"Quiet," the Captain ordered. "I checked with the doctor, two injured and three with suit malfunctions. Are the others okay with going out again?" her voice ground out. He looked around. Several nodded, a few gave thumbs up.
"Ready and willing Captain. We have a ship to fix," he replied.
She cleared her throat. "Get on it then." The channel closed with a click.
"All right ladies, you heard the Captain, time to rock and roll," Rodriguez called over the crew, flashing a tight grin. She slapped the side of her helmet and then put it on. They had trooped down to the starboard airlock after lunch and the injured had been escorted out.
The bay was full, the three craft, two shield pods, parts, equipment, and suited workers were a little bit of a tight fit. Each of the shield pods were the size of a small shuttle. Jennie's was already partially stripped down. His was a write off. Everything not going out with the workers was strapped down. Rodriguez checked her suit. Then her partner's and then looked over the panels.
"Great mullah, this is going to be fun. If my family could only see me now," she said. She attached a gripper to a section of the biggest plate, then another a meter apart. "Everyone on gripper detail set your grippers and triple check them and your clearances. Then plan your moves with your team. Let’s get this right the first time ladies," Rodriguez called over.
"Well cut the gravity after the air is removed," Robin called.
"What's this?" Jennie leaned over and took a close look at a girl's suit arm.
"What?" the girl asked.
"Your suit is breached. Left arm," Rodriguez looked up, turned and stomped over to them. She grabbed the offending arm, took a close look then turned and glared at the woman's buddy.
Her face fell. "Sorry. Must have missed it," she mumbled.
Rodriguez held the glare, swelling. The Admiral walked up behind her and brushed her hand aside. "May I see?" He took a quick look and then nodded. "It didn't breech all the way through, just the outer skin." He held her with his left hand and placed his right palm over the rip.
"What are you doing?" The girl asked, trying to look.
"Hold still," he ordered.
"Proteus, suit repair," he sub vocalized.
"What did you say?"
"Sometimes I say the commands I need to get my implants to work,” he replied. He concentrated and watched the flow of nanites swarming over his hand and the rips. Proteus had them highlighted and magnified; he would never have been able to see them even with his enhanced vision.
"Repairs complete," Proteus reported.
"Okay there." He pulled his hand away. The rip was gone.
"What, how'd you do that?"
He shrugged. "Explain later, let’s get to work. Everyone double check your partner now!" Rodriguez turned and ended that statement with a glare. Fabric and plastic rustled as they hastily obeyed. Murmurs of orders and complaints. "Hey not so rough! That tickles!"
She nodded as each person gave her a thumbs up. "Okay, by the numbers ladies.”
"Not bad," Rodriguez wiped sweat from her brow a few hours later. It had been a very productive shift.
"We need sweat bands," Jennie said, unlocking her helmet and then setting it on the rack. She took a towel off the peg and wiped her face. "I kept getting sweat in my eyes. It burns." Her face was red, tear lines were down her cheeks.
"Did you get it done though?" Nancy looked over to her.
"Yup! It works nicely too. Ops is reconfiguring the shields now!" she grinned and so did most of her team. The group perked up, slapping each other on the shoulders.
The Admiral nodded. "Ahem." He turned to Rodriguez who looked at him then tossed her head to the hatch. A few of the girls were looking at him.
He snorted in sudden understanding. "I'll just give you some privacy. Don't forget to shower ladies." He waved as he left. The guards were waiting; they escorted him down the corridor. The lead one turned as they went around the bend, her nose wrinkled.
"You stink. Gah!" she said in disgust.
He chuckled wearily. "Yup."
"Did you get the job done?" The other guard asked behind him.
"Yes, two more shield pods are in the bay, and Rodriguez managed to patch over twenty holes. Jennie installed her shield node, it's booting now," he reported. He smiled wearily. "Space walking takes it out of you though, I'm no spring chicken!" He shook his head.
He heard a gasp on the net and looked up. "What? What’s wrong?" Mary was looking up at the sky. He turned. There were sparks and halos every few minutes along the bow. "Debris hitting the shields," he observed. He watched as a large piece slammed into the invisible barrier. A purple halo around it appeared then it seemed to bounce away. "It looks neat, but it can be a bit distracting."
He turned back to the job at hand. He'd taken one shift off, but was now back on the job. A few others looked up and gasped. He managed to get the plate free and looked up. "There done!" He turned and looked around. His team and most of the others were all staring off at the bow fireworks. "If one of those gets through..." He heard a voice say over the net.
He sighed. "All right ladies, time to get back to work," he said. He carefully used a pry bar to get the plate out. It floated for a moment. Mary wasn't paying attention and it struck her. She offed, going off spinning. Her safety tether jerked taught. "I said, GET WITH THE PROGRAM!" He turned, suddenly angry.
"Mary report," he said.
She coughed. "I'm all right."
He snarled, and then opened the channel. "You’re lucky. All eyes on the job, watch the fireworks later!" Get with it people before someone gets killed!" He turned to see the women around him start and then turn reluctantly to work.
"You’re doing a wonderful job, keep it up," The Captain said, looking over the newly renovated space. She gave them each a look, and then finished with the purser. "You're working wonders, all of you." the Captain said, locking her gaze to the purser. She squirmed.
"We aim to please Captain," the Admiral responded. "Though, a little thank you to the crew does help," he said. He gave the purser, and then the Chief a look. The Chief stared back defiantly. The purser looked down.
"All right, I'm sorry." She turned to Jennie.
"Thanks." The Captain nodded and turned to leave.
"Can I get into my quarters now?" the purser asked plaintively. The Captain chuckled as she left.
He nodded to the purser. "We'll get a work crew out as soon as we can. We've a lot of other priorities," he said. He turned and left, pulling Jennie along by the elbow. "You didn't," he said softly to her, not even bothering to hide his amusement.
"Why Admiral, whatever do you mean?" she said, eyes innocent, but her voice was rich in satisfaction.
He chuckled and waggled a finger at her. "Naughty naughty," he teased. She giggled. The guards following did as well.
"We've gotten the basic hull patched a fare-thee well, looks a bit like my grandmother's old quilts," Jennie commented. A few smiled at that. Even the Captain snorted.
"Will they hold?" she asked.
"Well, the basic hull is actually a series of layers Captain. We're just welding plates over the breeches then back filled them with a resin compound before plating it over on the inside. I can't even begin to describe the amount of force it took to make those holes! The hull has so many layers and spall shields and deflection areas...it's insane," the engineer replied as he looked up from what he had been doing. "This is just a basic hull with little armor. A warship had a lot more, and had a self sealing hull."
Molly looked over excited. "Self sealing? Can we do that?" She bounced in her chair, and then paused to adjust her glasses.
"No, that would mean stripping the hull down, practically unwrapping the ship." He cocked his head thinking.
The Captain cleared her throat. "Let’s not do that then shall we? We can make do with what you've done," she said. Molly looked a little crestfallen.
"Once the shields and power plant are overhauled, then not much coul
d penetrate the defenses anyway," the engineer replied with a nod to the Captain.
She smiled. "How is the bow deflector going?"
He grimaced. So did Molly. "Not well, there are problems fabricating parts and getting things aligned. I projected five days to do the job, we're two days behind," He sighed. He hated it when schedules slipped but knew reality usually had a say in things when planning met reality.
Jennie nodded. "The bow shields have been battered and abused Captain, some of the emitters have reached impedance. When they failed others compensated, but that shortened their life spans. We're looking at a complete rebuild," she said.
The Captain tapped her fingers on the desk. "That bad huh?" she grunted.
“Are we ready to open the doors?” Jen asked. Jennie looked over to the tech. “You may want to exit the bay; vacuum without a suit is hazardous to your health,” she smiled.
The tech look startled. “Wait, what doors? I was wondering how you were going to get that spar out, it's bigger than that door!” she pointed to the door they had entered by.
Jennie shook her head. “No, we're going to EVAC the bay then open those,” she said and then pointed to the exterior door.
The girl’s eyes went wide. “Oh wow. Okay, let me finish up here.” She typed a few more lines, saved her work then checked something else.
“What's the hold up?” Rodriguez called over the com. “We're ready and waiting.”
The tech looked up. “Yeah yeah, almost finished.” She typed in one last sequence and looked up with a nod. “Okay it's finished,” she said. She followed Jennie out.
“This I have to see.” Jennie turned as the door closed and turned the LCD panel on. “Okay, let’s see.” She used her fingers to scroll through the menus. "Okay, got it. Doors opening.” She hit the air EVAC. Air could be heard hissing. "We have a minor leak, looks like the door seal isn't holding well.”
The tech looked concerned and backed away. “Good idea. We're going to EVAC to another corridor and set up a secondary lock,” Jennie said. Jennie closed the menu and followed the tech back to a knee knocker. The tech turned and held her hand at the control. As she stepped over and cleared the knocker the girl hit the control and they watched as the emergency door closed.
“Okay. Door closed,” Jennie waved the girl away who scowled.
“I wanted to do it,” she muttered softly.
Jennie grinned. “Next time.” She scrolled through the menu again.
“Jennie, were getting reports of air loss on that deck, deck five and deck seven. We're clearing those sections now,” the bridge reported.
Jennie nodded. “Looks like we missed a few cracks.”
She hit the controls and found the doors. The screen flickered again. “Damn it.” She rapped it smartly. “Not now.” It stopped flickering. “Sometimes the best way is to smack it,” she grinned. “Doors opening.”
They could hear and feel a low vibration. “The doors are opening now, wow, big doors; they're opening out toward us. Steering clear. Now I know why you wanted us above or below Admiral,” Rodriguez kept up a running commentary.
“How can we see...? Jennie asked querulously.
“Oh, camera controls, starboard frame 301A exterior camera. Or try robot twelve,” the communication tech replied.
“Okay, got it thanks,” Jennie said. Jennie clicked the indicated cameras. “Okay. Damn, kinda grainy. Going to have to fix that,” she muttered. She watched as the doors finished opening and the suited crew moved in. In a few minutes the spar began to creep out slowly.
“Okay, well since I'm not going to be needed, I'm going to go take a lunch break,” the tech nodded. “Can I get you anything?” She turned to Jennie who looked up.
“Huh oh?” She shut the controls off. “Yeah, I think I'll join you.”
She followed the tech to the galley. Inside they found two dozen women all avidly watching the giant wall screen display. “Glad we fixed that,” Jennie muttered. She paused watching the suited workers maneuvering the spar. “It's a bit of a pain. They have to get the new one out, and then feed in the old one and other debris.”
Jennie felt a bump. “Excuse me.” She looked over to the tech and then dismissed her from her thoughts, engrossed in the view.
“So we're going to do this what? five more times?” someone nearby asked.
Jennie nodded slowly. “Yeah. For the big stuff, and a couple more times for the parts to the port shuttle bay door, and then I don't know how many times for the engine rebuilds,” she sighed and shook her head.
The waitress at the counter looked over to her and then busied herself with wiping the counter. “Can I help you?” she asked as she looked up. She rapped the counter to get Jennie's attention again.
Jennie nodded, eyes still glued to the screen. “Sandwich please.” She had her eyes locked to the screen like everyone else in the compartment. Her breath caught as one of the crew misfired an OMS pod, going into a tumble.
“Oh crap,” she breathed. She felt sweat prickle her brow.
“Sorry.” The girl said over the open channel.
“Be more careful,” Rodriguez growled.
“My controls are sticky,” she replied.
“Pull back and let your back up fill in,” the Admiral ordered.
“I got it,” she replied sounding testy.
“No, not with sticky controls. Pull back. Make sure suit maintenance clears that suit before you use it again,” he dismissed the problem.
"So, how did we do?" the Captain asked, meeting the purser in the lock.
"Excellent Captain, better than ever!" the purser was excited. "We've been completely resupplied, and are in the black, we can even make some luxury materials!" She brushed her hands down her red velvet dress.
The Captain nodded smiling slightly. "Good Good!" she chuckled dryly. "I'm glad things are looking up." She turned to watch some of the crew walk by. Many who passed nodded politely to the purser and Captain.
“Jennie, when can we get more hull repairs? We need to finish the bow. The sensors in the bow are almost repaired.” Molly looked over to Trisha. “We're going to finish minor repairs and leave the hull open for now. We need to get inside to get some repairs done anyway. That plasma breech that nearly cooked Nancy's team needs to be fixed.”
“What about all those leaks when we opened the replicator doors?” Trisha looked over to the controls and pulled up the life support data. “We have breaches here, here, here, and here. Also some signs of wind and pressure loss here and here. Some temperature losses here too,” she said. She indicated each section. They highlighted in red and blinked.
“Oh, the Admiral sent in robots to clean and scan the sections,” Jennie said and then nodded. “What good is that going to be?” Trisha asked. She looked confused.
Molly looked up from her display and adjusted her glasses. “The robots will find the leaks and seal small ones. Others they'll log into the computer and mark for us to repair.”
Trisha's face cleared. “Oh, that may work.” She shrugged.
Jennie chuckled. “I understand that's how they did it back in the Admiral's time. If it worked then...”
Trisha waved impatiently. “Yeah yeah, Okay.” She looked down to her deck plan. “So that's the procedure for breaches? Send in the robots first?” she asked. Molly nodded.
"So, how are we with the shields?" the Captain looked over to Molly and the engineers.
Molly cleared her throat. "Shields on the starboard side have been rebuilt as far as we can in the time we have," she said tiredly. She didn't know she could be this tired. She looked down at her tablet. "The starboard side is at eighty three percent." The ops officer gave a small whistle. "Overall the shields are at fifty six point four percent," Molly finished and set the tablet down tiredly.
It had been a long two weeks, and if the engineer kept pushing, they'd be working outside right up until they got to the hyper limit a few days from now. "Engines on the starboard side are at thirty three p
ercent. We even managed to get the keel engine working."
Shandra looked over to Jennie and grinned. "Yeah, we're going to test it on the way out."
Jennie sighed. "Just take it easy, some of those patches will take time to work in properly," she urged.
Shandra sobered. "Did any of you get some rest while we were in orbit?" Miss Tsunade Cortez the moral officer asked, playing with her stylus.
The girls and Admiral shook their heads. "Too much to do, we only had a week to get it done."
The pilot nodded. "We have a few missions planned on the way out too, so we can snag more asteroids to build more parts while in hyper," she said. She grinned. "We have the technique down, so it should go off smooth as a baby’s behind," she said smugly. Everyone chuckled.
A few of the women gossiped for a few minutes before the Captain tapped her stylus. The room quieted. "And the hull?" she gave the Admiral a knowing look.
He nodded. "We sealed most of the breaches on the port side and half on the starboard. We even managed to clean up and patch that plasma burst section," he replied as the holo highlighted each zone. Molly nodded.
"I want to get some robots built to help with the exterior repairs while we're in hyper," he said. She gave him a look and he nodded.
"Good idea," the Captain nodded. "Make it so. What about the frame? You had some concerns about it?" she asked. She looked at the Admiral.
He sobered. "Not good, there's frame damage around the engines, as to be expected. Structural cracks on frames fifty through fifty four, with a radial crack growing along the starboard rib," he explained. She nodded.
"What do you want to do about it?" she asked.
He grimaced. "It's a dockside job normally, but we don’t have that luxury. We've already replaced several of the spars in the bow." He looked around. "We'll have to cut out the weakened sections and remake them inside. It'll take time, and we'll be dead in space until the repairs are completed," he said knowing she wouldn't like that. The Captain nodded.
"Why?" the Chief asked quietly.
"We can't use the engines without the frame supports; if we did they would tear apart the ship," Molly responded. She pulled up a diagram on the holo but the Chief waved it aside.
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