Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (45 page)

"Ready
Admiral. Forward graser mount powered at ten percent. That's a petawatt of
power. Shutting down all nonessential systems to reroute power. Target lock.
Firing." A blast of invisible coherent energy slammed into the asteroid,
changing it's normally slow tumble. A cloud of debris started to form. The
lights on the bridge dimmed slightly. "Attenuating for debris cloud.
Tractors and bussard ram scoops initialized. Maneuvering... got it. Power reserves
down to three percent. Firing second pass." On the overhead they could see
the highlighted path of the beam as it chewed the rock up into small bits. Some
of the bits were super heating into gas. Some of the concrete materials were
reaching their molten points. "Tractors engaged. Ram scoops are pulling in
the debris cloud now. Initializing molecular furnace. We're getting about a
thirty nine point nine percent return over energy expenditure Admiral. I expect
that to go up as we hit high concentration pockets," Firefly reported
after a few minutes. Sergio was staring at the holo emitter in awe.

"Damn,"
he said softly over and over.

Shelby
chuckled. "I think he's hooked. I know I am. It beats staring at a fusion
reactor's read outs all day any day." She shook her head.  “Where are we
going to put it all?”

“The
material we can't use we'll either store or use as reaction mass for the
reactors or the plasma drive. Most likely the plasma drive,” Firefly responded.
The asteroid was quickly disintegrating before their eyes. “The additional mass
as fuel will accelerate our transit time to the station.”

Gutierrez
moaned a half hour later when there was little but rubble left. "Damn,
that was fast!" He looked at the Admiral. "We've got how many ships
with weapons like that coming our way?" he asked.

The
admiral's hand flexed. "Too many. But none can match Firefly once the ship
has been repaired and has a proper crew," Shelby answered for him.
"Checking. Most of the gases are hydrogen and oxygen with some traces of
nitrogen and argon. For helium it looks like we're getting an average of one
hundred twenty parts per million. There is a slight amount of helium three,
barely a kilogram." She shook her head. "How did it get there?"
she looked up then shrugged and went back to her station.

"It
was most likely deposited on the surface by the solar wind over the eons. I
tried to pick some up but it is too diffuse for my collectors," Firefly
replied. Shelby grunted.

"Right,
well, we're getting a good return." She looked up at the Admiral. "We
should be about half done with the collection phase in an hour. Jimmy is taking
a nap, do you want me to wake him? Have him start up a replicator?" She
raised an eyebrow.

"No
need. I can do that," Firefly replied. "I have the critical list up.
I do not have the material for most of it, but I can skip down to the ones we
can replicate with the material on hand. The first part is under construction
now. I am stacking the parts on the tray and warming up another replicator so
we can begin running two at the same time." The Admiral nodded as Firefly
opened a side window view of the replicator. A countdown was displayed under
the window.

"Give
Jimmy until the parts are out of the replicator to rest then have him eat and
pick them up. Is Angie up next to rest?" He looked over to Shelby. She
nodded.

Gutierrez
yawned. "I could use some coffee," he muttered. Shelby smiled.

"Me
too." Sergio got up then looked over to the Admiral who nodded. He went
over to the bridge food replicator and tapped in an order of coffee. After a
moment it lit and coffee mugs appeared. He handed one each to the others.

"God
I love modern tech." Shelby smiled in appreciation as she took the
steaming mug. Gutierrez chuckled and saluted Sergio with the mug.

"Thank
you lad. I agree with the Sheila, it's a wonder." He took a sip then
studied the mug. "Needs sugar though," the battered captain growled.
Irons and Shelby chuckled.

"Admiral
we're receiving a broadband hail from Anvil." Shelby looked up at the
report from the ship's AI.

"Is
there something wrong?" she asked.

"Most
likely wondering why we haven't checked in," Gutierrez chuckled.

“Well,
we have been a bit busy to call in,” Shelby said shaking her head. “Seems like
they are worried.”

 "Probably.
Open a channel Firefly," the Admiral nodded.

"Is
this thing on? Um, Admiral Irons can you hear me?" a nervous woman asked.
“We're getting worried here. Are you coming back?” He knew the laser's return
message would take the better part of a three hours to get back.

"We
read you Anvil, this is Admiral Irons. We are en route to the station. Updated
ETA is...”  Sergio tapped his controls and an ETA came up on the overhead.
"Just under twenty one hours from now." He nodded a thanks to Sergio.

“We've
been a bit busy getting the systems sorted out to report in," he turned to
Shelby who shrugged.

“We're
in Firefly. She's a bit banged up but functioning as a ship once more. We've
even started on repairs. Make sure repair teams are ready when we dock."
He sat down at the communications console and tapped the control. "We're
uploading a list of parts we need now. We're going to need them ASAP. That's as
soon as possible. The sooner the better. Also ask the Doc to meet me when we
dock." Sprite flashed an "Upload complete," on his HUD.
"File sent. Make sure the exec and Logan get it and get on it." He
turned to the Captain with a shrug.

About
six hours later they got a response. "Um ah, roger Firefly, We'll be
waiting," the communication tech's voice changed. "I can't believe
it! This I gotta see! The docks are going to be jammed!" Voices from ops
could be heard over the link. Gutierrez grimaced.

"Hot
mike Anvil. Firefly out," the captain growled then cut the channel then
shrugged. "Looks like we're going to be popular," he chuckled. He ran
his hand over the side of his burnt face. "Think the Doc will be ready for
me?" he asked.

"She
should be, it doesn't take that long to clone skin grafts. The arm and leg are
a bit more complex, especially the hand. I'd say she'll need another week or
two to finish the arm." He waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I've
had it done a time or too, it takes some getting used to at first but it's a
lot better than in the past," he grimaced.

Gutierrez
nodded. "Right, back to work." He tapped the controls with his good
hand. "We've got another pair of rocks just off our course to the station,
should we divert to pick them up?" he looked up to the Admiral.

"Let
me check the sensor feed," Irons replied. He tapped the controls then
frowned as the spectrograph lit. "No.. no, the first rock is iron and
gold, not something we really need," he said slowly. "The
second..." He tapped in the request. "No it's a soft platinum. We
could use the rare material, but the iron won’t do much for us, and the platinum
can be picked up later." He shrugged.

"Right,
besides we don't want to divert and cost time," Gutierrez nodded.
"Admiral this is Angie, we've got the harmonic in pod three stabilized
now. You were right it was the sensor and drive software. Jimmy found a couple
of loose connections too. Firefly is running another diagnostic now. We should
have it up soon." Angie signed off with a click.

"Pod
three? Did she say three?" Sergio looked up.

"Starboard
stern. She's third in on the ventral side." The Admiral tapped his link and
fed Sergio's station the location.

"Right
so when we bring it up, will it destabilize the wedge or  should we cut back
while we initialize it?" Sergio looked up confused. The Admiral pursed his
lips.

"Let
me check." He ran a sim. The first sim was with drive coming up while the
ship was under power. The pod quickly destabilized the wedge and inertial
dampeners. "Well, that won't work," he muttered as he reset the sim.
He dropped the sim to half power then brought up the pod with the others. The
wedge fluctuated then stabilized.

"Right,
when they are ready drop to half our current speed, drop the port pods in the
stern ring to maintenance levels then sync the entire stern pod group and bring
them up together. That will sort it out. I'm shooting you the sim now, he
nodded. "Just in case Shelby, you better have O'Reilly beef up the
inertials in case we get a fluctuation or harmonic." He looked up to
Shelby who was busy tapping at her controls and talking into her ear wig. After
a moment she gave a thumbs up.

"Got
it," she said.

"Program
ready," Sergio nodded.

"Angie,
we're ready to reinitialize the stern group on your go," Irons said into
the overhead.

"Roger,
we're ready on our end."

"Then
make it so Mr. Valdez," Gutierrez surprised them all with his formality.
The Admiral smiled as Sergio tapped his controls.

"Right
it's coming up, it's unstable... "

"Don't
try to chase it Sergio, let Firefly handle the sub harmonics," the Admiral
cautioned.

"Right.
I have better sensors and response time then you fleshies do," Firefly
responded. The overhead showed the wedge field fluctuate for a moment then
stabilize. They felt a ripple of nausea as the inertials stabilized.

"Sorry,"
Shelby said.

"Don't
be. It worked," Gutierrez gasped.

"Revised
ETA to station fifteen hours thirty one minutes. I will inform the
station," Firefly reported. Irons nodded.

"Good
work people. Let's see if we can do better after a break." He nodded to
Sergio. "Why don't you go take a couple hours off and get something to
eat. Firefly and I can mind the store while you’re gone." The young man
looked a bit mulish but then his stomach groaned. He grimaced, clutching his
traitorous belly as Shelby chuckled.

"A
couple of million kilometers away and mom still finds a way to mother me... even
if it is with an avatar." He shook his head as he got up. He was a bit
shaky.

"Rest
in the captain's wardroom. It has a food replicator too. Make a few blankets
while you’re there if you need," the Admiral waved. Sergio nodded and
waved back as he walked out. Gutierrez stretched carefully. "I think I'll
join him. I think I'll get the blankets from my ship though, save on
power." He picked up his crutch and struggled to his feet. Carefully he
limped off bouncing in the reduced gravity.

"We're
making final approach to the station Admiral. And I thought I was
damaged," Firefly commented wryly.

Irons
chuckled. "It's looking better than it did when I first got here. We still
have a long way to go however." He shook his head. The station drifted on
the overhead holo projector. Slowly it turned in place. He could see small
craft, most likely work pods and hardened EVA suited workers out working on the
hull.

"Crossing
shield zone. Wedge is down, RCS primed. Firing." They felt a buck as the
ship turned. "Reorientation complete. Slowing approach for dock,"
Sergio reported. He was totally focused on his display. "Two hundred 
meters and closing. Approach speed is a bit high. Adjusting now." They
felt another buck. "Course correction. We're still going two meters too
fast. Correcting again. Ten meters to dock." The Admiral winced as he
imagined the ship's armored side grinding into the side of the station dock.
There was a slight ripple then the holo blinked.

"Docking
complete. Not as good as in my heyday, but not bad for a civilian,"
Firefly commented. Sergio blushed.

"You
could say that again. First time he's docked anything larger then a tug or an
asteroid," Gutierrez teased. Firefly's avatar swirled into being.

"You
are kidding?!" The roman centurion turned, virtual cloak billowing behind
it like wings. "You're not kidding. You let a small craft pilot man the
con?" he turned to the Admiral. He shrugged.

"Seemed
like a good idea at the time. There is a first time for everyone. I knew you or
I could back him up if he needed it. Fortunately he did okay." He nodded
to Sergio who blushed.

“Those
practice sims paid off,” the young man mumbled.

"Very
well. We're going to have to talk about this later Admiral," Firefly
turned to the crew. "I have civilians attempting to board." He
brought up a holo of the docks.

"The
work crews. Let them in," the Admiral waved. "Just pretend you're in
a docking slip Firefly. Same protocols. We're going to do what we can to refit
and repair you as fast as possible. Give them access to as much as they need...
So long as they don't get access to the weapons and armory without clearance
from me." He nodded to himself after a moment. “Lock the bridge down as
well Firefly, I'll be back." He had noted Enrique the exec and the doctor
in the crowd.

He
made his way to the docks, passing people in the corridors. Some were looking
around in bewilderment. Firefly had holo sprites directing the traffic to the
best of its ability. "Taking on stores was never this much of a
hassle," it grumbled over the link.