Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (25 page)

“I
was wondering why I didn't get a call,” he said shaking his head.

“Probably
cause this dweeb and his girl tried it and then got the others to cover it up
till they could figure out a fix,” the chimp said crossing his arms.

“Oh.
Not a very wise thing,” Miss Willis said shaking her head. She gave Everette a
severe look. “That is Pyrax system property you know. You are liable for
damages. Especially since it was done for an off duty project.” Irons frowned.
Technically no, it was fleet property. He'd have to point that out later.

“Yeah,”
Everette looked down mumbling. “I screwed up.”

“Which
he'll pay for. Believe me. We'll take the cost of the replacement or at least
the time it takes to make one out of his pay,” Bailey growled. The kid blanched
and then looked crestfallen. The girl did as well. He looked to the Admiral.
“Think you can work your magic?”

“I'll
have to see the damage. Which we can do. Are you up to a road trip folks? It
seems to me I should show rather than tell.”

The
class got up and followed him out. They walked down the corridors then entered
the replicator room. The room was set aside with easy access to main
engineering and the boat bays for a reason. It had a commanding presence in
this part of the deck since it was so large. It had to be, since it was a class
one industrial replicator. The hatch to the compartment was double the standard
size to accommodate large items coming and going through it's threshold.

The
room was spartan, only the replicator, a stool and some hover pallets were in
there. The room also had one other entrance of sorts, a feed tube about a half
meter across that came in at a steep angle from the ceiling to the back of the
octagonal replicator.

To
some the replicator looked like a large octagonal hot tub standing on one side.
It was uniformly gray, well mostly gray. There were warning labels around the
rim and on the control panel sticking out on the right side.

This
replicator had been set up vertically for a reason, to make it easier to get
parts out of it. All they needed to do was let the door open and then they
could pull the part out onto a waiting hover pallet, hit the close button and
it would close and be ready for re-use.

He'd
used such replicators to make a great deal of parts. Since it had a ten cubic
meter space inside for parts it could replicate quite a lot of parts a ship
used. And anything that wouldn't fit could always be built up from sub
assemblies.

The
purser was there, banging on the downed replicator. He looked up in surprise at
the Admiral and his class. “Damn thing. Ah Admiral, just the person I need.” He
turned waving to the replicator. “It seems to be broken.”

“Why
don't you hit it a few more times, it's only a delicate piece of equipment,
what harm will that do?” Bailey said sarcastically. Irons sighed.

“We
just heard. I'll see what I can do.” He went over and jacked in. By now the
class had seen his hand morph so there wasn't any exclamations of surprise or
dismay. He grimaced. He could already tell it was toast. Time to go through the
motions.

“Accessing.
Password sent,” He cocked his head. “I have one part of each 1024 bit encrypted
set of passwords, Sprite and Defender have the other parts. They combine
through a matrix module to unlock different things. In this case...” He paused
examining the system and then grimaced. “Boy you did a number on this,” He
shook his head after a moment.

The
purser turned to see the chimp glaring at the hapless tech. “Something I should
know about?”

“Typical
male adolescent trying to impress a girl and ending up with egg all over his
face,” Miss Willis replied dryly. The adolescents in question squirmed
uncomfortably. “I'm sure it can be worked out.”

“Well,
the case and electronics are mostly okay. The database is fried. In trying to
bypass it manually, you triggered that part of the self destruct.” He shook his
head. “Hackers better than you have tried for centuries to get past the
safeguards. In fact in my time there was even a reward for anyone who could do
it.”

“There
was?” Miss Willis asked, fascinated. She blinked at him. It took him a moment
to realize she was fluttering her eyes. Was she really flirting with him?

He
cleared his throat, feeling a little heat. Damn it had been a long time since
anyone had done that with him. Not since... not in a long time. Unfortunately
this wasn't the time or place. “Yes. By the Federation government. We wanted to
know if anyone could do it and how so we could plug the hole. It was also a way
to identify people who were trying, and it shut down quite a few systems. After
a year the offer was rescinded.”

“Oh,”
Miss Willis smiled. “Too many takers?”

“You
could say that. It severely disrupted manufacturing. The makers of the
replicators did make record profits though,” Irons replied dryly.

“Of
course,” Miss Willis smiled. “So what would happen if you died? Will you pass
on your knowledge?”

“I
can't,” Irons said not looking at her. “I'm not just duty bound, I'm
psychically unable to do so. The coding module would self destruct under
certain situations, like my death. Sprite and Defender would also wipe their
code sets as well.”

“What
will happen to them if you ever die?” a young girl asked. Irons wasn't sure of
her name. It floated over her head thanks to Sprite. Regina.

Irons
grimaced. “I don't like to think about it, but if possible they could upload
themselves into an available AI core. I'm not sure about Defender, he is
programmed to ah, go down with the ship I guess you could say,” he said and
then grimaced once more, this time in distaste.

“Proteus
would also go with the Admiral,” Sprite said quietly from the overhead. “I'm
not sure I would like to remain without the Admiral's presence. For an organic
he makes this universe enjoyable.”

“Thanks,”
Irons said huskily as the class looked away at the show of emotion.

“Now,
as the Admiral pointed out, trying to do anything this stupid is going to back
fire. Hopefully you learned a lesson from this?” Sprite asked. “No weapons, no
proscribed tech, nothing of that nature is allowed. It's all in the manual
which those of you who have used the replicators should have read by now. If
you haven't, do so. In fact Mr. Smith you'll be getting a copy with flagged
material to read. I
will
make sure you do read it this time.”

“Yes
ma'am,” Everette said nodding. “I will. I'm sorry about the mess,” he grimaced,
indicating the replicator.

“At
least no one was killed. The early day replicators would blow up. Count your
blessings,” Irons said. “I've got to replicate a new set of nanites and a new
data core, then reinitialize the entire system. Which wont be happening today.”
He nodded to the Purser as he unjacked. “I plan on eating dinner.” He smiled to
Bailey. “Then tossing an overgrown baboon around the salle mat.”

“Oh
you think so huh?” Bailey said with a simian laugh. “Just try it bub.” He shook
his head, teeth bared in a mock threatening grin. “Two falls out of three?
Loser rebuilds that hinky gearbox for the recycler.”

“You're
on,” Irons chuckled. “You really don't like getting all greasy do you?” he
asked as they followed the class out. He slapped the chimp on the shoulder.

“You
have any idea how much of a pain it is to get that crap out of my fur?”

“What's
left of it you mean,” Irons chuckled.

“Funny.
Real funny.”

“You
know, come to think of it, I've got cronies for jobs like this don't I?” Bailey
said, eying the dirty recycler with misgivings. He wasn't sure why he and the
Admiral got this duty. He sometimes chose duties like this to prove to himself
and his crew that he could buckle down and do the dirty deed, show them that he
could lead by example. He just questioned his own timing. Which made him smile
a little. Second guessing himself when it came time to get his fur dirty. That
was normal!

“Yeah,
but the mark of a good leader is the willingness to roll up one's sleeves and
do the dirty jobs right along with anyone else. And do it better too,” Irons
retorted, setting the crate of parts down nearby.

Irons
would point that out, Bailey thought with a pang. “Sure, you just keep telling
yourself that Admiral,” Bailey snorted, tugging the cuffs of his sleeves down
and then tightening the velcro. “I for one don't want to get that crap on my
fur. Be a bitch to get it off. Probably be a tangled matted mess by the time
I'm done here. Why'd I volunteer for this chicken shit again?” he muttered.

“Could
always shave it off I suppose,” Irons deadpanned, grinning at the chimp's sour
look and mock shudder. “The sooner we get this done, the better.” Irons knew
that the people who would normally be doing this were all ground side. Which
was another reason why the chief was handling this job. He was a good leader,
giving his people the time to unwind. He just wished they had the compunction
to check over their equipment a little more thoroughly before writing it off as
good and then rushing dirt side.

Bailey
grunted as he set his tool case down. As he pulled out a driver to remove the
casing screws Irons passed him and went to work. By the time he had the proper
bit the casing was loose.

“Well,
that was fast,” Bailey snorted looking up. He changed the bit on his tool.
“Think the problem is in the pump assembly or a clog?” he asked professionally.

“I'm
not sure,” Irons said. He studied the machine and then brought his implants up
to full to do a thorough scan. He traced the feeds coming into the machine and
followed them. So far he didn't see anything wrong. A little congested but
nothing really wrong or broken. At least nothing that immediately jumped out at
him.

Bailey
toyed with his tool revving the motor for a moment and then coming over. “Now I
know why I did this, I get to play with power tools.”

“See?
There is a good side to this after all,” Irons said distracted as he frowned.
He got midway through the scan and then spotted something, a blockage that
shouldn't be there. It didn't look right. It didn't look natural, it looked....
artificial. “Odd...”

“What?”
Bailey asked, hand reaching for the cover plate.

“Something,
I'm not sure. Maybe something broke off and it got spun around inside. It's not
matching my specs at all and...” His threat detectors went off as he narrowed
the scan to do a detailed analysis of the unknown blockage. He felt a
gravitational disturbance as his shields came online and began to spin up.

“Don't!”
he said lunging for Bailey's arm just as he pulled the cover plate open.

Bailey
had one moment, one brief microsecond to see and recognize the bomb within
before the trap he'd sprung closed a circuit and set it off.

Defender
had been ready, his shields were already up as he grabbed the simian and swung
him around so the Admiral was in between the bomb and the chimp. That was all
he had time for because the bomb went off, a focused blast in their direction.

His
shields however took the brunt off the blast, knocking them both down the
passage to slam into the corridor wall beyond. Bailey gasped in pain and shock
as fire alarms whooped and the ventilation system kicked into overdrive.

Irons
helped him to his feet and then supported him as the chimp shook like a leaf in
the wind. “What the hell?” he said loudly.

“Bomb.”

“What?”

“BOMB!”
Irons yelled.

“I
know that!”

“Yeah
well, ask a stupid question, get a literal reply,” Irons said, shaking his
head.

Bailey
looked at the wreckage behind them and the running people coming from different
directions. “About time!” He kicked a piece of smoldering debris angrily.

“Thirty
seconds, not bad. We may have to contain this section and evacuate the air to
get the fire under control though,” Irons said with a grimace. Everyone around
them was wearing a face mask. Good. He needed to get the chief into one. He was
coughing off and on.

“Damn
it!”

“What?”
Irons asked as the chimp snarled and kicked at a bit of debris.

“That
was my favorite tool box! It had stickers on it and everything! Someone's going
to pay big for this!”

Irons
bit back a laugh as he watched the simian chew the air blue. So much for a
peaceful day.

A
few hours later he sat on a stool in engineering. Ed was standing there stiff
as a board, clearly both pissed and embarrassed. He had taken his eyes off the
situation, focused too much on the ground and here was the result. The captain
frowned, arms crossed as he heard them repeat the story.

“So,
no warning until it went off?”

“No,
I had about a two or three second lead time but when I put two and two together
it was too late,” Irons said shrugging helplessly.

“Who
ever did this was good.”

“And
you didn't get anything? Nothing at all?” the captain asked, turning his
attention on the security chief.