Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  "What'd I miss?" Logan asked as he entered. Harris and the doctor arrived right behind him.

  "Admiral on deck," the steward said as the door opened.

  Irons smiled as he nodded to the crew. "At ease, sit," he nodded taking in the scene. It was almost straight out of the textbooks. "I see Percy is up to her usual efficiency," he murmured to Sprite.

  "Oh what ever gave you that idea?" Sprite asked.

  "Just that Harris is no longer in mess dress and Shelby looks thoughtful.” Irons said. "I wonder if you had something to do with that? Put a helpful word in her ear to help manage things?" he asked as they sat.

  "And would I be as devious as all that?" Sprite asked with a laugh. He smiled. "Don't answer that," she muttered darkly.

  "Thank you for coming ladies and gentlemen." He nodded to each then his eyes turned to Percy and her stewards. They were already laying out the meal. "I'm not a big fan of ceremony and formal occasions, but it is a good idea to dust things off from time to time to keep skills intact," he smiled to Harris who flushed.

  "I'd like to welcome first lieutenant Mayweather to the crew. She's going to be an outstanding addition to the fleet." He nodded a bow to her. She nodded politely back.

  "That being said, lets dig in," he smiled as they started.

  "Nice. A thirty nine?" Dan asked, taking a sip of his wine.

  "Thirty eight I think," Harris responded. "I saw the bottle." He smiled to Percy who nodded as she refilled his water glass.

  He was on the way to the bridge when he heard footsteps rapidly approaching him from behind. “How are the marines doing sir?” He turned to see Mayweather there behind him.

  “The marines?” He asked, studying her.

  “I heard Major forth has recruited about seventy people.”

  “Seventy nine as of this morning. All with prior combat experience,” Firefly interjected. “The major is running them through boarding exercises now.”

  “Oh?” Mayweather looked up. “Something interesting to see.”

  “He has recruited a lieutenant Pendeckle to run the op force. Their trying to improve both sides.”

  Irons brow knit. He hadn't really spent as much time as he should checking in on the grunts. He regretted it now. Mayweather's kick in the pants was just the sort of alert he needed. “Grading both boarding and repelling?”

  “Yes sir. Major Forth is formidable. I am impressed.”

  “Accessing. His thumbnail bio is brief. Former military officer on a colony world. I have nothing beyond that point right now.” Sprite sounded peeved. He knew she hated holes in data. He was pretty sure the marines were going to get a questionnaire in their inbox soon.

  “How are they adjusting to implants?” he asked.

  “They got the full package. Full combat soldier set. The last was cleared for duty this morning. The major insisted on giving everyone LAN links as well.”

  “Understandable. He doesn't need the downtime if someone is promoted. And they come in handy,” Mayweather said tapping her own temple. “They take a bit of getting used to though.”

  “True. I was concerned about that but the Major had a simple solution. They locked down systems they didn't need and then gradually introduced the recruits on a learning curve in their down time. I would judge that they are about sixty percent as effective as a fully trained marine compliment right now, and I expect that to improve steadily.”

  “Good.”

  “That power armor is cool. Where do I get some?” Mayweather teased as they walked to the bridge.

  “You don't. Unless you're boarding in combat. We only have a few zoots on hand. We've made some combat space suits and I have spare replicators working on parts for new powered armor suits now.”

  “The armory?”

  “We call it a morgue,” the admiral said as he accessed the reports. He'd skimmed them before. He'd really taken a light hand with Forth, now he was glad he had. The man had initiative and didn't need micromanaging. “Do you think they can handle a boarding Firefly?”

  “I believe they will give any pirate a rather nasty surprise sir.”

  “Good. Remind me to do an op or two with them. And feel free to throw in some twists in their ops if they are up for it.”

  “Major Forth is flexible. He knows about Murphy sir. Pendeckle is a bit of a plodder, but he has good leadership potential. I'll see if I can dredge up a few things.”

  “Can I get in on this?” Mayweather asked amused.

  “Feeling a bit underutilized right now lieutenant?”

  “A little sir. I'd like to toss a few ideas, or at least see how they do it more. More in depth I mean sir.”

  “Having naval personnel participate would be a good thing sir. At least for damage control assessment and to teach them to respect the marines.”

  “True,” Irons said nodding. “Make it so,” he said as the hatch to the bridge opened.

  Harris smirked as he typed. Irons raised an eyebrow and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Something on your mind Lieutenant?" he asked as he finished digesting the morning reports.

  "No sir, just playing with the minefield design," Harris replied then looked up.

  "Show me," Irons said coming over. He leaned over the console.

  "Ah sure. Okay. What we're doing is setting up nuclear, that is fission warheads in a cone on the least time path from the jump point to Anvil. About three light hours in," Harris said.

  "Your theory being they will head for the biggest target then spread out to take the small fry later since they can't get away?" Firefly asked.

  Harris nodded. "Right."

  "And you think the station's neutrino and radiation leakage will cover for the mines?"

  "Exactly," Harris grinned.

  "Could work. Fission warheads have little neutrino leakage. We've mixed in a couple fusion warheads but I see you've got them at the center of the field. Just remember each mine is a shaped charge but lacks the punch that it would have in atmosphere,” Firefly explained. Harris looked up confused.

  “Each warhead has a series of force generators that shape and guide the detonation along a desired path an instant before they are consumed,” Firefly expanded patiently.

  “Like a plasma bottle. Got it,” Harris nodded. “Why does a nuke in atmo have more energy then? he asked.

  “You answered it already. The atmosphere itself. When the charge goes off there it's energy propagates outward in the form of light, heat, neutron radiation, and kinetic energy. The heat super heats the air, and the force moves it outward tearing things apart. But in a vacuum you only have some stray molecules or micro bits.”

  “Ah, I get it. KEWs on a macro scale,” Harris said, smiling.

  “Well, close enough.”

  “Where do horse shoes and hand grenades fit in?” Janice asked with a laugh.

  “You stay outta this,” Harris mock growled. She smothered a giggle.

  The Admiral traced his finger along the map. It rotated so he could see from different perspectives. "Not bad Harris. Keep up the good work." He patted the man on the shoulder then went back to his couch.

  "Think it will work Admiral?" Firefly asked over his link.

  "It will definitely get their attention if we do this right. We'll have to be in the right position to take advantage of it," he smiled.

  "Right. I'm going to shoot a request to Anvil to coat the outer layer with lead based paint and dress the mines up as rocks if possible," Firefly said.

  "Good idea. Make it so," Irons waved as he sat.

  "Think she'll fly?" Sergio asked as he studied the fighter. Firefly had had the parts stowed in a cargo bay. It had taken a work crew nearly two shifts to get the parts unpacked and the tiny fighter assembled.

  "She'll fly. She's a short ranged fighter though. I don't know of anyone suicidal to fly it," Irons said shaking his head. The fighter was tiny, barely a set of engines, with a truss skeleton and a plasma cannon mounted along her spine. The pilot sat in a converted work pod cockpit f
ully suited. He shook his head. It was insane.

  "She's amazing," Sergio ran his hands along the sides. Irons sighed, recognizing the signs.

  "That she is, but she's temperamental. She's an emergency design, not something well thought out," he said trying in what he knew was a vain attempt to head off the inevitable. The fighter was new to him, it had been innovated by engineers in the field out of desperation. It had no armor, only particle shields, and minimum sensors. "If you think your mother will let you..." he started but stopped at Sergio's grin.

  “You're serious about giving up the helm?” he asked. Sergio shrugged.

  “I've always liked my hands on the controls Admiral,” Sergio said, running a hand over the cockpit module. “Besides, we still need a small craft officer and well, Janice is more experienced at helming a starship than I am.”

  Irons sighed shaking his head. "All right, you're right, you are more of a small craft person anyway. Janice is coming along nicely. You don't get to fly it until I've checked it out personally. I owe your parents that much," he growled.

  "When can we try?" Sergio asked excited.

  "In a couple hours. Now go get some rest, you’re going to need it." Irons shook his head as he examined the beast. "Damn, what am I getting that kid into," he muttered. "He'll be fine Admiral, it's little more than a work pod with a gun," Sprite answered.

  "They've been used for years Admiral, all the parts are proven," Firefly also added it's comments.

  Irons nodded. "Right. You two and Proteus check it out while I eyeball it." He started to do a preflight walk around.

  "Admiral, I wanted to thank you for the commission." Logan stood there looking at him. The staff meeting had just broken up and he was alone with Shelby and Logan.

  "I hear a 'but' coming," Irons half joked.

  "Good instincts," Logan smiled. "I was going to say, I think I should either be on another ship or the station." He sat down again and looked away.

  "Can I ask why?" Irons asked, motioning for Shelby to be quiet.

  "Well, I don't have the reflexes I used to, and it’s hard to have Shelby here, I keep having to force myself to not protect her or micromanage," he sighed shaking his head. Irons nodded. "Always a concern with family serving together. One of the reasons its usually prohibited on a ship under normal conditions," the admiral said cautiously. Logan nodded. Shelby was stiff and frozen.

  "And these are far from normal conditions aren't they?" Logan asked softly. "Yeah. Well, we're about to take Firefly out on her second full shake down, I think we can survive with you on the station if necessary, but I would prefer you tag along and over see Sun-Yat or one of the other ships we pick up. If she's viable that is. I was considering transferring you to her as her captain anyway," Irons smiled at Logan.

  Logan nodded. "Good idea. I can bring her in with a crew," he nodded to the Admiral. Shelby started to protest but Irons waved his fingers where she and not her father could see. She paused then nodded.

  "Okay dad. I can see that you've made up your mind." She tried to smile but it didn't seem natural.

  Logan started to chuckle softly until the Admiral turned to him. He tried to sober but was still smiling.

  "What?" Irons asked.

  "Oh nothing, I was just remembering something my wife used to tell me." He shook his head again and looked away.

  "The shoe thing dad?" Shelby asked sounding amused and exasperated.

  Her father nodded looking back at the Admiral. "She used to threaten to beat me to death with her shoe for having such a perverse sense of humor," he said chuckling. Irons chuckled as well.

  "I miss her, sometimes badly," Logan sighed as they quieted.

  "Me too daddy," Shelby patted his arm. “Me too.”

  "I do too, I wish I had been able to meet such a remarkable woman," Irons said softly.

  Logan and Shelby nodded. "Yeah, that she was, that she was. But this is no time to go all maudlin. All right we've got work to do, best get to it." He smacked his hands together and got up startling others. "Can't be moping about the past, we've got a ship to fix and pirates to kill. Time's a wasting folks!" Logan waved as he walked out.

  "Don't worry about him, he's fine," Irons said watching Shelby's concerned look at the hatch.

  "I know, he's just being dad. He doesn't want to be in my way." She shook her head. She frowned then turned back to him with a grimace. "I knew I was going to follow in his footsteps anyway. He tried to get me into other things, but I'm a little set in my ways. I take after my mom in that," Shelby chuckled as she followed her dad out.

  Irons chuckled as he looked out the view port. "Quite a family," Firefly said sounding amused.

  "Yeah," Irons answered with a smile.

  "We're going to have to move fast to get to the first derelict and get it sorted out and underway to the station. We've got two in mind, do you think we can get to them both in time?" Firefly asked. “We have less then ten days before we need to leave to go to the jump point.”

  "Maybe. It depends on too many variables to quantify. How long the enemy will remain in Agnosta looting and pillaging now that they know warning is spreading. What their commander is like, their infrastructure, resistance on Agnosta, too many things we just don't know," Irons said, grimacing and shaking his head. He'd kill for adequate intel right now. "We can guess at their maximum ship speed, maximum hyper bands, minimum transit time here. If they left the planet within twelve hours of the yacht's escape they should have been here any time now," he shrugged.

  "So we're on borrowed time?" Firefly asked.

  "Yes, that's right. I don't know how much damage these ships have, how much it will take to get them into service. I hope we can get crews on them and get them underway to the station. I've got the station making mines now. That should come as a surprise," he smiled. “Honestly though? I don't think we're going to be able to get to Fuentes. She's just too far out. We may have to focus our efforts on the corvettes.”

  “The destroyer would significantly alter the odds Admiral,” Firefly replied. “But... I see your point. I am more than a match for most of their fleet.”

  Irons smiled. “You are a bit full of yourself, you know that?” Sprite responded as he opened his mouth. He closed it then looked up to the ceiling in exasperation.

  “When I've got people like you running around inside of me?” Firefly responded with a chuckle.

  “Touché.”

  "So, we've got the tender running mines to the jump point, we've got Firefly running training ops and salvage crews out to nearby derelicts, we've got the other colonies and the station working on repairs and salvaging other ships, what else can we do?" Enrique asked. He looked around to the staff.

  Several people mumbled but didn't say anything important. "We've got people training in basic education, could we set up a sim?" the nervous comm. tech asked. "What sort of sim?" the Doc asked. She was tired, with rims under her eyes but she was clearly alert. She felt torn, she really wanted to be on Firefly but Standish was settling in nicely now.

  "Training sims. Mirror the ones on Firefly. Run as many people through as we can. Let them see the basics and pick out the ones that pick it up the fastest," the tech finished.

  Irons nodded. He was attending the conference virtually, since he was on the bridge of Firefly. They were less than a light minute out from the station, still in range for him to attend without too much of a time lag. "Good idea. Set it up," he nodded to Matilda who grimaced but nodded.

  "We could also set up a comm. net," the communication tech said. "I mean, something better than what we have currently. That way we could warn the other colonies or they could warn us if they detect something." She said.

  Several others started to argue but then stopped when Enrique cleared his throat. "By detect you mean if the enemy come in on another vector?" Irons asked. She nodded.

  "See, I saw it in a holo movie once and well..." She shrugged.

  He nodded. "Okay. Good point. Your department, do it."
He nodded to Enrique. “Next?" he asked. They batted a few more ideas around but no one had much more to contribute.

  "What about getting the other colonies to build parts?" Sprite asked. "We can get them to build common parts and assemble them on other places or the station..." He nodded then echoed the sentiment.

  After two minutes of debate Enrique agreed. "I just thought of something else. If we use the tender to send loads to a nearby colony, then they could lay the mines from there," Jorge suggested. He too was attending virtually. He was running the tender until Captain Guiterez was back on his feet. The Valdez tugs were being flown by a pair of pilots carefully selected by Jorge. This was his last run in the tender though, The captain was due to be released next shift.

  "How? What if they don't have the means?" Matilda asked patiently.

  "Then we can transport me and my tug. I can make the run from the colony to the jump point if it is in range. That way the tender can keep running large loads to the colony and not have to take the time to set things up," he suggested. Irons nodded when the idea reached him.

  "Good idea Jorge, see if it is feasible with Enrique," he nodded. "All right people, Firefly is getting too far away for this to be practical for me for much longer. Let me know if anything changes. Irons out." He nodded as the AI cut the transmission.

  "Well, that went well," Firefly said. He chuckled.

  "Better than expected. They're starting to think, not run around like lemmings. Hopefully it will stick. Has engineering made any progress with pod three?" he asked. Pod three had developed a glitch and had been forced into shut down, unbalancing the wedge.

  "It looked like a control run problem but they've eliminated that. We're looking at either a firmware glitch or a hardware glitch in either end," Firefly reported. Irons grunted. The firmware problem should be easy to diagnose.

  "Sprite?" he asked.

  "I'm looking into it. I'm running a line by line comparison diagnostic on the code Admiral, so far everything checks out, but I only just got started. There are ten million lines of code to go through. It will take me an hour to finish," Sprite reported.