Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (73 page)

She
stared at the view port then to the camera. Mutely she shook her head back and
forth. “Good bye and good riddance Miss Willis. May the goddess of space keep
you. We don't want you, or your kind,” the captain said coldly.

She
gulped again, terror written over her features. Then a strange calm came over
them. The fans in the airlock shut off and closed. She looked around. “The
captain pressurized the airlock to twice normal,” Sprite said quietly.

“Hush,”
Irons said, clenching his jaw. The airlock opened and Willis screamed silently
as she was flung out into the void. The airlock closed then cycled.

“Sentence
is carried out. If anyone has a problem with this you may leave the same way,
or debark on Triang. I frankly don't care either way. Carry on,” the captain
said. The circuit was cut and then regular programming resumed.

Irons
grimaced as the people around them began to talk.

“Good
riddance to bad rubbish,” Bailey said with a snort. He looked around, shrugged
then downed his beer. “She got what was coming to her. Just wish we'd caught
her before,” he said and shook his head.

“Me
too. Me too,” Irons sighed.

“Coonies
need a lot of love and attention,” Bryan said, practically in tears. He knelt
and patted the pelt of the two. “Luke and Daisy will do you right. Just don't
feed them any cat food. Or at least not too much. It causes gout in them when
they get older.”

“We
wont,” the girl said, nodding. Her pigtails danced. Bryan smiled as Luke
reached up and played with the bows in her hair. “Stop that,” she giggled
tickling the chittering beast.

“They
are quite beautiful,” the pudgy mother said, smiling. The young boy played with
Daisy. She yawned needle sharp teeth and then closed her eyes after a moment.
“She's tired hon.”

“Both
are from prize winning parents so you'll have no trouble trading them. They eat
bugs and small pests too so they will help keep pests under control. They are
nocturnal, so expect them to be up and about at night,” Bryan said.

“They
are beautiful,” the father said, resting a hand on the boy's shoulder. “Never
did see a black one with white on it,” he said softly. He shook his head. “I
had a regular one when I was a kid. But the last time we had a plague...” He
shook his head, cutting himself off from the painful memory to spare himself
and the kids.

“They've
had all their shots. I made sure of that,” Bryan said nodding. “I gave the
local Doc more for later litters.”

“Thought
you said they're from the same litter Doc?” the mother said.

“Oh
I'm not a doctor. At least not yet anyway,” Bryan said straightening. “I'm just
a paramedic. But I'm learning,” he sighed. “And believe me, there is a lot to
learn,” he grimaced as they nodded. “But back to the litter... well, see when I
was leaving I had my coonie Nara over there implanted with embryo's of other
coonies. That way she would bear a litter that could interbreed if necessary.”

“Ah..
What's...”

“Later
dear. When you're older,” the mother said, smiling down at her thoroughly
confused daughter. The girls nose scrunched up in disgust then she shrugged as
Luke tugged at her shirt collar then tried to burrow into the front of her
shirt. She squirmed then shrieked a giggle. The adults laughed.

“They
do that. Especially when it's cold out,” her father said smiling. “Come on,
thanks Doc, or Mr para... What was your name again?”

“Bryan.
Bryan Kelly,” Bryan said with a smile. They shook hands.

“Thanks
Mister Kelly. We'll take real good care of them,
honest,
” the girl said
turning away.

“That's
all I ask. Take care,” Bryan nodded as the family moved off. He dashed a tear
as he turned away. “It's hard,” he sighed. He looked down to Nara. “I know.
You'll miss them.”

She
chattered and waved behind her then tugged at his pant leg. He picked her up,
hugging her to himself, then walked back to the space port.

“Admiral
did you hear the news?” Sprite asked. He looked up. They were about twelve
hours from their departure time. The medic had returned to the ship a few hours
ago looking like he'd just sold his soul. He shook his head. Bryan shouldn't
breed animals if he couldn't handle the final separation. Was there too much
empathy there? As a medic he needed it. But as a farmer or in this case a
breeder? He sighed. He'd tried to tell the young man not to get too attached.
He'd been through this before on Anvil, you'd think he would have learned by
now.

“What?”

“The
Neo felines have made a deal to remain on the planet. They set up a territory
in an uninhabited mountain range with a series of valleys in between. The area
is heavy with game, but untouched because of it's remote location.”

“Oh?
Good.”

“You
knew.” Sprite accused.

“I
guessed. It wasn't a hard guess, I was pretty sure they weren't going to go
back to Agnosta or Pyrax after all.”

“True.”

“I
believe we arranged a present for them?”

“Yes,
they should get it when they land,” Sprite said amused. She wasn't sure about
Irons' generosity, but since he was adamant about going through with it, she
might as well watch.

 The
Admiral had donated replicated camping gear to get them set up in a valley they
chose as a base. They ran into the felines in the boat bay as he was loading
his launch. Asia thanked him. Hera growled, but thanked him as well.

“You
are not what I expected Admiral. Not at all,” Hera growled gruffly as the
others looked on. “I was expecting a poppycock Admiral. All wind and piss,” she
said then wrinkled her mouth and nose and looked away.

“Some
people are like that,” Irons said shrugging. “It just goes to show, you can't
judge a book by it's cover.”

“Yes
I see that now. You aren't a good looking cover, too little hair,” she growled.
She turned away clearly amused. “But you have incredible depths. Filled with a
generous spirit and a stubborn do gooder streak. Good luck with that Admiral.
You are going to need it. The universe isn't a very forgiving place. And nice
guys finish last.”

He
snorted. “Thanks.” She turned and held out a hand paw. He accepted it without
reservation. They shook. She nodded. “Good luck and good hunting. To you all,”
he nodded to the others.

A
few were nursing kits. They looked up and nodded. “You as well Admiral,” the
nearest murmured, then went back to her kits. Hera looked over her shoulder as
their grips released. “Lets go.”

Irons
watched them go. “Curious. You seem almost sad to see them go,” Sprite said as
the Neo-cats left.

“You're
curious about that? I'm more curious about that crack about not being a good
looking cover,” Irons said with a laugh.

“Funny,”
Sprite said. “So Kiev is going to be our new home?”

“Looks
like it.” He watched as their shuttle undocked. “Destiny is headed back to
Pyrax. That's a dead end. For now. We'd be constantly harassed by this cloud
hanging over me, and we'd be a magnet for every assassin in the system.”

“Perhaps,”
Sprite sighed. “Onward and upward to new challenges and adventures?”

“Now
you're talking,” he said nodding to her on the HUD. He turned and left the
observation lounge.

“I've
copied the civilian side of the database for you. We've created a couple of
cores. We're going to leave them with others, but this should help you if you
need it,” Sprite said to the kid.

Everette
nodded, hand caressing the stack. “Hundreds of Petabytes of information. I
can't wait to get into it,” he said, eyes a little glassy. He was looking a
little dreamy. Sprite sighed, recognizing the signs.

“It's
not your personal play toy you know,” Sprite said shaking her virtual head.
“It's to help you and other hobbyists on the ship. Drivers, manuals, tutorials,
movies, copies of star maps, Encyclopedia Galactica, that sort of stuff. Plus a
ton of other stuff I'm not going to get into. It will be fun for you to
discover on your own. Like I said, we're giving this to everyone. The Admiral
gave a copy of the medical information to Bryan and each of the medical
personnel as well. Don't lose this. Or screw it up. Just copy it. Don't try to
write stuff in there.”

“Oh
I won't.”

“Read
only. Seriously,” she said knowing the organic wasn't paying attention. She
sighed giving the assistant engineer a dark look.

Harry
spread his hands and had an amused but exasperated look on his face. “I'll keep
them honest ma'am.”

“You
do that,” she said. She shook her head. “There is a copy of every piece of
software in Destiny in there. So if something goes down, this is your last line
of defense to get it back up and running. Take care of it.”

Harry
prodded the kid. “Thank you ma'am. We will treasure it.” He prodded the kid
again. “Say something dummy. And stop making out with the thing, you're
freaking me out.”

“Huh?”
the kid looked up and then blushed. “Uh, Thanks?” he said then hunched his
shoulders. His fingers clenched. From his expression he was light years away.
Obviously he was eager to get into the data. The Admiral was right, a little
taste of knowledge, or the ability, the sheer interest in learning and organics
became addicted to it. At least the good ones.

“Like
a kid on his birthday. Can't wait to open the gift,” Sprite said with a laugh.
“All right I'll leave you to it. You've got about an hour before we leave to
shoot me any last minute questions. Make them good.” She cut the channel and
went on to her next project.

He
shook hands with Bailey at the shuttle lock, nodded to the purser and the
others there. “Another send off. From the look on his face I'm sure he's glad
to see you go. What's with you and pursers?” Sprite asked him amused.

“I've
paid for cargo to be transferred to Navy command in Pyrax,” Irons said,
ignoring the AI. “I'd like Horatio to get it.”

“He
will Admiral, you have my word on it,” the captain said with a nod. Bailey
nodded as well. The purser looked like he was going to object but then shut his
mouth and shrugged.

“Count
on it Admiral,” Bailey said giving the purser a dirty look. “Even though you've
got two whole cargo holds filled with stuff,” he said shaking his head.

“That
should help them out,” Irons said with a smile. “Parts and machines to make
parts. All key coded to Horatio and the command staff's implant signatures. If
anyone else tries to access them they will self destruct,” he said, giving the
purser a warning glance.

“Right.
Good for you Irons,” the captain said with a nod. He caught Notuma's dyspeptic
look of annoyance and frowned. The purser schooled his face to a blank mask
when he caught the look.

“You'll
most likely make the Agnosta run once more if they don't have one of the other
ships up and running. I'm not sure how much my departure has messed up the yard
schedules.”

“Probably
a lot,” Bailey said shaking his head.

“I've
got a feeling once you do a turn around in Agnosta you'll be tapped to go to
Gaston and then to Seti Alpha after that.”

“Oh?”
the captain asked, quirking an eyebrow upwards. “I thought we didn't have the
nav data....”

Irons
smiled slightly, ducking his head a little. He rubbed at his hair and tugged on
an ear.

“We
do?” The captain glanced at the holo of the AI and then back to Irons. The
Admiral nodded. “When?”

“I
took the liberty of copying it from Io 11's navigational drives when we parted
company. Her entire drive actually, which you have.”

“We
do?”

“It's
in there captain. We locked it down in case of, well...”
“In case we ever ran into pirates again. You don't want that falling into the
wrong hands,” the purser said. He gave a nod of grudging approval.

“Exactly.
Don't attempt to copy it or write over it. It's protected.”

“Good
to know, I'll pass it on to the crew.”

“Gaston
is a nice planet. Agro world like Triang and Agnosta. They were just getting
back to an industrial period when we passed through.”

Notuma
rubbed his jaw. “Once you've seen one agro world, you've pretty much seen them
all. The faces and systems may change, even a few of the materials in and
out...”

“You
might be surprised. I fixed a combine harvester when I was there. I bet they
could get some grain for export with the right help.” Grain was one of the
biggest food imports to Pyrax.

The
purser's eyes lit and he smiled a little. “Good to know,” he said and tapped at
his tablet to make a note. “I'll see if we can get them some farm machinery in
trade.”

“You
do that.”

“Why
Seti after that? They aren't connected,” the captain said, cocking his head.