Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Give my best to the Valdez family and the others. Make sure they understand. Take care of Shelby. She's going to make an outstanding flag officer someday,” he smiled.

  “Good luck old friend. Long live the Federation.” He stood at attention and saluted. Instinctively Logan did the same.

  “To you too sir. Good luck,” Logan said, feeling the tears fall. “And god speed,” he murmured as he leaned over and shut the holographic system off. He turned to the staff standing quietly around him.

  “All right ladies and gentlemen. You heard the Admiral, let's get to work.”

  Destiny lumbered to the Agnosta jump point. The Admiral brooded in his cabin. They were a day out from the jump. “Firefly is following about ten light minutes behind. I believe they were going to the Horsehead colony, but if they are they are taking the long route. There's still time to stop this Admiral,” Sprite said quietly. He shook his head bitterly.

  “You and I know how that will play out. It's all over the news anyway,” he sighed. Someone had finally hooked up a receiver to the ships systems. Not a transmitter though. They were getting news from all over the system.

  Public opinion was divided and splintering fast. Some wanted his head, others wanted the heads of the conspirators. The shadow of the Port Admiral's misdeeds over the past seven centuries were being hung around his neck. Dan's suicide the day before only added to the problem.

  Knox had discovered his mole and hung the bastard out to dry after Enrique gave him a copy of the files. He was on all the news broadcasts calling for a full impartial investigation.

  Part of the problem was his dumping the footage. An accusation was worth more than proof to John Q public any day. The more you tried to disprove it the more they felt it was real, that you were trying to lie your way out of it by clouding the truth. It was insane, but that was how the mob worked.

  An investigation committee had been formed in the house to investigate the alleged charges. Irons had laughed bitterly when he had seen the list of the committee members, most had been in the conspirator's group or were cronies of the governor and chairwoman.

  “No, if we stay, this will continue to hound us, tying the hands of the navy when we need to focus. I am expendable in the long run. The important thing is to get civilization started once more. We got that started. Mission accomplished.” He shook his head and grimaced.

  “Maybe. I'm not so sure.” He looked at the AI's avatar. “You call this crap civilized?” she asked. She pulled up a prerecorded message of the kids saying that the Admiral molested them on many occasions. Of course the fact that they were talking about the Port Admiral and not the Fleet Admiral was conveniently left out by the interviewers and talking heads afterward.

  One girl had said he'd been abusing her for years. Even a couple adults had come forward with accusations that he'd abused them when they were children. It was all laughable on it's face, he'd only been in the system for nine months.

  Knox had taken it all in, then sweetly pointed out that the Admiral had only arrived in Pyrax nine months ago. He'd even gotten footage of Io's arrival and the Admiral leaving her birthing slip. But of course the conspiracy nuts had dismissed it as out right lies.

  “Put that away. You and I know that the truth is coming out. It's up to them to see it for what it is,” he smiled a crocked grin. “No matter what I do it would be construed as spin control. I can't help it.”

  “So by not defending yourself you're making it better? It will all go away when you do? Admiral I know you have a history of not defending yourself when it would interfere with your duty, but this is walking a fine line Admiral. For some it is cowardice,” Sprite replied. He sighed.

  “Let it go Sprite. Let it lie. Give it time to rest. Let people calm down and start to see the truth. It is time we focus on the future. Let’s see what we can do in Agnosta to get them back on their feet then either stick with Destiny as she moves on up the jump chain or catch another ship to another system.” Despite saying that he felt the bitterness welling within him. It wasn't fair. He knew it, but sometimes that was the hand you were dealt. Sometimes you just had to fold. For now.

  “Tilting at windmills again Admiral? I should have known, you always liked getting your hands dirty,” Sprite said, then started to smile. He chuckled. “This is all just a devious way to get away from the mountains of paperwork isn't it?” she teased, hands on her hips. He laughed.

  “Something like that Sancho.”

  “I thought so.”

  “Twelve more hours and he will be out of our hair for good,” the speaker saluted the newly elected governor and her group with her drink. “To patience, luck, and good old fashioned hard work.” They chuckled and drank. Enrique stirred his drink staring out the window.

  “Sour grapes Enrique? That's not like you. You've been known to make the best of any situation,” the governor said smiling.

  “Just thinking about the future,” Enrique replied quietly.

  “Speaking of which, we need to bring the navy to heel and I need to put in an order for replicators. A lot of them,” the governor smiled rubbing his hands together in glee.

  “There won’t be any,” Enrique replied. Conversation around the room died.

  “What do you mean there aren't any? We've got replicators now we can make more!” Raul said. “You're just upset because your hero is leaving. It's over.” He turned. “A few loaves of bread and a couple circuses, maybe a crisis or two and the mob will forget the whole thing.”

  “You idiots just don't get it do you?” Enrique snarled getting up.

  “No, what don't we get?” the chairwoman said, with a lazy gloating smile. She just knew Enrique had enough rope, she just wasn't sure if he'd hang himself with it. The Admiral's video had been damaging, but they could weather the storm with ease once he was gone. A dead man couldn't defend himself after all.

  Enrique pointed to the window. “Out there is the one man who can MAKE the replicators! And he's LEAVING!” They looked around confused. The chairwoman's lips pouted. He scowled throwing his hands in the air. “You idiots really don't get it do you. Your little stunt...” he sighed throwing his hands about then putting them to his temples.

  “Look the replicators take a key code to make them replicate objects on the restricted list remember? The Admiral told us about this during the constitutional convention. Replicators, nanites, weapons, gravity plates, parts for our reactors... Tons of stuff. If we try without a key the replicator locks up or destroys itself.”

  “We found that out the hard way many years ago. I was reminded of it when some moron tried to use replicator one to make a diamond the size of their head.” He darted a dark look at the representative in question who turned red.

  Several of the magnates with industrial experience nodded. “We've had replicators for years. The problem isn't having them, it's having someone with the keys to make more. Replicators, hell a lot of stuff, is all hard coded to not respond without the proper embedded key codes. Codes that only flag officers have programmed into their cybernetic implants,” Enrique continued. He pointed again. “And there he goes off into the wild yonder. The LAST person who can do it!” He slapped his thigh with his hand.

  The group started to babble. The governor darted a shocked look to the chairwoman but she was pale, clutching the edge of the table. He lunged for his communicator. “Nancy, get me communications. I want Destiny stopped now!” Enrique laughed. The governor looked up and over to him.

  “It's too late, don't you idiots see that? Destiny won’t get your message. By the time the signal gets to the jump point she will have jumped a minute or two before.” He laughed hysterically for a moment then wiped tears from his eyes.

  “You idiots were so intent on soiling and getting rid of the single decent man in the system you were blind to the consequences.” He drained his drink in a gulp then threw the glass at the nearby wall. It shattered making several people nearby flinch and duck for cover. “Congratulations. You've
done it. Hurrah, Hurrah. We're right back where we fucking started. Right back in the damn dark ages. We all deserve what we get.” He shook his head laughing and left.

  “Captain Mayweather we're getting a signal from Vesta nine. It is the governor's secretary. She's ordering us to stop Destiny and return her to the colony,” the tech looked up confused. They were watching from three hundred thousand kilometers away as Destiny charged her hyperdrive.

  “Did they say why?” she asked not looking at the communication's tech. She knew it was too late, the drive field distortion would scramble any message sent to them.

  “They want the Admiral. They didn't say why,” the tech said. “They sound pretty urgent.”

  Mayweather looked at Shelby. “I don't think it’s good.”

  “Moot point anyway,” Firefly replied. “Attention on deck!” the AI said over the PA system. The captain and crew lunged to their feet. On the holo in front of them Destiny was making delicate maneuvers as she keyed her hyper drive. Space began to distort around her.

  “Crew salute!” Mayweather ordered. They came to attention and saluted.

  “God speed Admiral,” Shelby said quietly.

  “Hear hear,” Firefly and some of the bridge watch murmured. Janice had tears dripping from her eyes. Destiny flashed and then was gone.

  “Carry on,” Mayweather said softly.

  “We'll do our best,” Shelby replied.

  The End.

  Author's afterward:

  Yup, sorry folks, I know that ending leaves a bad taste in your mouth, (and mine) but I had to find a nasty despicable way for the Admiral to be run out of town. That fit the bill. And yes, a little free foreshadowing, it will haunt him for a while. It will also turn up in some of the other books in this universe.

  I've been sitting on this book for a while. Mainly to give my proof readers time to read it... But also to get the cover art done. :)

  You should see book 3 Destiny's choice out soon enough. And keep an eye out for “Jethro goes to war.” That was finished a couple months ago, and I'm just cleaning it up and working on the cover art before I hand it off to be proofed.

  Appendix and References:

  The following links are to online references I used in the making of this book. They are in no part the ONLY references I used however.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_Iron_Works

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipyard

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonaceous_chondrite

  http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeohzt4/Seaflags/customs/trads.html

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

  http://koutanagamori.deviantart.com/gallery/

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_uplift

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_funeral

  http://www.military-info.com/freebies/murphy.htm

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(biology)

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyon

  http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ranks/rankrate.html

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulbit

  http://dvice.com/archives/2011/07/crazy-looking-m.php#2