Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  "Now Jazz, be good," another prostitute said.

  "I don't do good." Jasmine gave a lazy smile. Her canines showed.

  "You got that right," the other sighed.

  "I do bad. When I'm bad, sugar I'm great," she smiled again. The tech shuddered. Irons chuckled.

  "You have any idea how old that line is?" The other sighed groaning.

  "Come on you two! Hurry up or Snake will be pissed!"

  "Hold your horses... or something..." Jasmine smirked then gave a slow lurking smile.

  "Oh and Jasmine?"

  "Yes Doc?"

  "No more biting this time. I mean it." She held up her finger and waggled it back and forth. “You have no idea how much saliva infects wounds like that.”

  The prostitute gave a slight meow and mew of disappointment. "Ah, not even a nibble?" Jasmine purred, sharp teeth bared.

  "No."

  "Spoil sport." Jasmine laughed and left with her friend. The Doc was dimpling. She turned to see Casey and Irons laughing and the tech looking fearful and

  instinctively covering his genitals.

  "Oh stop it honestly," the Doc smacked Irons on the arm." She was dimpling. "You are as bad as they are. I swear they put up with the check ups just to put on a show."

  "That's a matter of opinion," Sprite said from the overhead speaker. "One I agree with." Irons laughed again.

  "I take it back. You're worse." Doc sighed and left. "I'll be in my office. If you don't settle down in the next five minutes I'll send an orderly in and sedate the lot of you." She shook her head. “Oh and Admiral, Enrique said something about paging you in a bit.”

  Casey giggled. "I think she means it."

  "I know she does." Irons shook his head sobering up. The laugh had felt good. "You two going to be okay?" he asked looking from one to the other.

  "Yeah Admiral, we can take it from here. If we have a problem we'll call you," Casey smiled and then shooed him out.

  Irons grimaced as he made his way down the hall to ops. He'd thought they'd get out last shift but Betsy's drive had been horribly misaligned. They were taking the time to fix it now. Hopefully next shift they could get out. Hopefully, his lips writhed. They were running out of time here. He nodded to the guard at the open hatch and stepped through.

  "Enrique, Admiral, I'd like you to meet Captain Mayweather," Smithy introduced the squat portly female captain. She had a classic spacer's buzz cut, with a jeweled earwig in one ear. She had a strong face, it lacked humor or empathy. He had an instinctive disliking of the woman but put it down firmly. She was dressed in a white uniform with gold braid. It took him a moment to realize it was a yacht captain's uniform. A riding crop was under her right armpit. It was totally out of place in space. She stared at Irons.

  "You are the one who came on my ship?" she asked curtly.

  He nodded. "I needed access to your files to determine the level of threat. I apologize for not asking for permission ahead of time but things were a bit hectic at the time." He smiled. What was done was done as far as he was concerned. Her fingers twitched then stopped. He noticed she was wearing a side arm sheath but it was empty. His eyes narrowed. "Captain, I thank you for providing the data. I believe it was part of the terms for rescuing you?" He gave her a long measuring look.

  She seemed to straighten then looked away. "Don't come near my ship again. Only one captain on my ship. That's me." She tapped her chest.

  He nodded. "Fair enough Captain. I will point out I am a Federation Admiral, not a civilian captain though.” He gave her a long look. She seemed to snort then disdainfully brush her shoulder. “I understand you wish to be underway before your crew is released from sickbay?" he asked trying to sound concerned.

  "That's right. No way am I risking staying here with them pirate trash coming." She shook her head. "I've got a full ship as it is now that that fat ass Admiral is on board."

  "To be honest Admiral, she's overloaded," Sprite informed him over his link. “They wont make it to the nearest jump point in her current condition.”

  "I see. I hope they understand when they wake," he said studying her. She shrugged then smiled. The smile wasn't a pleasant one.

  "Their problem. And yours." She turned and left, braided hair bobbing behind her. "Well, that was interesting," Irons nodded.

  "Did you see her go for her gun?" a com tech said.

  "You're lucky she didn't have it," Enrique said then eyed the Admiral. "Or should I say, she's lucky she didn't?" Irons smiled. "Right. Okay, so what do we do with our new volunteers? There are fifteen of them. Doc had a couple more show up an hour ago," he said in disgust.

  "They are also trained spacers. If we give them a chance, they may help," Irons shrugged. Enrique nodded.

  “Do we have a course to Firefly yet Sprite?” Irons asked. He checked the navigational system. Since they were still tuning the drive he had decided to go over other things one more time.

  “Well, that's what I was going to ask you about.” The AI said cocking her avatar head. “Captain Gutierrez wishes to do a full burn out and back. That will use up most of the reaction in the ship and will take about three and a half weeks to get there and back.”

  Irons winced. “No, no, I'm not up for that. The wedge is fixed.” He tapped the controls and pulled up a map of the system.

  “Exactly admiral. I was thinking about this,” Sprite highlighted a pair of asteroids and a rogue moon. “If we shape a course for these we can use the wedge to sling shot around and cut our transit time out by three days and four hours Admiral. That would mean four days and nineteen hours transit.” A red line traced itself over the plot. “But we will have to launch soon to make the window.” A digital clock appeared on the screen, counting down. They had just under twenty hours to launch.

  “I'm not sure the good captain understands the wedge Admiral. To some a reactionless drive is like witchcraft.” She sniffed disdainfully at the thought.

  “Well, you've got to give them credit Sprite. Reactionless drives are energy efficient but have to be finely tuned and used properly. They are a pain to make and in these fallen times...” He waved. She nodded. “I bet they think you can use it all the time, not just near a mass.” A reactionless drive, also known as a wedge or gravity drive used egg shaped pods filled with massive force emitters to push and pull a craft in the mass shadow of another object.

  “Exactly. I think the captain is also new to using flight windows and flight plans as well. From the log it looks like he went out in any direction he felt like half the time. That is if he wasn't running cargo. Extremely inefficient Admiral. Not to mention Energy intensive and it put unnecessary wear and tear on the ship's systems.”

  “Right. Well time to educate him then,” Irons smiled. “You'd think as a civilian contractor he'd have realized by now, time is money.”

  “I thought you said we're in a hurry,” Sprite said amused. “Still this will work. It will also cut our transit time.”

  “And time is off the essence,” Irons nodded. “Not to mention we're saving fuel we may need later. If possible we may need to vampire the tug to jump start the cruiser's systems.”

  “We're not even sure the ship works Admiral. I can't ping her using civilian equipment. Regs prohibit it,” Sprite cautioned. Irons grimaced.

  “Override the regs. King under the mountain protocol. Tap the communications grid and send a ping to the ship. Let her AI know we're coming so it won't be so trigger happy.”

  “If we can find her sir,” Sprite cautioned. “Right now we've got an approximate course and speed from a contact years ago. We also have no idea if the ship is even functional and has communications.”

  “If it was going to be easy, anyone could do it,” Irons said shaking his head. “Let's get back to work, I've got to be back on the bridge in an hour.” He waved to the plot.

  “Aye aye sir. About the software. I am compiling the latest patch now...”

  "Yacht's leaving," Sprite informed him two hours later. "Nasty. S
he's maneuvering like a wallowed pig." The AI sounded disgusted. Irons chuckled.

  "Has Doc gone over the records for the implants?" he asked.

  "Yes, at least she's accessed the records, I am not sure how much she absorbed. Do you want me to check?" Sprite left that as an opening but he shook his head.

  "Not now, it's graveyard. She's probably down for the night." He grimaced again then pulled up a feed of the yacht. The external sensors came up then expanded. The sensor feed was much better than it had been when he had run a test the day before. Obviously things were starting to improve. The Yacht was under power all right, she was pulling away from the station. Two of her fusion drives were lit. The others were off line. Unfortunately the two that were lit were off balance, so occasionally they could see the puff of an OMS pod adjusting her course.

  "What the hell?" he said after a moment of study. "Her lock is opening." He looked over to a nearby tech.

  "Oh goddess is that a person?" someone said staring at the holo.

  "Can't be. Okay maybe. Maybe they’re going to work on the hull," someone else said. A tech reached over and zoomed too far in, then out. They could see a body gyrating away from the ship.

  "Without a suit?!" someone else said, starting to sound shrill. Pandemonium began to erupt.

  “How can you tell they aren't wearing a skinny?” the communications tech asked looking concerned. She darted a glance around the room.

  "At ease people. Let’s get some professionalism in here," Irons called. He grimaced as another body went out the lock.

  "Admiral, that was the Port Admiral," Sprite said. He looked up in surprise to the image and studied it closely.

  "Are you sure?" he said. The AI pulled up the feed then enhanced it in a separate window. They could see the Port Admiral choking then going stiff.

  "Turn it off," Irons said with iron self control as he heard the gasps behind him. "So much for him. Good riddance," the sensor tech muttered.

  "Yeah," someone else said. Irons nodded grimly looking around. Clearly there was no love lost there.

  "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person," he muttered. "Let Knox know. And Enrique and the command staff." He grimaced. He wasn't sure if he should give Knox the raw feed or not. He thought about it for a second then shrugged.

  “Give Knox the raw feed. Ask him politely to caution viewers about the content before they watch it.”

  He turned to the watch commander. She looked nervous. "Don't worry about it. There is nothing you could have done to prevent it even if you had wanted to," he said softly. She nodded. "I'm going to get some rest. I'll be back at oh six hundred." He walked out.

  Chapter 13

  The Admiral entered the hospital and turned. The dragon pointed without a word. He smiled then nodded his thanks. He entered the main bay and grimaced at all the beds. Most were full. Fifteen had crew from the ship. He went over to the doctor who was firmly speaking with a woman valiantly trying to get up.

  "Admiral maybe you can knock some sense into her. She's not listening to me, and I don't want to sedate her unless I have to. I will though if she keeps it up." The Doc turned a glower onto the woman who growled.

  "They're gone," Irons said as the doctor departed. The woman looked at him. "Your ship left about nine hours ago." He shrugged. She sat back with a grimace.

  "So the bitch up and did it. Typical. Cunt." she muttered darkly.

  "We're alone?" the woman in the next bed asked looking frightened. “They left us? They really left us alone?”

  "No, you're among friends," Irons waved.

  "I mean, the, oh, the pirates!" The woman shook her head. "I can't believe she just left us!" She started to sound shrill.

  "Believe it Janice. You know that bitch would do that in a heartbeat," the woman said. Irons grimaced then raised an eyebrow at the first woman. "No I don't have a high opinion of Vanessa Kiss My Ass Mayweather. Despite her being my sister," the woman snarled.

  "Mayweather huh?" he said. She nodded.

  "Renee Mayweather. At your service. Or at least I will be once I get out of here," she grimaced and waved. Her IV swung with her arm. She looked at it then laid her arm back down.

  "But what can we do?" Janice asked still upset.

  "You can calm down for one thing." Irons looked at the pale woman then sighed. "I'm going on a salvage mission. If it works we'll come back with a warship." He tried to hide his amusement as Renee seemed to dismiss the idea but Janice and a nearby nurse looked up in sudden hope.

  "No one can get on a warship." Renee dismissed the idea.

  "I can," Irons said looking around. The bay had gone quiet as many people stopped to listen.

  "You? What makes you so special?" Renee asked with a snort. Her eyes looked at him then cut away dismissively.

  "Well first off, these," Irons tapped his rank insignia on his collar. “Then there is this." He held up his right arm and triggered its intro morph program. Janice seemed to shrink back as his hand morphed into different tools then back.

  "What the hell?" a nearby patient said trying to crawl back in his bed.

  "Easy," a nurse urged, laying her hand on his chest. "He's just showing off again." She turned a reproving glance onto the Admiral. He chuckled.

  "For those of you who don't know me, my name is John Henry Irons. Fleet Admiral of the Federation navy." He pitched his voice so everyone in the bay could hear it. An orderly bumped into a tray and it clattered to the ground. Several people winced.

  "Sorry," the orderly said and bent to pick up the fallen materials.

  "That's right. I am a sleeper. A Fleet Admiral, So I can get on to any Federation warship." He returned his attention to Renee. She was studying him intently. He turned and looked around. "Yes you've been abandoned here folks, but that isn't the end of the problem, it's just the beginning. We're looking for volunteers to man ships, fight, or to help build weapons and materials." He turned and examined the stunned audience. "Think about it." He turned and walked out without a further word.

  "Admiral do you trust them?" Sprite asked later.

  "IF they join us, we're going to have too... but Sprite?" Sprite's avatar cocked her head at him. "Keep them separate. A few together are okay, but not anyone that may mutiny or get into mischief. At least not until they've assimilated more." The AI nodded and he went back to work.

  “She'll do.” Gutierrez was smiling when he came out of the lock. He had just finished a test flight out and around the station two hours ago. The sub-light tender was three times larger than a Valdez utility tug and maneuvered slower. It was going to be a long slow flight the Admiral realized. There wasn't going to be any way around it either. It was about time, his original estimated launch window had passed three times now.

  “Slow and steady wins the race.” Gutierrez said, unconsciously echoing his thoughts. “Can we get to Firefly and back in time though?” he asked.

  “Well, if the pirates loot the planet then head out to us, it should take them about a month or two to transit here since they have to go at the speed of their slowest unit,” the Admiral replied.

  “But we don't know what speed exactly, right?” Gutierrez asked worriedly watching Sergio dock the launch to the tug.

  “No. Well, I did have an estimate. I recognized one of the ships. She's a small freighter. Most likely a class one hyper drive.”

  “And that means?” Sergio asked over the open channel.

  “Mind what you’re doing young snot,” Gutierrez growled.

  “It means alpha and low beta bands only. Low octaves. Transit time is six to eight weeks minimum It all depends on the band and how well their ship is functioning. Judging from my limited pool of data, I'd say at least six weeks,” the Admiral replied.

  “You mean my data of course Admiral. After all, I'm the one that compiled transit time for shipping after getting the data from Io, Carib Queen, and Anvil and cross referencing it.” Sprite sounded amused. The Admiral smiled.

  “Right, so five day
s out, a week back. A week or two on either end to repair and stock her with a crew. Could work,” Gutierrez said slowly, rubbing his chin.

  “You mean it better work. It's the only shot we've got,” Sergio said over the line. They felt a bump as the launch docked. “Oops.”

  “Whatdya mean oops!” Gutierrez snarled. “If you scratched my paint I'll tan your hide, one arm or not!” He got up and left the tender's cockpit to check. The Admiral sighed.

  “Going to be a looooong trip,” Sprite said unenthusiastically.

  “Yeah. Chess anyone?” he asked smiling.

  “So a pair of Priests, a Rabbi, an Imam, and a Hindu walk into a dock...” Sprite laughed.

  Irons scowled. “This is no time for jokes Sprite,” he growled looking down at the tablet. They were doing the final boarding now. The last rushed parts were on their way from the replicators.

  “Who's joking?” Sprite chuckled. Her HUD avatar pointed over his shoulder. 'Look for yourself.” He turned to see the religious men entering the dock.

  “Come to give the ships your blessing?” Enrique said coming up behind them. Each of the religious figures nodded. The two priests were already murmuring prayers.

  “We will pray for you Admiral, and your safe return,” the Rabbi said. Irons nodded.

  “Thank you. I know that is comforting.” He looked over to see a blushing Sergio being blessed by his priest. The Hindu and imam took their turns blessing the ship.

  “Thank you father,” O'Reilly said softly.

  The father turned to the Admiral. “Thank ye lad for doing this.” The Admiral chuckled. “What?” he asked smiling.

  “Your accent, I gather you have quite an Irish flock,” Irons replied. The Father chuckled in reply.

  “Do you have any ideas on when we can expect the pirates?” the Rabbi asked. Irons turned back to him.

  “One month to two at the outside.” He shrugged. “It all depends on their intentions and their hyper drives.”

  “We understand, is there anything else we and our congregations can do while we wait?” the imam asked.