New Dawn (Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  "Oh, never mind, we got it back." He sighed. The echo and yelling was getting on his nerves.

  "Mr. Admiral? Molly says not to yank anything important, we're in hyper," a more girlish voice said. He sighed again

  "Yes, I know that!" He let the exasperation creep into his voice. He heard the girl turn and say he didn't need to be sarcastic. He sighed. He fed the next ODN cable through the clips then quickly unplugged the old one and plugged the new in. He had to move fast down the crawlspace to patch the other end in. "Hey, we lost the navigational feed!"

  He swore. The backup should have kicked in. "Sprite?" He felt the ship shudder.

  "No good Admiral, too many circuits are down." He plugged the free end into the jack. "Okay in. I am taking momentary control... Okay, they're balanced again," she reported as the ride smoothed. He sighed in relief.

  "That was a little too close Admiral, I agree, let’s stop while we're ahead?" Sprite commented. "Good point," he grunted.

  "I better check the backup systems out and work on them first," Proteus said, clearly chastened by the close call. Proteus plotted the back up control run.

  "Send in the back up lines!" he called after a moment.

  "What?"

  "The backup lines, near the port...um left side of the hatch!" He waited.

  "Oh, found them!" He heard them scrambling. "Here they are!"

  He felt something bump his foot. "Great." He crawled to a cross corridor, then did a three point turn.

  He went back and grabbed the cables, then backed them into the crawlspace. When he got to the first run he stopped and plugged the end in. The first line lit, the second didn't. "Got a problem here." He observed.

  "It is further upstream Admiral, nothing you can do here."

  He looked it over. "Yeah, all right." He crawled backwards to the cross corridor, then repeated his three point turn.

  Okay, next one let’s see..." Proteus highlighted the backup line on his HUD.

  "Got it," he said. He crawled over to it, and then rolled onto his back. He fed the line through the clips, then removed the old line and jacked the ODN cables in.

  "First is green Admiral. Second is dead. Third is... Flickering. Intermittent fault upstream. Looks like a UART about to go belly up."

  He sighed as he coiled the old cables. "All right, add it to the list. Next?"

  “So what are you doing in there? How can you see?” Molly called up from the entrance to the space. The echoing sounds made him wince.

  “I've got good eyes,” he called back, looking at her. He watched with low light vision as she blocked the crawl space entryway. He took a moment to study her, and then he went back to work. “Molly, why don't you go replicate a tool kit, engineer's kit two I think, just make sure it has an LED flash light and work light, that way you can join me,” after a moment she left.

  "So, how long until we reach the next port of call?" he asked. He'd just finished the wiring job and was out of the tubes for a moment. He checked the ships stats then blanched. "D note of Alpha band?"

  Sprite pulled up the hyperdrive specs. "I don't think it's the hyperdrive as much as the other systems. Most of the navigational systems are patched from civilian ships. Most of the hyperspace sensors are degraded or down." A ship's silhouette was projected, with its sensor cones and blind spots. "There's a seventy percent probability that they are not comfortable with higher transit speeds. The reaction times would have to be high, since the sensors are myopic."

  He nodded. "So, replacing the sensors, computer hardware, software, balancing the shields, remaking the hyper collector, rebuilding the navigational suite, and what else?" He opened an office program and began to list things. Sprite of course took over and did it faster.

  "Well, to get into the higher beta and gamma bands the fusion reactor, shield nodes, and hyperdrive will need to be overhauled. The fuel supply will need to be upgraded; they are currently using semi pure hydrogen," she reported.

  He winced. "That is going to mean a lot of radiation damage."

  Sprite scanned the records. "There's only a partial log, the computer system is...wild. It looks like the previous ship's Captain managed a partial purge before expiring."

  The AI projected a hash of code. "What we have here is a failure to communicate. They didn’t just patch in civilian hardware, there is also civilian grade software and... viruses," she said in distaste.

  He shook his head. "They used what they had on hand to salvage the ship I guess."

  Sprite projected her head onto his HUD. "No, some of this is dated prior to the ship's last action," she reported, clearly annoyed.

  He looked over to the bulkhead, trying to suppress his surprise and shock. "You’re telling me they were using civilian grade materials on a fleet tender? For heaven's sake why? This ship can make anything it or an entire fleet needs!"

  He shook his head, then got up and paced. "From what I have pieced together the Federation navy was in dire straits before the end of the war," Sprite said.

  He shook his head. "That still doesn't explain why they would use that crap," he sighed.

  "Actually, since replicator 1 was in diagnostic mode and replicator three was locked out with a bus fault, the assumption could be made that the navy's choice of... organic personnel left a lot to be desired," Sprite commented dryly.

  "You mean dregs,” he said, clearly unhappy at the thought.

  "So, definitely need a fusion core overhaul and new fuel supply to get into the higher bands," he added that to his file.

  "Yes, a consistent power supply that doesn't give an occasional burp is vital. You know of course I can do that," she said souding annoyed. He snorted. Sprite always hated it when he did things it could do for him.

  "Just keeping in practice." He looked over the list.

  "Start with the easy things and work our way down?" Sprite highlighted the sensors. "If you can concentrate on this, I can dive into the net and try to rebuild it."

  "Ho boy, what a mess," Sprite pulled up a directory and showed it to him.

  Proteus highlighted various areas where memory was down or corrupted. "Admiral, there are so many problems, I don't know where to start, the hash of civilian and military hardware and software..."

  He sighed. "You have the antivirus and firewall up right?" Sprite lit a green light on his HUD.

  "Updated it with ours right? With a firewall? Heuristic virus scanning too?" Again the green light. "Then it seems to me you've made a start. Clone the antivirus bots and sick them on different mainframes but set them to quarantine not kill, we don't want to muck up the code if something has a tendril or two wired." Again the green light.

  "Bots released," Sprite said a moment later.

  He nodded leaning over to unscrew a panel. "Okay, start disinfecting non essential systems, start with life support. Have Proteus help you since it was designed to repair both hardware and software. Proteus, give her a decision tree, directory tree..."

  "Already working on it Admiral, uploading the software directory tree for life support, communications, and a basic OS."

  He nodded. "Before you implement anything, scavenge the net for driver files and DLL files, copy them to a root directory, then get to work. Clone them and patch them where needed, alter the clones to fit where needed."

  "Okay, I see where you’re going with this. Can I borrow the other AI when needed?” Sprite asked. Defender put up a red light.

  "I think what Defender means is that he needs to watch my back. Proteus can help when I am not using him."

  Sprite sighed. "This is insane."

  He chuckled. "Welcome to the real world. Just make sure you don't recompile something vital, or something someone will notice," he smiled.

  "Or do any major code surgery during jump?" Sprite teased back. He shuddered. "Yeah, good point," she said after a moment and then nodded. "I can locate the changes needed and write a patch program, then make the changes when we exit hyper. It will eat into the processor cycles though." He nodde
d.

  "Stamp out the viruses first, and make minor repairs. Keep it simple and with limited to life support and noncritical systems," he ordered.

  She nodded. "Aye aye Admiral. With your permission, I will be in the network," she said formally.

  He chuckled, "Go on, and get out of here. You always love playing in a net."

  The door opened and Jennie peaked in. "Are you talking to me Admiral?"

  He shook his head. "No, just working up a to do list and working on the software repairs." He picked up his toolbox by the door. "Shall we?"

  The hologram was starting to become normal to the crew, they were not oohing and ahing it he thought wryly as he checked the audience. Two days and they were getting better. "All right ladies, here is a ship's schematic." He sent a signal and a network of lines appeared, all branching out of a single source. "All right, these lines are the plasma conduits. They all start here, at the fusion reactor. There's a secondary set here, for the antimatter reactor, but those have no fuel. I noticed someone has been scavenging them for parts as well." He waved and those faded out.

  "Now, here's the main trunk going to the primary ship systems." He traced his finger along the thickest line. It highlighted and blinked. "This line goes to the hyperdrive, engines, as well as the critical ships systems like shields and life support." Each branch glowed a different color. After a moment they faded. "Now, these smaller branches come off the main line to feed secondary systems, and then branch out more and more to feed individual systems on the different decks." He rotated the ship's profile so they could see it from different angles.

  "It looks like a tree," one girl said.

  "More like a sponge., another replied.

  Molly shook her head. "No, it looks like the veins and arteries of a body," she said. The Admiral looked over to her and nodded.

  "That's right it does!" One of the girls snapped her fingers and nodded. "I remember now! I saw the doctor staring at a picture of a body with lines like this!" She looked excited and studied the image.

  "Good. Now, here are the bleeds and breaches." Areas that were breached or bleeding cut off or started to bleed. "Most of them are locked down, but we still have signs of some loss of pressure, so we know some of the leaks aren't contained. They may be venting in the unpressurized decks." A few looked alarmed. He nodded. "Right, the ship is slowly bleeding to death."

  Molly sighed. "And that is why we're here, to come up with a plan to fix this," she said as she waved.

  "Oh, not just stop it, but to rebuild it," the Admiral replied.

  She looked over to him and smiled. "One thing at a time," she said. He smiled as she blushed and dimpled, realizing she had used one of his phrases.

  "Okay, next up are the ODN lines. Think of them as the ship's nervous system." He pulled up the ODN lines. "Unlike the plasma conduits, the ships ODN cables are distributed, with the only critical trunks going to the bridge and engineering. All other lines are in a cluster network formation," he explained. The women looked confused. He shrugged.

  "Sorry, techno speak," he said. Molly giggled. "Okay, what I mean to say is, each deck and each system has their own computers, so they only have communication lines running between the systems. They have multiple lines for redundancy." He zoomed into the navigational module and highlighted each bus in turn. "If one bus is damaged or is under repair, others will take up the load. The plasma conduits have a similar network, but it is not as advanced," he explained.

  Jennie nodded in understanding. "And the ODN cables only carry light so they're tiny and don't need as much space."

  He nodded. "That's right. Each computer system has its own redundant network, communications, navigation, engineering, and so on," he said highlighted each.

  "But each can also share in the other networks if their own goes down. But there is a loss in bandwidth." He ran a scenario showing this. Graphs of usage popped up.

  Molly looked them over and nodded. "And that's what's happening now?" she asked. He nodded.

  "Yes, we have a lot of systems out because of damage to the power conduits or optical network, so some systems have to be rerouted or do not run at all." He highlighted the affected areas. "Now, if we can patch in new conduits and cables, we can repair some of the less damaged systems, and the ship will be able to adapt better."

  Jennie nodded. "Okay, I get that, but what about this? And how do we get the materials?" she asked.

  He looked over to where she was pointing. "That's a broken conduit to a trio of shield emitters on the port side. Once we fix the line, those shield nodes may come back on line, allowing the shields to balance better, and taking some of the excess load off of the other nodes."

  She nodded. "And the material?" she asked. He sighed.

  "Well, ODN cable is easy, it is extruded plastic. We can get a lot from recycling," he explained.

  Molly nodded. "I saw that you’re making spools of it," she said.

  He nodded. "Yes, and we'll have to have some crew do the splicing for the connections."

  She sighed. "Is it hard?" she asked.

  He shook his head. “No just tedious,” he said. She grimaced.

  "Okay, I'll get Misha and Dorah on it," she said coming to a reluctant decision.

  He nodded. "Okay, the conduit is a bit trickier. We'll have to shut down the leaking sections, isolate them, then remove the damaged or destroyed conduit and recycle it or rebuild it," he sighed. What he was describing was a lot of work. "It'll take time, plasma is nasty, and can be radioactive." Some of the women shuddered at that.

  "Unfortunately, superconductors have an impedance issue; they shut down after they are used for a time under load and need to be replaced," he said patiently.

  Molly looked up from her tablet. "Is that why they fail?"

  He nodded. "Well, that's one reason," he admitted.

  She nods. "So, we'll need to recycle some of it, and rebuild as much as we can."

  He pointed to the antimatter lines. “Since these aren't needed, we can recycle them for now,” he said. Molly nodded.

  "What about these other lines?" Trisha asks, pointing to them. Sprite highlighted them.

  "Oh, those are the other systems. Coolant, water, sewage, air conditioning..." He pointed to them, one by one.

  Jennie nods and slaps the table. "When do we start?" Some of the others jump up excitedly. The Admiral handed each of them a tablet.

  "Wow! There is so much to do!" Molly looked at the list dismayed.

  "That's just page one. There is a lot more," Jennie pointed out, touching the top button to scroll to the next page.

  "A hundred pages? How are we ever going to get through all that?" Molly practically screeched. "One thing at a time," the Admiral replied with a chuckle. "That is how we do things; we prioritize, and then work through the list, one at a time."

  Jennie nodded as Molly frowned, clearly uncertain. "And we won’t do everything on our own, and the entire crew will help, and learn as we go,” Jennie said. She waved to some of the crew nearby who nodded. Some looked eager, a few wary.

  "Still, that's a lot of work!" Molly waved the tablet. "We don’t have parts for all that!" She waved. "And I don't even know what half these things are?" she sighed.

  The Admiral snorted. "You'll learn. What we don't have we will make."

  She looked up surprised and then smiled. "I forgot about the replicator!"

  He nodded. "And we have others to fix too."

  She looked stunned. "I forgot about those too!" She turned to the crew. "Come on people! We can do this!" She waved the tablet up in the air. The crew cheered.

  "Okay, let’s start small, with some basics so I can assess your skills and set a learning curve...” the Admiral said as the cheers began to fade. "Trisha, you’re into life support, so I want you to handle that starting with the most critical things. Jennie will handle computers." He nodded to her. "Um, Shakira?" You're on lights and electrical with um... Jordan right?" Sprite was rather helpful with names hovering
on his HUD over each person. The AI must have picked up the names from hearing conversation.

  The girl nodded. "Right."

  "Okay, ladies, let's get started."

  "Well well, it looks like you've been promoted. Congratulations FLEET Admiral." Sprite's voice was bubbly, with a hint of suppressed mirth.

  "What?" He turned his attention inward. "Show me," he growled. She pulled up the fleet records from the ship's deep files, scrolled through them to his name and highlighted.

  "MIA, Fleet Admiral. Nice. It looks like you were promoted when you were MIA for a year." Sprite pulled up his bio. It was a thumbnail brief, enough to identify him on a fleet ship with a brief look at his career.

  "Huh," he grunted.

  "I bet it was the bureaucrats, giving you a send off for propaganda purposes," Sprite commented, clearing the record.

  "Probably," he replied with a snort.

  "The... what do you call it...? A roster?" Molly asked, wrinkling her nose. They were in her office going over things.

  He nodded. "The roster looks good. I think we have a lot of the bases covered." She looked confused for a moment. He smiled.

  "Where does that saying come from?" Molly asked him suddenly, adjusting her glasses.

  He chuckled. "Baseball, an old sport. Pre-spaceflight I believe," he said.

  She nodded. "Oh. Well, life support is completely covered, but we're light in some of the other departments like drives and electronics." She shook her head. "Life support is shaping up, but then again, we had that one covered before." He nodded but wisely kept his council on whether it had been handled right.

  "The roster has to have three to four shifts. But we need to keep a day and night cycle so the normal biorhythms aren't affected negatively," he explained.

  He looked up from the tablet to see Molly and Jennie exchange looks. "Biorhythms? Day night cycle?" Molly wrinkled her nose.

  Jennie shrugged. "I think he means we need to keep to a daytime nighttime schedule so it doesn't mess up sleep," she said. Molly nodded then turned to the Admiral.

  He snorted. "Pretty much. We learned before space flight that even ships needs a day and night routine, some semblance of order to keep the body’s clock working right. Plants need it as well."