Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (73 page)

"Right.
Service is at oh-eight hundred tomorrow. We're towing her until then. Captain
Mayweather is going to hold a brief service then we're headed for Fuentes then
docking at Anvil Station," he smiled.

"I'm
in Admiral," a timid voice said, then cleared its throat. "That is if
you'll have me." He turned to see the girl Standish had calmed down. She
nodded, straightening under his gaze.

Vargess
returned the nod and caught the admiral's eye. "They're good troop
Admiral, some rough edges, but they're good." Irons smiled as the group
blushed.

"Coming
from you Lieutenant Commander, that must be high praise. Good to hear. Since
you've got experience training, you get to help set up Bu-personnel and
Bu-training with Matilda."

“Lieutenant
Commander?” Vargess's eyes were wide.

“Yes,”
Irons nodded. "You already accepted a commission in the Federation navy
right?"

Vargess
nodded. "So I get a promotion?” Irons nodded. “Hell of a way to earn it
though,” the man growled then shook his head. “When my colony went down they
evacuated. We abandoned my Herkimer for a navy tin can." He sighed then
brightened. "I wonder if Herkimer is still there?"

Irons
smiled. "Good thinking. IF you can remember her course and general
location, give it to Firefly, when we check the system we'll look for
her." Vargess nodded.

"All
right folks, let Firefly know what you need or if you also want in. Each of you
will get an automatic jump in grade. We're also going to be looking for people
to man some merchant marine ships, along with other duties." He looked
around the compartment.

"I'm
not going to honey coat anything folks, this is hell to some of us. In this
room and in a few other places are some of the last trained people in the
universe." Several people sucked in their breaths.

"It
is a monumental challenge to get things turned around, sorted out, and back on
the road to recovery. But we're not doing anything else now are we?" He
looked around with a smile as the cheers erupted. He nodded as they quieted.

"Right.
Carry on. See you at oh eight hundred." He turned and walked out.

Doctor
Thornby watched the listless creature in the tank. It was a larval, more an
adolescent then a preform Ssislli. She sighed softly. “I'll do what I can.”

Waves
slapped the catchers on the top of the tank as the creature rose for a breath.
It's rear head crest rose out of the water to expose it's blow holes. It's
nostrils flared and spat mucus and sprayed water on the ceiling before sucking
in air with a  long rasping sucking sound. A multi-octave moan came forth as
the creature's head submerged once more.

“Why
bother doctor. Just let me die with my species,” the AI translated. She turned
to Firefly and frowned.

She
looked at it for a moment then back to the tank. “That's out of the question
midshipman. You are the last of your race. We have a duty to help you.”

“Exactly.
Unless your plan is to stuff and mount me in a museum?” the Ssislli's
translated voice asked. It's eye stalks swiveled as the door opened and the
Admiral came in.

“Admiral
on deck,” Firefly said stiffly. Irons gave the holographic avatar a look then
nodded politely to the doctor and midshipman. He'd just finished checking in
with the bipeds, he couldn't resist seeing their last survivor before he racked
out though. Now he was glad he hadn't put it off.

“How
are you doing midshipman?” he asked, voice full of concern.

“Why
did you save us?” the voice asked. An eye stalk turned his way then nictating
membranes closed.

“Because
it was the right thing to do. Better than the death of sleep,” he frowned.

“It
seems he's depressed,” Thornby stage whispered. She turned to Irons and
grimaced. “I can't say I blame him given the circumstances.”

“I
can hear you Doctor,” the alien said blowing a raspberry.

“That's
Lieutenant commander actually,” Irons said. “She's on the rolls as a
reservist.”

“My
apologies commander.”

The
doctor waved it off. “You can call me doctor,” she smiled a closed lipped
smile. The eyes swiveled to her then away. Slowly the Ssislli settled on the
bottom of the tank. It's usually mobile spines were listless, resting on its
body.

“You
need to buck up son,” Irons said coming over to the tank. He could sense and
feel the ultrasonic scan the Ssislli did on him.

“You're
for real? Admiral?” the Ssislli asked.

“Yes.
A sleeper like you. I'd be dead by now if someone had not found my pod.”

“I
wish you had left me to die.”

“You're
lucky we didn't” Irons said.

“Why?
To live out my life alone?”

“You
are not alone son. We're working on it.”

“On
what?” the voice asked, as the Ssislli's head rose. “There is nothing to do.”
His head rested once more.

“Not
if I can help it,” Thornby said scowling. “I've got every geneticist in the
system working on this. Doctor Martel is already working on the problem on her
end. Hopefully she'll have more to report when we get to Anvil.”

“So?”

“So
we should be able to clone you soon enough,” the doctor answered.

“Again;
So. What?” The alien demanded. His eyes closed. “A copy of a copy doctor.” He
shook his head. “Eventually the copies break down.”

“Not
exactly,” Thornby said shaking her head. “I've gotten into Firefly's database,
as well as the medical college texts on Anvil.” She nodded politely to Firefly
who nodded back. “With what we've got we should be able to introduce some
variation in each clone to make for a stable population.”

“Yeah,
of males. And again, it doesn't matter in the end anyway does it? The genome
will self destruct after three generations.”

“You'd
be surprised what we can correct with nanites these days,” Irons said dryly.
The eyes opened to stare at him. “Besides, if we found you, there is no telling
what we'll find in the void.”

“It
is statistically improbable that we will...” Firefly began. Irons waved him
off.

“You
were a one in a million find. Hell, one in a billion! Yes that's true. But do
you know if any of your kind managed to get to one of the surviving colonies?
There could be colonies in the oceans and no one knows!” he waved.

“Not
likely. It takes just the right conditions for survival, let alone gestation,”
the doctor answered.

“Who's
side are you on Doc?” Irons demanded, glaring at her. He turned back to the
alien. “Give the Doc a chance. I'll put out word that we're looking for your
kind.”

“Why?”

“Why
not?” Irons asked. The alien eyed him as if this wasn't enough of an answer.
“You really want a reason? Okay. Here's two,” he frowned. “The first, it's the
right thing to do.”

Both
the AI avatar and doctor nodded firmly at that. “And the second?” the Ssislli
asked.

“Cause
I don't want the Xeno's to win,” Irons snarled grimly. The others stared at him
as he scowled. His hands went behind his back. He paced for a moment. “Their
whole purpose was to destroy everything. To wipe us out. Give in, and they've
won. I for one won’t allow it. No. Not only no, Hell NO!” he snarled. He
smacked his left fist into his right hand.

The
doctor watched him for a moment then turned her attention back to the
midshipman. “He's right. Give in to despair and depression and you're dooming
your race. We can help. Just give us time,” the doctor said, nodding.

The
Ssislli looked at her for a moment, it's spines rose. His webbed leg fins
moved, pushing it gently off the bottom of the tank. His crest rose and he took
a breath.

“You
will do this?” he asked.

“You're
damn right I will,” the doctor said with a firm nod. Her hand stroked the tank
wall. “Where there is life there is hope.” Colors raged all over the aliens
body. It's chromatophore skin was going into overdrive it seemed. It was a
vibrant display of emotion.

Water
splashed out of the tank. A long squid tentacle came out then looped down to
touch the doctor on the cheek. She didn't flinch. She knew the teeth on the
suckers on the underside of that tentacle could shred her. She felt it brush
her cheek leaving a watery mark.

“Thank
you doctor. I will cooperate.” The tentacle withdrew back to the tank.

“You'll
do more than that. We need you to tell us all you know about your race. Fill in
the blanks that we don't have in our databases. How you were born and raised,
stories of your race, anything you think relevant. Your home and colonies are
gone, but with luck and hard work, they won't be for long,” the Admiral
replied.

“Thank
you sir,” the Ssislli said bobbing a nod. Irons nodded.

“This
isn't the end son, just the dark before the dawn of a new day. Keep that in
mind. Fix it there. We will get through this.” Irons looked around. “We will
also see if we can find a surviving colony that you can go to. We'll set up a
place for your people to live.”

“I
am a trained spacer. I'd like to stay in space sir,” the alien responded.

Irons
cocked his head. The doctor looked at him. He shrugged. “Well, for the time
being you will. We're not sending a ship out any time soon. Destiny can't take
you. It'll have to be Firefly, she's the only ship with the ability.” He waved
to indicate the tank.

“And
since I'm the center of defense for Pyrax, I won’t be leaving anytime soon,”
Firefly responded.

“Good,
because it's going to take me a year or so to get up to speed on this cloning
project. Luckily we've got a map of your genome on file. That alone will make
it a hell of a lot easier,” the doctor said smiling.

“You
do?” the alien asked, eyes wide.

“I
tried to tell you that. I've got both a male and female genome in Firefly's
medical database. Also sample data in the college medical database. We'll have
to look for corruption, but we should be able to whip something up soon,” she
smiled.

“Thank
you again doctor.”

“Thank
me when we're done son. Now, let’s get started,” she hefted a bio sample pack
she had put at her feet.

“And
with that note, the squeamish Admiral is making a hasty retreat,” Irons said
with a laugh.

The
doctor looked over with a snort of derision as he proved he was good to his
word. The Ssislli blinked then blew a raspberry and blatted a laugh.

Harris
tugged at the hem of his jacket and cleared his throat. The class was settling
in. "All right now shall we begin? Class I'd like you to welcome
Lieutenant Commander Harris Captain of Sun-Yat. He is here as a guest lecturer
on tactics today," the teacher said clapping her hands. The students
followed suit.

Harris
smiled and then nodded. "Thank you for that warm welcome. Please bear with
me, this is my first lecture. I guess it's new for all of us isn't it?" he
chuckled. Several of the class laughed as well. He'd really hoped to put this
off, but he'd been thrown into it right from the moment he'd crossed the lock
threshold and into Anvil two hours ago. He'd luckily started on it before hand
and had a rough outline to work off of.

"Now,
I'm going to hit a few points of interest you should keep in mind when you are
working on strategy. Ready?" He looked around. There was a shuffle as the
students got their tablets and styluses ready. "Right, let’s begin. Now
one of the major disconnects between tactical systems and reality is our
sensors. Lidar, maser beams, they are all almost useless when both your ship
and your opponent are under power."

He
tapped his link and a holo of two ships appeared in front of him. "At the
speeds you and your opponent are traveling, by the time the return pulse gets
to you the target has already moved. Sometimes in unexpected ways." He
grimaced. "Long range sensors are useless for detailed planning. The best
you can do is project a probable course from a fixed bearing and speed."
He looked up. "Can anyone tell me what sensors can be relied on?" He
looked around. The students looked at one another, then a girl with a braid
reluctantly  raised her hand. "Lieutenant Naomi right?" She nodded.
"Go ahead."

"Well
sir, Neutrino's and tachyons. Also the impact of objects on the shields,"
she replied. He nodded.

"Good,
glad someone's been skimming ahead," he smiled then looked at his notes.
"Neutrinos and tachyons are both FTL, that means they can be detected at
near real time. But they aren't very precise. It lets us know a target is
within a light second of space and it has fusion and or antimatter power, but
that's about it." He glanced at his notes again then set the tablet down.

"From
personal experience, you have to learn to adapt to that. Sometimes tactics
involve a lot of layers of planning and a healthy dose of luck," he looked
around to them and then nodded to himself.