Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (121 page)

She
rolled her eyes. "Come on honey, you're not normally this dense and
stupid. I didn't marry a moron. You and I know he was telling the truth about
the pirates. When they hear about this," she waved to indicate the
station.

"When
people hear about this they will come in droves. They'll come to get their
ships fixed, To buy new ships or tech, for work, for a quick credit, and for a
taste of civilization as it once was. A golden euphoria. A new golden age. A
real El Dorado.” She shivered a little, hugging him tighter. “When word gets
about eventually the pirates will pick up on it. And when
they
do they
too will come. Come for that station. Come with missiles and guns."

"So?"
he said dubiously. “We've done fine without it. The station isn't needed. We
can do fine with the defensive system on the planet.”

"So?
So?" she asked shaking her head mournfully. She shook him gently. "So
you ninny there goes our golden goose,” she said waving a hand to indicate it
going away. “Our ticket to a better future. Remember that?" she demanded,
tone softening as she wrapped her arms around him and looked up into his eyes.
"When you and I sat under the stars as kids and talked about how we would
make a difference? When we wanted to rebuild civilization? Not just for
ourselves but for our children? Remember Ramona and Kylie? Our daughters?"
she asked, voice softening.

Randall
rumbled a sigh, not able to hold her gaze. What she said was true but it had
been something they had said in their youth, something... a dream. Now that
dream could become a reality. He closed his eyes and rested his cheek on her
head and stroked her arms. "You're right," he said softly after a moment.
"You're right," he sighed. He felt the anger leave him.

"Of
course I am, you should know that by now,” she said, smiling at him as he
looked at her once more. He snorted at the twinkling eyes and smile as he
gently stroked her cheek. “Irons was never an obstacle. He was an
ally
.
You should have seen that from the beginning Jeff. If you'd tucked him in your
corner he would have pulled out a lot of stops for you."

"I
know," he murmured, rubbing his temples with his fingertips. After all it
had been the admiral who had gotten the collection of mayors off their fat
asses and moving towards a constitutional convention, and now the government
they were about to form. He'd tried for years to do that and none of them had
budged since he was so young. It was because of him that the station was there
in orbit now! He'd done it all and he realized now that all they had given him
was heart ache and a kick in the teeth. He squirmed away from the mental
imagery, uncomfortable with the truth.

"I
know but it's too late now," he shook his head and clasped his hands
together. “Even if we had managed to stop him with Phoenix all he had to do was
get a berth on a ship leaving the system. We've pissed him off pretty good,
poisoning the well like you said. He won’t come back even if we wanted him to.
Even if I got on my knees, ate crow and begged him to.”

She
looked thoughtful. "Don't be too sure,” she said slowly. “There aren't
many places like us, and as you said, he is a practical man. He's experienced
in politics, he knows politicians. He knows times change and heal all wounds.
He may come back. Hopefully he does. And where ever he goes, I think he'll do
his best to help people. People that may one day work with us."

"I
hope so," he said softly. Together they watched the holo of the golden
ship moving off to the jump point and the future.

“Think
they'll be okay?” Sprite asked softly as the Admiral went through the
hyperspace check list one last time. Phoenix was shaking down quite nicely. She
had remarkably few bugs to iron out in their little shakedown. It had taken
less than a day to cross the system for the jump point. She was a fast little
ship, faster than the bumbling freighters they had traveled on for the past
year.

“I
think they need to learn for themselves,” he replied, not looking up from the
report he was scanning. He'd gotten plenty of downtime, a full twelve hours of
sleep for what was about to happen. He would need it; he'd have to con the ship
on his own for the whole trip to the next system. Sprite might spell him for
brief periods but they'd have to see about that. She'd never actually conned a
ship before.

“Talk
about a fun introduction to democracy and priorities,” Sprite said.

His
lips puckered in a sour tight smile. He was two for two when it came to getting
run out of town. Well technically Antigua didn't really want him to leave
anymore. He just didn't want to stick around and watch it all burn down around
his ears. “It'll work out. Or it won’t. It's up to them now.” He checked the
navigational suite one more time. It had been a long time since he had flown
solo. At least solo in hyper. He wasn't looking forward to the trip. It would
have been nice to of had someone along for the ride, if only to share the
duties. He really wasn't looking forward to helming the ship for a week or so
each time. A week without a break since none of the AI could handle the helm.

“Thinking
deep thoughts?” Sprite asked.

“Hmmm...?
Woolgathering,” he grunted. He did have someone, Sprite. Several someone’s
actually. The Phoenix AI was still growing; only at point oh four build but
alive enough to help out a little. But soon he'd have another AI to help out
even more, one built from the ground up for this job. In time Phoenix might be
as powerful as Firefly or any of the other ship AI that they had started.
Hopefully. April would have had a ball in this ship he thought. “Just missing
April I guess,” he admitted.

“April?”
Sprite asked surprised. She had thought he was regretting their departure.
“Um... I'm sure she's fine. Are we going the roundabout path to Pyrax to check
on her?”

“Hmmm?”
he asked, checking their location. They were lined up for the jump point he
wanted. He shook his head. “No, I was just thinking of her. I'll send word to
her where ever we end up.”

“Okay.
Approaching jump coordinates. Drive is nominal Admiral. Hyperdrive shows ready.
Higgs Boson particles are leaking a bit but we've got it covered,” Sprite said
professionally.

“Charge
the drive. Course plotted?”

“Course
is plotted,” Sprite responded. She was handling navigation since the dumb AI
Phoenix was still settling in. They were setting course for the empty B450a
system. The admiral had considered opening Pandora but had eventually rejected
the option since it was extremely dangerous.

B450a
led to a string of empty systems and then to the Epsilon Triangula system. If
they didn't find a place to fuel along the way they would be bone dry by the
time they arrived in Epsilon orbit. That is
if
they did. A lot could go
wrong between here and there after all.

“Hyperdrive
is nominal admiral. Within plus or minus one point four oh percent tolerance,”
Proteus reported. “Subspace drive is ready to transition. Bow emitters
charging. Life support is nominal. Fusion reactor one and two are functioning
normally. I am glad you had the second reactor installed admiral.”

“So
am I,” Irons said. It had been on his wish list. He'd rather have antimatter
for the antimatter reactor, but having a second fusion reactor was a good
thing. Sure it cut into their limited cargo space, and sure it was only half as
powerful as the ship's only primary fusion reactor, but it was good to have a
back up. Definitely in this case.

“Hyperdrive
is at ten percent charge and climbing. One percent per ten second interval
admiral. We will achieve threshold in approximately fifteen standard minutes,”
Sprite reported.

“Engineering
robots are stored admiral,” Phoenix reported. Her voice was a lot like her
mother's smooth and professional yet eager. She sounded ready to try out her
wings. That was good he thought.

“Then
let's do this,” Irons said with a nod as he took the helm personally. “Engage
bow emitters. Take us in when we get to one hundred percent.”

“Aye
aye admiral,” Sprite replied. She checked the calculations once more and then
sighed internally. Off again on another adventure.

The End.

Yup,
did it again, Irons finds what he wants but has to leave. Don't worry, things
will look up soon. Not the next book
Plague Planet
, but well, let’s just
say things get a lot more lively in the book following that one called
Pirate's
Bane
. That is where things start coming together. :)

I
had planned on having this book written and out the door months ago. As a few
of you pointed out in the reviews (Yes I do read them) I messed my planned time
line up. Let's just say Afraid of the Dark and life got in the way. AD took on
a life of its own. Lol

Plague
Planet
is going to take a bit of work
to get out the door; it's only a ten or twelve page treatment right now. I've
been more interested in writing the Jethro sequel so that's mucking me up too.
I can't release
that
book until
after
Plague planet, but I'm
having a lot more fun writing it! Lol In fact you can see a bit of what I'm
working on in the Sneak Peek below.

You
can also read more on my progress and missives and see some of the concept
images of the aliens and other bits at my blog.

http://cyberforge3d.blogspot.com/

Here are some of the people in the Wandering engineer
universe.

Fleet
Admiral John Henry Irons:
Engineering
fleet admiral, possibly the last in the galaxy. At the time of stasis he was
102 years old with nearly eighty years in the service, 70 as an officer. He has
3 doctorates and multiple other degrees, most of them engineering related. He
slept in stasis for 713 years missing the end of the Xeno war. He was a bit of
a celebrity before and during the Xeno war, having a hand in the design of the
first Stargate and one of the Dyson spheres.

He
spent 15 months on Io 11 after being rescued by her crew. He then spent a year
in the Pyrax system and then 8 months on Destiny before transferring to Kiev
221.

Lieutenant
Commander Sprite:
Smart, sometimes
spunky smart AI and central core of Trinity. Serves as his adjunct. She is
currently growing and evolving.

Proteus:
Experimental
d
istributed AI
based in the admiral's nanites. Serves as his engineering helper and bridge to
controlling his nanites.

Lieutenant
JG Defender:
Extremely intolerant
dumb AI programmed as the admiral's security.

Phoenix:
Semi-smart female AI core of the
starship Phoenix, yet to be integrated by Sprite and Proteus.

IO 11:

Captain:
Crotchety old woman. Hard captain,
but beloved by her crew. In her eighth decade.

Vanessa:
Purser of the ship, hard penny
pinching witch of a woman.

Emily:
Chief of security and XO of the ship.
Blue hair, hard cold temperament. Granddaughter of the captain.

Lessa:
chief navigator.

Shandra:
Chief helmsman. Partner of Jennie.

Jennie:
Assistant chief.

Faith:
Scottish chief engineer. Had been injured just prior
to the admiral's arrival. Restored to full health after long time in stasis.

Io:
AI of the ship. First AI created by Sprite.

Doctor:
Female doctor. Mother of Mindy, spent
years in stasis after injury.

Mindy:
Teenage goth daughter of the doctor.

Doctor:
  Male doctor, shanghaied from Seti Alpha 5. resettled
there with wife and child.

Deidra:
Chief pilot.

Hibiki:
Junior pilot.

Taki:
chief load master.

Leri:
chief of fuel.

In Pyrax:

Commander
Horatio Logan:
Former yeoman and
enlisted petty officer prior to and during Xeno war. Sleeper, he was awoken
over a century prior to the admiral and served as the chief engineer of Anvil
space station before the admiral's arrival. Currently the commanding officer of
Pyrax.