Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “I want him checked by the ship. Before an extended flight.” Anita said softly. The others looked at her. Her face was set. Reluctantly Sergio got up.

  “I'll go with him to check on Jorge while you work on the ship.” She waved them off.

  “Sprite?” The Admiral sub vocalized as he followed the O'Reilly's into the shuttle bay.

  “I took the liberty of putting the order in Admiral. Io has it and the textile fabricator is churning out the first suit based on my... I mean your sensor readings now,” she reported. He smiled.

  “As efficient as ever.” He nodded to the O'Reilly's.

  “We have the afternoon shift; hopefully we can... goddess of space!” Deidra said softly. The Admiral chuckled.

  “Is it, my goddess, she's like a whole new ship! Even her wedge! She's even been repainted!”

  The Admiral looked over to Mickal and nodded. “Her gravity emitter drive is not as powerful as a pinnace, but she should be able to do some pretty good grunt work around the station. Her nodes will move her at a good clip, but the small fuel supply will limit her range to within a couple million kilometers of the station.”

  “Did you paint her too?” Deidra asked. The Admiral nodded.

  “Last night after you went to bed.” He pointed to the tools. “I need to clean the gun or it will gunk up. It's a poly resin compound with embedded superconductor micro fibers. It should add a secondary layer of protection to the craft when the shields and wedge are down,” he explained. Mickal nodded.

  “So, what's on the agenda?” Deidra asked.

  He smiled. “Fuel and life support. Flight test and if he's up for it, Sergio and I can take her on an orbital spin around the station,” he nodded to the cab.

  “I was wondering... the injuries to Jorge's knee seem old...” He looked over to the O'Reilly's who sobered. Deidra nodded to her husband. Her hand snuck into his. He turned to face the Admiral. “When we smuggled Juanita out of here... the Port Admiral was furious. Beck and Berneky took a hammer to Jorge's knee,” Mickal explained. Deidra looked away sickened.

  “You see, the Port Admiral, Jorge, and Anita have a history. He raped Anita when she was young.” They looked away. “She doesn't talk about it much.” Deidra said softly. “She married Jorge a few months later. The Valdez family is critical to the station. We don't flaunt it or live in the luxury quarters.” Deidra looked up to the ceiling with a scowl. The Admiral nodded.

  “Okay, System check initialized. Let's get this bird ready for flight,” the Admiral nodded. Deidra seemed relieved at the change of subject.

  Sergio returned nearly an hour later. He was dressed in a silver skin suit and modeled it for his appreciative relatives. “You like it? It's not as bulky as my old suit. Much nicer, and it fits like a dream! No more worrying about growing into it!” He smiled. Deidra’s eyes glowed.

  “We're just going to...” Mickal edged to the door.

  The Admiral waved them on. “Go, say hi to everyone for me.” He chuckled as they left.

  “Like kids in a candy store.” He shook his head. Sergio was oblivious, staring at the tug.

  “She's new!” He stared. Irons chuckled. “Not exactly but as close as we can get her.” He waved the young man to the cockpit.

  “All right now, before you just had the plasma drive, her wedge was down right? Well not anymore. Now, here's the deal. You can't use the wedge near the station or another object. Especially INSIDE the station.” He gave a cautionary look to the young man who looked eager. Irons sighed. “Are you listening?” He tapped the boy's arm. The young man looked at him.

  “Sure okay, don't use the wedge inside. Got it.” He looked around. Iron's suppressed a sigh.

  “Not just inside. If you use it too close to another object you will tear it apart, and the debris will short your shields or tear you apart,” his voice dropped into the cool authority of command. Suddenly Sergio was paying attention in earnest.

  “The gravity nodes send out a wedge of force.” He steepled his fingers together, then pointed the tips of his joined fingers away from himself. “If it encounters another object it pushes or pulls against it. It all depends on what you the pilot are trying to do. But if you are too close, or if the object is malleable, say like another ship, then it can be torn apart like tissue paper. If it encounters another wedge... well it gets nasty.” The Admiral looked into the young man's eyes.

  “That's why there are safeguards built into the software. Listen to them. Don't muck about with the safety programs, they are there to keep you alive got it?” he asked. Sergio nodded.

  “Look Sergio, she's a different girl than you've known. Yesterday was baby steps; she was only at twenty percent power. You've got to respect her or she'll tear you apart,” he said softly. Sergio nodded sober.

  “All right. Now the inertial sump is set for ninety five percent. That means it will compensate for ninety five percent of the acceleration curve, leaving five percent for you to feel so you don't feel divorced from the craft. It keeps you honest.” The Admiral smiled at the question hovering in Sergio's expression.

  “Old pilot's trick. Actually, a fighter pilot's trick.” He smiled again. “Old pilots learn these by listening to veterans and passing them on to the next generation of pilots.” He nodded politely to Sergio. Sergio nodded back. His eagerness was returning.

  “I realize you don't want to fly a tug all your life,” the Admiral said wryly. Sergio blushed and looked away. The Admiral sighed. “Trust me; keep honest with the craft you've got and work to the goal you want to achieve in life. Your parents will understand.” Sergio nodded.

  “All right, let's get this bird in the air. I've run preflight, but I want you to run it again while I clear the remaining gear out of the bay,” he nodded as Sergio climbed into the cab.

  It only took a few minutes to clear the gear and wrestle the collars out into the corridor. He jogged to his quarters and shucked his grimy coveralls and put on his suit. Proteus handled the suit connections as he jogged back to the lock.

  “Heading out Admiral?” Sprite asked.

  “Yeah, I think the kid needs a little guidance. File a flight plan will you?” he asked.

  “Already taken care of. Take her out to one click then spiral the station, then back. Standard flight test,” the AI reported.

  “Add a powered flight run after the spiral. Give the kid a carrot to go along with the stick.” He nodded to Sergio as he closed the bay door from the inside.

  Sergio stared at him. “You've got a suit?” he asked.

  Irons chuckled. “I wouldn't be much of a navy Admiral without one.” He climbed up into the cab. He sat beside the pilot and closed the airlock door making sure the seals were working properly.

  “You’re going out with me?” Sergio asked. Then shook his head. “Who will open the doors?” he asked. The bay alarm sounded, then the vents popped on and the air began to evacuate.

  “Got it covered.” The Admiral pointed. “These are wireless controls to the airlock bay.” He pulled up a menu on the LCD.

  “Vents, purge, door controls... Right it's all here.” Sergio nodded in sudden understanding. He was finally getting back into the game Irons thought.

  “Right, flight plan is to back out, spiral orbit around the station, then if she's sound a quick throttle check.” He smiled to Sergio whose eyes flashed in anticipation. “All right, let's do it. Control this is 552Q, doors opening. Ready for departure.” He smiled as he clicked the mike off.

  A voice cleared. “Roger that 552, good luck.” He nodded as the door opened.

  “Okay let’s see...” Gently he pulled back on the throttle. She drifted off her legs, then out the bay. He tapped the controls and the antigrav shut off. “Minimum safe distance is what? A click for the wedge?” Sergio asked not looking away from his controls.

  The Admiral nodded. “Right. But point her away from the station first.” He knew the wedge coming up would be an experience.

  They drifted out a kilometer
from the station then came about. “Power up the wedge. I put in a governor into the control software, you can only have five percent power at this range, and eight percent total while within the station's range since it doesn't have shields. You see, the wedge uses the station's shields as much as its own emitters. It has to have something to push or pull against.” He explained how a wedge worked as the force emitters spun up.

  “Now, shape a course twenty degrees to port by ten degrees and we'll spiral the station. If the station's shields were up we could whip around her at five hundred gees... Someone put it like a drunk swinging off a light pole.” Irons smiled tightly as Sergio entered the course. He touched the throttle and they both felt the gee force as she accelerated. “Nice. Good, she's got a good handle. Tight. You don't want it too loose in space. Loose means you miss the mark and end up dead.” He paused as an object drifted by.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Iron's asked softly as a body drifted by.

  “Yeah. You get used to it,” Sergio replied not looking.

  “That's a child!” the Admiral snarled in shock.

  “Was, definitely was,” Sergio said softly.

  “Right. Are there a lot?” the Admiral asked.

  “One isn't enough?” Sergio asked. He pointed to a line. The Admiral stepped up his implants and could make out a trail of bodies frozen in various poses. They formed a particularly gruesome halo ring around the station, orbiting it since it was the body with the strongest gravitational force in the area... He felt a deep upwelling of fury and anger then suppressed it.

  “Right. I guess we better avoid them,” he said softly.

  Sergio grunted then tapped the controls. The Admiral fought down his anger and began to focus on the job. “Okay, I'm bringing up the sensors. Running a scan on the station to make sure they are aligned... good. Okay now let’s see here.” He pulled up his partial map of the area. “I wonder if there is a carbonaceous chondrite rock around.” He looked around. Sprite blinked his HUD, and then placed a caret on the map. “Right, new course two twenty degrees starboard pitch down eleven.”

  Sergio tapped it in. “What are we doing?” he asked when he was done.

  “Going hunting,” Irons answered.

  “For a rock? We need water,” Sergio reminded him.

  “All rock is not relative. Carbonaceous chondrite are rocks with a high concentration of water locked in their chemical matrix. Up to twenty two percent or more. If we can get them back to the station, then they can extract water from it.” He watched as the tug shaped a course and then accelerated on the new vector.

  “Now, the wedge will cut out in a few minutes. You could point it at a nearby planet but that won’t get you much acceleration unless you are close. The gas giant is the closest planet now.” Irons tapped the map and looked it over. “We can either coast to the rock, which will take about twelve hours, or you can use the plasma rocket to...” He felt a jerk as Sergio tapped the plasma rocket and accelerated them. “Right.” Irons grunted.

  “Home by dinner,” Sergio answered. Irons chuckled.

  “Okay, scanning the rock... we're going to need to calculate her mass and volume, then her approximate center of gravity to find the proper place to dock so we can apply thrust.” He watched as the lidar scan scrolled then built a three dimensional map of the rock. “Okay, she's a beauty, about two hundred and forty three metric tons. Oval shape, looks like she's got a few dimples. I can't tell from this distance how solid she is though.” He watched as the gravity scan came in.

  “Wedge is off, nodes on standby. Wait, they are coming back up?” Sergio asked. The Admiral grunted. “You’re in range of the asteroid to grab it with the wedge. Just remember, every action...”

  “Has an equal and opposite reaction. I got it.” Sergio punched a course change then tapped the joystick. Then he cut the plasma drive and pitched over. The nodes cut in and they spun around the rock.

  “Do you have a spot picked out?” Sergio asked.

  The Admiral nodded. “Feeding course correction now. See that pair of bumps there? There is a flat spot in between; we can't see it because of the shadow.” Sergio craned his neck in the suit then stared for a moment.

  “Can you do it?” the Admiral asked.

  “Yeah, I got it.” The craft slowed then the OMS tapped. “I keep forgetting.” Sergio locked the OMS down and then used the wedge. He pushed and pulled until they were aligned, then used the tractors at the front of the craft to dock.

  “We're down. Tractors engaged. We're going to need to use the plasma rocket to give a thrust on a five degree angle for a three point four second burn, at ninety percent then negative three by three for a one point two second burn at seventy seven percent, pause for one minute then straight out for a two minute twenty three second burn at ninety eight point one percent,” Irons explained as he tapped his course.

  “Roger. Burn one commencing now,” Sergio replied. The plasma thruster angled then fired for a few seconds. They felt the acceleration, and then it faded away to almost nothing. The rocket angled again, fired, and then realigned and fired again. “We're burning through a lot of fuel you know,” Sergio warned.

  “Can't be helped. We'll get it back. We can insist on a cut of the fuel from this rock. It should top you off nicely,” the Admiral explained.

  “Roger.”

  “Okay, something else. Do you know about relativity?” he asked, looking at his young co-pilot.

  “Only a little.”

  “Okay, the faster we go, that is, the closer we get to C, that's the speed of light, the more time and space bends. For us time will slow, while outside it will continue on. For us it will seem like we've only been out for hours.”

  “Okay. You lost me,” Sergio said shaking his head.

  “Ever get into trouble for not being home on time but you thought you were?”

  “Um.. now that you mention it..”

  “Right. The clocks weren't off. Oh they were, but that was because you went fast. The faster you go, the slower time travels for you.”

  “Which explains that,” Sergio grimaced. “I kept telling mom I was on time,” he mumbled.

  “But you went for a rock far away and boosted both ways?”

  “Yeah,” Sergio muttered, then checked the readouts. He looked up to the top panel then down.

  “And when you got back the clock didn't back you up?”

  “No.” Sergio grimaced.

  “That is because it reset when you got back to the station. It should have compensated for the time difference on its own, but it didn't. So when the computer detected an anomaly in the time stamp files it corrected it on its own.”

  “Which got me in trouble.” Sergio frowned, then smiled a little. “I'll have to remember that one. It'd make a great excuse.”

  “Which your mother won’t buy in a million years young man,” Irons chuckled.

  “Probably not.” Sergio chuckled.

  Two hours later they entered the perimeter of the station. “Anvil to 552Q what are you doing?” A testy voice called over the radio. The Admiral smiled.

  “This is 552 we're bringing in a carbonaceous chondrite for processing into water and material. Is there a problem with that?” He left the question hanging.

  “Admiral is that you?” He looked and saw that Io was transmitting on a side band. He smiled. “Good to hear from you Io. Yes it's me. Sergio and I were just taking the Valdez tug out for a spin around the neighborhood.” He nodded to Sergio.

  “Is that the ship?” Sergio craned his neck. They passed under the ship as they fell into orbit around the station. “My god, she's beautiful,” Sergio murmured. He was amazed by the clean lines of the ship. “She looks brand new!”

  “Why thank you,” Io seemed to preen over the link. Sergio blushed.

  “Open mike,” the Admiral chuckled.

  A voice cleared after a moment. “Right, 552 you're good. Next time let us know what you’re doing ahead of time though?” The testy voice ro
se in pitch with exasperation.

  Sergio grinned. “No promises Wally, I didn't know myself.” He chuckled.

  “Bring her down to the level thirty three mining port. We'll take her from there.” The controller ordered.

  “Anvil this is 552, just to be clear, this rock settles all debts of the Valdez family, and they get a ten percent cut of all materials for later use or we send her back,” the Admiral called.

  Sergio looked at him. “What are you doing?” he asked in surprise.

  “Making sure they understand the rules,” the Admiral smiled.

  The controller returned. “Right. The XO agrees to the contract. He's even throwing in one month free rent and unlimited use of the lifts.” The controller made it sound like a big deal.

  Irons chuckled. “Roger that. Make sure we get the first cut of the water, we're almost bone dry here. We'll need it to go out looking for more tomorrow.” He looked at the fuel readouts. Sergio nodded.

  “We can use the OMS to get back to the barn, but it eats fuel. We won’t have enough to go shopping again until we get that fuel,” Sergio sighed.

  “Roger that 552, we'll let them know. Over and out.” The controller signed off.

  “Admiral, um, 552, can you get us a rock? Maybe a couple of chlorides that size and a platinum one?” Io asked. Irons laughed at Sergio's stunned expression.

  “I think we can come to an arrangement. I do believe there is a tab though, not sure what else they would like. Another tug perhaps?” He looked over to Sergio whose eyes were round. Suddenly he blushed and looked down at his controls.

  “We'll get back to you Io. Let's get this job finished without getting banged up,” the Admiral replied.

  “Roger, Io out,” she replied.

  “I never heard a ship AI. I mean the station AI would make calls over the intercom from time to time but...” Sergio shook his head as he gently steered the craft and its ponderous load to the waiting dock. Lights came up and he grimaced, looking away from the bright glare until the window polarized.

  “She's new actually. Still young,” the Admiral answered.