Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  "You won’t sir. I'll just go get my kit," he turned.

  "Dan, a moment, I'll join you. Consider it last minute advice from one captain to another," Mayweather linked her arm through his and walked off with him.

  "I guess I have the bridge," Shelby muttered. Irons shook his head.

  "Oh, you have the bridge number one," Mayweather's voice called from the open hatch.

  "Gee thanks for the update," Shelby said dryly. Irons chuckled.

  "Admiral are you sure about this? Dan is okay, but he's an Intel puke. He's okay at tactical but he's slow sometimes. He also doesn't like to teach," Shelby turned on him.

  "Slow?" he asked.

  "He doesn't react fast, takes his time to study the situation. If things go south he freezes up and can't adapt. He has a tendency to coast when he thinks everything is hunky dory but when a crisis hits he comes unglued before buckling down. He's also got some leadership issues."

  "That's not always a bad thing. Reaction time is one thing, but reacting wrong is ten times worse," Firefly replied. "Still she has a point, his leadership skills are sub-par Admiral. I've caught him shouting at trainees a time or two."

  Irons sighed. "Some officers get a power trip, and some think that by scaring the pants off of others they get them to work better,” he shook his head. “He'll learn. I hope. In the meantime we don't have a choice. We've got a hole and since other people didn't volunteer..." he looked pointedly at Shelby. She pointed to herself with a surprised expression.

  "Me in that rat trap?" she shook her head. "I much prefer Firefly," she smiled to the avatar as she patted an arm rest.

  "Why thank you commander," Firefly replied.

  The Admiral chuckled. "Right, I don't blame you. Corvette duty is cramped, stinky duty. Not for the faint of heart."

  “So, maybe it will be good for him after all then,” Shelby said with a grin.

  "Admiral you have a meeting in five minutes," Sprite interrupted, popping in beside him. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms.

  "I'm going, I'm going."

  "Now look Dan, I know your first instinct is to tear things apart and make things your own way but there is a rhyme and reason to how things are put together on a ship. Don't rush to judgment in your first couple days. Take the time to listen to the crew and don't try to change things right off. Try to adapt to them as much as they adapt to you. It will make the transition a lot easier," Mayweather said as they went to his quarters.

  "And you've been through this how many times?" Dan asked distracted.

  "More times then you know," she replied, trying to keep the bite out of her voice. He paused looking at her.

  "I've had several captains on my old yacht. When my sister first came to the chair it was a nightmare the first week. She nearly killed us twice. She thought she knew everything and micromanaged," she sighed.

  "A jumped up star yacht? You're comparing a warship command to that kind of experience?" Dan asked sounding disgusted.

  "Trust me Dan, when it comes to command it's all relative," she shrugged. "You'll learn in time."

  "Right, now if you'll excuse me, I have some packing to do. Captain," Dan said snidely as he stalked off. She let him go.

  "Learn the hard way then," she muttered to herself.

  The door to the bridge opened and then closed. Shelby turned and looked then looked around. "Firefly, is there something wrong with the door?"

  "No why?"

  "It just opened and closed on its own," she replied.

  "That's because someone came in," Firefly sounded amused.

  "Someone?" Shelby asked. Firefly's avatar pointed down at her feet. She looked. Standing at attention was an elf dressed in a fleet officer's uniform. Her implants fed her the elf's IFF. "Can I help you? Ah. Lieutenant Thorn right?"

  "First Lieutenant Thorn reporting for duty commander," she saluted. Shelby stood and returned the salute.

  "All right, where are you being posted?" Shelby asked confused.

  "Tactical ma'am. I'm your new Tactical officer ma'am," Thorn replied. Most of the bridge crew looked up in surprise. Firefly turned a glare on them and they went back to their duties. The ECM officer looked a little crestfallen.

  "As you were people," Shelby muttered a second too late.

  "Right," Thorn nodded.

  "So you’re our new tactical officer? Do you have any experience?" Shelby asked feeling dumb.

  "I served with Commander Logan on Sun-Yat. I transferred to Maya as tactical and defense officer there. When I found there was an opening here I put in for a transfer. The Admiral approved it, pending final approval of Firefly and the captain," Thorn shrugged. “He's already filled my shoes with a sleeper kid that you pulled off that Dutchman liner.” The elf raised her hands as if to shrug. Her tail twitched a few times.

  "Right, the captain, she's in her day cabin," Firefly reported. The Elf nodded.

  "I'll report in to her then. With your permission?" she asked.

  "Oh, yeah right. Dismissed," Shelby said. The elf came to attention then left in a hopping gait.

  "To be a fly on the wall for that interview," Shelby murmured.

  "Trust me I'll be there. But I don't think it will be as surprising or interesting as you are assuming commander. Captain Mayweather has worked with other species before including the young first Lieutenant. This just extends and deepens the experience," Firefly replied.

  "Still..." Shelby shrugged.

  Some time later the captain and new tactical officer came onto the bridge. "I'd like you all to meet Lieutenant Thorn. She is our new Tactical officer. Please take your station Lieutenant," she smiled. Thorn looked up to the captain then moved off to the Tactical station. A watch man looked at the elf. She shooed him out of the couch. Hastily he obeyed giving the exec a startled look.

  She shrugged helplessly. The couch automatically reconfigured for the new tactician, the holo projections changed to her scale. Her left eye rolled slightly to look at the exec.

  "Can I help you with something commander?" Shelby hastily shook her head. She nodded to the relieved watch hand. "Perry you're relieved. Get some downtime then check in with your new boss when she calls you." He nodded and left.

  "Fresh meat," Mayweather said smiling. The smile was more of a predatory grin as she turned it toward the Tactical officer. “Or at least someone I haven't toyed with in a while.”

  "Ah captain, they ah, see teeth as a threat. It's an instinctive thing. You could lock her up if you’re not careful," Shelby murmured.

  "I've spent time with you barbaric humans commander. I've gotten used to it," Thorn replied from her station. "Her I'm not so sure about though," she pointed a long finger to the captain. "She looks like she eats meat raw."

  Mayweather chuckled. "So there madam exec," she smiled again. "For your information I only eat meat raw after tearing strips out of unfortunate people who deserve my righteous wrath," she smiled again. A few of the crew looked at each other nervously, Shelby looked dutifully fearful.

  "Okay. I tried to warn you..." Mayweather said. She shrugged then smiled to herself. It was going to be interesting.

  Mayweather grimaced as she handed a tablet to the exec. "There, that's done," she sighed sitting back. "I never thought being a captain would involve this much paperwork!" She shook her head lips pursed.

  "And that's just the easy part. I get the majority," Shelby answered. “I'm surprised you didn't have this on Maya though.”

  “Maya has a smaller crew and fewer problem children. Or did,” the captain said with a shrug.

  “And we were about to get shot at so adding paperwork to the load would have been a bit much,” Shelby said with a grin.

  "Did I ever thank you for being the exec? Or that I got to skip that role?" Mayweather teased. Shelby sighed.

  "I know I know, it's a thankless job. I'd much rather be up to my elbows in engineering," she smiled. "I was reading the brief on setting up the JAG office. It's going slower than the other departments
, we don't have many people who study both law and want to get into the military," she shook her head.

  "JAG?" Mayweather asked, wrinkling her nose. "Sounds funny."

  "Judge Advocate General. Captain. It's an acronym for the Justice system of the Federation military," Firefly responded. "I am glad the Admiral is starting the ground work. It shows he has planned for the future," the AI nodded.

  "Do we really need a justice system?" Mayweather asked.

  Shelby shrugged. "You never know. I think I will brush up on law just in case." She shook her head. "You may want to as well captain. Some things are a bit more... um, snarled than a simple captain's mast."

  "Bread and water. Or keel hauling if anyone goes out of line. Simple and effective," Mayweather said with a dismissive sniff. A few of the crewman looked around nervously.

  "She's joking right? Tell me she is," Firefly said sounding aghast.

  "I'm not so sure. With the captain, all bets are off Firefly," Shelby shook her head. Mayweather smiled.

  "It it complicated," Thorn said from her station.

  "The justice system? Of course it is. It was made by lawyers and politicians to justify their existence," Mayweather said with a smile.

  "Almost a perfect paraphrase of what the Admiral said in class ma'am," Thorn replied with a tinkling laugh.

  "Class?" Mayweather asked.

  "I was in the college for a brief time Ma'am. Then on Sun-Yat as a deck hand and life support ape..." Thorn shrugged. "Commander Logan recommended me for commission," the elf said then gave the captain a look. “You of course know that, even though you weren't with us more than a week before moving to Maya.” The captain nodded.

  "And that's where you experienced the Admiral's pungent and correct opinion of lawyers?" Mayweather teased. “That seems at odds with his insistence on setting up the JAG core though,” she smiled.

  Thorn shrugged. "That and in his correspondence courses and lectures I was in," she chuckled. “I know he doesn't like them, but he did point out that there is a time and place for all things, including lawyers.” She shrugged. “His lecture courses are peppered with all sorts of material.”

  "Ah. I've leaned toward the tactical and engineering ones myself," the captain answered.

  "Oh I took them too Ma'am."

  "Over achiever huh?"

  "Something like that ma'am," Thorn said with what passed for a smile and laugh again.

  "Well, let's see what you've learned. Time for a little exercise..." the captain smiled as she sat back. Her station reconfigured for a sim.

  "When you’re ready," Thorn said sounding serene.

  The Admiral studied the nervous students and smiled. "Sir, why do we need to study logistics?" one asked. Irons tried to hide his amused laugh. "I mean, I want to learn how to be an engineer, not a paper pusher."

  Sprite's avatar seemed to swell on his HUD. "Why that little pissant!" Irons smiled inward briefly. She'd been getting increasingly tart about some of the students and their opinions about computers. The students oscillated between awe and disinterest when it came to AI. She preferred awe, however most of that had rubbed off over the past seven months of repeated exposure.

  Irons chuckled. “You'd be surprised. Any organization floats, that is operates, only with paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork,” he snorted as the class groaned. “In the navy it's paperwork, Helium 3 and coffee,” he said shaking his head.

  "Now, Logistics, well, it's a bit more complicated than just having the parts on hand. Modern Logistics is a lot easier than in the past, replicators make things a lot easier to fabricate," he shrugged. "But making sure you have the part on hand is a problem too. For instance, what happens if you need a part to make a repair?"

  He looked at his student, Mr. Right. The young man cleared his throat. "We would order the part and replicate it," he shrugged looking around to his fellow students in support. Several nodded. The Admiral smiled.

  "And if you’re in combat? Or if the replicator is the part that is broken? What about if you’re on a ship that doesn't have the abilities of larger ships? Screening units do not have the replicators of larger ships. Even Firefly has her limit. What if you don't have the time and materials to make the part?" Several of the students including Mr. Right suddenly had a very thoughtful look on their faces.

  "I didn't mean to make you look bad, but it is a problem. Hence logistics. Having the right parts on hand with the right people when they need them. Battles have been won and lost on them. There is an old saying," he paused as Sprite brought up the quote.

  "For want of a nail a shoe was lost. For want of the shoe a horse was lost. For want of a horse the battle was lost." He looked around. "That's a bit of a paraphrase. It means that armies move on logistics. Here's another," he grimaced.

  "The devil is in the details." He looked around as several nodded. "That one is a bit easier to understand. Mr. Right, why don't you look up the logistics of the Lewis and Clark expedition on the American continent in the eighteenth or nineteenth century earth and then compare it to the logistics and outcome of the Donner party of the same time period." His victim grimaced but then nodded.

  "Have the report ready by the end of the week," he nodded. "Now, as I was saying, logistics can be critical. Knowing what material you have on hand to make parts, your power reserves, and the templates on file is all well and good, but if it is crunch time you don't have to time to make a part sometimes. Like oh, say our recent crisis on the Port-Au-Prince colony."

  He pulled up a holo and spread it apart. "You did sir, during the reactor repair," a voice in the back said. Irons frowned.

  "Who said that?" he looked.

  A young woman with a braid raised her hand. "Me sir." Irons nodded.

  "Well, We did. But we had extra resources. For instance, we had Io 11. We also had an intermittent supply of material brought in by the Valdez family," he waved. "Power was a problem, but once the reactor was stable we could work around it by using the replicators on Io to make the critical parts. Once we had a working reactor we shut down the old one for repairs and once we had the life support stable we used excess energy to power the industrial reactors on the station. But that took a lot of balance. And of course careful planning."

  He smiled. "Balance of incoming material and it's type, power reserves, power demands, and computer support. Can anyone tell me which was the most difficult thing to quantify?" he looked around.

  "The uh, materials coming in?" a teen suggested.

  "You're... mister Lewis right?" Sprite placed his seat chart up when he paused at the "you're."

  "Yes sir."

  "I should have given the Lewis and Clark exercise to you," he joked. Several chuckled at that. "Anyway, It is a bit of a trick question. Knowing what we would get in what quantities was a major headache, not to mention the timetables we would get them in. But equally as big a headache was balancing the power demands and keeping everything moving. If some part of the system is idle it's almost as bad as if it is broken."

  Several hands were raised at this. He pointed to the girl with the braid.

  "But shouldn't it have been easy? Power to life support is usually a measured thing, they can only take so much..." she looked at him confused.

  "Yes and no. When we were in the crisis power demand fluctuated on each deck because of cascade failures. When life support began to fail people flooded to decks still working. This put a heavier strain on the life support there. The carbon dioxide scrubbers overloaded." Several nodded at this. A few looked bitter. Irons sighed. "The people that were reacting did so, that's normal. The people trying to keep the life support functioning, that too is normal. You can't expect miracles all the time. Engineers are mortal too. Well most of us," he shrugged. Several nodded at that.

  “Logistics is a bit like medical triage, you have to set up priorities and then act on them, allocating your resources to maximize your impact on a given situation. And oh yes, another favorite saying,” he smiled and cleared his thr
oat. “Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.”

  That earned a titter from the class. “Keep that in mind It bears out for just about any situation. Have a plan. Whether for logistics or in a battle. Have more than one.”

  “I'm going to digress for a moment here,” he sat on the edge of the desk. “An officer's job is to plan. To keep the big picture in mind and plan the next move. The second half of their job is to make sure everyone knows what their job is and is doing it to the best of their ability. A noncom's... that's non-commissioned officer,” he paused giving them a look. “A noncom's job is the now. The present day. They execute the current orders and bring the officer information they need to plan the next set,” he grimaced. “Having a good command team is very important in any situation. Getting to know the people under you, their strengths, their weaknesses, is vital. Training them to know what to do on their own, what to delegate, and what information to pass on. It takes a lot of work to get it right.”

  "Now, back to the subject at hand, I want you to read the logistics section and have some questions ready. Check out the examples such as the D-day preparations and the UN invasion of Korea in 1951 for you jarheads in the room, and the logistics of the Allied fleet ops in WW2 as well as the early solar and star colony logistics for everyone else.” He looked around the room then nodded. “There is an exercise at the end of the chapter, a sim. Take the sim. We'll grade your performance. I expect you all to pass." He gave them all a challenging look at that command.

  "Right?" he asked.

  "Sir yes sir!" they answered. It wasn't like they had any other choice. He smiled again.

  "Right, now, moving on..."

  “How are we doing on recruiting?” Irons asked, studying the manning chart. He wasn't sure they were where he wanted to be. Then again, they had come along way in what? Eight months? Eight and a half? Well, eight since he arrived on Anvil at least. It was getting hard to keep track with so many things on his agenda now. Not that it mattered.