Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (66 page)

“Oh,”
Chambers said looking wide eyed. “So this could have destroyed the ship.”

“Oh
definitely. Who ever did this is insane, desperate, and stupid.  We need to put
them out of our misery before they get lucky.”

“You've
got that right,” Irons growled.

“April,
I'm recording this so you'll understand what I'm going to do. To tell you the
truth, I don't know,” Irons said, resting his head against his arm as he leaned
against the wall. “I really don't, that's the thing that sucks.” He clenched
his fist and then sighed and turned back to the recorder.

He
didn't need a recorder, his implants could have recorded everything but he'd
gone with an external one anyway. Old habits die hard.

“I
know you were trying to arrange to come with me beyond Triang. Hon, some things
just weren't meant to be,” he paused, feeling remorse. “I didn't mean it the
way that sounded,” he said, voice rough.

He
waited a  moment and then cleared his throat, getting his emotions under
control once more. “I don't honestly know what the future will bring. My plan
such as it is, is to find another system like Pyrax, set up shop there and dig
into rebuilding. If it's close I'll send word to you and Logan so we can link
up again.”

“I'm
not holding my breath though, Pyrax was my number one because of the industrial
presence and well, things worked out with Firefly and the others,” he grimaced,
feeling a bit sheepish over covering ground they'd gone over many times before.
“I need to replicate that, but finding a similar system with potential is going
to be hard. A needle in a haystack. I need an El Dorado. From what I've heard
Pyrax was the only orbital industrial system left in the sector. I'll hunt
around though.”

“I've
already ruled out New Dublin, the captain and majority of the Io 11's crew are
from there and had very bad things to say about the political situation there.
I'd be walking into a viper's nest worse than Pyrax. I'd spend most of my time
watching my own back instead of getting to work helping people.”

He
rolled his shoulders and then straightened. “I've arranged for your treatment
to be covered by the Navy fund. You're going to wake up a new woman April, with
a full rejuv and restore, antigen metafactors, and even civilian grade
implants.” He smiled knowingly at the camera. He knew that would be very
appealing to her female vanity. “I know you wanted them, now you've got them.
Enjoy them hon. The first reporter to have implants. Use them well and wisely
dear.”

“If
the fates conspire to bring us together once more I'll cherish every moment
with you. However don't hold a candle for me dear, we both know such things
are, well, hard to arrange.” His lips twisted in a bitter smile.

“Enjoy
your life love, live it to the fullest.” he stroked the camera field with his
fingertips, blew her a kiss and then shut the recorder off. He waited a moment,
feeling his emotions unravel and his body relax.

“Time
to get to work.”

The
captain smiled slightly as his crew shook down. This was their fourth break
out, they were now veterans and had shaken down into a good team. He didn't
have many faults. Right now the only thing bothering him was the saboteur. That
had everyone on edge.

It
had been an edgy, highly fraught couple of weeks, everyone was tense. Going
into hyper had more than one person on edge. They hadn't breathed a sigh of
relief for long though, the thought of what could happen in hyper was all to
fresh on their minds after their first trip to Agnosta.

One
more day, three shifts to go until break out. He could smell the fear in the
air. They needed to get this situation under control now. He didn't want to
take the ship into hyper again without the bastard still in play. Ed had yet to
come up with a suspect and was incredibly frustrated.

Hopefully
something would break soon. He glanced at the chrono counting down. Everything
was coming to a head now, they were about to exit into Triang space, their last
stop before their return journey. Irons was getting off here, he'd made that
perfectly clear. So whoever was trying to kill him would have to come out into
the open soon.

One
week, one short week in hyper. He'd wished this transit had been the first in
their journey, it was the shortest. It was strange that Briev was so close to
Triang.  Normal hops lasted nearly a month. This, this was nothing.

The
music he had been idly listening to dropped in volume. He looked up, knowing
Sprite had something on her mind or something to report.

“Admiral,
a thought. I was thinking about each occupied system we go to. Maybe we should
create a care package. Sort of a good will gesture,” Sprite said.

“Oh?”
Irons asked setting the stylus he had been playing with down. They'd thought of
this before in Agnosta but other things had taken precedence and he'd forgotten
about it. Now it seemed either Sprite wanted to revisit the subject or wanted
to distract him. Or it could be both.

They
had worked on a basic pack, but it was just that basic. He'd tried to tailor it
to each planet's needs but had eventually given it up to work on his other
project. When Destiny returned to Agnosta it wouldn't return empty handed.
There were over five hundred tons of cargo he'd made sitting in two of her
holds. If he could he'd grab a handful of asteroids in Triang space and use
them as well.

Some
of the parts were for Destiny. Bailey had sicked Harry on him, asking him to
make parts that the ship couldn't make on it's own without his keys. He'd
grudgingly taken the time to do it but had insisted he receive compensation in
the future. They weren't sure what he wanted but they would find out soon
enough.

He
could trust Bailey with the cargo. Bailey and a few others. Ferguson he wasn't sure
about. Mayfair would probably try to seize the cargo if she could, which would
put Ferguson in a pickle. He'd have to take steps to prevent that from
happening.

“Yes.
I could make a list. For instance, a copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica.”

He
nodded. “Which we gave to each of the colonies we've visited so far. Including
those when we were on the Io. Also copies of basic medical texts,” he said with
a shrug.

“Also
your holo instruction vids. I could squash them down to 2D for viewing on a
tablet. Even strip the audio and convert it to text for that matter. Grab some
stills for pics for an E-book.”

“Which
we did on Io a time or two. It is an educational boost. Also the medical
library we've got.”

“Which
you mentioned handing out before.”

“Correct.”

“And
we can then create two package types. One for a space colony, one for a
planet,” Sprite replied getting into the idea and sounding more enthused.
“Maybe solar blankets, ration packs, and a portable food replicator?”

“And
other things. Provided we have the raw materials and energy to produce them,”
Irons nodded. “A micro fusion or fission reactor comes to mind. Or a gas giant
refinery.”

“And
the plans as well Admiral. Copies of manuals, blue prints, the works.
Unclassified stuff of course.”

“You
are really getting into this Johnny Appleseed idea aren't you?” Irons asked
amused.

“Let's
just say it grew on me,” Sprite replied.

“Cute.
Okay. We've got a boring two weeks crossing this system. It's empty, no rocky
bodies in it to get anything from. So we'd better stick to the light list for
Triang.” They had made good on their escape but Destiny had only enough fuel to
get to Triang. Hopefully they could pick some up there. Otherwise the crew
would be stranded in the system. At least until he whipped up a gas giant refinery
and put it to use, he thought with amusement.

“The
data will make an impact. That is if we distribute it widely enough,” Sprite
replied. “Which calls for hard copy, tablets, and projectors.”

“Basic
tool kits,” Proteus added. “Since you are recommending data as the primary gift
item I would also suggest data on history and engineering concepts as well.”

“Unusual
to hear that come from you,” Sprite said.

“You
overlooked it,” Proteus replied.

“I
didn't overlook it, I just hadn't got that far down the list,” Sprite replied.

“Kids,”
Irons replied with a patient sigh. “Okay. Data is the biggest thing. And the
means to access and distribute it. Medical supplies, food, tools...”

“No
weapons or classified materials,” Defender interjected.

“Obviously,”
Sprite answered dryly.

“Agreed,”
Irons said with a nod. “But I am going to throw in portable fusion power
supplies and replicators with those I trust. They will need it and it will make
a localized impact. If they attempt to abuse the trust they will lock down or
self destruct.”

“Agreed,”
Defender replied curtly.

“History...
we can also give them a copy of current events. From our perspective.”

“Don't
play press agent,” Irons replied with some heat.
“I wouldn't dream of it Admiral,” Sprite sighed. “But we can give them a log of
where you've been, descriptions of other worlds, and events that transpired.
That will give them an interest beyond their colony and get some parties
interested in building trade and social connections.”

Irons
rubbed his chin and drummed his fingers on the desk. “Keep it clean and
impersonal. Downplay the events in Pyrax if possible. And don't...” He held up
a finger. “Don't have anything classified. Minimize the events in Pyrax, as
short as possible. Keep the Navy plans and ships as vague as possible.”

“You
said that already Admiral.”

“I
mean the pirate attack. They jumped in they got their butts kicked. No tactics,
no ship descriptions. Just that the fleet and marines were reborn in Pyrax.”

“Oh.”

“You
could leave bread crumbs for the Navy as well Admiral. Dead drops,” Defender
replied.

“Encrypted?”
Sprite asked.

“Of
course. We could leave them with the colony or in a message module in orbit
where a passing fleet vessel could access it. Any other ship would activate a
self destruct.”

“I
did that. In the satellites I gave Agnosta.”

“Which
gives you a means to do it again. In other systems,” Sprite replied. “I see
what Defender is doing. We can give them a log, and pass on orders. Maybe give
them reports on suspected activity, or potential sites for bases.”

“If
that fell into enemy hands...” Irons replied.

“Hence
the encryption and self destruct if someone unauthorized attempts access to it.
But we can add a layer on top of it as camouflage. Or embed it into every
communication and data system you build. An IFF module that when a fleet ID
trips it it dumps a copy to the user.”

“Which
is an interesting idea, but we've got a problem. The pirates have a copy of
fleet IDs as well,” Irons replied.

“But
we modified the ID tags in Pyrax,” Defender replied.

“You
did?” Irons asked in surprise.

“Yes.
A minor addition since the commissions are provisional and brevet promotions.
But we can also add a few things to the data. For instance we can make it so it
won't decrypt without the key commander Logan and Firefly have.”

“Ah.”

“And
we can toss a bot in so that if it finds someone trying to hack it, it'll flush
itself,” Sprite said smugly.

“Excellent
idea,” Defender replied.

“Why
thank you,” Sprite said with a lilt in her voice. “See? We do have ideas,” she
teased.

“Yes
you do. Good ones, surprisingly. Sometimes life has a way of surprising me.
Lets see if we can work on this list then get a work order generated. We may
have to scale it to my replicator though.”

“Why?
Oh, for future project. Understood,” Sprite nodded. “I'm curious though. Could
we build a new replicator?”

“Why?”
the Admiral asked sitting back.

“For
the shuttle. Take out some of the passenger space. Make an industrial
replicator about four times larger than the one you currently have. That will
allow for more parts. Or we could put a larger one under the seats or
something.”

“And
draw more power. And the parts would be so big that we wouldn't be able to get
them out of the shuttle,” Proteus replied.

“Oh.”

“Not
all ideas are good ones,” Irons said with a shrug.

“Oh...
never mind,” Sprite said with a huff in her voice. Irons chuckled at that.

“So,
how much do we owe you? I thought you would come around to being a capitalist
eventually,” the purser growled as Irons entered his office.

Irons
paused. He'd come to the cluttered office to talk but hadn't expected a
confrontation before he'd even gotten in the door. Apparently the purser was
willing to take the bull, or in this case the Admiral, by the horns. He was
pretty sure a few people had guessed that he would not be with the ship when it
made the turn around and returned on it's journey back to Pyrax in a week or
so. “Um...”