The Merrimack Event (Shieldclads Book 1)

by David Tatum

  He picked up a nearby device. It looked pretty simple – there was a slot, a button, and a pair of small LED lights.

  “It may look like one of my antiques, but it’s not – this really is the modern design for a circuit tester. They probably haven’t changed it because it’s so simple even an idiot can use it – and you’re no idiot, so this should be fine. You take the device to be tested...” he held up a computer part she couldn’t readily identify, “and plug it into the slot. Press the button, and wait a few seconds for one of the lights to come on. If it’s red there’s a problem. Set it aside so I can see if it’s salvageable. If it’s green, the device is okay; just hand it to me when I ask for it. I need everything in that stack tested. Think you can handle that?”

  Rachel nodded. “Easier than I would have thought.”

  “Try it,” Chris asked, handing her the tester and the computer part.

  Rachel re-enacted Chris’s demonstration with success. “Green light. It works.”

  “Good,” Chris said, burying himself under the computer, again. “Give me that board you just tested, okay?”

  “Sure thing,” Rachel said, making herself busy. Okay, maybe she wasn’t going to be quite as useless as she feared. There was still the threat of those engineering lessons he had planned, though. There was a reason she had put off that basic maintenance course. Hopefully this wouldn’t be too bad.

  ——————————

  Schubert sighed as he staggered his way into his cabin. He had finally completed the last of the mind-numbing trips back and forth in the shuttle for the refit, and was nearing collapse. He had the rest of the day off, and then he’d be starting his new job as a software tester the next day. He didn’t quite know how frustrating that assignment would be, but he figured it wasn’t any worse than piloting a shuttle. He may love being a pilot, but after a while shuttles drove even the most enthusiastic pilot into boredom.

  “Hello, Wolfie,” a feminine voice said. “Long time, no see. I fell asleep waiting for you.”

  There was only one person in the galaxy who had ever called him ‘Wolfie,’ so it wasn’t too hard to guess who it belonged to.

  “Lauren?”

  “Still scared of me?” she asked. “Or can we... talk?”

  Schubert swallowed. “Talk?”

  “Mm hmm,” Weber purred, cocking her head and batting her eyes seductively. “Talk. Of course, there are a number of ways to talk....”

  Schubert started slowly backing up. He liked women, but this one just terrified him for reasons he couldn’t put into words.

  Weber’s well-shaped form rose from the bed, letting the covers slip off, revealing that she wore a particularly skimpy nightgown and not much else. She grabbed a thin robe and slipped it on over her shoulders. “I just want to make sure you aren’t scared of me, any more. That’s all.”

  “Right,” Schubert said, trying to think of how to get out of this situation with his dignity still intact. While entrancing, she was even scarier half-naked. “Chris gets off any moment, and I’m pretty sure he’ll be coming down here pretty soon—”

  “Nope,” Weber said. “He and Rachel are going to be sharing my cabin for the night. I doubt they’ll have quite as nice a... ‘talk’ as I hope we will, though. Rachel said he was only over to give her a crash course in engineering. Poor girl thinks that makes for a good date. I think we both know what makes for a better date, right?”

  Wolf’s progress backwards was stopped with a *thunk* as he found himself stuck in a corner. Weber continued to move towards him, a grin spreading on her face.

  “Since your roomies stuck in my cabin, it seems I’m going to be stuck in yours tonight.” She leaned forward, and captured his mouth in a kiss. “Whadya say we make the most of it?”

  ——————————

  Rachel winced. A tiny electric spark from the malfunctioning device Chris was teaching her to repair shot up in front of her eyes, nearly blinding her. “I don’t think this is going to work, Chris.”

  “Well, it might if you remembered to connect the power to the circuit instead of leaving it exposed as a live feed,” Chris noted dryly. At her embarrassed look, he added, “Don’t get too stressed out about it. I’ve met people who’ve made worse mistakes, and they were professionals.”

  Rachel sighed. “That may be, but I’m just not getting the hang of this. I don’t think I’ve got what it takes to be an engineer.”

  “I’m not trying to make you an engineer,” Chris said softly. “Just someone who can breeze through their Basic Maintenance class.”

  Rachel glanced at the broken device she was holding and sighed. “Just what is it that I’m supposed to be fixing here, anyway?”

  “It’s the electronics package for one of the shock chairs. We probably would just get rid of them if this ship were being re-commissioned for regular duty, but we don’t have the time or the resources to switch them out for more comfortable chairs. It’s the only thing I found portable enough to teach you with.”

  “You couldn’t find anything easier to handle?” Rachel sighed.

  “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad,” Chris said. “Let me show you what you did wrong. It’s pretty simple to fix from this point.”

  Rachel yawned, waving him off. “Not right now. If I don’t get some sleep soon, I won’t be any good tomorrow.”

  “Okay, if you insist,” Chris sighed. “I might as well turn in, too, then. Where am I supposed to sleep, anyway?”

  Rachel blinked at him. “Huh?”

  “Well, I’m staying here tonight, right? At least, that’s what Lauren said the deal was,” Chris explained, scratching his head tiredly. “She didn’t want me using her bunk, though, so I figured you had an idea for what I should do.”

  Rachel groaned. “Oh, hell. Not another matchmaking scheme. Why won’t that woman let me set my own pace in this relationship?”

  “You didn’t know about this?” Chris asked, astonished.

  “I knew she was going to be out all night,” Rachel sighed. “I didn’t know where, or that you’d be locked out of your cabin tonight. Like I said – it’s another matchmaker scheme of hers. She keeps trying to get me to ‘speed things along’ with you, and it’s giving me a bit of a headache.”

  Chris hesitated. He didn’t really see the need to “speed things along,” since they didn’t really have much time to themselves, but he wouldn’t have objected if things between them got a little more physical.

  “Are you really that upset at the prospect of us sharing a room?” Chris asked.

  Rachel glared at him. “Look, Chris. I like you, but I’m not ready to share a bed with you just yet. Lauren figures I need a push. She sticks you in my cabin and forbids you from taking the only free bed. Oh, I guess I have no choice but to offer to share a bed. Right. I’m not looking for a fling with you, Chris. I want to take this slow, and we aren’t anywhere close to that, yet.”

  “We’re working towards it, though... aren’t we?” Chris asked, suddenly unsure of himself.

  Rachel deflated. “Well, maybe. Not today, though.”

  “Of course,” Chris agreed. “But someday?”

  “Like I said, maybe,” Rachel answered softly. She shot him a playful look. “I’m still not entirely sure I can put up with you, yet.”

  Chris laughed. “Well, there is that. At any rate, that leaves us with a problem tonight. I’m a man of my word, and won’t take her bed, and we’re not ready to share yours. But I could point out a little loophole, here: Lauren only forbade me from using her bed... she didn’t say anything about you, now did she?”

  Rachel blinked up at him owlishly, and then laughed. She stepped over to him and gave him a kiss. “Oh, I suppose that will do, at that.”

  CHAPTER XIV

  EAS Chihuahua

  “So,” Burkhard asked at the daily staff meeting. “What’s the status of the refit?”

  “Well,” Chris answered. “There are a few bells and whistles that need to
be taken care of, but for the most part we are done except for the quantum wheel. We still need to find some pyramid-style nodes.”

  “Got ‘em,” Rappaport answered smugly. “And they’ll be powerful, too. While you’ve been busy with everything else, Chris, I’ve secretly been adding on to your side-mount quantum wheel, idea. Ran it through the simulations, and figured we could actually include battleship-sized nodes without compromising our power distribution requirements or size limitations. It should make your shield idea a bit more effective.”

  Chris frowned. “That might complicate things with the emitters. I’m not sure we have the parts to make emitters that size.”

  “Taken care of,” Rappaport replied. “I had to do a lot of horse-trading to get them, though. As things stand, we’ll be practically out of replacement parts, so the first thing I’m going to do once the refit’s complete is set up a fabrication shop and put most of our staff on that.” He shrugged. “The local planetary authority is willing to make deals that can give us the raw materials we’ll need. A good thing, since Commodore Green won’t let us have anything more than we’ve already taken. He was rather annoyed we got to keep the parts we acquired on that little raid of yours.”

  Still somewhat stunned, Chris turned back to his captain. “Well, then, sir, I’d figured on several more days to fabricate those nodes, but if that’s all been taken care of... we should be space-worthy later this afternoon.”

  “Excellent!” Burkhard clapped. “Do you two think your staff can manage without you in this final stage?”

  “Chris isn’t needed,” Rappaport answered before the younger man could. “The only tricky thing is the nodes, and that’s my job. I can keep an eye on those ‘bells and whistles’ while I work.”

  “Good!” Burkhard said. “You’ve both got forty-eight hours of leave in thanks for all the overtime you put in for the refit. Chris, yours starts the moment this meeting’s over. Jacques, obviously yours will have to wait until you’re done.”

  “Thank you, sir,” the two engineers chorused.

  “Mr. Orff,” Burkhard continued. “Your report, please?”

  “Well, sir,” Orff, who had yet to fully realize his duties as the ship’s executive officer in the chaos of the refit, began. “Given that we have some, uh, new equipment to test out, but don’t have any Academy ships to fly against, the Wargame officials will be loaning us the regular navy corvette Tarantula from the Regular fleet to help us test our systems and drill against. They may also loan the Academy other ships for exercise purposes, as well, until more of our forces come on-line, should we need them.”

  “Good work lobbying, Mr. Orff. I think I’ll keep you as our liaison to the Wargame officials until after our shakedown cruise. Ms. Katz, you’ll be acting as my executive officer until then.”

  Rachel, a little overwhelmed, nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

  “I doubt you’ll be thanking me when you realize just how much work that means you’ll have to do,” Burkhard said, his eyes twinkling. “You’ve got forty-eight hours leave, too, so you’re fresh when we start that shakedown. I think that’s all for today. Any other business? No? Then you’re all dismissed.”

  The gathered officers started milling about the room, some getting involved in quiet conversations while others made their way out of the room as quickly as possible. Chris slowly made his way over to Rachel. They’d been making plans for another engineering lesson after the meeting, and with his unexpected leave he was hoping she might consider a short trip planet-side for some fresher food then what was available on board the Chihuahua. One of the ‘bells and whistles’ Chris had mentioned to Burkhard was a new food-storage system, since they had quickly discovered that many of the kitchen refrigeration systems were not fully functional. Because of that, the crew was still on rehydrated rations. On the plus side, though, the otherwise incompetent Jonathan Rosebaugh was proving to be an excellent gardener, although his greenhouse was still weeks away from producing fresh food.

  Still, to get the really good stuff, you had to leave the ship, and Chris suddenly had a lot of free time on his hands.

  ——————————

  94 Ceti, Orbital Colony Station

  Rachel glared at the shock chair electronic package as Chris pulled it out of the luggage they’d taken with them to the station orbiting the only planet in the 94 Ceti system. “You know,” she grumbled, “I’m really starting to hate those things.”

  Chris smirked. He had invited her to join him for a little vacation... but hers would be a working vacation. “Hey, you’re getting pretty good at fixing up these things, and each repair you’ve made has taught you something else. At this rate, you’ll be able to ace that Basic Maintenance course next semester.”

  Rachel sighed. “Maybe. I still don’t understand how these things make the shock chairs work.”

  “Simple,” Chris said. “It regulates energy collectors which absorb the kinetic energy that is produced by the acceleration of the ship, redirecting that energy from the chair’s occupant. It puts any surplus power it generates into the emergency life-support batteries. And there’s no ‘maybe’ about it. With what you’ve learned already, you are probably better at engineering work than the ‘Chief Engineer’ of the corvette Ishmael?”

  Rachel’s eyes widened. “What? How is that possible?”

  “Thanks to my lessons, you now know a little bit about real engineering,” Chris noted. “The Ishmael is the one of the ships in the Academy fleet which has an Academy student as a chief engineer instead of a reservist or a regular Navy officer. I know the guy – his name’s Mark Taira. He’s a Junior, but he only recently switched from a major in International Relations to Engineering, and like yourself hasn’t taken the Basic Maintenance course, yet. The Chihuahua is very lucky – almost all the engineering staff assigned to us are actual engineering students who have either experience or training in engineering. A lot of the people who are working as engineers in the rest of the fleet are as bad at engineering as you were a week ago when we started this, and only function by using prefabricated parts. Whoever assigned Mark to be a part of the Ishmael’s engineering staff was an idiot, though, because he’s a Cadet Lieutenant Commander, and was the highest ranking engineer aboard. Which made him the Chief Engineer... and has led him to call me every night asking what he needs to assign his people to do.”

  Rache blinked. “So, you’re actually organizing two refits?”

  “Well, sort of.”

  “So, is the Ishmael going to be as good as the Chihuahua when all’s said and done?” Rachel asked, amused, as she picked up the offending electronics package and started diagnosing it.

  “Hardly,” Chris snorted, leading her down the corridors of the station. “I wouldn’t trust Mark to try putting in a whole new cold fusion plant, even if a Phoebe class corvette could handle one. It’s got a quantum wheel and an old-fashioned fusion reactor, which means it’s got about the worst power-to-drive set-up that we ever produced. Ishmael should be as good as an unmodified Phoebe-class corvette can be, though.”

  Rachel shrugged. “Well, if you say so. The Phoebes are the newest class of ships the Academy has on its side, so they should be the most advanced, but if you’re sure it’s not as good as we are....”

  “No, the Chihuahua’s the newest class of ship,” Chris noted. “We’ve practically rebuilt her. Sure, we kept the old fusion drive and the fusion reactor. We also added a quantum wheel that doubles as a shield – which no-one else has – and a cold-fusion plant. We upgraded the computer systems until they’re the equivalent of the modern top-of-the-line systems. Add in Wayne Evans’ tweaks to the standard gravity control system, and the Chihuahua is probably the most advanced ship in the entire Earth Alliance. Only thing I’d change about her if I were designing her new is the rail gun broadside and the crew compartments. And if you were to replace the rail guns with the more modern ones – the double-barreled shots that use one less person per gun – we’d be able to kill b
oth problems at once. That, though, would require several months of dry-dock time and major modifications to the hull’s exterior, power distribution systems, and internal bulkheads. Maybe if the ship is preserved for the Navy’s use following the Wargame, someone’ll think to do that. I’ve made notes for the record to that end.”

  Rachel chewed her lip. “Were there any modifications you suggested to him, at all?”

  Chris shrugged. “Like I said, Mark isn’t the best of people to put in charge of a refit like this. I made a few minor suggestions, but I doubt it’ll amount to anything. The only major modification I would recommend would be to his quantum wheel’s dome-emitters with pyramid-emitters. That’s a pretty standard modification, but I’m not even sure he’ll be able to do that. But he will be ready in time for the Wargame, that’s for sure.”

  Rachel smiled. “Well, that’s good. So, there are engineering crews led by engineers who aren’t even as good as me. Can you think of any which have engineering staffs better then ours?”

  Chris thought for a moment. “On the Academy side? Well... possibly Commodore Green’s Sirius could put together a better crew, though he has just as many Mark Tairas as he has Jacques Rappaports. He got the best he could, but he was filling out the roster for a battleship and not a tiny old corvette. He asked for me, too, by the way, but I was already assigned to the Chihuahua.”

  Rachel smiled slightly. “I’m glad you’re here. I think you made us a lot more effective then you would have made a battleship, and I’m glad we have this time to spend together.”

  “So am I,” Chris said, grinning. “I’d hate to have to work on a battleship, myself. But that reminds me, we’re going to have to share a cabin tonight.”

  Rachel snorted. “Again? That’s, what, the fourth night this week?”

  “Yeah,” Chris said. “We’ve got my cabin, this time, and I hope you’ll forgive me for saying I’m very glad. Last time they left it in a terrible mess.” He sighed. “Enough chit-chat. We need to eat and have what fun we can, before the Captain pulls you away from me.”