Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  She threw a data sheet up on his HUD and then dumped her log and a system map she had compiled. He flicked through it, not really interested in it, just interested in passing the time.

  “Admiral we're getting reports of a problem with the reactor.”

  “Oh?” he asked. She highlighted a pair of text messages between engineers. “I thought you couldn't access the engineering systems from here?” he asked.

  “I can't. What I can do is get into the communications between the crew,” she said. He pursed his lips as he scanned the dialog. Then he sat up fast.

  “That's... are they sure it's a D harmonic?” he asked. According to the dialog the engineers were concerned about a D harmonic in the reaction chamber. The reactor crew was still busy trying to install his three force emitters. One had mentioned possibly suiting up and trying to enter the chamber. That was suicide and futile, no one could withstand the inside of a fusion reactor. Not and live for more than an instant.

  “From the sounds of this they are using the usual, straight hydrogen,” Irons said slowly, scanning through the dialog. Sprite was picking through various conversations to build a better understanding on the ship and how it was functioning. It was a crude method for an AI to deduce information, highly fraught with error, but the only one they currently had available.

  “By the way did you know that that door was supposed to be locked?” Sprite asked amused.

  “Locked?”

  “Yes. The... here,” she highlighted a line of text from a guard to the security chief. “Door secure. Our guest will not be going anywhere soon,” it said.

  “Are you sure it's about me?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Sprite said.

  “Okay... I'm a little concerned and annoyed,” he admitted.

  “I would be too. In fact I am. Rather rude.”

  “I think they have other things on their minds,” he said pursing his lips as he tried to think. “Any way to page the chief engineer? Volunteer my services?”

  “She's incommunicado,” Sprite informed him. “I gather she bounces any reports from anyone who isn't in her friends list,” Sprite said sarcastically. He snorted.

  “Stupid. Okay, can you find the next in the chain of command? Or a bridge officer?” he asked. “I'd rather stick to an engineer though,” he said. It took an engineer to know an engineer. If he could get in the good graces of one it would make integration easier.

  “This ship is a death trap admiral. I... from this conversation I estimate the ship's reactor is either going to cascade fail within a few hours or it will scram. They have little or no computer support handling it.”

  “Seriously?” he asked suddenly surprised.

  “Apparently it's offline. Or it's having a hard time dealing with the parts. Admiral I just... here.” Sprite highlighted a section of text. In it someone was asking, no begging for the field emitters from his launch.

  “A shuttle's field emitters? Why?” he asked, eyes scanning the text once more. What the hell were they playing at now?

  “Apparently their damage is a bit more than we knew,” Sprite said. “And I gather they have been using parts from shuttles to repair their reactor.”

  His lips puckered in a sour grimace. “Oh that's just stupid,” he said shaking his head.

  The reactor was out of balance, there was a D harmonic growing in the reaction chamber. The reactor was also using straight hydrogen for fuel, which greatly lessened its power ratio and heightened its radiation emissions. Throw in jury rigged sections of the bottle being made out of parts never designed for the role or the load and a computer that wasn't up to the task of handling the challenge and yes, they were in trouble.

  Then of course there was the distribution of power on the ship. He scanned through what Proteus was picking out of Sprite's catch. Plasma conduits were out in several sections of the ship, and half the sensors were jury rigged from many sources. The ship really was myopic and on its last legs. He sighed and tried to think. He rubbed his brow wishing he had coffee.

  “This is just getting better and better by the moment admiral,” Sprite said. “We've got another group in the shuttle bay. Want to guess what they are there to do?”

  “It's the same group as previous admiral,” Defender reported coldly. “They are again approaching the shuttle. One of them has a plasma cutter.”

  Irons felt a bit of alarm. He was pretty sure what they were there to do, and he wasn't going to allow it. No, not his ship, not on his watch.

  He tapped his implants and linked with the computer on the shuttle. The signal was weak, there were a lot of decks and bulkheads to pump the signal through but he managed it. He felt the typical out of body sensation as he brought up the sensors on the shuttle and activated its reactor start up procedures.

  There were now twenty people in the bay, and all were carrying equipment. Two were arguing, and he turned up the exterior audio to pick it up. Defender filtered out the other voices and focused on the two arguing. “I told you to have this thing stripped hours ago Barry,” the angry forty year old female said to the leader of the chastened looking men.

  One responded that the ship was locked down and she grimaced. He motioned for her to try and she stalked over to the shuttle hatch. Irons was fairly certain she'd fail too but then Irons realized she was holding a ground line and a security bypass in one hand. That changed things.

  Alarmed, the engineer started the preflight on the shuttle, beginning to warm up the impellers and shields. If he turned them on in the chamber it would turn it into a death trap, the shields would shatter bulkheads and send the parts in the bay out to ricochet and spall everywhere.

  He hesitated and then decided to hold off. “Warn her off Defender,” he murmured, watching the woman as her hand reached out with the ground near the hatch.

  “Warning, intruder warning. This is a Federation naval vessel protected by Federal law. Any attempt to access or tamper this vessel without authorized consent of Admiral Irons will activate weapon systems. This vessel will defend itself,” Defender said over the audio from the launch.

  Undeterred she stepped to the shuttle and tried the hatch, then hunted for the keypad. She began punching in numbers, then pulled out a screwdriver and started to take the panel off. The ground line she had taped to the shuttle skin prevented her from getting zapped.

  Admiral Irons immediately got up and unjacked and then started stuffing his duffel. Things were going south fast. It may be time to get the hell out of dodge.

  “Sentry at the door now Admiral,” Defender reported.

  “Fine,” Irons replied.

  Angry, the engineer turned to leave the room anyway but then paused. He has a better idea. He turned back to the shuttle feed and activated a sonic alarm. The shattering scream knocked the woman back and many people behind her fall to their knees in pain. The AI cuts the alarm then ordered them to leave. Several members of the crew manage to get to their feet and stagger out. The woman hesitated, but he gave a curt countdown to reactivate the alarm. She immediately threw her tools down in disgust and left the bay.

  “What the hell was that?” Barry asked, rubbing Leia's shoulders as the woman tried to recover from throwing up uncontrollably. Vomit stained the front of her coverall. Its aroma was getting to the others. More than one person was doubled over, holding a hand to their abdomens and another to their mouths as they tried to get away. The audio nightmare had been too much for many of them.

  “Sonic alarm. I've heard of it but never experienced it,” Quinna said, puckering her lips and sticking a finger in her ear to clear it. She winced, feeling a major migraine coming on. She thought of reporting to the captain with the delay and the headache got a lot worse. Great. There was no recourse of course; she had to do her duty. She turned and searched for a working comm. panel.

  ñChapter 2

  The housekeeping robot reported it has completed the corridor, and was returning just as the last of the crew exited the bay. This was going to be interes
ting he thought as the hovering robot came to his door. He watched through its feed as it came to the door, and the startled guards hesitated as it activated the door and entered the room. It hovered over to him and he grabbed it, and then looked at the guards. “Can I help you gentlemen with something?” he asked casually. One looked at him in disbelief, but the other snarled and slapped the door key pad, shutting the door. Shrugging the engineer went back to packing his gear, and then changed into his skin suit.

  “Skin suit?” Sprite asked as the shoulder seal wove itself into his arm.

  “Security precaution,” Defender responded. “Prudent. If they attempt to remove the atmosphere he will be protected.”

  “We would have protected him anyway,” Sprite said.

  “That remains to be seen. It is still wise to be cautious,” Defender responded. “I have used the house cleaner robot to access the security system in the corridor outside,” Defender reported.

  “Show me,” he said packing gear.

  Defender tapped the security system, and it showed him his corridor, as well as bits and pieces of shots from still functioning sections nearby. He had it pull in to the party outside the shuttle bay, and frowned as the woman informed the captain that the shuttle was protected.

  “That's Quinna the chief engineer admiral,” Sprite informed him.

  “Great,” he said. “So this isn't a casual act of theft. Even better. At least they didn't wait until we were in hyper before they tried this,” he said coming to a decision. It was definitely time to leave. He wasn't happy about being stuck on the mud ball in this system, but right now any port in a storm....

  He picked up that they were planning to strip the shuttle and either enslave or space him, and he growled darkly over the idea. “So, that tears it,” he snarled. He could feel Defender pulling up his systems and booting his shields. “Sprite, Comm. the bridge,” he ordered.

  “Yes? Who is this?” a voice asked testily. He winced at the harmonics in the voice. The volume was also all over the place.

  “This is admiral Irons. I am assuming I am speaking with the executive officer of this ship. Am I not?”

  The voice sputtered. He snorted as he finished closing his duffel. “There have been four security breach attempts on my shuttle. Would you care to explain?” he demanded.

  “Who the hell is that?” another voice asked. He could hear the exec shushing someone in the background.

  “I'm going to check out my shuttle. Make sure there hasn't been any damage,” he said.

  “You can't do that. Remain in your quarters,” the exec snarled.

  “If you do not wish for my company then I will leave. I'll even be nice and not demand my money back for trading with you,” Irons growled. “I suggest you keep out of my way. You won’t like the consequences if you don't,” he growled coldly. The sputtering exec was cut off as Sprite cut the circuit. The engineer shouldered his bag & toolkit, and then pulled out a stunner. He didn't really need the weapon, his own arm can act as a stunner, but the threat of the actual weapon can be a better deterrent than his arm.

  He tried to open the door, and found it locked. A quick hand on it unlocked it. Before he opened it a stop sign appeared on his HUD. He hesitated.

  “Admiral; the female chief engineer, identified as Quinna O’Mallory is on her way, as are the exec and several more guards.” Defender reported.

  The AI opened the door and he stepped out in the corridor. Surprised, the guards protested, and he brandished his stunner and then ordered them into the room. Startled one stepped forward and he stunned him. The man crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut. The other stepped back, eyes wide.

  “Take him in there,” he said, motioning with his stunner. “Son don't try to be a hero,” he growled. The kid shook his head, sweating heavily. He had him drag his partner into the room. Closing and locking the door, the engineer made his way to the shuttle bay.

  “I'm trying to cover for you the best I can admiral, I can spoof a camera if we're near, but not all,” Sprite cautioned.

  “I know. Do your best,” he replied.

  Sprite informed him the direct path was cut off. She pulled up the ship schematic and gave him alternate routes on his HUD in different colors. He stepped into an alcove when his sensors reported the exec coming, and smiled at the shocked tones when the exec and crew noticed the cleaned and repaired corridor.

  “What the hell's going on here? Who did this? Are we in the right corridor? Did we make a wrong turn?” First mate John Warner demanded, looking around in confusion.

  “No, we are where we're supposed to be sir...” the guard said.

  “Oh I've so got to talk to O'Mallory about this; maybe she had someone do it? Why? Why the hell now?”

  O'Mallory was having her own troubles as she got a report that the reactor was having trouble. They had stepped it back another increment to try to keep the bottle stable but it was barely keeping ignition temperatures now. They had planned on doing that anyway so they could install the new parts once they were checked out. She had been shocked and pleasantly surprised when all of them had without a problem.

  That however had taken a couple of hours to complete. Most of life support was now thrown onto the jury rigged secondary systems by now. Of course most of those systems were super conductor batteries, all well past their impedance and projected working lifetimes. Oh there were a few solar cells on the hull, but nowhere near enough for all the bodies on this ship.

  “O'Mallory did you send a crew to fix this hallway?” Warner demanded, cutting off her thoughts.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked, slowing and then stopping.

  “Someone did a bang up job in here. I don't know why,” the exec replied. “If you didn't do it, who did?”

  “Jerry said that admiral guy was fixing stuff in the hallway a while ago,” Marko said behind O'Mallory. She turned on him with a scowl.

  “What did you just say?” she demanded.

  “I said that um,” he looked a little sheepish. “That Jerry saw that admiral guy doing stuff in the hallway outside his quarters. Fixing stuff you know?”

  “And you didn't report this why? Why the hell didn't Jerry for that matter?” O'Mallory rounded on the hapless tech.

  “Cause we didn't think it was a problem. The guy wasn't breaking anything hell! He was fixing it! What's wrong with that?” he demanded.

  “Apparently this guy knows his way around a wrench,” Leia said grimacing.

  “Apparently so,” Warner snarled. “I'm at his quarters. The guards were locked inside. He somehow picked the lock and stunned one and then he had Hadji drag his partner into the room.”

  “Great, so he's on the loose?” O'Mallory demanded, rubbing her temples. Could this day get any worse?

  Irons monitored the communication from the exec to the chief, and chuckled at her confusion. The exec entered the room and ordered the guards out, and reported to the bridge that the admiral was loose and armed. The engineer grimaced and ordered Defender to lock the ship down.

  “Admiral I'm not even sure that is possible. Or advisable,” Sprite said as she felt Defender's efforts through their joint link. Since the Admiral was out of his room and on the move Defender was using the Fleet Launch to invade the ship's systems remotely.

  He heard the slamming doors and felt the gravity fall off. The lights flicker and shut off, and he felt the panic on the communication’s channels before they too shut down.

  Sprite watched engineering go into panic as the bottle began to fluctuate uncontrollably. “As I was saying admiral, it was not advisable. Cascade bottle failure is imminent.” The AI informed him the reactor’s harmonic was beginning to destabilize containment and he grimaced.

  “Oops,” he said trying to think. He didn't want to kill hundreds of people. Not if he could help it. After a minute he came to a reluctant decision. “Sprite, open a channel to the bridge.”

  “Are you sure admiral?” Sprite asked as he paused.
/>   “Just do it before I change my mind,” he growled.

  “Okay...” Sprite opened a channel to the bridge and waited for the captain to stop cursing.

  “Things not going as planned captain?” Irons asked amused.

  “Who the hell is this?” the captain snarled, looking around his bridge.

  “Admiral Irons. Your guest. Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons, Federation Navy. It seems you have a serious situation. One we both have had a hand in causing. The question is where do we go from here?” he asked.

  The captain paused, looking around. He wasn't sure what to do. He'd heard that Irons was some sort of jumped up officer but he'd thought it was some sort of ploy, a con artist using it to get around the galaxy. Now he wasn't sure.

  “Sprite course to main engineering,” Irons said.

  “Sprite?” The captain asked, clearly confused.

  “My AI Captain. Sprite is a smart AI assigned to me before I went into stasis.”

  “Okay...”

  “I suggest Chief O'Mallory cut nonessential services and evacuate decks that have problems with plasma leaks or overloaded life support. I'm on my way to main engineering.”

  The captain looked at the security chief who was scowling down at his board and pressing buttons. He looked up and shrugged. Q’Bert was a good Naga but not very good with computers.

  “Can you help?” The captain asked looking up at the ceiling. He felt bleak, like his whole world was coming down around him. Which in a way it was, he'd spent his entire life on Kiev, he'd been born in her sickbay fifty years ago and from the look of things he was liable to die here. Soon.

  “I'm certainly going to try Captain. I suggest you set up a Goth plan, a Go To Hell Plan. Essentially evacuating the ship to the planet with whatever shuttle craft you have.”

  “I...” the captain looked down and wiped at his sweaty brow. The heat exchangers were already offline. “I'm not sure we can do that. I know we can't. We only have one functional shuttle other than well, yours and well...”