She nodded. “How can they get to it?”
He smiled. “From the inside.”
Her eyes widened. “We can do that?”
He nodded. “Of course.” She smiled.
"So, what's your problem with me?" he asked as he and the chief faced off. He glared at the Chief. "Ever since I've woken up you've had it in for me Chief. Care to explain why?" he asked.
Her nostrils dilated, and her stare narrowed. "I don't like you. You’re a risk," she growled.
He cocked his head. "In what way?" he asked. She shook her head then began ticking off points with her fingers.
"First, you’re from the past, with more training. Second, since you woke you've gone your own way. Third, you’re a cyborg, and may have illegal access to the network. Fourth, you act as if you’re still in the past," her glower intensified. "The Federation is dead. DED Dead. You seem to forget that at every turn and order everyone around," she snarled. He shrugged.
"Chief, First, I can't help being where I'm from, my skills, or my body. As to the rest, well, yes, I have been going my own way. I'm following the agreement the Captain and I forged." He smiled then turned away. He turned back after a momentary pause.
"You're right though, I have been burying myself in the job. It's one way to deal with time shock." She tapped her fingers on the butt of her gun. "Besides, I always loved a challenge, and restoring this old girl is quite a challenge." He waved his hands to indicate the ship.
Molly grinned. "You got that right!" She was excited again. "We still have a lot to do though and less than nine weeks until we exit hyper! We need to plan! Like the port engine, it's still in need of an overhaul..." She grabbed his arm and practically dragged him out of the compartment. He snorted and gave a wave to the others.
He looked over the boat bay and sighed. "Quiet a piece of work," a familiar voice said behind him. The pilot and boy came up behind him. He nodded.
The Captain turned. "Think you can work your magic?" she growled. He shrugged. "You fix them and get us into Gamma and you can have one," she said suddenly. He turned to her.
Deidra protested. "But Captain, we need them for parts..." She waved that off.
"Not since the Admiral repaired the replicators," the captain said. The woman stopped eyes wide. "The fleet pinnance and it's a deal." He held out his hand.
"The fleet pinnance? That hunk of junk?" the pilot muttered.
"Why do you want...?" Sprite began to ask. "Oh, should have known, you always loved a fixer upper," she sighed theatrically. The Captain eyed him then nodded. She reached out and shook his hand.
"On one other condition, you get a full medical work up by the doc." He held her hand, staring into her eyes. "This ship needs a Captain, one in good health," he growled.
The Captain chuckled. "Setting terms?"
He nodded. "Just respectfully requesting," he replied.
She smiled. "We'll see." She sat back once he freed her hand.
"All right." He nodded to the boy. "Understudy?" The Captain chuckled.
"Something like that," the pilot muttered. "Go check on the diagnostic Hibiki." The pilot waved to the boy.
His shoulders slumped. "Awe, I never get to hear the good stuff!" he huffed off, kicking his feet. The Captain and engineer chuckled.
"Kids," they said in unison, and then looked to one another chuckling.
"Something’s never change," the Admiral observed.
"Nor should they," the Captain replied as she turned. "All right, I'll leave these projects in your capable hands."
He nodded. "Aye aye Captain." He rubbed his hands together.
"All right which do you want to overhaul first?" he asked. He turned to the pilot. She nodded her chin to the cargo shuttle. It was a trash hauler, he was amused to recognize it as the ship that brought his cryopod in.
"That one of course, it's our primary craft," she said. He'd heard they had replicated a few parts for it but not a whole lot. She shook her head. "I don't see what you think you can accomplish..." He waved to her to precede him. "Well, we can make a list."
A half hour later she was shaking her head. "I never knew, never," she said over and over in wonder. She sighed as he unjacked.
"Well, the shuttle's now virus free, and the software has been recompiled. I'll have to finish some of the backups later,” he said and then shrugged. I uploaded a list of parts to engineering and to your e-mail." The pilot looked bewildered.
"How? You were in...” she tapered off as he smiled.
"I can multi task." He tapped the controls. "Okay, I can realign the port emitter, but the rest will have to wait for parts," he said. "It may take a little time; we've a backlog and limited supply of material." He waved to the other shuttles. “How about them next?"
The pilot looked up startled. "Okay," she said with a smile. She started to get with the program. "Yeah, how about the personnel shuttle...over there in the corner," she suggested.
He nodded. "Okay, let me get that emitter fixed, and then we can take a look."
"There are twelve shuttles in the bay." He pulled up the hologram deck plan of each of the shuttle bays. "This ship can have up to thirty six, since she's a tender and designed to handle them in her four boat bays." He flicked through them one by one. "There are four cargo shuttles, all civilian grade, one pinnance, two short range civilian passenger shuttles, and a couple work pods," he said. The hologram displayed each one by one.
"From the ship's records, you've been cannibalizing the others to keep the one remaining cargo shuttle in good repair." He looked over to the pilot who nodded. "Now that the replicators are on line, we've made minor repairs to the second shuttle to get it flying, and now can begin to repair the other shuttles," he said. Her eyes widened at that.
"The Captain has agreed to trade me the pinnance for my continued services, so I'll repair that on my own."
She cocked her head. "That thing is a wreck you know that right?" she demanded.
He nodded. "I always loved a challenge," he said with a smile.
She snorted. "It's going to need a miracle."
He chuckled. "Okay, since this ship is an interstellar freighter, I would suggest first focusing on the cargo shuttles, specifically these two, which are atmosphere rated."
“Vanessa how's the Admiral doing in his new quarters?” the Captain asked as she went over the figures Vanessa had brought to her.
“Um er.. Quarters? I'm not sure what you mean?” Vanessa looked confused.
Exasperated the Captain set the tablet down in front of her. “The quarters you were supposed to have set up for him? Remember? I ordered you to set them up months ago!” She waved her hand then glared at the squirming Purser.
“Um, ah...” Vanessa gave the security guard a look. “That's to say, Emily came to me and said that he was fine where he is,” she said. She fidgeted under the Captain's icy gaze.
“She did did she? I want this rectified. Now,” she growled. Vanessa nodded defeated. The captain turned and left without a further word.
“Did you hear that even Tara is afraid to go to deck twelve? I guess it really is haunted!” one of the girls passed and Vanessa looked up.
The Chief smiled evilly. “Well, isn't that nice. If he's so interested in getting his own quarters, perhaps we can put him down there,” she suggested. Vanessa nodded. “And just think all sorts of accidents happen down there all the time,” the chief whispered. Emily drummed her fingers on her pulser. Vanessa looked around suddenly nervous. She felt relief that the Captain and crew were out of ear shot down the corridor.
“Em, we still need him,” She cautioned, not meeting the Chief's gaze.
The chief's lips quivered then stilled for a moment. “For now. Only for now,” she growled. Vanessa shivered as the lethal amazon moved off.
“I spoke with the purser and had quarters assigned to you,” the Captain told the Admiral as she approached.
He turned wearily. “Thank you Captain,” he said.
She
smiled. “You’re about done in, let the ladies finish up here and get some rest,” she said.
He gave Molly a look. She nodded and smiled. “We can handle it,” she said.
The Captain smiled. “That's an order.”
He nodded. “Aye aye Captain.” She chuckled as she turned the chair and left.
He was tired when they left to go to his newly assigned quarters. The lead guard led him down one passage after another. Sprite kept a running plot on his location on the HUD; they were down on deck twelve, near the stern. He was both dismayed and amused to have to walk a beam to get there, sections of the corridor floor had been removed.
"Why can't we come in the other way?" he asked the lead guard. She shook her head.
"Hull breach, can't get in there unless you can suck vacuum. You fancy pants engineers missed that one," the lead guard growled. She gave him a challenging look over her shoulder then moved on.
“Thanks for pointing it out,” he muttered.
In front of a section of quarters there was a pile of debris, topped with a battered cleaning robot. He shook his head. The corridor was a mess, wiring hanging down, debris everywhere, soot and stains all over the walls.
One of the guards thumbed the control to the door. "Here you go. Don't expect room service," she smirked. He entered and dropped his duffel with a sigh. The room was dark, only one weak light worked. But his enhanced vision was enough to see the stains, debris and filth. He turned as one of the guards closed the door. He thumbed it open, but it refused. He snorted as he jacked in.
In a second the door was open. The guards gaped. One of them recovered faster than the other. "Problem?" she asked, in a tone that indicated there better not be.
He smiled. "Just need to get something." He stepped out and over to the pile.
"Please tell me we aren't going back to work, I need a break," the other guard muttered. He hid his smile as he crouched down and took a look at the robot. It was a CJ series 4, a hovering general purpose cleaner. From the singe marks someone had used it as target practice. He picked it up and turned.
"What do you think you’re doing with that?" the lead guard asked, indicating the robot. "Homework," he said as he passed her and her partner and closed his door behind him.
He swept the junk off the table to the floor then carefully set the robot down. Reconfiguring his arm, he jacked in and checked it out. Fortunately his USB jack could power it, the batteries were exhausted. Most of the damage was superficial. The ultrasonics were intact, as was the computer, lift drive and power supply. He used his tool kit to make repairs to the damaged eye and broken power cable, and then dumped its collection bin. "Now, how do we power it?" he asked softly.
"Sensors indicate there is a live power jack port side," Proteus reported. A karat appeared on his HUD.
He nodded. "Thanks." He pulled a cable from his tool kit and plugged it in, then the free end into the robot. Its status bar lit and began to pulse.
"That did it. Going to have it clean?" Proteus asked.
He nodded. "Starting with the mattress." His nose wrinkled. "No way am I sleeping on that as it is," he growled. He scraped off the crud from the toilet, did his business, and then checked the robot. "Okay junior, here you go."
He unplugged the robot and watched as its drive started to spin. It wobbled, and then with a low whine took off. It hovered around in a circle, waggling its control vanes, and then set to the port wall
"Nope, let’s start with the mattress shall we?" he ordered and pointed.
"Accessing. Got it. I'm redirecting it now," Proteus said. The robot turned and scanned the mattress, then bobbed. It's ultrasonic’s lit and he felt the wash of high frequency sound over his sensors.
Hastily he moved away. When the robot was done he tossed a blanket onto the mattress then laid down. "Get it started on the quarters; I'm going to get some down time," he ordered, and then closed his eyes.
“Aye Admiral. It's about time," Defender answered. His lips quirked in a smile.
The Chief led the work crew in and watched with a smug expression as they set up. The engineer was down for his nap, when he woke it would all be over. "Set up over there. Make sure there's nothing left for him to fix," she said and pointed. One of the guards smirked as she set up the tripod. Two others manhandled the crew service plasma gun on top and locked it down.
"Are you sure about this? He hasn't done anything wrong so far,” the guard said.
The Chief nodded. "I'm going to go rig the computer logs. Get it done. That's an order."
They set in with a will, shooting the pinnance starting at the bow. After the first few shots they stopped cheering. After a few more it began to pall into routine. Sure destruction is fun, but they knew someone was going to catch hell for it. Sparks flew off the hull and it glowed red under the continuous plasma fire. "Shouldn't we stop now?" one of the guards asked nervously. "I mean, the Captain is going to be pissed."
Another shook her head. "Not on your life. Chief wants a clean sweep." She crouched down behind the gun and tightened her grip. "Watch this!"
The shot hit the power core and it ruptured. Fortunately it wasn't fully charged for those on the rest of the ship. The women in the bay weren't so fortunate however. The core's overload explosion shredded the pinnance, spraying the bay with lethal shrapnel. In the armored confines of the bay it was a slaughter, no corner was spared. The drive shattered the fatigued hatch, and after a momentary groan it breached, sucking the bay's contents out into the void.
He felt the jar as she ship shook and opened his eyes. "Report," he ordered getting out of bed as another shake unsettled dust from the nooks and crannies above and down into a cloud.
"Hull breach, deck eight, it looks like starboard boat bay, aft," Proteus reported. He froze.
"Did we leave something on?" Sprite asked and then paused. "Records of the bay are off line. But I can access and check things out. Give me a moment," she said.
He nodded. "All right, time to get dressed." Alarms in the corridor were still wailing.
He exited as the ship bucked again, steadying the guard there. "What are you doing up?" she asked.
He snorted. "What do you think?" he growled. He led them out and down the corridor. "Report." The guard didn't like the command, but instinctively obeyed.
"I don't know what's going on," she said.
He grunted. "Hull breach, deck eight aft," he said.
He maneuvered the beam then heard a gasp. "Did he say deck eight?" the guard asked.
He nodded. "Let’s get a move on."
At the conference the Captain's anger was palatable. Tension sang in the air. Grimly the Chief nodded to her. "Report, what the hell happened to my ship," she snarled.
He cocked his head. "There was a hull breach in the starboard aft shuttle bay. Apparently five security crew members were inside and were killed," Irons said. He turned to the Chief.
"My condolences on your department's loss," he said reading her expression.
Her poker face dropped into a snarl. "Condolences? What the hell is that? What did you do? This is your fault!"
The Captain's hands knit together and her eyes flicked between them. "This true?" She looked to Molly.
"Ah, I mean, um, I'm not sure. The power core of the pinnance breached," she said and then she shrugged helplessly to the engineer.
The Captain's eyes glittered. "Unfortunately the records of the bay have been deleted," the engineer said quietly into the silence.
The Captain looked over to him. "Deleted? Is that what you said?" she demanded.
He nodded. "Aye Captain, deleted. By security." He turned a cool look to the Chief.
Her lips quivered. "We don't know what happened, we may never know. I still say you’re at fault," she got that out without a full snarl.
He shook his head. "No, although we don't have records of the bay, we do have them of the corridor," he replied. Her eyes widened in shock as the hologram lit and a four way view of the corridor was di
splayed. The Chief and work crew were seen carrying the weapon, entering the bay, and then leaving. The compartment was utterly silent.
"Everyone out now," The Captain said with command voice when the image froze. The Admiral and women backed away and turned. "Not you Chief," she growled. Glittering eyes locked onto her. "I think you and I have something to discuss."
"So, how are your quarters?" Molly asked him as they exited. "I'll swap with you if you want, it's the least I could do." She fumbled her glasses, taking them off and wiping them nervously. "I'm real sorry about the way you’re being treated," she said. She looked away.
He sighed. "Well, they're about clean now, I had a robot clean them while I was asleep. Going to take time to fix them up though," he said.
She nodded. "I'll see what I can do to help."
He nodded. "Thanks Molly." He waved to the corridor exit. "What say we go get some breakfast and then talk about today's work schedule? He suggested."
She sighed with relief. "Yeah. I think that's a good idea."
“Think she'll be in a lot of trouble?” he asked Molly quietly in the wardroom the next morning. She shook her head. “No, she's the Captain's granddaughter; I doubt it'll last for long, more's the pity,” she said. She looked annoyed. “She deserves it,” that last came out scathing.
He shrugged. “I noticed the guards are... nervous.”
Molly looked over to the hatch then back and grinned. “Yeah, I guess so.”
"I heard the chief got royally reamed yesterday." Jen smiled evilly. "Serves her right!" She gave the Admiral a look as they walked down the corridor.
"Think she'll be out?"
Molly sighed. "No chance on that, She told her grandmother she had set up a training exercise and someone must have gotten carried away, used the plasma gun on the pinnance or something."
Both girls and the Admiral grimaced. "Damn, did she buy it?" Jen asked. They nodded to the guards as the door opened. Inside the security chief was standing near the window. "Looks like it," Jen muttered.
New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Page 24