Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (71 page)

Sprite
smiled. "None taken. It's a bit the other way though, It's hard for me to
put up with the Admiral sometimes," she grinned. Irons chuckled as several
people froze at that.

"Sprite
is a bit more than a basic military sentient AI, she's been growing over the
past several years. She serves as my staff and has the rank of Lieutenant
Commander," he shrugged.

"We're
going to have to set up several things, including a chain of command, TOE,
that's table of organization, Then there are the basic chain of command for
logistics, training, medical, engineering, JAG, and other things," he
waved.

"I'd
like to put in for command of Firefly," Mayweather said quietly. Most of
the staff turned to her in surprise. "If you’re going to fall back on your
flag rank."

Harris
and Dan both started to object but Irons waved them off. "One of the
things we've got to work out, among many. For instance, Logan here has
seniority over you First lieutenant," he waved to Logan who shrugged.

"I
honestly never thought about being on a command deck and taking the hot seat
for very long Admiral. I'm a bit set in my ways," Logan shrugged.

Irons
nodded.  "You did fine with the pirates." He turned to Mayweather.
"You've got more of the mindset than some, but you've got a couple others
ahead of you." He indicated Shelby, Harris, and Dan.

“Lieutenant
Commander Logan has indicated an interest but is still green and needs more
work with her tactical skills.” He turned to the two Lieutenants. Both men sat
up straighter and started to smile smugly. "Both of these gentlemen have
tactical skills and training but lack direct command experience however,"
Irons said, making them both seem to deflate. He smiled. "But, we've got
another pair of ships coming in." He nodded to Firefly.

"That's
correct Admiral, the Fuentes has answered my initial ping and is limping to
port under auxiliary power. We're sending out a tug to speed her along. We also
have that destroyer to rebuild," Firefly looked over to Mayweather.

"I'll
take her," Logan said quietly. Irons looked at him surprised. "She's
a mess right? It will take time to rebuild her. I can do it. She's not going to
need a full crew, and I know how to handle repairs," Logan explained. “I
can oversee building the yard as temporary head of Bu-ships and oversee repairs
to the other ships as well.”

Irons
nodded. "All right, that's one. That opens up Sun-Yat." He looked
over to Harris.

"Who
me?" Harris asked looking surprised. Irons raised an eyebrow.
"Okay," Harris said with a sigh. Irons nodded.

"And
that leaves tactical open. Dan, you're moving over," Irons said turning to
Dan. Dan nodded.

"What
about medical?" Standish asked.

"Well,
we need the usual things. Medical training, medical personnel on ships,
hospital facilities, and equipment. We also need medical personnel to do
implants," Irons explained. Standish and doctor Thornby nodded.

"I'm
not looking forward to another assembly line, but I think we can handle
that," the CMO said. "Just as long as it doesn't interfere with my
duties to Anvil," she said. Irons nodded. Most of the crew didn't know
that doctors Thornby and Standish had been passed the key codes to make
military medical nanites by Irons when they had each received her nanites. He
was keeping it low key for the moment.

"Bu-medical
is also responsible for working with relief efforts for medical cases,"
Irons shrugged as Standish looked confused.

"He
means hospital ships going to places to help medical disasters, like viruses
and disease outbreaks," the CMO explained to him. Standish nodded.
"Also training local personnel if possible," she added.
"Right?" she asked.

Irons
nodded. “Right. They also go around undeveloped areas and provide medical
support to the less fortunate wherever possible. We've got a lot on our plates.
On all our plates," he said leaning back.

"So
go back to the command thing, who is getting Fuentes?" Mayweather asked.
Irons looked to her.

"Fuentes
is a light destroyer. More of a jumped up frigate with delusions of grandeur.
She's pretty banged up though. She doesn't have an AI. The crew were pulled off
when she was abandoned here," Sprite said, pulling up the data list.

"Firefly
has her on remote control now. We were lucky she answered the ping at
all," Sprite said.

Firefly
nodded. The data showed a badly damaged ship. "She's lost most of her
weapons, most of her drives and has no life support. She's barely a shell.
She's going to take months to get her sorted out." Data swirled around the
distorted image of the ship.

"So
manning her isn't a problem now," Sprite added. Irons nodded.

"Still,
we have other ships, a couple HKs right?" Shelby asked.

Irons
chuckled. "Most of the pirate HKs are scrap. The mines did a good job. We
might be able to get one or two in service if we scavenge the others, but I
don't see the point. They are gunships with limited life support and range.
Really all they are is a hab module with a drive and a couple pop guns. They
don't have shields beyond basic particle shields and they have little computer
support. Little room for stores either. We can build a replacement a lot faster
then we could rebuild the beaten up ones. I think we'd do better to stick to
the shooters and lay down new hulls."

Mayweather
looked interested. "New hulls?" she asked. A few of the others looked
interested. Captain Waters raised an eyebrow to him. He smiled.

"What?
You don't think we're going to just fix up what we have right?" Logan
asked. She gave him a look. "Nope, while I'm rebuilding the destroyers and
anything else the cats drag in, we're going to lay the ground work to build our
own dedicated slip then a dry dock. Once we get everything sorted out, we're
going to pick up that battleship and the other ships out there and one by one
fix them or scrap them," Logan smiled as Mayweather's eyes gleamed.

“Damocles
will most likely be a keel up rebuild. Firefly did a good job taking out her
vitals.” He nodded politely to the AI. The avatar nodded back. “Since she's a
more modern class than Fuentes she'd be a cinch to rebuild, but the H&A
teams found some stress fractures and cracks in her skeleton so we've got to do
some repairs there. That will slow us down even more. Since I've got to juggle
priorities, the Admiral and I decided to focus on Fuentes since she's got some
systems running.” He nodded to the Admiral who nodded back.

"Is
building a ship even possible?" Naomi, Maya's exec asked. From her record
she had served Mayweather well aboard the Maya as chief engineer before being
bumped to executive officer when first Lieutenant Senet had taken command of
the factory ship. She was quiet though, and seemed shy.

Irons
nodded. "The civilian ships will be turned over to the local government or
stripped and scrapped. One or two we might hang onto if they look like we can
convert them to a hospital or support ship without having to invest the time
and resources that building from scratch would take. I'm hoping we can turn a
few around so they can get the word out and expand our borders a little.
Destiny will be the first of the captured ships to do that. She'll take the
rescued slaves home and spread the word," he said.

"I
can take the battleship," Mayweather said, sounding awed.

Irons
chuckled. Logan laughed. "She's going to take a year or two to turn around
Mayweather, and I don't need you rusting while you wait." He nodded to
Logan. "Since Logan is going to handle repairs, I agree, he can be head of
Bu-ships for now."

“We
don't need anyone sitting in Bu-research, but we'll need candidates for
Bu-training and Bu-personnel. Doctor Thornby here is head of Bu-med, and
Firefly is handling our computer support," he nodded to the avatar.

"I'll
keep hoisting my flag on Firefly when I'm in the field. I'll also have an
office on Anvil until we build our own dedicated platform. Most of the time
though, I'll be on Anvil. Which brings us back to the question of her
captain." He looked over to Shelby who nodded.

"I
don't think I'm ready for the hot seat," she said simply and quietly. He
nodded.

"You're
right, your tactical skills are mediocre," he said, trying to say that
without coming down too hard on her. She winced anyway then nodded.

Harris
smiled. "Told you," he said, then winced himself. He bent down and
rubbed at his leg. Irons sensors had caught the kick Shelby had inflicted
against Harris's shin. He hid a smile.

"Since
I can't pry captain Waters away from Warthog and Captain Senet is going to stay
in command over on Hephaestus... Still want the job Lieutenant Commander?"
Irons turned to Mayweather who froze. She nodded. He smiled. "You've got
it. Lieutenant Commander." He turned to Naomi. "Think you’re up to
handling the corvette?" She seemed to fidget then nodded.

"All
right that takes care of that." He looked over to Firefly.

"I
was wondering, I mean, Admiral, why do we only have paramedics on the corvette
and gunships?" Naomi asked tentatively. He turned back to Naomi. She
shrugged. "Seems sort of silly to me," she said shyly. He smiled.

"We
don't have enough doctors, that's why," the CMO said tartly.

"It
is not just that. Remember how big the sickbay on your ship is. It’s more of a
small dispensary and trauma center designed to stabilize the patients until you
can get them to better facilities," Logan replied. Naomi reluctantly
nodded.

"Paramedics
are trained at the highest level of trauma medicine without crossing over to
full trauma surgeon," Irons said after a moment. He shrugged.

The
CMO nodded reluctantly. "They are easier to train than a full doctor
too," she said. “And they make the jump to RN or doctor easily enough.
Paramedics are in the thick of trauma medicine after all.”

"You'll
probably see a few mustang into full doctors soon enough," Irons smiled.
Logan nodded. "We saw it all the time back in the day," he chuckled.

"See,
a lot of captains want to hang onto their best and brightest. There is a logic
to it too, it’s easier to work with people your familiar with than to train
someone new, and it's hard to take chances on someone you don't know. But it
holds some people back. If they are good, really good, then we need to nurture
them for the better of the service, push them and if necessary, let them grow
in new ways,"  Logan said smiling.

He
patted his chest. "Spirits of space look at me. Up until the Admiral
washed up here I was a broken down power tech. Former yeoman, college dropout
and now look. Commander!" he chuckled. "Me, an officer? What's next?
The horizon is the limit. And out here in space...” he waved, “there is no
horizon!"

He
shook his head. "I honestly never thought I'd see this day," he
shrugged looking both proud and torn.

Irons
nodded. "Right. So, Sprite, Commander Thornby, and Logan are working with
Mrs. Matilda to set up enlisted, noncom, officer, and even ROTC training. They
won't be academy grade right out the gate, but it’s a start." Irons nodded
to Logan again. "I'll have a hand in some of it, in a lot of things,"
he smiled.

"After
all, my lectures are on file, and if I am on station I might drop in for a
lecture or two. I suggest each of you make that effort as well. It will give
you the time to pass on your experience to the next generation, inspire new
recruits, and..." his smile turned into a mischievous grin, "it lets
you get a heads up for some of the more outstanding recruits to poach later
down the line." The staff chuckled at that.

“And
the marine boot camp has already started it's first class,” Major Forth
rumbled.

“That
they have,” Irons said with a nod.

"How
are we going to get to flag rank?" Harris asked.

"I
can't promote beyond commander," Irons sighed. "The only way past it
is time in grade or an Admiralty promotions board. It takes a minimum of three
flag officers to form a board. I guess we are stuck with the time in grade
method for now," Irons shrugged.

Logan
and several others grimaced. "How long for time in grade?" Dan asked.

"Each
grade is ten years minimum. It depends on the department as well. There is a
point system for command as well. Sprite can download it to you."

Sprite
smiled. "Already did. It's in everyone's inbox." Dan nodded getting a
faraway look.

"Crap,
ten years," he sighed.

"It's
nothing. Remember, we've each got implants and antigenic rejuv
treatments," Irons said patiently. Mayweather had a sudden faraway look on
her face. Irons nodded. "Right. It hasn't caught up and sunk in to some of
you yet, but you’re going to live a long, long time," he smiled.

"Admiral,
how old are you?" Naomi asked. Irons chuckled.

"I'm
ninety three, almost ninety four," he smiled at her shock. "And that
is young for flag rank," he said.

 Harris
shook his head. "How the.. Honest, I'm trying to wrap my head around it
but..."