Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (46 page)

“Yes Captain,” she said quietly.

“It's okay. Did any more of your family survive?” he asked.

“No,” she said, practically crying.

His face fell. “I'm sorry to hear that. Why don't you come out
and we can get you checked up and some food? We really need to get you out of
there, we're about to vent the ship so we can rebuild it.”

“Oh.” The elf stared at him. “Is it really safe?”

“You have my word kiddo. Just look if you must. We're not going
to hurt you,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said. “Dana.”

“Dana? Truepath?”

“Yes.”

“I'm glad. I'm glad you are there. So you can carry the memories
of your family,” Ian said as the elf slowly crept to the vent. She flipped it
all the way open and looked at him in his skin suit.

“You look different,” she said.

Ian chuckled. “So do you kiddo. I remember when you were as big
as my finger, and now look at you!” he said. “I'm in the navy now. The real
navy.”

“Oh.”

“It's a long story. Let me tell you all about it.”

“Okay. I like stories. It's been so lonely,” she said. She turned
to the AI. “But what about her?”

“She's part of the story,” Ian replied. “A big part. Her and an Admiral
from the past. He's here now, and we've kicked the Horathian's butts.”

The elf giggled.

“I'm serious. They've got the dents in their booties to prove
it,” the human said. The elf giggled again. Slowly she climbed out into the
light of his suit lamps. She shivered, but seemed to be okay.

“Brave kid,” Sprite said. “I'm proud of you,” she murmured.

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

The Admiral reviewed the report on Dana's health and the ship a
few days later. The elf was in good health but malnourished. She had been
eating human MRE's and didn't have a diet balanced for her physiology. She also
had vehemently demanded to sign on with the navy. Unfortunately she still had
two years before she reached her adult status. That had crushed her
momentarily, but then Sprite had pointed out that she had that time to recover
and study hard. Apparently the little elf loved to learn, so that was a small
bonus.

Le More was shaking down, with a handpicked crew of twenty-five
volunteers and five probationary people. Captain Hoshi had taken on the
probationers only when their surviving family or friends petitioned to give
them a second chance. All would be closely watched.

The software bots in Phoenix had been copied and put to use on
bounty with Sprite's blessings. Sprite had reluctantly helped the civilians by
copying some of the software bots and dumb AI she had created for Phoenix to
help manage the ship's net and systems. That had smoothed things over with
Captain Hoshi.

Deianira was a bit of a problem, he still had eighty-five
civilians and five probationers on Bounty, all destined for that ship, but no
officers. He had Lieutenant Olson, who had decided to go navy instead of
marines, on Phoenix, with two ratings there to thicken things out. He also had
ships incoming, and would likely need to pouch all of the ships to man them as
well. But that was in the future.

Deianira's systems were still iffy. Sprite had copied the bots
she had installed in Le More for Deianira but there were some integration
issues.

The biggest problem was the fusion reactor. It's rebuild had been
stalled for twelve hours by a scheduling conflict, and the crew putting it
together were plodders, and slow ones at that. It was falling further and
further behind, which was threatening the rest of the schedule. Irons sighed.
He'd have to take direct action if things didn't turn around soon.

Unfortunately he had the best on Bounty. He couldn't spare them;
they were learning their implants and new jobs. Irina was shaping up as his
tactical officer, but she still had a lot to learn. As did the entire crew.

“Thinking blue thoughts again Admiral?” Sprite asked.

“Just... adjusting,” the Admiral replied, scrubbing his face with
his hands. “Some things can seem overwhelming even when you break it down into
individual boxes.”

“That's not the direction your thoughts were leading to though,”
Sprite said quizzically.

“True,” he said with a sigh. He sat back. “We took the best for
Bounty, Hoshi took her pick of the civilians and Deianira is getting the left
over's. A jumbled mess.”

“Nor really our problem. They are civilians,” Sprite reminded
him.

“Which were prisoners, and are currently in the line of fire,”
the Admiral said. “And most are still on this ship. But none have command
experience, and many are just too beaten down and submissive to come out of
their shells.”

“I know,” Sprite said. “But not quite all. Bounty is shaking down
nicely.”

“Don't even think about making changes there,” the Admiral said.

“I was thinking about Hidoshi's World,” Sprite said. The Admiral
frowned. “If we catch the corvettes and freighter that were sent there to take
the planet, we would have a bigger manning issue. But, we could copy what they
did and reverse it,” she suggested slyly.

“What?” Irons asked. “Send in our own people?”

“We're over represented in the jarhead department,” Sprite said
mildly. Irons smiled. “Seriously. This ship's normal marine compliment is a
heavy squad, between a dozen and twenty personnel depending on size and need.
We have three times that number Admiral.”

“All untrained,” Irons replied.

“True, but Lieutenant Gustov is doing his level best to fix that.
I was thinking we could maybe shave off him or his exec Lieutenant Lewis with
two thirds of the marines with oh, say the same amount of armor and weapons.”

“I could make more suits and robotic supports," the Admiral
murmured. He'd remade his skin suit so he could go EVA. Half the crew had
skinsuits; he intended that everyone have them before the enemy arrived. The
crew had different colored suits depending on their role or rank. Officers were
all blue, but they had trim colors of their various departments, red for
Tactical, yellow or gray for Engineering, white for Medics, Green and digicam
for Marines. The Admiral had forgone the gold of a flag officer to go with a
blue suit to better bond with the crew. Enlisted crew just had the basic color
of their department.

“If you wish,” Sprite said. “The current inventory would give
them eight powered armor suits, sufficient body armor and weapons for the
others, and if we tossed in half the security bots, that would thicken them up
a bit. More if you built dedicated drones and additional mecha.”

“Okay,” the Admiral said as she listed her TOE. “Throw in the
Skyhawk as well,” he said.

“The Hawk? Are you sure?”

“They are going to need a ride up and down right? Deianira doesn't
have a shuttle. Nor does Le More.”

“Yes sir. That's true,” Sprite replied. Captain Hoshi had asked
for the Admiral's launch. He had politely refused.

“Write this mission up, do the research, and then file it. Keep
it up to date daily. If it looks like it is plausible to proceed I'll authorize
you to run it past the marine officers.”

“I was going to consult them,” Sprite replied. “But you don't
want that?”

The Admiral shook his head no. “No, not just yet. They have
enough on their plates right now, learning their jobs, hardware, and managing
the brig. Let's give them time to settle in a bit.”

“Aye aye Admiral,” Sprite replied.

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

Two days before the scheduled arrival of the relief convoy
Deianira's reactor came online. Her hyperdrive was still dead, but with
internal power partially restored they could now work on the other systems
internally. Fortunately the time the power room techs took to get the reactor
up so the Admiral could initialize it with his plasma transfer technique had
allowed some of the other repair crews extra time to repair the life support.

When it had become apparent that the crew was falling further and
further behind Jake Sisko had resigned from the Le More and taken the Chief's
job on the Deianira. He was uncomfortable in the role, but he had lit a fire
under the plodding crew and gotten things moving faster. The life support techs
like the other repair crews had reasoned that they couldn't do anything until
the reactor was online. Sisko had put an end to that malingering by borrowing
batteries from the Admiral to test installed equipment. When the reactor came
online they only had a few bugs to iron out before the ship's life support was
fully restored.

They moved the remaining civilians into the ship within minutes of
when Jake reported she was functional. Time was getting short.

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

“We have a disturbance at the Beta 101a1 jump point Admiral. It
looks like it's on,” Nata'roka reported. The Ssilli had asked and been granted
a job. She had said it was to keep busy. The Admiral had been tempted to offer
her another round in cryostasis. He was certain of her answer; it would be the
same as his, No. She'd live her life in the now.

She manned the sensors and navigational suite virtually. That
took some of the load off the crew. She had also taken an interest in the
classes the Admiral, AI, and some of the crew were putting on. She had made
some amused sounds at the class on navigation, but hadn't stepped up to teach
yet.

Sprite had quietly pointed out to him her status. He refused to
push her or call her on it. She had been through hell and back. Just finding
out her species was extinct was bad enough, what the Horathians had put her
through was another living hell. No, he'd take whatever help she was willing to
give them as a gift.

“Is it them?” Irons asked. He tried to put the wool gathering
aside. It didn't really matter right now, they had a few days before the enemy
arrived... but he needed to focus.

“Too soon to tell. I am getting two distinct energy signatures
and... Yes, their gravitational signals are separating now. One was a little
close to the other. I can't tell what they are though. It will be some time
before we can get a read back on the mass spectrometer,” Nata'roka reported.

“Understood,” the Admiral said. He looked at the holo of the AI,
then over to the other holo the crew had installed. There was a small plotting
table on the bridge now. It was directly in front of the Captain's station. The
Admiral nodded to the image of the Ssilli there.

“Regretting the ride along ma'am?” he asked.

“No, not on your life Admiral,” the alien replied. “I'm looking
forward to this ring side seat,” she said, bobbing in the air. Despite his
offer of building a better habitat in the cargo hold of one of the freighters
she had declined and informed him she would remain where she was. She was, in
her terms, used to it. And she approved of Lieutenant Lee's efforts on her
behalf with the food replicators. He hadn't quite gotten the imitation sushi
right, but he hadn't given up and apparently that endeared him to the old
alien.

“Paired formation? Or just follow the leader?” Irons mused.

“I'm betting the lead ship... new information coming in. Not two
ships, three. A third signal has just moved out of the shadow of the second.”

“Three?” Irons asked. The odds of one of them escaping were
rising. He didn't like that. For this to work they had to take all the ships to
keep the enemy from getting a warning.

It was tempting to let one of the ship's go, chasing it off back
to the enemy in Beta 101a1. No doubt the enemy fleet there would dispatch a
force to investigate. If he timed it right, he could be in hyper when they
passed, and then either take on the force they had left behind in a classic
defeat in detail action, or slip past them for Pyrax.

But there were too many if's in that scenario for his comfort. If
they took the bait. If they didn't wait too long in case he chased the ship to Beta
101a1. If they dispatched a large enough force. Timing... no. His plan was
evolving, ever being refined, but he was so far sticking to it.

“From the look of it, there are three ships sir,” Ian said. “I'm
wondering if this is a standard formation. From what we've got in the
records...” He frowned, accessing his implants.

“The typical resupply missions the Horathians have are a
freighter of indeterminate size, usually whatever is available. She serves as
both a collier and troop transport. Along with that, a converted tanker and
possibly one or more factory or supply ships acting as a collier. With one
escort,” Bounty supplied.

“Thanks, I just found it,” Ian said wryly.

“We're receiving a signal Admiral, omni broadcast. It's the oli
oli in free call.”

“They are calling us out,” Ian murmured.

“Verified,” Sprite replied. “Shall we send the counter?” she
asked.

“Bounce it off a decoy,” the Admiral ordered. “Navigation, plot
an intercept course and then feed it to the helm. Helm execute on receipt.”

“You still want us to play pirate though?” Nata'roka asked. “That
will limit our speed.”