Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (30 page)

"And
they think I'm the one who's nuts," the man muttered. He wiped his mouth
but didn't look at the Admiral.

Irons
nodded as he straightened. The man smelled of moonshine. "The choice is
yours. Think about it. But remember this, this isn't free room and board, you
have to work for this. Everyone will help, everyone will learn. If you can't
hack it, I'll find you something else to do or you can leave. The door is open
but it swings both ways." He waved to the open corridor.

"Admiral,
um, I'm showing them how to lock their personal quarters just in case." He
turned to see one of the techs and nodded.

"Right,
good idea. If you have too many warm bodies here and your crowding each other
or over taxing life support I suggest you send a cleanup crew to the class
rooms nearby. Also the public corridors and restrooms." He waved. She
nodded.

"Good
idea, I've got to hand it to you, I ran into a couple old friends I thought
were spaced years and years ago. I'm glad you’re giving them a second chance.
Some deserve it." She looked at the man in the corner and her face
darkened. She looked away. "Some more than others," she muttered. He
nodded.

"Right,
well, they've got one day to get sorted out, cleaned up, fed, and rested before
we start classes. Try to sort out the quick and the ones with some education so
we can start working up a syllabus.” He nodded as a man came up to him. He was
clutching a violin case. "Yes?" he asked.

"I,
um..." The man looked away. A child peeked around his thigh. The girl was
blond, with scraggly hair. The man was wearing a battered tweed jacket, ripped
sweater, and pants that seemed too long. "I heard you’re looking for
people," the man muttered. The Admiral nodded.

Sara
came up and hugged the man. He stiffened then relaxed a bit. Sara handed the
girl a cookie then led her off to her quarters. The girl devoured it. They
watched her go then the man turned back to her. "I taught music until I
was tossed out. I can do basic work." He held up his hands. They were a
bit battered but his long fingers were still all there. The Admiral nodded.

"We're
focusing on the basics now with a heavy engineering focus, but I am planning a
general education plan as well as an advanced college program in the future.
Can you play more than the violin?" The Admiral nodded to the instrument.

The
man nodded. He pulled out a penny whistle and harmonica from his pocket.
"I had a flute but someone broke it," he muttered eyes downcast.

"Well,
we will see about replacing it. I am sure we can work something out. For now
let’s get things sorted out, then see what tomorrow brings." He smiled to
the man. The man nodded and turned away. He paused. "Thanks," he said
softly. The Admiral nodded.

"You'd
be surprised what we can do when we work together. Get some food and ask Sara
to mind your violin. Check in with Matt for work. If you get the chance check
out the music room here and let Matt know about it." He nodded as the man
left.

"What
was this place?" the tech asked.

"Back
in the day this used to be the local branch of Pyrax's community college program."
He waved. "The campus is so large it has most of this deck and part of the
one above and below. There was even a park and a small stadium at one point,
though I believe the stadium is now used as a hydroponics area. Mostly to store
waste for later recycling." He waved in the other direction. "Most of
the campus is set up for basic advanced education, language, medicine, reading,
math, computers, navigation, ROTC, basics in science and engineering. There are
some minor branch areas like music as well."  He smiled. “There is even a
small amphitheater for live performances.”

He
turned to see the young woman looking at him. "I've lived on this station
my entire life, I didn't.. I mean, If I didn't know this, how could you?"
she asked in disbelief. He chuckled.

"I've
got the station's original map," he tapped his temple.

"You've
been here before?" She asked startled and a little awed. He shook his
head.

"No,
it's in the computer," he smiled. "I've been working on repairing it.
It's slow going but soon we should see an improvement in the computer system.
Once we get dedicated programmers from the campus, well, you'll see." He
smiled. She nodded.

"So
this is where you got off to." Irons turned at the familiar voice and
smiled. "O'Reilly at your service." O'Reilly tipped his hat in
salute. "Shelby sicked me on you to work on the atmo plants in this
section." He hefted a wrench then dodged a pair of elves.
"Blimey!" He chuckled. "Glad to see the little blokes, they do
wonders in the ducts and in creepy places we can't reach without tearing the
deck up. Mind if I borrow a few?" O'Reilly asked the Admiral. The Admiral
chuckled.

"They
can see where we can't, and their hands are great for tight places," the
tech added.

The
engineer nodded. "Ask for volunteers. You may get more than you bargain
for though," he chuckled as the door to their quarters opened and a half
dozen came out. They had belts and bandoleers with tools strapped to keep them
from banging around.

"We're
ready." They looked up at O'Reilly.

"All
right then mates, let's shove off and get this air cleaned." He pointed
with his

wrench.
"Atmo plant ho!" he said, pointing the wrench and marched off. The
elves looked at each other then followed. The Admiral chuckled.

"As
I was saying, there is a medical clinic and micro hospital here as well. The
chief medical officer doctor Thornby opens one up on another deck one day a
month for a poor clinic. We can do better than that." He smiled.
"This place is a small city all on its own. It has its own fire department,
police, hospital, admin, tri-d station, theater, sports center, and day care.
Once we get things sorted out it will serve as a model for the rest of the
station, and eventually the rest of the solar system," he finished.

She
grimaced. "Well then we've got our work cut out for us. I'll just go check
out the computers then." She walked off. Several people followed. He
chuckled.

"Admiral,
this isn't exactly going to plan you know," Sprite reminded him.

"No
plan survives contact with the enemy... or time for that matter. You have to
adapt. They have the will and energy, we're just building on it." He
nodded to a pair of workers carrying in a pair of stools. Shelby came around
the corner and eyed the work. The corridor had changed in the short shift, it
was already nearly as clean as the more occupied center of the station. The
ceiling was still missing some panels but the lights were all repaired. The
robots had moved off to other areas or rooms. He wasn't sure where the trash
was going, hopefully not out an airlock, it could be recycled. Hopefully Matt
had handled that right. He'd have to check later. He nodded to Shelby as she
approached.

"Dad
told me you've been busy." She looked around. "You did this in a
couple hours?" she asked looking around. Her lips were pursed in a silent
whistle. He chuckled.

"I've
got a lot of volunteers." He dodged a pair of giggling kids and a pair of
people carrying coils of cable.

"I
see that. You're throwing our plans for rebuilding deck thirty five, you know
that?" she looked around. He chuckled.

"Which
do you think is more important? Remaking a recreation deck or restarting the
schools and college?" he waved. She froze.

"College?
You’re kidding?!" She turned to him. He smiled. She stared. His smile
turned into a grin. "You are not kidding. Wow. I know dad is big on
education, but I.." She shook her head stunned. "Okay, I'll get our
teachers and staff down to help." He nodded. He had known about them, he
had caught the references to the engineer's school Logan had set up in their
private computer network and in several conversations.

"It
might be wise to fold the entire engineering course and basic education courses
into this," he waved. “Here are the facilities, I bet there are some areas
the teachers would love to get into. The labs for one." He smiled. She
nodded. "With your teachers and some of the others as a nucleus, we can
expand it." She nodded growing enthusiastic.

"Right.
I'll get it rolling on my end. We were trying to figure out what to do with the
classes and library, it's in an electronics machine shop and we need the space
now that the industry is back on track." She looked around.

"There
is a library here too, you may find it has a lot of material. We will have to
watch out for theft and viruses though," he sighed. She nodded.

"I'll
get with dad and the others and see you in a couple hours." She waved and
left. He chuckled.

"I'm
going to work on the admin computers Matt." He ducked into the room to let
Matt know what he was up to. Matt nodded.

"Okay
Admiral, we've got two people and a bot in there cleaning now, I'll tell them
to stay out of your way." Matt picked up a communicator and called it in.
The Admiral smiled.

After
two hours of work he looked over to see a pair of people leaning against the
door jam studying the room. "Boss this is Matilda, she's a secretary.
Thistle is her granddaughter, she's eleven." Matt patted the older woman's
shoulder. He nodded to her and the young brunette beside her. The woman had
silver hair done up in a tight bun.

"Pleased
to meet you. I take it your here to run admin?" he asked. She picked up a tablet
and looked it over.

"We'll
see." She started tidying the desk. He looked over to Matt. They moved out
a bit.

"She's
a bit prickly but she's good, very good," Matt explained. The Admiral
nodded.

"Gran's
touchy because of Mallfoy." They turned to see Thistle standing there.
"He dumped her for a younger model she says. She's a bit put out about
that." She shook her head then wrinkled her nose. "I still don't know
what she meant though, younger model." The men looked at each other in
suppressed amusement then shrugged.

"His
loss our gain. Okay well, if she can hack it, the job is hers." Irons
tapped a tablet. "Sprite dump the admin outline and our plan to this and
give her the support she needs." He felt the flow of data for a brief
moment then it stopped.

"Done.
I included a thumbnail briefing on the station and personnel and an updated map
of the station as well."

He
nodded. "Give this to your Gran, it has the outline of the plan I
started." He handed the tablet to Thistle. She took it, gave him a jaunty
salute then playfully skip marched back to her gram.

Matt
chuckled. "Going to be lively with those two. I think I am going to like
it here." He turned and went back to work. The Admiral followed chuckling
softly.

“Believe
it or not we've got an entire dorm cleaned and running. O'Rielly's got his
hands full with the life support for the deck, we've got people coming out of
our ears.” Matt shook his head. “I dunno what you’re planning to do with us
all.”

“Clean,
eat, teach, bathe and repeat. At least for a couple of days till we get things
sorted out. We'll get a daycare class going as soon as possible so the parents
can drop their children off.”

“Cool.”
Matt nodded. “You were working on the admin database?”

“Yes.
It's cleaned out and set up. Sprite did most of the work. I did the electronic
repairs.” He shrugged. “I took a quick look at some of the material she handed
off to me. Unfortunately admin is a small net, really just for paperwork not
for anything else. We're going to set up a separate intranet for the staff and
students later.”

“Okay....”
Matt said shaking his head. That was a bit over his head.

“Make
sure everyone has a communicator and a tablet. I'll have a map and general
outline for each crew chief so we can work together and not at cross purposes,”
Irons instructed. Matt nodded.

“Right
gotcha.” He looked around. “Ah, How do I do that though?”

Irons
smiled. “I put in an order with electronics. There should be a shipment coming
in soon. A couple of them actually.”

“Oh.
Well we did find a room full of these.” Matt held up a tablet.

“Interesting.”
Irons looked it over. “May I?” he asked.

“Sure.”
Matt handed it over. His eyes widened as the admiral jacked in. “Okay it's
clean. Factory new actually. How many did you find?”

“A
few boxes. About a hundred I think. Most of them have dead batteries.”

“Okay.”
Irons looked up.

“I've
updated electronics. The crew chief said he's shifting to battery packs. It
shouldn't take more than an hour to do,” Sprite reported.

“All
right. Sprite said she's uploaded the new list to engineering. Batteries should
be here soon.” He turned to Matt and handed the tablet back.

“I
took the liberty of uploading the plan and station blueprints as well as the college
blueprints to his tablet,” Sprite reported.

Irons
nodded. “You've now got the same maps and outline as Matilda has. I'll upload
changes and completions as we go,” he smiled.