Free Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) by Chris Hechtl Page A

too.
    Either way he'd get what he'd set out to do done, after all, he
didn't like the alternatives. He had already completed some of his goals, he'd
set out to build that gas giant refinery and completed it after all. The fuel
he was getting from the planet wasn't going to cut it according to Phoenix's
latest calculations. It would be useful for life support, but he needed pure
deuterium and Helium 3 to maximize the reactor's output.
    If this long jump was going to work he'd need to stuff Phoenix
with everything he could get his hands on. After all, it would be a long trip,
months in hyper without any chance to stop and refuel or resupply. He shuddered
at the very idea. He had been dreading it, and still in fact did dread it even
now.
     Phoenix had actually never done anything like it, but he knew the
ship could handle it. It was himself he was more worried about. A five or six
month jump without anyone else but AI for companionship? Working twenty hour
days for that period of time? He'd done something like that before but... well,
it would test his limits now wouldn't it? He thought with a mental snort.
    The alternative was to either tuck his legs and jump through
Pyrax, or find an alternative route. That could mean going back to Centennial
and jumping for the B452c system then through pirate infested space around Kathy's
World before turning down galactic south to parallel the Agnosta chain in a run
of empty systems before ending up where he intended to go in the empty B100mega
system. A years traveling minimum according to Phoenix, without sure places to
stop and refuel. No, the long jump was the way to go.
    Of course he could jump to Pyrax, pass through it and let the AI
masquerade for him. They didn't even need to know he was on-board if he wanted.
He would be able to see how things were going in the system and keep his visit
low key. Hell he could jump in and then get stealthy, stick to the outer edges
of the system and work his way around and see if they spotted him. If they did
he could pass it off as a training exercise...
    No, the long jump. Besides, he loved a challenge.
    He ended up bartering a modern computer core, an industrial class
one replicator, fusion injectors, EPS conduit valves, and parts for a class one
fusion reactor to get the additional materials, food, and fuel. The captain was
amused to compete with him. Io traded equipment for a new hospital complex, a
series of weather and communications satellites, a kilometer of EPS conduits,
some computers, three ground radar arrays for the major airports, the downloads
and information he'd turned over to them, as well as a dozen construction
vehicles and over a hundred tons of parts for them.
    She had even tossed in a tug and a shuttle the girls had put
together. He was amused when he had found out they were planning on tapping his
gas giant refinery for fuel for the reactor he was building, all without
consulting him. Typical.
    ...*...*...*...*...
    “Admiral are you going to toss them your usual help package?”
Sprite asked, sounding slightly amused and condescending after the bartering
concluded. Irons snorted as he looked up from the report he was reading.
    “You have a better idea?”
    “I'd like to expand on it actually, the bulk of their recent
technological renaissance has been primarily due to two manufacturers and
largely due to the efforts of Director Richards.” Sprite wasn't sure if it
would get to its intended recipients, but if Richards was involved it might
stand a better chance. From the dossier she'd built up about the woman she
seemed an honorable woman.
    “Richards...” Irons mused.
    A picture from a press clipping appeared on the tablet he'd been
looking at. It was of a sandy haired woman wearing glasses and a white medical
smock. A red badge was under the lapel breast pocket and a stethoscope was
around the back of her neck. She was smiling nice white even teeth.
    “Doctor Richards, forty four local years old, young for