Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Which is bad,” Helen said, rubbing her brow. “Did you go through this?” she asked, fighting the headache. “Is it bright in here?”

  Irons nodded. “Sight, sound, and touch sensitive, all normal, it's the swelling around those connections. No, I had more downtime and I wasn't forced to grow up so fast.” He frowned.

  “We can handle it Admiral,” she said. “Though I am proscribing another round of anti-inflammatory meds and checks every two hours.”

  “Understood,” he said, as she flopped back into her nest of snow white pillows. She crossed her hands across her abdomen. “I'll let you get some downtime. Sleeping will help.”

  “Understood.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “It's good that she went first,” Sprite said as he exited the director's room. He looked around ICU. It was very different than it had been, workmen were still running new wiring, but they now had all modern equipment. Many pieces were on carts.

  “How so?”

  “Date of rank. By going first she made certain she'd have date of rank. Though I believe she wouldn't think of it in that light,” the AI responded.

  “Most likely not. I think it was leadership. Going where her people needed to go, leading the way. Admirable.”

  “Yes.”

  “Status on the others?” he asked under his breath, nodding to the duty nurse. She flicked her eyes to him but just nodded slightly and went back to her paperwork. Everyone had paperwork, charts, new data, equipment manuals... it seemed everyone was learning on the job.

  “All resting comfortably. It appears that there is a bit of a balance in the implants. For those who went first Proteus and I were learning the procedure so the damage was more invasive but there were more nanites to do the job faster. But in later volunteers we had learned from our mistakes and corrected the procedures, but Proteus had fewer nanites and was stretched thin in doing the job.”

  “That is why we lost the two nurses?” Irons asked softly as he exited ICU and headed to the exit. He needed to make his rounds in the engineering warehouse and key in the next round of equipment. He was in fact overdue.

  “Actually admiral, we were flying blind. I calculated that we'd lose half, and that a third would have some major problems that would make us go back and do repairs. We lucked out.”

  “Yes. Yes we did.”

  “Fortunately. This time. I don't recommend ever doing this admiral, though it is something to have on hand. I've filed the notes on it. Proteus needs time to rebuild the nanite pool.”

  “Which means downtime for me?” Irons asked, clearly amused.

  “Yes. Since your officers are going to be down as well, I'd recommend getting the current rounds sorted out then get at least a two hour power nap in every six to eight hours. That is the best compromise I can think of currently.”

  “All right.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Small towns across the western side of the continent were reporting outbreaks. Some may have been hysterics, but the admiral wasn't so certain. They were sending out hundreds of tons of material daily, flights were crisscrossing the continent dropping pallets of goods. That was an additional risk, some of the aircraft weren't pressurized so they had to fly below three thousand meters so they were therefore vulnerable to the virus and to passing it on. One plane disappeared, it was reported crashed later that evening. The authorities were reluctant to investigate it. Irons couldn't really blame them.

  The volunteers were recovering, recovering in fact to the point where they had insisted on sleep lessons. Helen was of course the first. She reported a headache the next morning but was stable. After breakfast and her medication she received a briefing. She was distressed by the report of the spread of the pathogens, it had made it all the way to Port town by railroad from Crater city. She quickly ordered the other cities to quarantine all incoming travelers until medics could clear them. Then she went down for a nap, this time without the sleep teaching.

  She woke at lunch, feeling much better. Her appetite improved, so did her insistence on going to the bathroom on her own. She ignored the jibes about how doctors make the worst patients as she stiffly walked back to her bed on her own. She climbed in with a groan and then settled. “There's nothing wrong with my body, just my head. It needed exercise.”

  “True,” the admiral replied with a smile. “I'm glad your motor skills are okay. We were concerned.”

  “Problems?” Helen asked, getting settled under the sheet.

  “No, remarkably not one. Sprite and Proteus did a good job. You we were most worried about, since you went first. We learned from the experience.”

  “Good,” Helen replied. “I need something to do. Something productive.”

  “I don't know about that just yet. I still need to finish initializing your implants,” Sprite said.

  “Which you can do. I can key stuff now?”

  “As soon as I finish that yes,” Sprite replied from the admiral's arm.

  “Then I can key a machine to work on something then go to sleep right?”

  “A good idea,” the AI responded. “I have a short list. If the admiral will jack in to the doctor?”

  The admiral in question hesitated. “Is there any problems with swelling? If I jack in so soon?”

  “She's on enough anti-inflammatory medications to stomp out a forest fire admiral.”

  “Funny.”

  “I'll be fine,” Helen growled. “Get it rolling.” Her eyes closed.

  “Okay.”

  The admiral jacked in. He could feel Sprite as her mental presence ran through the connection into the doctor. The doctor stiffened a bit, feeling something, a tickle, an electric shock run through her. “Sorry. Implant is initialized. I have uploaded the relevant data and adjusted the ident package. Keys are uploading now doctor,” Sprite informed her. “In order to use them you will need to pass a medical board test.”

  “Lovely,” Helen replied. “And I didn't study.”

  “It's not just about knowing the medical knowledge, it is also how you are willing to use it. Ethics,” Sprite replied.

  “All right.”

  “You'll do fine, just be honest, don't lie. Lie and it's bad.”

  “And If I don't pass?”

  “Doctor will you be willing to use nanites to destroy a person?” Sprite asked.

  “No!” Helen said, eyes bursting open. “Of course not!”

  “Then I assume you won't use nanites to destroy a world?”

  “No!”

  “Then you've passed that test based on your read outs. Admiral, I have to be the one to administer the test so you better get comfortable. This will take time.”

  “Will I have to do this with each of them?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Sprite said simply as she pulled up the relevant tests. “All right doctor, in view of your still healing implants we'll use a tablet to visualize the questions. If that is okay with you?”

  “Yes, let's do it,” she sighed.

  “Which we need,” Sprite said to the admiral. He grunted and picked a tablet up off the small table nearby. He could just barely reach it with the jack tethering him to the doctor. She smiled as he stretched for it.

  “You know you could ask for a nurse.”

  “No, I got it,” he said, tipping the tablet off the table then catching it as it fell. “See?” he said as she smiled. He handed it to her.

  She put it in her lap, holding it with both hands. An IV went from her left hand to medication bags above and behind her. “Okay, now, what?” she asked.

  “I am uploading the questions now. Be advised I will be monitoring your thought patterns as you answer them,” Sprite replied.

  “Oh.”

  “And I can take a nap,” Irons grunted, sitting back in the chair, crossing his legs, and placing his left hand in his lap. “Or at least try to.”

  “Shh,” Helen said softly, typing. He snorted and closed his eyes.

  ...*...*...*...*...


  The next morning he woke to find Helen asleep, hand slipped away from the tablet that was lying face down on top of her. “Is she okay?” he asked quietly.

  “She's fine. A bit of a headache.”

  “Is there more?”

  “No, she passed,” Sprite said. He stretched slowly. “Had a nice nap?” Sprite asked, sounding amused. “So much for two hour power naps,” she teased.

  “Whatever. I take it you and Proteus put the time to good use even if I didn't?”

  “I wouldn't denigrate getting some downtime as bad admiral. And yes, Proteus managed to resupply all nanites, through your material reserves have been emptied out. You need to ingest or absorb more soon.”

  “Make a note.”

  “Already did. I left a note for the doctor, you can unjack and go get some breakfast.”

  “Good.”

  “Let her sleep until she wakes,” Sprite said as they quietly exited the doctor's room. The nurse standing nearby stared at him. The admiral turned to show his right arm. A holo of Sprite's head appeared. “Doctor Richards needs to sleep herself out.”

  “Okay,” the nurse said dutifully.

  “Her vitals are within normal parameters. She's had additional swelling and may wake with a migraine again. If so I suggest the doctor look into a better analgesic. If she inquires about us please let her know I'm making the admiral go eat and get his chores done.”

  The nurse snorted and smiled suddenly, eyes glinting in humor as the admiral rolled his eyes. “Go on then,” she said waving. “I'm just glad we didn't have to break the bed side leech bat out.”

  “Yeah well, the good news is Doctor Richards is done. The bad news is I get to do that again with each of the others,” the admiral replied. The nurse frowned. “But not right away,” he said as his stomach growled.

  She snorted and shooed him out.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The admiral picked up the news as he picked through breakfast. What he heard made for grim listening, to many it would have disrupted their appetite. He however needed to refuel. Even through the food he had picked from the food replicator had a metallic taste to it. Apparently Sprite had dosed the pancakes with a liberal doses of selenium and other materials to supplant his material reserves.

  He made the rounds in the warehouses, then got an idea and picked up a portable medical replicator. It was mostly a shell, the actual nanites would have to wait until a medic could initialize them. But that could happen now, he thought, loading it, some cable, and a few odds and ends on a cart and then pushing it out and back to the hospital.

  He got a few odd looks pushing the cart, but managed to ignore them. Getting the cart up the stairs would have been a problem had he not had gravitics. He took a firm grip with both hands on either side of the cart and then initialized the gravitics as he looked up.

  “Up, up, and away, Sprite teased as he rose. He heard a woman gasp but just smiled as he maneuvered around the spiral stairs through the center hole and up to the ICU ward's floor.

  He landed with a slight thump and then pushed the metal fire door open, pulling the cart with him.

  “Shhh!” a nurse admonished him, waving frantically as he made a clattering noise.

  “Sorry,” he replied softly, trying to keep the thing from tipping over as he got it over the threshold and into the hall.

  “What is that?” she demanded, coming over.

  “Medical replicator its' something for Doctor Richards.”

  “Well, if you didn't wake the dead...” she sighed, shaking her head and making a tisk, tisk sound, clutching her tablet to her chest.

  “They'll be fine. Hopefully I didn't startle anyone.” He pushed the cart over to the doctor's room and peeked in the window. Helen was looking up sleepily. She stretched and then put her glasses on and hit the nurse button. He snorted. Perfect timing. You better get her breakfast,” he said to the nurse.

  She looked, made a note, and then left with a slight sniff. He snorted and entered.

  “Hi doc,” he said.

  “I've got to do something, just sitting here is killing me by degrees,” the director said firmly. She grimaced at the IV.

  “Funny you should mention that...” Irons said, pushing the door open wider in order to get the cart in. She looked at it and then smiled.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  A few hours later he was watching Helen play a game when Doctor Zane, La Plaz, and nurse Joy entered her room. Helen looked up with a frown but kept working on her project. She'd quickly grasped her implants, she had some computer experience so that made it a little easier for her.

  A screen was in front of her, the others seemed upset over seeing the director playing a game with yellow and blue icons instead of reading papers or issuing orders.

  That resentment and annoyance ended briefly when they realized she was using her implants to control her side of the game. “What is she doing?” Doctor Zane stage whispered to the admiral.

  “Practicing,” Irons explained that games are a good way to learn how to do things, they take the pressure off of the problem and make it enjoyable. “We tend to learn things easier if we enjoy the process,” he told the audience, giving them a once over. He'd spent his entire focus on Doctor Richards, neglecting their progress. He'd have to remedy that soon.

  “But that's still not getting us any closer to where we need to be!”

  “Ah, ye of little faith,” the admiral replied, pointing to a small gray box nearby. A panel on the front was blinking.

  “What's that?” Doctor Zane asked.

  “A batch of vaccine,” Helen replied slowly, trying to focus. “The admiral had me key up a medical replicator which that is. Now it's creating a thousand doses of black pox vaccine.”

  Zane blinked. He looked at La Plaz who shrugged.

  “I know, it's not this strain, but it is a strain, the strain on file. Something right now is better than nothing. We'll find some volunteers and test it.”

  “Here guinea pig, here guinea pig...” Zane replied with a lurking chuckle. Helen snorted and then swore as she lost her concentration and the game erupted into chaos before ending with a blaring red sign.

  “Crap.”

  “I guess that's not good?” Zane asked, glancing at the display. He shot a look at Helen who was scowling. He winced slightly, feeling he had something to do with that. He always could crack her up a bit, sometimes his timing though...

  “It happens,” the admiral replied. “Trying to multitask is hard. Doing it with implants is even harder.”

  “Yeah well, I wouldn't have lost it if someone hadn't distracted me,” she said, giving Zane a dark look. He spread his hands. “Who me?” He asked innocently.

  “Yes, you,” she said, still glaring. “I can get that,” she jerked her head to the replicator. “Up and practice. This is going to be important soon. La Plaz you need to do this too?”

  “The game?”

  “It's a sim. Simulation actually,” the admiral replied. “The icons are basic bots. You send directions to the bots.”

  “Oh.”

  “Practice for when you control nanites to take apart a virus,” Sprite replied. Zane and La Plaz looked at her. “Can't you do that?”

  She snorted. “I have some nanite control abilities but I was purpose built for other tasks. Proteus can up to a point, but again, purpose built. In its case for engineering tasks, not medical.”

  “Oh.”

  “So, why not build a medical AI?” Zane asked, wrinkling his nose.

  “Don't get her started,” Helen sighed looking down and rubbing her brow with one hand. She was starting to get one of those headaches again. “I agree to some degree,” she said, looking up to Sprite. “And I agree it should be voluntary. But a dumb AI may be a better option if your ethics are kicking up. Something right now is better than nothing.”

  “I'll... I'll think about it.” Sprite replied slowly.

  “Please do Commander,” Doctor Richards replied.
r />   ...*...*...*...*...

  Sprite conversed with Zane and Richards through their implants as both an exercise, and a means of discretion. They talked about the chain of command, both humans were getting sleep teaching when they found downtime to rest. Zane was curious about the subject. As a civilian he had a vague concept in mind, after all, Doctor Richards was his superior, but it was a bit different with the various ranks and such in the military. “So do we bow or something?”

  “Salute. We'll work on that. Right now, it's not as important as getting this bio-weapon handled.”

  “Ah.”

  “I was just wondering why he doesn't, well... why he's not um...”

  “Why he doesn't take charge? He does to a point, but he's a key holder. You can't dictate what to do and be on hand for that all the time. The admiral is a hands on guy, a doer. He likes to get his hands dirty.”

  “Oh.”

  “I've bet you've heard stories by now of the admiral and I and our travels,” Sprite asked. The two humans nodded. “Well, some of them are true. And yes, it's a bit frustrating from an outside perspective to see his actions. And from mine in a way.”

  “He's been on a lot of ships. Why not take charge?”

  “Mutiny?” Sprite asked with a smile. “That's the term you're looking for. When a passenger is on a ship they're a guest of the ship's company. If he'd tried to take control, one they would have laughed at him, after all he was a stranger not in their chain of command. Two, he would have been violating thousands of years of tradition in supplanting a ship's already established chain of command. Three he would have been in violation of Federation law... unless he pointed out the emergency clauses. Which he didn't.”

  “Oh.”

  “And fourth, the admiral has learned by now that you never give an order that you know won't be obeyed. It undermines your own authority.”

  “Oh.”

  “So, that is why he didn't take command of Io 11, Destiny, or Kiev 221. Or Antigua for that matter. He had some legal justification to do so, but if the people around you won't support it, you're screwed.”

  “I still don't think it's right, I mean what happened in Pyrax...”