He nodded. "Even though they're room temperature devices they still have electricity and have to shed excess heat."
She flicked the controls and grimaced. "You mind, I'm working here," she growled. He chuckled softly.
He hit the switch and watched as the replicator booted. "This is the last one for now," Jennie studied the post report. "It looks good. So this is an electronics replicator? I thought we could do that with the other ones, why a special one?"
He nodded. "Yes, the others can, but they take a lot longer, and it takes the entire fabricator to do one part. This is specially designed to do electronics, and can reproduce parts fast." He scrolled through the menu and selected a tablet. He hit enter and waved to the small 1 meter cube. A ding sounded. "Done." He flipped the tray cover up and pulled out a finished tablet.
"See? The nanites are specialized for electronics. And the material feeds are all purified materials used in electronics." She nodded.
"Cool, can I try?" she asked. He nodded.
"Be my guest," he said stepping aside. She scrolled through the list, and then selected something and hit enter.
He checked the tablet out. "So, what else can it do?" she asked after a moment.
He shook his head. "It can do some superconductors, but it's a specialized unit. No disassemblers, so it relies on the feeds for material unlike the GP units." She nodded. The speaker dinged again. "So what did you make?" he asked as she opened the panel and fished something out.
"Oh that communication amplifier the bridge has been asking for," she said picking it up. She looked over to him and smiled.
"Show off," he chuckled.
He looked over the bridge and sighed. Besides the usual grime, wiring was hanging from the ceiling. Scorched tiles and bulkheads indicated some electrical fires in the past. The main screen was shattered. The glasses where missing, shards of glass still hung from their ceiling supports.
Each bridge station was shaped in a U. The crew member manning the station sat in the center, with displays all around them. The display consoles were one point five meters high, the top of the consoles had glass LCD displays that could fold up. Many were cracked, missing, or broken. The bridge floor was relatively clean, someone had cleaned the debris. Wiring ran from different stations to civilian electronics. A haphazard repair or replacement it seemed.
Two civilian portable computers were tied in to replace the damaged ops. He shook his head in dismay. “Bad huh?” Molly asked as she looked over to him.
The Chief turned and glared. “Get to work,” she growled.
He shook his head. “I don't know where to start,” he sighed as he set his toolbox down.
“Think we can fix it all?” Molly asked concerned. He nodded, pursing his lips in thought.
“Oh we can fix it, it'll just take time.” He looked over to the display. “Yeah, fortunately time is what we have in plenty.” He shook his head, “Let’s get started and get a diagnostic list. I have a partial one, but it's obviously not complete.” He shook his head.
“What are you doing?” He looked up to the girl looking over his shoulder. She had her hands on her knees, bent over.
“I'm pulling this.”
She looked alarmed. “We need that! Don't do that.”
He shook his head. “We patched in the milspec version already,” he said. He indicated the open electronics bay at the bottom of the station. She looked inside.
“Oh my,” she said, unsure. She looked back. “Are you sure it'll work?” she asked. He nodded. “Well, shouldn't we leave this up to be sure?”
He shook his head. “No, there's a virus embedded in it. Also it's causing three conflicts, an IRQ conflict, and it has a bad GPU.”
She looked confused. “Okay,” she said, sounding unsure. He nodded.
“Don't worry, I tested the replacement thoroughly,” he said soothingly.
She nodded. “Okay.” He disconnected the civilian power, and then pulled the data line. “What the?” the ops officer said suddenly. He heard her tap furiously. “I lost my...Oh wait, it's back,” she said. She tapped at the controls.
“Wow! It's fast!” she said, sounding surprised.
He looked up. “Milspec, without the conflicts and viruses.”
She looked confused. “What ever you say as long as it works.” She tapped the controls. “Oh, nice.” She checked it out while he finished unbolting the civilian module and setting it aside. He cut himself on a ragged edge of metal someone had cut into the panel to get the cables in.
“Oh nasty. You should see the doc,” the tech said, looking over the station. He looked up, then at his hand.
“No problem,” he said and stared. He felt Proteus stir the nanites. In a moment the bleeding had stopped. In seconds the scratch was healed. The girl gasped. He looked up. “See? All better.” he chuckled at her expression and then went back to work.
Jennie pulled herself out from under a station and bumped the seat. She looked up and got an eyeful up the crew member skirt. “Enjoying the view?” The girl said sarcastically. She tapped the controls.
Jennie blushed. “S-sorry.” She stuttered.
The tech tapped another control. Jennie finished and got up, then leaned over to the girl. “Just a suggestion, next time wear panties,” Jennie murmured. The tech blushed furiously as Jennie left.
The Admiral caught the tidbit and looked up suddenly, caught the blush then ducked as the Chief glared. He shook his head. “Okay. Madhouse. Asylum. Loony bin,” he murmured. He shut the door to the electronics bay.
“Okay next.” He handed the guard the old part. One offered her hand, but the Chief growled. Hastily she withdrew it. He sighed and helped himself up. “Okay. We can't do much with navigation until we're out of hyper. Ops are back up though.”
He checked over the station controls, the tech nodded. “We have new screens in the replicator queue,” he said. He motioned her aside. She reluctantly moved over and then checked her controls. “What are you doing I thought you said no screens are ready?” she asked.
He smiled as he unscrewed the broken screen. “This one is broken, so I can pull it.” He finished unscrewing it then pulled it out. He unhooked the cable and pushed it back. “Okay, one down.” He set it aside and went to the next.
Molly looked to what he was doing. “Pulling the broken screens?” she asked. He looked up and nodded. “Okay, I'll get the other side,” she said as she moved to the other station.
“Just don't jog my elbow.” The helms woman said.
Molly nodded. “Definitely not.” She started in with the communication station. Trisha watched her for a few moments, handing her tools, then took a screwdriver and went to work on the engineering station.
"So, you’re using a civilian grade navigational module?" Irons asked as he worked.
Shandra nodded, hands carefully guiding the joystick. "The Captain got it from a wreck. The one built into this ship was dead," she explained.
He nodded. "The purge," he said. He looked over to the module. It had been plugged into the universal ports, and then strips had been tack welded around it to strap it to the deck.
"Purge?" Shandra asked.
"When the ship was damaged beyond immediate repair the Captain and ship's AI purged the net. They wiped the navigational systems, star charts, science sections, and ram to keep it out of enemy hands."
He waved to the damaged system. "When we finish rebuilding the network hardware, I'll clone the civilian module into the new one and compile it with the data I have and what we pick up on sensors from now on," he explained.
She looked confused. "Clone? I thought cloning was a thing you do in medicine?"
He chuckled. "Well, when computer tech was in its infancy, a lot of medical terminology... That means words, came into it because they meant similar things. Like viruses. And cloning."
She nodded in sudden understanding. "A clone is an exact copy. We can leave the old hardware right there as a backup in case the new one fails or
is damaged," he said. She nodded again.
"That would probably be good, but the Purser may want to trade it," she cautioned.
He shrugged. "Not my decision."
"So, if most of the ram and AI are gone, how do we have computer software and records?" she asked suddenly.
He looked up. "Well, some of it's hardwired into the systems. Some were copied when people plugged things in. Some of it came from me." She gave him a long look. "I have a moderate storage capacity," he explained as he tapped his right chest area.
"There's a crystal hard drive in there, about a quint of data storage. Most of it's engineering stuff, manuals, stripped down Encyclopedia Galactica, and such. Also my lectures and military matters," he said.
She nodded. "I was wondering where you were getting the images and stuff, you never have time to make it, some people were saying you were a god."
He chuckled. "No, a mere mortal, with a few tools," he replied. She snorted.
“Okay, another one? What are these for?” the tech asked as she stacked the LCD's carelessly.
The other tech grabbed it before it could slide off. “Careful you ninny!” She gave her a look and then pulled the LCD off the pile and onto her cart. The hatch opened and a girl came in pushing a cart dripping with broken parts.
“Okay, so where does all this go?” The blond asked.
“Um, I don't know...” The incoming girl looked them over. “Didn't you read the chart? Scorn dripped from her voice. “The bridge dummy, we're working there today.”
The replicator tech looked up alarmed. “Oh. Wait! Isn't that dangerous?” she asked.
“We're fixing the stuff that isn't working, and pulling the broken stuff.” She looked the two over scornfully.
“Oh. Well, I didn't know,” the tech was affronted.
The blue haired girl took the loaded cart and sniffed. “Make sure you recycle those. We're going to need it.” She pushed the cart out.
The replicator tech turned to the parts girl. “Someone is putting on airs,” she said as she shook her head wryly as she fed pieces into the vat.
The other sniffed. “Snot.”
She shook her head. “She didn't have to be a bitch about it.”
"So you’re the sparks of the ship?” He turned to a grinning crew member.
“Sparks?” the communications tech asked, clearly confused by the term. He nodded. "Communications tech," he explained.
Her face cleared. "Oh yes," she nodded; hand on her communication rig covering her ears. He smiled. “Mickey mouse ears gave you away,” he said.
She looked confused, touching the earpieces again. “Oh. Okay,” she said, sounding distracted. He chuckled.
“Why is there only the one holo display? And why is the hull green?” Jennie looked over to the tech and raised an eyebrow. She blushed.
He waved to Jennie before she could tell her to be quiet. “There are only three holographic displays because it takes a lot of power to project them, and they lack the fine detail that a 2D display can do. That's why we have LCDs, as well as the clear glass LCDs,” he explained. She hadn't seen the micro holographic emitters apparently. He pointed to each on the bridge. “Also, things can be lost or misinterpreted in the depths of 3D,” he explained. He pointed to the plot, and then waved his hands to indicate the walls. “The green is a psych thing, it makes people more relaxed and at home. Personally, I prefer battleship gray.” The girls chuckled with him.
"Shandra is it?" Irons asked. They had been on the bridge for a while now, almost an entire shift. The girls had made him take some time off for a meal. The girl looked up and nodded. "Do you think you can handle a higher note?"
She looked confused, then excited. "You mean hyper?" she asked. He nodded.
"Just bump up a note to G," he suggested.
She nodded and took a bite from her fork. "Why?"
He set his tray down. "Well for one thing, it'll get us to our destination a lot faster."
She looked him over while stirring her salad. She picked out a cucumber slice then took a bite. "There are more reasons?" she asked eyes twinkling.
"Well, right now in the low alpha band we aren't getting much time compression, and therefore we aren't getting a lot of free electrons to the hyper collectors. If we can bump up a note or two, we can double our power input," he explained.
She looked confused. "But won’t that take power?" she asked.
He nodded. "Initially, but the higher note means an exponential increase in electron collection. Once we're there we can use the power to run the drive."
She nodded. "I'll take it to the Captain. Are you sure we're up for it? I thought we had a lot of structural damage?" she asked.
He took a bite of his sandwich. He chewed for a moment then swallowed and nodded. "We can handle another note. I'm not comfortable going into beta band without more work and without more training," he said.
Her eyes lit and she bounced in her chair. "You’re serious aren't you? Beta!"
One of the other girls shook her head. "We'll never get this rust bucket that high!"
The Admiral waved it off. "Oh sure we can, we just need to complete some repairs first. This is a military ship, she can handle it," he said, the galley had gotten quiet as he explained.
"With this ship's replicators we can fully restore her. Once she's back on line, and with the right skills, you can take her all the way up into the A note of Gamma if you can handle it," he said, looking around the compartment.
Shandra's eyes were wide. "Oh my goddess." Someone dropped a fork. Then the murmuring began. The chatter grew and grew. He ignored it to take another bite.
When he swallowed he held up a hand. The chattering quieted. "So you see ladies, with a lot of work, and some learning, you can have the fastest ship in the galaxy," he said with a hint of challenge in his voice. The cheers rang the compartment. The guards looked concerned for a moment, but Tara's face broke into a grin.
"Can we fix the shuttles too?" a girl asked.
He gave the small blond girl a nod. "Sure, I don't see why not. You can make more too," he said. Her eyes danced. She grabbed another girl and hugged her.
He finished the sandwich as the compartment rang with happy chatter. He bussed his tray to the counter and followed Shandra out. "Well, that went well," he murmured.
"Can we really do it?" Shandra asked.
"Think you can handle it?" he asked, another hint of challenge in his voice.
She straightened. "I come from a long line of spacers, I'll do it."
He nodded. "Okay, bring it to the Captain, I'll be in engineering." He waved as Tara escorted him off.
A few minutes later the Captain came on over the overhead. "Admiral, do you really think we can do this?" she asked, getting straight to the point.
He looked around to the watching crew then nodded. "Yes Captain, we're ready when you are," he said, knowing Sprite would open the channel.
There was a pause. "Very well then," the gravel voice replied.
In a moment Molly looked up from her console. "Power is increasing, ten terawatts, ten point one, we have transition! We're in G note! Power is leveling off, and dropping!" she said as she looked up astonished.
He smiled. "We can dial back the reactor now, to say thirty percent," he suggested. She nodded, punching in commands.
"With this speed our adjusted time of arrival is four point five months," Lessa the navigator on duty reported. Some of the crew cheered at that.
"Good work ladies, Admiral," the Captain drawled. "They can fix the drive but can't fix my chair...” she grumbled good naturedly as she cut off the overhead.
Molly grinned. "So, now we work on getting her into the next note?" she demanded.
The Admiral nodded. "But first, let’s check the systems for any instability or damage. Once we're done, we can start working on the next set of priorities," he suggested.
Molly grimaced. "That could take hours!" She stood up and stretched. He gave her a long studying lo
ok. "Okay okay, I know when I'm beat," she said. She sat back down. "I'll check the power systems while you focus on navigation, Jennie, check the computers. Trish..."
"Life support, yup already on it," Trish chirped with a smile.
"Show off," Molly muttered.
"I've got no issues with the sub-light drive. Replicators are on line. No issues with deck two," Crew members began to call out their reports.
"People, let’s get organized. Check your station, see that green box?" Irons asked. The girls looked. “Type in your report, it will go to Molly and the bridge," he said. The girls nodded.
A few pecked at the virtual keyboards, a few looked tentative or confused. Their crew mates helped them. "Okay, either some are having trouble, or weren't doing their jobs right," he murmured to Molly.
Molly grimaced. "I had a feeling some couldn't read," she sighed. "Just another thing to work on." She glanced over the reports. "We have a plasma leak on deck five, and sickbay is reporting two casualties," she said, now sounding concerned. He shook his head.
"Damn," Molly grimaced a moment later. "They look to be minor," she said, eyes scanning as more information was added to the report.
He tapped his internal schematic, and then fed it to the screen behind him. He turned and traced his fingers over the plasma conduits. "Okay, the breech is here, so..."
Molly looked over. "Rerouting EPS now," she said. She tapped in the controls. "Ashley, lock down EPS relay... five on deck four and EPS junction valve 2A on deck five," she ordered.
The blue haired girl looked up then nodded. "I got it," she said professionally. She tapped at her controls.
"Breach has been contained. Looks like a pinhole leak," Molly said as she sighed in relief. Crisis averted for now she thought.
"I'll check it out when the area has been vented," the Admiral muttered.
"Obviously we need to work on the EPS a bit more before we go any higher," Molly said.
He sighed. "Yeah."
"It'll be a couple more days before we can get into note A. We need to make a few adjustments." Molly looked over to Shandra who nodded eagerly. "We're moving at a faster clip, it's a bit harder to keep in control." The deck shivered.
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