Free Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) by Chris Hechtl Page B

followed them in and was looking at him funny so
he turned. “Problem Mr. Warner?” he asked politely.
    The
kids looked at the exec. One of them seemed to gulp. Irons was curious though,
he didn't read anything wrong in the area. O'Mallory also looked curious; she
crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the exec.
    “I
have someone you should meet admiral,” he said quietly under such scrutiny.
    “All
right, give me a minute here,” Irons said. The engineer uploaded the new forms
to the replicator. He logged in and uploaded the key and then instructs a pair
of eager students on how to take the parts out of the replicator and keep the
feedstock full.
    “Since
these are smaller and not emitters they should be easier. Each tray will be
done quickly. Listen for the chime.” He warned them. They nodded.
    “If
you'll follow me Admiral?” The exec asked him and the kids groaned looking
disappointed. “Sprite?” he asked.
    “Are
you kidding me?” she asked in disbelief.
    “I'm
not asking you to drop everything. Just tone it down. They survived this long
without being factory spec,” he said.
    “Oh
very well,” she sighed. “Any particular subject you had in mind?” she asked.
She was ninety nine point nine five percent sure she knew already. She spun a
bot off to handle the task. She really only needed a chatbot engine to handle
the questions. Anything that popped through the bot's database would be flagged
to her. She could step in in a microsecond to take over if needed.
    The
engineer smiled and asked his AI to go to holo mode and give them a lecture on
AI. Behind the kids the holo sprang to life in a fountain of light. Fireworks
popped behind them, startling all of them to spin about. The fireworks spun
faster and faster. They ooohed and awed as the lights dimmed. The display
formed a torus that formed into a glowing ball. After a moment a pixie
stretched as the glow faded. Irons smiled. Sprite always loved to play the
pixie for the kids. Sprite introduced herself to the startled kids, and then
began telling them about AI. Smiling, the exec escorted the engineer out.
    “So
that's your AI?” Warner asked.
    “One
of them anyway. I can't go very far for long. She's using up a lot of
bandwidth. Actually, both of them are,” he grimaced. Proteus had boosted his
transceiver to its max level to squeeze as much bandwidth out as possible.
However there was an increase in noise from having the gain up so high.
Apparently the wifi links hadn't been installed yet. He'd have to talk with
O'Mallory to get that done.
    “Hopefully
this won't take long Admiral,” Warner said with a cautious nod. He turned his
head to see O'Mallory heading out with the load of parts. He really wanted to
go with O'Mallory, this could wait, but something itched at his psyche.
Something told him, told his gut that this was important enough a diversion to
allow.
     
    Irons
nodded to a crew member installing a remote wifi repeater box. Apparently
Sprite had slipped a few in to help the AI's with their bandwidth
problems. He couldn't blame them. Hopefully this wouldn't take long so he would
be able to jack in soon. The lights were dim in the corridors, He didn't have a
problem but the exec wasn't happy. He could feel a chill in the air; they had
cut the air flow, not a good sign. They were on the shaded side of the ship,
but he was pretty sure the sunny side was heating up fast. They'd have to make
this side trip a quick one.
    “What's
this about?” he asked.
    The
exec ducked through a hatch and looked back briefly. Irons noted the pair of
goggles on his face. The exec was wearing primitive night vision goggles.
Smart. “I want you to see the people you're trying to save. Some in
particular,” was Warner's cryptic reply.
    Irons
thought about it briefly for a moment and then shrugged.
     
    They
made their way to the habitats, and the exec explained as they went that the
first forward pair of cargo pods were converted into habitats. “There