Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  "Thank you for the opportunity to present it." He went back to the gallery and sat down.

  "Madam chairwoman, I do believe we were about to have a vote?" Farley suggested. She grumped, staring at the Admiral then turned to Farley.

  "Vote? Why, ah..."

  "Surely a matter of this importance deserves a democratic voice?" Farley suggested. Several of the other delegates nodded.

  "Right, I second the motion."

  "I do as well."

  "Me too." Several delegates stood or raised their hands. It quickly grew into a tide of voices.

  "Don't you want a moment to consult with your peers? With your colonies?" the desperate chairwoman argued. Irons realized she was playing for time.

  "No, a vote has been called for," Farley nodded to the others. They nodded back then turned their attention to her. She scowled.

  "Oh very well. The motion before this board is whether or not to reinstate the Federation Constitution." She turned a black look on the Admiral.

  "And the Federation republic," Farley added. She turned her scowl on him.

  "And the Federation republic," She grated out.

  "With the temporary capital here in Pyrax," another delegate added. The chairwoman suddenly had a very thoughtful look on her face.

  "Right! We can send delegates to the other worlds inviting them to return to the Federation!" another suddenly said, excited. A babble of voices in the gallery and at the council table started.

  The chairwoman sat back suddenly looking both amused and sheepish.

  "Right." She stood suddenly, pulling at the hem of her top. "We've got a vote before us. Let’s do this." She nodded to the delegates.

  "She's a smart one. She saw the way things were going and went with the tide instead of fighting it," Sprite said. Irons nodded.

  "Smart cookie, I'll give her that. She's learning," he murmured.

  "You say something Admiral?" a person next to him asked. He shook his head then tapped his temple. "Com link. Sorry to disturb you." They went back to watching the vote.

  With a landslide the motion passed. The Federation constitution was reinstated.

  "The aye's have it. The Constitution of the Federation is reinstated. We'll adjourn for lunch then begin debating the local Constitution," the chairwoman bowed to Farley who nodded gravely.

  "I have the old one in mind to use as a template. I do believe we can trim off the fat and work in new law that reflects our current position," he smiled. She nodded.

  "Meeting adjourned for lunch." She tapped the gavel then left without a backward glance. Irons rose with the audience and left.

  "Well, that went better than I expected," Sprite said. Irons grimaced.

  "It's not over yet," he grunted. He didn't like the look of that chairwoman. She was trouble pure and simple.

  An aide to judge Farley motioned to him as he exited into the hallway. He fought the tide until he got the aides side. "Yes?" he asked.

  "The judge would like to speak to you, in his chambers over lunch," she said. Irons grimaced then nodded. "Of course." He followed the aide out a side passage past a bailiff.

  "I hear Knox and a group of ... what do you call them, reporters?" she turned to him. He nodded. "Well they're outside pouncing on any delegates that come out. We'll just take a side route." She ducked under a pipe then waved. "It's a bit convoluted, but it gets us there out of sight," she said with a smile. He nodded feeling a little relief.

  Chapter 23

  They rose as he came into the room. He smiled and nodded then motioned for them to sit. "Sit sit, we've got a lot of work ahead of us." Irons sat at the head of the table and looked down its length. Logan was there, along with Shelby, Harris, Dan, Mayweather, doctor Standish, doctor Thornby, Captain Waters, Jeremy, first Lieutenant Senet, Naomi the exec of Maya, the bull necked marine Major Forth, and a nervous Sergio.

  They were on their way to a nearby wreck. Most of the other ships were in dock at Anvil undergoing repairs and refit. He'd snagged most of his senior commanders for this conference so they could get onto the same page now that the convention was over. The entire system was buzzing about it, even after a week. He was hoping to pick up some momentum from it.

  "Well, it's been a long time coming, but it's past time we start looking at rebuilding the Federation armed forces ladies and gentlemen. Those of you here represent the highest ranking officers of each branch that we have so far," he smiled.

  "You mean medical, marines, fighters, and ship captains?" Standish asked with a smile. Irons nodded.

  "Right, we're the seed of a new generation. I can't speak for the Federation army or special forces, they aren't my branch," he shrugged as Logan chuckled.

  "Ground pounding was never my style either Admiral," Mayweather and a few others nodded. The Major snorted, leaning back.

  "Oh, I'd like you to meet a few additions to the group," Irons nodded as the holo plates lit. Firefly's avatar took one, Sprite took the other. "Firefly most of you have met by now. This is Sprite," he waved a hand to her. She stood straight and gave each a nod.

  "Sprite is my personal AI." He heard a few people gasp at that. Irons chuckled. "It's a bit more complicated than that, but I am not going to declassify all of my functions just yet."

  "Mainly because we wouldn't understand them," Thornby said. He gave her a look but she smiled. "I'm just being honest. I for one haven't a clue how the engineering of your cybernetics work, let alone how you could stand an AI in you," she smiled. "No offense of course Sprite."

  Sprite smiled. "None taken. It's a bit the other way though, It's hard for me to put up with the Admiral sometimes," she grinned. Irons chuckled as several people froze at that.

  "Sprite is a bit more than a basic military sentient AI, she's been growing over the past several years. She serves as my staff and has the rank of Lieutenant Commander," he shrugged.

  "We're going to have to set up several things, including a chain of command, TOE, that's table of organization, Then there are the basic chain of command for logistics, training, medical, engineering, JAG, and other things," he waved.

  "I'd like to put in for command of Firefly," Mayweather said quietly. Most of the staff turned to her in surprise. "If you’re going to fall back on your flag rank."

  Harris and Dan both started to object but Irons waved them off. "One of the things we've got to work out, among many. For instance, Logan here has seniority over you First lieutenant," he waved to Logan who shrugged.

  "I honestly never thought about being on a command deck and taking the hot seat for very long Admiral. I'm a bit set in my ways," Logan shrugged.

  Irons nodded. "You did fine with the pirates." He turned to Mayweather. "You've got more of the mindset than some, but you've got a couple others ahead of you." He indicated Shelby, Harris, and Dan.

  “Lieutenant Commander Logan has indicated an interest but is still green and needs more work with her tactical skills.” He turned to the two Lieutenants. Both men sat up straighter and started to smile smugly. "Both of these gentlemen have tactical skills and training but lack direct command experience however," Irons said, making them both seem to deflate. He smiled. "But, we've got another pair of ships coming in." He nodded to Firefly.

  "That's correct Admiral, the Fuentes has answered my initial ping and is limping to port under auxiliary power. We're sending out a tug to speed her along. We also have that destroyer to rebuild," Firefly looked over to Mayweather.

  "I'll take her," Logan said quietly. Irons looked at him surprised. "She's a mess right? It will take time to rebuild her. I can do it. She's not going to need a full crew, and I know how to handle repairs," Logan explained. “I can oversee building the yard as temporary head of Bu-ships and oversee repairs to the other ships as well.”

  Irons nodded. "All right, that's one. That opens up Sun-Yat." He looked over to Harris.

  "Who me?" Harris asked looking surprised. Irons raised an eyebrow. "Okay," Harris said with a sigh. Irons nodded.


  "And that leaves tactical open. Dan, you're moving over," Irons said turning to Dan. Dan nodded.

  "What about medical?" Standish asked.

  "Well, we need the usual things. Medical training, medical personnel on ships, hospital facilities, and equipment. We also need medical personnel to do implants," Irons explained. Standish and doctor Thornby nodded.

  "I'm not looking forward to another assembly line, but I think we can handle that," the CMO said. "Just as long as it doesn't interfere with my duties to Anvil," she said. Irons nodded. Most of the crew didn't know that doctors Thornby and Standish had been passed the key codes to make military medical nanites by Irons when they had each received her nanites. He was keeping it low key for the moment.

  "Bu-medical is also responsible for working with relief efforts for medical cases," Irons shrugged as Standish looked confused.

  "He means hospital ships going to places to help medical disasters, like viruses and disease outbreaks," the CMO explained to him. Standish nodded. "Also training local personnel if possible," she added. "Right?" she asked.

  Irons nodded. “Right. They also go around undeveloped areas and provide medical support to the less fortunate wherever possible. We've got a lot on our plates. On all our plates," he said leaning back.

  "So go back to the command thing, who is getting Fuentes?" Mayweather asked. Irons looked to her.

  "Fuentes is a light destroyer. More of a jumped up frigate with delusions of grandeur. She's pretty banged up though. She doesn't have an AI. The crew were pulled off when she was abandoned here," Sprite said, pulling up the data list.

  "Firefly has her on remote control now. We were lucky she answered the ping at all," Sprite said.

  Firefly nodded. The data showed a badly damaged ship. "She's lost most of her weapons, most of her drives and has no life support. She's barely a shell. She's going to take months to get her sorted out." Data swirled around the distorted image of the ship.

  "So manning her isn't a problem now," Sprite added. Irons nodded.

  "Still, we have other ships, a couple HKs right?" Shelby asked.

  Irons chuckled. "Most of the pirate HKs are scrap. The mines did a good job. We might be able to get one or two in service if we scavenge the others, but I don't see the point. They are gunships with limited life support and range. Really all they are is a hab module with a drive and a couple pop guns. They don't have shields beyond basic particle shields and they have little computer support. Little room for stores either. We can build a replacement a lot faster then we could rebuild the beaten up ones. I think we'd do better to stick to the shooters and lay down new hulls."

  Mayweather looked interested. "New hulls?" she asked. A few of the others looked interested. Captain Waters raised an eyebrow to him. He smiled.

  "What? You don't think we're going to just fix up what we have right?" Logan asked. She gave him a look. "Nope, while I'm rebuilding the destroyers and anything else the cats drag in, we're going to lay the ground work to build our own dedicated slip then a dry dock. Once we get everything sorted out, we're going to pick up that battleship and the other ships out there and one by one fix them or scrap them," Logan smiled as Mayweather's eyes gleamed.

  “Damocles will most likely be a keel up rebuild. Firefly did a good job taking out her vitals.” He nodded politely to the AI. The avatar nodded back. “Since she's a more modern class than Fuentes she'd be a cinch to rebuild, but the H&A teams found some stress fractures and cracks in her skeleton so we've got to do some repairs there. That will slow us down even more. Since I've got to juggle priorities, the Admiral and I decided to focus on Fuentes since she's got some systems running.” He nodded to the Admiral who nodded back.

  "Is building a ship even possible?" Naomi, Maya's exec asked. From her record she had served Mayweather well aboard the Maya as chief engineer before being bumped to executive officer when first Lieutenant Senet had taken command of the factory ship. She was quiet though, and seemed shy.

  Irons nodded. "The civilian ships will be turned over to the local government or stripped and scrapped. One or two we might hang onto if they look like we can convert them to a hospital or support ship without having to invest the time and resources that building from scratch would take. I'm hoping we can turn a few around so they can get the word out and expand our borders a little. Destiny will be the first of the captured ships to do that. She'll take the rescued slaves home and spread the word," he said.

  "I can take the battleship," Mayweather said, sounding awed.

  Irons chuckled. Logan laughed. "She's going to take a year or two to turn around Mayweather, and I don't need you rusting while you wait." He nodded to Logan. "Since Logan is going to handle repairs, I agree, he can be head of Bu-ships for now."

  “We don't need anyone sitting in Bu-research, but we'll need candidates for Bu-training and Bu-personnel. Doctor Thornby here is head of Bu-med, and Firefly is handling our computer support," he nodded to the avatar.

  "I'll keep hoisting my flag on Firefly when I'm in the field. I'll also have an office on Anvil until we build our own dedicated platform. Most of the time though, I'll be on Anvil. Which brings us back to the question of her captain." He looked over to Shelby who nodded.

  "I don't think I'm ready for the hot seat," she said simply and quietly. He nodded.

  "You're right, your tactical skills are mediocre," he said, trying to say that without coming down too hard on her. She winced anyway then nodded.

  Harris smiled. "Told you," he said, then winced himself. He bent down and rubbed at his leg. Irons sensors had caught the kick Shelby had inflicted against Harris's shin. He hid a smile.

  "Since I can't pry captain Waters away from Warthog and Captain Senet is going to stay in command over on Hephaestus... Still want the job Lieutenant Commander?" Irons turned to Mayweather who froze. She nodded. He smiled. "You've got it. Lieutenant Commander." He turned to Naomi. "Think you’re up to handling the corvette?" She seemed to fidget then nodded.

  "All right that takes care of that." He looked over to Firefly.

  "I was wondering, I mean, Admiral, why do we only have paramedics on the corvette and gunships?" Naomi asked tentatively. He turned back to Naomi. She shrugged. "Seems sort of silly to me," she said shyly. He smiled.

  "We don't have enough doctors, that's why," the CMO said tartly.

  "It is not just that. Remember how big the sickbay on your ship is. It’s more of a small dispensary and trauma center designed to stabilize the patients until you can get them to better facilities," Logan replied. Naomi reluctantly nodded.

  "Paramedics are trained at the highest level of trauma medicine without crossing over to full trauma surgeon," Irons said after a moment. He shrugged.

  The CMO nodded reluctantly. "They are easier to train than a full doctor too," she said. “And they make the jump to RN or doctor easily enough. Paramedics are in the thick of trauma medicine after all.”

  "You'll probably see a few mustang into full doctors soon enough," Irons smiled. Logan nodded. "We saw it all the time back in the day," he chuckled.

  "See, a lot of captains want to hang onto their best and brightest. There is a logic to it too, it’s easier to work with people your familiar with than to train someone new, and it's hard to take chances on someone you don't know. But it holds some people back. If they are good, really good, then we need to nurture them for the better of the service, push them and if necessary, let them grow in new ways," Logan said smiling.

  He patted his chest. "Spirits of space look at me. Up until the Admiral washed up here I was a broken down power tech. Former yeoman, college dropout and now look. Commander!" he chuckled. "Me, an officer? What's next? The horizon is the limit. And out here in space...” he waved, “there is no horizon!"

  He shook his head. "I honestly never thought I'd see this day," he shrugged looking both proud and torn.

  Irons nodded. "Right. So, Sprite, Commander Thornby, and Logan are working with Mrs. Matilda to set up enlisted
, noncom, officer, and even ROTC training. They won't be academy grade right out the gate, but it’s a start." Irons nodded to Logan again. "I'll have a hand in some of it, in a lot of things," he smiled.

  "After all, my lectures are on file, and if I am on station I might drop in for a lecture or two. I suggest each of you make that effort as well. It will give you the time to pass on your experience to the next generation, inspire new recruits, and..." his smile turned into a mischievous grin, "it lets you get a heads up for some of the more outstanding recruits to poach later down the line." The staff chuckled at that.

  “And the marine boot camp has already started it's first class,” Major Forth rumbled.

  “That they have,” Irons said with a nod.

  "How are we going to get to flag rank?" Harris asked.

  "I can't promote beyond commander," Irons sighed. "The only way past it is time in grade or an Admiralty promotions board. It takes a minimum of three flag officers to form a board. I guess we are stuck with the time in grade method for now," Irons shrugged.

  Logan and several others grimaced. "How long for time in grade?" Dan asked.

  "Each grade is ten years minimum. It depends on the department as well. There is a point system for command as well. Sprite can download it to you."

  Sprite smiled. "Already did. It's in everyone's inbox." Dan nodded getting a faraway look.

  "Crap, ten years," he sighed.

  "It's nothing. Remember, we've each got implants and antigenic rejuv treatments," Irons said patiently. Mayweather had a sudden faraway look on her face. Irons nodded. "Right. It hasn't caught up and sunk in to some of you yet, but you’re going to live a long, long time," he smiled.

  "Admiral, how old are you?" Naomi asked. Irons chuckled.

  "I'm ninety three, almost ninety four," he smiled at her shock. "And that is young for flag rank," he said.

  Harris shook his head. "How the.. Honest, I'm trying to wrap my head around it but..."

  Irons smiled. "Time. I've had a lot in my time. I was a civilian until I was eighteen. I spent several years as enlisted. Then mustanged to officer. That took two years. Since I was engineering track not command, promotions were supposed to come few and far between. Some events and the war sped things up," he sighed picking up his cup.