Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (36 page)

"Oops,
spoke to soon. Busted," Sprite reported.

He
hid a sigh as a man in a security coverall approached him. "What were you
doing on my ship?" he asked. The Admiral ignored him. The man snarled and
grabbed his arm. Irons looked down at the hands then back up to his face. Drool
was on his chin, along with a smear of blood on the man’s upper lip and ears.

"I
was checking the log," he informed the man politely.

"What
give you the right?" the man snarled raising a fist. Irons smiled tightly
as a nearby Anvil guard pulled his pulser out of it's holster thumbed the
safety off and tapped it against his thigh. The man lowered his fist and then
let go. "Think you’re so hot with your guns and fancy toys." He wiped
his chin. He spat a fat red glob on the deck.

"Not
at all. I think checking your log is the least we could charge for saving your
ship and crew." He locked eyes with the man until the other looked away
and backed up mumbling.

"Right,
whatever. I'll let the captain know." He turned and staggered off into the
ship. Irons snorted.

"Tattletale.
What would the universe be like without them?" Sprite asked in a light
voice. He shook his head.

"Be
nice, he's just territorial. You wouldn't like it if someone was in my net
would you?" he asked. She remained silent. He chuckled.

The
guard he had left in charge came over with Shelby. Shelby looked cross.
"We're still getting a count, but it looks like about a dozen dead and
thirty wounded." She shook her head. Irons puffed his cheeks out. The
breakage was about what he thought, messy but hopefully they didn't loose any
bright stars in it. "We put the bodies over there for now." She
pointed to a tarp covered area. Several people were near, sobbing softly. He looked
in the indicated direction then nodded.

"Damn.
I hate breakage." He looked at the guard. "We need to get some
non-lethals in your people's hands soonest. There is a time to use deadly force
and a time not too." He shook his head. The guard nodded.

"Most
of the rats left, either onto the ship or back into the station," Shelby
shrugged. "Your going into that ship had us worried for a moment."
She shook her head again as if to clear it. Her shoulders hunched then settled.
He studied her.

"Thought
I was going to commandeer it?" he asked, amused. "The thought did
occur to me, but she's only a star yacht. No weapons. She's be worthless to use
in a fight." He watched as Shelby looked at the guard then blushed and
looked down. "No. that's not it." Irons said finally realizing.
"You thought I was abandoning you?" he asked. She didn't look up. He
swore. "Great that means others did too. Crap. I didn't think of
that." He sighed then swore for a few minutes.

When
he was done Shelby was laughing. "You're done turning the air blue?"
she asked stifling tears. She wiped at her eyes. He shook his head.

"No,
just winded. Sorry, I should have thought of that earlier and the impact."
He looked around. I suppose it's going to hit the station's grapevine. Oh well,
I'll just have to deal with it later." He sighed again and looked up to
see a battered but cleaned exec approaching.

"Feeling
better?" he asked raising his voice.

Enrique
winced then nodded sharply. "Yes," he said rather loud. Shelby
winced. "I just caught the edge of that mess. Thanks I thought I was going
to get it too." The exec shook his head. The guard blushed and moved off.
"I just got off the line with Doc, she's got her hands full. I'm glad you
got that other clinic online, she's sent most of the people that weren't
critical there." Enrique shook his head then winced.

"Headache?"
Irons asked. Then had to ask again louder. "Take an analgesic. It should
help the pain." He pointed to the nearest kiosk. It's security door was
down.

Enrique
shook his head. "Later. We've got our hands full. Smithy archived the data
you sent, I've got a couple techs looking it over now. It's damn scary, like
something out of a holo novel or documentary. I wish it was fiction." He
sighed again. "Any chance they will pass us by?" he asked. Irons
shook his head meaningfully. "That's all we need. Great. Well, we're going
to have to come up with something!" he waved his arms about. "I'm
working on it. I'm going to get back to the launch, give me a sit rep in a
couple hours when things settle. You get an analgesic and someone to check
those ears," he pointed. Enrique nodded.

"I'll
check in with dad then pop in to give you a hand in a bit Admiral," Shelby
said. He gave her a look then smiled sheepishly.

"Could
use all the help we can get. Thanks." He smiled and left.

"So,
what can we have Anvil make while we're out there?" Shelby asked. Her
father gave her an amused look then snorted. The grapevine had been abuzz with
gossip about the pirates. The entire system was on the edge of panic. The
recent crisis on Anvil had some of the more cooler heads working through it.
For now. If they couldn't pull a rabbit out of their collective hat's soon
though all hell was going to break loose.

"Not
much. KEWs and grapeshot most likely. Maybe a few common parts if we have them
on file." He looked over to the Admiral who nodded.

"Kews?
Grapeshot?" Audrey one of the lead industrial engineers asked. "Dare
I ask?" she turned to Shelby.

Shelby
shrugged. "Don't look at me, I'm no expert." She looked to the
Admiral. "KEWs are kinetic energy weapons. Grapeshot is a variant of the
old grapeshot from before spaceflight. It also uses kinetic energy. Basically
you accelerate a slug up to high speeds on a course to impact a target.
Grapeshot is the same way, but it is

a
package of ball bearings or sand that disperses at a preplanned point to spray
out like a shotgun blast." He looked down to his tablet.

"Do
you have any missile parts in your database Admiral? I haven't found anything
in Anvil. It looks like the station just supplied grapeshot and KEWs during the
war," Logan said looking up.

"I
have a few generic parts in my database we can use," Irons replied.

"What
kind of KEWs and grapeshot should we shoot for? Offense or defense?" Logan
asked suddenly.

 "Both."
Irons answered. Shelby sighed in patient exasperation. Audrey looked amused but
also torn.

"Okay
there are two applications for KEWs and grapeshot. The first is offense. We've
covered that. The second is defensive. You fire at an incoming target. Or

with
grapeshot you spray it out along the path of a flight of missiles," Logan
looked over to his daughter. "You see, there are layers of defense on a
ship. We have standoff platforms, ECM, point defense lasers and tractors, point
defense missiles, grapeshot, KEWs, nanite fields, sand spray, the shields, and
finally the armor. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses." He shrugged
and looked down at his tablet once more.

"Nanite
field? Sand spray? Wouldn't they be hard to keep up with a ship?" Audrey
asked, eyebrows raised.

"Right.
You can use tractors and field emitters to keep it with you until it disperses,
but it creates a blind spot for your sensors," Irons answered, not looking
up. "Ah, that is what you meant about good and bad. Okay," Audrey
nodded. "Can a nanite field really work to disable a ship?" she
asked.

"Oh,
it doesn't do that, what it does is it attenuates any incoming beam energy,
shifting it into a harmless spectrum or acting as a prism to redirect it away
from the ship. It also acts as a barrier to incoming missiles like the sand
spray. If they hit it at any sort of high speed they are annihilated,"
Logan smiled. "Usually you don't deploy nanite fields unless you’re in
beam range. At that time it's almost pointless to try though, it would block
your own fire. It can come in handy to cover something sneaky your doing, or to
cover a damaged area of the ship though." Logan shrugged.

"Admiral
Daring used it a few times to moderate success. I was on Invincible when he
used it to cover a spread of plasma torpedoes. He sprayed the fields and then
let our ships get some distance between them. They acted like a curtain. He had
a stealthed recon drone down below the curtain so we could see around it."
Logan smiled.

"Plasma
spread? How did he get through the barrier, you just said it blocks it."
Shelby looked confused.

"Oh
it does normally, but he used tractors to rip firing holes for the torpedoes to
pass through at the last moment. The enemy had turned it's wounded flank to the
field expecting attack from a different vector, the torpedoes came as a nasty
surprise." Logan smiled.

Irons
chuckled. "I'll just bet they did." He shook his head. "I'll
have to remember that one, it may come in handy," he smiled.

"Admiral
can we use that fleet launch to approach the Firefly?" Sergio asked
suddenly excited. The Admiral shook his head as he torqued the compressor to
spec and then covered it with the coverplate. The boy visibly deflated.

"It
doesn't have the legs, she's a simple fleet launch, little more than a cutter,
designed for a couple hours of use, with nowhere near the range we need 
Firefly is on the other side of the system, out near the outer rim," the
Admiral replied after a moment.  He had not been surprised to find Sergio in
the bay trying to work on the launch. He had wanted to tear a strip out of the
young man, but he also wanted to nurture his initiative. They had spent a few
minutes working before Sergio's impatience had gotten the better of him.

"But
if we dock it with a tug?" Senor Valdez suggested from the lock.

"Possible,
but then we would get only a few people on her, not enough to be useful. We
went over this before, in order to get to Firefly we can either sacrifice a tug
or find a longer ranged craft." The Admiral sat back as Sprite ran a list
of ships.

"Wait,
hmm.. What about this sub-light tender? She has the legs, and can even haul the
tug and launch..." The Admiral mused then looked over to the Valdez family
who were quite and sober.

"You
better talk to Enrique the exec. No way can you get her captain to let you fly
her. He swore after his accident no one would," Senor Valdez shook his
head. Junior sighed and nodded as well.

"If
it's to save his own can he will. Besides if we have to we can seize her and
pay him back later," the Admiral smiled. "I'll try to talk to him
first though." He shrugged. The Valdez family nodded in unison.

"Sprite?
Gutierrez? The tug?" he asked walking swiftly.

"Checking.
There is one sub-light tender docked in the docking ring. She's locked down
Admiral. I can't get in. Registered to a Domingo Gutierrez." Irons nodded.

"Checking
station database... that is if Smithy will let me," she sighed patiently.
Irons frowned.

"Got
it. Senor Domingo Gutierrez. He was injured when the ship was last used.
Electrical fire. Refused to allow anyone else to use the ship and refuses to
scuttle it. Claims he booby trapped it."

Irons
scowled. "Any sign that he did?" he asked.

"No
telling Admiral. I can't tell anything from outside her net," Sprite
answered.

"So
we have to go to the captain. If he is alive," Irons grimaced. He could
get through most booby traps, but then again he'd rather not try. Only a damn
fool tried to disarm a trap blind.

"Looks
that way. Unfortunately he isn't on the station map."

Irons
scowled again then swore. “Get with Shelby or Horatio. They should know him. My
bet is he is in the engineering sections, not the luxury quarters."

"Why?"
the AI asked. "What brought on that bit of deductive reasoning?"

"If
he had been in the luxury quarters he wouldn't have been denied medical access.
And he would have sold the tug for money," Irons shrugged. Hopefully the
captain was still alive.

"Thin
Admiral."

"Best
we have to go on," he replied with a frown. "Do you have a make for
the tender?"

"Generic
sub-light tender. Long haul. Long legs but slow," Sprite answered. several
grainy images popped up on his HUD.

"It
looks like a Galactic Electric fusion drive. The shield pods are from three
different craft," Irons said. "Shoot an order to Angie, start making
basic parts. Proteus, pull a list together, generic coolant system, reactor
parts, life support, shields. Cross reference with the database."

He
dodged a pair of techs then stopped. "Do either one of you know where I
can find a Captain Gutierrez?" he asked. They paused. One looked at the
other then turned. He tipped his hat back as he looked at the Admiral.

"You
the Admiral I hear talk about?" he asked, leaning on the handle of the
push pull.

"That's
right," Irons said. He flattened against the wall to allow another group
with a push pull to pass. They stopped behind the first.

"What
the hell Benny?" Benny pointed to the Admiral.