Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (23 page)

“Someone's coming,” Gustov said, nodding his chin to the door.
Franx nodded as the door opened.

<----*----*----*---->

Admiral Irons keyed the door open and Franx bounded through. The
civilian stopped at the carnage, whistling slowly, then turned and grabbed a
gun holster from a dead guard. Others followed though, one, Lewis, stopped to
grab the other guards’ weapons as Gustov and others passed out equipment from
the lockers.

With the non-Horathians out of the cell Admiral Irons turned to
view Bard and his goons snoring away. He smiled before closing and locking the
door.

“I have uploaded the plan to each of them Admiral. They will get a
bullet point outline to follow when you call out each step,” Sprite reported.

“I've taken measure to secure the data in case of capture,”
Defender added. Sprite looked annoyed but then nodded.

“Admiral, I need you to login. Jack into the computer net please,”
the three AIs said, almost in unison.

“Excuse me folks, make a hole, no time,” the Admiral said. Gently
he pushed through the crowd to get to the computer terminal and gain access.
Franx was there, staring at it.

“Hope you know what you're doing. But hell, it's better to go down
fighting. That much I've learned from this,” Franx said.

“Better to not go down at all,” Irons replied. His right arm
morphed as he jacked in. The civilian stared at him in shock. The Admiral gave
him a wan smile and shrug. “I told you I have a way with computers,” he said.

Franx nodded dumbly. Others noted John's arm and poked others.
They turned and the first motioned to John. A few gasped. Irons ignored it,
concentrating on the progress of the AI.

“No alarms sounded,” Defender reported. “The computer wasn’t
firewalled,” the AI reported, sounding suspiciously disgusted.

The Admiral let out a slow even breath in relief as Sprite spiked
the system with Defender riding on her heels.

“We're in,” Irons said out loud for the others benefit. “And...”

Together the two AI secured the lift, cutting it out of the
network with a false reading program. Defender sent a spike through the net to
ship's security. The cursing Shifty had one moment to pound on his keyboard in
frustration before the spike seemingly fried his system. “What the hell did I
do now?” he moaned. Sprite smiled maliciously when she caught the tail end of
that.

“Serves him right,” she murmured.

“The computer net has been broken into subnets Admiral. We can't
access the bridge systems, but we did manage to get a detailed map of the ship
and crew locations. We've updated your map.”

“Understood,” Irons growled. He waved to Hoshi. She looked up.
“Get ready for an update. Get me some tablets,” he said. She nodded. After a
moment she handed him a stack of tablets.

Irons put his left hand on the stack and felt data flow through
his arm and into the stack. Then Sprite sent out a signal to each of the
mutineers, updating the map and crew locations.

“We've downloaded the intel and maps to these and your implants.
Yes, you all have Intel implants, no time to explain. The plan is in your head
just follow your part. Everyone do your part,” Irons said, looking around. He
felt like something else was going on, an opportunity. He realized in a flash
they had thought about killing him but were now disregarding the idea. He was
glad. He also wasn't going to bring it up.

“Everyone do your part and we'll get payback.” Hoshi looked at his
implants in surprise, signaling a few others who too looked on in disbelief. Admiral
Irons smiled slightly and gestured. “Tablets to team leaders. You have the
objectives. Read them fast and then move out people,” he said firmly.

<----*----*----*---->

Five minutes later, Franx’s and Gustov led the first two teams up
the lift in “borrowed” uniforms. With a tight nit crew they wouldn’t stand
close inspection, however from a distance they might not raise alarms for the
first few precious minutes, allowing them to get to their objectives more
quickly. Franx saluted as he exited the chamber, and Admiral Irons returned it.

Turning to the next team, he gave the leader Jake Sisko a tablet
and sketched out directions to the plant. “It's in your implants too. Just pay
attention. We'll update you and try to pass on news and warning as things go,”
he said to the scared but determined young man. The young man nodded a choppy
nod, holding onto the weapon in one hand and the tablet for dear life. Grimly
but silently he waved his people onward.

Franx and Gustov were going for the armory, and life support plant
furthest from the brig. Sisko was to take the aft plant. Kinja, a tall mahogany
woman would lead team 4 to take engineering. Raoul, a silent and rakishly thin
but two hundred centimeter tall man would take team five to capture the port
midships life support module. Lewis would remain behind with a three men as a
reserve. The man didn't look happy, but he knew when to take orders.

Admiral Irons would lead a small team to take the bridge. He had
Miller, Enric and a woman named Irina Nobeki also Yuan Chi, and Marcus Ahearn.
Once each critical sector was secured they would team up to stamp out any
further resistance as needed.

“Admiral, per phase 3 instructions, I have locked down what
quarters I could. We have sealed the crew into the quarters, and cut off their
communications. Sixteen people were caught, including the exec,” Sprite
informed him.

“Outstanding,” Irons said, smiling.

“Unfortunately, the Captain wasn't actually in his quarters just
yet. He is however, on his way to his quarters now from the bridge,” Sprite
said. “I wrote a program to trap him and anyone else who enters with him when
he enters his quarters. Needless to say I left his path open and didn't tamper with
his lift so as not to alert suspicion,” Sprite informed him.

“Good.”

Doing a quick head count, Admiral Irons smiled wolfishly. Four
guards dead, one with McGuyver’s team, and one each at the armory, bridge, and
Captain’s quarters. The remaining four were trapped in the enlisted quarters.
Three crewmembers were on his ship, vainly trying to take control of the
computers. Of the six officers, two were caught in their quarters, two were on
the bridge, the Captain was en-route to his quarters, and one was in
engineering. Things were looking up. He paused on his way to the bridge to
gather up additional re-breathers for his team from an emergency locker.

<----*----*----*---->

Irina Nobeki followed Captain Doe after they left the emergency
locker. She'd follow him anywhere if it led them to freedom. Just getting this
far was incredibly promising. Hope tore at her, but she put it aside, she had
to focus.

Grimly she nodded to Marcus as he kept watch of their flank at the
junctions. The important thing was to move quickly, but not look like they were
skulking around. She checked on the rest of the team. All were in place. Doe
had the lead; he didn't seem to look about him, just moved with purpose. Irina
vowed to keep up.

<----*----*----*---->

Jed on the Phoenix glared at the food replicator. It was down,
nothing worked on the crate. He sighed and peeled an MRE. He hated the damn
things, this one was ancient, but he had no other choice. It wasn't like he
could pop on over to the ship for a meal. Hell no. He wasn't stupid enough to
ask either.

There were three of them on the little ship. They were supposed to
get her running again, fat chance on that. Like the other ships her reactor was
cold. She was also out of fuel, just drifting helplessly. He didn't like the
feeling, it niggled at him a bit, bothered him. Still he didn't mind getting
dibs on stuff.

Unfortunately most of the damn place had been ransacked already.
Anything of value that hadn't been nailed down had been taken. That well and
truly sucked. He'd used a screwdriver to get a few bits that he thought might
come in handy on the black market, but not a whole hell of a lot.

He turned, waiting for the tiny centimeter heater to work its
magic and looked around. They had cleaned up the mess of plants. He wasn't sure
why the guy had bothered maybe he just liked them. He frowned, spotting the
laundry machine.

He went over and whistled softly. New and in good condition if he
was lucky... he thought closing his eyes and praying briefly. “If I can only be
so lucky,” he thought, hoping there was something good inside that the others
had overlooked. He yanked the door open and started to paw inside.

<----*----*----*---->

Captain Hathaway was in a foul mood. The explosion of the auto
guns in the bridge had taken out two of his personnel, and crewman Franks would
be in sickbay for weeks. He would be sitting on his useless ass, doing nothing.

He thought about giving one of his wayward crew in the brig an
early reprieve for good behavior just to fill the hole, but decided he couldn't
seem to look weak. Bard had reported something was up, the prisoners were
restless and the new guy was right at the heart of things. Either he would kick
things off and he would cut it off at the knees, or it would continue to
simmer. Most likely the new guy was impatient to try something, but the old
sweats would be cautious to follow him. From the sound of Bard's reports it was
a tossup. The new ship was as troublesome as its former Captain.

Sometimes he regretted placing Bard in the brig. He was a damn
good noncom but he had a hell of a time controlling his mouth. Not that that
was what had landed him in the brig. No, he hadn't sent him there to punish
him; he had sent him in as a spy and to maintain control of the brig. He was
supposed to head crap like this off before it got going. That had all changed.

It all came back to Doe. He didn't like it, that small fleet
launch in the courier's tiny boat bay was in pristine condition. That spoke of
someone with incredible engineering skills.

Hathaway shook his head in irritation. He wanted to think he was
getting paranoid that he was jumping at ghosts but he really didn't like where
this was going. His instincts said something was very wrong. He also didn't
like the report that the bastard had injured his people. The broken knee...
that was what had gotten Blye and Bard frothing at the mouth to get even. They
would, but they had to find the right leverage to do so.

The bridge interrupted his mussing with a call on his
communicator. “Captain. This had better be important,” he growled.

“Ah, yes sir, patching you through to Phoenix,” the bridge rating
said.

“Sir?”

“Yes? What is it?” The Captain growled.

“Um, sir, sorry to bother you, but we've found something unusual
and well, we thought we'd better bring it to your attention.”

“Oh really. And you think jumping the chain of command is a good
thing?” the Captain asked mildly.

“Sorry sir. We, well, I know Lieutenant Blye is in um, his
quarters now so...”

“So you didn't want to disturb him but you didn't mind disturbing
me?” the Captain asked, with just a hint of cool disapproval in his voice.

“Um, no, I, um, it's not like that sir, um...”

“Spit it out,” the Captain growled.

“As you say sir. We're in the laundry and well; we found some odd
pieces of clothing. Well, one in particular. It's a uniform.”

“Really?” Listening thoughtfully, he frowned. “Describe them for
me,” he ordered.

“Well sir, they are clean, being in the laundry that's to be
expected. But the one that got me is the overalls. They are gray, with pockets.”

“So?”

“So it is in remarkably good condition sir. Mint. And it's a
fabricated uniform sir, not a hand sewn one. You can tell by the lack of
stitching on the seams. And there are stars on the collar.”

“Stars?”

“Yes sir. And faint bars on the sleeves and on the shoulders. Odd
isn't it?”

“Yes...” the Captain mused, and then froze in sudden recognition.
The mystery Captain appeared to be a Federation fleet officer, possibly even a
flag officer!

Wonder coursed though him. How could he still be alive? Stasis
probably he thought as he turned and scowled at a bulkhead. He was a prize
beyond any they had yet gathered… and a possible danger.

Quickly he ordered the crew members to check for implant jacks,
and frowned at the confirmation that came through moments later. The computers
on his ship would be no match for a full Federation implant tech! There were
hard-wired overrides throughout the hardware! Panic set in briefly before it
faded as he remembered something important. That might be, but the sneaky bastard
was in the brig. Fat lot of good his techno wizardry did in there! There
weren't any jacks in there he reasoned.

Suddenly he remembered his previous encounter. Could he have done
something, remote accessed the guns? Could he... he frowned. And then he
remembered that the unknown man was en-route to his quarters. The Captain got
an icy feeling of danger, a lump in his stomach.

“Bridge! Get me the whereabouts of the prisoner ASAP!” He
thundered at the bridge.