Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (54 page)

“I'm sure everyone's not going to starve us out so fast,” Ian
said. He winced internally, remembering the run on fresh food on Deianira after
they had made the long trip from Antigua to Protodon. As soon as the fruits had
come up they were devoured. His lovely wife had tried to put a stop to it, but
hadn't been able to. Then people had gotten sick from eating too much fruit.
That had overwhelmed sickbay for days and the stink had been terrible. It had
also put holes in his manning... He frowned. “On second thought,” he said.

Daren nodded, eying him. “Yeah, had a chance to think it through
huh? It was easy handing the kid what he wanted. Try telling them no.”

“Okay, hopefully it's not as bad as you think it is. But just in
case, I suggest you break out a detail and get to peeling and baking. Fast.”

“Peeling he says!” Daren threw up his hands. “We're only half way
to finishing dinner you know! I can't turn things around so fast!”

“Do what you can. Save the peelings, let people eat those
instead.”

Daren cocked his head. “Might work.”

“Or, grind them up in a blender and make an apple drink.”

“Now you're talking,” the cook replied with a nod. “I'll see what
I can do.”

“Right,” Ian said. “As the Admiral says, work the problem, don't
be the problem,” he said with a small smile.

“Aye aye sir,” Daren replied.

“Carry on,” Ian said as he exited the compartment.

“Apples,” he muttered as he exited the mess. Two crewmen entering
stopped to stare at him. “Did he say apples? I want one!” Paul said.

Ian groaned, shaking his head as he kept moving.

<----*----*----*---->

The Admiral swirled his drink idly as they finished desert. He'd
taken the habit of trying to dine with the senior officers at least once a
week. It wasn't easy; their schedules were all over the place. Fortunately
tonight Ian and Sindri, his two favorites had managed to find the time.

All of the officers still frequented the common mess for meals as
well. It was not just an issue with bonding with the crew, but a common sense
thing, dipping in to get a quick bite while making themselves available to the
crew for small talk or to vent issues or complaints. So far everyone was
pulling together nicely.

But the wardroom was a good place for the occasional formal
dinner. It let him get to know them, and let them approach him about issues to
discuss in a more relaxed atmosphere. It was the closest they all could get to
being off duty while on ship. Even though they were all in uniform.

He hadn't pushed protocol or military courtesy. He had focused on
practical matters as much as possible. He still intended to do so as much as
possible. But Sprite was sneaking in military deportment and protocol into some
of the lessons with those who had less of a workload or who needed it the most.

Most of the senior staff was there. Ian and Sindri, Bounty was
currently in the room but also officer of the watch on the bridge. Mister
Ulster was in engineering. Irina was there, as was Enric, Gustov, Sprite, Bill
Peters had shuttled over from Lassie, with a rather quiet Jory, and Brandon on
the far end. It was just as well that the Glenns and other officers had begged
off the invitation for various reasons, the small compartment barely fit them
all as it was.

“So... Cookie has a run on apples? Is that why he's baking and in
a sulfurous mood?” Sindri asked. Ian had related the apple story to them.

“Yeah,” Ian chuckled. “He's got plenty of helpers though, so it's
doubly annoying.”

“How so?”

“Too many cooks in the kitchen!” Ian chuckled. The others did as
well.

“If that's all our problems, then we're doing pretty well I
think,” Irina said with a smile. She was letting her short hair grow out a bit.
She'd had it recently trimmed. It was still pixie short, but at least she
looked better. Less of a holocaust victim.

“I've been wondering,” the Admiral said. All eyes turned to him.

“Uh oh, let's hear it. What's next on the agenda?” Sindri asked.
“Not that I don't think we're up for the challenge now. Give us a month and we
will be. Though building a ship from scratch just might be a bit out of our
league,” he said.

“Don't count on it,” Enric chuckled.

“True,” the Admiral said. Sindri glared at him. He smiled
slightly. "That wasn't what I was wondering about. I was curious... why
did you throw your lot in with me? I mean during the mutiny. You obviously had
your own plan...”

Sindri stroked his beard thoughtfully. He looked to the others,
but they just shifted a little uncomfortably. “Well for me, it was easy. I
hadn't a clue when you kicked things off.”

“True,” Irina said. “None of us did. And you did a good job right
from the beginning.”

“I think it was the implants that did it for me. That and hope.
It wasn't like we had anything left to lose,” Enric murmured. “But when the
implants kicked on and that prompt blinked...” He shook his head ruefully. “I
thought I'd lost it!”

“You and me both,” Ian said with a smile. “I was in the same boat
as Sindri. I didn't know it was going down. By the time I did you'd what,
already secured the bridge?”

“Yes.”

“All over but the crying,” Bill said with a malicious grin. “The
bastards didn't know what was coming until it was too late.”

“Exactly,” the Admiral said. “That was the point. They were so
busy watching the lot of you; they didn't see it coming from just me. And well,
it didn't hurt that I had some AI help to get the ball rolling,” he said
nodding to Sprite and Bounty.

“True,” Sprite preened. “You could have done it without us, but
it would have been twice as hard.”

“But he'd of done it anyway,” Sindri rumbled. Sprite nodded. The
others did as well.

“That's the other thing about you sir,” Irina said. “You keep
your word. When you say you're going to do something, you do it. You have a
plan, but you are willing to listen to us, and explain when you can. And you
don't lord over the crew. You're right there, rolling your sleeves up. That
counts a lot for everyone.”

“Spare me blushes,” the Admiral said.

“You asked, we answered,” Ian said with a shrug. “I am curious
though, why did you trust
us
?” he asked.

“Someone had to extend a hand,” the Admiral said slowly. “And
yes, there was an element of mutual need and a common enemy.”

“But...” Sprite promoted. He glanced at her briefly. Trust her to
know more. She knew he always tried to think the best of people, to draw it out
of them.

“But I also saw great potential in each of you. I still do. I
know you'll all do well and go far given the right opportunity. I just opened
the door.”

“Yes. We appreciate that sir,” Gustov said with a nod. The others
nodded as well. “We'll do our best not to let you down.”

“Thank you. All of you,” the Admiral murmured.

<----*----*----*---->

Lieutenant Takagi frowned as he looked at the additional cargo on
the manifest. The additional food had been a welcome sight for the crew. It had
been quite a pick me up, something to liven up the normally dreary meals. Yuri
frowned helplessly. “What do we do with it sir?”

“It's not food, what is it?” Takagi asked.

“Stuff,” Yuri replied with a shrug.

“Stuff. Stuff like toilet paper? Stuff we can use? What kind of
stuff.”

“Um... claws. Pelts. Skins and fruit.”

“Well, the fruit can go to Cookie. What about the rest...”

Yuri frowned. “You'll have to see it to believe it,” he said. He
waved a load over. Takagi rumbled a sigh as he got off his crate and wandered
over to it. The second Collier's holds were half empty. What remained was
segregated in this hold; the new material they were making were being stuffed
in the other holds until they had room to use them in the ships. Right now the
colliers and freighters were being used as mobile warehouses.

He pursed his lips as Yuri got to the first crate ahead of him
and popped the wooden top with a crowbar. He reached in, rummaging around the
straw and then pulled out a long claw. It looked more like a horn. One end had
a bit of dried meat on it. The base was a blackish purple. That color tapered
to a greenish at the wicked looking curved tip.

“I've seen that before,” Takagi said, tapping his chin
thoughtfully. Finally it came to him and he grunted.

“What?”

“Put it back.”

“What is it?” Yuri asked, turning it over and over. “Some sort of
animal?”

“It's a claw all right. A Gashg claw.”

“Spirit of space!” Yuri replied, eyes wide in shock and horror.
Carefully he put it back. “That explains the pelts and skins,” he said, now
sickened.

“Pelts... I'm guessing Neo's?” the cargo master asked darkly.
Yuri nodded.

“Damn.”

Yuri banged the lid back on and then wiped his hands on his
trousers. He looked like he had been soiled. Takagi couldn't blame him.

“What the hell do they do with it? It's sick!”

“They trade it,” Takagi replied grimly. Yuri stared at him.
Grimly, the Asian man nodded. “That's right. The claws are used as scrimshaw.
They carve them into handles for various things, or smoking pipes.”

“Oh...” Yuri's face worked. He turned to the skins that were
stretched on frames and stacked neatly in holders.

“The pelts and skins are turned over to leather crafters or
people who want fur coats,” Takagi said. He felt his stomach tighten.

Nausea rippled through Yuri. He fought it down, putting his fist
in his mouth for a moment. “Oh goddess. To do that to a sapient being...”

“Yeah. And yeah, it's as sick as it sounds, they reportedly skin
some Neo's alive. Sick bastards.”

“So...”

“So we stop it. Here and where ever we can. Treat them like the
remains they are. We'll give them a proper spacer burial.”

“Aye sir.”

“I'll let Commander McGuyver know,” Takagi said. “Anything else
that you don't recognize either give it a proper send off or recycle it. I
think the former owners wouldn't mind it if we used their molecules to get some
revenge,” Takagi growled.

Yuri nodded grimly, staring at the pile of crates and barrels.
There were tons of them, stacked all the way to the twenty-meter ceiling and
back to the rear corner. To think of that... he shook his head.

“You said fruit?”

“Yeah...” Yuri waved him to follow. “And some meat. I'm
guessing...” he turned back, eyes lost. “It's in plastic in the freezer or
dried as jerky. I'm...”

“If you don't know what it is, recycle it,” the cargo master
said. “I don't want to … no,” he said, cutting that thread off.

“Me neither,” Yuri muttered. He led the cargo master through the
dark ship to the second cargo hold. He undogged and opened the hatch. He
fumbled around until he found the light box and flipped it on.

Takagi followed him in but stopped to whistle. Hanging from
rafters were strings of pods. Gashg swamp coconuts, they were spaced out on
vines about a half-meter apart. There were thousands of the things.

“Swamp coconuts. They are good eating if you've got a sweet
tooth.”

“Yeah, but the alcohol...” Yuri waved a hand.

Takagi nodded. The coconut had three shells, one inside the other
like Matryoshka dolls, Russian nesting dolls. The actual nut was about ten
centimeters across and covered in hair like fibers. Inside the hard shell was a
layer of bluish meat, and then purple jelly, and then the coconut liquor. Tiny
seeds were in the meat. As the nut ripened the meat broke down into the sweet
jelly. That in turn fermented due to the heat in the swamp, turning into the
liquor. It was a fine balance picking the things, they tended to over ripen and
explode after a while.

“Yeah, liquor. Not good.”

“Hell, it's great!”

“It's sweet. And it's alcohol. You want people buzzed on the
job?”

“Hey, buzz isn't drunk.”

“If you feel it, your drunk. Doesn't matter. And that shit gives
you one hell of a hangover. I know.”

“Yeah, Yuri said thoughtfully. “We could use it as cleaner.”

“No. We don't have the gear to bottle it.”

“We could make it. Replicate it.”

“Oh that's a lovely thought,” Takagi said. “Admiral, do you mind
if we bump the hyperdrive back so we can make a bottle of hooch?”

Yuri shrugged. “Okay, just a thought.”

“Yeah. I do agree, it's worth processing. I'm hoping they picked
these... he looked at the vines. The ends on the deck were actually in troughs.
The troughs had brownish material inside. “Oh, good. They are keeping them
alive. Waste?”

“Ew!”

“Whatever works.”

“I'm not drinking that then!”

“What, it's just recycling through a different path. Don't get
all bent out of shape over it,” the Cargo Master said. He studied the set up
and then nodded. They had them all together on one side of the compartment, all
in rows. They had enough room to grow a little as they took on nutrients, but
they didn't waste space. “Nice set up,” he rumbled, rubbing his jaw.