Wandering Engineer 6: Pirates Bane (68 page)

“Aye sir,” Captain Mayweather replied. She glanced at Shelby. The
other woman shrugged slightly.

“Firefly, Sprite has found the updated regulations in her travels
regarding key transfer. Apparently during the later stages of the war the rump
legislature recognized the problem and tried to address it. We now have a
partial fix, a firmware update for Horatio.

Commander Sprite and I have recorded the firmware updates to
Horatio. His MOS is as an engineer, so he will have engineering implant codes.
We have uploaded them to you in an encrypted file. When he comes on board, you
are to have him jack in and receive the firmware update. It should take. It
isn't the entire update, but it is enough to get the ball rolling until we can
meet up physically and I can finish the key install.”

“Aye sir,” Firefly responded. Mayweather nodded slightly, doodling
with her fingers. “I see the files,” the AI said cautiously.

“Don't touch them,” Sprite warned. “Don't even do a virus scan or
they will self destruct.”

“Understood. I've handled classified data before Commander,”
Firefly responded.

Irons nodded. “With the firmware update, the keys you three have,
plus what you now have in storage or under construction, you should be able to
finish the smaller ships. At least get them space worthy. That should thicken
the defenses in Pyrax nicely,” he said.

Again the AI and human Captain nodded. 

“I've taken the liberty of queuing up all the replicators and your
machine shop. Those include the machinery in the armory. I believe sergeant
Riley had a conniption until he realized just what I was up to,” the Admiral
said.

“And just what were you up to sir? If I may dare ask?” Commander
Logan replied. “Tucking away some goodies I hope?”

“In a way,” the Admiral replied. “I've got equipment currently
under construction, as Firefly well knows. It is draining your fuel, so I
arranged for you to be topped off before you head out. I left my gas refinery
in Beta 100, so it should be full by now, we'll pick it up and drain her on our
way through that system.”

“Okay...”

“The armory is churning out frames and parts you couldn't before.
Enough to outfit a platoon. The other fabricators and machine shops are making
weapon, computer, and hyperdrive components. I've got enough backlogged in the
cue for you to build things your entire trip back. That is until you run out of
room or materials. So I strongly suggest you also make room and take on as much
materials as you can. Stuff them in crew quarters and in companionways if you
have to. Unload what you can to other ships. There is a list,” he pushed a
tablet to the center of the table.

Commander Logan whistled as she touched the tablet with her index
finger and the file uploaded to her.

“Do not, and I mean do not,” the Admiral said sternly, getting
their attention. He held up one warning finger. “Under no circumstances should
you interrupt it. Do not interrupt the queue. It's on a set pattern, once you
do it won't reset it will wipe the codes. So, if it isn't important, it had better
wait,” he said.

“Aye sir,” Firefly replied.

“I'm dead serious about this. I focused on parts you three still
don't have the authorization to make. It's the best I can do. You can put the
pieces together or stockpile them in Pyrax.”

“Thank you sir.”

“On another subject, do you two have any issues to my leaving
Captain Logan in charge of Pyrax?” he asked. “You two will be senior now,” he
said. Shelby stiffened, bristling at any implied insult to her father.

“No sir,” Firefly said. “I'm after all, a ship AI. I prefer that.”

“No,” Captain Mayweather said slowly. All eyes turned to her. “I'm
a ship's Captain,” Renee said carefully. “I do admit, we've helped him where we
can. He's not a born officer sir; he's struggling to deal with it all. I think
his stubbornness has helped a lot. But he does have his blind spots,” she said,
ignoring Shelby.

“So do we all. I've screwed up. Rather spectacularly at times,”
the Admiral admitted. “Captain Logan is more interested in running the day to
day engineering efforts than in managing the entire system. He is a yard dog at
heart sir,” Firefly reported.

The Admiral smiled. “He's not the only one,” he said softly.

“True,” Shelby replied. She raised her hands. “And dad will admit,
he's a techy at heart. He hates being chained to a desk. He loves playing
hooky, going out to see the ships or get his hands dirty.”

“Me too,” Irons said softly. He felt a pang at not being with
Horatio.

Mayweather wasn't quite ready to be pried from the Captain's
chair, but she admitted that she and Firefly have been helping to run things.
Apparently, Vargess was also helping. The troika and senior staff seemed to be
working... most of the time.

Ambivalent, Irons let it ride for now without trying to resolve
the issue. Right now, it was working for them without a clearer chain of
command.

“Has Nata'roka settled in? I sent her an e-mail apologizing for
not checking in with her,” the Admiral said.

“She's fine Admiral. Sleeping now. She is very grateful for the
much larger tank,” Doctor Standish reported. He had dark circles under his
eyes, he was still getting little sleep with all the wounded on board.

“Very well,” Irons rose. The others rose with him. “It's been an
honor ladies and gentlemen, I hope to see you all again sometime in the future.
But let's leave the last minute dashing rescue out this time,” he said dryly.
He shook hands with each of them.

“Unless we need it,” Sprite interjected. That got a laugh.

“Good sailing folks,” Irons said. The compartment came to
attention and saluted. He returned the salute.

<----*----*----*---->

At the appointed hour the Admiral nodded to Miss Nobeki. She
returned the nod.

“Firefly group moving out sir,” Lobsterman said. The voice was
childish, not quite an adult. Maine's AI had chosen a male personality and the name
Lobsterman. He wore a yellow rain suit over his skinsuit. He had a baby face
and the rank of acting Ensign.

“Send them a salute Mr. Lobsterman,” Irons replied with a curt
nod.

“Aye aye sir,” the AI said, sounding chipper. Irons smiled softly,
he knew the AI was enjoying each opportunity to act as an adult for the first
time. Sprite rolled her eyes. She knew that the new would get old and routine
soon enough. Not that she was going to ruin his wonder. In some ways she
enjoyed his childhood, it reminded her of her own.

The Admiral and bridge crew watched as Firefly escorted one of the
captured corvettes, the gravely wounded frigate, six freighters turned colliers
and transports, the most wounded destroyer Xavier, female alien Ssilli, and the
liner stuffed with Horathian prisoners into hyperspace. All of the surviving
gunships were docked to Firefly and Xavier. The Admiral had no need or interest
in the small ships, they would just slow them down. Besides, he lacked the
manpower to crew them anyway.

Irons surveyed his own group in pride as they lit their drives and
headed for the Beta100 omega jump point. Their one Manta frigate broke trail as
point, the destroyers Bounty and Apple followed, Echo and the two other
Apollo's and their four fighters and the battlecruiser Maine came up in the
rear. The factory ship Carnegie, six large freighter-colliers stuffed with
pirate booty and replicated equipment, and two tankers followed them, along
with the eager skeleton crew’s of all the ships. Anticipation over not only a
fresh start, but getting their own back and returning civilization to the
masses seemed to be on everyone's minds these days. All for the good.

He was proud of them. They were making great strides in not only
repairing the damage to the ships, but also rebuilding them, practically from
the inside out. More would be done in hyper, but for now external repairs would
have to wait.

“I'm curious as to what the future brings,” Sprite said softly.

“I think it's looking up Commander,” the Admiral said. “The future
holds promise. Lots and lots of promise,” he murmured.

“Amen,” Sprite replied, equally soft.

Three days later they arrived at the jump point and Admiral Irons
took them on to their next adventure along the path to Antigua. It was finally
time to return. To return on his own terms, and this time, even invited it
seemed.

The End

My
has this book changed! I plotted this out, oh, years ago. Even
before
Fools Gold was written. In fact, Books 3-9 and Jethro 2-5 were plotted out
around the same time, or thereabouts. Sprite and Trinity didn't have
names
then. Nor did Irons if you can believe it. I referred to him as 'the engineer'
in my notes. lol

And
like I said, a lot has changed. Loads. The Admiral and AI have evolved, grown
up a bit I guess you could say. And my writing style has also changed and
grown. I don't know about finding my voice, but I am now thoroughly enjoying
telling this story. This and others. :)

I
tried to follow my original script, but I cut a few things back that just
didn't work or weren't too believable. (I had planned on side trips to other
worlds to pick up ships and crew. That was dropped... or at least kicked to
Ghosts of the Past.)

Which
leads me to another thing, like I said in the above side note, I kicked some
things to Ghosts, and changed a few things. Ships were broken, some lost, some
people lost too. (I had planned on keeping Mary alive) So, it's going to be fun
sorting GP out... when I get around to writing it that is!

Hopefully
I started wrapping up some of the issues people had, answered some questions
and started some more. You may have noticed I started filling in some of the
blanks about the Milky Way, the Xenos... Go back and run “Find” if you missed
that. :D If I missed a particular noisome hobbyhorse, let me know in the
comments on my blog. :)

What's
next? Well, first, a bit of a break to work on the cover of this book, then
I'll either write Jethro 3 (explaining their arrival plus other stuff) or I'll
work on oh, Alive, or that Bootstrap sequel I'm getting 'encouraged' (nagged)
about. I dunno yet. Lol

Oh,
special note, something Ulrich put me up to.
"That there could be
slight changes in parts to the older books as a re-check is underway. There
will be slight changes to them over time."
Translation, he is working
with me on the various hyperspace calculations, the maps, formulas, and other
things, so some tweaking may be required. Also, he, Poon, and a few other
insiders are doing the occasional fact check of the other books. So, don't
shoot me if minor things crop up.

As
always, if you want to see some of the stuff and images for my various
universes, sneak peeks, find out my news, talk to me, or just listen to me
ramble, you can check out my blog.

http://cyberforge3d.blogspot.com/

Or
the Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/582559128466667/

And
yeah, you can make comments there too.

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
distributed AI based in the Admiral's nanites. Serves as his engineering helper
and bridge to controlling his nanites. Rank of Ensign.

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

Phoenix:
Semi-smart
male AI core of the starship Phoenix, created by Sprite and Proteus. Lt. Jg.

Goldie:
introverted shy mini cheetah

Blaze:
hyper mini cheetah

Bounty:

Lieutenant
Lazarian Bounty:
Dumb AI. ship AI of
bounty. barely sane. Restored by AI. Becomes Bounty's executive officer.

Trey
Ulster:
Lt jg. engineering officer
-new Chief engineer

George
Takagi:
older taciturn supercargo. In
his 60's. Grumpy, but damn good at his job. Silver hair, tonsure hair bald on
top. Slight Asian looks. 1
^st
lt.

Marcus
Ahearn:
rear guard on Admirals team.
20's. Male. Ensign. former navigator.

Irina
Nobeki:
smart cookie. rear guard.
engineer and officer. Tactical officer, 1
^st
lt.

Enric
Patter:
rating injured on the bridge.
Promoted to ensign.

Ezri
Patterson:
Shuttle pilot, cobra
pilot. KIA

Dita:
Red head, shy. cobra pilot. extensive shuttle pilot.
Officer

Meia:
silver hair and suit. cobra pilot and security
officer. shuttle pilot, extensive experience. officer Tactical officer
interest.

Nata'roka:
old female Ssilli, found in a pod several years
prior. The captain of the Bounty had adapted the pod and a cargo bay and tied
her into the ship's systems. Commander Navy.

Ornell
Drago:
officer

Jesus
Cortez:
Old, grizzled no nonsense.
Boat bay officer Bounty.

Marty
Glenn:
Doctor husband to Holly

Holly
Glenn:
Nurse, wife to Marty.

Mutt:
Cyborg Bulldog, adopted by the Glenns. Mascot of the
Bounty.

Rajesh
Ramada:
Skeletal thin SBA. Indian.
Quiet. Black curly hair.

Howard
Chan
: enlisted on Bounty.

Bucky
Allen:
rating killed in attack on
Bounty

Yosef
Behr:
knocked unconscious. memory
loss. Enlisted rating, former friend to Caid. assistant Chief on Romeo. Jewish.
Black curly hair.

Waldo:
Drive room tech. Former crewman on Anderson. Quiet.
Frequently disappears. Tall wavy hair, paper white skin, broken glasses, wears
a tattered red and white long sleeve shirt.

Karmen
Santiago:
Spanish woman, long wavy
brown hair. Sultry. Gets into trouble. Bit of kleptomaniac and a nymphomaniac.

Grace:
Blue haired yellow eyed woman: Former love interest
to Waldo. Also from Anderson.

Rita:
Slim female. Sweet, friend of Grace.
Rating on Bounty.

Diego:
Quiet 30 year old engineer rating on Bounty. Likes
apples.

Darren:
Chief cook on Bounty. Chief petty officer.

Derrick:
Rating on Bounty.

Other
ships:

Captain
Ian McGuyver
(Lt commander) told him
that they were being kept alive for intelligence they could provide to their
captors and for slave labor. Horath had managed to rebuild dozens of small
warships and had over thirty freighters in its merchant fleet before they
became aggressive and began sending out raiders.

There
were sixty four non Horathian prisoners, they took them out in lots of eight to
fifteen each shift depending on the work. Sometimes they formed work parties
doing cleaning jobs, sometimes they were broken into smaller groups and then
chained to consoles to man unimportant parts of the ship's engineering.

Bounty
exec until takes command of corvette Echo.

Vestri
Sindri:
dwarf, Lt commander engineer.
120 centimeters tall. squat, massive build. massive hands, broad bulbous nose.
brown hair, long brown beard. balding on top. piercing black eyes. former Chief
engineer of Anderson. Briefly Chief engineer of Bounty before transferring to
be Chief engineer of Echo.

Paul
Edding:
rating. head wound.
transferred to Echo

Hershell:
1
^st
Lieutenant. new
recruit. Old spacer. Retired to Hidoshi's World after ship lost. Considered bad
luck. Takes commander of collier 2.

Bill
Peters:
-ensign, commanding officer
on Lassie KIA

Tirana Platt -
Ensign
on Lassie KIA

Mary
Apple:
Officer 1
^st
lt.
Captain of Romeo corvette KIA

Raoul
Lee:
life support. Team leader team
5. takes port life support. Lt assistant Chief engineer of Bounty Promoted to Chief
engineer of Romeo.

Charlene:
female bonobo primate. has a mental breakdown, beats
a crew member. 1 of 2 surviving chimps. Signed on as an engineering life
support rating. Transferred to Romeo to be with Captain Apple.

Yuri
Malkovich:
broken ribs. rating
transferred to Romeo

Brandon
Bynum:
Lt Cameo

Rob
Miller
: Lt cameo

Jacob
Larson:
cameo

Jim
Olson:
Lt cameo on Phoenix KIA

Jory
Gray:
Lt computers

Mark
Anderson:
Lt

Tim
Brown:
Lt

MARINES:

Rory
Gustov:
1st Lt Marines former
security officer on Jaw-te

Craig
Lewis:
Marine, second in command. 2
^nd
lt. Sent to Hidoshi's World with 23 other Marines.

Thomas
Burrows:
Marine 2
^nd
Lt
cameo. Sent to Hidoshi's World.

Gord
Archer:
Cameo. Marine 2
^nd
lt.

Yorrick:
Seemingly dull accident prone male. Marine Private.
injured in taking supply convoy. Big hulking guy.

Cherry:
female marine private

Reiner:
male marine private

Civilians/Other:

Exec
Karen Hoshi
(captain of Le More)
Small Asian woman, from the Jaw-te was introduced and Admiral Irons tried to
avoid her haunted eyes while looking to the final beaten captain. The woman's
injuries... his jaw set. There would be a reckoning, that he vowed. For her and
for all the other women who never had a chance.

Kinja:
tall mahogany woman. team 4 leader. Engineer. Former Chief
engineer of Le More. Retakes roll.

Caid:
Engineering mate. Civilian. went with Hoshi.

Jake
Sisko:
black kid, early 20's. Team
leader. Engineering apprentice, life support Chief. Also amateur reporter.

Kyle
and Lyle Turner:
Brothers. good kids.
work in the mess. Apprentice engineers. Interested in piloting as well. Work in
boat bay as well. Not nailed down a field yet.

Doctor
Hasad:
From New Horizon. white hair,
muttonchops. Went with Hoshi.

Diegin:
sour faced thin man, downer.

Yuan
Chi
: Male Asian. New crew. Civilian.

Ling
Mai:
Asian female Civilian.

Dana
Truepath:
sole elf survivor on
Deianira. Hid in the ducts of Deianira for year. Elf female child.

Antonio:
Child taken by Horathians

Captain
Luscious Franx
was the former Captain
of the Le More, a small freighter captured a week prior to the Admiral's
arrival. The small wirey man was badly beaten, with two black eyes, missing
teeth and welts on his neck. He could see some badly healing ribs and some
minor internal injuries. Two of his fingers on his right hand were broken. His
right wrist had a hairline fracture, he kept the hand close to his chest.  KIA

Miller:
KIA on the bridge.

Rob:
Injured/killed with Ian in struggle.

Merlo
Che:
Bald radiation guy. Died 10 days
after liberation.

Horathians:

Admiral
Cartwright:
Rear Admiral in charge of
attack on Protodon/Kathy's World area.

Commander
Brian Hathaway:
Captain of the Tin
Lizzy, aka the Bounty. Average male, 160 cm tall, suave. gunning for flag rank.
Black hair, brown eyes. Distant Spanish lineage. KIA.

Exec
Lieutenant Peter Blye:
26 year old up
and coming officer. Rough, wants to prove himself. sets himself up as mad dog
that the captain has to rein in from time to time.

170cm
tall, sycophant with captain. Too young in rank to go higher. Blond with blue
eyes.

Chief
Serall:
Acting Chief engineer of Tin
Lizzy/Bounty. Was assistant Chief. Plodder. complainer. complains about lack of
manpower.

Lieutenant
Sikes:
Pear of a woman. Rough,
tortures men for fun.

Sergeant:
Old sweat. Bald.

Crewman
Franks:
shocked on bridge by auto gun
mishap.

Corporal:
has cut here tattoo on throat. Heavy
jaw, big rough hands, nose flattened by repeated breaks. Killed cub. KIA

Guppy:
corporal on duty when Irons is
admitted to brig.

Johanen:
one of the guards that escorted Irons
to the brig. Pervert.

Chief
Bard:
Big 182cm (6foot) guy, broad
rough brawler.  with a cobra tattoo on his head, hood out, fangs bared. Cobra
tattoo goes down back of head, wraps around throat, then down left arm. Alpha
dog of the brig.

Clancy:
Guard who had hostages. Surrendered
and prisoner. KIA

Ensign
Wilks Derrick:
engineer. senior
officer in brig. Chunky man.

Lt
commander Alverez: c
ommander of
corvette and commander of relief force.

Captain
San:
Captain of collier 2

Colonel
Wizenbeck:
Horathian soldier in
charge of taking and holding Hidoshi's World.

Rear
Admiral Javier Rico:
in charge of the
force in Beta101a1. Handsome, married. KIA