Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (76 page)

“It
is a bit more beat up than I was, but not by much,” Firefly said. Vargess
looked over to the avatar then nodded.

The
comm. tech looked up. “Ma'am, sir, we've got good seal on the ship. The bots
are doing a spiral now.”

After
an hour the impatient Vargess began to pace. Irons smiled. “I know the feeling
Commander,” he murmured as the commander came close. Vargess paused then
snorted.

“Report,”
he said turning. “Can we tow her?”

“I'd
prefer not to until we've done an extensive H&A study. From what we have
gathered so far, it will be tricky to get a lock that wont tear the ship apart
under power commander,” a tech said looking up.

“Great,”
Vargess sighed. He shook his head. “I'm going to head over there. Might as well
breath down their necks instead of pacing here. Who knows, I might be able to
fix something.”

Irons
chuckled. “All right, I think I may join you. Since they have life support and
emergency power up.”

“They
do?” the ensign asked. “Can ah...” She looked nervous. Her partner did too.

“Yes
you can come. Get your skin suits and report to boat bay one. The launch is RTB
now. We'll bump some cargo and hitch a ride.”

“Admiral
don't you think you should be...” Mayweather started to say. Irons turned.

Sprite's
avatar appeared beside him. She put her hands on her hips and gave him a long
pitying look as the others turned their attention to her. “See, I knew you
couldn't shuffle papers for long! Go on, go play with your spanners while we do
the real work.”

Firefly
looked annoyed but Mayweather surprised everyone with a throaty chuckle. She
caught Vargess's eye and nodded. “Be careful.” He nodded back.

“Quite
a piece of work Admiral,” Vargess said, looking around. The spotlights from his
suit moved around, lighting their way. The shadows were sharp, everything
seemed different in vacuum. The corridor was littered with debris. Ice crystals
floated around bumping into things. A body was tied down to one bulkhead.
Fortunately someone had covered the helmet's visor with tape.

“I've
seen worse,” Irons replied, dodging a crewman running a cable. He just managed
to dodge a loose wrap of line from wrapping around his extended arm. “Secure
that sailor.”

“Aye
sir,” the man said, moving the coil against the torn bulkhead. “We're trying to
keep it from getting snagged though sir. We're not sure we have enough line to
reach.”

“Good
point, we'll be out of your hair in a minute. Is there a temporary bridge?”

“Engineering
and the bridge were breached and pretty chewed up sir. Since she's a tin can
she doesn't have a back up and her CIC is blocked. Ah, I think commander Logan
has set up in computer room three sir.”

“Suits,”
Vargess said nodding. “Near the core of the ship, heavily protected.”

“Aye
sirs. Ah, it's online. Part of the ship's AI is nested there. It's a closet
though, tiny.”

“Oh.
Good,” Vargess said nodding. He moved off. Irons followed.

They
met up with Logan and a group of techs in computer room three a few minutes
later. “She's a bit banged up but we can work with her,” Logan said nodding to
the two of them as they floated in. It was indeed tight quarters. “Admiral
we've got some good news, a third of her core computer was cut off from the net
by battle damage and shut down. Ditto for two of her three auxiliary micro
reactors. We're running line now.”

“I'd
be damn careful turning that computer loose commander,” Vargess cautioned,
grabbing a handle and clipping his safety line to it. They all knew the dangers
of a rampant AI that had been trapped in a closed net. Even micro seconds
without input could drive an AI insane.

“Yeah,
we've ran into that problem before. Fortunately her data lines are severed so
the computer can't do anything we'll regret. We think. Still if you or better
yet Sprite could take a look Admiral....”

“Yeah,
that's a good idea,” Irons nodded. He jacked into a universal port and felt
power flowing through him to the computer. Firewall warnings sprang up then an
alert signal popped up.

“She's
trying to vampire our system. I'm allowing it for now to get something back. Ah
got it,” Sprite reported.

Irons
felt a sudden virtual battle. It was brief but intense. Defender threw up an
additional series of firewalls when he felt a spike heading his way.

“Well!
That was rude!” Sprite said coming back. She dusted herself off on his HUD.
“Nasty customer here Admiral. She's senile and more than a little insane. It
seems the AI lost its sensors and data feeds before it lost power. She's a
borderline smart AI, or at least was. She's a shell of her former self.”

Irons
winced. Like any organic an AI was dependent on its ability to see, process,
and manipulate data about the environment around it. Take that away and the AI
quickly slid into insanity as it tried to find something, anything for it do.

“I
was going to shut the AI core down but I thought of something better. I have
however locked it out. All self destruct signals have been terminated and their
systems reset with my own personal password. I'm allowing it a feed from your
sensors Admiral, that seems to be calming it some.”

“That
is also a breach Admiral,” Defender replied, eyes glowing like hot coals.

“Well
excuse me for trying to do the right thing!” Sprite said turning on her
partner. “I'm only doing it to get it calmed down. Once the crew gets some
sensors online it will settle down.”

“Agreed,”
Irons sighed.

“What?”
Vargess asked. Irons opened his eyes.

“Sorry.
Talking with the others. The AI is... borderline rampant. On the other side of
the border line. Definitely a problem. Sprite has locked it down for now and
we're feeding it my sensor feed to try to get it to calm down.”

“Oh.
Shit,” Logan sighed, shaking his head. “The self destructs?”

“Taken
care of.”

Irons
felt another presence tentatively knocking on his firewall. Sprite looked and
then smiled and opened a window. “I'll be good Admiral. I'm sorry,” the AI,
Fuentes said. “I've lost so much,” it whispered. It's avatar was a ghost of
itself, A tattered faded old man in a navy uniform.

Suddenly
Irons felt a flicker of power then a lurch as his body fell. He instinctively
grabbed the nearest thing, tucking his legs under him. His boots hit the deck
and he went down on one knee. The lights blinked and then came up slowly then
dimmed, then came up to half power.

Around
him crew members were picking themselves and their gear up off the deck.
“Someone want to tell me what the hell just happened?” Vargess snarled.

“Ah,
sorry sir. It looks like engineering just got one of the backup batteries
connected. Everything just sort of happened at once,” a tech said looking around.
She rubbed at the small of her back where she had landed on the edge of a
console. After a moment she touched her helmet.

“We're
getting reports of intermittent life support sir,” she turned to Logan, then
confused, turned to Vargess and Irons. All three nodded.

A
tech came in and held up a Wi-Fi booster. Irons waved her over to him. “I take
it Sprite called for you?”

“Ah,
yes sir. Is that all right?” he asked, looking concerned.

“Perfectly.
Plug in here,” Irons tapped a jack next to him. When the tech did he stepped
back.

Irons
felt Firefly join the others and nodded. Data was flowing back and forth.
Fuentes was soaking it up like a man deprived of oxygen.

“Ah,
Commander Vargess, if you'd like to take command here, I want to go ream, I
mean counsel some people about proper procedures and giving us warnings...”
Logan said darkly.

Vargess
smiled grimly and nodded. “By all means.” He turned to the Admiral. “With your
permission of course sir.”

“But
of course. I'm going to roll up my sleeves and do a little digging here. Have
fun,” he smiled.

Irons
filed the report and closed the window on his HUD then turned to look at Logan
and Vargess. "Your assessment gentlemen?" he asked.  It had taken
them nearly a month to get Fuentes back to Anvil.

"The
tin cans are beat up, but we can work with them. Both have extensive damage,
it's going to take months to repair. Fuentes' AI is pretty chewed up. Only a
part of its core was hard wired to that particular data center. We're using
Firefly and functions from Sprite to rebuild it," Logan shrugged.

“The
hardware side of the equation is a bit different,” he frowned.
"Unfortunately I've been bumped down on replicator time. Anvil didn't tell
me why." He gave Irons a look.

Irons
nodded. "I was expecting it. Now that we're rebuilding the system,
everyone and his brother has his hand out for parts," he grimaced.
"We're just going to have to wait our turn. Fortunately we've got other
means," he smiled. Vargess looked confused.

"Hephaestus?
No she's still repairing herself and the other civilian ships. Firefly's you
mean?" Logan asked. "It'd take years!" he sighed shaking his
head.

Irons
smiled. "No, months. I've got Firefly replicating the parts for another
military grade replicator now." He pointed to his right arm. It was jacked
in. "That's why I have to be jacked in." He shook his head as Logan's
expression cleared.

He
looked over to Vargess but Vargess raised a hand. "I got it. I remember.
Only flag rank can make another replicator, and only if they are plugged
in." He shook his head. "Sneaky. It's still not going to get us
around some of the bigger parts. We've got a lot of frame repair to do."
Irons nodded.

"You're
right, but it is a step in the right direction, and it gives us a little more
autonomy," Mayweather smiled. "So only you can make
replicators?" she asked turning back to the Admiral.

Irons
nodded. "Warheads, replicators, and most of the military grade banned
list. I can't make medical nano though." He shook his head. "Well, I
can do an end run around the problem if I have too, but it's easier to have a
medic do it." He shrugged.

Logan
nodded. "We were running out of medical nano and materials during the
war," he sighed shaking his head. "The Xeno's hit every hospital they
could, crippled us. That's why there weren't that many people with good
implants later on. It's also why they introduced the Cutlass fighter."

Irons
grimaced. "Yeah, the strategy was effective."

Firefly
nodded. "We're working to fix it. The medics are working out protocols
now. We've got most of the crews of the ships with implants, and even our
newbie’s who only had civilian grade are being upgraded case permitting,"
the AI reported. Irons smiled.

"We're
going to work on reactor and fuel parts next, then basic life support."
Logan picked up a tablet. “Fortunately Fuentes is a leg up on Damocles,
Damocles was completely gutted.” He shook his head. “Her AI core was gone. Not
by us by the way. It was physically removed sometime earlier. Probably why they
were able to use her at all. A proper Federation AI would never have supported
piracy.”

"I
dumped the list there already, it's also in your inbox. We'll limit the
station's contribution to simple things that we can't make easily or simple
things we need in bulk and can wait on if we have to do so," Irons
shrugged. "That's the best we can do for now."

The
others got up. "Commander, there is a sim exercise later this afternoon,
feel free to sit in and contribute," he smiled to Vargess. Vargess was one
of his experts on small ship tactics, but he was still getting the hang of
larger capital ships' pros and cons. Fortunately Fuentes was a fast destroyer,
and since she was laid up, he had plenty of time to get to know her better.

"What
about those HKs?" Harris asked.

"What
about them?" Irons asked.

"We
could repair a few of them right?" he asked doggedly.

"We've
been over this before," Mayweather sighed. "They're crap Harris, get
over it." He looked mulish. "No really. they are crap," she
looked over to Logan who nodded.

"We
can make an HK in a couple weeks to a month on station now commander,"
Logan said.

 Harris
froze. "Seriously?" he asked turning to Logan in surprise.

Logan
shrugged. "They aren't much more than a heavy tug or tender. Engines,
guns, limited life support and limited sensors and electronics. Anvil's
finished building our replacement small craft, if we really wanted too we could
set up a factory line."

He
looked over to Irons. "I don't think we're going to though," he
shrugged.

Harris
turned his attention on Irons. "Why not?" he asked.

"Well,
one, we can't get the dedicated replicator time to build them at this time.
Two, repairing them would take away time from repairing some of the other
ships." Some of the commanders grimaced at that. "Three, as Commander
Logan stated, they have a limited range and limited function. We could only use
them in limited situations, but we need to keep all our options open."