Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (16 page)

“Sandy
blood thinner stat!” the CMO called spinning. She rushed in examining the
readouts. “I don't see anything...” The Admiral sent an impulse command. His
right bicep changed as a trio of laser emitters emerged. A holo of the chief's
brain appeared over the bed. The clot was highlighted in red, the nanites in
blue.

“He's
got two of them? What is, wait the blue are coming in from outside? Is that
you?” she asked studying the holo. He nodded.

“Right,
but it's hard to concentrate while people are asking questions.” He sighed in
exasperation.

A
nurse handed the doctor a syringe. “Start with his right leg, there are clots
there, he's near muscle death in his thigh,” the Admiral said. She pulled the
sheet aside then felt down his leg.

“Crap,”she
muttered seeing his blue thigh muscles.

She
injected the solution then looked up. “Ultrasonics now. I need that vat up
now!” she called just as an alarm sounded. “Code blue!” she called. The Admiral
nodded. “Got the clot.” He felt the nanites recede back into his hand.

“Em
charge. Clear!” the doctor called.

“I
can't almost out,” he moved aside. “Dampening field activated. Do it.” He
nodded to her as she held the paddles up. She gave him a look. “Just do it!” he
ordered.

She
put the paddles down and hit the button. His chest jerked as his muscles
contracted. “Heart is in fibrillation. Again, no good. Upping the amperage.”
She tried again. Then the power for the machine went out.

“Wait.”
The Admiral brushed her aside as the last nanites made it to his hand.

He
dropped his hand from the forehead of the chief to his exposed chest. “Clear.”
He fed a spark into the heart, and then followed it with nanites.

“The
pinhole has expanded. Aorta is going to rupture if that blood clot gets
there...” Sprite reported.

“He's
got a blood clot and a leak in his heart. It's causing part of the problem.”
The Admiral replied as he felt Proteus insert nanites into the nerve endings of
the heart muscles then calm them with pulses.

“Fibrillation
is under control. Removing blood clot and sealing hole,” the AI reported. He
nodded looking up. “Fibrillation is under control for now; I will have to stay
here till we get him in the tank,” he nodded to her. She nodded back.

The
exec's communicator started to beep insistently he took it with a grimace of
dissatisfaction and spoke to someone about a problem with the power then looked
away as he closed the communicator.

“I'll
just be going. Admiral I would like to talk to you...” the exec said. The
Admiral nodded as the exec turned to him.

“As
soon as we get him stable in the tank I will drop in on engineering and see
about the bottle,” he smiled.

“Thank
you,” the exec sighed in relief. The Admiral chuckled.

“Meanwhile,
get with the purser of Io11; ask them for trade for critical parts for the
fusion reactor. Offer them platinum and rare metals like osmium in trade. Tell
them I referred you,” he met the exec's eyes.

He
nodded. “Right, good idea.” He rushed off.

“Think
it will work?” the doctor asked softly looking up at him.

“No
idea. One step at a time Doc. Triage,” he nodded to her. She shook her head.
“My you are full of surprises. Are you a medical fleet officer as well?” she
asked. He chuckled.

“No,
engineering and fleet command. I prefer to get my hands dirty though.” He
shrugged. “Most of what I am doing is based off of high school health class and
my implants. Some is coming from your medical texts.”

“Glad
you can,” she said nodding her chin to the chief.

“Blood
clot destroyed. Admiral it was a pack of cancer cells,” Proteus reported. The
Admiral sighed.

“What?”
the doctor asked.

“The
blood clots are fragments of malignant tumors, most likely cancer cells. He's
going to need a lot of work to get back on his feet.” He grimaced. “He's not
that old, not even one hundred. He's my age,” the Admiral said, shaking his
head. 

“I
accessed his implants Admiral, there is considerable swelling around them and
some neurological damage due to inter-cranial bleeds near the frontal lobe
links. He must have been in considerable pain,” Sprite reported. The Admiral
nodded.

“Make
sure you treat for swelling around his implants, and inter-cranial bleeds. He's
a mess Doc.” He shook his head as the orderlies wheeled them to the vat. He
walked along side. His hand resting on the chief's chest.

“We'll
do what we can. We don't have a dedicated medical AI to control the nanites
though,” she reported. He nodded.

“Nor
implants. I know.” He shook his head as they lifted the chief up and over the
side of the vat. He started to sink in the goo until his body rested on the gel
bed. “Nanites detected, hand over in progress...hand over complete. Extraction
progressing,” Proteus reported.

The
doctor and medical staff expertly removed the IV’s and switched his respirator
over to the one built into the regen tank. The Admiral stepped back as the last
nanite reentered his body.

“He's
all yours,” he nodded.

“Right,
okay someone find out why it is so cold in here. Bobby, is his air up?” The
doctor looked up to the orderly who gave her a thumbs up. “Make sure the hoses
don't kink.” She watched as he carefully tucked the slack hose down beside the
chief's head then closed the lid of the tank.

“Press
start... oh, you already did,” the doctor looked at the Admiral who shrugged.
She watched his readouts for a few moments then motioned her people to get back
to work. She quietly ordered a nurse to check on the tank every ten minutes.

“Admiral,
I'd like to ask you a few questions in my office before you leave...” She
motioned for him to follow. Amused he did.

Once
more in the office she sat down and picked up a tablet. He noted a terrarium he
had dismissed before. “Herbs or medical?” he asked pointing to the cylinder in
the corner.

“Both,”
she said, not looking up. He nodded.

“So,
what did you do? You destroyed the blood clots, and repaired the hole... Blood
clots are usually dislodged fat globules. Are you sure they are cancerous?” She
looked at him for confirmation. He nodded. She put the tablet down onto a stand
and activated a virtual keyboard. She rapidly added the details of the
encounter into the medical log.

"We
are the most advanced medical facility in the galaxy Admiral," the red
haired chief medical officer stated with quiet pride. "What's left of the
galaxy of course.” She shrugged. “I have the most working equipment, and three
other doctors, six nurses, twelve orderlies, and nine paramedics on
staff," she said proudly.

The
Admiral nodded. "Io has can match you in equipment and training
probably," he replied absently. The doctor leaned back.

"I
find that hard to believe, they are just a tramp freighter," she said
dismissively looking down at a tablet.

The
Admiral's eyes flashed. "Io 11 is a Caberei class Fleet tender. Her crew
and I have spent the better part of fifteen months rebuilding her. Her crew is
now the finest in the galaxy." His clipped tone made the doctor look up.
"For your information, we restored her entire sickbay, and restocked it.
In fact, they are making a second planetary facility now. They have two
doctors, three nurses, five sick berth attendants on staff, and most of the
crew is trained to EMT status, with over twenty trained to paramedic
level." Her eyes widened at that.

"How..?”
she asked setting the tablet down then cleared her throat and began again.
"I stand corrected." She gathered herself. "Perhaps it would be
a good idea to have a medical exchange, meet the doctor's on Io, and exchange
databases and pass on skills.” She nodded. The Admiral nodded but decided to
twist the knife a little.

 “They
have several training simulations as well now," he smiled. “Their crew is
an all Terran one, but I believe they were exploring alien physiology when I
left.” He smiled.

She
nodded. "Yeah. That might be good." She tapped her fingers on her arm
rest in thought. "You say they have the entire sick bay working? The last
time they were here they were trying to barter for medical supplies and my best
surgeon to fix their doctor." He nodded. "Everything. The crew is in
excellent health. Doctor Clarissa has been healed, and is now out of stasis, as
is all of the other injured."

She
shook her head in growing wonder. "My you do work miracles if you could
achieve that, I took one look and wrote her off as a lost cause." He
froze, and then sighed. "Doctor, I've survived worse injuries." He
raised his right arm. She looked it over then blushed.

"Perhaps
I gave up to easily," she said embarrassed.

He
nodded. "Yes, perhaps you did," he said softly. She gave him a look,
and then ducked away from his challenging eyes.

"Point
taken. I will talk to them straight away." He nodded as he got up. She
picked up a communicator. "Communications get me the Io 11's doctor."
She waved as he exited. "Hello? This is the Chief medical officer of
Anvil; I was hoping to arrange a meeting with your medical staff... They are in
surgery? Valdez? Oh!" she smiled. "With your..." The door closed
and he smiled.

"Engineering
is restricted," the voice responded.

"This
is Fleet Admiral Irons; I am trying to contact Miss Logan." He looked up,
trying to remain patient as he watched Sprite work on the HUD.

"No
joy Admiral, it's a manual lock out. We are on the wrong side of it,"
Sprite replied. He grunted.

"Admiral?
You've got some set of balls coming down here." The voice dropped into a
growl. "I oughta kill you right now you asshole..." the voice
continued.

"FLEET
Admiral not Port Admiral. FLEET Admiral," Irons replied testily when the
voice wound down. "Look just contact miss Logan. She left sickbay a few
minutes ago. The exec and her father asked me to come down and take a look at
things." He tried not to sound too exasperated.

"Admiral
I am all for getting back on Io and letting them stew in their own mess,"
Sprite responded sounding testy. "I can't get around the lock and their
firewall is nasty." She sounded as testy as the voice on the other end.

"Admiral
Irons?" A female voice came on after a moment.

"Yes.
I'm trying to...”

The
lift car lurched back into motion. "Right, get to engineering to see what
I can do."

The
doors opened and a man looked at him. "In there." He pointed. His
coveralls were old and thread barren, covered in patches and grime. He had a
lot of facial hair and a bit of a paunch. "No lip. She's got enough on her
mind," the voice ordered. He turned. "Thank you." He nodded and
followed the directions.

"In
here Admiral," a young man called. He followed. The young man led him
through the corridors and several rooms before they ended up in main
engineering.

The
engineering compartments were clean and relatively well organized. There were a
few signs of age and wear of course, and the occasional crate of parts or
robot. The young man waved to indicate an office. The door had a sign that said
Chief. “In here.”

The
Admiral entered and sat in a chair. “Don't touch anything. Shelby will be with
you in a minute,” the young man cautioned. Irons shook his head. “Admiral I've
got a Wi-Fi link. Encrypted though. Military grade. I've created a back door
though. My bandwidth and file access is limited however,” Sprite reported.
“Wait, I am applying the access codes I got from CPO Logan. I'm in.”

The
door opened and he turned.

The
Admiral shook the young woman's hand and she waved a dismissive hand to his
guide. "Get back to work Grundy." The man grinned and walked off.

"Do
I call you assistant engineer Logan? Miss Logan? Or Mrs.?" Irons asked.
"Call me Shelby. Miss Logan is too formal. Most people call dad Chief, or
Logan."

The
Admiral nodded. "All right then."

"Is
dad going to be okay?" she asked looking over a tablet.

"I
am not sure. I hope so. If they can't get a handle on things I would suggest
contacting Io and ask for a transfer to their sickbay." He shrugged. She
looked up confused. "We just finished completely restoring her sickbay."
Her eyes widened. "The entire ship actually," he added with another
shrug.

She
shook her head. "How... no wait, you’re involved." She sat down with
a shaky laugh. "Dad told stories about you, but I thought it was all a
myth." She looked up at him. "You’re the real deal aren't you?"
she asked. He nodded. "Well, you couldn't have come at a more important
time, we're losing it." She shrugged helplessly. "We're down to one
badly balanced fusion reactor, and she's off in the worst way imaginable. Dad
was in the cyber core twenty hours a day trying to prop it up," she
sighed. He nodded.