Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Seriously?” The voice now had an edge of startled disbelief. Winter was coming soon. Each season was about four months long. Well, all but the winter season. It was a frigid five long boring months of snow and ice. The plants stopped growing, there were only a few spots at the south pole that grew anything. Most of that was for their own survival.

  The pirates had hit them hard. Agnosta wasn't a rich planet, it barely survived with just enough export to allow for some trade and some interest from passing ships. Many ships simply passed them by, on their way to and from Pyrax.

  The young man nodded earnestly. “It's true Nanna, we've got all sorts of stuff. I've been learning how to use it all, so I can be a big help when we land,” he held up a tablet he'd come in with. “I've learned to read better and well...” he turned the tablet so she could see the manual. “I did this too,” he turned the tablet and tapped the controls. After a moment of concentration he turned it back to show once more. The screen now had a drawn image on it, colored by hand.

  “I'm getting better. I've even got the phoenix book Nanna, so we can pick up where we left off or where I am now.” he grinned invitingly.

  “Your teeth....”

  “Oh!” he held a hand up to the braces, covering them. “Sorry, I forgot. Braces. Doctor...” he glanced in confusion to the woman.

  “He's a dentist.”

  “Dentist mister Waverly did them.”

  “Waverly? He's alive?”

  “And kicking too. He's packing his things. He's given us all check ups and did what he could for us. Now he's got all sorts of gear and is ready to get started again he said. Just as soon...” she turned to face the camera, hands on her hips, “as you get it through your thick numbskull that we're here to help you old crone!”

  There was a sputter of silence and then a cackle. “Maggie Lu Kasey, get your ass down here so we can have a beer and shoot the shit young lady. Beer hell, I might have some tipple left in the back of my cave, have to check. Just get your sorry ass down here lady, right smart!”

  “Yes ma'am.” Maggie Kasey said to a suddenly grinning and chuckling room. The ice was broken, they were finally going home.

  Chapter 9

  Mags held onto the arm rests for dear life as the shuttle shuddered and shivered. Just hold on, she thought. Her fingers curled into claws, hanging onto the padded arm rests as hard as she could. Just a little while longer. Hold together baby, just a little while. She screwed her eyes shut, ignoring Pidge next to her. The kid was enraptured, she'd seen it written all over the lad's face when he'd seen the LCD. She was just glad there wasn't some stupid view port on the hull. Like she needed to see the sky streaming by right about now. Damn she hated heights!

  “Oh!” she said as the vehicle seemed to bank and then shudder a little. It pitched up and down a bit then settled. She thought about those whatcha ma call its, inertial something or others. Clearly this shuttle needed new ones.

  The shuttle flared it's jets as it came in for a landing. It was a bumpy one, due to the dirt they were landing on instead of the customary tarmac. The shuttle kicked up rooster tails of dust and debris. A cloud gushed out under it like it was catching the ship, easing it down to the ground. “Any landing you can walk away from...” Maggie muttered, unbuckling her seat belt and fumbling with her overhead baggage.

  “Come on! Hurry up!” the kid said impatiently, waving. The little twerp had bounced out of his seat in record time and was already nearly at the hatch. Other passengers chuckled at his excitement, hiding their own. When she didn't move fast enough he turned and rushed to the lock.

  “Hold up son, we've got to secure the area first.”

  “Let him go Bert,” the pilot said coming out of the forward compartment. The guard by the door turned. “Let him go, he's the best security we've got. The best diplomat we've got right now. You've got your things kid?”

  “Um...” he looked around sheepishly. In his zeal he'd forgotten his luggage.

  “Here it is,” an amused Maggie said, lifting it around the short guard Bert and handing it to the boy.

  “Thanks Mags, you're a peach,” Pidge said, grinning a wide grin as he grabbed the bag's straps. She snorted.

  “Sure kid,” she ruffled his hair. She looked over her shoulder to the others standing in the aisle patiently waiting. “Let's get this party on the road folks.”

  “You sure?” Ernie asked, looking at Bert. His partner shrugged. “Okay then.” he turned the wheel and then pulled the door open and to the side clearing the hatch. They could feel wind and light spilling into the compartment. Pidge closed his eyes and smiled, enthralled by the feel of a natural breeze on his face.

  While he was stalling Ernie Pulled a lever and dropped the stairs to the ground. “Okay kid, you are up.” He indicated the hatch and stairs. There was a light breeze out, the wind made the bushes dance in the distance.

  “Right,” Pidge's eyes snapped open and he rushed down the stairs, bumping the guards as he went. “Sorry, sorry!” he waved and kept going.

  Bert rubbed his shin but Ernie was grinning and chuckling softly. “What are you laughing about?” the skinny dour Bert growled. He flicked his hand to the short tuft of hair on the top of his rather pointed head.

  “Nothin', nothin' at all,” the squat Ernie said, shaking his curly broad head. He unlike his partner had a curly mop of black hair and a broad face. His ancestors had been from somewhere called Samoa. “Let's go folks.” he stepped out the stairs and down. The others followed.

  Outside Pidge was turning in a circle, looking for some sign of life around them. Some sign of a greeting. He was looking a little forlorn when a figure appeared out of the bush about a hundred meters behind him.

  Maggie, shielding her eyes caught sight of the figure and rested her hands on the boy's shoulders. He looked up at her uncertainly so she turned him bodily to face the figure.

  The boy's face contorted into joy and he dropped his gear to run to the distant figure. “Nanna!” He jumped and cartwheeled, excited.

  “Just a wee bit excited to hit dirt isn't he?” the pilot asked with a sniff. He felt the wind tousle his black mullet and turned, enjoying the sun and breeze. The smells... it was so different than on board a ship.

  “Born dirtsider Keith, born and bred.”

  He turned to his long and lean co pilot. “Probably Lance.”

  Maggie shook her head as she tried and failed to ignore the byplay. She saw another figure come running out of the bush to intercept Pidge. The boys slammed into each other and fell in a laughing tangle of arms and legs.

  She grinned a toothy grin at the sight. That was long overdue. “Looks like Billy caught up with his brother. Good thing, I don't think Jersey would have survived the tackle that kid was setting in to land on her.”

  “Maybe,” Aurora said from behind her. They both smiled at each other. Aurora waved to Jersey. Pidge and Billy untangled themselves and then went over to their Nanna, talking animatedly. Both boys were arm in arm, inseparable. Jersey rubbed the kids head and then turned. She whistled and then waved impatiently. After a moment people reluctantly spilled out of the bush.

  “Now that's a better welcome,” Lance murmured. Keith merely nodded.

  “Hey guys, want to give me a hand with the luggage?” Hunk asked, trying to open the cargo compartments. Lance glanced his way, rolled his eyes and then came over. “I'm a big guy and all but this is a bit much even for me!” he said amused and annoyed at the same time. Hunk was the cargo master on this drop. He was a big heavy worlder, a nice guy but he was starting to put on weight.

  The guards Bert and Ernie spread out on either side of the stairs, automatically dividing the area into zones for each of them to watch. Keith nodded at their well practiced drill and then took his sunglasses off to pick off a tiny bug. “We haven't been here five minutes and I'm already getting bugged,” he muttered. “Hate being ground side. All dirt, pollen, crap.”

  “Dem's the breaks boss man. Wanna get things rollin
g here? After all, the faster we unload the sooner we hit the sky.”

  “Not soon enough for me,” Keith said, turning but watching the knot of people. They were hugging crying and laughing. The woman Maggie had her hands around a large man, holding him to her side. He had an arm resting over her shoulders. The girl Aurora was laughing and hugging a giant bearded red head. Pity, the blond had been quite the looker.

  “Come on man!” Lance said, struggling to get the hoist over a rock. “This'd be a hell of a lot easier on concrete!” he growled, fish tailing the push pull under the hoist.

  “Yeah yeah. Looks like we're on our own for a little while folks. Let's see what we can do.”

  “How are they doing down there?” Irons asked Sprite as he studied the readouts on the drive. He'd wanted to re-tune the drive, hell maybe even do a full rebuild. Bailey hadn't been happy about the lengthy time it would have taken however and nixed the idea in favor of a basic diagnostic and tune up. The captain had backed him as well.

  He could see the tactical reasoning behind it, they didn't want to be caught with the drive inoperable, but it really needed a tear down. Who ever had done the tune up in Pyrax should be fired.

  Then again, they were learning their jobs there too. Education, especially in hyperdrive mechanics was a new concept for the people there to learn and absorb, let alone practice. Still, there were quite a few short cuts here. Someone had gotten sloppy in quality control.

  “Accessing. I am in the shuttle's systems now.” Her voice had a curious echo she effected when part of her was in a system some distance away. “Judging from the sensors on the shuttle things are going better now. There is an impromptu family reunion going on off the starboard nose of the ship. The crew of the shuttle are busy unloading the shuttle. Or trying to do so, they are on a dirt strip and it's going slow.”

  “Trying to get push pulls to travel on dirt? Yeah, I can imagine,” he snorted. They probably didn't have any mechanical help too. Something to think about down the road.

  “I wonder if we can get them to pour some concrete? At least an apron for unloading. The purser's loading schedule just went out the airlock at this rate,” Sprite said, sounding amused.

  “Probably,” Irons replied distractedly. He narrowed his eyes and Proteus pointed out micro fractures in the casing. They hadn't been at it long and judging from these alone things were going to get interesting. Bailey wasn't going to be happy at all but they really needed to do a full tear down.

  “Well, if it's going to go slow, I guess we could put the extra time to good use,” he muttered, rubbing a thumb over a minute crack.

  “Which is a very good idea.”

  “Right.”

  “I want to get this done as soon as possible, but too much is riding on it for a rush job obviously,” he sighed.

  “I think I can help. Proteus is busy working on the software end of things. He isn't really suited to it though. I can lend a hand.”

  Irons frowned. “Only if I'm jacked in. Which I'm not. I need that hand for work.” He held his right index finger over the crack. nanites swarmed down into the crack and began the laborious process of knitting it back together one molecule at a time. “This is going to take a while.” The good news was that it would be literally as good as new when he finished. The bad news was that if he didn't get to the root of the problem then they'd have the same problem all over again shortly.

  “Oh,” Sprite said, sounding a little put out. He grimaced and looked around. “Everette.”

  The young man looked up. “Yes Admiral?”

  “Toss me that data cable will you?”

  “A cable?” The young man looked uncertain, one hand on the cable.

  “I need to jack in.”

  “Um...” the kid looked confused but picked up the cable slowly and came over with it.

  “Thanks.” he used his left hand as he plugged one end into the port on his right shoulder and then plugged the other end of the cord into a jack port on the drive. He felt the stream of data flowing immediately. Defender threw a firewall up, constraining the flow a little. “Better?”

  “It's narrow, but I can manage,” Sprite said. He nodded and looked up to see the kid still hovering nearby.

  He turned to the young man. “Sprite needed extra bandwidth to work but I need my hand free.” he pointed to his right hand with his now free hand. The young man slowly nodded in understanding.

  “How's it coming?”

  “Slow. We've got micro fractures in the casing. I'm concerned about the innards. I'll know more when we do a tear down. So far I'm not liking what I'm seeing.”

  “Why such concern about fractures? Tiny ones?”

  The Admiral frowned. The lad was more of a software geek than hardware apparently. Well, it was never the wrong time to learn about some things. “Tiny ones grow into big ones. Big ones allow things to break off or out of their mounts and do all sorts of nasty things. They let all sorts of things in too, contaminants. Bad things. Things we don't want to think about or ever have happen.”

  “Ah.” The kid gulped and paled a little. Irons hid a smile at that. He'd been sure the kid couldn't get any paler. He was a spacer born and bred despite the big ears, gangly appearance and freckles. “Carry on then, sorry I interrupted.”

  “I intend to, and no problem. Thanks.” Irons waved as Everette moved off looking a little dazed.

  Bailey grimaced as the kid paramedic settled into a chair in the galley. “Not going down I take it?” he asked nursing his beer. Now that things were settling down ground side and half the cargo had been unloaded the captain had authorized planetary shore leave. The purser had spent nearly two shifts negotiating it. The first group had left on the morning shuttle. A second group was getting ready to go on the afternoon shuttle now.

  It sucked, he was just getting into the rebuild and his people were hurrying off to go downside to suck up the beer and see the sights. What sights were left of course. The pirates had taken out a lot of the cities and towns.

  He couldn't blame them in a way, they had been cooped up in the ship for a long time. Apparently things were going smoothly ground side. Smoothly enough for the crew to be allowed into town.

  Charlie hadn't been happy about the financial arrangements. Once the people ground side had twigged about things they had asked about it. He'd thought that since they were giving them all that equipment and supplies they'd write off any bills for shore leave. Obviously he'd thought wrong. The people down there were just as cynical and heartless as he was apparently; Bailey thought with a smirk.

  They'd even charged for the damn runway. It had taken a couple of days to get sorted out, but they now had a rough pad to take off from and land on. One better than just dirt according to the pilots.

  At least Irons had gotten his way. He'd wanted the time to tear down that drive right down to the last bolt and then rebuild it from scratch. He was getting his wish, he thought sourly. They'd been unloading for four days and had just started to make a dent in the gear going down. Finally.

  Most of the people of the colony were living in caves now. They had been ecstatic about the pirates getting their just deserts and seeing their families again, but only a dozen or so were interested in coming out and rebuilding. At least right now. More would or should come out as the situation filtered into their birdbrains that it was now safe.

  A lot of the stuff that was going down would help with that. Temporary shelters and buildings. Food replicators, even a couple of industrial replicators that had Charlie throwing all sorts of fits. It had certainly been a challenge for the cargo master to get them in the shuttles! And they were now down, or would be as soon as the shuttle landed.

  “No. I'm still getting used to the idea of going down to a planet. Maybe when we come back.”

  “If we make orbit. The skipper may want to just cross the system and jump for Pyrax. Better get your licks in when you can kid,” the chimp said with a snort. He was actually hoping the kid would go. Let him so
w his oats. This one deserved the time off, he was a good kid, a hard worker. So far none of the bad lazy habits of his fellows had rubbed off on him... Yet.

  “Maybe. I hope not. We can help these people. I know it.”

  “You probably should go down. You are a medic after all. Trained by the best.”

  “Oh, but I'm just a paramedic. Not a doctor,” Bryan said shaking his head. “Besides, they have the dentist, what's his name.”

  “Yeah, he's such a good doctor he spent the entire trip here in his room with his nose shoved in one book or another. I don't think he came out much except for meals. You think he's going to be a help down there?”

  “Um...”

  “Kid, don't knock it. You've got more training than anyone down there, I guarantee it. Remember, they've been chewed up by the pirates.”

  “I know. I've been consulting with a few people about it over the link.”

  “Oh,” the chimp sighed, finishing his beer. “Where were you trained again?”

  “The college. Oh, when I was a kid I was into medicine too. My aunt took me with her. She was our sector midwife. I was on the lower decks so most of us didn't have access to the doctors,” Bryan said and grimaced. “Except the monthly free clinic, and that got so swamped it was almost impossible to get help.”

  “Ah,” Bailey nodded.

  “Aunt Alice got me hooked when I helped her deliver a set of Tarq kits by C section. You don't get over that,” he shook his head, remembering the terror of the moment, and the awe that followed. Holding a small life in his hands, feeling the multiple hearts beat in his hand. “Realizing a life was on the line.”

  “Yeah, I can imagine,” Bailey smiled slightly. “I get the same feeling being a chief engineer.”

  “Huh,” Bryan grunted, and then took a pull of beer.

  “So you got into the college program? Fast work to be a paramedic so quick.”

  “Actually, I already knew most of it. Well, half of it. I was fast tracked because of it. The written test was a hassle I'd rather never repeat,” he grimaced, hands on either side of his beer.