Ghosts from the Past (The Wandering engineer Book 7)

by Chris Hechtl

  Repairs to the muon splitter and downed replicators paid for the first four pair sets of muons for the ansibles as well as replicator time to construct components for fusion reactors and additional milspec replicators and fabricators. The admiral took advantage of his implants and his ability to not sleep to work around the clock for nearly a week. He worked each shift on the station ragged.

  Sprite did her best to manage the materials and people, but she had her own projects to handle as well. She worked with Lieutenant Bounty, Ensign Lobsterman, and the other AI in the system as well as cybers like Ensign Rasha Warner to create a new shipyard AI. She also worked on creating additional templates and protocols to create new AI with all the AI and cybers.

  The Intel AI Sprite had started to create and nurture took shape within Maine's flag bridge computers. He would be a hybrid AI with the initial rank of Ensign. When he became self aware he had named himself Fletcher. Eventually he would move into the computer hardware that would be built for him in the military base in orbit, though there was still some debate over that. Since most of his intelligence resources in system were from the POW's on the planet, it was argued by Lieutenant Bounty that he might be of more use there. Ensign Fletcher had no opinion on the subject, he owlishly studied the records to catch up on past and current events.

  Once he was judged stable, Fletcher entered the net fully for the first time. Lieutenant Bounty and the other AI in the star system met Fletcher officially, Sprite's newly created AI 'son' Fletcher was a dumb AI like Defender, much to their surprise. “He should be, Defender was the primary donor,” Sprite said. “Though your engrams were also used Lieutenant,” she said with a nod to Lieutenant Bounty. He nodded in reply.

  “A pleasure to meet you, Ensign,” the AI said, holding out a virtual hand. The ensign shook it and data flowed between them.

  “Does this mean I'm supposed to call you dad? Or Lieutenant Defender?”

  “Neither. AI aren't into familial roles,” Bounty replied. “You are among equals here. Except the rank.”

  “Understood. Sir.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Once the admiral had finished rebuilding the two downed replicators and the ansible's muon splitter on Antigua Prime he decided he needed a break. He was nervous about his plan, he wasn't certain he wanted to know what her answers were. Would she lie to him? Most likely white lies he thought, but would he be able to tell the difference? Would she try to misdirect him? He shook his head. Since he had the free time to talk with April he put in an e-mail to her. He tracked her down on the station as the e-mail moved into her server. He had considered meeting up for drinks but decided they needed to have a private conversation to clear the air. She sent him a text back with her apartment. He changed directions.

  She opened the door in a red lingerie and a grin. She posed coyly. “You like?”

  “Definitely,” he said, drinking in the sight. Parts of him came awake. He'd longed for this moment for all too long he thought. Perhaps Sprite had been right about his reaction to the woman.

  “Come in here,” she said with a playful growl, taking his hand and tugging him inside. He stepped through the threshold and paused as the hatch closed behind him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and then pulled his head down for a long thorough kiss. “I've waited a long time for that,” she said huskily.

  “Me too,” he said quietly, nuzzling her hair.

  “What's wrong?” She asked, searching his face. She could tell from his stiff posture and rough voice that something was bothering him. “Look, I know you're busy, but I thought you'd at least be glad to see me after so long a time ...” she frowned thoughtfully. “Is there someone else?” She finally asked, voice cooling slightly.

  “No. No one else,” John said, shaking his head. “Not since you. But ...”

  “So, no one else huh? I thought you'd have a harem,” she said with a coy smile as her flirting returned. She sidled up to him, one hand on his hip. “I've been looking forward to this,” her voice grew husky as she leaned in and up to give him a kiss. He instinctively returned the kiss, eyes half closing. When it broke she smiled. “Not bad for an old fossil,” she teased, stroking his chest with her fingertips. She looked at him with a half lidded possessive air he found very appealing.

  “April ...” he put his hands on her hips. “We've got a problem.”

  “Oh?”

  “A big one. About you. I know about your connections,” he said.

  She blinked at him. He could see she was taken aback by his bluntness. “I'm not going to beat around the bush with you. I care deeply about you. But I've been warned off. Apparently you've made some ... let's call it unsavory connections ...”

  April frowned. She didn't like where this conversation was leading. She shook her head as she took a step back out of his arms. Her face fell slightly. “I'm sorry you had to hear that from someone else,” she said quietly.

  “It is true,” he said with an exhale. “Damn.”

  She nodded. “It is true. I'm a reporter; I work every source I can get to get the story. I don't like some of the sources but you get what you can find,” she said shaking her head. Her eyes searched his again. “Every source, though if you tell me something in confidence I will try hard not to use it,” she said. He took that as a warning. “I am doing my best to not use you. I don't want that. I don't want that to come between us,” she said, emphasizing the last word.

  He nodded. “Me neither.”

  Her eyes looked troubled. “John, there are some things about my job I can't talk about. I understand that the same goes for you. You have to understand it's a two-way street,” she said quietly.

  “Okay.” He raised a hand then let if fall. “I'm used to being the one giving this lecture,” he said.

  She smiled a wan smile. “Well, turnabout is fair play I suppose,” she said.

  He nodded. “The question is, where do we go from here? I can't be compromised April. If what you are doing is linked to me a lot more than you and I could be riding on that,” he warned.

  “I understand that. I'll ... I won't promise to be good,” she said, giving him a half smile. “But I will try to be more discrete,” she said. He nodded.

  “I suppose that is the best I can get out of you.”

  “Sometimes you aren't going to like what I do. I can say the same,” she said making a face. “We have to use the tools we've been given, and sometimes we have to deal with the devil.” He nodded. “And yes, I know I should have used a longer spoon,” she said, making a disgusted face. He snorted. “Spirits of space know I worried the entire time you were gone. And when I heard about the battle in B101a1 I was afraid for you,” she said, her voice quavering a little. “And I know you were a prisoner. It must have been hard,” she said. She looked at him then away, biting her lip. He nodded slowly. “...and I know you'll worry about me if I get in too deep. I am not asking you to change for me. Please don't expect me to change for you,” she said, turning to face him again.

  He nodded again. “Fair enough,” he said, trying to keep his tone light.

  “Now, if we've cleared the air,” she said, voice rising a little into more playful tones, she reached out and snagged the front of his coverall again. She dragged him closer to her until she could wrap her free hand around his body to grab his backside. She dug her nails in to make him stand on his toes in surprise. “Come here. I've waited a long damn time to try out my new fit and trim body Doctor Thornby provided. And I'm done waiting,” she said with a playful growl as her lips devoured his.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Admiral, about those two ships that escaped ...” Sprite turned to him. He grunted. He remembered Renee's report. Captain Mayweather had checked in Triang when she'd darted through the system. The planetary governor had said they hadn't shown up there. They couldn't have done much anyway, neither had left with a shuttle. Corvettes and frigates were too small to carry a shuttle, though a few of the larger frigates could dock one to thei
r hull and carry it that way. But the lack of their presence in Triang had meant they'd moved on immediately he thought, getting back on track.

  “Do you think they went to Senka?” he asked slowly. They might have gone to Briev but there would have been some mention of it. Come to think of it, their intel said that the ships hadn’t gone to Briev. Senka it was.

  “No, they went to Senka. That has been confirmed. But I was considering our intel and I believe Briev could be classed as a Horathian sympathizer. Possibly Hostile.”

  “We have no Intel on the current Briev government other than that treaty and the discussions we picked up between the frigate chasing Lieandra and the planet. If the queen helped them, then technically she is a sympathizer.”

  “Unless she was threatened. Give us fuel or else.”

  “True. I doubt it though. The Briev mindset is in line with the proven Horathian Xenophobic behavior they have established over the past century.”

  “Strange that.”

  “A pathos once rooted in an organic psyche is difficult to root out Admiral. Ignorance breeds it in your kind.”

  “True,” the Admiral sighed. “I think you are right. Senka is a dead end for them, if they had full tanks they would have dried up after the second jump after Senka. I seriously doubt they had full tanks after running from Firefly here. Extrapolating from that, they must have known that so Briev is sounding more and more like a likely outcome. The problem is though, how could they get fuel from the bottom of the gravity well?”

  “I ... that thought hadn't occurred to me,” Sprite admitted. The admiral raised an eyebrow at her image. “Okay, it did, but it was a low probability in my simulation,” Sprite replied.

  “You mean you were so focused on the potential of their departure you noted they couldn't get fuel in Triang but not Briev?”

  “We don't know for certain they didn't Admiral. One of the corvettes might have had a small shuttlecraft. A launch or cutter. Or there might have been one on the planet.”

  “Might,” the admiral echoed. "We saw no sign of their presence in Briev."

  "There was so much traffic from the convoys we couldn't pick any sort of needle up in that hay stack, Admiral. Factor in the time involved ..."

  "True," he admitted.

  “I've been considering if they managed to make it home. Or at least back to friendly forces,” Sprite said doggedly. She was reminding him that he had to take the possibility into account and plan accordingly.

  “That is a thought,” the Admiral replied, now brooding. “Definitely,” he muttered darkly a few moments later.

  “It is something to consider carefully, Admiral,” Sprite replied quietly.

  “Indeed it is.”

  “Should we dispatch a ship to investigate, Admiral?”

  “No. None to spare right now,” the Admiral replied. “I'm not sending a ship off on a wild goose chase. If they did refuel in Briev they would have had to stop in Protodon or Kathy's world to refuel again before moving on. When we make contact with them we can find out.”

  “I'll make a note of it, Admiral,” Sprite replied.

  “Good. I know they didn't pass through when any of the convoys did, otherwise they would have been torn them apart. So either they passed and no one bothered to mention it, or they hadn't gotten there yet. Since their drives are civilian grade ...”

  “An assumption, Admiral,” Sprite cautioned. “We don't know that for certain.”

  “But one based on available wreckage,” the Admiral retorted. “We have to start from somewhere and make logical assumptions and then adjust them as needed.” Sprite shrugged. She was never comfortable with organic fuzzy logic.

  “So, assuming hmmm ...” he pulled up a star chart and then compared the alpha and beta transit times. Then he factored in the Apollo's nominal life support. After a long moment he sighed. “You know what, pass this to our Intel and tactical people. Have them work it as an exercise. Specs are best and worst transit times. Life support a variable too. I want windows on when they were in each system.”

  “That's all speculative, Admiral,” Sprite replied.

  “Yes but I want to see what they come up with. When or should I say if we pick up their trail again we'll know the answer and can compare it to the guesses our Intel people made.”

  “I'll pass the homework assignment along. Do you have a deadline?”

  “Give them a week. We'll see what they come up with,” he replied.

  “Aye aye, Admiral,” Sprite replied.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Now that they were in orbit, Sprite did a bit more exploring. She found profound changes to Antigua. There were computers all over the planet forming a proper net. Corporations had mainframes, some of the equipment had been resurrected from the past, and some newly built. The major corporations were growing steadily through wise investment and control of certain assets.

  Antigua had at one point been hampered by large corporate greed in the past. They had had their own version of Rockefeller, Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and others like them. They had held a stranglehold on transportation, steel, and fuel for many years before others had wrestled control from them.

  She popped into a satellite, amused that there were networks of competing satellites as well. She checked, the planet's agricultural areas were swarming with mechanical equipment. She zoomed in while she spun a bot off to do a quick web search for her. The bot came up with a hit just as she was about to pass on the image of the vehicle she had been looking at to Proteus for further evaluation. It was a combine, she noted from the webpage. Crude compared to those used before the Xeno war, but adequate and far more efficient than the horse drawn devices that had been used only a short time ago.

  With more mechanical aide in farming the farms didn't need as many hands to tend to things. That meant they had to go elsewhere. The industries had been undergoing a renaissance as investors bought them out and had them refitted or shut down and their assets sold off. Working in the old mills and factories had been hard but not mentally challenging. It had been brutal, and safety hadn't been a very important issue for many. One of Governor Randall's agenda items had been to institute child labor laws and proper work pay and benefits. She checked and found to her satisfaction that he had rammed both through effectively. Children were now being educated and no longer exposed to the hazardous environment. Good.

  Changes weren't only happening on the inland areas either. They had several active space ports, including the growing one on Eternia Island. From the images she accessed the island had dredges digging out channels and an area for a sea port. Other ports were being built along the coast line and ships were being constructed to haul goods around the planet.

  She turned her attention to space once more and was gratified to see the industry swinging into full action. The Yard Dogs had started the first solar farm for an electric utility groundside, but others had sprung up in space after the Horathians had been defeated. Gas giant refineries were in orbit of the gas giants, sending volatiles back for processing. There was a half a dozen small depot stations in orbit and another under construction. She was surprised and amused to find a couple of small orbital factories as well. They didn't stand much of a chance to compete with Antigua Prime, but she was glad they were there anyway.

  The star system was growing fast since they had left and even faster after the pirates had attacked. She judged that they had a very healthy economy. Once they started exporting, the economy would explode with further growth. Antigua Prime was the engine, the dynamo to make it all happen.

  The web was nice and big, with plenty of space she thought. She saw Clio and Mnemosyne, Bounty, and some of the other AI and cybers flitting about. Each seemed to stop at a growing website. She took a peek. It sobered her. It was a memorial site for those lost during the recent Horathian attack. A sister site had recently been set up for the loved ones lost on Kiev 221. She saw Rasha Warner there, a ghost like figure who touched her son's portrait. When she not
ed Sprite she turned with a wan smile and nod, then disappeared. Apparently she didn't want to hear any more sympathy Sprite thought.

  A couple of the people there kept insisting that their families may be alive. There might be survivors. The AI considered it possible, but unlikely. The pirates were known to be brutal, but if they insisted on clinging to hope she would humor them.

  Sprite got a concerned call from Mrs. Garrett, making her return her attention to the admiral. His concentration was flagging. She had taken several breaks, even two naps to process what she had learned over the past week. He had yet to do so, and he'd skipped a few meals as well in his zeal to get things moving. “Want me to take it or you?” she asked when she passed the news on to the admiral.

  “What does she want?” He demanded.

  “Most likely when you will be home for dinner,” she replied. She checked the call. “Yup. It seems you've stayed out past your curfew you naughty boy. And missed a few meals,” she drawled wickedly.

  He rolled his eyes. “See what you started by sicking her on me? We're going to fall behind at this rate,” he growled.

  “Admiral, even you need a rest break to refuel and sleep,” Sprite said. “I happen to know you've had to access your med implants and the nanites to do something about your low blood sugar and headaches,” she warned.

  “All right, all right,” he said, waving a hand. “I'll get some rest.”

  “Good.”

  “On my own terms,” he warned. “And you can go off duty for the evening,” he said.

  “Oh ... goody,” she said in a less enthused tone.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Tugs towed two moderately large asteroids to the shipyard. Each was bagged in a giant bag to keep their shape while under acceleration. Once the ungainly potato shaped rocks were in slips, comments began about why they were there started in the military forums.

  “Are the work crews on it?”