Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (32 page)

"You've
got a three thirty with the command staff, and a firm five pm supper, so
possibly after that?" Sprite asked. He nodded. "Accessing...
interesting. He is amused about your Valdez supper, apparently he has heard
about that." The Admiral's grimace turned into a forced chuckle.

"Whatever
works in our favor."

“Mr.
Knox says he can take you now or after seven," Sprite finished.

"Now
sounds good, give me a map and tell him I am on my way," he nodded and
exited the room.

"How
do I look?" Irons asked as he tugged at the hem of his work cover all.

"Sure
you don't want to change into your dress uniform?" Sprite teased. He
sighed. "Right, you're fine." Sprite pulled up a security camera feed
from behind him. He turned. "Fluff on your right bicep." He looked
over and flicked it off. His work coverall was his standard outfit, a basic
navy coverall with the subdued rank insignia on his shoulders, collar, and forearms.
His right shoulder had the flag of the Federation, the left was bare.

The
door opened and a young man blinked at him. "Can... can I help you?"
the man asked tentatively. He gave the Admiral a look.

"I
have an appointment with Mr. Knox," he nodded to the young man. The young
man looked startled then nodded.

"You
don't look like an Admiral." His eyebrows were beetled together in
thought. Irons chuckled.

"And
you've met how many?" he asked stepping into the room.

"Um
ah..." The boy looked down and then pointed. "He's in the studio,
through there turn left then right." Irons nodded and went on his way with
a smile. He dodged an elf who didn't even look up as she sprinted down the
corridor.

"Hurry
up! We've lost the number two feed again!" a voice called. He turned.
"Anything I can do to help?" he asked looking into the dark
electronics cabinet. "Not unless you can rewire a series forty four
microwave transmitter in three minutes," a voice snarled.

"As
it happens, I can." The Admiral stepped into the cabinet and looked at the
work station. The transmitter was torn apart, it's innards scattered over
several bay units. Wiring draped here and there, some to civilian parts, others
to military ones.

"Admiral
there are several military.." He waved Sprite off.

"Here."
He raised his right arm and let Proteus go to work. The elf stepped back with a
high pitched squeak. After a minute of work Irons frowned. "The encrypt
module is fried. I can't help you there. I've run a bypass through your GNU,
try it now." He felt his arm return to normal as he turned to the tech.

The
tech's wide goat like eyes blinked at him for a moment then the tech tapped at
a tablet nearby. "It works!"  He turned back to the Admiral who
shrugged. "How.. I " The tech rubbed at his goatee.

"No
problem. Let me know if you need another hand." He turned to note an older
bald man standing there.

"Granny
did you get the transmitter.. oh!" He looked at the Admiral in surprise.
"Take a wrong turn I take it?" He asked.

The
Admiral chuckled. "Not exactly, but not too far off the mark. I heard
Granny here having trouble and stuck my nose in. Hope you don't mind." He
shrugged.

"He
fixed the transmitter. His arm..." He motioned to the Admiral's arm.

"What
about it? Seems fine to me. This way Admiral." The man motioned him out.
"I'm Knox by the way. Thanks for that, whatever you did." The Admiral
chuckled. "No problem." He followed the man into the studio. He felt
Sprite tapping the circuitry in the room and surrounding area. "Impressive,"
he nodded as he sat on an indicated stool. The man handed him a headset.

"That
won’t be necessary." He waved it off. Sprite had already established a
link and was ready.

“Seriously...”
a tech said holding a headset. Irons shook his head and tapped his jaw.

“I've
got it covered.”

"Suit
yourself." Knox looked over to a tech who was counting down. "We're
on in five.. four.." She switched to fingers. When she got to one Knox
yodeled. The Admiral tried not to roll his eyes as his host went into his
introductory act. "And we have a special guest in studio today loyal
listeners, that's right, the one, the only
Fleet Admiral
Irons! You've
heard about him by now, he's been the talk of the system tearing into Anvil,
rebuilding the station. Is it true you’re a sleeper?" he asked.

"Yes,
I was picked up nearly two years ago. I came here on Io11." He nodded.
Knox's eyes went wide when he realized the Admiral's voice was transmitted to
his equipment.

"How?"
he started. "Well you are full of surprises." He shook his head.
"All right, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing the
Admiral, he's a tall fellow, wearing a navy issue coverall probably dating back
to the Xeno war. Why not a more.. formal uniform Admiral?” He looked over to
the Admiral who smiled.

"I
am a working Admiral, I prefer to get my hands dirty." He shrugged.

"I
heard. It looks like you did a bang up job repairing my microwave
transmitter." Knox looked away. The tech gave him a thumbs up. "Now,
there are persistent rumors that you are the Port Admiral in disguise, his
clone, or a relation..."

Irons
scowled. "First, I have no familial relations here that I know of. I am
not a clone of anyone. I am a Fleet Admiral in the Federation navy." He
shrugged again.

"You
mean you
were
right?" Knox asked smiling.

"No,
I
am,
" Irons answered softly.

"But
Admiral, the Federation is dead," his host reminded him.

"No,
not while I and others like me exist. We will restore the Federation," he
nodded to the startled host.

"Well,
a man after my own heart! You intend to rebuild the Federation?" he asked.

"Of
course, It's better than wallowing in the dark waiting for the life support to
fail right?" He gave the reporter a challenging look.

"Okay
you've got me there. You're right. So, you had a hand in rebuilding the
reactors? The Port Admiral claims he did it. He traded parts with the Io for
what Logan needed," Knox replied.

"No,
I did that. The crew of Io 11 and I spent the past fifteen months rebuilding
her. When I arrived here I set in to rebuild the Valdez family tug business with
them, then when I was informed about the power problem I stepped in and lent a
hand. The exec has been a great help clearing the way for me. Chief Logan has
done an excellent job training the staff." He nodded to the tech who
blushed and looked away.

Knox
followed his gaze then snapped back to the Admiral. "Speaking of training,
what is with your newest project? A college? Aren't you getting ahead of
yourself?"

Irons
laughed. "Not at all. We have hundreds of eager people ready and willing
to work if they just had the training, equipment, and space to do it. Now that
we've got the power and industry back on track we're providing the training so
they and the children of the station can learn." He smiled.

"So
you’re not kidnapping people for organ harvesting?" Knox asked.

Irons
was startled. "Certainly not! There is no need for that, we can clone any
organ needed. Whoever told you that needs their head examined!" He shook
his head. "People are always ready to think the worst of a situation. The
doctor has her hands full helping people. She has volunteers like Sara who have
some training to help but we always have room for more." He shrugged and
hid an internal wince. Matilda and Doc were going to howl over that comment
when they heard.

Knox
nodded. "All right, more in a minute folks but first a word from our
sponsor..."

Irons
sighed in relief as Knox nodded to the tech. "We're clear," she said
after a moment. "Three minutes," she cautioned holding three fingers
up.

"Not
bad Irons, you may have won a few over with that," Knox replied.

"I
have a proposal for you, well several. I'd like you to open a flat screen and
maybe a tridee broadcast in time, but could you also teach a class or two on
journalism?" Irons asked suddenly.

Knox
looked amused. He picked up a water bottle and took a couple sips then wiped
sweat from his brow. All the electronics in the compartment were putting out
more heat than the life support was capable of handling it seemed. "We'll
see." He looked over to the clock. "Ready for round two?" he
asked with a smirk.

"No
problem," Irons smiled.

"Admiral
if I may ask, how are you doing it?" Knox held up his headset. Irons
smiled.

"I
have implants. When we're done I'll give your techs a hand with a few things if
they would like." He held up his right arm and morphed it. Knox and the
tech's eyes widened comically then his narrowed in furious thought.

“Well,
that answers that question, you really are from the past." He shook his
head. "Transmitting in four.. three... "

"Well,
that was interesting." Irons breathed deep as he stretched. The rest of
the interview had gone as expected. Knox had declined the invitation for him
help with the electronics but the harried techs had looked so appealing to them
both that he'd reluctantly relented and allowed Irons to do his best. His
systems were far from perfect, but they were running much better then before
Irons mussed. He'd have to remember to send them some equipment sometime soon.
He looked around the corridor then went to the nearest lift.

"Not
that one Admiral, it's down for maintenance, take the other around the trunk,
port side," Sprite informed him. He nodded to a passing couple then
followed the directions quietly.

"Admiral
can you please come to Ops? We have a situation developing," Smithy called
over the overhead.

"He
sounds anxious. This is interesting. It is a bit early for the command staff
meeting. Let me check.... Damn, yes it is. Admiral long range sensors detected
a hyper trace several hours ago, we're receiving a mayday now." He nodded
as he tapped the lift controls and stopped the lift. "Redirecting lift
now," Sprite informed him.

"Give
me a sitrep Sprite." He looked at the cleaned car and then relaxed against
the handrail and closed his eyes. The data began to flow onto his HUD.

"We
don't have much, Logan just finished rebuilding the long range sensors
yesterday. They were running a tracking exercise when they picked up the hyper
wake at the Agnosta jump point several hours ago. The exec had them localize
the wake as part of the exercise. A moment ago the station received a mayday on
the same bearing as the incoming ship." Sprite fed him a map of the system
with the starship's emergence and course to the station.

"Anything
in the mayday?" he asked.

"They
are out of fuel. Apparently they were going to Agnosta but were chased out by
pirates. They just barely made it here." He grunted at that. Running out
of fuel and left to drift was a nightmare for any spacer.

"Pirates?"
he asked.

"Several.
The captain claims a pirate fleet. The captain sounds terrified. They used up
their fuel coming here, that's why they came in so far out. They are under
power but they don't have enough to get all the way here." He nodded at
that as the lift stopped and the doors opened.

"Excuse
me," he stepped around the guard and nodded to Enrique.

"Admiral
we've got a situation..." Enrique said waving him over. The Admiral held
up a hand.

"Sprite
informed me in the lift. Anything beyond the first transmission?" he
asked.

"No,
They are babbling over and over about pirates and damage. They won’t receive
anything from us for another five hours," the exec said, sounding
disgusted.

"Can
we redirect Sergio to the ship? Have him get them in with the fuel he
has?" the Admiral asked.

"Maybe."
The exec looked down suddenly. "She's a star yacht, so maybe. Let me
check." He turned to a crew member and started to murmur to her.

"Admiral
we need that fuel," Smithy said. Irons turned to the holo avatar. Over the
past week the avatar had begun to fill out from its wizened, shrunken form. It
was starting to look more like it did in its prime. Still grizzled and bent,
but muscle was peeking through here and there.

"I
know that, but we have enough for several weeks and we can get more. They
can't," Irons pointed to the yacht. "Besides, they have what we
need." He looked at the plot.

"What
is that?" the AI asked.

"You
of all beings on this station should know the answer to that question.
Information. We need it. Badly. We need to know what happened, and if the
pirates are coming here." His voice carried enough to shock the ops staff
into silence. Suddenly he was the center of attention for the full staff. He
nodded.

"Right,
Do we have a timetable from them? What about Sergio?" He looked over to
the exec.

"Sergio
is on the other side of the planet. we can't get him yet. He may have already
received the... hold it getting something." He held his hand up to his
earwig. He grimaced then shook his head. "Looks like you,re getting your
wish Admiral, Sergio got the message before we did and is already in transit.
He's going to dock with them in eleven and a half hours." Enrique shook
his head. "Damn kids," he sighed. "Always got to play the
hero." He grimaced.