Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (11 page)

“We
can talk about it,” the purser said grimacing. He didn't sound happy about the
idea of getting a chip in him. Which was odd, since he was the one who had
brought up the subject in the first place.

“What's
to talk about?” Ed demanded. “Let's do it!” he said, hands on the table and
partially standing up. He shot a look around the room. Bailey nodded in
agreement.

“Um...”
the captain looked down, not saying anything as the others pitched in on one
side or the other.

“Gentlemen,
I believe you're missing a crucial point...” Irons interjected.

That
paused the argument for them to settle down and look at him. “We're still not
sure they are even on board. After the last problem with inventory they,
well...” he shrugged.

“Might
have been misplaced or left off or swapped with junk,” Bailey said in sudden
understanding. He looked disgusted. “Forgot about that.”

“Yeah
well, I didn't,” Sprite said. “I checked. They are in your log, but I can't
know if they are in the box they are supposed to be in. That you'll have to
find out for yourselves.”

“If
they aren't I suppose I can program a replicator to make some,” Irons said
sighing. “We're almost done with the priority list now.”

“You
can?” Ed asked. “Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot.”

“Hey
now, wow ah, I'm not that thrilled about putting anything in my body he's....”
Charlie said, eyes wide as he shook his head back and forth. His fork dropped
from his nerveless fingers.

“Stow
it,” Bailey growled at the purser. “You're putting stuff in your fat yap right
now you ignoramus. Or did you forget he made the food replicators? The clothes
on your back? Air you breath? Not to mention half the damn systems on this
boat. So quit your bitching and belly aching so you can do your job.”

The
purser started to swell but the captain cut him off with a cleared throat.
“That was out of line chief,” he said quietly.

“The
content or the name?” Bailey said tossing his napkin in his plate. “Content was
right on the mark and you both know it. As for the name...” he shrugged.
“Sticks and stones, but just for once...” He glanced at the purser. “I
apologize,” he made it sound like a snide thing, in the same tone and manner
the purser used all the time. Irons wasn't the only one to wince at that.

He
got up and walked to the door. “Even though you are one. Just stating the
obvious,” he muttered under his breath. Irons picked it up but didn't react.

“Dismissed,”
the captain said with a sigh, shaking his head. The others followed the chimp
chief engineer out quietly. So much for dessert, Irons thought with a grimace.

Eric
shot a dark look to the door as the Admiral walked in. “What's he doing here?”
he snarled. He'd been looking forward to being in main engineering but did he
really have to share his air with that... that...

“Working,”
Everette said not looking up. “Like you should be.” Everette tried hard not to
look at the dork. Eric loved to shoot his mouth off.

“Yeah
well, he did what was needed. So what. His neck was on the line just like ours.
Now he can go sit in his cabin.”

The
gangly freckled youth shook his head. “Which wouldn't help us much. Ever hear
the expression many hands make light work?” Everette asked patiently, turning
to the fat life support tech. It was odd, a life support tech getting fat like
that. Didn't the guy know he had to climb in and out of tight enclosed spaces?
Ducts weren't built for people with a gut! “Besides, the man is innocent until
proven guilty. There isn't a shred of evidence saying he's a child molester,
and a whole hell of a lot saying he's not.”

“Which
goes to show the lengths he'll go to cover things up,” Eric said with stubborn
tenacity.

“You
really are a moron,” Everette sighed. “Fucking moron,” he growled and shook his
head.

“Oh
yeah? Wanna make something of it?” Eric snarled, starting to get up. He froze
as he caught sight of Chief Bailey sitting just beyond Everette. Chief Bailey
looked up and came over. He slapped his palms onto Eric's shoulders, making him
wince. The simian was incredibly strong. He must have pulled some of that or he
would have broken both of the guy's collar bones.

“Tell
you what. Since you're so smart, you get to go clean the scrubbers. Now.” He
spun the suddenly limp man around and pushed him. “Including the solid waste
ones. Go. Enjoy.”

“Right
place for you and your bullshit,” the chief engineer muttered as the stunned
life support tech left. Everette looked surprised. “Just do your job Everette,
like everyone else here. Including him,” he nodded.

“And
Everette,” the electronics tech looked up. “Thanks.”

The
kid's face was warm. He looked like an orange Bailey thought. “I didn't do it
for him boss. Or you. It's just not right.”

“Yeah
well, welcome to the real world sonny,” the chief sighed going over to the
Admiral. “Welcome to the real world.”

“You
wanted to see me chief?” Irons asked, coming up behind the chimp chief
engineer. He'd managed to break from the early morning habit of coming in for
coffee. Apparently the chief had missed him and called him in anyway.

“Yeah.
I was wondering if you'd like to spar tonight?” the chimp asked distracted. A
few of the techs around them looked up in surprise. They looked at one another
and smiled.

Irons
cocked his head and then quirked an eyebrow upwards. That was an interesting
development. “Sure. I didn't know you're a martial arts devotee.”

“I
packed my pink polka dot gi in the wrong duffel,” Bailey grinned.

“Riiight,”
Irons drawled chuckling. He sized the chief up with fresh eyes. This could be
interesting. “After dinner sound about right?”

“Yeah.
I'll set out a mat in the classroom since Notuma's still being an ass about the
dojo space. I've wanted to tap dance with someone but most of the crew are
chicken. I've been told I've been getting flabby by an important person.” He
patted his paunch.

“All
the donuts chief,” Everette deadpanned. The simian shot him a mock glare and
the kid ducked away smiling.

“You
can't get anyone to match against?” Irons asked shooting an amused look to the
computer nerd.

“Nope.”

“Even
the chief of security? Ed?” Irons asked, eyebrow raised.

“Bullies
and sadists rarely like getting hurt themselves for some strange reason,” the
chief said with a feral grin.

“Well,
going up against a chimp is not for the faint of heart chief. Even if you know
martial arts. Even less so if you know he does.”

“True,
too true,” the chief grinned. “This'll be fun. Fresh meat to tie into a
pretzel,” he said, eyes glinting with glee. He rubbed his hands together in a
classic evil washing motion.

“You
asked for it,” Irons sighed shaking his head.

“What's
that supposed to mean?” Bailey asked, eyebrow raised as he turned to Irons.

“Well,
I'm stronger than you chief,” The Admiral smiled as he paused by the hatch. “A
lot stronger. And I've been doing martial arts since your great great something
or other climbed out of the trees. I've got a few more knots on my belt I bet.
Quite a few more.”

“Oh
shit,” the chief said as the techs around him looked at each other then started
to snicker and  laugh. “Oh banana spit,” he breathed as Irons walked out
whistling.

Sprite
finished spinning off a bot to recompile the life support module then peeked at
the spider bot progress.

“What
a mess,” she muttered to Proteus. They'd been at it for a week now and they
still had thousands of items on the repair list to go.

“We
are setting it straight. It takes time.” Proteus was methodical, stripping
modules apart and doing code comparisons manually instead of spinning a bot off
to do the boring work.

“It
takes a nuke you mean. A nice EMP to scrub everything clean so we can start
over. This patching stuff... If I had my way we'd reboot from scratch. But
since we're in hyper we'll have to make the best of it,” she grimaced, noting a
lot of traffic pings on node E-14. They had finally cleaned up the essential
systems and gotten them sorted out. Back ups made by the Admiral, certified
clean had been brought online and tested before they had shunted the load to
them to repair or replace primary systems. They were just making a final sweep.
Data swirled around them, moving all over the place. She had bots all over the
net, reporting to her. The Admiral thought of her sometimes as a spider. The
imagery was more akin to a being with a cloud of bots around her, sending
signals back and forth in bright flashes of color.

“Now
what's going on over here?” she asked. “Uh oh,” she snarled as she recognized
the code tendril for what it was and then firewalled the node, isolating it
from the net. “We've got another virus.”

“Unusual.
I believe we had destroyed them all?” Proteus asked, suddenly interested.

“Well,
lets find out,” she said. She caught a rabbit file trying to hide in a buffer
and then tore it apart. “Well well. It's not from the virus ten days ago.”

“No?”

“And
from the signature it's new. As in today.” She sent him a copy of her log file.

“Interesting.
The authorities should be notified.”

“Yes.
But I want to see what this amateur thought he was doing. Lets see, E-14,
security cameras in the women's locker room.
WHY THAT LITTLE CREEP
!” she
practically shrieked.

Chief
Bailey scowled as he looked at the tablet in front of him. A knock on the door
made him look up. “Get in here Jerry. And close the door behind you.”

Jerry,
a skinny, pimple faced red head human male came in and closed the door. He
stood nervously on the other side of the desk. The chimp might be smaller than
him but he knew better than to piss the boss off. He could tear him apart
easily.

Bailey
stared at him like he was something he'd scraped off the bottom of his shoe.
The kid gulped nervously “Know why you're here?”

“Ah
no boss?” Jerry said, trying to look confident. He was hoping this would wind
up fast, he wanted to know what his daily catch had. So far nothing much. He
really wanted to get to see that blond girl. The one lady, Willis or something
or other. She was a looker. He knew he was getting his priorities mixed up, but
damn, since things were slowing down he could use the relaxation time. Not that
it was relaxing. Seeing some of the women had his heart beating like a drum!

“Cause
you're a stupid pissant. One that should be spaced. Will be if I catch you
doing something this anal again,” the Chief said tossing the tablet across the
table. It spun so it was facing the hapless software tech.

“Sir?”
he gulped looking at the thing in front of him. He blanched at the sight of the
coded rabbit virus he had made. “Shit,” he muttered looking up, eyes wide.
Suddenly he didn't feel so good. Suddenly he really really I mean really had to
pee. Badly.

“Didn't
think we'd find out? Stupid Jerry, stupid. And what for?”

“I
was just ah, looking,” Jerry said, squirming. He backed away from the desk.
“Honest, I wasn't doing any damage or anything.”

“Peeping
is still a crime you fucking pervert. And making a virus is a capital one on a
ship or station,” Bailey snarled. “Fucking stupid! Do you have any idea what
you could have done? A virus could infect a system, replicate out of control
and crash a computer network! WE JUST WENT THROUGH THAT YOU MORON!” he screamed
in full primal rage. Teeth bared, hair fluffed, it was an awesome sight. The
kid had courage though, he blanched but didn't faint. A passerby paused near
the door, caught the bosses snarl and left fast.

“I'm
sorry!” Jerry wilted. “I didn't know!”

“You
didn't fucking well know? How couldn't you know! You're a fucking software tech
it's your damn business to know!  Where were you? Were you sleeping or
something? What were you doing, jacking off somewhere? In your own fucking
pocket universe? Spirit of space man!”

“I...
I wont do it again.” He felt miserable, felt like he was... god they weren't
going to space him were they?

“You
are damn right you won't. Next time I space you,” the chief snarled. He jabbed
his index finger into the kids chest. The kid looked up, eyes wide, gulping,
and pale as a ghost. Good. “Without a suit. I may be merciful and wring your
neck before you go out the airlock though.”

“You...
you wouldn't!” Jerry said, eyes wide, tears streaking down his face. He fell to
his knees. “No, no, no, this isn't happening,” he said, shaking his head. His
face fell. He shook his head back and forth babbling.

“Damn
straight it is,” Bailey snarled. “Oh stop whimpering,” he growled, getting some
control over his temper. “Stupid fuck. Sprite deleted your crap. You're on my
shit list for a long, long damn time.”