Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (53 page)

"Why
not use an ansible?" a crewman asked.

"It
isn't allowed for a senate hearing," Sprite replied. “Which made the senators
of the Mir faction love it. Warmonger dogs being called to heel. It was a mess.
I was so glad he got his." She shook her virtual head. "I just wish
we could have seen it."

"Yeah
well, we had work to do," Irons sighed. "Speaking of which, the chief
is paging me. Got to go," he got up and waved as he made his exit.

“I
thought you said the replicator computers have most parts in their databases?”
Everette asked. Their usual class had jumped around into topics far and wide.
Leave it to the electronics tech to try to steer them back to areas he was
comfortable about. Most likely he had an agenda going on.

Irons
looked over to Bailey. The chimp pursed his lips. He'd asked a simple thing, to
learn more about replicators.

“Most
is the operative word,” Sprite said. “We can't hold everything you know.
Besides, I believe the Admiral is doing this to show you how.”

“Correct.
I wanted to teach you how to replicate a part if you don't have it in the
memory. We're using the sensors in the replicator and the nanites to scan this,
a gravitational sensor. Then we can replicate it. As long as it's not on the
proscribed list,” he added.

"Is
that how they got the Nova bomb?" Everette asked, watching the replicator
scan the part it didn't have in it's database.

“They
being the Xenos you mean?” Sprite asked. She was obviously uncomfortable with
the line of questioning. They were treading dangerously close to military
secrets.

"You'd
be surprised what nanites can do," Irons said as he shook his head.
"But the biggest problem is showing an enemy something. Once they know it
is possible half the hard work is done. Showing someone something is possible
gets them half way there to replicating it themselves and finding a possible
counter to it."

"Example?"
Everette asked. Irons had known that was coming though. One of the favorite
things the class did was ask him to cite a source or example.

"Terran
World war one," Irons shook his head. "During the first world war on
Earth the allies used tanks in small numbers, really dribs and drabs instead of
en mass. Because of that their enemy, the Germans were able to overcome their
shock of the new weapon and had the time to devise counter weapons."

"Oh."

"But
in this case, the Xenos saw what happened, and given the theory could reverse
engineer the idea. If they picked up a Nova bomb that would have made it
simpler and shaved time off that. But there were failsafes to prevent that from
happening."

"How..."

"Most
weapons have self destructs built into their circuitry. But some just burn the
secret systems out, and keep the weapon or system from exploding in case there
are allied survivors near."

"Which
is where nanites come back into the conversation," Sprite responded.

"Exactly,"
Irons nodded.

"Still
not following you."

"Well,
I said we can do a lot with nanites right? Well one thing is you can use
sensors, and even nanites to take something apart. Molecule by molecule then
build copies."

They
blinked then looked pale. He nodded. "Right. So even if they didn't get
the critical parts, they got enough of a bite to advance their own weapons
development by an order of magnitude."

"Crap.
But that's all supposition, we still don't know if they got a working copy of a
Nova bomb. They could have stolen the plans or just reverse engineered it from
seeing it happen."

"Both
are also possibilities that have to be kept in mind. I would think the
engineering data on the Nova bomb would have been safeguarded however,"
Irons replied. Sprite nodded.

"At
the very least any unauthorized access would have led it to blow itself
up."

"But
that still leaves the non critical info dumps. The basic specs of the weapon
that we use to brief people unfamiliar with the weapon design. That data is a
bit less secure. If that had fallen into enemy hands it could have helped
them,” he said and then scowled. “and then of course there are the dumps to the
politicians and then the media. Once the basic idea is out it will hit the
public and people will clamor to know how it works and why it works the way it
does. If the military didn't stonewall on the concepts then some bright
professor type would get into the act and speculate. Even if they were wrong
just explaining the concepts and breaking down what works and what doesn't to
the public, reveals it to the Xenos.”

“I
have a holo of a Nova bomb, and exploded holo view on my wall,” one of the
young men said. Everette looked at him. So did Irons. He closed his eyes.

“With
predictable results,” Sprite sighed.

“Yeah,”
he breathed. He shook himself.

"As
fun as this discussion is, it's a moot point now. We're reconstructing history
with suppositions. We need to focus on the here and now," Bailey growled.

Irons
nodded. "Right... Moving on..."

He
had to hide his amusement and annoyance when April insisted on doing background
interviews with him again. It was one way to get to know one another, him
giving up some of his past, her giving him an insight into her mind from the
questions she asked and her reactions to his answers.

He
would have preferred doing it less... socially though. Oh a date wouldn't be
all that bad if it had been structured as a date. This however wasn't. She'd
tucked them into a corner of the galley to do the interviews. Many of the
patrons had arrayed themselves around to watch.

There
wasn't much else to do, Engineering was running well, so well Bailey had kicked
him out so he could, quote, keep his people busy. Hence their present
occupation. He wasn't comfortable doing it with an audience, but she'd insisted
on it. Most were quiet. A few pretended to ignore them.

Intellectually
he understood why. This way the could have witnesses to the interviews so no
one could make accusations of bias. They also could state that there hadn't
been any rehearsing or editing. Also so some of the 'guests' could participate
on an ad hoc basis. It also served to put his face out there so they could
better get to know him.

He
still didn't have to like it though.

“Lets
start at the beginning shall we?” she asked, taking a different tack that
morning. She had her hair pulled back in a tight and rather short pony tail.

“I
wasn't born into this uniform you know,” he chuckles. “I started out as a
spacers' brat. Graduated at twelve and moved into engineering trade college.”

“Really?
That young?” April asked, clearly amused.

“The
educational system in my time was first rate. You started in the womb and
didn't stop ever. My family were natural engineers so we tended to tinker with
our hands too so it really got me going in that field right off,” he said with
a smile. She gave him a nod.

“I
got an eight year degree in three. I was leaning toward a military career when
I got talked into doing a "three day cruise," to help a captain out.
That turned nasty,” he scowled in remembered pain.

“What
happened?” she asked softly.

He
looked down into his drink. “What happened?” he looked up. “Well, in a word, I
got shanghaied,” he sighed as her eyes widened. “I signed a single cruise
contract. A couple of jumps to the nearest major shipping world. The captain
snowballed me on before I got wind of the ship's reputation,” he grimaced. “I
should have known better, always, always do your homework about a ship before
getting on her. Dad told me that over and over. I... was stupid,” he sighed.
“Too trusting. I hit it off with the guy right off. Him and his assistant. And
the money he was dangling was just too irresistible to pass up.”

“Too
good to be true?” she asked.

“Exactly.”

“Huh.”

 “I
found out the ship was short handed when I had to run double shifts right out
of port.  No one said a damn thing to me before we left, they wanted the help
that bad. Morale was bad, the place stunk, the captain kept the bridge and
officer's country clean, but the enlisted and engineering spaces were dumps. I
got a habitual dislike of squalor there,” he snorted. It was a simple thing to
have a bot clean. But for some reason the officers kept the bots that were
supposed to clean the rest of the ship off to conserve power.

“I'll
bet.”

“The
captain lived it up on the bridge, nice shiny uniform, mistress, four star
fresh food. The enlisted got e-rats. When we got into port I was put on watch
for the entire shore leave, when it came time to leave I had my bags packed but
the security robot blocked me from leaving,” he snarled. “It turned out the
chief engineer and two of his assistants had jumped ship while in port. I
didn't blame them one bit. The captain called me in, told me he needed me for
one more cruise and was exercising his retention ability in the contract. I was
livid. Almost punched him then and there. Wish I had, despite the threat of
being spaced.” Her eyes went wide at that.

“He
wouldn't!” she said shocked.

“He
could have. He was the captain. The captain's word is law and assaulting an
officer can be construed as mutiny. If we'd been underway he could have
sentenced me on the spot. Most likely he wouldn't have, but he would have made
my life miserable. Which I fortunately remembered in time to head my temper
off.”

He
glowered at a bulkhead for a few moments. “So how did you get off?” she finally
asked.

He
sighed. “About eight cruises in we got boarded for inspection. I and a few
others ambushed the inspectors. We made a big stink. The officer assigned to
escort the inspector wasn't happy about it. When he tried to get security
involved, well, it made our case for us. The inspector escorted us off. I
checked my account and found the good captain hadn't paid me for my services
the entire time I'd been on board. I was broke.”

He
sighed. “I called my uncle Jacques, who was in system visiting his grand
daughter. She happened to be the lieutenant governor. I filed suit against the
captain and the ship, he counter sued and put a lean on me for breach of
contract and poor performance,” he growled.

“The
others who escaped put in complaints. Apparently there were a lot of complaints
against the ship and captain. That got brought up in court. The ship was fined
heavily. So heavily they seized her and sold her for scrap and then paid us.”
She blinked at that. He shook his head.

“Oh
we were paid all right.” Her face fell as she realized his tone hadn't changed.
“I had to find something to do while the court case ran it's course, working
the dock for a month.” He grimaced, remembering the crap he'd gone through
there. “In the end we were paid, but the lawyers ate up a lot of the money.”
She winced at that. His lips curled in a snarl again. “I hate lawyers. Hidden
fees. Five hundred credits an hour, working lunches, weekend working 
vacations...” He exhaled deeply and took a sip of his drink.

“I
couldn't save any money for a passenger ticket, I was determined to work my
passage. When I went to get a berth to return home, I was blackballed. The good
captain had put a huge black mark on me. I was forced to go to the local naval
recruiter. It was my only avenue off that blasted station,” He shrugged.

“And
the rest is history?” she asked amused.

“Nope,
not even close,” he said, shaking his head again. “Even the Navy wouldn't take
me as an officer with that mark... except as enlisted,” he sighed.
"Problems with authority, improperly trained," he scowled. “Even
though I showed the recruiter the suit and judgment and my own degree I only
just squeaked in to basic enlisted. No sign on bonus or anything. I got hosed.”

“You
sure did,” she said wrinkling her nose.

“I
had to go to three recruiters too, the first had filled his quota for the
quarter and was trying to bank me for later.”

“Bank
you?” she asked, confused.

“Someone
who is definitely in, but you want to wait so they count for your next quota,”
he looked disgusted.

“Um...”

“Quota;
a recruiter is required to recruit a certain number of people each month. So by
banking someone, by putting them off until you need them you get to keep your
record clean.”

 She
sighed shaking her head. “It's not that complicated once you see it in action.
But anyway, I ended up getting in with someone who was one shy of quota. She
let me in under protest,” he grimaced again.

“I
spent three months in boot and basic training, three more months of advanced
training, learning everything I already knew. It was the most boring time of my
life. Getting the basic enlisted implants sucked too. They yanked out the ones
I had, since it was civilian grade.” She winced at his grimace of familiar
pain.