Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (25 page)

"Faith,
the captain says that if you girls want to stay on board you better hurry,
we're heading out now," Leandra could be heard by all. Faith grimaced.

"Be
there in ten." She waved to the girls. Several paused on their way out to
give the Admiral a hug.

"Take
good care of her," Jen said as she passed. She hugged him briefly.

He
nodded. "I will." She smiled.

"See
that you do or we'll come back and haunt you." He laughed and waved.

"'Twas
a good thing you did fixin' my ship." Faith hugged his side. "And not
to mention auld me, Clarissa, and the rest of us Popsicles." He smiled.
"'Twas the least we could do,"  she said, patting his arm. He nodded.

"Thanks
Faith, I will treasure her always."

She
chuckled. "Just treat her like a lass and she will treat you right. Step
wrong and you'll know it right smartly."

He
chuckled as she stepped out of the hatch. "Okay, this is unexpected."
He looked the ship over.

"But
a good thing right?"  Sprite asked amused.

He
shrugged. "Maybe, it will definitely come in handy," he answered
Sprite. "So, no handshake protocol, I am guessing the communications are
down..." He went over to the cockpit door.

"Admiral,
your needed in... oh me oh my, what is that!" Mrs. Valdez stopped and
admired the ship.

"Fleet
launch. Actually, she is a Fleet Etop, a short ranged atmospheric to orbit
shuttle craft."

He
ran his hands down the side near the lock. "She is a gift from your
daughter and her crew mates to me," he explained. Mrs. Valdez nodded.

"She
told us a little about how you changed things on her ship." She studied
the ship. "Well, we'll need to move her to the other bay so Sergio can get
in later; he is on his return now," she said looking at the hatch then the
launch. He nodded.

"You
were saying someone needs me?"

She
nodded. "Shelby called; they received the last shipment from the Io, and
are ready to install them in the reactor core at your convenience." He
sighed tiredly.

"She'll
keep Admiral."

He
smiled. "Well she will after we move her. I think Sergio will have trouble
parallel parking with this in the way." He chuckled with her. She waved
then brushed her apron.

"Okay,
I can see you want a look." She turned to leave. He smiled as he climbed
in.

"Tell
Shelby I'll be there as soon as I move her."

She
turned around. "I'll do no such thing, first you'll move that craft, then
you’re eating a meal. No telling when you ate last, or when you'll remember to
eat again!" she glared back fiercely at him as he laughed.

"Okay,
okay, you win. How I got people to chase me around to eat I'll never
know."

She
waggled a finger at him. "Promise?"

He
held up a hand over his heart. "Promise."

She
smiled. "Good, I have just the thing to fill you out, quesadillas!"

He
returned the smile then chuckled softly shaking his head. "Be there in a
minute."

Within
the cockpit he looked around and noted the absent chairs. "When they said
it was missing stuff, they weren't kidding.” The dashboard control panels were
almost nonexistent. Wiring hung from the ceiling and draped out of holes in the
dash. "Okay, let’s see here jack, jack, jack, where did they..."

Proteus
highlighted a control panel, zoomed in and put a caret around the universal
port. "Gotcha." He felt his ring finger morph into his jack and then
inserted it into the port.

"No
viruses for once Admiral," Sprite reported. He felt the ship boot then
waver a little as it rose. "Antigrav initiated." He nodded.
"Moving her to port now, twenty centimeters per second." He felt the
ship drift to the side as the view changed.

"Inertial
dampeners are out of sync," he sighed.

"I've
got it on the list already," Sprite reported. After a few minutes they
drifted into the open bay then down to the deck. "Contact. Shutting down.
Post flight check engaged... completed."

He
watched as a log flashed over his HUD. "I'll have to check it later. Good
flying for a jumped up toaster," he teased as he exited the lock.

"Thanks,
coming from a bag of water and protein I guess that means something." He
chuckled at her rejoinder.

"Okay,
let’s go eat and then go check out the parts. How goes the net repairs?"

He
passed Mrs. Valdez and moved on to the sink. She started to object then sighed
as he smiled and started washing his hands. "Well, it isn't as bad as the
Io, but close enough. Repairing the firewall and restoring the AI has sped
recovery of the systems. Defender, Proteus, Io, and I have been busy squashing
viruses." He nodded.

"I
am glad you kept that copy of the Io archive, its driver database I compiled
has come in handy," she said. He nodded.

“Docking
clamps released. OMS primed. OMS starboard one second burst.” The helms woman
smiled as she tapped the controls. “We're clear of the station.” She looked
over her shoulder to the captain who grunted.

“Bring
up the plasma drive. Five percent power until we're outside the danger zone for
the station,” she nodded.

“Ready,”
the Helms woman acknowledged. “Think he will be all right?” she asked softly.

“I
hope so,” the ops girl whispered back.

“We
all do,” the captain replied. “Move us out. When we can put the wedge up let me
know.” She sat back in her chair and picked up her cup of tea. She took a sip
and then eyed the holo of Io.

“You
going to put your sentiments in too I suppose?” she asked, amused.

“I
think they will be okay. With the Admiral and his AI...” The AI shook her head
then smiled impishly. “As well as all the effort we tossed in... He'll be fine.
I wouldn't be surprised that the station isn't fully restored by the time we
get back.” She turned to the view screen. The captain grunted.

“So
how did we make out?” she asked leaning over to the purser.

“Better
than ever captain, we made a record profit. We even made back our port fees,
and the port fees for the next two visits were thrown in!” the purser grinned.
“I am not happy about some of our passengers. A lot of them are deadbeats, but
they managed to scrape up the minimum cover charge to get them to our next port
of call. Once we dump them off there, they are someone else's problem.” She
shrugged. The captain grunted again.

“We're
fully stocked, I actually ran out of cargo room yesterday,” the purser
admitted. “I think the Admiral is right, now that we have a fully functional
ship, it might be a good idea to expand. Maybe another ship? Or a fleet of
freighters?” She eyed the captain with a sly look.

The
captain chuckled. “One thing at a time Vanessa,” she waved it off and turned
back to the holo of the station.

“Goddess
protect you Io 11, thank you and good luck. We hope to see you soon,” the
station's communicator called. The captain grunted.

“If
they are saying that then things were really dire. Or he finally got around to
teaching them some manners,” she shrugged.

“One
thousand kilometer range achieved. Captain wedge is coming up at half power.
Locked onto the gas giant for maneuver.” The helms woman said interrupting her
musing thoughts.

“Very
well, put us on course for the hyper limit and the Janus jump point. Half
speed. I want a course ready by that time,” she eyed the navigator who nodded
with a smile.

“Already
set up. Io is updating it as we go.” She went back to looking at her console.

 “Good
luck and goddess keep you Admiral,” the purser muttered.

The
Admiral got up and stretched. He had managed another thirty minute cat nap
while his AI and the engineers finished the final installation of parts in the
fusion reactor core. “Core three will be ready to seed in an hour Admiral;
we're running the final diagnostic checks now. I understand the CPO is awake
again,” Sprite hinted. Irons smiled.

“Am
I needed again to keep him in sickbay?” he asked.

“No
Admiral, they transferred him to his own quarters again an hour ago. I've been
monitoring him for the doctor. She's overloaded. Most of the people Io's
sickbay took on were released as walking wounded. She's got a call out for all
hands on deck,” Sprite reported.

“Meet
Logan in his quarters?” Irons asked. He picked up a cup of cold coffee and
downed it in a gulp. His hands were a bit shaky.

“No
need, he'll meet you in his office Admiral,” Sprite informed him. She sounded a
little distracted. The AI's were taxed to their limits. Irons grunted and got
up.

“No,
tell him I'll be at his quarters in a few minutes.” He stretched then waved to
a weary Mary as he left.

“Too
late Admiral, he's in his office,” Sprite reported. He sighed and changed
course.

“Damn
stubborn old man,” Irons muttered. Sprite laughed.

“Now
that is a definite case of the pot calling the kettle black!” she smirked on
his HUD.

“Sprite?”
he muttered.

“Shut
up?” she asked, smile widening into a shit eating grin.

“Right,”
he sighed.

"Admiral,
I know some of your record..." Irons turned to look at the old man with a
raised eyebrow. "I did a stint as a yeoman for Vice Admiral Hennessey for
a couple months. He cracked a few jokes about your Greek chorus in my
hearing...” The old man shrugged. Irons sighed.

"That is a blatant breach of security
Admiral." Defender reported coldly. If the AI had been a smart AI like
Sprite it would have been seething.

"Stating
the obvious again? Besides, Hennessey is beyond the veil," Sprite replied.
Irons nodded. "So you know about the Trinity project?" The old man
nodded.

"I
can see one AI, but three? Isn't that overkill sir? Why not just have one AI
that can do all the jobs?" the old man asked as he sat back. Irons nodded.

"The
answer is multitasking."

The
old man's eyes widened then he nodded slowly. "Each of my AI are
specialized. Sprite acts as my staff and chief programmer. Defender is much
more limited, it acts as my security watch dog. And Proteus..." He smiled.

"Multi
threading cluster AI. I know. My sister did a paper on it when I was twelve. I
am surprised they managed to get it to work, she sure couldn't!" The old man
laughed. Irons did too.

"Yeah
well, it's complicated. The hive mind isn't just in the nanites, there is no
way parallel processing and artificial neural networks could communicate in
real time over my entire body without messing up my nervous system or every
piece of electronics for meters around." The Admiral sat back and picked
up a cup. "I can't get into the details, it's still classified, but it
works. I am living proof." He saluted the old man with his cup then took a
sip.

The
old man nodded. "So Proteus manages your nanites? Why not have Defender or
Sprite do it?" he asked.

"Admiral
if I may?" Sprite asked.

"Sure."
He felt her send data to the desk holo projector.

A
hologram sprang to life. It stabilized into a ball of light, then into a
construct of a female face. "The reason is multitasking. The Admiral
pointed it out earlier. You organics can multi task to a certain degree, I
believe the pithy saying is walk and chew gum at the same time?" Sprite
smiled. The old man nodded staring at her image. "Well, we can do that and
much more, but even we have our limitations. Each of our programs are
specialized with only slight overlap of each others fields. Proteus builds and
repairs things, I manage things, and Defender protects us." Her image
zoomed out into her full figure. She shrugged.

"It
works. It took a few years to get the bugs out, but now that we've settled in
we got our collective acts together," she winked.

The
old man chuckled. "It has been so long since I talked with a smart
AI." He shook his head. "A pleasure to finally converse with you
Sprite." He bowed to her. She nodded regally back. Her image divided into
three, Defender projected his dark knight persona while Proteus projected a
silver blob. "All of you. It is a pleasure." The old man nodded
again.

"Feeling
a bit cooped up?" the Admiral commented.

"Just
a bit. The civilian AI is... stupid. And civilian. It is nice to talk with
someone else for a change," Sprite smiled. The Admiral nodded.

"You
recognize our presence is classified under section twelve article thirteen
subsection B of the intelligence act of 2541 right?" Defender's red
glowing eye slit stared at the old man.

He
nodded. "I do. And no, I will not breach that trust unless it is
imperative to do so." The old man held up his hand as he swore.

Defender
stared at him then swirled out. "Very well." Sprite's image moved
over. She looked up.