New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Read online

  New Dawn:

  Book 1 of the Wandering Engineer Series

  By Chris “Jekyll” Hechtl

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional. The exception is Dr. Bowyer who graciously gave his permission to use his name and his work in my books. Any resemblance to other people is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book and or portions thereof in any form.

  Copyright 2009 by Chris Hechtl

  B&N ISBN: 2940011946936

  Amazon AISN: B009HB1VNS

  Revised 7/2012

  2nd revision, proofread by Jacob Larson 3/2013

  Cover art Copyright 2009 by Chris Hechtl

  Dedication:

  Since this is one of my first published books I'd like to dedicate it to my family and Mrs. Phillips.

  Both in their own ways encouraged me to follow my dreams where ever they may take me.

  Author's Note:

  I realize there are quite a few editing errors in this. I apologize for them. I will continue to endeavor to correct them time permitting.

  Special thanks to Jacob Larson for proofreading this, and to you the readers for giving me a try.

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Appendix:

  The Wandering Engineer: New Dawn

  Chapter 1

  He awoke tired and angry. It never was a good thing to go to sleep angry, and going into cryostasis angry just aggravated the problem. He couldn't help it.

  It wasn't that he was helpless in a life pod that had angered him. No, such rare situations were woven into his training. No it was the sheer helpless fury of the last moments of the battle that left him angry. She had been a good ship, but no match for the trio of Xenophobe light cruisers that had ambushed her on the edge of the hyper zone. Still she had managed to take out 2 of her ambushers before the mounting damage had forced the Captain and AI to call to abandon.

  He had sprinted through the dim shattered corridors to a pod in less than a minute. The pod's ejection had momentarily disoriented him. Sprite had tapped into the pod's controls to spin it up and away from the remaining xenophobe ship.

  Helpless he watched the sensor feed as the ship's pods were picked off one by one. The enemy was merciless, no quarter asked or given. The ship had made one last ditch valiant effort, engines flared to life on overload, emergency thrusters burning with reckless abandon to keep her on course with the enemy ship. Wreckage tangled her bow, her shields were down and the flanks were torn and bleeding parts, as well as bodies. The enemy ship pounded her with her guns, trying to kill her. It tried to open the range but it was too late. The Captain's cry of vengeance for his lost crew echoes the comm channels, and then ended abruptly with sick finality as the ships exploded.

  “The enemy has taken the system Admiral; we are headed for deep space to avoid them.” Sprite quietly informed him as she brought up the strategic visual guide. He watched eyes tearing as a task force of enemy ships pounded the planet with antimatter bombs. It cracked, lava fountaining into its atmosphere as they breached the crust. “Damn.” He muttered darkly.

  “There is an enemy picket ship on course for the ship; I am trying to adjust our heading away.” Sprite highlighted the ship. “Eta two hours. We will need to be dark before we get into its sensor cone.” Angrily he nodded, hands automatically beginning the stasis prep procedures.

  Some people called it the death of sleep, or little death. He didn't care. When he awoke Sprite booted, automatically running post and interfacing with the life pod. The pod's micro AI had detected a nearby fleet ship and had pinged it. It was now approaching. He checked his internal chronometer. “Damn, is that right Sprite?”

  “I detect no error Admiral. We have been in stasis for approximately seven hundred and thirteen years Terran standard.”

  He sighed, feeling the anger wash away. “Great, just great. Guess the war is over huh?” Sprite didn't answer, that was obviously a rhetorical comment.

  The life pod was tiny and cramped, a three meter long coffin. At the bottom was the kick engine, already out of fuel. He checked Sprite's report. The life pod was seriously depleted; he probably had less than a year left in it. “All right, show me what's going on outside.” He closed his eyes as she fed information to his neural and optical implants.

  The tiny life pod lidar screen popped to life. “According to my readouts a ship is near, tentatively identified as a transport.” He grunted as he looked over the readings. The lidar was of course limited to light speed time lag, so the sensory data was old. Still, Sprite had updated it with a running estimated plot.

  “From their plotted course they should be approaching within twenty thousand kilometers within two hours Admiral.” He grunted.

  “Will they detect us?” he asked.

  “Most likely they already have. Our lidar sweep should have pinged their sensors.” He grunted an acknowledgment. “Admiral there is something odd about that ship. I recognize it.”

  He felt a thrill. “How can that be odd?”

  “After seven hundred and thirteen years, I would think ships of our time would have been replaced.” He nodded.

  “Friend or foe?” he asked the inevitable question.

  “IFF reports Friend. Fleet.” He felt a wash of relief but it dispelled quickly with curiosity.

  “Ship is tentatively identified as a fleet repair and supply ship, classified tender. War book has a ninety three percent match with the Cabeiri class.” Sprite brought the ship's design specs up, and a rotating three dimensional view of the ship.

  “Second contact, following the first.” He turned his attention to the highlighted plot. “Scatter from the lidar caught motion in their wake Admiral.” A micro camera on the hull of the life pod zoomed into the indicated area. “No match in our database.” The enhanced video was fed directly to his implants. Sprite highlighted the motion, and then overlaid the lidar scan.

  “If I was a casino AI I would say that that's a pirate,” she said. He nodded.

  “Yeah, blackened hull, and following the Fleet tender. Any indication they know it's there?” He checked the back plot.

  “No Admiral. Wait, the tender is changing course. They are now on course for us and picking up speed.”

  The unknown tentatively identified as Tango one is matching the course change. “Ping the Tender; let them know we are here, and that they have a shadow,” he ordered, feeling dread. All sorts of scenarios played through his head, none of them very pleasant.

  The ship could be pirates, or local patrol. The tender for that matter could be pirated, or in civilian hands. He reached out with his communications implants, but only got a faint handshake echo, but it dropped within a microsecond.

  “Admiral, the tender is battered and aged, it's a wonder she can still fly.” He checked Sprite's updated report, whistling silently at the battered hull. That was odd, and wrong, the built in replicators on the ship could rebuild it with raw materials, or with its own broken parts.

  “Something is definitely wrong here,” she said after a few minutes. He felt a buck. “They have launched a shuttle craft; it has attached itself via magnetic grapple. Exterior sensors are now off line.”

  “Damn,” he s
ighed, watching the blinking plot. That buck meant it had been a high speed capture, anything less and the built in inertial dampers would have filtered it out.

  “Why didn't we see them launch?” he asked, feeling a headache coming on.

  “They launched from the port bay. The shuttle is a civilian model, human design. It has a classic lifting body design, so most likely it's atmospheric,” Sprite said, flashing the specs on his HUD. He gave a short choppy nod. He sent mental commands to ease the headache, but Sprite had already beaten him to it. He sighed as he felt the analgesic take effect.

  “The tractor and shuttle drive are interfering with the life pod systems... Switching to internal life support.” He felt the air in his mask stop, then restart. He had about twelve hours of recyclable air in his skin suit and internal supply.

  “Based on their trajectory they should be returning to the ship in about seven minutes. Time to come up with a plan?” she asked pointedly. He smiled.

  “Not a whole lot we can do as cargo right now. We need more intel. Is that ship still part of the fleet? Or was it sold as surplus? Is it a pirate?” Sprite took a moment before answering.

  “Admiral, the usage of a civilian craft gives it an eighty percent probability of being in civilian hands. Whether those hands are law abiding or not there is insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion one way or another.” He felt the mental query as Defender; his AI security suite came fully on line. Sprite squirted her log to it, and then it reacted.

  “What about the second contact?” Defender asked. Defender was built as a dedicated security AI, designed to protect the safety of the Admiral and any information he may have. Unlike Sprite, a full class 4 AI, Defender was a class 1 dumb AI, with all its limitations.

  “The unknown has a fifty percent chance of being hostile,” Sprite answered.

  “Escape and evade?” Defender asked.

  “Not an option at this time. Really. You need to improve your algorithms if you didn't see that...” Sprite began an age old argument.

  “Enough.” The Admiral ordered frustrated. “Escape and evasion are not presently possible, we will know if those tactics will need to be employed later. My current plan is to play possum, let them bring us aboard and once we get a clear signal out, try to interface with their computers to get more intel.”

  Both AI signaled agreement silently. “I will not be able to bring up a full shield within this enclosure.” Defender commented. “Power reserves are at fifty nine percent and falling. I do not recommend prolonged hand to hand combat under those conditions.”

  “Accessing deck plans.” Sprite found the basic plans and then opened it for all three to review. “Based on their launch from the port bay, there is an eighty point three percent probability they will return to it. The ship's boat bays are large, with up to twenty craft in each,” Sprite was highlighting different points on the map.

  “We can use them for cover.” Defender added approvingly.

  “If they are there.” Sprite returned.

  He felt a little relief that his third AI Proteus was not on line. Proteus was a class 1 AI built into his right arm prosthetics and nanites. It shared the memory core with Sprite and Defender. Since it was a dedicated engineering AI, he only booted it when needed.

  He let the AIs go back and forth drawing options as he focused on the motion and extrapolated course. If they were any good they should be making the turn to the bay right about...now. He watched the inertial sump readings as it absorbed the turns change in inertia and smoothed out the gravitational pull to compensate. That left the landing.

  “Okay, almost show time.” The AI brought up their plans, vague, but something to work off of. For the most part they would have to improvise. “Proteus boot complete.”

  "Two minutes to estimated touchdown. Releasing nano scavengers now." Proteus reported. He could feel the muscle aches ease as the nanites scavenged the lactic acids from his muscles. "Shield boot complete, power reserves holding at 57%." He felt a bump as the craft landed.

  "They left us attached Admiral. Audio sensors report sounds of the crew leaving the shuttle. So much for a post flight check," the AI sniffed in disdain at that.

  "Let’s hear it. Did they leave the top hatch covered?" he asked.

  "No, top hatch has a strut thirty centimeters in front and to the port of it, but you should be able to get out. Bringing up audio now."

  "So, what do you think is in it? Burmite? Telerite? Human? T'clock? Xenos?" a female voice was asking. He could hear footfalls as they got out and moved to the bay hatch.

  "No idea, we'll see. Captain said to keep it on ice till we get out of this jam." Another voice answered.

  "Shandra! Get to the bridge!" A rough scratchy voice called out over speakers.

  The second voice sighed. "Looks like we have trouble. Get to engineering, see what you can do." The second voice, most likely an officer ordered. The footfalls double timed it to the hatch and out. He waited, listening as the hatch closed.

  "Any sign of a watch?" he asked at a whisper, and then smiled grimly. As if they could hear him inside the pod.

  "No Admiral, and judging from the state of decay, I would say definitely civilian." Sprite was showing her usual distaste for all things civilian. He chuckled.

  "All right Sprite, open sesame." The top hatch opened, light spilled in. He had his eyes closed, but it still was blindingly bright after the confining darkness in the pod. He reached out and grabbed the outside rim of the hatch then pulled. Slowly he pulled his body until his head and shoulders were out of the hatch. The top hatch was for entry; you grabbed an overhead bar and jumped in, sliding into the life pod. Here he reversed it.

  He reached out with his artificial hand and grabbed the nearby landing strut, got a good grip then pulled himself out. He winced as his boots hit the deck with a thud. "Boosting sensory abilities to combat norms." Defender, all business.

  "Accessing the suit, altering skin to hull coloration." He gave a short acknowledgment. The life pod hatch closed behind him. With any luck they wouldn't know he was out. He instinctively scanned the bay, crawling under the craft, then out from under it and into a crouch beside its hatch. "There's a computer interface to your port on the schematics."

  Quickly and quietly he turned and followed Sprite's arrows to the computer panel. The screen was dark, wiring was hanging out of different panels, and one panel was chard. He felt around with his artificial hand until he found the universal port. "Got it. Interfacing now. Hold still."

  He felt the AI lock his arm as the tip of his ring finger converted into an access link. "We have a hot link, viruses detected! Firewall up!" He sighed.

  "Do they know we are here?" Defender beat him to asking the obvious.

  "No, they're civilian viruses," Sprite answered. He could almost see her wrinkle her virtual nose in distaste.

  "Admiral this mainframe is saturated with viruses! It is a wonder they can function! Some idiot turned the antivirus software off, and the firewalls!" She sounded positively gleeful at that lucky break. "I'm in. Do you want the bad news, or very bad news?"

  He sighed. "Give it to me, just the high points of this situation."

  "The ship was salvaged twelve years ago."

  "Salvaged?" he asked.

  "Aye Admiral, salvaged. Civilian crew, mostly women. They've been running the ship as a free trader. The AI was destroyed by her Fleet Captain when she was critically damaged and left to drift."

  He cocked his head thinking the scenario through. "Plausible. Continue."

  She sighed, "Admiral, you’re not going to like this. The Federation... It's gone."

  He sighed. He'd deal with that later. "Damn. Save the data, we don't have time now. What about that other ship?"

  "Pirate ship. Apparently they were making a stop at an asteroid colony and were ambushed. They took damage to their hyperdrive and were running for time to fix it. Ran through the Charybdis junction edge in hopes of getting to the outer zone for a soft alpha ju
mp but ran into another pirate that had been positioned to catch them."

  "Whoever is on the other side is good. I don't like that," he said, and then sighed. "Damage to the drive repairable?"

  "I can't tell from this interface, I can't access the bridge or security system, there is a primitive civilian firewall around each, breaching it would alert them."

  "Don't," he said. He shook his head.

  "How did you know about the drive damage?" he asked.

  "Unguarded talk between crew members near open microphones. Apparently the Chief engineer was severely injured when an em discharge fried the jury rigged copper cable."

  "Did you say copper?" Stunned disbelief at such a primitive fix.

  "Aye Admiral, copper, not very pure, jacketed around and used in place of a superconductor that had maxed impedance."

  He shook his head in wonder. "I bet they were having all sorts of issues with it." He looked up in thought. Usage of copper changed the perspective on technology. He'd have to think of the implications on the large view later, right now he needed to focus on the here and now.

  "Admiral, we need to get out of this bay. I don't think taking the shuttle to the pirate is a viable escape." Defender hauled him back from the brink of his engineering daydream.

  "Your assessment?" he asked.

  "Recommended course of action is to ally with present crew, repair the drive and get out of the area to buy time to reassess the situation," Defender said. He nodded; after all, he had come to the same conclusion.

  "All right Sprite, recharge me, then kill those viruses and do what software repair you can." "Recharge already done, virus inoculation commencing. Do you think they'll notice?" she asked. He shook his head.

  "I doubt it; they're most likely focused on the external threat," he said and then paused in thought. "Can we use a substitute cable? What about from the replicators?"

  Sprite brought up the schematic of the replicators. "Unfortunately as you can see the cables are short, and between a support spar and bulkhead. No way to access them without a gravity collar to lift the replicators or plasma torch to cut through the hull."