Free Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) by Chris Hechtl

“I suggest you treat it like a shuttle,” the
admiral said, looking from Jen to Tara and then finally the chief. “Pop in
civilian grade components and then tune them to how you want them to run. The
level I mean. You won't get it to mil-spec...”
    “But something is better than nothing. Thanks admiral,” Jen
replied with a smile.
    “Exactly. Did you get anywhere making shuttles?”
    “I...” Tara snorted when the chief growled and tried to kick her
under the table. “Chief...” she looked at her. “Knock it off.”
    “We shouldn't be talking to the competition,” the chief growled,
eying Irons.
    “He's not competition he's the admiral,” Dorah said stoutly.
    “A bit of both in some eyes. Not that I intend to be competition.
If I can help I will,” the admiral replied with a nod.
    “We know that Admiral,” Jen said, smiling softly.
    “Did you date anyone?” Dorah asked. Irons sighed softly and closed
his eyes briefly. “Something I said?” Dorah asked, sounding concerned.
    “I... yes Dorah, I dated someone. She... it was on Destiny.” He
related the events on Destiny, how he'd dated April O’Neill only to have her
snatched away from him by an assassin.
    “So she's dead?” Dorah asked, eyes wide and mournful. She took
Hibiki's hand and held it.
    “No, she is in stasis,” Irons replied, shaking his head.
    “What a love story,” Jen murmured softly.
    “So you and her... I mean you could eventually I mean...” Dorah
said, looking helplessly from him to Hibiki and finally to him again.
    Irons sighed. “It's a big universe and some time has passed. I
don't know if she made it to Pyrax or not, I don't know if they saved her, and
if she started a new life or not.”
    “Oh,” Dorah replied in a small voice.
    “I doubt I'll ever go back to Pyrax,” the admiral mused. “It's a
snake pit. The naval contingent and some of the people on Anvil are all right
but the rest...” he shrugged, clearly annoyed. Finally he straightened his
shoulders as his jaw set. “The rest can all go to hell for all I care.”
    “That's not like you mister admiral,” Dorah said, eyes wide in
concern.
    “It is today Dorah. Don't worry about it. If it works out I'll try
to send word to you and the girls,” Irons said patting her hand. She smiled as
her fingers curled around his to hold his hand briefly.
    “You do that,” she said softly.
    They talked a bit more, mostly small talk before the conversation
wound down.
    He finally said goodbye and hugged the girls and shook hands with
Hibiki before he left.
     

Chapter 4
     
    The bartering was stiff, Io's presence made it harder to get stuff
of course. They had more crew, more supplies, and of course they had a proven
track record while he was a complete unknown.
    It wasn't that he needed a lot of material, at least not
critically, but if he was going to do the planned long jump the more fuel he
had the better off he would be pulling the jump off safely. He could have
course linger in the system, pick up rocks like Io11 did and make what he
needed but that would take time he didn't want to spend.
    Besides, the captain and purser seemed to be enjoying the lively
exchange so much he didn't want to disappoint them. Though they did grumble
about having to ante in a lot more than they expected. Somehow something told
him it didn't bother them nearly as much as they were making out, he thought
wryly.
    It wasn't like they were going to go without either. Io was no
doubt stuffed to the deck heads with raw and semi-processed material. It could
be that they actually wanted to unload some of it and he was serving as
a good excuse. Their mercenary hearts just couldn't exactly give something
away. That was contrary to their nature.
    Or it could be that they were having too much fun just yanking his
chain. That he thought with a wry twist of his lips as he watched the purser
whisper into her communications link and scroll through a list on her tablet...
yes that was partially it