
“So what's the problem?” Irons asked.
“If I didn't know any better I'd say someone's pranking me. It's definitely someone or something in the net. I keep getting all kinds of crap.”
Riff gave him a dubious look. Dan spread his hands apart and stepped aside so they could see the virtual screen in front of him. A log played out. “See?” he said pointing a finger to a string of code. “Now watch,” he said, tapping at the controls. “I've got a firewall up right?” he said. Something immediately started battering at it the moment he brought the computer node online.
“That's not Draco,” Sprite said.
“You're sure?” Irons asked. He was leery about the rogue AI. It was somewhere in the station net, supposedly isolated from the rest of the system. Poking around like this without knowing where the damn thing was didn't help his nerves any.
“Yes. That's organic. The timing is off for an AI. An AI would do rapid fire pings, tens of thousands every microsecond until the firewall was overwhelmed and went down. This is limited. It's chaotic as well, not random but not static either. An organic is behind it,” Sprite reported.
“Someone looking for more room?”
“Or something trying to help?” Riff asked.
“I'm not sure about either. It could be a person being nosy. But I don't know. Try this. Try putting up a read me file onto the firewall. Just a warning sign. See what happens,” Sprite suggested. She hated that she couldn't get into the system either. She was looking at it from the outside, through the eyes and sensors of the admiral. At least until he jacked in.
Irons watched as Dan typed a quick note out and then attached it to the Firewall. The pings stopped for a few seconds and then resumed.
“Yes, that's an organic intelligence,” Sprite said smugly, though she wasn't so sure about the intelligence part. “No way an AI would take that long to assimilate new data,” she said.
“Which begs the question who. And why,” Irons said. “Can you find out?”
“Me?” Dan asked surprised.
“No, Sprite,” he asked.
“Not here. I can't get a link. We're too far out,” Sprite said in disgust.
“Which isn't a comforting thought,” Riff said. “No back up to call. Or for them to call us,” he said.
The admiral nodded. “Yeah, something to fix. Which means fixing this,” Irons said waving to the communications system. “All right. Dan right?” Dan nodded. “I want you to set up a firewall system in between this and the mains,” he said indicating the main computer bank someone else was working on rebuilding. “I want you to route everything to that temporary system and not to the main system.”
“Why?” Dan asked. “Not that I can't do it but why?”
“I want a hard firewall.”
“All right. I'll have to disconnect the lines then,” he said indicating the mess of ODN cables on the right side of the board. Irons nodded.
“Get started on it then,” he said. They'd have to find another method of transferring the AI Sprite had in mind to this subnet. One thing at a time he thought. “But mark where everything goes so we can rebuild it later,” he said as Dan reached for a plug.
Dan stopped and then sighed. He reached into his kit and pulled a marker and tape. “Take all the fun out of it,” he said with a grunt.
“And be careful. ODN lines only pass light but it looks like something chewed through some of the electrical lines under them,” the admiral cautioned.
Dan peered close and then swore, snatching his hand back. “Shit,” he said over and over. Irons snorted as he turned to Riff. He'd seen it right off but apparently Danger Dan hadn't.
“I'll go with the next load back. I need to check in with admin anyway,” Irons told the Tauren.
“Okay,” Riff said with a head bob.
“Can you hold the fort here?” Irons asked. The Tauren nodded again, giving Dan another look. “Just as long as I don't need a medic on standby. Just in case I think I'll be in another room.” Irons snorted.
“All right then,” he said going over to the half unloaded cart. “Back in a jiff.”
“Bring some food and a beer back. Or hell, just the beer,” Riff said with a grunt. “One or two more loads and we'll be ready to try this. I'd say an hour, two hours tops. So get the move on,” Riff said.
“Gotcha. So if I want to be here for the party...”
“Get your ass in gear. Bingo.”
Irons made his way to the admin. The tech pushing the push pull jack was chatty the entire way. Irons grunted at appropriate intervals, not really interested in holding a conversation. He's tired, he realized that now. He's tired and the kid is nervous. He could keep going on, but he knew he needed sleep soon.
His senses told him someone was playing shatter rock at excessive volume even before he reached the hatch to admin. When it opened the wash of sound was like a slap in the face. The tech with him scowled and paused, covering his ears.
“Cut that racket off now!” Irons bellowed, amplified voice cutting over the so called music easily. A tech looked their way and then hastily reached over and yanked the jack. The music died suddenly.
More than one tech looked up and clapped when that happened. A few pulled out earplugs. “Well sooory,” the tech said, looking sheepish and annoyed. “Excuse me for having an appreciation for fine music,” he said.
“And excuse me for liking my hearing intact,” Irons growled to the Veraxin. “Who left you in charge here?” he asked.
“Apparently you did,” the Veraxin said. Irons frowned. My mistake he thought.
He held up a finger. “Okay. No more shatter rock. You want to hear that then put it on a portable music player and listen to it with ear buds tapped to your body,” he said. Veraxin's lacked normal ears. They could hear through their skin and hands.
“I can't. To truly hear the music it must be felt as much as heard,” the tech said.
“Then do it on your time off. Not here. Not now. Report,” he said looking around the room.
“Huh?” a tech asked, getting poked from behind. He turned. “Sorry you say something?” he asked, pulling ear plugs out of his ears.
Irons sighed. He could feel his skin prickling. Norm
ally he didn't sweat. He checked the temperature with his sensors. No wonder. “Why is it so hot in here?” he asked.
“Heat exchangers blew a circuit and are offline. We're working on it,” the Veraxin said. A tech kicked another who was half under a console. The human stuck his hand out with the middle finger raised to the room. Irons snorted. Clearly he had a classy bunch of techs here. Great.
“We're working on it admiral.” Gwen said coming in behind him. Irons turned to her.
“When did you...”
“Get here?” she asked amused. “Just got here actually,” she said. “Mind moving? You're blocking the way,” she said pulling a push pull behind her. He stepped aside to allow her to pass. She pulled it into the room and then stopped. “Christmas is here, come get your goodies boys and girls,” she called.
“Oh goodie, what did you bring me now?!” A tech said rubbing his hands together. “You don't look like saint Nick though; the beard isn't the right color. Suit either.”
“Funny Ugo, very funny,” she sighed shaking her massive head. She took her helmet off the top pile before someone could knock it off and break it. “I bring gifts and all I get are insults. Lucky me.” She turned to Irons. “Had a hell of a trip getting here too. We had to reroute twice from the path you set.”
“You did?” he asked dumbly.
“Yeah, first a line blew, and then a door shut on us. I was wondering what was up.”
“I'm wondering the same thing,” Irons said.
“It's like someone doesn't want us to fix things,” another tech said. He shifted the top layer to a nearby station and set a lunchbox down onto the chair. He flipped the lid and wiggled his fingers in anticipation of its contents.
“Yeah, I've noticed that too. We've had some weird incidents lately,” Ugo said frowning. “Not sure if it's the station or some funky AI or what the hell's going on. Wish it would stop though. We've got enough to fool with as it is.”
Irons turned to the others. He talked with a few techs, found out that other incidents were taking place everywhere their teams were. They received a call, another crew had an incident. This time it was serious, a short that injured a tech. The tech was being attended to by the medics but Mario was furious. “I checked that box before the kid stuck his hand in there, it was deader than a door nail. Someone's screwing with us and if I catch them they're going out a lock.”
Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) Page 49