Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (56 page)

“Um?”
Doc said then looked up and rolled her shoulders. “I've got a couple requests
for elves who have signed onto your navy.”

“Indeed?”
Irons asked, eyebrow cocked. He turned his attention to the camera again.

“Indeed.
I just checked the new recruit roster,” Firefly replied. “Uploading it to you
now Admiral.”

“All
right.” He nodded as the file appeared on his HUD then scrolled fast. “Anyone
we know?”

“A
few. Purple Blossom for one,” Sprite reported from the desk speaker as the file
stopped.

“Ah.”
He nodded. That explained Oberon's comment from a week ago.

“She's
passed the academy entrance exam. She's got some good tactical skills. Top ten percent.
She wants a bridge slot,” Sprite said.

“Which
is my other problem,” the doctor said waving her hand in exasperation. “Where
do you shoe horn it all into their tiny bodies?”

“Doctor,
I believe the nanites can handle it. I am checking... Yes. I have the files on
hand. It will take approximately ten hours to reprogram the nanites to handle
the elf bioform however,” Sprite replied.

Irons
frowned. “Then do them last.” He shook his head. “As much as we need officers,
getting as many people through as we can is more important now. Do them in a
batch after you've got the primary candidates out. You can also hold back those
that need additional work that way as well. Try to do all the humanoids first.
Then retrain for each group. You could do minor repairs on them during initial
check ups though.”

“Telling
me how to do my job?” the doctor asked amused.

“You
asked, I answered.” He shrugged. “Besides, you're only supposed to be doing
basics right now Doc.”

“Understood,”
the doctor said nodding. She waved the files away.

“Doc
I also want you to add a chip,” he said cocking his head.

“Oh?”
she asked, sitting back and arching her eyebrow in query.

“I
want everyone to have a wireless transceiver set up like I have. It doesn't
have to be as effective, but I definitely want them to be able to send and
receive data without having to jack in.”

“That...”

“It
is a minor addition. I've got the specs you can use and I had the electronics
replicators turn out packets this morning. They are doing a run of a thousand
to start.”

“Oh.”

“You
can start by adding it to Commander Logan. That will fix his jury rigged set
up.”

“Ah.”
She nodded. “Okay. That will give me a hands on look at his implants as well?”

“Yes,”
he nodded. “It is designed as plug and play so you can easily add it.”

“Okay.
I can live with that.”

“Carry
on,” Irons said walking out.

"Like
finding a needle in a hay stack," Harris said sounding smug.

"What's
a hay stack?" Dan asked looking up. Harris looked confused as well.

"You
know, I don't really know." He looked down and tapped at his controls for
a moment.

"Then
why'd you say it?" Dan asked. Irons snorted.

"A
hay stack is a pile of hay, usually on a farm," Irons explained. Dan
looked over to him and then nodded.

"Oh.
Okay, what's hay?" he asked. Harris smiled.

"Hay
is a form of grass, it is a staple animal feed," Irons explained
patiently. Sprite was sputtering on his HUD. Her avatar was covering her mouth.

Even
Janice looked amused. Irons felt the corners of his mouth pucker involuntarily.

"Okay,
I get that, but, what's a needle and what does that have to do with hay?"
Dan asked. Harris started to mutter darkly. Janice rolled her eyes.

Sprite's
silent smothered laughter, silent to everyone but the Admiral turned into a
chuckle of mirth. "Better quit while your ahead," she laughed.

Irons
sighed. "A needle is a tiny metal or other material object used in sewing,
the expression means... oh never mind. Look it up," Irons waved as he
realized they were pulling his leg.

Janice
grinned and then relaxed, chuckling softly to herself. Harris just shook his
head. He rumbled a sigh of patience and then went back to running his sim.

"How
are negotiations going?" Irons asked as he entered Ops. The exec looked up
and smiled.  He wanted to wring as much work out of everyone as he could. To do
that they needed to be on the same page. Hence these meetings each time Firefly
came into port.

"We're
getting there. We're in final talks with the Horse head thirteen colony out in
the Oort cloud," the exec smiled as he handed a tablet to a nearby tech.

"The
one that was about to have a reactor failure?" Irons asked concerned.

"Yes,
they were pretty desperate. They weren't happy about dealing with us. The past
administration had a lot to do with that," Enrique frowned.

Irons
nodded. "But you told them you're under new management I take it?" he
asked taking a seat. A tech handed him a cup of coffee.

"Something
like that. Though it was hard to explain you were not the Port Admiral."
Enrique grimaced as he sat down and picked up his cup. A steward came forward
and topped it off.

"It
seems that they caught on to the Port Admiral's cloning trick," Smithy
filled in. Irons looked over to the avatar and nodded as Enrique grimaced.

"Knox's
broadcast had a helping hand in that. When they heard the current Port Admiral
suffered a mischief trying to run away, and his double had a ... let’s say
unfortunate accident in the cloning lab, well, they were more interested."

Doc
came up behind them and sat down. "No qualms about that accident
Doc?" Irons asked with one eyebrow raised.

She
picked up a muffin and took a bite then shrugged. "I didn't do it."
She buttered the muffin, not looking up to meet their knowing eyes.

"Right.
Sure." Enrique shrugged. "Anyway, I called Knox in and he set them
straight by rebroadcasting the footage of his death and the celebrations on the
station that followed. I don't think it would have mattered much though, they
are nearly out of power and they are right on the least time path from the
Agnosta jump point to the station," Enrique grimaced.

"Nothing
gets a person to focus more than when they are about to be hung," Sprite
murmured. Irons nodded. "Right. So they tossed in with us out of
desperation huh?" He eyed the exec.

"What
did you expect?" Enrique shrugged as he set his cup down. "It wasn't
like they had a whole lot of choice. Their emitters are down all over, their
last remaining micro reactor is almost dead..." He shrugged. "There
wasn't much left to lose."

Doc
nodded. "Right so what are we getting out of it?" She blushed.
"I don't mean to be the money grubbing type," she mumbled then picked
up her cup and took a sip to hide her gaff. Enrique cleared his throat in the
ensuing silence.

"Well,
actually, a lot. They are shipping out a couple kilo tons of water ice, along
with an equal amount of processed deuterium, helium 3 and some trace elements
we don't have here." He looked over to Logan who nodded. "We'll have
to filter everything of course."

Logan
nodded. "Of course. Probably what did their reactors in in the first
place. Impurities probably clogged the injectors up." He shook his head.
"Always a problem." He sat back and sighed.

"Right,
so what are we giving them in exchange?" Irons asked.

"A
rebuilt micro reactor, some parts for their existing ones, some common medical
supplies, Intel on the enemy, and a few other bits and bobbles," Smithy
answered. His hands spread apart and a window appeared between them. The list
scrolled then stopped.

"Right.
We also get to use them as a forward base," Shelby said as she came up
behind her father. "Morning dad." She kissed her father on the cheek
then sat down beside him.

"Forward
base?" Doc asked confused.

"We're
going to ship mines out to them with the tender. Also Jorge volunteered to go
out with his tug and then spread the mines," Shelby answered as she picked
up a cup of coffee the steward left at her elbow. She turned and thanked him
with a nod then took a sip.

"It
will free up Firefly to go on a salvage run, and more importantly, a shakedown
cruise," Irons nodded. He'd been delayed again on doing that with this
latest round of refits. Teething issues were a pain when he was on a time
crunch. They really didn't need the headache and aggravation. Then again it was
better for them to crop up now, than when they were in combat.

 "Right.
I was thinking about those two corvettes here and here," Shelby waved to
the system plot as she brought it up.

The
others bent forward. "We can shape a course here, loop out and do a
slingshot here, and then we'd be on course for this wreck here," she pointed
to a corvette. "She's only a system defense corvette, the Sun-Yat, but she
was a good ship." Shelby looked over to Irons who nodded.

"Sub-light?"
he asked. He had already decided to go after Sun-Yat but he was curious about
her reasoning. He'd already planned on it after Captain Gutierrez had told him
about her on the long flight to Firefly. Shelby was coming to her own
conclusion though. He was happy she was thinking and planning ahead.

"Yes.
She took a couple hits when the Xeno's hit the planet. Crew were fried when
their hab modules were breached. The computer broadcast a mayday then shut down
for later retrieval. No one bothered once the planets were destroyed,"
Smithy answered.

"Huh,
I didn't know about them. Sun-Yat's condition isn't in the data I have,"
Irons said. Gutierrez hadn't mentioned any of that.

"Oh
she's real all right, Gutierrez sighted her a decade or so, right dad?"
Shelby looked over to her father for confirmation. Logan nodded.

"You
see Admiral, there are a lot of derelicts here, so there are a lot of Dutchman
stories. Sun-Yat was one of them. Gutierrez never put its location or condition
in the computer. He just registered the claim." He looked over to Smithy
who grimaced and nodded confirmation.

"Afraid
I would have mentioned it to the Port Admiral?" the AI asked. Logan
shrugged.

"He's
right, at the time I would have," the AI said simply. Shelby's eyes
flashed in quick anger but her father's restraining hand on hers cooled her.

"What
about the other?" Irons asked.

"She's
also a sub-light militia corvette, but she's worse off. She's got no engines
and she's been picked over thoroughly," Logan answered. “We may want to do
the same if we need parts.”

"Probably
what captain Gutierrez was planning with Sun-Yat," Enrique said after a moment
of thought. He smiled as Logan nodded confirmation.

"Right,
so we've got two possible leads, plus this battleship and these others."
Irons pointed them out on the plot. Sprite fed the data to the plot,
highlighting each.

"The
battleship?" Enrique laughed. "She's nothing but a shell Admiral! She
was picked over even before the Xeno war!" He sat back tossing a stylus
onto the desk. Shelby grimaced but nodded in agreement.

"He's
right. They wanted to turn her into a museum back before the war, even wanted
to use her as a militia ship during the war, but a survey crew wrote her off
each time," she sighed shaking her head.

Doc
spread her hands apart. "At this point, beggars can't be choosers
right?" She looked to the Admiral then each of them. Irons was amused to
see consternation then annoyance, and finally gruff respect color each of them.

"Right,
but let’s start with the possible and leave the impossible to the future,"
Irons nodded. "We've got several recruits that the yacht left behind, I'd
like to use them as the core crew for one or both ships. Mayweather is really
shaping up as good officer material." Logan nodded confirmation.

Enrique
looked mulish. "I don't like that idea. What if they revolt?" he
asked. Logan snorted.

"Where
are they going to go?" he spread his hands apart, then hastily stopped
when his drink started to slosh. "I mean, the corvettes are sub-light
craft, militia type. Barely a warship really!" He shook his head.

"Dad's
right, besides, we've got to take chances with them sometime. We're pretty
spread out as it is, and let’s face it, not many of our people have ship
experience." Shelby waved to the system. Reluctantly Doc and the exec
nodded.

"That's
why you’re putting them on the corvettes?" Doc asked suddenly catching on.
"So they can't run?" she asked looking at the Admiral. He grimaced
then nodded.

"I'll
admit, that is one of the reasons. I'm keeping a few for Firefly, Janice is a
pretty good helms woman." He shrugged.

"Right,
but Mayweather is a cold blooded bitch. She's going to be trouble you wait and
see," the Doc replied.

Shelby
grimaced. “She's good. Damn good. I've seen her fight in the sims. She does
have a temper and can be... overwhelming sometimes though.”