by Dale Olausen
"Matty," she whispered, "That Kalso - do you realize what this morning's trouble means? To the Explorer ship – in Maintenance?"
"Oh no! But, yes! Of course you're right!
"Fat chance that Kalso will allow an Explorer ship to be properly maintained, if he's into cutting corners with ships belonging to ordinary, fee-paying citizens."
As he spoke, Matty made unconscious but vigorous attempts to mangle the spoon in his hands. However, it happened to be of the almost-indestructible type popular in eating establishments of a certain type, and it resisted him successfully.
"What can we do?"
Sarah was certain that they had to do something. The complaints that she had agreed to file with the Terra Confederation bureaucracies could not possibly bring results in time to deal with this emergency.
"It's really too bad," she added thoughtfully, "that's there's no hope whatever that I could work on that ship. But there is no chance whatsoever of that." She sighed. "After this morning's run-in with Kalso there's no way I rate favours from Head Mechanic Marchaisie - but then, I never did in the first place."
"Do you think that Marchaisie is into this crookedness, too?" asked Matty. “Somehow I have trouble imagining him doing something like that."
"No, I think your instincts are right on that one," Sarah replied thoughtfully. “You see, normally I have very little contact with Kalso - all the orders I get are filtered through Marchaisie. He is my direct superior, after all. But with this one, it was Kalso who came to see me, gave the order, and threatened me with the citation of insubordination. Mind you, if you or I went to Marchaisie and tried to tell him what Kalso is up to, right there in Marchaisie's own little corner of the universe, he'd never believe it. After all, he was born and raised on XER, on all that pap the priests of Ammha feed these people. An Authority - and Kalso is an Authority - can do no wrong."
"So that doesn't help us one bit." Matty sighed. "The only thing I can think of doing is to contact the Explorer crew just as I had planned to, and do my level best to convince them that their ship is not safe unless they have their ship mechanic do the maintenance work himself."
"If only they will take what you have to tell seriously," Sarah added slowly. "The hostility towards outsiders, and the craziness going on in the Maintenance Sector, I mean."
A wicked grin crept across Matty's face.
"Should I need a firsthand account of this morning's events in Maintenance to convince the Explorers of the danger, I presume that you are available?" he inquired.
Sarah, too, had to smile.
"Just give me a holler," she replied.
Chapter Two
The next morning, Sarah arrived early for her work shift at the Maintenance Centre. She had found out from Matty that the Explorer ship in the Port was called Beth 117; her first act now was to check with the Control Centre Computer for a vessel of that name. Sure enough, she discovered, the Beth 117 had arrived in the Sector. However, it had been assigned to Berth 30 for its stay and Sarah groaned in disappointment. Berth 30 was located at the other end of the huge barn that was the Maintenance Sector and it would take her more time than she had to spare to go there and back, especially since she wanted to look around the ship a little.
She remembered that she was due to start a new assignment that morning. If it so happened that the ship which Head Mechanic Marchaisie had allocated for her to work on was somewhere near Berth 30 she would not have to worry about coming back to the Control Centre. All she had to do was pick up the information about her day's duties now, and go directly to her work station after glancing at the Beth.
Accordingly, she punched a request for a work order into the computer. Seconds later she was staring at the machine in front of her, completely baffled. The slot in which the shipcard for her next job ought to have appeared, absurdly remained closed. The screen on which the details of the work assignment should have been printed was blank. Only the mechanical voice responded to the request, repeating in a monotone that it could not find any record of an assignment for Sarah Mackenzie for that particular day.
"What is this?" It made no sense. Marchaisie usually kept well abreast of times with the work schedule. Sarah had checked out her duties early on other occasions and had never before been faced with an empty screen. Confused, she wondered if she herself had not made some idiotic error - perhaps she had come to work on her day off. After a quick glance around to make sure that no-one was looking over her shoulder she put the question to the computer, carefully specifying that the answer should be given only on the screen. If she had done something stupid she did not want anyone to overhear it.
"Sarah Mackenzie: Scheduled to begin work at 08:00 today. No work assignment on record. "
She inhaled deeply, blew the air out and blanked the screen. Did this have something to do with the run-in that she had had with Kalso the day before, she wondered. She bit down on her lower lip for a moment, then squared her shoulders, determined to find out what was going on. Her mind thus made up she turned towards Marchaisie's office and began to walk in that direction.
Marchaisie's office was a tiny cubicle built into one of the walls surrounding the vast floorspace of the Maintenance Sector. Its door gaped wide open as Sarah approached. She could see that the Head Mechanic was in. However, he was not seated in his usual spot behind the messy desk, nor was he alone as Sarah had expected to find him. Instead, he stood in the middle of the small room, apparently engaged in an animated discussion with a man she did not recognize. The exchange between the two men was heated enough that neither noticed the girl as she walked up to the door. She was quick to take advantage of this to appraise the stranger before she herself was seen. He was an outsider to XER, she judged from the brown coverall that he wore: a simple, useful outfit, but totally lacking the air of self-conscious austerity which the XER greys always managed to convey. The abundant streaks of silver in his hair suggested that he was no longer young, nevertheless, his body seemed to be quite fit. More than that Sarah could not tell, since the man's back was turned towards the door.
For another moment she stood silently at the door attempting to catch the men's words but their voices were pitched too low for her to make them out. She shrugged, drew in a deep breath and rapped her knuckles on the doorjamb. There was an instant reaction. Both men turned to face her. Their expressions, as they glared at her, absurdly reminded her of little boys caught smoking paltene leaves. However, Marchaisie rapidly recovered from his surprise, and recognized Sarah. It was clear that he was not happy to see her, for a look of annoyance spread across his features. Sarah bit her lip. Things did not seem promising.
"Speak of the devil," the Head Mechanic growled under his breath. This time the girl caught his words. With effort, she kept her cool.
"I'm sorry if I have interrupted something important, Head Mechanic Marchaisie," she said, "but the Control Centre Computer has no assignment for me this morning. I thought I'd better see you about it."
A flash of impatience flitted across Marchaisie's face. "I know, I know," he muttered and glared at her. Sarah had the distinct impression that the Head Mechanic would have been delighted to see her disappear into the recycled air. She squirmed uncomfortably, wishing that she could, indeed, dissolve out of Marchaisie's sight. Sector Manager Kalso must have told the Head Mechanic some wild story about her, she decided. Things seemed to be slipping from bad to worse.
"Is this young woman the mechanic that we were just talking about?"
With a shock Sarah realized that she had completely forgotten the stranger in the room. Now while Marchaisie answered his question with a sullen nod, she turned her eyes on him and found that her gaze was met by a frankly curious stare. Apparently the man approved of her, for suddenly his face broke into a grin.
"You are Sarah Mackenzie," he said.
Sarah nodded.
"My name is Dav Castilo," the stranger introduced himself, "and I am the Captain of the Explorer ship Beth 117."
; Sarah's jaw dropped for a second but she recovered quickly. It was better not to display too much emotion around Marchaisie.
"Pleased to meet you, Captain Castilo," she said, glad that her voice sounded quite normal.
"The pleasure is much more mine." The Captain did, indeed, have a cheerful smile on his face. "Let me explain.
"My ship, the Beth, is here in Maintenance right now and needs the best care available. She has suffered a lot lately - I had to ask more of her during this last trip than I had any right to.
"Last night I happened to mention that fact to someone who claimed to know much about XER. Your name came up. I was told that you do excellent work, that you very likely were the best ship mechanic on the Space Station. The Beth could do no better than to come under your excellent care, I was advised. So here I am, as you can see, trying to persuade Head Mechanic Marchaisie to assign you to work on my ship."
"You honour me." Sarah stole a sidewise glance at Marchaisie. It was easy to see that he did not like the way things were turning out. However, Captain Castilo appeared to be quite sure of himself, and cheerful besides. She would play his game.
"I sincerely hope that I deserve the good name that I seem to have, according to what you say," she plunged on. "And I would, very much, like to work on your ship."
Then she turned to face Marchaisie, countering his sour expression with the brightest smile that she could manage.
"How about it, Head Mechanic Marchaisie? Will you let me take on the Beth 117?"
In the silence that followed Sarah had to struggle to keep the grin on her face from dissolving into a frustrated grimace. Why didn't the Head Mechanic answer her?
It was Castilo who rescued her.
"My offer still stands," he said in a low voice to Marchaisie.
Abruptly Marchaisie turned and stepped up to his cluttered desk. He grabbed a sheet of paper from the top of a pile and tore off the card that was attached to it. He flung it at Sarah; she reacted just in time to catch it.
"Have it your way, woman!"
Sarah glanced at the card; it was the Maintenance Record of the ship Beth 117. She turned and ran.
*****
The ship that Sarah found in Berth 30 at first glance seemed a disappointment. It was small for an interstellar ship and nothing much to look at; grey, saucer-shaped, sturdy-looking but definitely the worse for wear.
"So what did you expect, you goose?" the girl asked herself. "Did you think there would be coloured streamers, and banners with 'Explorer' writ across them?"
She shook her head to clear away the silly romantic clutter that seemed to be a legacy of years of listening to Explorer stories. Then she turned her attention to the ship card which she was clutching in a sweaty hand and grinned at the grey craft as soon as she had deciphered the first coded entry. For all its modest appearance the Beth 117 was indeed a true Explorer ship, having been built centuries ago, especially for that purpose. The type of spaceship that she was, Sarah knew, had turned out to be very successful. The factory which had manufactured the series had long since disappeared from the universe, but the vessels that it had produced were nearly all still in use, although most of them had been converted to serve other purposes after the Explorers' operations had been scaled down. The particular model that the Beth belonged to, because of its smallness, toughness and manoeuvrability, had become a favourite with the Rangers. With a start Sarah recalled that she had once worked on a ship like this one; it had been a Ranger ship and she had been a green apprentice.
"Great," she muttered to herself. "With any luck at all I can remember enough that I will know my way around. It'll save time. "
She turned to the next item on the card.
"Yikes!" Sarah reread the coded notation, unwilling to believe what she was seeing. Then, certain that she had not made a mistake, she gazed upon the little grey spacecraft in amazed admiration.
"What a ship you are," she addressed the craft. "No wonder you look like you could use some tender loving care."
When Captain Castilo had said that he had had to put his ship through a lot he had not been talking idly. The card in Sarah's hand testified that the Beth 117 had made six omega-jumps since her last maintenance check! Six omega-jumps! What dire circumstances, Sarah wondered, had pushed the Explorer ship captain to take such a substantial risk? The crew of the Beth were more than a little lucky to be alive! And Sarah had a lot of hard work awaiting her. She picked up her toolkit from the floor and hurried to the ship.
She had finished a preliminary check of the Beth's systems, and was attempting to estimate the amount of time that it would take her to get the spaceship back into shape, when the sound of approaching footsteps heralded an interruption. It had to be some new unpleasantness, she decided, and set aside the calculations, to brace herself for whatever was coming. But as soon as the intruder stepped into the vessel's Control Room where she was working, she relaxed. This was not Kalso come to see her, nor even Marchaisie. It was the captain of the Beth.
"Good morning, Sarah," Captain Castilo greeted her, smiling. "If I may call you Sarah?"
Sarah grinned back, feeling completely at ease. There was something in Castilo's casual friendliness that made her forget the awe in which she had learned to hold the Explorers.
"That's what my friends call me," she laughed. "I haven't been on XER long enough to have grown comfortable with these people's way of addressing everyone by the occupational title and the last name."
"Well then, Sarah, I'd like to thank you for a service you rendered me this morning. You chose a very opportune moment to walk into Marchaisie's office."
"It was pure luck that I happened to go there at all. Usually I don't go anywhere near that cubbyhole when I come to work, but this morning the computer had no assignment for me so I had no choice but to see Marchaisie."
"If that was luck, then perhaps a person can hope that the Beth's luck has finally turned," Captain Castilo said, seeming to speak more to himself than to Sarah. "She has certainly been through enough misfortune."
His eyes roamed about the Control Room and came to rest on the confusion of tools that Sarah had spread out on the floor.
"How is the old girl doing?" he asked.
Sarah's grin disappeared. "Awful," she replied simply. She knew from past experience that ship captains wanted the truth in as few words as possible.
"That last hop -" She shook her head, declining to finish the sentence.
"- almost did her in," Castilo completed it for her. "I know."
"But," and Sarah's smile was back. "I can fix her like new, given enough time. She's one sturdy little ship."
"That she is." Castilo looked around the room again, a proud, loving expression on his face. Then he turned again to Sarah.
"Don't worry about the time factor," he told her. "Take all the time you need to put her back together properly. I'll square things with Marchaisie for as long as is necessary."
"Great. But, Captain Castilo, may I ask you something?" Sarah felt flustered, aware that the subject she wanted to bring up was really none of her business.
"Go ahead." The Beth's captain looked at her curiously.
"Where's your ship mechanic? I mean, doesn't he want to at least give me instructions, and since the Beth's in such a bad shape wouldn't it make sense for him to work on her too, at least part of the time? I mean - " She stopped, realizing that in spite of her intent her words were starting to sound critical of the absent ship mechanic.
However, Castilo did not appear in the least bit upset. He gazed at her a little sadly as he answered.
"I'm quite sure that poor Kells would be here right now, ordering you around mercilessly if he could. Unfortunately he is lying in the XER Hospital, his skull fractured. Also he is severely weakened by the two hops we had to take with him injured. The Beth will have to make out without him for quite some time to come, I'm afraid. "
"I'm sorry," Sarah whispered, and she truly was. Some idea of the weight of the responsi
bilities that an Explorer ship captain had to carry was seeping into her young mind. No wonder the man's face had weathered into a network of countless thin lines.
"Kells will live," he said grimly. "But the Beth will have to do without him for the time being."
"Well, you need not worry about her anyway," said Sarah, determined to return the conversation to an upbeat mood. "I'll do a first class job."
Castilo's smile returned. "I do believe that you will, Sarah," he agreed. She saw his eyes begin to twinkle.
"I have an idea, Sarah," he said. "Why don't you join the crew and myself for supper tonight? I'm sure that the others are very interested in seeing the person who is taking care of the Beth. We'll be dining at the Central Caf at about eighteen-thirty."
Sarah chuckled. "So you've discovered that famous eating establishment, have you? I'll be there."
*****
Matty showed up inside the Beth later that day. Sarah could see at a glance that he was itching to fill her in on all that had happened to him since they had last met. Smiling slyly to herself she shouted a quick "Hello" to him, and concentrated on the tiny screen of the trouble-shooter in her hand. She would tag all the loose connections in the navigation console before stopping to listen to the lad. By then it would be time for her to take a break anyway.
Matty settled himself into one of the chairs that normally seated the ship's crewmembers. He watched Sarah work, and, to the young woman's disappointment, curbed his impatience quite well. When she finally turned towards him, tossing aside the trouble-shooter, he grinned at her approvingly.
"Boy, am I ever glad that Castilo was able to talk Marchaisie into letting you work on this ship," he said. "Six omega-jumps! Can you imagine it?"
Sarah shook her head.
"She's a mess all right." She sat down in a seat facing Matty. "So what happened last night?"
"Got time to listen to me?"
"This is the first time I've stopped working today."
She shrugged.
"I've been so busy I even forgot to be hungry at lunchtime."