"Just taking a break."
Her smile widened. "And here I thought the rumors of you being all robot were true," her smile took the sting out of that. He was sensitive to cracks about his implants sometimes.
"Nope, some of me feels like rubber. Doing the fine motor control work really takes it out of you." She nodded as she sat down next to him.
"Let me guess, I get to sleep in the cargo bay? Aren't you scared I'll steal everything?" he demanded. He looked exasperated.
The chief smiled. "Try."
He shook his head. "No, my family has never turned jack. I'm not about to start." He waved. "Lead on Brunhilda."
She gave him a cool look. They marched down the corridors to a cargo hatch. "In here." The hatch door opened and he looked in. his night vision kicked in since the lights were off.
"Great." He saw something scuttling around. "Was that a rat?" he asked.
She looked inside then snarled, "get the cats."
He looked at her. She was blushing. The tall heavy shouldered red head softly called for cats. "I see they serve a dual purpose," he observed. The chief went into the cargo bay, gun drawn. She tapped the lights and they came up. She blinked and fired at a shadow.
A can jumped. "Damn." She looked around.
"Dorah is on her way," the red head called.
"Well, find these damn things before they eat all the grain!" the chief snarled.
"Okay okay," the red head sighed, stepping around the Admiral. "Excuse me," she said. She picked up a crowbar lying on a wooden crate then hefted it. "Here mister rat..." she said softly. He snorted
"So does this mean I get different quarters?" he asked.
The chief pointed to a corner. "There." he grimaced.
"Okay..." He tossed the bedroll down, and then sat on it. “Defender...”
“Keep an eye out for trouble, no problem admiral,” Defender responded. “I'm on watch; Sprite is busy rebuilding the net. Shields are up and nominal.”
He watched as they tried to hunt the rodents, not succeeding. After a few minutes a sleepy Dorah arrived carrying Mister Whiskers and a blue cat. "Get those useless hairballs in here," the chief snarled. The Admiral closed his eyes and listened. One by one he filtered anything not animal out.
"Okay, there is...”
"SHHH" The guard said kicking his bedroll. He opened his eyes. The guard was watching as the cats stalked something. A rat sprang out, bounced off a bulkhead, and then hopped away.
"Denubian kangaroo rat. Great," he grunted.
The little varmint jumped about crazily, dodging the cats, crowbar, and wild shots from the chief. He watched as they chased it out the hatch. "Don't let it get away!" The chief called angrily. They sprang into pursuit. He watched them leave.
"Alone at last," he sighed, and tapped the light control. As the lights dimmed he heard rustling in the sacks of grain. "Spoke to soon," he groaned.
"Captain, I'm putting a work crew together to repair the hover pallets, there were quite a few that were acting up. We need to put more in service so we can load faster," the purser said.
The Captain nodded sagely. "All right Vanessa, if that's okay with Molly." She looked to Molly. Molly squirmed in her seat.
Jennie leaned over and whispered. "Say something you dunce! We need those people on more important projects!"
Molly adjusted her glasses and took a sip of water. "Um Captain, I mean, that is, we need most of our people on the repair and maintenance projects we started." She squirmed a little under the glare of the Purser.
"There's no reason your people can't do their own maintenance Vanessa, they broke it, they fix it," Jennie said, meeting glare for glare. "We have enough to worry about trying to keep the ship running." She shook her head.
The Captain sat back, sipping her tea. "True, and you were complaining that constant inventories weren't keeping your people busy Vanessa."
The purser frowned. "We handle cargo, fixing things is their job," she said. She waved to the engineer contingent. "
Yes, but we have other priorities! We'll be in hyper for another three months, there's no need to fix those pallets, they're not needed now!" The purser glowered.
"She's got you there," the chief added.
"We have a full plate of things to repair and build, like oh say, the number two cargo hold." The purser's eyes widened at that. She had been after that hold ever since she saw the specs in the computer. It was a twin to the number one hold, the largest hold in the ship. Massive hull breeches had left it an airless ruin.
"Can you really do that?" she asked breathless, eyes suddenly gleaming.
"Of course we can! With the Admiral we can fix anything on this ship!" Molly waved her hands. "And just what do you want to fix? How much power is it going to take from my power budget? We don't have a lot you know," the ops officer weighed in.
"Well, we're working on that too. The Admiral is working on the hyper collector right now. He said we may get another twenty percent out of it if we're lucky," Molly replied smugly.
The ops officer's eyes widened. "Well, that'll cover the replicator’s power budget, that thing sucks energy! It's almost as bad as the drives!" She sat back.
"That bad eh?" the Captain asked softly.
"We may have to dial back on the repairs until we can get more power," the ops officer replied. "Oh, like I said, we're working on it,” Molly said.
“We have a priority list. Some things like the shields, hull, hyperdrive, and fusion reactor we can't work on for obvious reasons," Jennie waved to the window. The Captain nodded.
"But we can swap out broken parts here and there, like the port sensors modules, computers, life support, and interior repairs," Molly spoke up. "We're also working on patching the EPS conduits."
The ops officer froze with her cup at her lips. "EPS?" She took a cautious sip. "Will it affect systems?"
Jennie shook her head. "We're going after bleeds first; we've spent the past four shifts patching them," she said. The ops officer nodded. "I noticed there was a spike in throughput. Will this cause a blow out somewhere else?" she asked sounding concerned.
Molly looked concerned. "I don't know for sure. But with the replicators working, the plasma will be siphoned off."
The chief frowned. "Just when am I getting my power buss back? I need that for the weapons," she said. She spread her hands apart. "If we don't have weapons, we're defenseless," the chief finished her appeal to the Captain.
"I'm sure it's on a list. You do have a list right?" Molly nodded enthusiastically. She was tired, having tried to keep up with the Admiral on each of his marathon runs. "Here it is." She fumbled the tablet, and then passed it over to the Captain.
The chief intercepted it. "Where is it...?” She scrolled through the list. "Wow, that's a lot... Wait, I don't see it." Jennie brought out another tablet and began to scroll. She frowned and hit the search and typed in the name. "Okay there it is, it's on the gamma list, item three four one."
The chief looked up alarmed. "Gamma list?" The Captain reached out an imperious hand. Sheepishly the chief handed her the tablet.
"There are five lists, Alpha is the priority list, Beta is secondary things, then Gamma and so on," Jennie explained.
"I can't wait for you to get through all that before you get around to weapons, we need that gun!" the chief snarled. "There must be thousands of things on that list!"
Jennie winced. "Over ten thousand actually, on all the lists," she sighed. Those were the major systems, not individual items.
"Don't worry; we're working on what we can from all the lists." Molly forestalled another outburst from the chief. "As we said before, since we can't work on some systems, we will automatically fall back to others we can. If a system isn't needed we'll shut it down until power is available," she said and then shrugged.
"And just where is the Admiral now?" the chief asked.
"I believe he's sleeping in cargo bay 5," Molly shook her head.
The purser looked up al
armed. "Why is he there? We have plenty of empty crew quarters...” The chief glared.
"My sentiments exactly. But for some reason, he keeps being placed in odd places to sleep," Molly glared, now incensed.
"First the brig, then a malfunctioning airlock, then a corridor, now a cargo bay! What's next the sewage plant?" She came to her feet, glaring at the chief. "You need to get off whatever stick you’re riding and leave the man alone so he can do his job."
Jennie put a restraining hand on her arm. "That's enough Molly," the Captain's rumble cut through her anger. Reluctantly Molly sat. "I think it's about time we assigned some quarters to the Admiral. See to it Vanessa." She waved to the purser who nodded. "I want to see if he can get us into beta. I am looking forward to seeing if you can do it."
Jennie smiled suddenly. "Oh, we'll do it all right, and much more. With his help we can probably make Gamma!"
Shandra looked up alarmed. "Gamma?" Sudden excitement made several of the crew protest. "But we don't have the power, the hull won’t take it!" Molly waved dismissively.
"People people!" The Captain waved an arm. "Settle down," her gravelly voice made them instantly obey. "I believe that's why they have these lists correct?"
Molly and Jennie nodded. "Yes, with an all out effort we can get into Beta when we leave the next colony," Molly said as she sat back.
"Are you sure?" Shandra asked, leaning forward eagerly.
"Can you handle it?" the chief asked the helms woman dryly. Shandra blushed.
"Oh, I think I can," she said. She looked thoughtful. "I've been waiting my whole life to try." She grinned.
"Well in a couple months; you'll get your chance," Molly nodded firmly.
"Excellent. Keep me informed," the Captain replied, then hovered backwards and turned. "Vanessa, see me later." The stewardess near the door keyed it open. The Captain hovered through.
"Well, that was an interesting meeting, least you didn't sleep through it," Molly teased Jennie as they packed up. The ops officer snorted.
Shandra bounced up eager. "Do you really think we can do it?" she asked breathily.
Jennie nodded. "Sure, once we get things sorted out more. We may even get you into the B note of Alpha in a couple more days," she said. Shandra looked excited.
"What will the power demands be?" the ops officer asked sitting on the table edge, arms folded. "I wasn't kidding about the balancing, we are way into reserves."
Molly shook her head. "We can use the hyper collector's to power the transition. Once we're up there, the higher note will provide more power to handle the load and to help rebuild our reserves," she explained.
The ops officer pursed her lips in thought. "Could work," she said finally.
Jennie looked over to her. "You mean it will work."
The ops officer nodded. The chief, moral officer, and purser exited ignoring their tight knot. The navigational officer and communication officer hovered around them. "When do we see some action?" the comm officer asked.
"Oh soon enough. But exterior communications aren't exactly a priority. That's why they're down the Gamma list." Jennie handed over a tablet to each of them. They scrolled through it. “If you want to bump things up, lend us a hand with your people and we can give it a shot."
Both women nodded as stepped back, then headed for the door. "Well, that will keep them busy," Molly sighed.
"Yeah, gossip mill will be running overtime," Jennie chuckled.
"See you off shift?" Shandra asked.
Jennie dimpled and colored. "I don't know when I'm getting off,” she squirmed a bit. Molly cleared her throat and gathered her things, trying to make herself small.
Shandra caught Jennie's hand. "Any time," Shandra said.
Jennie smiled softly. "Okay."
Molly made it to the door. "Meet you in engineering." She left the two alone.
"Port side, Admiral, get into the life pod..." He felt the ship jar, then the screech of metal. "Breach! Hull breaches forward your cut off, use a different pod!"
Sprite quickly directed him to the ship's exterior. "Here Admiral." He helped an injured crew woman into a pod. "Damn, core overload, get us out of here!"
He felt Defender come to the fore and rush him to the pod. "No, we can save some!"
"No time Admiral! Get in!" an enlisted man said, shoving him into the pod. The hatch hissed shut. He felt the jar again, then a loud bang and acceleration.
He woke sweating, and tried to fight off the vestige. Remnant dream he thought. "Hmm from your neural activity, you just had a nasty dream. Care to talk about it?" Sprite asked.
"No." He grunted and checked his chronometer on the HUD. Two more hours.
"You're only delaying the inevitable, you know you need to talk about this Admiral." Sprite was nothing if not persistent.
"What's there to talk about? They died, we lived," he sighed.
"Admiral, the four of us have been through it all together over the past four years. We need to talk, you're showing signs of depression. This workload is stressful enough," she said. Sprite brought up his stats. He waved them away. "Really it will help," she insisted.
"Wanna bet? Now if you’re quite through with the psycho babble, I need to get some rest, we have a shift in two point four hours.”
"Very well," she sighed. "I need to finish rebuilding this driver suite anyway..." He rolled over and went back to sleep.
The next morning he opened the hatch to find Frie and Tara waiting on either side. "Good morning ladies," he yawned.
"Heard about your dust up with the rats," Tara said, toeing the deck. Tara looked into the darkened bay. Glowing eyes made her shiver. "Damn, are there any more? And you slept in there?" She gave him a disbelieving look.
"It wasn't easy; I think one of them tried to take a nibble out of my boot." He wiggled his toes.
She looked down. "Ew!" She shivered.
"Going to have to do something about that," she said firmly.
He waved. "Not a problem,” he said, he already had a plan. The cats weren't around. He tapped the controls.
"What are you....?” Air began to suck in as the doors closed. The red light blinked. "Okay..." He studied the controls.
"What are you doing?" Tara asked. He smiled.
"Venting." He waited a moment. "Okay, they should be dead now." He tapped the controls. "I am putting it on a ten minute delay, and then it will restore the air," he said. He tapped out the command then hefted the duffels. "Time for the head," he said. He nodded to the girls.
"Don't like rats I take it?" Frie asked amused. He smiled and looked at her over his shoulder.
"I don't know of anyone who does. It was the insects that bugged me the most though."
Frie looked alarmed. "Insects?" She stopped and turned to look back at the hatch, then down. Something skittered past her. She jumped and stomped.
Tara stomped as well. "Got it," she growled. She shook her blond mane. "Damn bugs. We get them every time," she sighed. He tapped at the door.
"I'm in here!" a girl called from the other side.
"Okay," he replied. He looked around.
"Wanna try a different one?" Tara suggested. He shook his head.
"There are five on this deck in good order... or should I say, good odor," he said.
Tara smiled. "Yeah, but you're fixing that right?" she asked.
He nodded. "Yes, but it's slow going, I need to get a class going to teach the life support staff." A girl came out of the head. She gaped at the Admiral. "Thanks. Only be a moment." He stepped in.
The clatter of metal hitting the deck made him look up in alarm. Jennie whirled then growled. "You startled me! Don't be so clumsy!"
Molly was bending over to pick up the hull plate. "Well, don't leave stuff where people walk! Why is this here anyway! You know we like things neat!" Jennie started to retort and the Admiral waved.
"For you're info, I put it there," he interjected. Both women looked at him. "It's a cross section of the hull; I want to show th
e class."
Molly looked it over with interest. "What's all this pitting?" She fingered the pits and engraved sections.
"Micro meteor impacts when the ship was a derelict," the admiral replied absently.
She brought the panel up to look through a hole. "That isn't good," she observed. He nodded.
"The inner layers caught the rest when the first was breached," he explained. She set the plate down and looked at the sandwich of stacked materials.
"This is a cross section of our hull?" she asked, examining it closely.
"Yes it is," he said.
She nodded. "Thought so." She hummed for a moment.
"Why does it have gaps?" she asked after a moment. He nodded.
"Those are to dissipate kinetic energy. A projectile hits the first layer of armor..." He pointed to the plate, “And if it breaches the composite layer it then goes into that void. The void allows the object to spread out, absorbing some of the impact over a greater area," he explained. She nodded.
"What about these layers..." she started to ask. He nodded as her voice trailed off. "Well, the layer with the fine mesh is the inner super conductive layer. That's what protects the ship and crew from radiation when the shields are down." She looked up and blinked owlishly at him.
"So that's why we don't get fried?" she asked. He nodded.
"The layer of fine pipes is a coolant layer. It balances the temperature on the hull and also keeps it from flexing." She nodded. "Some of the layers are carbon composite, some are old school Kevlar. There are also some ceramic layers. The outermost is metal of course," he explained. She rapped her knuckles on the metal plate. "Of course," he smiled. "Armor plate is a bit different," he said.
She nodded. "Why paint?" she asked looking him in the eye.
"Why not?" he asked. She looked confused as he threw the question back at her.
"On a planet paint is used to protect against the elements." Trisha said, looking things over as she wiped her hands on a rag.
He nodded. "Same deal here. It adds a layer of radiation protection, thermal protection, and other things."
New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Page 12