Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) (94 page)

"That's
not my hormones that me getting ticked," Irons said tightly and then
sighed.

"Too
personal? All right, what about playing hooky? Take the launch out and do a
spin around the ships?" Sprite suggested. Irons chuckled.

"Just
what the work parties need, me breathing down their necks and looking over
their shoulders. They'd be afraid I'd jog their elbows or a surprise
inspection," he smiled. He'd done that on his birthday and it had been
fun. The last time he had done an inspection tour an annoyed super had gritted
her teeth and politely suggested he find something, anything to do. He chuckled
at the thought.

"What
about playing some sports? Or getting a work out? You're starting to get
flabby," Sprite teased. Irons grimaced at that. People were always
throwing food at him. He didn't need it, but he couldn't refuse it all the
time. He grunted.

"You've
got a point there. All this paperwork, the Navy, ship reports, logistics, and
the classes. I'm glad the term papers are done," he stretched a bit.

Sprite
laughed. "That's not the half of it. Horatio and I are intercepting ninety
percent. Your copy is for your final approval most of the time." He
nodded.

"Do
we have an estimate on the shipyard?" he asked after a moment.

She
paused. "Not exactly. The legislature is preempting the factory ship to
work on the system expansion projects again. The shipyard was bumped back a
bit. We've been building out of our own in house replicators," she
answered. Irons scowled.

"When
did this happen?" he asked.

"This
morning while we were both busy it seems. The report is in your inbox,"
she said. Irons scowled shaking his head. "It's not all doom and gloom,
we're recycling the radiators and broken bits from the battleship to make parts
or to make scaffolding for a temporary dry dock. Proteus has a truss network
design being built now. Fortunately your insistence on building our own
industrial replicator and our own molecular furnace should let us continue
building... if we can get the power and additional rare materials."

"You're
all sunshine you know that?" Irons asked.

"I
try Admiral. I try," Sprite said dryly. He chuckled

.“How
far along are we with that reactor?” he asked.

“Not
far enough. We've finished most of the systems and she should be powering up as
soon as we get some software issues sorted out. Hopefully we'll have it done in
a couple of days. A week at the outside if we run into anything major.”

The
Admiral nodded to himself after a moment. "What about this conference on
my schedule for Friday?" he asked.

"It's
a combination show the flag, recruiting drive, and diplomatic effort.
Apparently the colony admins insist you be there."

The
Admiral grimaced. He hated dog and pony shows. "Okay, I'll take the launch
with me. Is Destiny about ready?"

"She's
passed her last trial. She's taking on stores now." The Admiral nodded.
"She's scheduled to leave at the end of the week.” His brow knit.

"Why
so long?" he asked.

"Not
everything snaps to Admiral. Civilians march, or fumble along at their own
pace. It's been said it's like herding cats." Irons chuckled at that.

"All
right, see if the Major would like a work out. I'll go change into my gi and
meet him or some other patsy, I mean opponent, in the dojo."

"Very
well Admiral," Sprite responded sounding pleased.

Thorn
looked over the young woman sitting dejectedly at a life support station and 
hopped over. She hopped up onto the console and sat back. “Is there a problem
here crewman?”

“I
dunno,” she sighed, flicking her hand over the controls. “Honestly this is make
work.”

Thorn
scanned the controls then nodded. “Not exactly a task that takes rocket
science, but it does serve its purpose.”

“I
just thought, I dunno. That I'd be doing something more you know?” she looked
up and shrugged.

Thorn
cocked her head. “Such as?”

“Oh
I dunno, piloting a shuttle, fighting pirates, seeing new places. This is...
boring,” she waved helplessly.

“And
do you know how to pilot a shuttle? Fight pirates or see other things?”

“Well
no... but..”

“Have
you tried to learn?”

“Ah...
no...” the girl seemed a little crestfallen.

“You
need to broaden your horizons young one,” Thorn bobbed a nod and crossed her
three fingered hands behind her. She paced across the console. “I had a boring
job like you. I was a deck hand on Maya. I had to work my way up to tactical
officer.”

The
girl's eyes were wide. “You did Ma'am?” she asked surprised.

“Of
course I did. Everyone has to start somewhere, and we normally start at the
bottom. That way we can prove we can handle the responsibility and that we're
ready for more,” she waved to indicate the console. “This for instance.
Redundant of course, the microcomputers and life support system can take care
of problems before you can, but you can spot a small thing and a pattern of
behaviour and report it. Things that the system would normally log and forget
about.”

“Oh,”
the girl nodded.

“And,
while you’re doing this boring task, you can take the opportunity to broaden
your horizons by taking on courses to put yourself onto the career path you
wish to be on.”

“Oh,”
the girl blushed.

“Have
you checked out the library or the college courses?” Thorn asked softly.

“Ah
no ma'am. I guess I sort of forgot,” she hunched her shoulders.

“Well,
when you're off shift it would be the perfect time to do so. Think about what
you want to do and set a goal. Talk to the college counselor and see if he or
she can help you.”

“Oh.
But people like Sergio, ah I mean Lieutenant Valdez just...”

Thorn
shook her head. “Sergio was a pilot before he could walk. He's also done some
mechanical engineering and even helmed our good Firefly here,” she waved to the
ship. “But yes, now he's the top fighter pilot. Is that where you would like to
be?”

“Well,
I thought so, but I couldn't hack the training program. And I don't have proper
implants.”

“Some
people learn better with hands on instruction. You may find that flying a
fighter isn't as fun as you think. How about I see if we can get you a copilot
flight to find out?”

The
girl stared in disbelief then grinned. Thorn tried hard not to shiver at the
look. “Oh could you?” the girl gushed, her voice timbre rising in pitch. Thorn
winced. “Yes ma'am!” she smiled, straightening her shoulders.

“All
right. Keep plugging away here, don't screw up and I'll see what I can do,”

Thorn
said, hopping off the console. She bounded to the door then paused to look over
her shoulder. “Just remember, today you're doing something boring but who knows
what the future may bring?” She flirted her tail.

“Hard
work, discipline, a good attitude and an eye on tomorrow. Keep those things in
mind and you'll go far.” The girl nodded eagerly as Thorn trotted out.

“Well,
that went well,” she murmured in her native tongue.

“You
have a knack,” Firefly said over her link. He'd made a notation in her file
that she was expanding her role beyond her assigned station now that she'd
settled into the duties comfortably. She had settled in remarkably quickly for
an organic, her small stature had thrown some of the crew at first but her
sharp mind had taught them to not take her for granted over the past several
weeks. Expanding her role could be good or bad. Sometimes other officers didn't
like poaching. In this case good, she had a knack. “Are you bucking for morale
officer?” the AI asked humorously.

“Don't
even go there. I've got enough on my plate as it is,” Thorn answered, dodging
the feet of crewmen as she went down the corridor. She leapt a knee knocker,
landed on all fours on the other side then crouched in a corner as a crew
member came by pushing a loaded cart. She knew better than to get near the
gravity effects of a floating cart. They flattened you to the deck like a melon
dropped down a shaft.

“Still,
what you did was admirable. That young woman has seemed depressed lately. I was
about to report her.”

“She
just needed a push in the right direction. Give her a little coaxing to help
her along and we'll see.”

“Well,
from her earlier behavior she was more of a wallflower and social butterfly
than someone interested in getting the job done and bettering herself. I am
curious if what you said will stick.”

“So
am I. I take it that's why she's in the dead end plodder post?”

“That
and we don't have to worry about her mucking anything up if something goes
wrong and she is day dreaming. I'll see if I can push her along as well. I've
got a few other candidates in mind that could use similar pushes if you’re up
to it.”

Thorn
chuckled as she continued on her way. “Sure, I've got time. Just don't expect
me to be happy when they smile.”

Sprite
walked the virtual hall and paused near an open door. She heard voices debating
with some heat about an engineering problem. She poked her virtual head in and
hid a smile.

Avatars
of a handful of college students were debating the repair of an exploded
diagram. She wasn't an engineering expert AI like Proteus, but to her it looked
like a drive pod. The voices tapered off in a microsecond as the kids noted her
presence.

“Can
we help you with something?” a young woman asked, flicking a beaded end of her
braided black hair.

“Sorry,
just heard raised voices,” Sprite said. “Is that a drive pod assembly?”

“Yes,
do you ah, know anything about them?” a young elf asked. Sprite frowned.

“Unfortunately
I have only limited experience with engineering matters. I prefer software
myself. One moment,” she looked up and opened a channel to Proteus.

“Where
can I get an avatar like that?” the girl stage whispered to a friend.

“That's
no normal skin you dolt, that's an AI. That's the Admiral's AI,” her friend
whispered back.

“Oh,”
the girl's eyes were round. She turned to Sprite. “You're an AI?”

“Yes,”
Sprite said nodding. She turned as Proteus appeared. The AI preferred a
shapeless blob of mercury as an avatar in the virtual world. The blob bent and
moved back and forth. The kids reared back.

“What
the heck is that?” the elf asked, eyes wide, hands up.

“Kids
this is Proteus, Proteus this is a study group of engineering students.”

A
pod morphed into an eye stalk then turned onto Sprite. Data flowed between the
two AIs. After a moment it turned back to the kids and stared.

“Running
a diagnostic sim?” the AI asked. The elf nodded.

A
grizzled older man waved an arm through the holo. “See we've got this here
harmonic to work out. It'd be a snap if I could see it for real.”

“Not
necessarily. Sometimes diagnostics isn't just done with the mark one eyeball.
Sometimes even computers need to be fine tuned by skill and adapted to real
world conditions. The mark of a good engineer is the ability to adapt on the
go,” Sprite said nodding. “So you've eliminated the obvious?”

“Yeah.
See here, the wave guides got some nasty harmonic here and here...” the elf
turned and touched areas on the three dimensional schematic. Ripples appeared
from the points he touched. “See when they get together they cancel out here
and here. But here they blend together forming a bigger wave.”

“Resonant
harmonic,” Proteus said, nodding it's eyestalk. “Which means...”

“Which
means what?” a student asked impatient.

“Dummy,
if you expect them to hand it to us we're never going to learn it. It ain't
like they are going to be out there with us holding our hands and doing our job
for us,” a girl said elbowing the annoyed student.

“Essentially
correct. However I am an engineering AI so my purpose is to build, diagnose,
and repair problem hardware. I have no teaching subroutines.”

“Are
the harmonics supposed to be there?” the elf asked after a moment of study.

“You
tell me,” Sprite said, crossing her arms. The elf turned to the side and used
his fingers to open a text window. A virtual keyboard appeared in front of the
window. He brought up a text file and did a search.

“Yes.
There is a resonant harmonic of two point five nanometers required between wave
guides four F and four G. This has...” he hopped around his window and reached
for the resonant signal. The girl with the braid reached up and touched it just
before he had to leap. “Thanks.”

“Ah
yes. Three point one nano... that can't be right,” the elf said turning to his
classmates.

“So
this wave emitter four F is out of synch. I get it. But ...” the girl said
excitedly. Sprite smiled and turned to Proteus.