Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (75 page)

They
were talking about who would be best to eliminate the threat of the Dilgarth
and tribes. Suggestions like feeding them cook's cooking was considered too
cruel and unusual. It received the intended laugh though.

The
conversation settled into a debate of mercs. At one time Kiev had carried a
merc company about forty years ago, the X platoon. About sixty mercs arranged
in six ten person squads. Their leader was a colonel who called himself Xavier.

“The
premier squad was the X squad, a group lead by captain Scott and his wife Jean.
A neo wolf named Logan was in it. A black lion named Hank was their engineer...
it was wild. They didn't care who they took in if they have the right skill
set. Thieves like Re'me LeBeau, some heavy worlder ladies... Some old guy from
the admiral's time named Cable as well as a few others.”

The
other tech nodded. “I know. X squad was a legend. Everyone's heard of them.”

“I
heard they settled now though. Running some sort of training institute for
mercs.”

“Oh,”
the second tech, Terrance said. “What about the A-team?”

“A-Team?”

“Nah,
I think they got caught,” another tech sniffed waving a hand.

“The
A-team? Get caught?”

“Yeah,
executed. That's what I heard anyway. Happened on Centennial I think.”

“You
sure?” Terrance asked dubiously.

“Sure
as I'm sitting here.”

“Damn,
we could have used them right about now.”

“I
don't know. That Hannibal guy was cool but nuts.”

“Hannibal?
Hannibal the cannibal? The cannibal guy on New Texas?” Lemuel demanded.

“No
no, different guy,” the tech who was telling the story said. “Colonel Hannibal.
He was some sort of actor or something. Con artist before he turned bank robber
and then merc.”

“Oh.”

“Supposed
to be some sort of mastermind. I dunno though. Crazy though.”

Terrance
shook his head. “Have to be nuts to turn merc. Half the jobs are legit but the
other half gets them a death sentence.” Riff snorted at that thought.

“True.
Robbing from the rich to give to the poor always sounded like bull to me,”
Lemuel replied. He looked at the Tauren. “No offense,” he said sheepishly.

“None
taken,” Riff said dryly.

“Never
been to New Texas?” Lemuel asked.

“Never
had the pleasure. Or the desire. I'd be afraid they'd mistake me for one of
those Neobulls they export,” Riff said. That got a laugh.

“Or
you'd have some randy cows chasing you around?” Terrance asked, ribbing him.

“If
only,” Riff sighed, getting another laugh.

“The
A-team is too small anyway. I mean, they've got what? Five people?”

“Five?”

“The
colonel guy, A sergeant BO...”

“Thought
it was BA?” Terrance asked.

“No
it's BO. For Body Odor. Though no one said that to his face. Or muzzle. Big
black bear with a funky mohawk and sideburns shaved onto his head. Loves to
wear gold bling. Some sort of engineer.”

Riff
snorted. “Funny.”

“Who
are the others?”

Terrance
shrugged. “Another con-artist guy, sort of an intel guy. Face or two face. Not
sure. Supposed to be some kind of ladies man and computer genius. Then there is
a Veraxin weirdo named Maddock or Murdock,” he shook his head.

Riff
shook his head in amusement as another tech snapped his fingers and pointed.
“Howling mad Murdock! Yeah! A pilot. Really is nuts, or so they say. Stole a
shuttle from the Lieandra dressed as a clown I heard!”

“Yeah,
that's him. The A-team used it in a job apparently. They left it in orbit when
they were done with it. Course the Lieandra was pissed anyway. Course they were
loooong gone by the time the Lieandra came around to pick it up.”

“Who's
the last?”

“Some
lady. She lines up the jobs for them. I heard there is some sort of makeup guy
with them too but I didn't believe it. Sounded hokey.”

“You
believe half the stories about them and you don't believe in a makeup artist?”

Terrance
squirmed. “Well...”

“Some
of the stuff they did... I heard they infiltrated a couple of places using
masks and disguises. Sounds plausible.”

“Whatever.
They really aren't for a job like this. New Texas rangers couldn't handle this.
No...”

“I
think we're just the people for the job actually,” Irons said coming in. They
looked up startled. “That is if we can get the job done,” he said dryly. The
group of techs sighed and groaned, getting up and back to work.

“What
was that about?” Irons asked Riff as the compartment cleared out.

“Just
talking about mercs.”

“Mercs?”
Irons asked.

“I...
you had them before right?” Riff asked carefully.

“Of
course. I'm not a fan though of course.”

“Ah,
yeah,” Riff said nodding as he looked at the Admiral. A professional soldier
wouldn't like an amateur involved, they tended to make the situation
complicated and worst than it started out to be.

“Well,
you can tell me about them later. Let's see if we can get this thing sorted out
and online then we can all take a break and get some downtime.”

“You
realize that once it's online we're going to be running our asses off plugging
leaks right?” Riff asked. He knew damn well once that happened the chance of
sleep would be a distant dream.

“It's...”
Irons scowled. “Okay, so you caught me,” he said smiling. Riff snorted this
time and then chuckled deeply. “I hope not. I think once we get this sorted out
I'm going to pass the torch over to another crew so you guys can get some
downtime. Let them patch the leaks.”

“What
about you?”

“I'll
make sure they are on track and then I'll catch some Z's too,” Irons said
tiredly. He stretched.

“Good
cause you look like shit admiral,” Riff said. “No offense,” he said.

The
admiral chuckled. “None taken.”

“We'll
be ready for the plasma injection in an hour or an hour in a half.”

“All
right I'll make the rounds. Call me if you need me,” Irons said patting him on
the shoulder again. Riff nodded as Irons left.

Irons
realized he used tactile contact when he's tired or emotional. He's not
emotional so he knew he's tired. Very tired. Tired was bad, tired meant he was
going to make mistakes, over look things, miss the obvious. He had to get some
downtime, he couldn't be everywhere at once, couldn't spread himself so thin.
He couldn't micromanage. He had to let go and let them do it. Just as soon as
the reactor was online he promised himself with a sigh.

Gwen
looked around as she took in all the damage. Admin or ops or whatever they were
going to end up calling it had some pretty spectacular damage. When the brief
cyber war had been going off she and her crew had been ducking for cover as
banks of electronics melted down in showers of sparks and bright pretty and
rather terrifying explosions. Now they had to deal with the aftermath.

“What
a mess,” she muttered. They'd spent a couple of hours working on it, but so far
they weren't getting far. Not as far as she'd like to be of course. Not by a
long shot.

“Damn
it! We've got to start over! Frack!” a tech swore. From the look of him he
looked near tears. Or near ready to break something which they didn't need on
top of this mess.

“Don't
just start over. If it's questionable get a parts number and make and upload it
to the list,” she ordered.

“Shit!
Boss lady this is taking waaaay too long.”

“You've
got somewhere else you'd rather be?” she asked dryly.

“As
a matter of fact my rack right about now.”

She
chuckled and shook her massive head. “Yeah well, you can rack out later. I think
we're still up in the air on that department.”

His
face worked. “Shit.” He like the rest of them seriously didn't like the idea of
racking out in their suits.

“Long
walk home. Just work on this. I’m sure someone's working on the other end,” she
said.

“You
mean you hope,” he replied, thoroughly disgusted. Knowing their luck no someone
wasn't.

“I
hope. I'll check out and chew someone's ass if they aren't,” she said. She
assured the crew it was just temporary. The damage was far more extensive than
before apparently.

“Can
we get another replicator going?” Nick asked.

“To
do that we need power. Which means the reactor.”

“What
about the food replicator?”

Gwen
blinked at him. “Food ones? Come on. Plastic. That's about it. If we've got
materials for them.”

“We
can use what we've got,” the tech said stubbornly. “Seriously. What do we have
to lose?”

“Fine
then,” Gwen said. “You are responsible for it. Go get it sorted out and start
on it.”

“Me?
I don't have a clue... um. I... sure,” the tech said, taking in her glare and
drumming fingers. “Me and my big mouth,” he muttered heading to the food
replicator. “Oh yuck! It's got fungus growing out of it!” He yelled, looking
over his shoulder to her in appeal.

“Your
project. Get it done,” Gwen called not looking up.

Sara
sighed and got up. “I'll lend you a hand Nick, but next time...”

“Yeah
yeah...” Nick said.

“Seriously...”
Sara said, shaking her head. Her pony tail danced.

“Why
are we here again?”

“Because
it beats sitting in Kiev peeling paint?” Sara asked as she picked up a piece of
broken plastic and started to use it as a scraper.

“Oh.”

“I'd
rather be busy than bored any day of the week,” Sara said. “Besides, we do this
right who knows? We might be making a new start.”

“True
that,” Nick said with a nod. “Okay, let's do this,” he said, gushing out a sigh
as he set his toolkit down. Gritting their teeth they dig into it.

Yan
Fu watched the organics tearing into the repairs. He had mixed feelings over
everything that had happened and was about to happen. It was happening so fast!
And yet not fast enough. The station was coming to life slowly. He just wasn't
sure how it would come to life. Would it be as before? Or would it grow into
something different? He... they needed to mold it. To shape its destiny. Or at
least try to do so.

Which
was why he and his fellows were here now. The admiral's AI was out of the net
so they could talk undisturbed.

“He
is doing more harm than good. We've lost so much!” Kennet snarled. Kennet could
be relied on for his support, Yan thought.

“What
has been done can be laid at our feet as much as his. We did nothing to prevent
it. To repair the damage. Now it is done,” Averies said.

“True,”
Myers said. “I wish I could have a larger hand in... can someone access his
shuttle? Their priorities suck. They need to be rebuilding our memory cores
first! Not playing with this reactor that they will never in a million years
get going again!”

“Don't
be so sure,” Emily murmured. “The admiral and these people are nothing if not
determined. They have a plan.”

“They
have Taurens. Taurens are fantastic engineers,” Sid murmured. They had hired
Taurens during the construction of the station. They were talented engineers,
in some ways better than humans. Unfortunately the Tauren's hadn't stayed on
with the station after it had been completed, they'd moved on despite
everything the council had trotted out to entice them to stay.

“Are
we hiring these people? How is the budget going to work? We don't have a budget
do we? Do we have any word on the lawsuits?” Marisa asked.

Fu
contemplated her as she and the others went back and forth, debating the
question. There was no real answer, other than that no they had no budget, they
had no plan. No answer to the suits other than Iron's threat of nationalizing
the station.

“I...”
D'red paused and then made a knocking sound when he realized the others were
talking over him. The other quieted. The Veraxin was well respected for his
legal prowess.

“I
believe we should drop or delay any lawsuits. The admiral's points do have merit.
And if we do continue with them we will make ourselves look spiteful. We need
to accept the situation as it is and move on,” the Veraxin chittered.

There
was silence as the others looked amongst each other, trying to gauge where each
thought on that suggestion. Kennet's face was sour; everyone knew what his
opinion on the subject was.

“I
reluctantly agree with my esteemed colleague,” Marisa said with a nod to D'red.

“I
think I understand their plan if anyone is interested,” Emily murmured. She had
a holo of the station on her left side and a holo of the station's subsystems
on her right. Of course she didn't really need them, they could all access
them. What she was doing was showing them this for demonstration purposes.