Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (39 page)

Marty's face worked briefly. He dropped his hands in front of
him. “Holly and I have both agreed to sign on. Is there a starting rank?”

“Doctors and head nurses are usually officers. Actually, most
nurses are officers to deal with unruly patients,” Sprite said, smiling
slightly.

Marty nodded. “Do I have to sign on by my full surname?”

“And that is?”

“Marty McFly Glenn the thirty ninth. For some reason my family
hates the McFly part, but kept it. Gran said it was Irish pride. My great great
great something or other married a woman and took on her last name so we
usually use that.”

“I... see,” Sprite said, sounding like she didn't. “I'm not
recognizing it,” she said.

“Apparently it's a bit of a tradition, a sort of thumb in the eye
at a pop culture reference I don't know about.”

“Oh,” Sprite replied. She did a quick search but again came up
empty. She tried alternate spellings but gave up after a second of searching.
“Still not getting it. And I don't have a time machine to go back and find
out,” she said with a shrug. “Glenn will be fine. A simple name for a new
start.”

“Yes, the thirty ninth is a bit of a mouthful,” the Doctor
replied. He shook his head ruefully.

“True,” Sprite chuckled. “Try an alpha numeric string thirty or
more characters long. You meat bags can't handle it.”

Doctor Glenn chuckled. He rubbed his temples. “I did want to
thank you and the Admiral for the databases and all the help. Do you have a
search method though? I'm hopelessly lost.”

“Sure Doctor,” Sprite said. “But we'd better make this quick,
we've got a meeting to attend,” Sprite said.

“I see. Do I um... show up in mufti or what?”

“I'll get a basic ship's uniform for you. Replicating one for you
and Holly now,” Sprite said as she pulled up the search engine in a window in
front of her avatar image. She held it between her hands and then used one hand
to point to it. “Now, I'm no game show girl, so I'll do this once. I've left an
icon on your desktop for you to use. Just type what you need in here with the
keyboard and the computer will narrow the range for you. You can be as specific
or indirect as you like. Symptoms work as well,” she said.

“Oh!” He said, clearly delighted as he flexed his fingers. “This
will come in handy! Thank you Commander!” He said.

“Just don't be late,” she warned.

“He won't be,” Holly growled, poking her husband as she came
over. “Right honey?” she demanded, poking him again.

He looked up briefly into her eyes and then nodded. She raised an
eyebrow. He blinked and then shook his head. “No, I'll be good,” he said. She
smiled slightly and rubbed his shoulders. They hadn't gone beyond kissing, but
she was finally feeling well enough to touch him as long as he didn't come on
to her.

“I'll leave him in your hands then ma'am,” Sprite chuckled.

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

After lunch the Admiral went to the officer's wardroom. It was
just off the bridge. He nodded to crewmembers in passing. This would be their
first real officer's meeting since the mutiny.

He entered the compartment and paused. Kinja and Sindri were
still holding the Chief engineer slot. Ian was acting as his exec, Doctor Glenn
was there as the Chief medic. Both were seated, drinking coffee and talking
quietly. A hologram of Bounty was on the table, as was another of Nata'roka.
Gustov was there as head of security.

“Are we missing anyone?” Irons asked. He'd found out that the
ship's officers and best engineers had been taken on by the Bounty. The prison
ships had been stuffed with ratings or people Captain Hathaway had judged were
redundant.

“Am I late?” Jake Sisko asked breathlessly, diving into the room
before the hatch closed. He turned sideways to manage it, then eeled past the Admiral.
“Sorry, I got caught up in a talk...” he turned when he noted the Admiral. “Oh
um...”

“You're fine Mister Sisko,” the Admiral replied. He nodded to
Miss Hoshi as she entered as well, with Irina Nobeki on her heels. Sisko was
acting as the Chief of life support, but he sidelined with Sprite and Bounty as
the Chief of gossip, aka, the ship's web paper. Two days after the mutiny the
young man had started the daily reports and a website with information about
what was going on in the ship. It helped settle some people down.

Hoshi had settled into his bridge watch, taking the third shift
with Irina. She still remained quiet and reserved, but she had thawed a little.
She nodded to the others and took her seat. Even though this was her usual
sleeping time, she seemed quite alert.

He still lacked a tactical department. Bounty could handle some
things, but legally he needed a naval person to do fill the roll. It was a
headache he still had to deal with.

“All right,” the Admiral said. He did a head count. Every
department was represented except the supercargo. The older man had declined
the meeting, stating he 'had more important things to do than shine a seat with
his ass.' Colorfully put, but the Admiral respected the man.

“Admiral, there are a lot of people talking about signing on to
the military. Is it true...” Sisko turned to Ian and then to Gustov.

“Yes, they have asked to sign on. As have a few others,” the Admiral
replied, nodding as he took his seat at the head of the table. He sat. “Sprite
has made the information on signing up available on the ship's web. I trust
you'll put something up in your daily news articles?” he asked.

“I just wished I'd had more warning,” Sisko said. “It's causing
havoc with my manning tables. It's a major distraction,” he grumbled.

The Admiral shrugged in reply. He knew Sisko was the source for
most news on the ship. To be caught out had clearly irked him.

“I want in too,” Irina said, raising a hand. “I said that before.
I meant it sir.”

Irons nodded. “All right. Have you checked the site?” the Admiral
asked. She shook her head no. “Do so when you get a chance.”

“Thank you,” she said, nodding.

“I'm in,” Sindri rumbled. The entire compartment looked at the
small man. He sat in a chair that barely allowed him to see over the tabletop.
“As long as I don't have to dress up or shave my beard,” he grumbled.

“We'll talk,” Sprite said from the overhead. The Admiral felt a
tug on his right arm. He allowed the AI to raise it palm up. A third hologram
appeared, this one of Sprite. “The ship's population is currently two hundred
and sixty five people. Of those ten are still on the lists as injured. Half
have expressed an interest in signing on as of a minute ago.”

“Not a bad bit of recruiting,” Hoshi replied. She didn't sound at
all thrilled about the idea however.

“We didn't do it. We just put the option out there,” the AI
responded hotly. Hoshi waved her fingers in an accepted motion.

“Moving on, department status?” The Admiral said as he turned to
Sisko. “Life support?”

“Nominal now that we've gotten proper parts Admiral,” the young
man said, straightening in his seat. “We have enough for everyone on board. We
are a bit short on some things, but waste is now under control. We're at fifty
six percent efficiency. I expect Raul and I should bump that up to sixty by
tomorrow once we return the port side to active.”

Irons nodded. He turned to Kinja.

The woman cleared her throat and set her coffee down. She looked
at Sindri, but the smaller man just waved for her to go ahead. “Reactor is
steady. Replicator use and Phoenix has kept us above the minimal draw. We've
installed, or should I say, re-installed the backup reactor into Phoenix, and
with the AI's help we've rebooted it and gotten it functional. The ship no
longer requires power from us for its basic functions, but still needs a
supplement for the replicators.”

“Understood. Repairs?”

Sindri grimaced, picking up the report. “Still working on the
basics. How far are we going to take this?”

“As far as we can with what we've got.”

“That's not much further,” Sprite, said. “Mister Takagi reported
he's getting low on consumables and materials for the replicators.”

“Ugh,” Kinja replied. “So, what do we do? Tear out systems and
then wait for them to be rebuilt? That's not safe. What if the Horathian's show
up?”

There was a murmur around the room. The general consensus was
that no one really liked that idea.

“Unfortunately there is only four sources of material in the
system. Le More and Deianira are salvageable. The other two, Anderson and
Jaw-te are scrap,” Sprite said, sounding apologetic.

“Definitely Anderson. I screwed her hyperdrive up. She's dead,”
Sindri rumbled.

“Not necessarily,” Irons replied. They turned to him. He smiled
slightly. “I can remake just about everything, as some of you have realized,”
he said. A few blinked at him in confusion. “Everything from a bolt to a hyperdrive.
Or an entire ship or shipyard,” the Admiral said.

“Um... the keys...” Sisko said, looking confused.

“He's got the keys,” Kinja said. She looked at the Admiral. “My
guess is all of them,” she said.

The Admiral nodded but speared Sisko with a look. “And that does
NOT go out in your paper. Ever,” he said coldly.

Sisko gulped and then nodded, eyes wide.

“No wonder they wanted you alive,” McGuyver said softly. The Admiral's
eyes cut to him. After a moment he nodded.

“This does not leave this compartment. I am a master key. I can
recruit people and give them keys, including medical officers,” the Admiral
said, nodding to the Doctor. Doctor Glenn looked a lot better, though tired.
“But the recruits have to pass the exams and ethical tests. For the medics, it
can get intense. Fortunately everyone on Epsilon passed,” he said.

“Epsilon Triangula... I think Commander Sprite mentioned you
jumped from there? Irina asked, blinking. “Is that even possible?”

“Quite a lot is possible,” the Admiral replied, glad they were
moving away from the topic of him and the keys. “Unfortunately, after the Xeno
war people's thoughts of what is possible shrank to what was necessary to
survive. I think we need to get people to think beyond that now.”

“But... without... wait, he said keys...” Sisko rambled, eyes
moving fast. He slowly frowned and then his eyes widened. He looked up and
stared at the Admiral. “You are the key to everything!” he said. “An El
Dorado!”

“Yes,” Irons replied simply. That got the compartment talking. He
waited it out, sitting back. He heard a noise and noted a crewman opening a
door behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see an older gentlemen enter,
put a steaming cup of coffee down in front of him, and then retreat. The hatch
shut quietly.

The Admiral picked the cup up and took a sip. When he set the cup
down everyone had settled down once more. He nodded.

“Glad we're on the same page. I've been going around to other
systems, tossing seeds. Trying to kick start growth and a renewal of
civilization. A renewed interest beyond survival. In some places it's taken
well, in others...” he shrugged.

“What he means is it has gone in ways he didn't expect, or
politics became involved,” Sprite responded. “Corrupt politics in the case of
Pyrax. Which is one of the reasons we are here,” she said.

“Oh.”

“Right, so yes, I can make things. We're moving past that. With
sufficient materials, we could rebuild all four ships. But we lack that
material. So, I'm proposing that we sacrifice Anderson and Jaw-te. They are
stripped down already; we can just make it official and recycle them
completely. With the materials from those two we can fully restore Bounty,
Phoenix, Deianira, and Le More.”

There were looks around the room. Slowly a silent consensus was
reached and the crew nodded. “What about those who don't want to be in the
military?” Hoshi asked.

“For those who do not want to sign on, they can man the two
freighters,” the Admiral replied. Hoshi nodded. There was something there the Admiral
realized, a sense of relief.

“Unfortunately, we don't have a safe place for them to go just
yet.”

“Um...” Sisko frowned. “Not following.”

“According to our intelligence,” Sprite said, as her image winked
out to be replaced with a jump map. It focused on Beta 100 omega. “We are here.
The pirates have a small task force taking and occupying Hidoshi's World.” She
highlighted the cul-de-sac system that linked to Beta 100. “And there is a
pirate fleet of unknown size here,” she indicated Beta 101a1, south of them. "And
another one, somewhere here,” she said, circling Kathy's World and Protodon.
Numbers and tentative ID's were ghosted in.

“So, what you are saying is we're trapped. Trapped between two,
no three forces,” Ian said.

“Sizable forces for the first two. I am confident we can easily
take the corvettes that went to Hidoshi's World,” the Admiral replied.

Ian nodded. “Do we have time to salvage the other ships sir?” Ian
asked. That was one of the biggest topics of the current round of scuttlebutt
according to Sprite's morning report. He understood it, they had a lot of warm
bodies in a small ship built for a crew of one hundred and twenty. The
Horathians had used stern discipline and hadn't cared about the issues with the
crew. He did.