Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (102 page)

Chief
O'Mallory wasn't happy with the tuning of the ship's drive after their last
jaunt. She insisted on some downtime to run the minor but annoying problems
down. When she does she found a couple of emitter nodes that had been rebuilt
but not replaced were near max impedance. They reluctantly agreed to a contract
with the station to replace them for two more runs. One while the station is
making the nodes, and a second to test them out and dial them in.

Captain
Chambers wasn't happy about the additional delay however and is pretty
insistent that they head out after that. Fortunately Cora smoothed things over.

Lieandra
helped in relocating people along with the Kiev. A bad twister leveled two
towns, one of them Plymouth. The damage was extensive, only a few brick
buildings and basements were left standing. The station was eclipsing the news
daily; the crisis in Plymouth was a page four story.

News
however does eventually make it to the council of mayors. The mayors decide in
a publicity stunt to offer free passage to the station.

In
a surprising move the people of Plymouth decided by almost unanimous vote to
relocate enmasse to the station. Dismayed the mayors are forced to eat their
words as Kiev reaches orbit and began the laborious process of taking the
people on.

When
they arrived shops and additional businesses opened up on main street and in
one of the malls near the core of the station. An electronic economy is set up.
Pay discussions and back pay were argued about frequently over the next week as
Kiev returned for its final trip. Irons stayed out of the argument as much as
possible.

A
garden and a park were opened and dedicated in paired back to back ceremonies.
The Gashg gardener from Kiev is on hand, he handed over a seedling from the
Kiev's massive Cornucopia tree. They plant it and a few backups in the center
of the garden, and the backups in the park.

The
park has a small amphitheater attached; three bands come up from the planet to
perform. Apparently they were a hit with some of the people who had come up
from the planet and people chafed through the droning speeches to listen to
Clash, the Misfits, and Gem.

In
the speeches the Admiral's efforts were marginalized by Fu who emphasized the
efforts of the people over any one individual. Sprite fumed over it but Irons
brushed it off since he had skipped the ceremony in order to make repairs on
another fusion reactor. He realized Fu had scheduled the repair of the reactor
to coincide with the ceremony in order to get rid of Irons but he was actually
on board with it since he didn't like ceremonies and public speaking anyway.
The council heard a bit of the rant from Sprite and his reaction. The rant
alienated a few further. Some were disturbed or amused by the admiral's
nonchalant attitude and work ethic.

Sprite
is amused that the next project opened was a water park less than a week later.
It's a mark of how far they have come that they have excess water to use for
such a purpose. She's also amused by the spacers; none had ever played in water
like that before. A zero G park would have made more sense for them.

Spacers
had played in zero g before but this was something completely different. All
that wet stuff was dangerous but exciting. The former dirt siders were amused
as they show them how to have fun with water. Some of the country folk had
played in creeks and streams as kids and knew what a slide was but had never
seen one made out of plastic before. Nor one that curled about into tunnels and
other shapes. There were a few incidents of near drowning before life guards
were hired but overall the water park was an immediate hit.

The
park opened up a dilemma though, some of the population wanted to open up the
zoo next, others wanted the aquarium, others wanted a museum. A debate ensued,
getting heated from time to time as people took sides. Irons rolled his eyes
when he heard of it. He's not amused that they were drawing equipment, power,
and resources away from reviving the station.

Word
of the first theme park in centuries to open made it back to the planet and hit
the media. Irons was amused by the news accounts when he took the time to read
them. He's even more amused by the people lining up at the space port to buy
nonexistent tickets to come to the station just to go to the theme park. He
tried to point out that since no one had an aquarium ground side and no one had
experience running one, nor did they have access to the animals that was a dead
project before it started. It was best to start with something simple.

“What
they could, what I mean is what they
should
do is offer the usage of the
facilities to companies or a consortium on the ground. Rent the facilities out,
have the company pay the overhead and a lease and charge tickets to pay for
their employee wages and overhead.” He watched as the AI digested the
suggestion. “That way it builds a legal defense against the inevitable accident
or injury. Also it allows the station's council to focus on the well being of
the station, not be bogged down in details trying to micromanage theme parks.
Also right now they really don't have the population anyway.” which was
partially true, the population was now hovering around thirty four thousand.

“True,”
Sprite replied. “And they can charge for food, lockers, and other things. The
workers’ wages will go to pay for upkeep and improvements as well as into the
local economy to pay for goods and services... which will in turn help to get
the economy going. Banking would help immensely as well.”

He
wrinkled his nose. “We have banks.”

She
shook her virtual head. “What we have here are a couple of banks who are
setting the prices and tone. What we don't have is healthy competition
admiral,” she said. Reluctantly he nodded.

“Tell
you what, write all this up as a proposal and shoot it to the Warners and
others you think may listen on the council. Let them think it over,” he
suggested.

“It
won't go anywhere. You know that,” she said caustically.

He
seemed to look thoughtful but she knew him better. “Hmmmm... I dunno. It
might.”

“Someone
will take credit for it,” she cautioned.

He
shrugged. “I don't care as long as it's implemented.”

“Right,”
Sprite sighed, turning her attention inward. “Fine then,” she said sounding
resigned. “I'll get right on that. Shouldn't take me more than a minute.”

“You
know what? Don't bother with my name, use yours. It is your idea after all,
well, most of it. Let someone try to tamper with that,” Irons said after a
moment.

“I'll...
I'll do that,” Sprite said. Someone taking his glory she wouldn't fight.
Someone taking
her
credit was something all together different.

Accidents
continue to plague the station, including sudden changes in the artificial
gravity, and the occasional power surge. Most were written off as damage and
wear and tear. Some, Sprite came to realize were the acts of malicious mischief
from some of the not quiet sane cybers and the still missing AI. She tried to
bring it up to the council but was ignored. The admiral was too focused on
rebuilding the replicators at the time to pay attention. “Sheriff, I don't know
what to do about this,” she said, talking to Derrango.

Sheriff
Derrango was a nice guy. He was laid back, older, more of a frontier justice
sort of man than a hard charging sheriff. He meant business though; more than
one punk came up hard and short against him when they tried to test him.

He'd
just had a full medical exam too. Sprite didn't know the particulars because of
doctor patient privilege but the sheriff was moving around a lot better, he
seemed stronger and more limber. It seemed the visits had taken years off his
age. It had definitely taken twenty kilo's off his waistline.

His
main deputy, Fife was a character. Bug eyed like his boss, but a tall gangly
guy with ears that stuck out and a very nervous disposition. The man was a bit
scatterbrained, jumping all over the place and was a stickler for the rule
book. He was still learning that the rules were a bit different in space. His
high pitched nasal voice had more than one person edgy around him.

“Anyone
get hurt?” the sheriff asked as he cleaned his stunner. He liked that he had
it. Too often he'd had to kill someone back on Antigua with his now retired six
shooter. It had helped his reputation sometimes but it had hurt it as well. He
didn't like it that people thought of him as a shoot first type. This gave him
more options.

Fife
loved his pistols and was always messing with them. Course the deputy was a bit
accident prone... he'd stunned his own foot twice since they had gotten here.
Been damn funny seeing it, seeing the clueless deputy topple over like a tree,
but it hadn't done the deputy's reputation any good. He'd have to work on that.

“Minor
injuries so far. Most of it is scare tactics stuff,” Sprite answered. She shot
him the full file. He had first level implants now but was still struggling to
use them.

“Ah.
You know who's involved?” he buffed the outside casing, frowning at a minor
scratch.

“They
aren't leaving a trail sometimes but I've got some clues. Some of it is
definitely by a cyber and I know some have alibis.”

“Really?”
Derrango raised an eyebrow. Process of elimination wasn't something he usually
went by. He preferred live witnesses.

“The
Berkhearts were in a conference, the Fu's were in their meditation
compound....” He held up a hand as she started to go through the list.

“Shoot
me the list. I'll talk to them on my own. Consider this my department's
concern.”

“Okay,”
she said reluctantly.

“As
you said, it's more of a prank. But pranks tend to get out of hand even if the
people involved didn't mean them to. I'll have a chat. Whoever is doing it will
see me sniffing and will probably lay low for a bit,” he drawled.

“Thanks
sheriff,” she said. It wasn't exactly the response she wanted but it would have
to do.

Savo
taught the self defense and martial arts class on top of his duties as a
deputy. He hadn't been happy that the security force was so up in the air. Some
were transferring over to the sheriff's department, and the security force was
now put on guard duty almost exclusively. He was now considering changing over
as well.

He
scanned the class. “Nana Korobi Yaoki, seven times fall, eight times get up!”
He paced back and forth as his student opponent struggled to her feet. Savo
wore a standard white gi and wasn't thrilled about teaching basic self defense
but Petunia and Irons had talked him into it. This was definitely going to be
his last class for basic; some of these people were just clueless.

He
knew damn well Petunia had put him up to it to keep him out of the bars on the
station. Ralphie was probably glad; he hadn't busted any of his furniture or had
a brawl since he'd come over to the station. The good thing about the classes
was that he taking all his angst out on his students. They didn't seem at all
thrilled by that but that was tough for them he thought with a secret grin.

“There
are three steps in self defense. One don't get hit. Two hit back. Three get
help. We're working on steps one and two, you should be able to figure out step
three for yourselves,” he growled.

There
was a snicker of acknowledgment from the class. On his first day Savo had used
his simian lungs to scream bloody murder in demonstration.

“Now
remember, if they want something, let them have it. A wallet isn't worth your
life. Let the authorities handle it. Unless you are the authorities, then
you've got a problem.” He glared up at his students. More than one person had
been amused by his small stature until they realized the hard way how much
power a primate packed in those tight muscles. A primate was normally ten times
stronger than a normal human. Of course the base line human lineage had changed
with the advent of genetic engineering... but then again so had the chimps.

“If
you have to apologize, do so. If you have to lose money, don't worry about it,
you can get more. But you can't get more if you are dead. And believe me, it's
no fun being in the infirmary. Some of those nurses can be downright mean and
viscous if you give them a hard time,” he said, giving a wry tight lipped smile
of remembered pain.

Of
course that admission caused another round of snickers. He shook his head.
“Regular laugh a minute. But here's the thing, the point I was aiming for.
Sometimes you have to defend yourselves. Sometimes they want more than just
money, they want blood. So block, and Nana Korobi Yaoki. It's Japanese if
you're wondering, an ancient proverb Irons taught me and I'm now passing onto
you. Look it up, I don't have the time or inclination to explain them all to
you.”

He
was not much into the science, more into the grit. Teaching self defense
allowed him to screen applicants to the security and police force since it was
a mandatory requirement for all applicants.

Admiral
Irons sometimes liked to stop by for a practice bout. When he does things get
both physical and interesting. Also painful, Savo thought, rolling his still
sore shoulder. Speaking of the devil, he thought as he watched the familiar
form of the admiral entering the dojo. He turned and bowed to the admiral.
Irons smiled and bowed back.