Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  "Someone's got to man the store. Back in an hour or so," Irons smiled and stepped over a series of bodies. He nodded to the guards and went into the lock.

  "Turn left at the next junction then follow the red line Admiral," Sprite informed him.

  "I thought you didn't have the deck plans?" he asked amused, looking around.

  "I don't, well, I didn't... now I do," Sprite sounded smug.

  "Your in their net?" he asked.

  "No a local cleaning droid. It has the deck plans and has a working wireless link. I can't get into the computer, it locked me out ," she sounded disgusted. He chuckled. "Right, I can solve that." He crept past an open door with people arguing on the other side, then made his way to the bridge. Inside he sighed in disgust at the lack of a watch.

  "Guess they are all busy. Riot and all that," Sprite chuckled. "Better strike while the iron is hot Admiral, you may not get a second chance," she urged. He nodded.

  "Right. Jack jack jack, where did they.. ah here it is." He stepped over to the helm and jacked in.

  "I'm through the firewall, their security is not bad. Still has a virus problem though." Sprite tisked tisked as she disinfected the system.

  "Never mind that, get me the data." He felt her stream through the net.

  "I'm in the directory, it's a mess. This may take a while," Sprite warned him. He sighed.

  "Proteus, give her a hand." He looked around nervous.

  "No sign of detection or of incoming personnel Admiral. I will let you know if that changes," Defender informed him. A plot of the deck appeared on his HUD. Over the next ten seconds it began to be populated by roving red dots.

  "The crew?" he asked.

  "Most of them. About twelve were out in the riot or in sickbay. That was their security force which is why the lock was unguarded on their side. The rest are passengers. There is an ongoing argument in one of the guest quarters over who gets to stay and who goes back. Doc had just gotten the first trio to sickbay and was on her way back when the whole thing flashed over," Sprite informed him absently.

  "Right." He reached out with his left arm and started to motion. He pulled up a copy of the directory and studied it. "Clone this system and zip it to the station. I want as much as we can get." He looked around.

  "You'd think it would have the latest time stamp... got it," Sprite muttered. "Here it is Admiral." Sprite pulled up a visual feed. "The captain, not Shannah Mayweather by the way, it is her daughter Vanessa Mayweather, linked her captain's log to the files." She rapidly dumped the log and linked data to him. "Now that I have the time chops I am pulling the raw data from astro and the sensors. I... ah ha, gotcha you bugger," Sprite sounded smug. "Just picked up a couple missing packets in a buffer. Here."

  He studied the information and then growled irritably. The data was raw and uncategorized and a jumbled mess. The sensors were also misaligned apparently. "And this tells me?" He waited as she overlaid the system then pulled up the sensor readings of the ships.

  "Not much I'm afraid. I can confirm the attack and the presence of at least six or more ships." Sprite highlighted each sensor tag. Drive strength, emissions, size, approximate mass, and other bits of data scrolled next to each. "Admiral, this doesn't make sense, They have several freighters with them, even a mobile repair ship!" He shook his head as Sprite pulled up the various feeds and massaged the data more.

  "Over the centuries they could have been turned into anything. A station, or generation ship, anything. Even a salvaged derelict. Or there is a more ominous thought, they could have been caught." He shrugged bleakly.

  "Possible. I'll log the probability as low though, they appear to be organized." He watched the chatter. "The crew may not have noticed the communications, or been able to decrypt it for that matter, but I can. It's a simple decrypt actually..." she said. He held up his left palm.

  "Later. Gist?" he ordered.

  "They really are pirates. Last message has someone laughing about the yacht not getting far and they will follow on the guard channel. Not good," Sprite reported. He shook his head. So much for wishful thinking.

  "Great." He shook his head and then went back to looking over the log. He flicked through the battle, what there was of it, once more then went back to the ship's data. "Download complete. We can go now," Sprite reported.

  He nodded. "Right. How is the ship?" he asked as he un-jacked.

  "Repairable. They took a few hits but most of the injuries were due to a EPS conduit burst in main engineering than from anything critical. It looks like they took it on the edge of their shield and it overloaded when they crossed into hyper. I took the liberty of stamping out their virus problem and updating their antivirus and firewall programs. I left a back door in case we need it too," Sprite informed him with a sniff. Carefully he made his way out of the ship. "Admiral, that was too easy," Sprite informed him disgusted.

  "Unlike you I don't want to press my luck," he shrugged as he studied the dock. Most of the mobile people had disappeared. Doc was gone, a pair of orderlies and some new trainees were busy doing triage on a few of the remaining people. "Well, that was quick." He looked around and nodded to a guard.

  "Oops, spoke to soon. Busted," Sprite reported.

  He hid a sigh as a man in a security coverall approached him. "What were you doing on my ship?" he asked. The Admiral ignored him. The man snarled and grabbed his arm. Irons looked down at the hands then back up to his face. Drool was on his chin, along with a smear of blood on the man’s upper lip and ears.

  "I was checking the log," he informed the man politely.

  "What give you the right?" the man snarled raising a fist. Irons smiled tightly as a nearby Anvil guard pulled his pulser out of it's holster thumbed the safety off and tapped it against his thigh. The man lowered his fist and then let go. "Think you’re so hot with your guns and fancy toys." He wiped his chin. He spat a fat red glob on the deck.

  "Not at all. I think checking your log is the least we could charge for saving your ship and crew." He locked eyes with the man until the other looked away and backed up mumbling.

  "Right, whatever. I'll let the captain know." He turned and staggered off into the ship. Irons snorted.

  "Tattletale. What would the universe be like without them?" Sprite asked in a light voice. He shook his head.

  "Be nice, he's just territorial. You wouldn't like it if someone was in my net would you?" he asked. She remained silent. He chuckled.

  The guard he had left in charge came over with Shelby. Shelby looked cross. "We're still getting a count, but it looks like about a dozen dead and thirty wounded." She shook her head. Irons puffed his cheeks out. The breakage was about what he thought, messy but hopefully they didn't loose any bright stars in it. "We put the bodies over there for now." She pointed to a tarp covered area. Several people were near, sobbing softly. He looked in the indicated direction then nodded.

  "Damn. I hate breakage." He looked at the guard. "We need to get some non-lethals in your people's hands soonest. There is a time to use deadly force and a time not too." He shook his head. The guard nodded.

  "Most of the rats left, either onto the ship or back into the station," Shelby shrugged. "Your going into that ship had us worried for a moment." She shook her head again as if to clear it. Her shoulders hunched then settled. He studied her.

  "Thought I was going to commandeer it?" he asked, amused. "The thought did occur to me, but she's only a star yacht. No weapons. She's be worthless to use in a fight." He watched as Shelby looked at the guard then blushed and looked down. "No. that's not it." Irons said finally realizing. "You thought I was abandoning you?" he asked. She didn't look up. He swore. "Great that means others did too. Crap. I didn't think of that." He sighed then swore for a few minutes.

  When he was done Shelby was laughing. "You're done turning the air blue?" she asked stifling tears. She wiped at her eyes. He shook his head.

  "No, just winded. Sorry, I should have thought of that earlier and the impact." He look
ed around. I suppose it's going to hit the station's grapevine. Oh well, I'll just have to deal with it later." He sighed again and looked up to see a battered but cleaned exec approaching.

  "Feeling better?" he asked raising his voice.

  Enrique winced then nodded sharply. "Yes," he said rather loud. Shelby winced. "I just caught the edge of that mess. Thanks I thought I was going to get it too." The exec shook his head. The guard blushed and moved off. "I just got off the line with Doc, she's got her hands full. I'm glad you got that other clinic online, she's sent most of the people that weren't critical there." Enrique shook his head then winced.

  "Headache?" Irons asked. Then had to ask again louder. "Take an analgesic. It should help the pain." He pointed to the nearest kiosk. It's security door was down.

  Enrique shook his head. "Later. We've got our hands full. Smithy archived the data you sent, I've got a couple techs looking it over now. It's damn scary, like something out of a holo novel or documentary. I wish it was fiction." He sighed again. "Any chance they will pass us by?" he asked. Irons shook his head meaningfully. "That's all we need. Great. Well, we're going to have to come up with something!" he waved his arms about. "I'm working on it. I'm going to get back to the launch, give me a sit rep in a couple hours when things settle. You get an analgesic and someone to check those ears," he pointed. Enrique nodded.

  "I'll check in with dad then pop in to give you a hand in a bit Admiral," Shelby said. He gave her a look then smiled sheepishly.

  "Could use all the help we can get. Thanks." He smiled and left.

  "So, what can we have Anvil make while we're out there?" Shelby asked. Her father gave her an amused look then snorted. The grapevine had been abuzz with gossip about the pirates. The entire system was on the edge of panic. The recent crisis on Anvil had some of the more cooler heads working through it. For now. If they couldn't pull a rabbit out of their collective hat's soon though all hell was going to break loose.

  "Not much. KEWs and grapeshot most likely. Maybe a few common parts if we have them on file." He looked over to the Admiral who nodded.

  "Kews? Grapeshot?" Audrey one of the lead industrial engineers asked. "Dare I ask?" she turned to Shelby.

  Shelby shrugged. "Don't look at me, I'm no expert." She looked to the Admiral. "KEWs are kinetic energy weapons. Grapeshot is a variant of the old grapeshot from before spaceflight. It also uses kinetic energy. Basically you accelerate a slug up to high speeds on a course to impact a target. Grapeshot is the same way, but it is

  a package of ball bearings or sand that disperses at a preplanned point to spray out like a shotgun blast." He looked down to his tablet.

  "Do you have any missile parts in your database Admiral? I haven't found anything in Anvil. It looks like the station just supplied grapeshot and KEWs during the war," Logan said looking up.

  "I have a few generic parts in my database we can use," Irons replied.

  "What kind of KEWs and grapeshot should we shoot for? Offense or defense?" Logan asked suddenly.

  "Both." Irons answered. Shelby sighed in patient exasperation. Audrey looked amused but also torn.

  "Okay there are two applications for KEWs and grapeshot. The first is offense. We've covered that. The second is defensive. You fire at an incoming target. Or

  with grapeshot you spray it out along the path of a flight of missiles," Logan looked over to his daughter. "You see, there are layers of defense on a ship. We have standoff platforms, ECM, point defense lasers and tractors, point defense missiles, grapeshot, KEWs, nanite fields, sand spray, the shields, and finally the armor. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses." He shrugged and looked down at his tablet once more.

  "Nanite field? Sand spray? Wouldn't they be hard to keep up with a ship?" Audrey asked, eyebrows raised.

  "Right. You can use tractors and field emitters to keep it with you until it disperses, but it creates a blind spot for your sensors," Irons answered, not looking up. "Ah, that is what you meant about good and bad. Okay," Audrey nodded. "Can a nanite field really work to disable a ship?" she asked.

  "Oh, it doesn't do that, what it does is it attenuates any incoming beam energy, shifting it into a harmless spectrum or acting as a prism to redirect it away from the ship. It also acts as a barrier to incoming missiles like the sand spray. If they hit it at any sort of high speed they are annihilated," Logan smiled. "Usually you don't deploy nanite fields unless you’re in beam range. At that time it's almost pointless to try though, it would block your own fire. It can come in handy to cover something sneaky your doing, or to cover a damaged area of the ship though." Logan shrugged.

  "Admiral Daring used it a few times to moderate success. I was on Invincible when he used it to cover a spread of plasma torpedoes. He sprayed the fields and then let our ships get some distance between them. They acted like a curtain. He had a stealthed recon drone down below the curtain so we could see around it." Logan smiled.

  "Plasma spread? How did he get through the barrier, you just said it blocks it." Shelby looked confused.

  "Oh it does normally, but he used tractors to rip firing holes for the torpedoes to pass through at the last moment. The enemy had turned it's wounded flank to the field expecting attack from a different vector, the torpedoes came as a nasty surprise." Logan smiled.

  Irons chuckled. "I'll just bet they did." He shook his head. "I'll have to remember that one, it may come in handy," he smiled.

  "Admiral can we use that fleet launch to approach the Firefly?" Sergio asked suddenly excited. The Admiral shook his head as he torqued the compressor to spec and then covered it with the coverplate. The boy visibly deflated.

  "It doesn't have the legs, she's a simple fleet launch, little more than a cutter, designed for a couple hours of use, with nowhere near the range we need Firefly is on the other side of the system, out near the outer rim," the Admiral replied after a moment. He had not been surprised to find Sergio in the bay trying to work on the launch. He had wanted to tear a strip out of the young man, but he also wanted to nurture his initiative. They had spent a few minutes working before Sergio's impatience had gotten the better of him.

  "But if we dock it with a tug?" Senor Valdez suggested from the lock.

  "Possible, but then we would get only a few people on her, not enough to be useful. We went over this before, in order to get to Firefly we can either sacrifice a tug or find a longer ranged craft." The Admiral sat back as Sprite ran a list of ships.

  "Wait, hmm.. What about this sub-light tender? She has the legs, and can even haul the tug and launch..." The Admiral mused then looked over to the Valdez family who were quite and sober.

  "You better talk to Enrique the exec. No way can you get her captain to let you fly her. He swore after his accident no one would," Senor Valdez shook his head. Junior sighed and nodded as well.

  "If it's to save his own can he will. Besides if we have to we can seize her and pay him back later," the Admiral smiled. "I'll try to talk to him first though." He shrugged. The Valdez family nodded in unison.

  Chapter 12

  "Sprite? Gutierrez? The tug?" he asked walking swiftly.

  "Checking. There is one sub-light tender docked in the docking ring. She's locked down Admiral. I can't get in. Registered to a Domingo Gutierrez." Irons nodded.

  "Checking station database... that is if Smithy will let me," she sighed patiently. Irons frowned.

  "Got it. Senor Domingo Gutierrez. He was injured when the ship was last used. Electrical fire. Refused to allow anyone else to use the ship and refuses to scuttle it. Claims he booby trapped it."

  Irons scowled. "Any sign that he did?" he asked.

  "No telling Admiral. I can't tell anything from outside her net," Sprite answered.

  "So we have to go to the captain. If he is alive," Irons grimaced. He could get through most booby traps, but then again he'd rather not try. Only a damn fool tried to disarm a trap blind.

  "Looks that way. Unfortunately he isn't on the station map."

/>   Irons scowled again then swore. “Get with Shelby or Horatio. They should know him. My bet is he is in the engineering sections, not the luxury quarters."

  "Why?" the AI asked. "What brought on that bit of deductive reasoning?"

  "If he had been in the luxury quarters he wouldn't have been denied medical access. And he would have sold the tug for money," Irons shrugged. Hopefully the captain was still alive.

  "Thin Admiral."

  "Best we have to go on," he replied with a frown. "Do you have a make for the tender?"

  "Generic sub-light tender. Long haul. Long legs but slow," Sprite answered. several grainy images popped up on his HUD.

  "It looks like a Galactic Electric fusion drive. The shield pods are from three different craft," Irons said. "Shoot an order to Angie, start making basic parts. Proteus, pull a list together, generic coolant system, reactor parts, life support, shields. Cross reference with the database."

  He dodged a pair of techs then stopped. "Do either one of you know where I can find a Captain Gutierrez?" he asked. They paused. One looked at the other then turned. He tipped his hat back as he looked at the Admiral.

  "You the Admiral I hear talk about?" he asked, leaning on the handle of the push pull.

  "That's right," Irons said. He flattened against the wall to allow another group with a push pull to pass. They stopped behind the first.

  "What the hell Benny?" Benny pointed to the Admiral.

  "I was asking if anyone knows where Captain Gutierrez is. We need to talk to him about his tug," Irons said patiently.

  "I'll handle this, you three move on." A blond heavyset female waved the others off. Reluctantly they moved off. She turned on him.

  "What business do you have?" she asked. "Admiral right?" She lifted a scarred and heavily pierced eyebrow. Irons smiled.

  "We need to lease his tender for a critical mission," he replied.

  She studied him for a moment. "He's not likely to allow anyone near old Betsy you know that right? After the fire, he won’t let anyone near her," she shook her head.