13 Degrees of Separation (97 page)

...*...*...*...*...

The tug's surprise sacrificial move dismayed the Corvette
crews. The Corvette frantically tried to maneuver but it was too late. Shocked
by sudden savage turn of events, how seemingly helpless prey could turn on the
predators. When one was cornered, one had little left too loose.

“On dangerous ground maneuver, on deadly ground... fight,”
the Captain murmured. “He did the one thing he could. We didn't see it coming.
Pity.”

“Sir? What do we do?” the exec asked nervously, eyes wide
as he turned to his Captain for reassurance.

“We die. There is nothing left,” the Captain replied,
shoulders slumped in defeat. His ship had less than a day's worth of oxygen,
most likely less since they were leaking in multiple places. Micrometeorites
had breached the hull in many places.

Corvette 2, CF-901 had been destroyed with all hands, torn
apart by the impact of the little tug. There was little if anything to salvage.

Corvette 1, CF-834 had no drive and no hope of rescue now.
The Captain closed his eyes, recognizing the inevitable. Some of his people
suicided, the exec sobbed when he put his pulser in his mouth and pulled the
trigger. Before the air ran out the Captain clung to his duty and purged his
computers.

The remaining men and women on board who stubbornly clung
to life and the slim hope of rescue slowly died watching the air run out,
cursing the miner. Before they died, the Captain gasped out a final report into
the ship's log and then sent out the omega distress beacon towards the jump
line leading to Horathian space. He watched the beacon tumble away into the
void and then raised his personal weapon to his temple.

...*...*...*...*...

“That's my story. I'm going to ram the bastard, the other's
as good as dead anyway. Dead in a couple of hours anyway. So you take care of
Barbara for me, tell her to take care. I'll see her sometime. Hopefully not
soon. Her or my nieces and nephews. For those of you who found this, let them
know that. And to sweeten the pot, reverse the course on this pod, you should
find some bits left over. Make sure they get a cut. Spirit of space be with
you. Bob out.”

Roger frowned as the message ended. He stroked it once,
nodding. The old man had done right. He'd been an ornery bastard, but he'd been
a Senkan to the end. He kept the message and then used it's trajectory to
reverse its back trail so he could follow it.

He did so, picking up the fresh debris field on his
scanners after a couple of hours. Carefully he approached, wary of the other
Corvette. It was dead he realized, Forty Niner... Bob, had been right. He gleefully
picked through the wreckage.

After a couple of hours he decided to salvage the Corvette.
Someone somewhere could rebuild it to defend their home. And if they used parts
from the other ship... He looked over to it. Forty Niner had done a number on
it, cut her in half, but there were a couple pieces that might still have
working equipment. Every little bit helped. Roger grinned a yellow gape toothed
grin as he got to work. The tug's robotic arms swung into action.

The End

Wow, I honestly
thought I'd get this done sooner, and with fewer stories that were somehow
longer or something. I mean, when you see anthology books they are like what? 4
to 7 stories right? And here I've got 13. Of course, some are long, some are
very short. Shrug, oh well.

There are a lot more
where these came from, dozens more. Maybe a hundred, I don't know, new stories
come to me weekly now. (Let's do a head count...  okay, 25 in the Founding of
the Federation timeline,  23 in the Gottenburg timeline, 13 here in this
timeline, and... it looks like 16 so far in the New Federation timeline)

Sometimes they haunt
me until I jot them down. Some keep bugging me until they are roughed out.
(Seriously, can't they wait? I do have other things to do!)

A bit more than half
(7) of
these
stories have been seen by my volunteers. Some I've held
back because they gave away bits of Jethro 2 First to Fight or other books.

If you go back to
Jethro 2, PP, GS, and some of the other books you'll see I laid some of the
ground work for these stories. And if you keep an eye out, you might notice I
laid the groundwork for Jethro 3, PB, and other future adventures. :)

You can catch me and
read some of my ramblings on 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, created 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.

1
^st
Lieutenant Junior Valdez:
Son of Senior
Valdez, former tug pilot turned small craft pilot and later first fighter pilot
in Pyrax. Currently acting LT Commander in charge of all pilots in the system.

System
Governor Walker:
Elected Governor of the
system. Tall, rather good looking and charming. A corrupt politician. One of
the conspirators to remove the admiral from the system.

Marines:

Major
Jersey Forth:
Former Captain of a
planetary militia and then security Captain on Anvil before retiring to enter
private service. Tough and very good at his job. Recruited into the Marines as
a Captain but then elevated to Major.

Captain
Pendeckle:
Former 1
^st
Lieutenant.
Commander of the 1
^st
Agnostan recon detachment.

1
^st
Lieutenant Dana Harley:
Marine. Former 2
^nd
Lieutenant. Later promoted to Captain. Second in command of the 1
^st
Agnostan recon detachment.

Sergeant
Jefferson:
Former assistant DI of F
platoon. Later recon and sniper trainer and full DI.

Sergeant
Brenet:
Former assistant DI of F platoon.
Later advanced trainer.

Lance
Corporal Jethro Panther:
Black Neo panther
assassin.

Gunny
Schultz:
Neo Doberman, former Drill
instructor of F platoon.

Ensign
Valenko Kodiak:
Neo grizzly bear corporal,
graduate of F platoon bootstrapped to ensign.

Sergio:
Neo white Liger, heavy weapons. PFC.

Hurranna:
Neo lynx/bobcat PFC small, wishes to be a
pilot.

Ox:
Last Tauren in the Pyrax system. Engineer, communications tech,
and apprentice armorer. Lance Corporal.

PFC
Asazi:
former female prize fighting
champion. Heavy worlder genes, hard charger. Shooter. She has a broken nose and
facial scar.

Lance
Corporal Letanga:
Leopard cousin of
Jethro. Went through sniper and recon training with Jethro. Quiet, reserved but
very loyal. He has a limited cloaking ability.

Lance
Corporal Betty:
Neo chimp. Went through F
platoon with the others.  Also outfitted and trained in powered combat armor.

PFC
Shiku
: Arctic white Neofox sniper.

Senjix:
Neocheetah, cousin of Cheetahra. PFC. Excellent scout.
Graduate of F platoon like all the other Neos.

PFC
Zebo
: Gashg driver. Former member of F
platoon.

PFC
Ris'ha
: Naga driver. Former member of F
platoon.

Private
Shep
: Neo Sheppard.  Later Sergeant Shep.
Head of the Military Police.

Tungulria:
Black Neowolf. The only other Neo to have almost the same
cloaking ability as Jethro.

Petty
officers Gusterson:
Neo greyhound naval
corpsman assigned to Valenko's squad as the medic.

Harley
Quinn:
PFC Neo Hyena, jokester. Infamous
in F platoon for her pranks.

Lance
Corporal Déjà:
Selkie. Former slave of the
pirates serving as the chief helmsman on Destiny. Now wants to be a Marine
pilot.

Others
in the system:

Lieutenant
Commander Vargess:
Love interest of
Captain Mayweather. Captain of the Arboth class destroyer Fuentes.

Fuentes
(AI):
ancient AI recovered and rebuilt
prior to the admiral's departure. The AI had only 1 of 3 cores and was
partially insane. Fortunately the AI had been repaired and returned to service.

Lieutenant
Commander Harris
: Commander, former
tactical officer of Firefly. Currently Captain of Maya.

On
Firefly:

Captain
(Lieutenant Commander) Mayweather:
Former
XO of the Carib queen, a star Yacht. Rose through the ranks quickly to become
Captain of the Maya and then Firefly.

Lieutenant
Commander Shelby Logan XO:
Daughter of
Horatio Logan, formerly his XO on Anvil, recruited as chief engineer of Firefly
before taking over the XO slot.

Commander
Firefly (AI):
Old AI core of the light
cruiser Firefly.

Janice:
1st Lieutenant, helm and navigational
officer. Former helmsman of the Carib Queen.

Purple
Thorn:
1
^st
Lieutenant Elf
tactical officer. Former officer on Sun-Yat w/ Commander Logan before
transferring to Maya. Served with Captain Mayweather on the Maya.

Doctor
Standish:
1
^st
Lieutenant, chief
doctor on Firefly. He is an understudy of Doctor Thornby. He worked at the
college before volunteering his services to the Navy.

Riley:
sergeant, Marine armorer. Former fitter
and blacksmith on Avalon. While traveling to Briev he stopped in Pyrax to
become an EVA suit fitter. Brilliant in his job but grumpy.

Anvil:

Anvil
Governor: Enrique
Former XO of the
station. Tough but pragmatic, politician able to compromise his ideals and
honor to get things done.

Smithy
(AI):
dumb AI turned “Semi” smart

Liam
O'Reilly
: Former assistant chief engineer
now chief engineer of the station. Married into the Valdez family. Wife is a
life support supervisor.

Judge
Hershey:
Junior Judge on the station. Renown
for being above corruption and impartial like Judge Farley.

Judge
Farley:
Senior judge in the system, he
helped to refine the Pyrax Constitution. He's tough, hard on crime and
impartial to a fault.

Sheriff
Trac:
Veraxin sheriff. Bluff lawman with a
love of American Western clothing.

Lieutenant
Commander (doctor) Thornby:
Reservist. She
is the chief medical officer on Anvil and the chief of medicine for the Navy.
She is a hard worker not above soaking the rich to provide medical care for the
poor.

Valdez
family:

Jorge
Valdez:
chief tug pilot and owner of the
growing tug business.

Juanita
Valdez:
No nonsense matriarch of the
Valdez clan. Has multiple children of various ages.

Matilda:
Dean of the Anvil college. Has a
granddaughter.

Doctor
Jenni Martel:
Geneticist and genealogist.
She is in charge of attempting to resurrect the fallen sentients.

Matriarch:
Elderly neolion in charge of the Anvil cat clan and the
nominally in charge of the Neos in the system. She may be old but she's wise
and tough.

Hrris
Leo:
Young neolion. Friend of Jethro and
the other cats. Has a job as an engineering supervisor on the station.

Chung
Li
: Siberian Neo tiger.

On
Destiny:

Captain
Ferguson:
Tough civilian Captain, one of
the original crew of the Destiny. He rose from being a slave and third mate to
Captain after being liberated.

Chief
engineer Bailey:
Balding Neo chimp. Tough,
loves martial arts. Smart and independent, friend of the admiral. Wives Galiet,
Clennie, Sylvia, sons Fiben, John, and Devin