Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  Willis on the other hand... there was something off with that woman. She'd thought it was jealousy, she'd heard that Willis had been staking Irons out. Mayfair and Willis had been conspiring to keep most of the women and passengers away from Irons. She'd come to realize that after a few stories she'd overheard. She knew they weren't true, the people telling them probably did as well. But of course since it was so juicy they had kept spreading them.

  She'd seen the way Willis had looked at Irons. The way she now looked at April herself. It wasn't jealousy, though she may disguise it as that. No there was something else there. Something more she couldn't quite put her finger on, and unfortunately her hunch didn't have anything to back it up.

  Willis, unlike her boss, was smarter than she looked. And she obviously took pains to hide it, which was interesting. She preferred to hide behind her boss, whispering suggestions and occasionally giving her a helping hand. After what had happened in the talks with the Agnostan's April had realized who was really calling the shots with the Pyraxian delegation.

  But how to prove something was wrong with the woman? If she made an accusation without a shred of proof she'd undermine herself. There was an old story Knox had told them in journalism class. Something about a boy crying fox. No wolf.

  Willis was a smarmy back stabber. She knew that now. She'd talk all nice, buddy, buddy to you, charm the pants off you and then gladly shove a stiletto in your back when you weren't looking.

  That thought had made her pause and shiver a little. It was a little too close to... but she couldn't narrow it down to one suspect. No, not yet. Willis was just one. But she was... oooh! She clenched her fingers into claws, wishing she could rip and claw.

  Willis was also now spreading some rather vicious stuff about her, something that she'd only just picked up on in passing an hour ago. She wasn't happy about that. If she had the chance she'd claw the bitch's eyes out and rip her hair out at the roots.

  Which undermined her yet again. She wondered if that was why the woman had done it in the first place? Did she know something April didn't? Did she know April was closing in on the assassin without realizing it? No, she needed to know more. She wasn't sure if she was on the right track but she had to follow it and see where it led.

  “Ladies and gentlemen please remain seated or prone while we enter hyper in three, two one....”

  Irons rolled his eyes as he watched the ship's energy build and then gravitational forces focused at the bow ripped at space time. When the countdown got to one the ship leapt into hyperspace.

  He set the tablet down beside him, his right hand tucked up under his head, supporting it. Oh, he could sit up, but why bother.

  He had tried to avoid April, to maintain some distance between them. She'd seemed hurt at first, but then she'd seemed to accept it. He wasn't pushing her away, just holding her at arms length until the threat was over. He hoped she understood.

  He wasn't going to stop her if she came by though. Random acts were just that, random and therefore hard to predict by any predator.

  The ride was bumpy for a moment then smoothed out. “And we're stable. You may now move about the ship in an orderly fashion. Thank you for flying Destiny. Have a good day,” the comm clicked off loudly. He snorted at the humor.

  They were on their way to Briev. He tried to place the name, but April came in and interrupted his thoughts. One smile and all thoughts of where they were going left him. So much for a briefing from Sprite. It could wait. They had time, lots of it.

  The next morning she had an appointment so he went to his usual class. He nodded politely as the usual suspects came in and sat down.

  They discussed aliens. How they got 121 different alien member species of the Federation, and dozens of protectorates and a few banned species in the in 400 years the Federation had existed. “Most of the members are due to exploration. The problem is that it caused a major crisis. Worlds were being contacted. Most weren't space exploring yet. That led to a problem. Due to open source requirements, the data on them was shared with the public at first. The species were a minor celebrities for some time, then they were exploited because many aren't very high on the civilization tree. If they were on a growing trade route they were invested in by mega corps and taken advantage of.

  Others learned to invest in new aliens. They would get them hooked on new tech. That would destroy local industry and economy, sometimes causing world wars or major unrest at the least. Some would sell weapons.

  To pay for it the natives would indenture their planet. Terran liberal politicians likened it to taking advantage of Indians during the settlement of the American continents by the Europeans. Selling beads for land and goods.

  Some would become so indentured they would become slaves to mega corps. Some mega corps got the idea to appeal to Federation for relief. They had a scam going. A neat one too. They would hook an alien, then guide them through the relief process. Their pet senators would be guided by lobbyist handlers to help. They would get money from the Federation to pay back part of the loan, but never all of it. Interest would continue to accrue.

  Finally the economy couldn't bear it anymore and the public put it's foot down to further hand outs. That led to liberals exposing the practice and ramming through changes when they got control of the government. They rammed through the prime directive.

  “Prime directive?”

  “Named for a concept from a famous science fiction series Terrans watched in the late 20th century. The entire concept is that a developing race would be bypassed until they achieved star flight. No contact allowed until then unless their world was undergoing an ELE, an extinction level event.”

  “It also forgave all debt by alien species to the mega corps in exchange for long term bonds. They weren't happy about that.”

  “This made the scientists, and sociologists happy. Economists as well, although they weren't happy about assuming the debt. That turned out to be a misunderstanding, the Federation amended the law to state that anyone who debits a developing world forfeits the debt and will be fined.” He shook his head.

  “I bet that went over well.”

  “You mean the lobbyists kicked and screamed to prevent it. It's one time they didn't get their way. Though they did get a chance to water it down a bit,” he said. “The Telerites were terrible about this, they believed it was their mission to bring civilization to every star system. A couple of horrible experiences like the Salamanders broke the deadlock and it was rammed through.”

  He grimaced a little. The Salamanders were a bunch of religious fanatics. They believed themselves touched by the stars and had made themselves a nuisance browbeating the public about it. When that failed they started to use more forceful methods, including terrorism and brainwashing. Of course their theological leaders had denied it. But when they were directly linked to the take over of several planets and a school of rich children it had been the last straw. Their race had been indicted and forcefully relocated to their home world.

  “I think the scientists got the best deal out of it. It let them study primitive societies and gave others already in the Federation breathing room,” Sprite interjected.

  “Some species got back onto their feet and became isolationist with only a few members out in the galaxy at large to maintain appearances. Their home worlds became off limits to off worlders.”

  “Admiral, I was curious about tachyons...” Irons grimaced as Everette waylaid him in the corridor the next morning. Trust Everette to get curious just when he was busy. When was the kid going to learn to check the net before tracking him down? He'd have to point that out again.

  “What about them kid?” Chief Bailey asked, coming out from behind the equipment rack they had pulled out into the corridor.

  “Oh, sorry chief, I didn't see you there,” the young man said uncertainly. “I ah,” he shifted back and forth, obviously unsure what to do or say.

  “That's cause I ain't. I'm a ghost,” Bailey said dryly, chuffing a laugh
at the kid's expression. “What about tachyons kid?”

  “Um, well, why don't we have a transmitter?”

  “Cause they don't work worth spit half the time,” Bailey said shaking his head. He pulled his head out of the cabinet and sat back. “See, tachyons are subatomic particles that move faster than light.”

  “Yeah, I know. They are used in interstellar communications,” Everette said mulishly.

  “No. Inner stellar. There's a difference.”

  “Huh?”

  “Inner. Means inside squirt. Tachyons are only good for short distances. Anything beyond a couple of AU and they are gone. Off in la la land.”

  “More commonly known as the void,” Sprite said with amusement.

  “Um, I thought they were faster than light?” Everette said, face clouded.

  “Yeah. But not instant like people think. Causality has to have it's way you know,” Bailey replied. He glanced at the Admiral. “You can jump in any time you know.”

  The Admiral snorted. “You're doing just fine,” he shrugged and turned to the programmer. “Tachyons are hard to make. They are hard to contain, and even harder to catch.”

  “Okay... But...”

  “Kids these days,” the chimp growled. “Look kid, think of it this way. You want to talk to someone across a solar system. A laser is limited by line of sight and speed of light. Which means it could take weeks to get a signal across right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So a tachyon goes at nearly instant speed. But they are so fast it's kinda hard to catch them to get the info.”

  “Okay, got that,” Everette said doggedly.

  “Good. Now cause it's a pain in the ass, you use bursts like Morse code. Bright flares of Tachyons. Some will hopefully get through.”

  “Okay...”

  “It takes a lot of energy for each burst. Like a day or two of the reactors output.”

  “Not quite but the analogy is close enough. A warship can make tachyons and can detect them. But it takes an extremely sensitive and expensive array,” the Admiral admitted.

  “Which we don't have since we're a freighter,” Bailey said nodding. “And we don't have the space for something that's spotty to use and sucks up energy like a black hole. And besides, we don't need it cause there is no one to talk to right now.”

  “So, I mean if that's inner what's... I mean I read about interstellar. An ansible. I thought that used tachyons.”

  “Whole other kettle of fish kid,” Bailey growled waving his hands.

  “Oh.”

  “An ansible is a device that uses paired muons to communicate. You apply a force to one and the other spins in the same direction no matter how far apart they are,” Irons explained holding his fists then spreading them apart.

  “So why not use them on a ship?”

  “Yeah, okay, I missed that one in the wiki,” Bailey said glancing at the Admiral.

  The Admiral looked from one to the other then snorted. “Movement. You move one it affects the other half. If one or the other half gets too close to another object poof! Gone. And it's a pain to transport them from one site to another.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah. When we used them they were great. Set up banks of a couple of hundred thousand of them and they would send info at real time speed... but there is another problem.”

  “Pairing,” Bailey said nodding. His brows were knit. “I just got that,” his face cleared.

  “Right,” Irons nodded to the thoroughly confused electronics tech. “You see, an ansible works with two halves of a whole muon. But only those two. So we could put one in Pyrax and another in Agnosta, but if you wanted to call from oh, lets say, New Texas you'd need another pair. One to go from New Texas to one of the other worlds. You'd form a network.”

  “Right. Then you could send data from one to another in series,” Bailey said. “Got it?”

  “Um, yeah, I think so.”

  “Go look it up if you don't. We've got work to do.”

  “It's in the net. I'll have Sprite send you a bookmark,” Irons said as the kid turned away.

  “Um, thanks,” the kid said walking away. He looked a little dazed as he rubbed the back of his head. He even bumped into a wall. Bailey snorted.

  “So where did you learn all that?” Irons asked suspiciously.

  “The web where else?” Bailey snorted, turning a brown eye to the Admiral. “I took a couple of classes while we were in Pyrax. Really got me into learning new stuff. I copied a ton of stuff to read later.”

  “In your copious free time,” Irons deadpanned.

  “Yeah,” Bailey sighed. He motioned them onward. “Lets go see if we can figure this damn thing out. I'm betting a bearing let go, the teeth probably wore down to points and...”

  “And since the metal was so thin it became brittle and finally snapped. Maybe, we'll have to crack the case and do a simple oil check for bits to see. Hope you don't mind oil on your fur.”

  “Gah!” the chief said shaking his head. He looked back with a scowl the way the kid had gone. “Damn it, the little shit's gone,” he growled. The Admiral chuckled, shaking his head in amusement as he stepped over the knee knocker.

  “I bet Galiet will kick herself when she hears about this,” chief Bailey muttered, glancing up to the vid feed in the corner of the wardroom. One of April's personal interest stories was playing. The crew both got a kick out of the stories and were embarrassed when their own came on. Some got ribbed if they were on more than once.

  So far no one other than Bailey had ribbed Irons about his piece. Discussion of it had made the rounds however. Some of the skeptics thought that Irons had deliberately sought O'Niell out, that' he'd seduced her. Bailey knew better, John wasn't that type.

  “Galiet?” the Admiral asked, taking a sip of his drink. The beer was cold but didn't have that much flavor. Not enough hops he thought. It was unfortunate that they hadn't taken any food stores on board at Agnosta. The people there didn't have enough to export of course. Maybe on the return trip? He wasn't sure. Of course he didn't intend to be along for the return trip.

  “My wife,” the chimp answered, eyes on the screen.

  “Wife?” Irons said, consternation making him blink. The chimp's eyes cut to the Admiral. In all this time he'd known the buck toothed Mickey Mouse eared simian Bailey had never mentioned that!

  Bailey looked a little sheepish yet smug. “Yeah, wife. One of them anyway. Got a problem with that?”

  “Wives plural?” Irons asked shaking his head. “One isn't enough?” he demanded.

  “With a chimp?” Clennie, the ops officer asked coming in. Bailey's arm went around her waist, pulling her close. She leaned down and kissed him, grinning.

  “Okay. Nope, no problem,” Irons said shaking his head and spreading his hands apart.

  “Better not have one,” Bailey growled.

  “Behave.” Clennie teased. One finger stroked the larger chimp's nose and then tweaked it. She looked at the Admiral, smiling politely. He had on occasion met and spoken to Clennie while repairing the ship of course, but it had always been brief and strictly business. “Galiet stayed behind in Pyrax. She met us when we were recovering. Love at first sight, Even with him.”

  “Hey, I have it on good opinion that I clean up nice!” Bailey retorted. They had just finished cleaning up after that bearing job and were now relaxing. Irons shook his head. He was surprised that the overgrown simian had a family. He was quite a grouch on the job. Obviously the girls had seen through the act to the decent man underneath.

  Clennie grinned at him. “Must have been Galiet who said that. I sure didn't,” she teased, tugging on one of his oversized ears.

  “Argth!” the chimp said shaking his head. “See what I have to put up with?”

  “With more on the way too,” Sylivia said, coming in behind him. She patted her belly. Clennie reached over and caressed the botanist's swollen coveralls. “Yup.”

  “Another wife?” Irons asked laughing. He had
n't known. Right under his nose the entire time. He shook his head watching the trio.

  “Yup. She's a Bonobo too. Only way to get her to settle down was to knock her up good and proper. Little did I know she's even hornier now than before,” the male chimp said shaking his head in mock despair as Sylvia grinned and slipped her arms around the male primate. She pretended to caress him then pretended to strangle him.

  Irons laughed with the others in the room at the sight of the frisky byplay. “Now I know why you always come in every morning dog tired,” Irons said. The room roared with laughter as the chimps blushed. Sylvia covered her eyes. Clennie doubled over laughing, one hand over her mouth.

  “Sure. And why I need plenty of coffee. Rub it in,” the chief said, hitching his trousers higher and puffing up.

  “More like oysters and toys to...” Sylivia started but Bailey pinched her in the rear. She squealed and then swatted him as the room laughed again.

  “Women!” he said, hands spreading as if that explained it.

  “Hey, don't complain. I had a hard enough time when I had one each time. Three? At the same time? You really are a glutton for punishment,” the Admiral laughed.

  “I heard that,” Sprite said as Bailey smiled. He possessively patted Sylvia's belly.

  “It gets worse. I bet this youngster will have us all on our toes before long.”

  “Do you...” He was curious to know if they knew the gender of the child yet. Or children. The way they were carrying on right now it could very well be twins she was carrying.

  “It's a boy,” Sylvia said grinning. “I wanted a girl, but well, the first among many,” she grinned as Bailey blushed even darker.

  “Okaaay...” Irons said shaking his head. Chimps had large families. They tended toward group families, ignoring the human model of a single monogamous pair. Like gorillas they followed some human social mores, but when it came to love they kept their own traditions going.

  Chimps like gorilla's had a single male and female alpha. The caste lines were blurred when you factored in modern civilization and social standards however.