Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (65 page)

“Shit,”
he grimaced as the others let loose. The shields came up as weapons fire
started raining down on the shuttle. “Do we have everyone?” he snarled,
climbing into the hatch. It appeared that he was the last one but he wasn't
going to take that for granted. He'd leave Mayfair here in a heart beat but
some of her cronies were a different story.

“Everyone
in the castle left alive,” Sprite answered as the shuttle lifted off. “Where
to?” He felt it pitch a bit before the intertial's stabilized.

“The
space port of course. Alert the pilots to get ready to lift. We're too
overloaded to make orbit with this crowd,” Irons grunted, trying to pull
someone's elbow out of his face and not succeeding.

“Space
port. Right,” Sprite replied. “You know I haven't flown a shuttle in a while
right? Remote is for the birds. I had a hell of a time getting her off Destiny
and down here in the first place.”

“You're
doing fine,” Irons replied. He closed his eyes and accessed the feed. “Got it.”

Sprite
completed the hand off. “You have the controls Admiral. Thanks,” Sprite said
with what sounded a little like relief.

“Where
are we going?” Mayfair asked somewhere near the front of the ship.

“Shuttle
port. We need to unload. They have been alerted. Security is up. But don't
dawdle folks we need to get off world fast. I'd forget about any souvenirs or
luggage.”

“Just
the way it should be. One step ahead of the sheriff. This is hilarious,” Willis
snorted. “You do this on all your stops Admiral?”

“It
is getting to feel like that more and more lately. At least this one didn't
want me to leave.”

“True,”
she laughed. “Too true. I so can't wait for a shower!”

“Yup,
we've got it easy now boys, but the moment the Admiral's gone we're in for it,
mark my words. So take advantage of the peace and quiet while it lasts,” the crewman
said, propping his feet up and putting his hands behind his head. He rested his
hands over his slightly large middle.

He
was glad that he hadn't had shore leave on that miserable mud ball when he'd
heard the stories getting passed around in the galley. He'd seen the recordings
the Admiral's AI had dumped into the system. It was just as well that only the
delegates and Irons had been on the planet. If more people had been there it
would have been messy. Some might have been left behind. Screw that.

Nineteen
days out to the next jump point and then they were in hyper, safely away from
the clutches of the nut jobs on the planet. Here it was their second day in
hyper and it was time to kick back and relax.

“Is
that so Dallas?” a familiar gravel voice growled. He looked up over his
shoulder in alarm just as a strong simian arm pushed his elbow down, throwing
him off balance and down onto the deck.

“Chief!”
Harry said standing. The others followed. “You four get to check out boat bay
one. Dieter told me he can't get that engine fixed without help.”

“Uh,
boss, I thought the Admiral was doing that? Tune ups and trouble shooting is
his nature,” Harry said as Bruno helped Dallas to his feet. Dallas rubbed the
back of his head.

The
veraxin tech nodded. “It is true.”

“Yeah
it is, but he's busy so you four get to do your jobs for once,” Bailey growled.
“Now get to work. I understand the four of you should be able to do it in two
shifts. I want it done in one.”

Harry
shooed the others out ahead of him and shook his head. “Me and my big fat yap,”
Dallas muttered.

“You
said it,” Bruno growled shooting an annoyed look at their boss.

“Why
the sudden change of heart boss? I thought Irons was going to do that?” Harry
asked.

“He
was, but he got a last minute call to help on the bridge. Something about a
sensor glitch and a sticky servo. Since getting to where we're going is a mite
more important than a drive tune up, I thought you could get off your lazy good
for nothing but griping asses and do your jobs. Capiche?”

“Sure,
sure boss,” Harry said, hands up in surrender. “I didn't have a problem with
it, I wanted to do it with him actually. I wanted to pick his brains on it.”

“Well,
get on it anyway. Do your best. If he gets done early I'll send him over.”

“Geeze
what a screwed up situation. How'd we get this shit detail?” the veraxin griped
as they trooped into the bay.

“Probably
cause I shot my mouth off,” Dallas said sheepishly. He was kicking himself over
that. When would he ever learn to keep his mouth shut?

“Nah,
oh I admit it's that, but I heard Bailey griping about Irons doing our work for
us again last shift,” Bruno said, setting his tool box down and studying the
shuttle. “Where's Dieter anyway?” He looked around the room scowling.

“Coming
in behind us, he was in the can. Still is in the can actually,” Harry said
coming in behind them. He looked at them. “Yeah I know, we can't touch the bird
till he's on hand, but we can look.”

“Whatever
you say boss. Just don't get us into any more shit with Dieter. Bailey's bad
enough as it is.”

“You've
got your own selves to blame for that one. You don't need any help from me on
that score. Let's see what we can see.”

Irons
felt the shudder and looked up. Shudders aren't supposed to happen in a
starship, and especially not in one in hyper. That was a sign of a bad thing.

“Turbulence?”

“I
locked the emitters down, we're smooth as a baby's, well, you know,” Ciera Dawn
said, looking decidedly put out.

“No,
that was something else. Inside,” the captain said sitting up. “Report...” As
he spoke alarms began to howl. “Shut that off!” he growled.

“Reports
coming in from the boat bay, accident, something about the shuttle and a plasma
conduit!”

“Crap,”
Irons said, feeling the blood flow away from his face. A hull breach in hyper
was bad. Very bad. If it did the wrong kind of damage or if things got out of
control it could spell the end of the ship.

“Damage
control is on it. The shuttle's been locked down now. We've got fires in
several compartments, DCC says they are on it. We've lost control runs in that
area as well.”

“What
the hell happened?” the captain demanded.

“I
think we should find out,” Irons said grimly. “But I can guess. I was supposed
to be in there right about now.”

“Captain,
DCC reports casualties and at least one fatality,” the communication's tech
said looking drawn. Irons jaw tightened as he noted the captain's hands clench
until his knuckles were white.

“It's
crewman Dallas. He...  he....” the pale kid looked suddenly confused and small.

“He's
dead. All right. Tell them I want a report on the damage ASAP. Ed...” the
captain looked up to the security chief. “Ed we're going to need an
investigation. See what you can get but don't step on any toes down there.”

“On
it,” Chambers growled, heading for the hatch. “You coming Admiral?” he asked.

“Yeah,
thought you'd never ask.”

In
the lift he closed his eyes briefly. He didn't remember a lot about Dallas, he
was an annoying man, lazy, one of the spades set and had a tendency to shoot
his mouth off. He'd been one of his suspects. Now it looked like he was ruled
out, unless he'd accidentally set off something he'd been putting in for
Irons...

“Sprite?”
he asked after a moment.

“Security
and electronics are out for most of that deck Admiral, chief,” Sprite said from
the overhead. “And before you ask, I didn't get anything. The buffers for the
cameras were with them physically and were cooked off when the plasma conduit
went off.”

“The
same attack as before?”

“No,
this time it came from the shuttle and a grav plate.”

“Oh?”

“DCC
found something suspicious and you'll know more when you get there. I don't
want to spoil the surprise.”

“Sprite...”
he said tiredly. Chambers gave him a look. He stopped just as the lift stopped.

“Off
you go. The lift can't go to the next deck, it's sealed. You'll have to go to
the escape ladder and climb down.”

“Okay,”
Irons said as the hatch opened. They were met with a barrage of nervous people
shouting questions. “We'll know more when we get there, now move!” Irons said,
shouldering his way through the crowd. Chambers followed in his wake.

In
the boat bay he grimaced at the damage. It was bad, paneling was scorched, he
looked up, ceiling tiles were missing, dangling, or shredded. Wiring and
plumbing were dangling. Some of the plumbing leaks were still being brought under
control, workers were moving around sealing leaks. Hopefully none of the
dangling wires were still live.

He
glanced at the shuttle. It had shifted position, rolled on it's side against
the bulkhead. There was a massive dent in the armored wall. He could see the
damage extending up the wall. It looks like the shuttle bucked up and to the
right, slamming it's top against the wall and then sliding down. What a mess.

His
eyes found the black body bags and lingered there a moment. He counted three,
one was a veraxin. Dallas and the others deserved better. Damn.

“What
happened?” Chambers demanded of a woozy looking Harry. Irons turned to listen.

“I
dunno. One minute we're looking things over and the next I'm flying through the
air like something kicked me and there is this bright light. Must have hit my
head 'cause the next thing I know alarms are going off and this one here's
standing over me,” he pointed to the firefighter trying to hold his head still
to keep the head wound from gushing. Her partner was spraying it with biofoam
to seal it.

Proteus
scanned the wreckage and then put up a tentative simulation of the incident.
The AI played it back on his HUD, slow. From the look of it Harry had been
lucky, he'd been in the back, not looking at the flashpoint. So far his story
checked out.

“All
right...” Chambers turned in place, puckering his lips, hands on his hips.
“What the hell...”

“Chief 
Chambers over here,” Bailey called looking up. “You too Admiral, you'll want to
see this,” he said, pointing at something in the decking.

Irons
and Chambers picked their way through the flooring and personnel. “All right
what am I looking at Chambers asked, hunkering down beside the chimp chief
engineer.

“This,”
Bailey said, lifting a melted grav plate. “This here's a battery and it's not
supposed to be here. A one shot, but we found another in the shuttle. They're
both toast,” he pointed to a melted block of composite materials with his
finger.

“Don't
touch it!” Chambers said. Bailey gave him a disgusted look as he eased the
plate back down. “What ever you think you're going to get from it you're
dreamin'. Fire cooked em off.”

“Why
the plate?”

“You
askin' me?” Bailey asked getting up and brushing his hands off. He adjusted his
skin suit, grimacing at the gloves. He took them off and tucked them into his
waist belt. “Well, let me see now...”

“For
me,” Irons said grimacing. They both looked at him. “The grav plate was
supposed to disrupt my shields and fix me in place while the plasma hit. Right
chief?”

“I
think so,” Bailey said, nodding slowly. “It looks like Harry caught the edge
and got blown back as the others around it tried to compensate. Dallas and Gus
weren't so lucky.”

“Ouch.”

“Bruno's
in sickbay. Doc's not sure about him. Dieter picked up a piece in the face. It
probably improved his looks if it didn’t' kill him.”

“Sorry
to hear that,” Irons said. From the sound of it April would have company on
their way back to Pyrax. The ship didn't carry a lot of stasis pods either.
He'd have to check later. If things kept going this way he might have to
replicate more. Chambers glanced over his shoulder to the shapeless bag. It was
missing a head. He gulped, looking a little green.

“I'm
not sure what the hell happened, but it's a doozy. Lucky the pilot was in the
shuttle, he managed to do an emergency override and get it shut down. He's a
bit knocked up though,” he indicated the knocked over shuttle.

“I'd
imagine.”

“Did
he set this off?” Chambers asked, getting himself under control.

“I
doubt it. He said he wasn't even in his seat when all hell broke loose. If he
hadn't crawled inside to the cockpit the pre-ignition would have kicked in and
and the shuttle would have ricocheted around the bay or torn itself through the
walls.”

“Out
of the ship?” Chambers asked. He was pale now. He was fairly sure that a big
enough breach would have doomed the ship.

“More
likely through it. The hull has more layers of metal in the outer skin than the
interior does.”