Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “I know that. That is why I wish to do this. I know I can do more than scrub walls and...” he wrinkled both sets of nostrils, “toilets.”

  “I say is that the best they could find? With our colony growing and changing so fast?” the matriarch asked in dismay.

  “Everyone is trying for positions. There are only so many to go around though. That seems to be part of the problem mother,” his dam said, turning to the matriarch.

  “I may not be able to work in space but I know I can be of use. And if I fail, I will still get some education,” he honked a little at that. He tried to keep from undulating his throat sacks in a emphasis.

  “And test the limits of this Federation Navy. The other races have made some concerns known to us. It seems the humans are over represented in it so far,” the matriarch nodded. “You have my blessings young one. Be safe.”

  “Mother perhaps we should discuss this further,” his dam protested, turning an eye stalk to her parent.

  Her mother spread her lower tentacles apart. “What is there to discuss? The youngling has a good point. He needs new growth room. Obviously that isn't happening here,” she nodded. “And he does have a point. You are due soon.”

  “And besides mother, The ship is only in port for another day,” he said, eager.

  “Eighteen hours. I am a shift supervisor you know,” the matriarch said nodding.

  “Understood. But before you go you will eat,” his mother nodded, giving in to the inevitable gracefully. “And write often.”

  “Of course mother,” he chittered with glee and relief.

  “Do not be so excited young one. You have no idea what will become of you. Since our species is not built for spaceflight you may find yourself in the very position you are leaving.”

  “But I may not. And that is what I am interested in the most,” he replied crossing his arms and tentacles before him in first level respect. Both of the females copied the gesture.

  “Agreed. And as your dam said, write home. Often. The clans will wish to know if this Navy is worthy of trust.”

  Chapter 19

  Irons smiled as Harris began to swear softly. He watched the man frantically tap at his controls. Dan was also muttering. "How's it going?" Sprite asked.

  Irons nodded his chin to the feed. "Not bad. They're learning." He chuckled as the first part of his surprise became apparent.

  "New contact, one destroyer, two frigates, just jumped out of the Agnosta jump point!" The hysterical note was starting to build as the crew became more and more tense.

  Harris's head whipped around then he grinned. "More playmates, great."

  "Yeah, great," Dan muttered.

  "We can take them, bring us about. Charge!" Harris grinned. The sim's clock had a compressed time ratio, so they were moving at ten times the speed when not in actual combat. In less than a minute they had left the remnants of the first enemy.

  "Uh sir, we're detecting power emissions behind us," the sensor tech looked up.

  "Neutrino's detected, we've been snookered!" Dan snarled. He looked up to Harris then down guiltily. The ship they thought they had destroyed had played possum.

  "Crap. She's moving. She's coming about." Janice had beads of sweat on her brow. She looked over to Sergio who was focused on the helm plot. "We're caught in a pincer now aren't we. A vice," she said. Dan swore.

  "Looks that way. Sneaky," Harris said sitting back.

  The rest of the sim went badly for the crew. When they were done Firefly called a halt and brought up the lights to normal running conditions. Janice sat back with a groan, rubbing her shoulder and wiggling her fingers. "Crap that sucked," she shook her head.

  "Sometimes a frontal attack is not the best thing, even when you out mass your opponents," Firefly commented dryly. Sergio grimaced.

  "How could that first destroyer still work? We had her, she was venting and her drive was down!" Dan said. "That was rotten cheating!" he snarled.

  Irons came in and paused chuckling. "Not at all, you just thought she was dead. She was playing possum," he smiled. Harris and Dan gave him a dirty look then Harris smiled.

  "How?" Janice asked, curious.

  "Venting atmosphere is easy, just crack a couple locks. Toss a couple flares and leak a bit of plasma out, and you've got hot spots. Step the reactors down properly, and send a cascade pulse to the shield emitters and it looks like a flare out. It puts a lot of wear and tear on the equipment but it looks real." Irons smiled as he sat on the couch.

  "So that's what you meant when you said we lack hands on experience with the hardware?" Harris asked curious. Irons nodded.

  "Exactly. When you get your hands dirty you know what your equipment can do, and you can't blame anyone else if you push it too hard," he shrugged.

  "It's not just that though." Irons looked over to see Logan as he came in and sat on the edge of a railing. "There are different methods of training. Book learning, sims, and hands on. Now, book learning and sims are good, they conserve the equipment and let you get a lot of practice in, but the hands on teaches you that you've got to rely on it too. You've got to allow for Murphy and know your people and equipment." He nodded to Irons who returned the nod then turned his attention to the bridge crew.

  "That's why we have live fire exercises. You get to SEE how a ship can function, and you push it till something breaks. That exposes the weak spots for you to cover over." He shrugged. "You'll never get them all, but it does help to know they are there." He looked over to Logan who nodded.

  "And it lets the crew know that if you slack off, don't tighten a fitting, brush off a repair or gloss over a software fix, it can turn around and bite you in the ass when you need it the most," he grinned. "I learned that back in my early days when a bolt I thought I had tightened wasn't to spec. It sheared off during maneuvering and ricocheted

  around the compartment before it embedded into a hull plate. Boy did I get reamed." He shook his head blushing. Irons chuckled.

  "Right, I bet your chief really took his time too right? Said something about how it could have killed someone or destroyed the ship?" Irons asked.

  Logan nodded. "She."

  Irons laughed. "Yeah, it's worse somehow when you get reamed." He looked around. “But you never ever forget it.”

  "You see there are different ways of teaching as well. Some learn best with encouragement, discipline, and initiative. Others have to have someone standing over them with a stick screaming."

  Logan grimaced. "I had a couple officers like that," he shuddered. "Nasty." The bridge watch looked around to each other then nodded.

  "Right now we can't get a live fire exercise in, so we're playing sims."

  "But that sim wasn't realistic, I mean, we didn't see those ships in the Intel feed!" Dan replied spreading his hands.

  "What if it was wrong?" Irons asked.

  "Wrong? I can't see how..." Dan said slowly.

  "I do. You mean if they didn't get it all, if a ship was occluded by a planet or on the other side of the system," Harris answered looking over to Dan. Dan nodded reluctantly.

  "It's always better to train as realistic as possible, and to throw as much at you as you know, or better than what the enemy has. It's easier to expect trouble than to fly in all fat dumb and happy and get torched." Irons locked eyes with Harris.

  Harris flushed. "Right, my frontal charge. It really was stupid," he muttered, shoulders hunched. Irons nodded.

  "Yeah, I expect better. I'll get better right?" he ordered. Harris straightened and nodded. "Right. That's all for this morning. Call the relief and get some lunch, hot wash on the exercise at thirteen hundred. Be prepared for an in depth critique," he smiled grimly. Janice gulped.

  "I don't see what you have to worry about, you weren't in the hot seat," Harris muttered to her as they left.

  "You'd be surprised," she muttered. "Some people can find fault with anything you do." She shrugged.

  Irons waited until the new watch was settled then sat back in t
he captain's couch. Logan sat across from him. "They're trying," he sighed. “They are getting familiar with their implants and the ships systems.”

  "I know they are. And they are getting better. They know their families and futures are riding on this, so I'm trying not to push too hard to fast. I don't want to break morale," Irons replied. Logan nodded.

  "Good point, glad you've got that in mind. I'm going to check engineering, Shelby should be done with her exercise too. Lunch?" he asked. Irons nodded. "Works, I'll meet you in your wardroom Admiral." Logan left.

  "They really are getting better Admiral. That possum trick was sneaky," Firefly said. Irons looked over to the AI avatar then smiled.

  "Worked didn't it?" he asked.

  "That it did. I'll keep it in mind when you’re in the hot seat," Firefly warned. Irons laughed.

  “I don't see why we're here. I mean. It's well, redundant. A waste of time,” a tech said, swiping the side of a graser with a hand. “The AI can do what we're doing ten, hell a hundred times faster than we can dream even if we're linked in,” she said grimacing.

  Her partner nodded then looked up as a shadow fell on them. His eyes widened and he jumped to his feet. “Attention on deck!” he said.

  The woman turned irritably then her own eyes widened. Hastily she got to her feet. “Sorry sir,” she mumbled.

  “What for?” Irons asked, nodding politely as he looked at the mount then around the room. “Griping is a universal trait among soldiers, sailors, and civilians. We just have a better handle on it than the civilians.” He smiled as he jacked into the mount for a moment. He was making his rounds as they made their way to the first set of derelicts. He had set up a routine of checking things as the crew shook down. It had been a week and they were still learning. But since all of them were born spacers some things were going better then others.

  “Yes sir, ah, about what I was saying...” the woman started to say, face cheeks flushed.

  “The reason is as you said redundant. That's the point actually,” he smiled looking them over. “You see, yes an AI, and the sub computers in the mounts can do a hell of a lot, and yes, a hell of a lot faster than us. But there is a limit on the amount they can multitask at any given time. In a battle the ship's AI needs all its mental resources to focus on the fight, not the individual sub systems,” he waved to indicate the room.

  “Also if we have an engineering casualty or battle damage that knocks out our control of the things from the bridge it's up to you the gun crews to manually do the job. That's what we mean by local control. You have your own sensors and systems so you can still see if the ship's sensor feeds are down. This way you can still hit something.”

  “Oh,” the man nodded.

  “Also... well, some of these things are hinky,” Irons said as he rapidly scanned the system read outs on his HUD. All seemed well.

  “Hinky?” the woman asked, turning. “Ah sir?” she added.

  Irons nodded. “Right. Hinky. As in prone to problems. Software problems, hardware problems, targeting, you name it. Which is where you also come in. You’re the people on the scene. You have to recognize the signs of a problem before they come to fruition and knock them down so they don't endanger the mission or the ship.”

  “Problems sir?” the man asked. Irons checked his IFF. His name was gunners third mate Jeffery Talon. He smiled.

  “Well, for hardware there is always a hiccup to look out for and prevent.”

  “Hiccup?” the woman asked. He snorted.

  “I take it your new at this?” he asked.

  “Ah yes sir, just assigned this morning.” His IFF reported she was Gunnery third mate Selena Kessel.

  Irons nodded. “Right well miss Kessel, a hiccup is an intermittent loss of containment in the plasma bottle due to either an energy spike or drop off. Earlier model energy weapon mounts had a direct feed from the EPS to the mount. Now we've got the capacitor mounts that store a charge here and can discharge at a variable rate. That allows us to keep the mount from doing nasty things like exploding” Irons said unjacking and turning.

  “Oh,” the woman said paling and then returning to attention.

  Irons nodded, walking to the door. “Fortunately that problem has been minimized as much as possible. But you never know so do keep an eye on things and don't slack off.” The woman gulped.

  “Ah, no sir.”

  “Don't worry, you will get some training and some exercises to get you up to speed shortly,” he smiled as they looked at each other.

  “It's not that hard a job when the gun isn't firing. Manual firing is a pain in the butt though, you've got to deal with our ship moving along with the enemy's... and be careful to not hit a friendly if they are in the area. But we'll start you on a learning curve to get you up to speed. Don't worry.” The two looked anything but calm. He shrugged.

  “It's a posting that needs to be filled. Then of course there is the other thing.” He turned waving to the mount. “You get to fire a really big weapon. How many people get to do blow stuff up in their lives?” se said smile turning into a grin.

  The two gun bunnies looked at each other then shrugged. Kessel smiled tentatively. “I guess not many sir. Thank you sir.”

  “Carry on,” Irons said waving.

  "It worked didn't it?" Harris demanded.

  "Yeah it did," Dan said grudgingly.

  Irons smiled. They had come a long way in a week, the last sim had shown improvement even he hadn't expected. Harris's latest sim had been brutal, but he'd pulled off a nice twist. They were refining their defensive strategy as the situation changed.

  "They have learned discipline and are beginning to learn to adapt and change," Sprite said softly.

  He spread his hands apart and gave a slight nod. "That they are," he murmured.

  "Still some rough edges. Mayweather's crew is rusty," Firefly said. "They missed two maneuvers." The AI pointed them out. Maya had been a surprising and welcome addition to their small but growing task force.

  Mayweather had transferred to the Maya after Captain Jensen had stood down due to health reasons several days ago. Seventy years as a ship’s captain without rejuv and with constant exposure to radiation and hazards it was to be expected. Since he was also one of the rare individuals who had pre-existing brain damage and couldn't receive implants, it had made the decision a little easier.

  Of course the old man had to get the last word in, growling about trying to teach an old dog new tricks. His exec Mr. Senet had so far worked out but the first two days had been an interesting teething experience. Senet had not been happy about turning over the reins of command to some outsider, no matter her training.

  Maya was a gunship. One of a few that were known to be still flying. The ship was old and battered. Time, lack of repairs, and heavy use had not been kind to anything in this system. They were trying to make repairs but it would be a while before they were back within shouting distance of their factory specs. Also none of their crews had any implants which also slowed and delayed their response time. At least not until they could be rotated through Firefly.

  Factors like that taken into consideration, Mayweather hadn't done too shabby against Harris at all.

  "You should cut them a little slack, they only just got their ship flying," Dan replied. "I mean, they've been up and fully operational what, a whole twenty four hours?" He looked over to the clock. "Okay call it twenty five," he shrugged.

  "It's going to take time for them to work up. Fortunately we've got time for now," Irons nodded. "We're on borrowed time though, but every moment the enemy delays gives us more time to prepare. But the moment they cross the hyper threshold time is up. If they are caught out then we will be in trouble," he scowled.

  Harris nodded. "Like the minefield, and recovering the ships," he waved to indicate Firefly.

  "Exactly."

  "Do you think we can salvage more?" Janice asked. Irons gave her a look.

  "I'd like to, the more the merrier, but we'd be stre
tching ourselves thin crew wise. Besides, most of the ships we have are all that are armed. Only one other ship has responded to Firefly's Paul Revere call, the Fuentes. But she's a light destroyer that's been battered into a wreck. "

  “I am guiding it to Anvil now. But her ETA is five months. She's outside the Oort cloud approximately fifty thousand AU out and coming in on her RCS system only.”

  “Oh. Ouch. Can we go meet her?” Janice asked turning to the admiral.

  “No,” Firefly pulled up a map of the system. “She's exactly opposite the jump point here below the ecliptic plane.” A red circle glowed and then blinked. A blue one on the other side blinked. A caption read 'Firefly'. “To get there we'd have to either cross the system or go out and do a micro jump around. Either way we would be out of position when the enemy arrives.”

  “Oh. Good point,” Dan nodded. “But what about other ships?”

  “Unfortunately the other ships so far detected are either too badly damaged to be of any use, or are of civilian design. They are also power drained so we have no way of moving them on their own, and no way of knowing what their condition is until we get there.” The Admiral shook his head. “Which is no use for us.”

  "Then again platform redundancy Admiral. Or we could use them for supply or as a fire ship," Harris interjected picking up a tablet. Irons studied him then smiled.

  "Yes, that is important in most situations. But we still can't use them in this situation. We're spread thin enough as it is. However the other colonies and Anvil can use them to supply us. Anvil has several candidates in mind."

  "What about the ships the other colonies have picked up? That tanker?" Dan asked. Irons shook his head. Unfortunately most of the ships that could be salvaged or rebuilt from those still in use were civilian in design. Warships tended to get a bad case of dead and broken into small pieces when they met unfortunate ends. The price they paid for staying in the furnace, Irons thought with a pang of regret.