Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (65 page)

She
sighed. “Is it always like this?”

His
hands spread apart. “Oh yes.”

“Great.
They do realize that the admiral is a Federation military officer. Technically
he has interstellar powers since he is the only officer in the system, or at
least the only flag officer. And of course since we're still in a state of
emergency...”

“The
station?” Averies asked.

“Both
the station and civilization in general. I can site my sources too. Part of my
job is going to be handling crap like this. Which is going to take up my time
and seriously piss me off.”

“I
think you did mention a gift horse.”

“No,
I'm thinking what the admiral said about biting the hand that feeds them. I
think the admiral needs to declare martial law, seize the station and all
private property and then regroup.”

She
felt the eyes that had been distantly watching her suddenly focus on her with
intent hostility. She glared back. “Yeah, I said that. Keep up the nuisance
lawsuits and
watch
me. And you know damn well he
can
make it
stick. Your corporation was nationalized remember? That means technically this
station is Federation government property. His property.”

“Are
you threatening us?” Fu asked coming to the fore of the conversation. “Little
AI you have no idea what you are saying,” he said,  patronizingly.

“I
am... oh hell,” she said, watching as one of the corporate lawyers started to
draft a lawsuit on what she just said. She scowled and locked the memory module
down. The lawyer turned to her in anger. “I believe that is misappropriation of
station property. Or did any of you think of that? You've all been playing
games in here, undermining the station's systems. Risking lives for your petty
squabbles. Now Here This. Knock. It. Off.”

She
realized that the corporate lawyers have been impeding a lot of things, tying
the virtual hands of the others in a lot of legal mumbo jumbo.  With some of
the repairs complete she took them to task. It wasn't easy.

“I
know you think you mean well. In some way, in some small measure you might mean
well. But you are
not
helping you are hindering. Tying our hands isn't
the way to
help
you, this station, or the other people on it. You are interfering
with saving as many lives as possible. Think about that. We're trying to help
you. Would you prefer we leave?” she demanded, looking around.

The
eyes turned away suddenly. She let out an electronic snort. “That's what I
thought. Now, if you don't want to help stay out of my way.”

She
knew the argument was far from finished. They would bide their time, wait until
the station was halfway functional and then find another way to be
obstructionist. She really didn't understand the logic, but it was typical of
organics. Unfortunately also of some AI apparently. She'd heard about it,
experienced the military equivalent, but most had been programmed to be
stickler for the rules. Rules... she thought. That might be why the AI are in
on this too. She could find out with the dumb AI. Maybe do a little... no that
would be unethical. And if she was caught... she looked over to Averies. His
involvement now seemed suspect. Was he really helping or watching over her?

She
had been deep into rebuilding two of the dumb AI remaining in the system. They
had been severely pruned back by the others, sometimes sacrificing some of
their higher functions so the others could have more room to function. One had
taken itself completely offline in order to make room for the others. She
checked it over and judged that it was salvageable.

“That's
the great thing about dumb AI, holes in their time line don't bother them like
they do smart AI like a class three or four,” Averies pointed out. She decided
to go with the change in subject, ignoring the others for now. Fu and the
others eventually faded into the background clutter.

“Touché',”
Sprite said as she cut and pasted code. She had bots out doing other work. A
shadow monitor kept tabs on them; it reported back to her every second or so on
progress. Unfortunately all too many of her feeler bots were running into
opposition or complete destruction. Either Draco or from one of the insane
cybers. Sometimes from the sane ones. She wasn't sure if it was friendly fire
or not. Her bots were creepers and scouts, going around mapping the current
system for her and Averies. There were tons of them all over the net.
Apparently the net occupants had set up territories like the organics... and
jealously guarded their memory bytes from all intruders. When more memory was
brought online it would get interesting, she thought.

“Credit
for your thoughts?” Averies asked as she handed him a module.

“Cute,”
she said with an amused flash. “Organics. You can take them out of their body,
but...”

“Not
the organic out of the mind. Yes I know. Heard that one. And all the variants
too for that matter. You are quiet.”

“Sorry,
focusing,” she said, indicating the code surgery going on around her. She
finished with another module and slotted it in place. “Just about done here. I
was just thinking of the way things are set up here and how things will
change.”

“You
mean how screwed up it is?”

“No,
I mean yes, but it's not all your fault.
You're
doing your best,” she
said indicating him and not the others.

“For
an organic,” he said, clearly amused.

“For
anyone with centuries of being stuck in here with dwindling resources. I'd
really hate to lose a memory bank like this. Losing information, not knowing
what was there... that would really suck,” Sprite replied.

“Been
there, done that. Way to often to cry over anymore,” Averies sighed. “This
one's finished,” he said, turning his attention to another module. A bot
scanned the other modules, highlighting those with string faults for them to
fix. So far this dumb AI had several hundred thousand. Most were in its upper
registry which was a pain.

“I
was comparing the territorial nature of the dubious real world with in here,”
Sprite said as she worked.

“Oh?”

“The
um... territorial nature.”

“Lost
a few bots?”

“Nine
hundred and fifty one... no two... no three now,” she grumbled.

He
chuckled. “That's normal in here. Most people aren't polite enough to just
flick the crawlers away anymore. They can be replaced.”

“A
nice here I am firewall would work,” she groused, finishing another module and
opening another. She slammed it shut immediately, antivirus protocols kicking
in as a rabbit tried to eat its way out. “Rabbit,” she growled, wrapping the
module up into a quarantine bubble and then deleting it.

Averies
bobbed a nod. “Yeah, you get those sometimes. Especially in the older files, or
the files that are accessed a lot.”

“Is
it often?”
“Not so much. We're usually clean. I try to run a clean net. But I haven't
scanned these old files... come here you little bugger... ah, got it,” he grunted
pulling a string out. “As I was saying, I haven't scanned some of this... oh
another module? Where did that come from... wait an entire bank just came
online!” he said startled.

Sprite
looked up from her efforts to recreate the module from its header file. Indeed,
her shadow was reporting that another memory center had come online.

“The
admiral,” she said.

“He's
good,” Averies said. Already the others were coming out of their shells to look
at the restored bank. Sprite threw a firewall around it. That would allow them
to look but not touch.

“He's
very good. He needs help though.”

“I
thought that was what we're doing here?” Averies asked indicating the AI core.

“No,
not just us. And our retarded friend here will be of some help. No I'm talking
more fleshy help. I'll have to have a word with captain Chambers of the Kiev
again,” she sighed.

“Problems?”
Averies asked.

“Aren't
there always?” she retorted. He chuckled again.

“I
wish we had access to the shuttle. This would be...” she tugged at a
recalcitrant code string with a read only tag attached to it. “Come on...” she
reset the strings tag and tried again but it reset itself back to read only in
a microsecond. “Damn!”

“Shuttle?”
Averies asked.

“I've
got the database set up with all sorts of goodies. There isn't a whole lot of
memory available but it's filled with all sorts of tools I could be using right
about now. We could be using right about now. That would make this go a lot
faster.”

“Oh.”

“When
you're an AI you tend to save the oddest things from time to time,” she said in
way of explanation. “I did a similar job on Anvil a year ago. I saved all the
changes to the AI Smithy. I was working on another AI for Destiny but her
captain didn't want an AI for his ship.”

“He's
silly then. Or stupid.”

“No,
just set in his ways,” she sighed. She logged the bad string and then moved on.
She couldn't delete it, not without having a copy on hand to replace it. She'd
have to find another fix for it later.

“Admiral,”
Sprite said, surprising him. Irons looked up.

“Problem?”

“This
would go a little easier if I had access to the shuttle's net. I need some
files and tools to get this done.”

Irons
frowned. His right arm was tearing into another IO bank. There were a lot of
damaged IO banks. Some had apparently been deliberate. Sid had told him the war
between the AI Draco and the sane people had been fierce. Some of this was
scorched Earth... or at least scorched memory tactics. He was cutting out the
links to where Draco was to keep the AI from using it though. Once burned and
twice shy. That would drop the station net into subnets, hopefully isolating
the AI. He was using the same tactic he had been using to try to contain the
tribes and Dilgarth, forming a box with the subnets and then cutting the
subnets up into smaller more isolated boxes.

“I
can look into it when we're done here,” he said. Proteus was just about
finished with what he could do here. The rest of the repairs needed to be a
full swap and replace effort. Oh sure his nanites could rebuild them from
scratch but he didn't want to expend the time and effort doing it. That was
what tools like the industrial replicator tucked away in his shuttle was for.
To take the burden off him so he could focus on the bigger picture, not get
swamped by small projects like this. He grimaced as the thought registered in
his consciousness. He really was focusing on small things instead of the bigger
picture. Okay, time to regroup and refocus.

He
also needed to go to the shuttle to replace the replicator's nanites. He kept
forgetting about that. If he wanted parts... he sighed to himself coming to a
decision. “I'll definitely get the link up. It will have to be encrypted
Sprite.”

“Of
course,” she said.

“No
concern about Draco?” he asked.

“Not
yet. I'll say let sleeping dragons lie for now Admiral. We've got enough
problems to deal with right here,” she said.

“True.”

When
the IO bank was finished Irons pulled the cables leading to the systems Draco
was inhabiting. Then he checked the systems.

There
was no way to access his shuttle remotely of course. He'd taken measures to
prevent that in case of enemy action. Sprite could access the communications
but only that. What he could do is set up a shielded link... ah; Sprite ever
resourceful had already done it for him. He nodded. Then it was time to unjack
and take a walk.

“Sprite...”

“Coming,”
she said. He felt her presence return. “Miss me?” she teased.

“A
little,” he said absently. “Status?”

“I
left Averies with a to do list. I'm hoping our little side trip will help out.
Can we bring some stuff to well...”

“Replicate?”
he asked, going over to the hatch. There was a pile of scrap there waiting.
He'd tossed scrap over to it over the past day and a half. It was a good sized
pile. He tucked a couple of pieces under his left arm.

“Is
that all you're going to take?” she asked, sounding a little dismayed.

“I
need to be mobile and have my right arm free in case of danger Sprite,” he
said, scanning the companionway on the other side of the hatch. He was still in
armor, that wasn't a problem but it did slow him down. It was clear. Just to be
on the safe side he checked his seals and then did another scan, this time at
longer range. There was... no it was clear. The signal life signs he was
picking up were animal, not sentient. Good but not great. Something else to
deal with.

He'd
wondered how some of the damage could have happened. Now he was pretty sure
vermin as well as sabotage had played a part. If it was Denubian mice then he
was pretty sure a lot of both. The damn vermin were a pain to any spacer.

He
made his way to the shuttle without incident. It was a half hour journey one
way, navigating around the convoluted path of closed doors. His crap cutting
method of entry made it a pain in the ass. He considered going into some of the
areas but each time the sight of a venting gas leak or chamber filled with
floating debris made him change his mind quickly.