Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Yeah,” Gus said with a nod. “Me too.”

  “Delivery!” Fara said, coming in pushing a hover pallet loaded with parts.

  Barry used the girls to help him fabricate parts on the sligh. He tried to do it without calling in the admiral just to see how far they can go. It was frustrating though when he has to call Irons in. Irons nodded when he came by, but he was distracted. He was on a time crunch so he just logged in to get the parts going and then headed for the door. “Sorry, talk later, late for a class!” he said with a wave, leaving at a jog.

  “Well!” a female tech said. “I... how rude!” she called out. She'd done her hair just for him. Irons waved but kept going. Barry chuckled. Most of the girls were now actively flirting with the admiral, or at least trying to. They lingered over how he was so mature and 'distinguished' along with his rugged good looks. He seemed oblivious to their advances. Of course he got into projects so much he was always distracted. His rare periods of time off seemed random.

  That was what the general consensus was. Barry knew better. He'd heard that the admiral had a girl on Destiny, or he should think had. He'd heard that something bad had happened to her, so bad she'd been put in stasis and returned to Pyrax.

  “He's a busy man. Let's see if we can work on the other shuttles then while this thing bakes,” Gus said in disgust. Barry glanced at him. Most of the teenage males were just now getting into girls and weren't happy about the girls all making goo goo eyes at the admiral. He snorted and waved to the kid.

  “Let's see what we can do while that's off and running. Ladies,” he said with a nod as they exited the replicator room.

  The admiral explained force field emitter tech to an avid class at the beginning of his lecture. The class tended to jump around a bit, covering various topics of interest. It was a lively class but easy for the uninitiated to get lost in. It did keep one on their toes though. Now they were exploring energy storage methods and force based equipment. The discussion quickly went from the basics to more advanced concepts which is a pleasant surprise to him.

  "See, when you create a field you've got a blank slate right? Well, it has some edge issues but we'll focus on the main field," he said tapping the flat surface. The field rippled, absorbing the kinetic energy of his touch. One of the things his students loved about the admiral's teaching methods was that he was not only hands on; he regularly made props for them to actually touch and experience. Not just holographic files. Though the holograms made exploded views of pieces of hardware much easier to see and understand.

  Now that they had a dedicated classroom things were easier to explain. Learning on the job was okay in some instances but sometimes it was easier to pass on knowledge in a more structured and less... dangerous environment. The classroom was a part of the block of five other classrooms for the school. The school was old school, mixing kids of various ages. Even adults took some classes apparently, or at least attended them to keep busy. Some acted as teaching assistants as well.

  "Now if the field like this is a one, on, and if you make holes for offs..." he said demonstrating with the field.

  "You get a digital signal!" an excited student said catching on.

  "Binary correct," Irons said nodding to the student. The young Veraxin chittered.

  "Its how they figured out energy based equipment methods. The theory has been in place since science fiction postulated the idea over a millennia ago."

  "But any science you can't understand is tantamount to magic..." the Veraxin said nodding.

  "Where'd you here that?" Irons asked amused.

  "Ah, in my reading."

  He nodded. "Well, you're right. The end concepts were there, but not the technique on how to do it. Not the nuts and bolts. But once we had it, we build up off one module at a time. This borrows from coding and technological evolution."

  "Ah, yes I think I see."

  "Well I don't," Sara a testy student said tossing her stylus down. "I'm lost,” she said in disgust, frowning. The admiral glanced at her and then nodded.

  "Okay, well, let's have an example. Let’s say you want to make an energy based computer program. You first can write the program in binary... one module at a time," the admiral explained. He drew a series of slashes on the holographic board.

  "Say you're working on a ship. Break it down to energy based systems controlling a deck," the Veraxin chittered.

  The admiral nodded. "Good idea. So you break it down into the simplest components. Open and close hatches. Lights, fans, and so on." As he said this modules of code flashed on the holo and then formed into a block. The blocks joined others in a hierarchy.

  The tech who had complained she was lost nodded in understanding. Sara had seen some coding a few months ago. "I see. Why not just use physical systems though?"

  "We're using this as an example bear with us a moment," the admiral said. “It will become clear in a moment,” he said with a smile. He turned back to the board. "Now, once you get the modules together you start stacking and grouping them into clusters. Once you know how to do the basics people add more and more until..."

  The holo flashed and then showed a working deck with people walking around.

  "If we continue we could do an entire ship," he said.

  "But again, why..." Sara asked doggedly. She rubbed at her temples.

  The admiral flashed a smile. "Why use a force field. Right getting to that. Well, there are advantages and disadvantages to both,” he said turning to the class. “A physical system is a dedicated system that will work unless power is interrupted. The same goes for the energy based system. But the energy based system loses data when it goes down if it used an energy state ram buffer."

  "Ah," the Veraxin nodded, upper shoulders slumping.

  "Which is why they aren't used in ships much. At least not warships. We need redundant systems that can take a beating. That can hold up if we get a spike of power, and something we can easily rip out and repair without rebuilding the system. An energy system can adapt, it can be reprogrammed, but it's fallible."

  "It's only as good as its weakest link. Without the emitters, the physical emitters generating the energy they are nothing," Sara said in sudden understanding.

  The admiral nodded. “Correct." He shook his head, crossing his arms and leaning back against the desk behind him. "I like the idea, don't get me wrong, it does have some applications. You gain a lot because there is virtually no weight, just the emitters. But you need to generate power to create the fields, and it takes less than ten percent of that power to run the psychical equivalent."

  "Efficiency."

  "Correct. But as I said, energy systems do have their uses. You can set up temporary buffers to store information in an emergency, or temporary systems. Even entire control systems are possible if you can't rebuild the actual system. I haven't tried it, but I've heard the theory brooded about a bit."

  "Interesting," Sara said thoughtfully.

  "The other thing is you can use the energy systems to model a physical system for virtual testing. That makes rapid prototyping easier for some. Some of the research and development companies had gone that route about a century before the Xeno war," the admiral explained. The military hadn't bothered with such things. You could simulate a system in a computer net without making a force field version of it. That had been in practice for over a thousand years after all. It was simple and much more efficient.

  "Fascinating. But I bet they lost a lot if they lost power," The Veraxin said.

  He grimaced, knowing it was true. "They had backup generators, but I'm betting not one had a proper back up buffer. I'm not sure," he sighed, shaking his head. The class nodded in understanding.

  Numiria didn't need any incentive to lead her class into advanced training. She realized right away that in some cases she was behind her students, or just barely in tune with them. She started off by expanding on what she'd picked up from the computer database. After talking with Sprite about some of the admiral's advent
ures she explored the database for things that had been brought up. Some of the concepts Sprite had brought up in passing had been truly fascinating. She hosted a couple of open classes and talked with the captain and the ship's council. She wanted a mandatory first aid course for the serving crew. The council was amused but didn't see the harm so readily agreed. She set her nurses up to do it and then returned her own efforts to general education.

  She was surprised by the interest in the classes. Open enrollment meant a lot of people dropped in. They had thousands of people on the ship and many were bored with just existing. Many yearned to learn, if only to take the tedium away and do something with their lives.

  The topics ranged in interest. She didn't really understand the importance of a lesson plan but she did get a little frustrated when they wandered far off topic. They talked about evolution and the origin of alien species. Convergence theory and how it worked. About how the hardest thing is communication between sapient beings. Terrans had crafted a universal language in math and basic concepts to bridge most of the gap. For those species that didn't have vocal systems that were compatible genetic engineering or artificial vocoders were implemented to bridge the gap. Culture differences, view points, math... it's hard to factor them all in.

  Every time she's finished a class she had an almost heady feeling afterward. But the classes were interfering with her sleeper awakening project. She really should come up with a proper name for the endeavor, she mused.

  There were eighteen days left before break out. Already four of the awakened people had indicated that they would like to remain on Antigua if they could. She wasn't sure what to make of that. On the one hand it was good, it felt like they were getting on with their lives, and they wouldn't be a burden to the ship. However on the other hand she felt just a slight resentment for the others. It was like they weren't grateful enough to stick around. She realized it was an irrational annoyance but it lingered.

  “Something on your mind doctor?” the professor asked. Numiria flicked her ears for a moment and then shrugged as she gathered her materials. The professor was one of the first three sleepers she had awakened. He was doing his best to assimilate into the time period. It helped that he was a newly retired professor of history, he had enjoyed taking on some of the classes. He'd been appalled by the lack of knowledge and had taken a hand early on. The idea of civilization going through a dark ages was intriguing to him. He had put his long silver hair up into a braided ponytail the first day and then started pestering the staff and crew for interviews. It was amusing when she heard he liked to interview his own students.

  Numiria shook her head. “No, just getting my thoughts in order. Are you still considering leaving?” She was trying to keep from sounding hopeful. The professor was a nice guy, he was smart, but he could be a pain in the ass asking about the same story over and over again. She wasn't sure why. Thorough apparently.

  “I'd like to get out and see the galaxy,” the professor said wryly, running his hand through his silver hair. It was thin on top, something he had never bothered to correct. Part of his image. He liked the idea of being a hippy history professor so he liked to look the part. “That was why I retired and decided to travel after all,” he said and hid a grimace. “That and to meet women my own age or younger,” he admitted with a small smile.

  Numiria smiled at that last bit. “The galaxy is changed professor,” she cautioned.

  “Indeed it has. It has a lot.” He stared into the star field holographic projection for a long moment. Finding out his home world was gone had been even more of a shock to his system than finding out he had been time lost. He had no home to go back to and that bothered him.

  “Have you considered the admiral's suggestion? To go to Pyrax?” Numiria asked finally. The admiral had been one target of the professor's that had so far had thwarted his attempts at an interview.

  “To teach at the college?” He shook his head. “I'm not sure that's for me,” he said. He exhaled heavily.

  She patted him on the shoulder. “Well, there are other places to teach. And we do need your experience professor.”

  He nodded. “So I've seen. You and your people have done what you can to pass the torch of knowledge in these dark times. I commend you on your efforts,” the professor said, cocking his head.

  “We haven't been very successful. But with the admiral and people like you we will be able to get things back on the right track again. I believe that now more than ever,” she said.

  “Light at the end of the tunnel,” the professor murmured. She nodded as she followed him out of the classroom.

  The Warners met with some of the people rescued from stasis in group therapy. The ensign was doing better. She still has trouble speaking and moving about however so she let her husband handle most of the load. He definitely led the discussions.

  The lieutenant was feeling much better, feeling that he had a lot more energy than ever before. He still had migraines when he attempted to access his implants, but they were slowly going away. Or at least dulling down. He wasn't sure if it was a psychosomatic response to the trauma or not. The medics weren't sure either. He hadn't been happy about that until he realized they were still learning all this. To them it was all new and exciting. He kept forgetting that, which was annoying. He hated getting old. There was something he needed to tell them, something about his family history but for the life of him he couldn't quite remember. It was frustrating sometimes, knowing you wanted to say something but not what. He felt a pang of remorse for Rasha. She deserved better.

  Since the awakening program had begun the medical staff had perfected their technique and were now waking an average of two people a day. Recovery time was mixed, but most were out of the infirmary wards in a week.

  The nightly meetings grew out of necessity after several of the sleepers had nightmares and minor incidents. Several interesting people including a retired college professor and a boat mechanic tended to stand out over others. The boat mechanic's wife didn't survive and he was having trouble with the grief. He was anguished for the first several days but the grief was lessening over time. He is not sure why they saved him.

  The boat mechanic wandered into the machine shop one morning, twelve days before break out. He wasn't sure why they were counting down like that. Really, it was no big deal.

  He was lost, not just in the ship but in what to do with his life. Seeing the makeshift machine shop kindled his interest, however slim. He went over and stroked the side of an old press.

  Gus was put out at his intrusion but he was ensnared into the discussion of gears and cams with Bert. Bert however peppers the older man with questions on all things mechanical, ignoring the awkwardness of the initial moment. Ralph the mechanic is interested by the boy's interest in all things mechanical, and a little appalled by his ignorance. He answered the questions, sketching out details with his hands. They bond almost immediately which is surprising to both. Gus shot Barry a look as he watched the two interact. Barry shrugged it off. They integrated the mechanic into the team.

  Ralph patiently lectured the group on shop safety, stopping them to replicate plastic eyewear to protect them. He then lectured each with a safety course complete with a quiz. By the time they were finished with the project Barry had called the chief in. He had a quick consult with her before O'Mallory came over.

  Ralph is busy explaining to an enraptured Bert how a planetary gear set works. When Bert looked concerned at the chief’s approach he paused and turned. “Can I help you miss?”

  She crossed her arms, studying the older man. She'd heard there were a few engineers and mechanics in the sleepers but so far none had seemed interested in helping out until now. “My name is Chief Quinna O'Mallory. I'm the chief engineer. You are my new machine shop steward. Are you up for the challenge?” she asked simply and bluntly.

  He blinked at her a few times. Bert grinned up at him and nodded.

  “Can I take Bert on as an apprentice?” he asked finall
y.

  She looked at Bert. Bert grinned. He hadn't really been working out with Barry; they clashed on too many things. “Sure. How many can you handle?” O'Mallory asked, cocking her head.

  “Um...”

  She smiled. “Want to start out with two?” she suggested. He shrugged. “Okay, I'll put the word out. My last shop steward was injured and he's in sickbay. Doc has to put his hand back together.”

  Ralph winced. “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. He's going to be there a week. He's a bit skittish about coming back too. Since you are an old hand and you have clued these nut jobs into safety I think you'll do nicely,” O'Mallory said.

  “Thank you chief,” Ralph said, nodding. Bert was practically dancing a jig beside him. He looked at the lad and snorted softly. He reached out and ruffled the lad's hair. “Do my best,” he said gruffly.

  “Good. Both of you.” O'Mallory nodded again and then left without further word. She shot Barry a look as she left and gave him a small nod. Barry nodded and smiled a little. Ralph would do nicely here.

  The oldster had a lot of stories which the younger set loved to listen to. They seemed fascinated by his stories. The attention and fan base helped him cope. He also bonded with another senior who made it. She was younger but interested in the mechanical bits. He shyly fabricated a hand turned mechanical ballerina for her. She was fascinated and delighted by the gift. It took him a week to realize she was more interested in him than in all things mechanical. When he realized that he was flabbergasted.

  Irons ran into a geneticist who had been awoken. She was a T'clock, and she's old. Easily three centuries old and definitely in her twilight years. Irons sat and talked with her as she looked at a view screen of space. She has an embroidered shawl on her shoulders and back. Tassels dangle from its edges. “The others are finding things to do,” the scientist said. “I don't think there is a place for me.”

  “Nonsense,” Irons said. “For one the doctor could use your help repairing genetic damage to some of the other sleepers,” he said.