“Oh yes. You see, I'm going to have another... let's say chat with Smithy. Juanita left her proxy with me before she left. I found it in the launch. Sprite and Io set it up while we were repairing the reactor,” he smiled.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Shelby asked confused. Her father looked suddenly relieved.
“Will it work?” he asked eyes bright. He gave the Admiral an eager look.
“Oh I think so. You know the Constitution. The amendment on clones and inheritance is embedded into it. Along with a half a dozen other things the so called Port Admiral has been forgetting about. We give him a way out and he will jump at it,” Irons smiled. Shelby shook her head vehemently no.
“Besides, his clone back up had an unfortunate accident when we lost power. His tissue samples as well,” Sprite informed him quietly.
“No, that ass should be tossed out an airlock. Naked. Let him squeal as he sucks vacuum. He's done it enough to others,” Shelby snarled. Her father shook his head.
“No.” He said. She stopped and looked at him with questioning eyes. “The Admiral is right, we give him a way out he will run. Back him into a corner and he could do all sorts of things we would regret.” He shook his head. “Without Smithy in his corner and his guards as his army he will have a fun time out there.” He waved to indicate the galaxy at large. Shelby suddenly smiled, catching on.
“Oh that's rich, that fat moron on a farm world?” Liam laughed suddenly. Several of the others followed suit.
“Yeah, okay so maybe a quick death is too good for him. Making him suffer... maybe that isn't so bad,” Shelby said thoughtfully.
Liam chuckled and pointed his finger at her. “Admit it Sheila you'd love to put a dart up his ass, but seeing him sweat in the muck on a farm, or begging on a street corner...” He picked up his cup. “Alms...Alms...” Shelby batted the cup aside while her lips turned up in a small smile.
“Okay you got me.” She sighed. “The only thing I will regret about this plan is I won’t be there to see him suffer,” she said softly.
“Living well is the best Shelby, both reward and punishment,” her father said. “Rewarding for us, punishment for him.” He waved it off. “Let's get back to the machine shops. Now that number three is up, can we shift priority to industrial replicator two?” He looked around the room as they picked up their memo pads to scroll through their notes.
The Admiral sat back with a smile and small nod to Logan.
He made his way through the bustling crowd but slowed when a pair of security drones hovered over a group of children. The kids scattered in all directions. “Just how many of these drones are there?” he asked watching another warily.
“The station's original compliment was one hundred . I have seen twenty six in active service since we have repaired the station's reactors,” Sprite reported. “I guess that they are a case for doing a job too well,” the AI replied after a moment.
“You think?” the Admiral dryly commented.
“We alone?”
“By that do you mean is anyone listening?” Sprite asked. “In answer, no, your good,” she said from his HUD.
“I want each of those drones reprogrammed,” he said eying one warily. Defender was online as well.
“Um...”
“Back door. An override we can tap in an emergency.”
“And how do you propose we do that?” Sprite asked.
“By we I mean you. I'd say the next time they go to recharge. Or create a virus of your own. Whatever works.”
“Okay. That might work,” Sprite said, sounding amused. “I didn't think you'd go for the hacker route. Devious.”
“Well, we're sure not going to build or repair any of those damn things. Make sure that gets passed around too.”
“Already done. There have been requests for parts by Smithy. I've shunted them as low priority.”
“Good for you. Keep up the good work.”
“We aim to please,” Sprite replied. He nodded and kept walking.
"How goes it?" the Admiral asked leaning over the young woman's shoulder. He was making the rounds after checking in. This was his third stop this hour.
She seemed to start in fright then shook her self and settle back down. "I've got it." She tapped the controls.
"Good," he nodded as he studied the pixie haired blond. The young woman was too slim, with a short frame. She'd missed a few meals over time. Or there was something lacking in her nutritional intake.
"You're Angie right?" he asked. She looked up and nodded.
"What can I do your you? Admiral right?" she asked warily.
He smiled. "I'm not like the Port Admiral, Angie, I am a Fleet Admiral."
She rolled her eyes. "Is there a difference? Besides I don't see any fleets around here." She waved. He chuckled.
"Touché'." She looked confused. "It means well said," he smiled. "But no, I am the real deal, I am a sleeper, not a civilian pretender." He waved to indicate the upper decks. She nodded and turned back to her station.
"If you say so. I've got the replicators initialized. We're feeding the first priority list in now. Last time we made a hash out of it until we chased down a bug in the software. Some virus rewrote the nanites to randomly flip their z or x axis..." She waved. "It was nasty. Not as bad as the one that made them dance the Makerana what ever that was, but still annoying. Glad it was just a test run. Hopefully we've got it sorted out. If this fix doesn't work then we'll have to purge the nanites and do a rebuild with what we've got left in the reserve reservoir. Which is almost gone, I have no idea where we are going to get more." She sighed. He looked at her. "I am one of the assistants remember? I know all about this stuff. I started in here in replicator one." She waved to indicate the industrial replicator beyond them.
"Right. Well, once we get a handle on critical parts, we're going to expand our base and build a couple helium three platforms I have in my database," he held up his right arm.
She nodded. "How are we going to power these? Solar?" She looked confused. "No that won’t work." She shook her head dismissing her first thought then looking up at him. He cleared his throat.
"Actually, Sergio picked up an asteroid with a high concentration of uranium. I think we can do a RWG or two along with a capacitor bank and plasma bottle for each platform along with some solar panels. That should allow us to power the platforms. We
can even add a fuel cell to tap the excess hydrogen once it is up and running," he explained. He jacked into the nearby console and projected a holo of the platform, highlighting the power and reactors.
She studied it with a low whistle. "Right, okay, I think we can do this." She studied it. "It looks simple. The truss should be a piece of cake. Our metal storage is at ten percent, more than enough for something like this. I'm not sure about the rest though." She waved.
"Well, Sergio will plant the first two in the nearest gas giant. They will suck in the atmosphere to inflate these." He pointed to the gas bags. The holo zoomed out. "The heated gas will keep it afloat. You're right though, it is a primitive design, it is actually from the twenty first century." She looked up at him in surprise. He smiled. "If it isn't broken, why fix it?" he asked with a shrug. She nodded slowly.
"And here I thought it would be some super complicated techno toy that has a million parts that each can break." She shook her head.
He chuckled. "Oh there are plenty of problem areas. But if we build it right, and if we build in some redundancy we can hopefully avoid the worst pitfalls. This design has been used for centuries after all. I bet this system had dozens before the war." He shrugged. She nodded.
"Right well, I've got twenty more minutes on this emitter then I can start on the core... no, let’s see..” she thumbed through the list. "Aha!" She tapped in the order then highlighted an area beside the emitter currently growing.
"One of the spar segments?" he asked. He'd uploaded the plan, and she'd run with it.
"Yeah, I can build a few parts at a t
ime. The emitter looks good, but we won’t know for sure till we run a diagnostic on it. Might as well give this a shot too."
She hit enter and sat back with a happy smile. Slowly the truss segment started to form. "Good enough, let me know how it goes." He nodded to her and left.
"Admiral heads up, we've got company." Defender warned. A red iris on his HUD blinked then a map opened. Several red dots on the map were projected.
"Hostile?" he asked looking up. He was on his way to check in with Logan in engineering. He had thought taking the long route to get a better feel for the station would be good. Perhaps he'd been mistaken.
"No indication. I have however received a power spike on one person." He nodded at Defenders explanation.
"Right." He nodded to a passing tech. He turned the corner and noticed a couple in the shadow of a nearby entryway.
"Can I help you two?" he asked as he paused. The man seemed to jerk then look down. The woman patted his arm. The man cleared his throat.
"Were you serious about the job Admiral?" Sprite grabbed an image of the couple, enhanced it, then ran a facial recognition against everyone he had met. She came up with a match with a pair of people in the gang he had met on his first day. He nodded.
"Yes. You and the young lady wish employment?" he asked. The man nodded. The woman cradled her belly.
"Sensors detect the woman is pregnant Admiral. Judging from her size in her second or third trimester," Sprite reported. He nodded.
"Right. Do you have quarters?" he asked. Another tech passed them slowing down. He noted the tech and waved them on. The tech moved off slowly, glancing over his shoulder. Looky looes. Irons thought dryly.
"No I'm ah.." The man looked away.
"We were thrown out several months ago. Security came around for us but our neighbors warned us before they caught us." She tilted her chin up in defiance. “Matt here was in the machine shops. My name is Sara, I was studying to be a nurse. I've served as a midwife and EMT for the poor sections." She waved to the area around them. He nodded.
"Right. Sprite quarters?" he asked.
"I've got just the thing. The old community college campus two decks down. Map coming right up. Take the next right, then pass three intersections then down two ladders," Sprite plotted a map.
"Right follow me folks," he waved and led the way. After a moment they followed.
“The entire deck has been abandoned Admiral, with the exception of the medical clinic. Life support was lost on the deck during the crisis and is only just now being restored. Some of the areas were heavily used,” Sprite reported as he stepped over a pile of trash.
It took twenty minutes to get to the right corridor. It was dark, with intermittent gravity and some rank smells. "Thanks a lot Sprite," the Admiral growled. "Okay folks, we're going to be doing a lot of fixing up." He indicated the nearby door. "Matt, since you have hands on experience, I'm going to show you some tricks to fix what you can then let you two settle in." He opened the door. A horrible stench came out. "Great. Nice. Remind me to thank you for this later Sprite," he sighed.
"I've got a pair of cleaning bots on the way. In fact here they are now," Sprite replied. The woman dodged a flying saucer with a startled oath. It floated to the door, spun, then entered. it's companion started on the hallway.
"Right, don't mind them, they’re going to do some of the cleaning." He entered the quarters. "Definitely a fixer upper," he sighed. "Sprite does the food replicator work?" he asked. Matt reluctantly followed him in. The first bot was using it's ultrasonics on the kitchenette. A safety light showed where the ultrasonic beam was pointed.
"No Admiral. It does have power however."
He tapped the controls. "Right." He morphed his right arm and let Proteus go to work on the panel. Matt stared at him. "Don't worry about the arm, you'll get used to it. Sara right?" The haggard looking woman leaned her head in.
"Yes?" she asked timidly. He could hear her stomach growl.
"Sara, I'm going to get this fixed then you can get a bite to eat and settle in. I want you to report to the hospital for a full check up as soon as the doctor gives you an appointment." Proteus finished and his arm fell to his side. "All fixed." He tapped the controls. After a moment a trio of sandwiches appeared. He took one and handed one each to the couple. He took a bite out of the third then pointed. "Door is in there. From the smell the refresher is out. We can fix that or the AI WILL find you better quarters." He looked up.
"It's fixable. I think. I can't detect a blockage in the water lines," Sprite reported. He nodded. "Most likely the sewer was shut off and mold grew. It will take time to fix. We'll get you some fresh clothes and bedding." He tapped the food replicator. After a moment a trio of drinks appeared.
"Matt, can you handle electrical or plumbing repair?" the Admiral asked studying the burly man as he handed Sara a drink. Matt nodded.
"I did take a course on basics when Chief Logan had it. It's been a while though." He shrugged. “I think I can learn on the job though.”
"Right. I can show you how to check the lights and basics and you can work on the corridor right?" he asked. Matt studied the glass then shrugged and nodded.
"If I have the parts. It's not like this is a priority though," he said with a grimace.
"Well, some of the simple plastic parts I will show you how to make with the replicator. The rest I will have the AI set up a method for you to requisition. First off, do you know of anyone else who would like a job?" he smiled to Matt.
Matt nodded warily. "This is legit right?" he asked.
The Admiral nodded. "Yup, I've got a blanket authority on the station. If you know of a few people with the right skills, why don't you go find them after Sara's appointment. Set them up in the quarters here in this corridor and get them to work cleaning and repairing this area. I'll be along next shift to check on things." He watched as the duo seemed to stiffen.
"Admiral the doctor has an opening in sixteen minutes for Sara." Sprite reported. "Sara, you've got an appointment in less than fifteen minutes. Better get moving." He waved to the door. She looked startled then gave Matt an appealing look.
"Go, I've arranged a pass to medical," he waved.
"Right, security pass, I'm handling it. Got it. They are cleared," Sprite said, taking the cue.
He nodded. "You're good to go. Unless you want an escort?" He gave them a look. Matt seemed reluctant. "Tell you what, I am going in that direction anyway. Let’s go." He led them out to the lift.
When they entered the luxury deck he waved to the guards. One scowled. "What's with the riff raff?" he growled. The couple stiffened. Sara sucked in her breath, hiding behind Matt.
"They are with me. Got a problem with that?" the Admiral turned in full command mode. The guard shook his head backpedaling. "Right. I didn't think so." He waved to Matt and Sara. "This way folks." He led them to the sickbay.
"Name?" the dragon at the front desk asked. He waved to Sara. "Sara. She has a checkup appointment. Prenatal. I suspect malnutrition and toxic exposure are problems. She has medical training. Charge it to the engineering account." The desk nurse looked startled then typed at her desk computer.
"Sara? Oh, okay." She looked up. "Have a seat over there, an orderly will come in a moment to take your vitals." She nodded to a pair of empty chairs near a group of well dressed people.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Have the computer call me if you need a hand." The Admiral patted Sara's arm. She gripped it fiercely then let go. "Take care of them, they are just the beginning. Besides, I understand Thorby wants her back, Sara was one of her better students," he told the nurse in a stage whisper.
Her lips puckered into a frown then smoothed. "Well, she needs attention more than some. If I get another rich woman in here for another body sculpt..." She shook her head. He chuckled.
"Right." He nodded and waved to the couple taking a seat as he left.
"Sprite keep an eye on them. Keep a channel open for them to use and set up a tutorial
for them in their quarters. Make sure they have what they need and set up the ordering queue I mentioned. I want them to be the core of our newest recruiting drive." He waved to a guard as he passed him and entered the Ops lift. “Make sure Logan and Shelby know and ask them for a trainer. It's time we moved his impromptu engineering school to better quarters anyway.”
"Hello Admiral, I see you've come down in the world." He turned to see a bejeweled woman in a glittering gold gown standing near the entrance to Ops.
"How so?" he asked curious.
"It's all over the deck that you came in with riff raff." She gave an audible sniff of distaste as she elevated her nose. "Ready Jeremy?" she asked. He turned to allow a tuxedoed male pass. The man held out his arm. She snaked her arm into the crock of his and then turned with a disdainful expression. A few steps then she paused. "You'd be well to remember not to associate with the lower caste Admiral." He cocked an eyebrow as she turned and swanned out. He shook his head.
"Sorry, I'm a bit late," Enrique rushed up adjusting his tie.
"Am I missing something?" the Admiral asked amused.
"What? Oh, the Port Admiral is having a dinner and ball. Did you get invited?" The exec looked alarmed.
The Admiral chuckled. "No I am pretty infamous for avoiding parties like the plague. I'm a... hands on person any day." He smiled as the exec looked embarrassed. "Go, have a good time, I've got some folks to settle in and a new crew to build. Angie is working on the first platform, we should have it up in thirty hours or so." He waved. The exec turned to see an aide pointedly tapping a foot and making throat clearing noises. "Right gotta run Admiral." He rushed off.
The Admiral chuckled. "Since the command staff is occupied, let's go take a look at OPS." He went to the lift and entered. The lift jerked but didn't move.
"Smithy," Sprite reported. "Military override engaged. He better not try a stunt like that again if he knows what's good for him. I'll have him cleaning data files..." the AI growled. Irons chuckled. The doors opened and he entered the ops.
"Officer on deck!" someone called. He looked over to him as the crew jumped to attention.
Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) Page 19