Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (13 page)

Ed
scowled. “We have a jurisdiction dispute captain. It seems there was a computer
security breach.”

“Oh.
Went over my head huh? Tattle tail,” Bailey growled. He gave the security chief
a dirty look then turned to the captain. “I handled it in house.”

“Which
I reiterate, isn't proper.”

“Anytime
you want to pick up a screwdriver and swap jobs is fine by me Ed. I can do your
job with my eyes closed. Being a bully and a jackass waving a stunner is no
skin off my nose.”

“You
want...” Ed's hand went to his stunner.

“Sure.
Wanna try going a few rounds with me?” Bailey's eyes lit as his fur went up. He
grinned nastily at the security chief. The chief suddenly looked distinctly
uncomfortable. Good. “Anytime, anywhere, just name the place and I'll take you
apart. I don't guarantee putting you back together again though. That's Bryan's
department. I can take you apart anytime. You and I both know it.”

“Which
he would. I understand you're a black belt,” the captain said conversationally.

Bailey
gave him a look and then chuffed a laugh. “Trust you to know captain.” He shook
his head. He didn't know where he'd gotten that tidbit from. He'd done well to
hide his martial arts ability under the eyes of the damn pirates. Could
Chambers have ratted him out? Nah, he would have had to have admitted that he'd
gotten his ass kicked by the diminutive engineer if he had.

“Yes
I heard you and the Admiral have been working out,” he said amused as he
nodded. “You punished the miscreant?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Yes.
He got nosy. Peeper. I chopped his nose off, chewed him out till he pissed
himself.” He looked at Ed. “Literally. You're standing in the puddle.” Ed lifted
a foot and grimaced as the chimp smiled sweetly.

“Gee
thanks for a warning.”

“Sure
thing,” the chimp said. “Anyway, I put the fear of me into him and he's on my
shit list. Going to be doing scut work for a
long
, long time. Crap no
one in his right mind wants to do.”

“Oh,”
the captain nodded. He cocked his head. “First offense?”

Bailey
blew out a raspberry and then rolled his brown eyes. “Yeah. Greenhorn know it
all kid right out of diapers. Little shit has a lot to learn and just found
that out. We've got a lot of time invested in his training though, so I want to
see if there is something worth salvaging. Besides,” he shot a look at the
security chief. “Too many cooks spoil the brew.”

“Good,”
the captain nodded. “Carry on.” He turned as they straightened to attention and
left.

“See?”
Bailey said smiling to the security chief. The chief blinked then shook his
head. “I win,” Bailey said buffing his nails. “Now, pick up a spanner or get
out of my face boy. You're crowding me.”

“Ah...”
Ed shook his head, face red. He left without a backwards look.

“Cretin,”
Bailey said shaking his head. “Now what the hell was I planning on doing before
being so rudely interrupted?”

Irons
nodded to the chief as he walked up to the sickbay door. He looked around noting
the guards. “Something I should know?” he asked. He'd lost his bodyguard on the
walk here. Either the girl had been peeled off to do another duty or someone
was watching him virtually. Or so he hoped. Sloppy behavior wasn't what they
needed. Erratic security was just as good as no security. Then again, the
random element would throw everyone off guard. Including him. It paid for him
to be on his toes and not rely on others for his own protection after all.

He'd
had the guard now for nearly a week. He'd almost gotten used to a presence
nearby. Almost. He didn't want to let his guard down. That actually wasn't hard
to do on the surface. They looked scary to some of the people, big bruisers,
heavily muscled. A few were heavy worlders like those two near the door were.
It was as much attitude as it was the weapons on their hips that acted as a
deterrent. Well, that and the threat of retribution from the captain... that's
what really kept people in line. Or was supposed to. Something had gone wrong
with that arrangement apparently.

“No,”
a guard said giving him a contemptuous look. Irons sized him up. Short black
hair, sneer, broken nose, fresh bruise on one cheek, shiner on the other and
his uniform was a bit well... clawed. Shredded. He could see some skin and deep
cuts here and there. Still the guy kept his post. Good.

“Nothing
important Admiral, just a fight that got out of hand,” the other guard replied.
The first gave her a dirty look. “What?” she asked as the Admiral passed.

“Thanks
for the information,” he muttered as he entered. He looked around. Additional
guards were stationed around the room.

“Something
I can help... Oh Admiral!” The paramedic looked up with a smile. “Thanks for
coming I've got a real mess.” He waved to the others then went back to dabbing
a cut on a woman's face. From the looks of her she'd been savaged by one of the
cats. She had long claw marks on one cheek. She was lucky they hadn't gotten
deeper. If they had they would have cut to the bone, ripping her face right
off. Whoever the cat had been they had either been just far enough out of reach
or had just enough self control to keep that from happening.

“Nasty,”
Irons grimaced. “What do you need me for?” he asked.

“In
here,” Bryan the paramedic motioned to a side room. He went in. “What am I
looking for?” he asked, noting the patient unconscious on the bed. The lioness
was clutching one arm he could smell her copper blood. She was skinny, he could
see her ribs under her scarred fur. She had a sheet around her ankles, all
bunched up in a tangled mess. Most Neo's hated too much clothing.

He
looked closer. The injury was semi serious. The biofoam was holding the wound
closed. From the look of it she wasn't happy about the area around the wound
being shaved though.

“The
equipment can't handle a Neo. And the dermal regenerator keeps fritzing out.”

“Oh,”
Irons grimaced as he noted the female feline was watching him with slitted
eyes. “Sorry to see you injured,” he said politely, nodding to her.

“Why
should you care?” she snarled. The guard standing behind her bed looked at her
nervously, hand on his stunner. She shot the guard a look and then went back to
cradling her arm. It was burned. From the look of it she'd gotten oil
splattered all over her. It had melted her fur to her skin. Hot oil had
splattered over her side and face. Bryan had picked off the melted fur with
forceps and foamed the wounds that had broken the skin.

“Just
being my usual helpful self. Point out the equipment and I'll gladly get out of
your hair. Fur I mean. What's left of it.”

“Is
that supposed to be funny?” she snarled. Her head lolled. She panted. “I'll
teach you,” she said and then blinked in confusion. Drugged, most likely pain
killers. He backed away.

“Easy
there lady,” he said hands up.

“She's
sedated and restrained,” the guard said. “But yeah, I'd stay back.”

“What
happened?” Irons asked, placing a hand on the equipment. Proteus began
streaming data on his HUD. He felt his nanites streaming into it.

“She
got into a fight. By accident it turns out. Galley fight. I'm not sure what
started it. Someone knocked over the oil used to fry fish and chips and it got
her. She thrashed about and clawed a couple of people.”

“It
hurts,” she meowed piteously.

“I'm
sure it does,” the paramedic said, shouldering his way past the Admiral.
“You've only got a subdermal local. I'm cutting your pain nerves but this gear
and my training is set for humans.”

“Typical,”
the cat snarled. Her teeth were bared in a grimace of pain and anger.

“No,
I'm learning,” he said and then shrugged. “We all are. It takes time. And
patience, which you obviously lack,” he muttered. He took the mister and
checked the dosage.

“What's
that?” she asked watching him warily.

“Mister,”
he explained. “Used to apply a topical anesthetic. It should dull the pain
more.”

“Accessing
medical database. I suggest upping the dosage slightly and changing the spray
to a 2 nanometer head to get through her thick hide doctor,” Sprite said over
the intercom.

“Huh?”
the guard looked around in confusion. “Who said that?”

“My
AI. She's tied into the medical database,” Irons replied. Proteus listed the
diagnostic file. He nodded. “I'm done with this. It was out of calibration.
It's fixed now.” He moved over to the dermal regenerator.

The
dermal regenerator was a boxy piece of equipment with a hose attached to it.
Controls were on the face, angled for easier viewing of course. Inside the
machine a sample taken from the patient was processed. If it was an emergency
situation a pseudo plastic replacement laced with growth chemicals was sprayed
onto the wound with the attached hose and sprayer. If the attending medical
staff had more time they could clone the patient's skin cells in a bio-reactor
built into the machine and then spray a mix of cloned stem cells, growth
hormones, and a powdered collagen glycosaminoglycan matrix to heal a wound.

The
third ability of the machine was even more complex. It could stimulate the
cells in the wound to self replicate and repair with the use of a wand that was
apparently missing. That was a painful experience and it had it's own risks. It
was a bit messy and it could induce tumor growth so most medical professionals
avoided using it. Especially on larger wounds like this. What apparently no one
knew was that the wand was loaded with nanites. Well, someone must have known
since the wand was missing. He wondered what had happened to it? Whoever had
removed it had inherited a dead piece of plastic and electronics, the nanites
were programmed to self destruct when the wand was removed.

Even
with a dermal regenerator the body still needed to have the time to integrate
the repairs. But using it cut the healing time down to a day or so. For small
wounds it took only hours for them to heal.

“How
does she... I mean there isn't anything about Neos in the ships database. I
know, I checked,” Bryan said grimacing.

Irons
looked up. “You didn't ask for access to my files. I've got files on my ship,”
Irons replied. He nodded at Bryan's disgusted look. “I bet if you ask Cheetahra
she could get you a copy as well,” he said. Bryan looked like he could kick
himself over that last. He had thought about asking her to help but she was
obviously uncomfortable around the other Neos. “The dermal regenerator has a
clogged head and some sort of growth in it. I would suggest getting another or
a sterilization of this one.”

“Ah,”
Bryan looked at the device as he rubbed a swab over the cat's arm. “You can
tell just by looking?”

“With
your hand on it?” the guard added in confusion.

“Proteus,”
Irons said lifting his hand. He ran the demo sequence. His fingers flashed into
various tools then back to normal. “The ultimate Swiss army knife and
diagnostic tool,” he smiled.

“Oookay,”
the guard said wide eyed. “You're for real.” Irons snorted mentally. Apparently
some people still didn't believe who and what he was. Typical and sad in a way.
Had they really fallen... no then again, it had been typical in his time and
through out time to be skeptical, even when you saw something right under your
nose.

“Last
time I checked,” Irons deadpanned, moving on to the next piece of equipment.
“By the way doctor you'll need to load the dermal regenerator with Neo feline
stem cells to work. Generic human stem cells have a moderate chance of being
rejected. Your best bet is to harvest them from the patient where they are not
injured induce mitosis a few times then use them. Keep a few on file for later
use,” he suggested and then shrugged at the medic's expression. “That much I do
remember.”

He
turned at the sound of a chitter and squeak. He looked down by the doorway to
note a coonie sniffing his pant leg.

“Looks
like you found a friend,” Bryan said, looking over his patient then going back
to work. The coonie chittered and grabbed his pant leg with a hand paw and
tugged.

“He
doesn't have anything for you Nara, so go,” Bryan said not looking up.

The
coonie looked at the paramedic then went over to sniff the patient.

“That's...
not a good idea mate,” Irons said. “Even though she smells like fish, she's not
one.”

“No,
but he'd make an really good snack right about now.” the lioness said, rolling
her head back and forth. “And I'm getting hungry,” she growled. One eye caught
sight of the coonie.

“That's
the regenerators. They stimulate your body's natural growth and repair
functions,” Irons replied.

“Who
asked you,” she snarled.

Irons
picked the fat ball of fur up. The coonie's ears flicked and she settled right
away, obviously used to being handled. He cradled the coonie. “You obviously
didn't,” he said stroking the now purring coonie. “By the way, he's a she,” he
said petting the pet. “We've met.”