Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (9 page)

“Thank
you again for that,” Willis said smiling.

“How
could we have been forced to use the E-rats. Those are for emergencies right?”
Clarke asked, looking from one to the other.

“Exactly.
Which it would have been. We've got a bigger crew and passenger manifest than
normal,” the purser replied. He shot a glance at Bailey and then to the
Admiral. He shook his head. “More people means more drain on food, power and
resources.”

“Life
support isn't your problem. We've got that covered,” Bailey replied pretending
to buff his fingernails.

“And
the power as well,” Irons said nodding.

“Yes,
but the replicators and recycling are your responsibility,” the purser replied,
giving a triumphant smirk to the captain.

“As
I see it, it was yours,” Bailey replied. The purser turned with a curious look.
“They were logged as cargo and stores after all. Your domain right?” Suddenly
the purser looked distinctly uncomfortable.

The
simian's eyes gleamed. Irons turned to the purser, raising an eyebrow as well.
He picked up a cup of coffee with the ship's crest on it and took a sip.

The
captain nodded, clearly interested in this line of discussion. “Yes. He is
correct. And you did sign off on them without checking,” he said. There was
enough reproof in his tone to make even the Admiral wince and straighten.

“I
can't check every crate. To do so would hold up the schedule,” the purser
replied with a snarl hands on the edge of the table. “Captain honestly...”

“What?
You are telling me your people couldn't have checked even one crate? A random
sampling?” Willis asked in disbelief. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was
pouting a little.

“She's
right you know,” Bryan the medic replied looking from Willis to the purser.

“You
stay out of this, if we want your opinion we will ask for it,” the purser
growled. “Jumped up, wet behind the ears wanna be nurse,” he muttered.

“What
was that?” the medic snarled, tossing his napkin onto his plate and starting to
rise.

“Easy
there,” Irons said, hand on his arm. He gently pushed the young man back into
his seat. “As someone pointed out, civility is severely lacking in some
people.”

“Obviously,”
the medic said shooting dagger looks toward the purser.

“So
the problem has been remedied?” the captain asked, toying with his glass as he
changed the subject.

“Yes.
My people are installing them now. We'll have the last deck done by the end of
next shift I think. There is nothing we can do about the missing stuff like the
vid screens though.”

“So
we need not concern ourselves about it anymore.”

“Well,
there is a point. I wish I had been notified about the short supplies. You as
well captain of course,” the security chief said giving the captain a look. “We
needed to know to prepare ourselves and our people.”

“For
what?” the purser asked wrinkling his nose. “What else can there be?”

“For
people panicking, getting into trouble, hoarding, anything,” the chief replied.
Ed spread his hands, indicating there was of course more to it than that. Irons
nodded slightly. At least one of the other officers was on his game. Sort of.
“I didn't know. My bad, I should have kept on it and anticipated it.
Fortunately the Admiral's actions kept a lid on things. When word got out that
he was correcting the problem everyone settled down.”

“But
it was still a problem,” Willis said pursing her lips thoughtfully.

“True,”
Ed admitted.

“He
does have a point there,” the captain sighed. “Fortunately, it is a moot point.
But I expect better of you Ed, from now on.” The security chief nodded. “You
too Charlie,” he said, giving the purser a look.

“Yes
sir,” the purser said nodding looking decidedly nettled.

“How
are you feeling Admiral?” Willis asked looking to him.

“Me?
Fine, just fine,” he answered and then shrugged. “Thank you for asking.”

“I
heard you had been injured. Something about your shower?” she asked, sounding
genuinely concerned.

“How'd
you hear that?” Bailey asked, suddenly intent. Willis reared back startled.

“From
the ship's grapevine. It's all over the place,” she said giving the chimp an
amused look. The chimp didn't look like he believed her.

“She's
correct Admiral,” Sprite told him over his HUD. She sounded a bit disgusted but
unsurprised that it had hit the grapevine. He nodded. Him coming up a cropper
would be juicy news for the entire ship's compliment.

“I
believe it is all over the net,” the purser said, coming to the beleaguered
delegate's defense.

“So
how are you?” the captain asked, turning to view Irons. “You look well.”

Irons
shrugged. “I am.”

“The
ultrasonics should have cooked you Admiral. I should have taken you to
sickbay,” Bryan the paramedic said looking concerned.

“Not
necessary,” Irons said waving a dismissive hand.

“From
the size of those bruises it should have been,” the security chief replied. “I
looked it up. You probably sustained internal injuries.”

“I
did. My implants repaired the damage,” Irons held up his left wrist and then
unbuttoned his cufflink and pulled the sleeve back to his elbow. “See?” His
skin was unblemished.

The
security chief looked then whistled a little. A few of the others looked as
well. The purser grimaced and looked away.

“All
better. The wonder of modern medicine,” Irons said nodding to the paramedic. “I
would have just been another body cluttering up your tiny sick bay.”

“Yes.
I see that now,” Bryan said, blinking in confusion.

“How
did it break down?” Clarke asked.

“The
investigation is still in progress,” the security chief replied, shooting a
warning look to Irons and Bailey. They both nodded, getting the message.

“I
see.”

“I
believe this ship is old. A death trap. Typical malfunction. What do you expect
from a ship centuries old?” the purser asked with a sniff. “We really shouldn't
have left Pyrax. That problem with the computer bears this out.”

“On
the contrary, I repaired the replicator, shower, and other things in my
quarters days ago. To my satisfaction,” Irons replied then practically kicked
himself when the security chief gave him a dirty disgusted look. From the looks
around the room the others were coming to the logical conclusion that statement
generated. He winced internally. Oops.

“You
did? How odd that it broke down so soon then,” Miss Willis said shaking her
head. There was an odd note there. He wasn't sure about it.

“Yes.
Odd,” Bailey said giving the Admiral his own look. “But we're looking into things
now.  Hopefully there will not be a repeat with someone else. Someone without
the Admiral's healing ability.”

“You
said your food replicator was working?” the purser asked suddenly leaning
forward.

“Yes,”
Irons shrugged, looking to Bailey. “I was assigned to a  new cabin that had
one.”

“How
is that possible. I assigned you those quarters and I assure you nothing...
um...” He shot a guilty look to the captain.

“Nothing
worked you mean?” the captain asked, eyes cold. The purser squirmed under the
captain's gaze. His eyes fell and his hands twisted in his lap. He looked like
a guilty school kid caught in a prank. After a moment he turned to look at the
Admiral.

Irons
shrugged. “Simple. I told you, I fixed it.” He shrugged knocking his drink
back. “I am an engineer after all. It's what we do.”

“How
is that possible?” Clarke asked. “I thought no one can do that. Something about
they self destruct when tampered with?”

“You
just need the knowledge,” Bailey said. “Right Admiral?”

“Something
like that. Also the access codes,” Irons smiled.

“You
have them?” the captain asked surprised. He knew something about that from
personal experience. When he had been young and particularly stupid he had
tried to make a nice chrome blaster for himself with one of the few functional
replicators on his ship. He had watched, eager and then horrified as the
replicator self destructed. He had spent weeks in the brig on bread and water
over that. His father had strapped him within an inch of his life. He still had
the scars to this very day. He'd spent two years working every shit job on the
ship in further penance. Replicators were precious things and once they were
gone... He'd learned his lesson after that.

“He's
the only one in the galaxy that does,” Bailey said shaking his head. “The
only
one. He was the one who built our replicators the first time. And the second.
And the Pyrax governor and council sent him off with his tail between his
legs.”

“Thanks,”
Irons said giving the chimp a dirty look.

“Hey,
no problem. What are friends for after all?” Bailey said, smiling a wide simian
smile at him. Irons snorted. If you can't take a joke... he thought.

“You,
can… I understand you used your replicator to replace ours. I thought...” The
purser looked confused.

“Only
a flag rank officer has the codes to do a great deal of things. Make
replicators for one is a specialty of engineering admirals like Admiral Irons,”
Sprite said from the overhead sounding decidedly smug.

“I
thought that was you ma'am,” Clarke said looking at the overhead with the
others.

“Nope.
It was all the Admiral. He has the codes. I just watch.” Not completely true
Irons thought, but close enough for civilians. They didn't have the need to
know on how it really worked.

“Ah,”
the purser turned to the Admiral with new eyes. He shrugged it off.

“I
thought system governors were also supposed to get this information?” Willis
asked after a moment of silence.

Irons
and the others turned to her in surprise. Willis was obviously more than just a
pretty face, Irons thought. She had done some research. Interesting, Irons
thought. Irons nodded as she looked up and at him. “You're correct. And usually
that is so. You have to access the system directly and upload the codes.
Unfortunately the ruling council and the newly elected governor Paul Watson
never got the time to get implants,” he explained and then shrugged.

“So
he doesn't have access?” the purser asked surprised.

“Oh,
he asked for it. But we had a lot of scheduling conflicts. His and mine. Also
issues with his health apparently. And I can't just hand them to him, he has to
have implants as I just said. He didn't get the implants before I...” he
smiled, “left.”

“Oh.”

“I
bet that went over well,” Bailey muttered. He shook his head. “Didn't he well,
ask you to write them down or something?”

“Yes,
but that is illegal so I didn't,” Irons said smiling. “After all a hard copy
can be accessed by anyone. That defeats the entire purpose of the security
measures. Besides, the codes rotate in a random pattern so it isn't a simple
thing. I can't go into details, that's also illegal.”

Bailey
grinned. “Wanna bet they're kicking themselves for running you out of town
right about now?” he asked laughing. “Imagine the looks on their faces when
they realized that!”

“Um...
Wouldn't that be a good thing?” Clarke asked in surprise. The medic glanced at
the navigator and then grimaced as he nodded in agreement.

“No,”
Bailey said still chuckling. “I for one am not too keen about giving anyone
access to nanite control codes,” he shook his head. “Especially the snakes
currently running the show in Pyrax,” he finished, suddenly serious.

“Nanites??”
the purser and security chief said in startled unison. “You're kidding!” the
chief said, giving the purser and captain a look.

“Nope.
Replicators are basically giant containers of nanites. Thought you knew that,”
Bailey said with a shrug and rolled eyes at the Admiral.

“Not
his field chief,” Irons said, trying to hide a smile. “We all have our blind
spots.”

“But,
but... I...” the purser gulped as he stood. Irons gave him a look as he slowly
sank back into his seat. “I see what you mean, they aren't for just anyone to
access when ever they want,” he said, giving Admiral Irons a look of horror and
respect.

“Someone
has to be the guardian,” Irons nodded seriously.

“And
just who guards the guardian?” the security chief asked.

“Commander
Sprite is my guardian,” he nodded, eyes up to the speaker. “She makes sure I
stay on the straight and narrow.”

“One
of them anyway,” Sprite replied. “That is why I am with the Admiral. One of the
reasons anyway. And also why the Admiral could never do anything to a child. He
was carefully selected and trained.”

“Way
to rub it in Sprite,” Irons growled under his breath as the officers looked at
one another.