Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (24 page)

A
few people grimaced at that. A few left the compartment. Bryan gulped. “Why'd
they keep him...”

“Alive?”
Bailey interrupted. “Cause he's an engineer. That's the only reason I'm alive.
Skills are hard to come by. Anyone who was not human or Earth clan bought it
that first week. Everyone. Anyone that couldn't pull their own weight too. Those
that they wanted somewhere else ended up getting transferred to other ships. I
met a couple in Pyrax. Most were still shook up,” he grimaced. “Those that
survived.”

“Oh.”

“No,
it's not what you're thinking. The Admiral didn't do it. Didn't kill them when
they caught the pirates. Not intentionally anyway. No it was the pirates
themselves. They went on a killing spree when we got disabled. I was in an air
duct. Got around a bend before they unloaded on me. Still caught a needle in
the ass though.” He shifted a bit as a few people snickered at his discomfort.

“So
yeah, I owe the marines and especially the Admiral. Great guy. Ain't anyone
going to tell me different. I watched the film, I know who's telling the truth.
Anyone who says different is going to get a knuckle sandwich. Personalized from
me.” He grinned a nasty grin, making sure everyone got a good look. Many people
looked away, or down to their drinks.

“There's
been enough shit going on, talk about spacing him. That ends now. You don't
like him? Fine. Think he's what they accuse him? Go watch the vid. But fuck
with him or me and I'll tear you apart. Any one of you,” he snarled, fur
upraised. “Capiche?” he said, bending the metal rail attached to the bar.

“Yeah,
I think they got it,” Bryan said nodding.

“Good.
'Bout freaking time someone did,” Bailey growled, taking another chug of beer.
“But enough about me. You really should go down.”

“Yeah,”
Bryan said, nodding. “I'm getting that vibe. You're saying that they could use
all the help they can get.”

“And
more. We were in sorry straights for a week after we got rescued. Bet it's
worse down there. No fancy sickbay, no power, no equipment, no food or shelter
since the freaking pirates took em or turned em into a crater. No hope unless
we bring it to them.”

“Which
is what we're doing,” Bryan nodded getting up. He downed his beer then headed
to the door. “Thanks for changing my mind chief.”

“Any
time kid,” Bailey said finishing his. “My good deed for the day.” He teetered a
little then stretched, teetering even more. “Now, someone point me to the
nearest head and then bed,” he chuckled. “Ha, that rhymes,” he said with a
toothy grin.

Irons
watched the kid in the back as he settled into routine. Since only twenty
percent of the crew were allowed ground side at any given time the remaining
group were either doing their duty or bored. Most were counting the time until
they went ground side. A few of the avid spacers were counting the time until
they broke orbit and hit deep space once more. He'd been asked to run a few
classes on various things to help keep some of the crew occupied and to aid in
their training, since the drive had been repaired he'd decided to go with it.

The
class room was just large enough for about twenty people. There was a small stage
in the front, he wasn't sure if it was for plays or for other activities. Space
on a starship was at a premium and usually served double or triple duty.

He'd
been in the room before of course, he'd sparred with Bailey a few times here.
Now however the room was changing, finally taking on it's intended role. That
was good.

This
room was just now being put to right. Apparently there was some trade going on
with the planet, Charlie had managed to get some raw material and wood
furniture for additional goods and services. The captain had considered adding
more vid screens but when Bailey had mentioned the impromptu classes he'd
decided that outfitting the class room with the basics was a better use of
their limited resources.

And
he did mean limited, Irons thought, looking around. Just the basics. Simple
pastel colored plastic and aluminum chairs, each with a writing board attached
so the students could write or use a tablet. They didn't even have a dock to
keep the tablets charged or keep them in a network.

Irons
himself had hooked up a Wi-Fi node in the room. Sprite was never happy to share
it with the students when he had a full class... which was more and more often.

Behind
him was a view screen, one of the largest on the ship. That and the holo
projector also behind him were his contributions to the room. He needed them to
help illustrate his lessons.

He'd
heard that a few people had snuck in to use the room as a movie theater or love
nest but an incoming class and the uncomfortable chairs would win out and chase
them out. According to the ship's grapevine one group who had intended to watch
a movie had been so intrigued by a lecture that they had stayed anyway... and
come back the following day to catch the next one, and the one after that.

He'd
really wanted to go out, snag some more rocks and start on his own projects,
however the nearest rock he'd found, not the out of range Atens but another
smaller one on the other side of the planet, was still out of range for another
eighteen hours. Hence his willingness to teach. That and his natural love of
teaching.

There
was something satisfying about seeing a dawning comprehension on someone's
face. The joy of learning, of exploring something new and exciting. It brought
back memories to him of his own studies, and encouraged him to keep learning
himself.

They
really wanted to learn, which was good. They didn't have half the basic skills
and knowledge he himself took for granted. He had to force himself to rein
himself in, to dumb down his lesson plan to get points across to the class.
Something he had done before on occasion but which was more of a regular thing
now.

It
was also impossible to get through a lecture without getting off topic more
than once. Sometimes they were all over the place, touching every field in a
wild and chaotic dance of questions and answers. It was fun and invigorating
but for some, bewildering and exhausting. When he had pointed out that a lot of
his answers were on the net that had spawned a lot of researching... and
further questions.

Adequate
teaching was needed now more than ever, the Anvil college was a good start, for
centuries people had learned on the job in an apprentice system. The system was
heavily flawed, emphasizing keeping elderly equipment running with jury rigged
repairs over how the system ran and how to make parts. Up until he came along
only a few places actually even made replacement equipment. And even those that
did rarely knew how they worked, they just knew the sequence to press in the
computer to get the replicator to spit one out! Hopefully the college would set
up a trend and a new renaissance would kick in. That was part of his plan
anyway.

They
had been going over the replicators, covering some of the basics but skipping
around to items of interest that the class brought up.  Behind him an exploded
view of a replicator was being projected on the holo and on the vid screen. The
images rotated in space, coming together and apart in a swirling complex dance.
He nodded to Everette  then turned to the class. “You were asking about
passwords?”

“Yes,
ah, specifically the replicators actually. I was wondering how that worked. How
you ended up with them.” It was hard for the kid to keep his eyes off the vid
screen behind Irons. Which was important in a way, Irons thought. It kept him
focused on the front and interested in what was going on. It did confuse a few
people though.

He
had a test for them, one that was percolating through the other instructors now
that he had made his databases available to them. He had a 3D representation of
a piece of equipment loaded. Each virtual reality item could be taken apart,
put together, and used to not only identify problems but to train people to
diagnose and repair it.

What
had just gotten through to some of the students was that you could see and play
with the equipment with virtual reality goggles. Which had made things
interesting for the few people who owned them. More than one pair had gone
missing and the miscreant had to be tracked down through the net and forced to
return them. Which had casued no end of problems for security and for the
replicator staff. Students and others were asking for the glasses now instead
of LCD screens or holo projectors. Go figure.

Irons
grimaced trying to think. The door opened and Miss Willis came into the room.
“Is there a problem ma'am?” Irons asked.

“No,
just me being fashionably late as usual,” she smiled and then sat in the front.

He
shook his head as she shook out her blond locks then tapped a stylus against
her tablet and looked at him patiently waiting. She smiled invitingly,
decolletage showing since she'd left the top of her coverall unzipped. Was she
really flirting with him? He shook off the thought. “Okay, since we're all
here, the question is, how the lock out for the replicators works and how I was
given the code keys,” he grimaced. “I can't get into too many specifics, I am
duty bound to keep some things secret.”

A
few of the techs looked disappointed. “But I can tell you that I was selected
because I am an officer of the Federation Navy with a proven track record for
doing what is right.” He shrugged. “Most engineering officers have a limited
set of code keys, these are specific for whatever they are specialized in. This
allows them to make parts they need for their job if necessary.”

“As
an Engineering Admiral I have a master key set. That unlocks just about
everything a replicator can produce. By just about... well I do have to admit I
can't make military grade medical nano. That's not my field so I never got the
need to know key set,” he sighed. “Which I'm regretting now. But they wanted me
to attend a six week seminar to get them. Not something I was in the mood to do
during the beginning of the war.”

He
shook his head as the class looked at each other. “So you have the master set?
When I go to make something it asks for a password,” Everette replied.

Irons
had a sudden suspicious feeling this was leading to something. Something he
wasn't going to like and something Everette and his cronies were likely
regretting. “What were you trying to make?” Irons asked. “I left the basic
replicator password off on Chief Bailey's request since none of you have
implants beyond the ident chip. You should be able to make basic equipment with
it.” The crew had ident chips now but none of the passengers had them. It made
it easier to lock them out. What they didn't know was that the crew's ident
chips held the password for the replicators. It logged them in and the computer
was supposed to keep track of who was making what. He of course wasn't keeping
very good tabs on that obviously.

“Um...”
Everette looked embarrassed. He shot a glance to another student. She rolled
her eyes and made a go on get it over with motion. “I wanted to make a mondo
cool stunner design I got the specs for.”

Irons
was curious about how the kid had gotten the specs for a stunner at all. He was
a civilian. Then the thought made him snort mentally. The kid was a hacker, of
course he'd found a way to pick up the specs. Most likely on Anvil or in his
travels. “Which is of course locked out.
All
weapons are. You have to be
an officer of the Federation to make them.” Irons had run into that particular
problem when Ed the chief of security had tried to get some weapons.
Fortunately for some reason the captain had been on hand at the time and had
stopped him before he had forced the replicator to self destruct.

“Oh,”
Everette said in a small voice and then grimaced. He rubbed the back of his
head in chagrin.

“You're
lucky you stopped at the pass code. Had you tried to bypass it or entered the
wrong code the system would have locked up.” Everette blanched then slunk down
into his chair, hunching his shoulders. “You did stop?” He was pretty sure from
the lad's expression that had not been the case. Great.

“Um.
Not ah, exactly.”

Irons
nodded, looking grim and slightly annoyed. There was a reason passwords
existed. “Now I understand why you want to know more. Well, if you got to the
first firewall you probably locked the system up. If you tried to bypass it
manually, then the self destruct kicked in.”

Everette
paled a little. He knew he was in deep shit now. “Well, it didn't blow up,”
Everette grimaced, giving the girl a look.

“It
wouldn't have. It would send a signal to the nearest authority then zero purge
the matrix. The nanites would have consumed each other.” The Admiral made
gobbling motions with his hands, pretending that one hand was eating the other.
“After that the electronics would have fried their memory chips by over writing
them and then cooking them off.”

“Oh,”
the boy looked a little green. “Damn.” He shrugged helplessly. “Oops?” he said.

“Yeah,”
Irons sighed. “Oops.”

“So,
today's lesson kids, don't screw with the password. If you try, you will fry
it,” Bailey said from the door. Irons glanced over to him. The chief did not
look happy. Irons could understand why.