Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (19 page)

“Yeah,
I sent a crew to the Valdez compound they've brought back some of my gear and
we've been trying to get this sorted out. They ran into a lot of scared people
on the way.” He turned aside as Proteus finished with the repairs to the
optics. “Finished here.” He handed it to a tech. She fumbled it.

“Careful!”
Faith cautioned almost lunging for it.

The
tech managed to catch the optics and they sighed in relief. “The fibers are
delicate,” Faith muttered as the woman rushed off determined.

“Yeah,
tell me about it.” The Admiral sighed.

“So
why the bots?” Faith asked looking over to another on a table nearby. The woman
carefully held the optics over the head while another tech plugged the fiber
optic and power lines in then tucked the slack cables into a recess. Slowly
they lowered the optics until they were placed into the head.

The
tech checked his readouts, made a few adjustments then looked up at the woman
with a smile. She turned to Faith and the Admiral and gave them a thumbs up.
Faith nodded.

“The
robots are the only ones that can do the direct install work. They have to be
hardened against the radiation since they've been using straight hydrogen or
whatever they could get their hands on for some time now,” the Admiral
explained.

“How
are you going to get them into the bottle with it on?” Faith asked turning to
the nearby readouts.

He
looked over to them then snorted. “We're not. We're going to get fusion plant
four back online. It went down because its control runs were slagged. From the
look of things it lost plasma containment, something Io is hard at work
preventing.” He exhaled slowly and rolled his shoulders.

“We've
got bare life support for the next couple of hours, and then we're going to see
more cascade failures throughout the station.” He waved to the techs working on
his micro fusion reactor. “I lent them my micro reactor and battery, but it's a
drop in a very big bucket. We've got crews trying to patch similar power plants
in on every deck to buy time.” He shook his head at the success of that plan.

“The
captain has been getting a lot of calls from people trying to book passage off
the station,” Faith drawled. Jen came up behind her and handed her a tablet.
She looked down at it. “We've taken about sixty so far. Artsy fartsy types
mostly. They're paying in advance though.” She smiled. “And through their
aristocratic noses,” Faith said then placed her thumb on the tablet and handed
it back to Jen with a nod. Jen saluted the Admiral with the tablet and a smile
and walked off.

“Rats
leaving a sinking ship,” the Admiral muttered. Faith shook her head.

“Other
way around actually,” she smirked. “You can't blame them for trying to run from
an untenable situation.” She shrugged. “Besides, it gets them out of your
hair,” she smiled. He grunted in agreement.

“First
delivery complete.” She waved to the techs unloading the pallets. “I thought
they had their own factories though?” she asked looking back at him. He
chuckled.

“That
was a bit overstated. Sure they have one working molecular furnace, and one
industrial fabricator, but they haven't had the power to use them in years.” He
shook his head. “They've been doing everything they can to prop up the life
support.” He waved helplessly.

“They
have some extensive machine shops, and pretty good hands on approach to
hardware. They lack programming skills though.” He shook his head. “When I came
in Liam over there.” He nodded his head to the operator who was testing a robot
with a virtual helmet. “Was trying to control the plasma bottle with a hands on
approach.” Faith sucked in a breath at that.

He
smiled. “Right; hands on. No understanding of fluid dynamics, just a layman's
brute force approach. It was something that Logan tried to create in
desperation.” He shook his head. Faith nodded.

“So
that's why Io is in there?” she waved. He nodded.

“My
systems do not begin to have the computing power she has at her disposal. And
since you’re in dock, you don't need much of her computing power anyway.” He
waved to Liam who held up the remote.

“She's
ready. We're going to get the parts into the core and do the system check while
you get ready,” he said. The Admiral nodded.

“Be
right there.” He turned back to Faith.

“If
Io hadn't stepped in, what would have happened?” Faith asked as they watched
the techs leave. She turned to him as he looked away then back to her.

“Bottle
failure. The plasma stream would have breached the containment chamber then
shredded the area around the bottle, then worked its way through the hull until
it cooled and ignition temps failed. It would have irradiated the entire
station and Io...”

Faith
nodded slowly. “Or we could have gone nova. Too tight a grip on the plasma
toroid would have compressed it into singularity point failure. It would have
breached and escaping neutrons would have collided with other things and set
off a fission reaction when it breached, blowing the station and Io into
atoms.” He shrugged.

“So
I can tell the purser and captain that it's for a good cause and get them off
the back. Good to know.” Faith smiled looking a little wan. “How much do you
need?” she asked. He shrugged.

“Too
much. They are willing but half trained. I'm... excuse me, we’re working on
it.” He nodded to a tech that smiled and made shooing motions. He chuckled.
Faith smiled again.

“Well,
you best be on your way or you’re going to get it. I'll see what I can do on my
end, maybe I can get them to let us supply some reserve power and life support
to the station. I'll see if I can lend you a couple volunteers until you get
things sorted as well.” She shrugged. He nodded.

“Every
little bit helps. Make sure it goes to life support and not the luxury decks.
Thanks Faith.” He shook her hand firmly. She nodded.

“All
righty then, let's get back to work.” She motioned to her techs to move the
empty pallet out.

“Juanita
has a couple work parties out clearing broken radiator and solar panels and
bringing them back to Io for recycling. They are helping the two work crews
Anvil has out patch what they can back together. Sergio docked twenty minutes
ago Admiral,” Sprite reported. He nodded looking off into space.

“What
did he bring in this time?” he asked.

“A
thirty three ton ice ball studded with minerals. It will take time to process.
He's picked up a couple platinum rocks as well, and one practically worthless
iron one.” Sprite listed the data on his HUD. He pursed his lips. “If this is
going to work you’re going to need a more reliable and practical fuel supply
Admiral,” Sprite pointed out.

“Yeah,
I know.” He gushed a sigh. “Gas giant mining is on my to do list. But this is a
priority.” He waved as a tech motioned to him. “How is Io doing?” he asked as
he followed the tech.

“Good,
she's got a good handle on the fluid dynamics despite the jury rigged bottle,”
Sprite reported.

“I
should, I've had enough practice with my own bottles,” Io responded through the
link. Sprite's avatar smiled.

“All
right ladies; let's get this going so Io can return to her duties.” Irons
nodded to a tech.

“Shelby
has a work crew rerouting life support, but she's taking the gravity plating
off line in nonessential areas. It's going to get interesting when people and
objects start to float,” Sprite reported. He sighed.

“Not
to mention dust and debris. The station has its own mass and some of its own
natural gravity, but when we go natural things can get ugly.” He shook his
head.

“This
station doesn't have enough mass to have a one g field Admiral. Far from it,”
Sprite reported. He frowned. “But of course you knew that,” she responded. “Oh,
I see what you mean about running into problems.” She shook her head.

“One
thing at a time,” he growled as he jacked in.

“Admiral
I need to... what are you doing?” he heard distantly. He tried to tune it out
but Defender flagged an alert as someone touched him.

“Leave
me alone, I need to concentrate here,” he growled.

“I've
got this Admiral,” Liam replied. His robot waved. “You've got some nice AI here
so I can set yours to gopher while I do the fine manipulation with this one.”
He went back to work. The Admiral grunted irritably.

“Okay.”
He fed the AI his log off sequence and felt his mental focus return to his own
body.

Slowly
he opened his eyes then moved. Proteus had already un-jacked and morphed his
hand back to normal. “Oh, thanks.” He smiled as a woman handed him a cup. He
took a sip and grimaced. The coffee had an overt metallic taste to it. He
looked over to the female who had interrupted him.

“Doctor,
what do you need?” he asked.

“When
did you last...? Oh never mind, it's not important now.” She waved. “I'm trying
to trade with your friends on the Io, but they only barter and won't give me a
proper price for the antibiotics I am offering them.” She waved a tablet in
disgust. “I need more nanites to repair Logan and the others!” She sighed
sitting down in a nearby chair.

“You’re
trying to trade antibiotics for nanites?” he asked trying to refocus.

She
lunged back to her feet then paced. “We've got a surplus of three antibiotics
and one of penicillin. Most of it is getting close to max shelf life but they
don't want to give me a fair price...” She waved. He chuckled.

“By
any chance are these easily replicated or easily replaced?” he asked. She
frowned. “They have medical replicators too doctor. It wouldn't surprise me if
they don't need it, or are holding out for a better price. After what happened
with Claudia last year...” he shrugged. She blushed.

“Okay
I had that coming,” she sighed sitting back in the chair deflated. “So what do
we do?” she asked. “I need those meds! I took a tour of their sickbay, it's
incredible!” She waved. “Can we do that?” she asked suddenly excited. He
chuckled.

“Yes,
but not for some time to come. First things first.” He waved to the reactor.
She looked over to it and studied the techs frantically installing parts.

“Right;
power.” She shook her head. “It all comes down to hardware getting first
priority over people.” She sighed shaking her head and not looking at him.

“Well,
since that hardware is what is keeping people alive at this moment, I don't see
the problem. They aren't mutually exclusive Doc. Once we get surplus power, things
will change.” She looked up at his dusty dry reply.

“Okay,
I deserved that too.” She grimaced. “What does it take to get through to them?”
Shelby came in and threw herself into a chair.

“Who?”

The
Doc asked confused. “Them! Io! I don't get it! Their engineers are okay, the
ship's AI is awesome, but the captain and purser!” She shook her head.

“What's
wrong?” the Admiral asked.

“Negotiations
that's what. And the damn Port Admiral is no help!” She sighed. “Bastard stuck
his nose into it and now they have theirs out of joint.” She sighed in
frustration pulling at her hair the messing it up. “I'm running out of material
to trade. I've cleaned out deck forty four C and Liam's electronics, but damn
it...” She slapped her hand down. “I don't know what to do!” She sighed in
frustration.

“Let
me take a crack at it.” The Admiral looked up. “Accessing. Link open.” The
newly repaired holographic projector sprang to life with the captain's gnarled
face.

She
grinned. “Admiral! If I didn't know better I'd say you've been busy.... Are you
finished with my AI now?” she asked tartly. He chuckled.

“Well,
as soon as we get the next two loads of parts we will be ma'am.” He nodded to
Shelby. “I understand you're having trouble coming to an agreement over the
containment parts?” he asked. She nodded eyes narrowing.

“You
could say that. The damn things take forever to replicate and the power and
material costs...” She sighed. He nodded.

“We
can supply you with the basic matrix material and I can get the exec to give
you free docking privileges for your remaining time here.” He smiled to her. “I
suggested it before since Io is helping out, but that might have been
forgotten,” he smiled. She nodded rubbing her chin.

“I've
got four used superconductor batteries past shelf life to throw in, plus parts
from a Smythe series five plasma jet and an Iron's plasma injector as well. If
you could sweeten the deal.” He held up a tablet.

“Do
they work?” she asked.

He
nodded. “Jet and injector need to be cleaned, and the head of the injector may
need to be rebuilt, the plasma has corroded the tip, but it should serve,” he
replied. She smiled and leaned back.

“All
right, that will get you that first shipment of parts you wanted...” She
grinned and waved someone away that was off camera. He nodded keeping his poker
face. He was pretty sure that had been the purser.