“So what about the prisons”, I asked.
“That depends. Because of the unusual nature of your case, I would expect you to be kept under house arrest at worst, probably at a military facility, till they can make a determination of your case. What that means is that you will be treated reasonably, have accommodations not too different from those you have on FNS Destiny as well as adequate opportunity for visitors and fresh air. Your case will be completely without precedent. I don’t think any pirate has ever willingly bought a captured ship back then handed it over. Colin, I will not claim the Federation is perfect, just as I am sure you would not make the same claim about your homeland, but I can promise you, we take justice extremely seriously”, she said.
I have to admit; I was somewhat relieved by everything she was telling me. I found myself hoping she wasn’t mistaken. At least for now, I was far too busy to brood on the issue for very long, I really only thought about it briefly and then only during the occasional periods when I wasn’t running, trying to keep on top of all the issues that kept cropping up around the ship.
I suggested to her that we go to the bridge to see how things were there. I didn’t expect any major problems because if there were any, the crew should have contacted me already. We exited the Captains office, I still called it that because I never really saw it as mine, I just saw myself as a caretaker, and headed up to the bridge. We arrived to find that, as expected, there were no major issues and the minor ones that had cropped up were all under control. By the time we finished on the bridge, Shasi suggested it was time for us to eat. I agreed, knowing she was only following my own orders, trying to keep me on the straight and narrow. On the way down to the mess, she suggested we should go do a little light exercise after eating. I told her I was OK with some exercise but remembering my own experience I told her she needed to ease into it very slowly. I didn’t want her damaging herself by overdoing things too early. She agreed to my conditions without argument.
After eating we made our way down to the squad bay and exercise area. The other Troopers who were there were clearly all pleased to see Shasi out of medical. After the last battle, nearly half the Troopers were wounded. Thankfully, a majority of them only sustained relatively superficial wounds so they were able to be returned to light duties fairly quickly. This enabled us to utilise the prisoners as labour, helping to bring FNS Destiny back to a more ship shape condition. As more of the Troopers came back on duty, the workload lessened on the others. Shasi was still unable to take any of the work from them other than keeping an eye on me but that was one less of their duties they needed to find time for. The last battle seemed to have cemented their opinion of me as a comrade so I was always welcome there now. We chatted with the Troopers for a few minutes before going to do some light exercise. We managed about a half an hour before I could see Shasi was really beginning to struggle. I called a halt to the exercise before making sure she was still alright. She seemed to be OK so I ordered her to go relax with her squad mates or to sleep.
Of course, she wanted to argue, telling me she could continue but I shut her argument down immediately. I made a point of ordering the other Troopers to keep an eye on her. I told them she was to relax or to sleep. No strenuous exercise at all was allowed. The most exercise she was allowed till the next day was to walk slowly from point A to point B. I then told her I would see her at the mess the next morning for breakfast. She nodded acknowledgment and I left her to their tender mercies to undertake another walk around the ship. On the way, I stopped by the recreational areas to see the crew relaxing and enjoying themselves. Because of the nature of her mission, FNS Destiny had a number of these compartments. There was a small theatre, quiet rooms, a gym and even a compartment where the crew could play some of the more physical games. Many of the crew would gravitate towards these areas when they were off duty. Eventually I found Kari so I asked her if I could talk with her about an issue I had. Of course, she told me yes so we walked together up to the Captains office.
When we arrived at the office, I suggested we both sit, then explained to her I had too many things to do in order to be able to do everything adequately. I asked her if there was anyone among the rescued colonists who I could press into service helping to supervise a couple of our departments, at least till we could make the ship operational once again. She asked me what sort of things I had in mind. I told her I needed someone who could inspect the mess for hygiene, perhaps once a week, preferably on a random timetable. I told her it would help me a lot. I intended to give the mess staff orders to allow the inspections and if the person found a problem they could report it to me. I explained how these inspections were normal because they ensured hygiene standards were maintained. She promised me she would think about it and let me know. After Kari left, I slowly walked back towards my quarters, thinking about a number of things I needed to achieve for myself. I was nearly there when I changed direction to go search for Sarolin the shuttle pilot. I found him in one of the recreational compartments, talking with some of his friends so I went over to ask him if I could have a quick word. He agreed and rose to accompany me.
We went over to a quiet corner of the compartment and sat at an empty table. Sarolin asked, “How can I help you Sir?”
“Could you tell me”, I asked, “how do you keep your flying skills current on these long voyages?”
He replied, “We can set the shuttle controls to act as a simulator. We need to have about ten hours per week either on the simulators or actually flying.” Then he asked, “Why did you want to know?”
“Well”, I replied, “I was wondering if you would be able to start teaching me to fly one. I would not expect to achieve much on this voyage and I certainly would not expect to be able to actually fly a shuttle but if I don’t end up in prison when this voyage is over, I might have at least the beginnings of a useful skill I can develop later to make a living. If you think it would be inappropriate to teach me I understand and will accept your judgement without rancour.”
Sarolin looked at me thoughtfully for a full minute before he answered, “Actually Sir, that might be a good idea”, he said, “In the time we have left, you would not be qualified to fly solo, you wouldn’t even be capable of it but at least you would have made a start. We will need to bring you up to speed on some of the theory first though.”
I asked, “How much time do you need to prepare?”
“Two days”, he replied, “We will have the lessons outside of your normal shift hours so it doesn’t interfere with your other duties. Actually, doing this will help you with gaining an understanding of the ship as well. It will give you some of the basics at least.”
I of course thanked him for agreeing before taking my leave to head back towards my quarters for some sleep much needed sleep. On the way, I thought learning to fly will at least give me something else to think about besides running the ship.
The next day, the repair crews returned to work, trying to find and repair the rest of the damage preventing operation of the main drives. They fairly quickly found one of the main power feeders was severed by flying shrapnel when one of the mines exploded. We looked at the parts and materials we had available and realised we did not have enough to just replace the damaged section of feeder. This meant we would need to be creative to find a solution to bring the main engines back on-line.
I asked, “Would this have been a likely failure in the ship class FNS Destiny was based on.”
The engineering staff answered, “No, in that case, the feeders are buried more deeply in the ships core and have additional armour around them. This means that in FNS Destiny, the power feeders are somewhat longer than in the warship she was based on.”
So then I asked, “Why are they routed this way.”
Engineering replied, “FNS Destiny’s designers wanted to clear some of the spaces in the ships core for other purposes such as laboratories etc.”
Of course, I’d already been told this but the reminder was something I appr
eciated very much. I pondered this new information for a while before asking if these laboratories were in use currently or, alternatively, whether they could be moved till after we managed to limp home. The engineering staff could not answer either of these questions so we all went up to the laboratories to have a look. When we arrived there, I found some of the scientific staff doing various studies or reviewing previously collected data. I called the occupants of the laboratories together to talk to them about their spaces.
I explained to them how we may need to move them somewhere else in order to repair FNS Destiny’s main drives. They did not seem overly happy with the requirement but appeared willing to accept the necessity so I asked them if they had any specific needs in terms of space, equipment and such like. They readily explained what they needed so I thanked them for their time before going with the engineering staff to see if we could find a suitable location to move them to. While I wanted to minimize the disruption to whatever they were doing I would, if necessary shut them down completely if it was necessary to get the ship moving again.
At the end of the day, all their data collection and analysis was useless if we all died, or were captured by pirates. Eventually we found an engineering machine shop closely matching the scientists needs. I set the engineering crew the task of moving the machine tools and other equipment from the machine shop to one of the now empty holds. The machinery would have to be set up in the hold as it was needed for us to be able to continue the repairs on the ship. I expected we would still be continuing to carry out these repairs well after we reached Federation space. The engineering crews quickly started clearing the hold to allow the relocation of the machine shop. I bought additional crew in to assist with that part of the task because I wanted the changes made as quickly as possible. The crew worked hard for several days, first moving the machine shop into the hold we’d selected, then cleaning the now vacated space ready for the scientific equipment.
After the machine shop was moved, the engineering crew started moving the laboratories into the old machine shop. As I hoped, the move was achieved with minimal disruption to either the scientists or the rest of the ship’s operations. Now the laboratory compartments were clear, the repair crews needed to evacuate and seal the old laboratory area so they could work in vacuum. This was partly because we’d set a low priority on external hull repairs resulting in many of the compartments outboard of that area still being in vacuum. The ability to work in vacuum was necessary because we needed to cut holes in a number of bulkheads so the power feeders could be rerouted through the compartments vacated by the scientists, shortening the required overall length. This in turn meant that while the work was being carried out, the compartment would effectively be open to space. We would only be able to re-air the area once we’d sealed those holes. Of course, we knew all along, repairing this section of power feeder was not all we needed to be able to bring the main drives back on-line but it had been identified as a significant part of the problem so we had to repair it straight away. We estimated this change would also leave us with some additional feeder material to repair other systems if required.
Through all this time, Shasi stayed with me, reminding me when to eat, when to sleep, making me exercise, and making sure I arrived at meetings on time. I quickly came to realise she knew me far too well. She knew how easily I could become distracted, forgetting these fundamental things. Shasi, then later when she was released from medical, Ani, were invaluable in keeping me focused on what I needed to be doing. For my part, I kept an eye on them, making sure they didn’t overdo things and gave themselves adequate time to recover. From that perspective, they were a welcome distraction from the other problems I had with running the ship. I told them how I planned to begin learning to fly a shuttle in the hope I could use the skill as a way of making a living if I didn’t end up in prison. I explained how Sarolin told me some of the knowledge I would need as a shuttle pilot would be useful to me as I tried to command FNS Destiny as she made her way back to Federation space. Shasi and Ani seemed pleased I’d taken this step and were very encouraging about the idea.
Two days after my previous conversation with Sarolin, I finally went to begin my training. He sat me down before explaining how he intended to approach my education. Once again, we made some changes to my implant settings so I could pick up some of the theory via the implant over the next few weeks while he reinforced the theory with some practical exercises. He began by teaching me some new, or at least new to me then, mathematical techniques and he continued down that track till I became familiar with them. Over the following days, I slowly began to absorb all the new information more easily.
We decided I would only actively work on this phase of my knowledge acquisition for one hour each day. This decision was made for three reasons, first I was too fully occupied with running the ship to spend much more time on this without eating into my sleeping time, second, it would give my brain more time to assimilate the knowledge so I fully understood it and finally, we did have some minor concerns about how Federation authorities would take my picking up this skill. By taking it slowly, I hoped I wouldn’t have learned enough to concern them too much before we arrived back in Federation space but I would still have a grounding in at least some of the basics. This slow pace would allow me to explain how I mostly just wanted to gather enough knowledge so I could bring the ship home to the Federation safely.
During this same period, the repair crews were able to reroute the primary power feeder for the main engines through the now vacated laboratories, quite significantly shortening the routing and in the process, cutting out the damaged section. When this task was completed, we found we now had the ability to apply power to the main engines although the control systems were still not operational. All we had left now was for the engineering team to find and repair all the damage to the engine controls. This included the control circuitry for the power switching. It turned out the damage to the engine controls was distributed in a number of zones throughout the ship. We would find and repair one piece of damage only to find things were still not working the way they should. We also needed to repair all the signal lines for the engine instrumentation so we would know if the engines were running correctly. As each repair was completed, we moved a little closer to the point we would be able to run the engines. At this point, I had not even considered the jump system. As it turned out, this would also require some work to make it operational again though some of those repairs were being completed as we made repairs to the controls for the main engines because many of the jump system controls followed the same routes.
By this time, all of the people who’d only sustained relatively light injuries in the confrontation with the pirates, had been discharged from Medical and were either completely recovered or on light duties. In the end, I was thankful for this because everyone who became available lightened the workload a little for the rest of us. I couldn’t help but feel we would need everyone we could find to complete the repairs quickly and to run the ship so we could finally begin our journey back towards Federation space. I continued to visit the medical bay on a regular basis, checking to see how the people remaining there were progressing, how the medical staff were holding up under the workload and how the seriously wounded were going. I felt a desperate need to get everyone who needed it back to adequate medical care before it was too late. Ani and Shasi, continued to make sure I ate and slept reasonably regularly as well as do some exercise. Day by day, these two regained their strength so they were able to increase their exercise workload incrementally. I of course continued to keep an eye on them, making sure they didn’t overdo things.
Four days later, we finally completed the repairs to all the control and monitoring circuits for the main engines. I was looking at the ships manuals whenever I had the time but there was so much I really didn’t understand. My almost complete lack of understanding resulted in me not feeling at all qualified to make the decisions needed before engine start-up, at least no
t unilaterally. When all the repairs were completed, I called a meeting of the most experienced people available to decide on the steps required to restart the engines. When everyone was ready, we all sat in a meeting room to discuss the issue. It soon became apparent to me that there was some dissent about the best way to proceed, basically there were two main schools of thought. A number of the engineering staff wanted to just run through a standard engine start up procedure while the rest wanted to use the procedure normally undertaken after an extended refit. I listened to the arguments, asking questions when I thought of one but mostly just letting the engineering staff state their points of view. Finally, I asked what the difference was between the two procedures. As it turned out, one procedure called for power to be fed into the engines slowly, giving them time to warm up gradually. Using that procedure, the engines would not be producing any thrust for at least two and a half days.
I asked, “So, if we do a fast start up, what are the risks?”
Everyone was silent, no one in either of the two camps could tell me the risks, I don’t think any of them had even considered risk, at least not in any depth. I thought about the problem for a few minutes before making my decision. As I considered the two options, I reasoned the slow start after a major refit would certainly be done for a good reason. The engines had been completely shut down for several weeks by this point so they would be close to whatever the ambient temperature in space was. If we started them too quickly, I expected problems such as different parts of the engines warming at different rates becoming an issue, perhaps one serious enough to strand us here. I spent more time than I really expected to, sifting through the available data until I finally came to the conclusion that a slow start up would be the safer option right then.
Star Man 1: Star Bourne Page 26