Most of the civilization was centered around the equatorial zone where it was warm. They formed a belt line of small farms, towns, and ranches within twenty degrees latitude north or south of the equator. The equator was the hottest area on the planet, with some of the lowland plain areas rivaling Africa on lost Terra. Even though they were warm there were few deserts on the planet. Plains and grasslands a plenty, but no sandy deserts like the long lost Sahara.
He flicked his thumb, zooming out then moving over to large infrared signatures in the ocean. He zoomed in. The image pixelated then smoothed out to show him a distorted view of a whale. He blinked. “That's a surprise,” he said.
“Arctic narwhal. From Terra. Nearly extinct before they were transplanted to Agnosta. There are other arctic whales here as well Admiral,” Sprite replied.
“Oh.”
“And before you ask, no they aren't fully sentient. They never underwent the uplift protocols. A few species did of course, but those that were hunted to near extinction by man chose to be repatriated to a new world and were extreme isolationists.”
“Huh,” he grunted. “Too big to fit in a ship anyway,” he muttered shaking his head as he sat back and cut the feed. “I take it the other species are doing well?”
“Without a scientific study I have no idea. Based on what you just witnessed, most likely they survived. A few like the dodo or those with a limited gene pool and a requirement for artificial regulation might not ohave survived. Based on observed data that might have caused problems in the food chain.”
“And there aren't any signs of that.”
“Not that I've been looking,” Sprite replied. “I can if you wish...”
“Pass. We've got enough problems. Write a note to that geneticist though. Maybe someone on Pyrax might be interested in checking things out.”
“Possibly. The genetic material should be checked against possible future uses,” Sprite responded.
“That part about done?” Irons asked, rubbing his temple.
“The satellite? Yes.”
“Okay. I'd like to see if we can do something here. Maybe a space station?”
“I...” Sprite paused. “And here I was expecting an order to create sensors to monitor the biosphere and track the animals,” she chuckled. “A space station? Aren't you reaching there Admiral? They are still living in caves on the planet. Well, most of the people.”
“Simple one. KISS. Inflatable. Core module, one or two habs, solar panels or a micro fusion reactor if we can swing it. Something simple they take care of easily and keep a space presence,” he paused for a moment. “But modular, so they can add to it and build off it over time. Grow I mean. We'll give them the plans so they can do it on their own.”
“Interesting. I will check the feed queue. I am not sure we have the time to complete that project Admiral, we have less then nine standard days before departure,” Sprite reminded him.
“Ah,” Irons grimaced.
“And the people here have no means to support and maintain the station Admiral. As well as no mean way to get to it. The only shuttle craft in the system are on Destiny,” She pointed out.
“Yeah. Okay scrap that idea,” he sighed. “Damn.”
“Sometimes our reach should exceed our grasp I believe. That falls in the outside the grasp bit. Way outside. About two hundred kilometers out of reach. For now.”
“So concentrate on what we can do. Get those sensors for the satellites.”
“Oh,” Sprite sighed. “Me and my big mouth.”
Irons had to smile at that.
“Whatcha workin' on now?” A familiar gravelly voice said from the open hatch. He turned and nodded at the sight of Chief Bailey coming in to his shuttle.
“Multi-tool.” He turned back to what he was doing. He had gathered quite a lot of material and had floundered at the idea of what to do with it all. Of course he could just hand it all over to Charlie the purser. Since the ingrate had taken half anyway he'd balked at the idea out of pure spite. Which was why he'd started on this little project.
“Multi-tool huh? Lemme see,” the simian said, picking one up from the tray. There were dozens lying in neat piles. “Got enough?” he asked folding the handle open to expose the various tools tucked into the grips.
“I'm going to hand them out to the colonists.”
“Well, you did send them that industrial replicator. Can't they make some of their own?”
“If they think of it.”
“Charlie was just a tad put out over that one you know.”
“His problem.”
“Ain't it just?” Bailey grinned. His long canines looked ferocious. Irons snorted.
“I'm trying to get as much down there as I can. They'll need all they can get. This should be in as many hands as possible.” He didn't bother to mention his educational efforts either. He wanted to make tablets and flash drives for everyone on the planet. He wanted as much knowledge in as many hands and minds as possible. It wouldn't do a lot of good until it filtered in, but eventually... oh eventually it would.
“Seems a bit like overkill John. Not that I'm not complaining or anything.”
“They are good tools. Basic, but functional,” Irons replied sitting back. “Pliers, molecular knife, powered screwdrivers, soldering iron... flash drive, multimeter...”
“Soldering iron? Must have missed that one,” the chimp said spinning the tool around as his brow knit. “Here?” he asked pulling a point out.
“Bingo. Press the trigger and it heats up fast. It can do simple tack welds if you use it right.”
“Ah.”
“It's also good for shrink wrapping plastic if you are careful.”
“I'll keep that in mind,” the chief said looking up. “I need a new one to replace the one I lost in my kit.”
“I like the meters,” Irons said picking one up and unfolding a probe. “All your electronic testing basics in one little tool.”
The chief's brown eyes went wide in thoughtful appreciation. “Ah. Huh. Circuit tester, resistance, line hot, hmmm...” The chief looked at the controls. “Bit of a bitch to read on this tiny thing though,” he scowled at the tiny display. It was so small his hand covered it.
The Admiral indicated a tablet nearby. “It has a wireless link. You can link it to a nearby tablet for easier viewing.”
“Huh. Okay, I want one,” Bailey said with a grin. Irons laughed.
“Sure take one. Take two or more. I've got plenty. I'm doing a run of ten thousand.”
“Oh, well, in that case I'll take two for every crew member,” Bailey said suddenly serious. “Why is the one we have different?”
“Different company,” the Admiral explained with a shrug. “This is one of the better ones. Cyroft. I bought their IP specs when I was a shave tail LT and kept them up to date. I have to admit it's one of the few tools that's better than milspec. I even went back to an older design when they got rid of features I liked.”
“Wait back up, hang on a sec....” the chief shook his head.
“What?” Irons asked amused.
“Bought the IP rights..?”
“Oh,” Irons snorted. “Well, you know replicators can scan and replicate stuff right?”
“Of course.”
“Well that sort of makes an interesting economic conundrum. How do you make money from new designs? The answer is IP rights and licensing.”
Storm clouds brewed on the chimp's features. “Oookay...”
“It works like this. Someone comes up with a neat idea for a product. They register the patent and then sell the IP rights and license the manufacturing to an industrial corporation or get in bed with a marketing firm to market it to the public at large.”
Bailey shook his head at such a thought. “Okay, that's just...”
“If you had a wicked design for something, something you spent weeks, months, or years on it don't you think you should be compensated for your time?”
Bailey nodded. “Okay. I get you the
re.”
“Right. Well, people register the design, but there is also an open source line as well. Products that are common or that are released to the general public free as long as no one charges money for them.”
“Huh, now you're just confusing me.”
“Sorry. Let's just say not everyone is out there to make a lot of money. Some people start that way. They make a product for free to get their name out, and then the next one they charge a little for. Then build a following. If I remember correctly Cryoft went that route in it's beginning.”
“Ah, Okay, I get that. When do these patents expire?”
“Normally a century or two.”
“So since it's been seven since the Federation went in the crapper...”
Irons smiled as the chimp caught on. “Everything is now open source and can be made without paying a licensing fee.”
“Oh. Good to know,” Bailey snorted. “I'd like to see someone collect.”
“It's all auto debited chief,” Sprite said from the dash. He glanced that way and then shook his head. Irons did as well.
“I think he means the time involved Sprite,” Irons said, mouth twisting in a wry smile briefly. “Both are moot points.”
“What about the restricted list though?”
“Restricted is restricted. It's still locked out. It takes an act of congress to get something on or off the restricted list. Then you have to do a firmware link to each and every fabricator to update it.”
“Oh. That well, that sucks.”
“Not really. I'd rather some people didn't have access to nuclear weapons,” Irons deadpanned.
“Huh. Not really looking forward to a 'hey y’all watch this' moment?” Bailey said with a broad smile.
Irons shivered a little. “No thanks.” The chimp chuckled.
“Me neither. Come on, you're missing lunch and it's dinner,” he jerked a broad thumb to the hatch. “This'll keep. I heard Everette wants to have another go at you in 3D battle sim too. You gotta keep your strength up to keep up with the twerp.”
“Or at least his chattering. I still think it's a distraction,” Irons said getting up. He glanced back to the replicator.
“This will keep Admiral. I've assigned a bot to service the replicator,” Sprite said soothingly. He grunted.
“All right, let's go. Can't keep the kid waiting...”
Click click, click... Everette looked annoyed. The repeated sound was maddening. He localized it easily, it wasn't like he had far to look. He just hadn't had the urge to confront the miscreant about it until now. “Chief you mind?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“That's distracting chief,” Everette sighed patiently, not taking his eyes off the holographic board. His hands were flashing over his keyboard. “What the heck is that thing anyway?” It echoed in the rec compartment. Obviously the boss had a new toy. He just wasn't sure why he had to be a pain in the ass and play with it now.
“Oh this?” Bailey asked, flipping the tool around. “Multi-tool. I got it off the Admiral this morning. He's making a bunch. Wanna see?”
“Seen them chief. What makes that one so special? Never mind later,” he muttered. He sent orders to chase the Admiral's scouts off. As usual they would duck out of sight and then pop up somewhere else to harass his main base. “I gotta concentrate here,” he mumbled.
“Yeah sure,” the chief mumbled, flipping the multi-tool open and closed like an ancient butterfly knife. “Next time wear headphones or something.”
“Next time keep the toys at home. Or in your pocket chief,” Doc said smiling. He petted Nara in his lap. Others smiled and nodded.
“Fine fine,” Bailey grumbled, finally putting it away. “I don't see what the big deal is.”
“Chinese water torture. Constant sound is distracting,” Irons replied. He was just about ready. He sent his paltry force off, through the main choke point leading to his base and then off to the right, away from the direct line to the kid's base.
“Headed the wrong way there Admiral,” Bailey snorted.
“No I'm not,” Irons said with a smile.
“You're ah, kinda light there,” Bryan said, watching the kid's forces assemble. The young man had built an impressive armored mecha force and had now finished inputting his scripted orders. The force started to move out of the base and toward the Admiral's base in the lower right of the map.
“Quality and quantity.”
“Huh?”
“You'll see.”
“So what is that thing anyway chief?” Doc asked, disinterested in the game. He turned to the chimp.
“Multi-tool like I said.”
“So what makes it so special? They are pretty common you know.”
“This has some doodads and widgets my old one doesn't have. Or didn't since it got blown to smithereens,” he scowled.
“Oh. Can it do medical stuff?”
“There is a medical version Doc. You should have a couple. One per person at least,” Irons said, lifting his chin and looking briefly at the Doc.
“I do?”
“It's got basic things like a scanner and a pair of shears and it even has a cauterizer.”
Bryan blinked, suddenly looking interested. “Oh. Well, I was thinking something like what he's got here. The probe,” he pointed to the probe the chief had pulled out.
“A tricorder you mean,” Bailey said with a snort. “You got those too.
“Want me to pause it?” Everette said exasperated.
“No, I'm fine,” Irons answered. He turned and snagged a tablet from a nearby table. The owner protested with a yelp.
“Just a sec.” he tapped the controls and then handed it back.
“What the...” the kid looked down at it and then at the Admiral in sudden amusement, annoyance forgotten. “What the heck did you do?”
“What did he do?” the exec asked, looking over his shoulder.
The young man angled his shoulder so the exec could see. When he took his right hand off the control some of the displays stopped. “Huh?”
“Vitals. Most tablets can do basic vital functions. So if you don't have a tricorder handy, link to it and use one.”
“Um...”
“Seriously?” Bryan asked, suddenly interested. He got up and looked, crowding the kid. “Ah, I see,” he pointed. “BP, heart rate, pulse, respiration, even blood oxygen level. Interesting.”
“Biometrics. Some have a cameras. Depending on the camera you can use it to do other things like check for soft tissue contusions or bone breaks. Even organ damage.”
“Cool,” the paramedic said, smiling. “I'll have to remember that.”
“So what's with the multi-tool?”
“Admiral gave it to me.”
“Why would you have one Admiral?” Everette asked, slacking off from the game. Everything was going according to plan. His scripts were producing units back at his base. Once he hammered through the Admiral's formidable defenses he'd follow up with waves to overwhelm him.
“I wasn't born with implants you know,” Irons said with shake of his head. He expertly danced his scouts around, just out of range of the kid's forces, while adding to his tech tree and shelling out soldiers. His workers were adding more defenses to the choke point but Everette's armor had arrived and were beginning to pound it.
“Got you now,” the computer nerd said with a smug grin.
“Don't count your victories until their won son,” Bailey growled, watching the main screen where the spectators could see the Admiral's offensive force hook up and out of view of Everette's army and then back down to the main path. His brows knit when the force split. One went to the base while the other stopped just out of sight range of the kid's army.
“It's in the bag,” Everette said, as his main mecha came up and began to saturate the choke point defenses with an artillery barrage. In moments the defenses were in ruins. His friends cheered as he marched his forces through and then spread out to take the Admiral's base.
<
br /> “Not quite,” Irons said, tapping a key. A worker carrying an object trundled toward the force. It dodged Everette's fire, zigging and zagging back and forth. When it got in range it set off the nuke.
The holo flashed as Everette's forces flashed into rubble. He groaned as EMP dropped the surviving forces. “What the hell?” he said as the Admiral's weak looking soldiers came in behind his force and began wiping his force out.
“Not that it'll do you any...” he switched to his base as alarms began to ring. “How!” he blinked as Irons forces got through the token defenses he had set up and pounded his production facilities into ruin. “What?”
“Balanced forces, offense and defense. I told you. And scouting,” the Admiral replied.
“The scouts told him what you were doing so he tailored his strategy to respond to it,” Sprite said as the kid sat back and shook his head, stunned.
“I so had you...” he muttered.
“Nope, in your dreams kid,” the exec said, smiling. “He is an Admiral after all, he's probably done stuff like this for oh, your entire life time.”
“More like four point six times his lifetime sir,” Sprite said with a sniff. “He's older than he looks.”
“Old enough to know better, young enough not to care,” Irons responded with a snort.
“That IP thing you mentioned earlier...”
“Yeah chief?” Irons asked as the game wrapped up.
“Good game,” Everette said grudgingly.
Irons turned his attention to his opponent. “Remember what I said. You've gotten your hot keys and scripting down, you're fast, so you can keep up with me even if I ever interfaced. But don't fall in love with your own strategy. Be flexible. I think Sun Tzu said that a warrior must be flexible like a blade of grass.”
“Maligning the quote terribly but close enough for an organic,” Sprite said dryly. Her holo avatar turned to the group at large and then to Everette. “He's saying you need to be adaptable. Don't be in love with...” She glanced at Irons.
“Don't be in love with a heavy hitting frontal assault. Sometimes the simple tools are best,” he said with a shrug, nodding to the multi-tool. “That thing is great but if it breaks...”
Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) Page 22
