Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (50 page)

“Prime
directive?”

“Named
for a concept from a famous science fiction series Terrans watched in the late
20
^th
century. The entire concept is that a developing race would be
bypassed until they achieved star flight. No contact allowed until then unless their
world was undergoing an ELE, an extinction level event.”

“It
also forgave all debt by alien species to the mega corps in exchange for long
term bonds. They weren't happy about that.”

“This
made the scientists, and sociologists happy. Economists as well, although they
weren't happy about assuming the debt. That turned out to be a
misunderstanding, the Federation amended the law to state that anyone who
debits a developing world forfeits the debt and will be fined.” He shook his
head.

“I
bet that went over well.”

“You
mean the lobbyists kicked and screamed to prevent it. It's one time they didn't
get their way.  Though they did get a chance to water it down a bit,” he said.
“The Telerites were terrible about this, they believed it was their mission to
bring civilization to every star system. A couple of horrible experiences like
the Salamanders broke the deadlock and it was rammed through.”

He
grimaced a little. The Salamanders were a bunch of religious fanatics. They
believed themselves touched by the stars and had made themselves a nuisance
browbeating the public about it. When that failed they started to use more
forceful methods, including terrorism and brainwashing. Of course their
theological leaders had denied it. But when they were directly linked to the
take over of several planets and a school of rich children it had been the last
straw. Their race had been indicted and forcefully relocated to their home
world.

“I
think the scientists got the best deal out of it. It let them study primitive
societies and gave others already in the Federation breathing room,” Sprite
interjected.

“Some
species got back onto their feet and became isolationist with only a few
members out in the galaxy at large to maintain appearances. Their home worlds
became off limits to off worlders.”

“Admiral,
I was curious about tachyons...” Irons grimaced as Everette waylaid him in the
corridor the next morning. Trust Everette to get curious just when he was busy.
When was the kid going to learn to check the net before tracking him down? He'd
have to point that out again.

“What
about them kid?” Chief Bailey asked, coming out from behind the equipment rack
they had pulled out into the corridor.

“Oh,
sorry chief, I didn't see you there,” the young man said uncertainly. “I ah,”
he shifted back and forth, obviously unsure what to do or say.

“That's
cause I ain't. I'm a ghost,” Bailey said dryly, chuffing a laugh at the kid's
expression. “What about tachyons kid?”

“Um,
well, why don't we have a transmitter?”

“Cause
they don't work worth spit half the time,” Bailey said shaking his head. He
pulled his head out of the cabinet and sat back. “See, tachyons are subatomic
particles that move faster than light.”

“Yeah,
I know. They are used in interstellar communications,” Everette said mulishly.

“No.
Inner stellar. There's a difference.”

“Huh?”

“Inner.
Means inside squirt. Tachyons are only good for short distances. Anything
beyond a couple of AU and they are gone. Off in la la land.”

“More
commonly known as the void,” Sprite said with amusement.

“Um,
I thought they were faster than light?” Everette said, face clouded.

“Yeah.
But not instant like people think. Causality has to have it's way you know,”
Bailey replied. He glanced at the Admiral. “You can jump in any time you know.”

The
Admiral snorted. “You're doing just fine,” he shrugged and turned to the
programmer. “Tachyons are hard to make. They are hard to contain, and even
harder to catch.”

“Okay...
But...”

“Kids
these days,” the chimp growled. “Look kid, think of it this way. You want to talk
to someone across a solar system. A laser is limited by line of sight and speed
of light. Which means it could take weeks to get a signal across right?”

“Yeah.”

“So
a tachyon goes at nearly instant speed. But they are so fast it's kinda hard to
catch them to get the info.”

“Okay,
got that,” Everette said doggedly.

“Good.
Now cause it's a pain in the ass, you use bursts like Morse code. Bright flares
of Tachyons. Some will hopefully get through.”

“Okay...”

“It
takes a lot of energy for each burst. Like a day or two of the reactors
output.”

“Not
quite but the analogy is close enough. A warship can make tachyons and can
detect them. But it takes an extremely sensitive and expensive array,” the
Admiral admitted.

“Which
we don't have since we're a freighter,” Bailey said nodding. “And we don't have
the space for something that's spotty to use and sucks up energy like a black
hole. And besides, we don't need it cause there is no one to talk to right
now.”

“So,
I mean if that's inner what's... I mean I read about interstellar. An ansible.
I thought that used tachyons.”

“Whole
other kettle of fish kid,” Bailey growled waving his hands.

“Oh.”

“An
ansible is a device that uses paired muons to  communicate. You apply a force
to one and the other spins in the same direction no matter how far apart they
are,” Irons explained holding his fists then spreading them apart.

“So
why not use them on a ship?”

“Yeah,
okay, I missed that one in the wiki,” Bailey said glancing at the Admiral.

The
Admiral looked from one to the other then snorted. “Movement. You move one it
affects the other half. If one or the other half gets too close to another
object poof! Gone. And it's a pain to transport them from one site to another.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.
When we used them they were great. Set up banks of a couple of hundred thousand
of them and they would send info at real time speed... but there is another
problem.”

“Pairing,”
Bailey said nodding. His brows were knit. “I just got that,” his face cleared.

“Right,”
Irons nodded to the thoroughly confused electronics tech. “You see, an ansible
works with two halves of a whole muon. But only those two. So we could put one
in Pyrax and another in Agnosta, but if you wanted to call from oh, lets say,
New Texas you'd need another pair. One to go from New Texas to one of the other
worlds. You'd form a network.”

“Right.
Then you could send data from one to another in series,” Bailey said. “Got it?”

“Um,
yeah, I think so.”

“Go
look it up if you don't. We've got work to do.”

“It's
in the net. I'll have Sprite send you a bookmark,” Irons said as the kid turned
away.

“Um,
thanks,” the kid said walking away. He looked a little dazed as he rubbed the
back of his head. He even bumped into a wall. Bailey snorted.

“So
where did you learn all that?” Irons asked suspiciously.

“The
web where else?” Bailey snorted, turning a brown eye to the Admiral. “I took a
couple of classes while we were in Pyrax. Really got me into learning new
stuff. I copied a ton of stuff to read later.”

“In
your copious free time,” Irons deadpanned.

“Yeah,”
Bailey sighed. He motioned them onward. “Lets go see if we can figure this damn
thing out. I'm betting a bearing let go, the teeth probably wore down to points
and...”

“And
since the metal was so thin it became brittle and finally snapped. Maybe, we'll
have to crack the case and do a simple oil check for bits to see. Hope you
don't mind oil on your fur.”

“Gah!”
the chief said shaking his head. He looked back with a scowl the way the kid
had gone. “Damn it, the little shit's gone,” he growled. The Admiral chuckled,
shaking his head in amusement as he stepped over the knee knocker.

“I
bet Galiet will kick herself when she hears about this,” chief Bailey muttered,
glancing up to the vid feed in the corner of the wardroom. One of April's
personal interest stories was playing. The crew both got a kick out of the
stories and were embarrassed when their own came on. Some got ribbed if they
were on more than once.

So
far no one other than Bailey had ribbed Irons about his piece. Discussion of it
had made the rounds however. Some of the skeptics thought that Irons had
deliberately sought O'Niell out, that' he'd seduced her. Bailey knew better,
John wasn't that type.

“Galiet?”
the Admiral asked, taking a sip of his drink. The beer was cold but didn't have
that much flavor. Not enough hops he thought. It was unfortunate that they
hadn't taken any food stores on board at Agnosta. The people there didn't have
enough to export of course. Maybe on the return trip? He wasn't sure. Of course
he didn't intend to be along for the return trip.

“My
wife,” the chimp answered, eyes on the screen.

“Wife?”
Irons said, consternation making him blink. The chimp's eyes cut to the
Admiral. In all this time he'd known the buck toothed Mickey Mouse eared simian
Bailey had never mentioned that!

Bailey
looked a little sheepish yet smug. “Yeah, wife. One of them anyway. Got a
problem with that?”

“Wives
plural?” Irons asked shaking his head. “One isn't enough?” he demanded.

“With
a chimp?” Clennie, the ops officer asked coming in. Bailey's arm went around
her waist, pulling her close. She leaned down and kissed him, grinning.

“Okay.
Nope, no problem,” Irons said shaking his head and spreading his hands apart.

“Better
not have one,” Bailey growled.

“Behave.”
Clennie teased. One finger stroked the larger chimp's nose and then tweaked it.
She looked at the Admiral, smiling politely. He had on occasion met and spoken
to Clennie while repairing the ship of course, but it had always been brief and
strictly business. “Galiet stayed behind in Pyrax. She met us when we were
recovering. Love at first sight, Even with him.”

“Hey,
I have it on good opinion that I clean up nice!” Bailey retorted. They had just
finished cleaning up after that bearing job and were now relaxing. Irons shook
his head. He was surprised that the overgrown simian had a family. He was quite
a grouch on the job. Obviously the girls had seen through the act to the decent
man underneath.

Clennie
grinned at him. “Must have been Galiet who said that. I sure didn't,” she
teased, tugging on one of his oversized ears.

“Argth!”
the chimp said shaking his head. “See what I have to put up with?”

“With
more on the way too,” Sylivia said, coming in behind him. She patted her belly.
Clennie reached over and caressed the botanist's swollen coveralls. “Yup.”

“Another
wife?” Irons asked laughing. He hadn't known. Right under his nose the entire
time. He shook his head watching the trio.

“Yup.
She's a Bonobo too. Only way to get her to settle down was to knock her up good
and proper. Little did I know she's even hornier now than before,” the male
chimp said shaking his head in mock despair as Sylvia grinned and slipped her
arms around the male primate. She pretended to caress him then pretended to
strangle him.

Irons
laughed with the others in the room at the sight of the frisky byplay. “Now I
know why you always come in every morning dog tired,” Irons said. The room
roared with laughter as the chimps blushed. Sylvia covered her eyes. Clennie
doubled over laughing, one hand over her mouth.

“Sure.
And why I need plenty of coffee. Rub it in,” the chief said, hitching his
trousers higher and puffing up.

“More
like oysters and toys to...” Sylivia started but Bailey pinched her in the
rear. She squealed and then swatted him as the room laughed again.

“Women!”
he said, hands spreading as if that explained it.

“Hey,
don't complain. I had a hard enough time when I had one each time. Three? At
the same time? You really are a glutton for punishment,” the Admiral laughed.

“I
heard that,” Sprite said as Bailey smiled. He possessively patted Sylvia's
belly.

“It
gets worse. I bet this youngster will have us all on our toes before long.”

“Do
you...” He was curious to know if they knew the gender of the child yet. Or
children. The way they were carrying on right now it could very well be twins
she was carrying.

“It's
a boy,” Sylvia said grinning. “I wanted a girl, but well, the first among
many,” she grinned as Bailey blushed even darker.

“Okaaay...”
Irons said shaking his head. Chimps had large families. They tended toward
group families, ignoring the human model of a single monogamous pair. Like
gorillas they followed some human social mores, but when it came to love they
kept their own traditions going.