“We?”
A young Veraxin peeked out from behind the control housing and waved an upper arm. Its mandibles wiggled. O'Mallory's peripheral vision caught the movement and looked at the Veraxin for a moment.
“We. I took on a couple of apprentices to do this. We also means my AI Proteus and Sprite. Proteus is overseeing the physical repair. Sprite is working on the software.”
“Which is ready for tuning when you are admiral,” Sprite reported over the net. O'Mallory looked up to the speaker and then back to Irons. He shrugged.
“Okay so we're not all as fast as a certain smart-aleck AI,” he said nettled. O'Mallory's lips pursed in an almost smile.
“We're ready admiral,” Jer'uk chittered. “When you are of course,” she said. He looked over to the Veraxin and nodded.
“Finished here,” he said picking up the sub assembly and putting it into the governor housing. “Chief, if you want to watch that's fine but...”
“I'm going. Fascinating though,” she said taking the pointed hint. It would be fascinating at any other time period but she didn't want to distract the admiral now. Besides she had to check on the one thousand and one other projects currently about to blow up in her face.
“Another time chief. Putting the physical bits together is easy. It's the tuning that's tedious. And when we get to working on the shield emitters then it has to be done all over again,” he sighed. She nodded and left the compartment as he swung about with the part.
Irons put the finishing touches on the hyperdrive and then sat back. The last sim had done well. Tuning had been a pain, ten hours of annoying fiddling, but Jer'uk's suggestions had helped. He'd had to step the drive back until the rest of the ship's systems could be brought back up to spec. It was annoying but necessary. They had to walk before they could run.
He looked around the room. He was in main engineering; most of the crew had watched the sim or participated in it. A few were running the numbers now, checking over the specs that had been pulled from the sensors. The chief was nearby, leaning over the shoulder of one of her techs and moving her lips as her finger scrolled through the readouts.
“Admit it admiral... you'd of built a damn ship if we hadn't come along,” O'Mallory accused him. Irons turned to her with a raised eyebrow but she wasn't having any of it. She just smiled at him good naturedly right back.
“Maybe,” he said with a shrug. “You are forgetting the required raw material.”
“Oh I'm not forgetting. You'd probably dig up dirt or something.”
“More along the lines of finding a nice asteroid and setting up shop there,” Irons admitted with a snort of amusement.
“First time I've heard this plan,” Sprite said sounding annoyed. Irons grinned faintly.
“I don't tell all my plans. Besides, it was a very remote possibility. One I'm glad I don't have to exercise anytime soon,” he said with a shrug.
“True,” Sprite said. He could tell by her tone she wasn't going to let it go though. He was probably going to be bugged about it and other future plans later. He hid a sigh of annoyance.
“Personally I like traveling on an established ship. Kiev is all right. Once we get more of her repaired she'll give other freighters a run for their money.”
O'Mallory looked around, gauging the amused looks from her eavesdropping crew. A few caught her looking and made themselves look busy. She snorted as she returned her attention to the admiral.
“True. I for one am glad you're here. Let's see if we can use as much of your skills as we can. I'd like to squeeze every drop out of Kiev.”
“That's what I'm here for chief. Lead the way to the next project,” he said motioning to her with his hand. She smiled and pointed.
“To the shield emitters then. I want to see what you can do there and then we'll see about that hull breach on deck seven. Maybe you can come up with something to patch the hole. I think eighty years is long enough to fix a breach.”
“Slave driver,” he teased with a smile. She smiled back.
“You asked for it,” she said.
“Don't I know it,” he mock grumbled. “But yeah, I'm all for it.”
“Good. Let's put your lazy ass to work then,” she said.
“Lazy? Me?”
“You've been idle for this entire conversation right?” she asked amused.
He opened his mouth and then closed it with a glare as a nearby tech giggled. “Wow. Got me there. Okay, lead the way,” he replied with a nod.
The ship had shield emitters all over her exterior hull. The most important emitters of course were the bow emitters. It did the ship no good to plow into something at near C so they were kept up at the expense of the other emitters. But by sacrificing others or patching in parts that weren't built for the coverage the ship's overall shields were barely up to the task of warding it from radiation, let alone a stray meteor. Most of the ship had bare radiation coverage. That explained that hull breach he had helped patch the first week he'd come aboard. Well, technically the shields had been offline but still.
Reluctantly he concentrated his efforts on the bow emitters as they got underway. It's a spectacular sight, being on the hull of a ship when she is underway. The planet Triang, a brilliant marble of white, green, and blue receded aft as the ship came about and then moved to the Antigua jump point.
He heard a sound on the open radio channel and turned to its source. The tech stopped what he was doing as he knelt near an emitter. “Sorry. I was about to say 'are we really going to do this?' It sort of hit me all at once. I think I'm dreaming and don't want to wake up,” the tech said. He sounded bemused at the thought.
“Let's focus on the task at hand then. A little less dreaming and a little more concentration,” O'Mallory said, looking up from where she was on the hull. Irons looked over to her and then back to the emitter he was in front of. O'Mallory had on a battered orange suit that was a bit big for her. It said boss lady on the back in bright reflective white tape.
He had deliberately chosen the worst node. The node with the weakest field and most likely to fail. It was probably well past it's service life and teetering close to max impedance. He started unscrewing the screws holding the cover plate down.
“It is freaky how you can do that,” a tech commented. Irons looked at his bare arm which had morphed into a powered screwdriver for the task at hand.
“You get used to it,” Irons replied, pocketing the screw in his utility bag and then moving on to the next.
“We've got a weld here chief,” a tech reported sounding irritated. Irons grimaced. They had run into some stripped and broken bolts and now welds. Some of the welds were from something overheating or electricity arcing on the hull but in a few instances they had found someone had welded a door shut instead of screwing it shut. That was slowing down their progress. Fortunately his replicator was still stuck on the parts for the first emitter now. He'd initialized it and kept in contact through the radio.
“Break the weld. Use a grinder or sawzall if you have to. Get it done.” O'Mallory ordered, clearly annoyed at the distraction.
“Use a drill if it's a tack or button weld. Bore it out but be careful of anything behind it,” Irons suggested.
“Right, we know the drill,” the tech replied nettled.
“Glad someone does,” O'Mallory muttered. A few techs looked her way. She indicated to them to get back to work. They turned and returned their attention to the tasked at hand.
Irons pulled the last bolt out and then stepped back as his assistant pulled the panel off. He frowned as bits and cables drifted up and out. One of the power cables had shorted and welded itself to the inside of the cover. The tech turned it so they could see the damage.
“Not good.”
“Not what I expected but it's something we can repair. Bridge is this emitter powered down?” he asked over the command frequency.
“Emitter is down now. We need that back up quickly,” the ops officer replied. “We've cut acceleration
for now.”
“And I bet the captain is foaming at the mouth,” Irons said dryly, making sure he wasn't transmitting that last. “Roger that,” he said opening the channel once more. “We'll get this done quickly. Be advised there are shorts all over the inside cover. All crews beware of your node cover plates. They could be live,” he warned.
“Lovely,” O'Mallory sighed.
“Should we really be doing this? I mean while we're underway?” a tech asked.
“No time like the present. We'll do our best.” Irons moved in and reached out with his right hand. His hand morphed, plugging into the jacks as micro manipulators unfolded and began to repair the surface damage. He could feel his nanites moving into the node.
“It is as we feared, emitter is near max impedance. I am repairing the short. I've uploaded a manifest of parts. Please get them here ASAP if you want this node back.”
“Roger. We're sort of in a hurry. I so don't want the ship to run into anything with the shield cap down.”
“You and me both,” Irons replied. “We're working on it. Get those parts in motion bridge.”
“Roger that.”
It took about ten minutes to get the parts he and the others had requested out to them. While he was waiting he had pulled the old parts and had a tech run them back to the airlock to be recycled.
After a half hour he finished up and stepped back to let the tech plug in the power cables. He gently explained what to do and then watched as they did it. When they were finished the electronics came alive and he could feel Sprite reaching out through his transmitter to have the emitter's processors run a POST check.
“POST is positive. All lights are green. We'll need to re-tune the emitter but she's alive again admiral. Field is stable,” Sprite reported thirty seconds later.
“Good. Next?” he asked. “You can handle the cover plate right?” he asked the techs around him. They nodded. He handed over the bolts and then turned to the nearest emitter.
“We're getting some funky error codes here,” the tech there said looking up from the tablet in his hands.
“Interaction with the node I just finished repairing. On my way,” Irons replied.
After a marathon double shift O'Mallory called the crews in for rest. They were tired and sweaty but triumphant. Irons nodded as they exited the lock and started shucking the EVA gear. “Damn. Did we do good or just a minor patch job?” a weary but exhilarated tech asked.
“Who knows,” another deadpanned pessimistically. Irons wasn't sure if the tech was just being a smart ass or really didn't know or care if it worked. Not a good sign.
“We did well. Not as good as a full replacement but that will suffice to get us up a couple of more octaves. I'm still going out to work on the other emitters as soon as I recharge,” Irons replied.
“Shit,” a tech muttered.
“Relax. Second shift can handle it,” Irons said. A hand was raised.
“Yes?”
“We're second shift. First and second,” A female gorilla said dryly.
“Oh. Um, well, third?” he asked. She shook her head. He looked at O'Mallory. She took her helmet off and tucked it under one arm and then took a long swig of water from a sports bottle an EVA tech handed her.
“Don't look at me,” she said. “I'm wiped out,” she said.
“The Scarab?” he asked.
“What about it?” she asked. They had used the Scarab to run the larger parts from the boat bay to the crews. It had been a hassle, each time they had had to evacuate the boat bay and then open it to space to get a load out. Finally Irons had told them to just stack the parts and run them all at once. That had worked better.
“Okay, I can do it on my own,” he said.
“Absolutely not,” she said shaking her head.
“Chief, I'm fine. I'm a...”
“Admiral I don't have to remind you of the buddy system do I?” she asked testily. He stopped and sighed.
“Okay then... what do you suggest?” he asked looking around the compartment. All the techs were looking away, trying to pretend like they weren't there.
“I suggest we get some downtime. One shift minimum. While we're doing that you can go over the readouts from the other emitters and replicate the common parts. That way we can plug and play what we can in the time we've got.”
“I'm already doing that chief,” he said with a smile.
She studied him for a moment. He cocked his head, returning her gaze. She shook her head and wiped her sweatband off. “Figures,” she muttered.
“I'll have enough parts for two emitters in an hour. But then I'm out of material again,” Irons reported.
“Shit,” she sighed. She knew what that meant. Without more material the replicator was down. Something they didn't like to do. The replicator was working nonstop.
“If I swap out the broken parts we'll have some more material. But some of the parts are replacement parts for stuff that was yanked out to replace parts in the bow emitters.”
“You don't have to tell me what I already know Irons,” she said testily. “I'm thinking.”
“Okay,” Irons said nodding as the techs around them started to strip and change. The pong in the air was strong enough to cut with a knife. Too many warm sweaty bodies in too confined quarters.
“Okay,” she coughed after a moment and waved a hand over her mouth. “I think I've come to a decision. We get the hell out of here, get some food and then I'll chase someone up to buddy with you. Then the rest of us get some downtime while you work.”
“Chief...” a tech said. She looked over to him. “Not complaining or anything but...”
“It doesn't have to be an engineering tech. Someone suit qualified will work. They can play gopher while I tear into the guts of the emitters,” the admiral suggested.
“That might work,” O'Mallory mused. “I've got a couple of people in mind. I can have them practice with you since they are green. Do them good to get some hull time.”
“Works,” Irons said with a nod. He looked around to the compartment. The suits were all heavily patched. One man had a sleeve that was too long. He winced and made a note to do something about it later.
Irons took the greenhorns out with only a slight hesitation over their status. There were three, all Terrans. It quickly became apparent that they had all had some hull time so he became less concerned about watching over them to make sure they didn't do anything stupid.
“We're good admiral. I'm careful,” a tech said waving a hand as she anchored herself with a safety line. “And Barry's got a crew in the Scarab for SAR if someone goes Dutchman on us.”
“Don't even talk about that,” someone else growled. He was holding a set of tools and looked nervous about having one hand full. “I've done this before but damn. It's hard to walk with your hands full.”
“Next one we'll see if we can get the Scarab to give us a ride,” Irons replied as he moved.
As he worked on the emitters the techs peppered him with questions. Normally it would be a distraction but since they were waiting on a run of parts it passed the time. He filled them in, explaining the basic theory and then pointing out individual subsystems.
When they finished that ring of emitters he escorted them back into the ship. The techs were tired but excited. He smiled politely as they stripped and moved out as the next shift took their place.
“Still going out?” O'Mallory asked as she pulled her EVA suit from her locker. She tossed him a water bottle. He caught it and tucked them under one arm.
“Definitely chief,” he said, unhooking the hose from the recharge station. “I'm recharged and ready when you are,” he said with a smile.
“Not quiet refueled,” she said, tossing him an energy bar. He caught it and chuckled. “You're welcome,” she said lifting her foot up to the bench to remove her boots. He turned away, giving her some privacy as he ate quickly. A tech handed him a second water bottle and he sucked it down.
“Are you like made out
of the Iron you are named after?” a tech asked.
“No man it's the implants,” another tech answered, ducking to get into his suit. His was a generic suit, not a skin suit most professional EVA techs took for granted.
“It's that and training,” Irons answered. One of the other techs had her blue suit on, or at least the bottom. The top had its sleeves tied around her waist. She had her helmet under one arm. It had a mohawk on it. “I've been doing this sort of thing for nearly a century. Try repairing a ship in a battle. That's freaky.”
“I can imagine,” a tech said dryly as looks were exchanged. Irons shrugged them off.
“Let's leave it at imagining please,” O'Mallory said, putting her sweat band on and then cocking her head to stick her earwig on. She did a quick mike check and then nodded.
The midship emitters were difficult to repair but they managed to get a bare minimum up and running at the end of the shift. Irons knew that balancing the load was going to be a royal pain in the ass. The crew is experienced now in the tasks and equipment so they moved faster at their assigned tasks. The emitters that were stripped clean were bypassed. They would have to do something about them in Antiguan space. For now he'd have to make sure the EPS system routed around them.
The aft emitters were the worst of the lot. O'Mallory is enthused when they find an intact emitter that had been knocked off the net by a broken plasma line. Repaired it had come online all green.
Another emitter had its electronics shorted by something. Irons had explained how to strip the node down and repair it. He wasn't happy about the damage though. The node's breakers should have protected it. It bode ill for some of the other emitters. Even if they hadn't been fried the spike might have done other damage.
“The bridge is balancing the load,” Sprite informed him as second shift started to wrap up.
“Oh?”
“I believe the captain is about done with waiting on our repairs,” Sprite informed him.
“Ours?” he asked.
“Okay mostly yours. Yours, the crew's, and Proteus,” she said dryly. Irons snorted. “He wants to get underway again,” she added.
Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) Page 16