The Admiral nodded. "They have to serve their sentence first though," she growled. She gave him a stern look.
He nodded. "Agreed, every crime has a penance," he replied.
She smiled. "Glad you agree, now get out of here and get back to work." She waved the officers out as she turned to leave.
Hastily they jumped to their feet; the doc slopped some of his coffee. They filed out; the Admiral lingered behind with Jennie. "Admiral, what have you volunteered us for this time?" she groaned.
"Well, you were complaining about not having enough help..." he chuckled.
"All right what the hell do you think you’re trying to prove poaching my people?" the purser confronted them as they exited. She had her hands on her hips, chin jutting out. Her jowls shook in righteous wrath.
"They aren't doing anything right now except getting into trouble; I would think you would be happy?" the Admiral said calmly, stepping around her.
She tried to block her path but the Chief came up behind her. "Is there a problem here?" she growled. She made it clear in her tone, there better not be.
"No, ah..." She mumbled then glared. "This isn't over," she growled low to Irons.
He shrugged. "Okay, if you say so," he replied.
"So why did you pick some of them?" the chief asked.
He pulled out another tablet from a pocket and handed it to the Chief. She took a look then handed it to Jennie.
"Okay... Oh, huh, wait, Sheneria, I know her, she was in a couple classes... hmmm," she murmured. She scrolled through the logs. "Come to think of it, I recognize a few of these other names," she said looking up to him.
He nodded. "Some have the aptitude; some just want to try it. You can’t blame them for wanting to better themselves, spending their lives tossing cargo is back breaking labor no one loves or admires," he said and then shrugged.
"Tell that to the downers, you realize she's just going to recruit more right?" the Chief stated shaking her head.
"That's between you, her, and the Captain," he replied, taking the tablet as Jennie handed it to him. "What do you mean?" the Chief asked.
"Well, each of them should be vetted to make sure they're suitable, and not a security risk," he suggested to her. She nodded. "The doctor should get involved to give them a check up, last thing we need is someone coming in who's sick or has a virus," he said.
The Chief nodded again. "Good point," she said. For once her eyes had a twinkle. "That should spike her guns neatly," she smiled. The event was so rare, the Admiral was momentarily thrown.
"Once we get a handle on things, I want to get that shooting bay set up for your department," he said. He nodded politely to her.
The Chief nodded. "Good."
"In fact, I have a couple stunner designs I could pass off to you to try as well, something with more range and shots then the civilian ones you have," he suggested.
She nodded again but her eyes narrowed. "Always good to hear." He smiled as she turned to leave. "I'll see you later,” she said.
He smiled. "Always a pleasure Chief." He nodded as she left.
"Why are you baiting her?" Jennie murmured.
"Seemed like a good idea at the time?" he asked with a shrug. Jen sighed then chuckled softly.
The tech leaned over, examining the dishwasher. "Hmmm." Cookie came in, wiping her hands on her apron. "I thought the Admiral was going to do this?" she asked confused.
"Nope, Molly sicked him on another project, so I volunteered," the tech said. She studied the controls, and then opened the door. "Hmmm...” She closed the door and plugged her multi tool in.
"What's that?" the scullery maid asked. Cookie motioned her back to work but she glared.
"Oh it's a diagnostic tool," the tech replied. She tapped it a few times. "Hmmm...”
"I don't like the sound of that Hmm. Maybe the Admiral should be here..." Cookie said nervously.
"Oh, I got it, it looks like the ultrasonics are fried. Easy fix," the girl looked up to cookie and grinned. "Really, not a problem, I've fixed the ultrasonic showers after the Admiral showed me, this isn't that far away from it, just different," she replied with a shrug. She took a screwdriver out and went to work. "Okay if you say so, but stay out of the way, and you better hurry, the lunch crowd is going to hit in an hour," Cookie said over her shoulder as she turned to a simmering pot.
The tech smiled. "Be out of your hairnet in two shakes of a wrench," she grinned.
“Doctor I hear you want to institute a check up of the entire crew?” Molly looked up confused. “Why? No one is hurt right?”
The doctor shook his head. “I've been reading the medical texts; it states that regular checkups can detect problems early allowing for earlier less invasive treatment.” He looked over to Leri. “Like cancer.” She mumbled something then nodded. “Okay doc, I'm not doing anything now that we're ship shape, I'll volunteer,” she said sounding nervous.
He chuckled. “And can I suggest the same for the rest of the bridge crew? To set a good example?” he looked them over. The chief stubbornly shook her head no. The doc sighed.
“I'll do it, me too,” Kendra said. Kendra and Shandra reluctantly raised their hands.
“Well, that's a start,” he sighed.
The girls filed into the wardroom and went to their seats talking with each other. Trisha looked down at the package on her desk. "What the heck is this?" She opened the top and looked inside. "Baggies of beads and wires? What is this arts and crafts?" she demanded. She held up a bead.
"That's not a bead that's a resistor. We're going to do a little hands on today to give you some experience translating a circuit diagram to the real thing," the Admiral said as he entered the room.
He nodded to Trisha as she sat down abruptly. "All right ladies, if you'll take out the breadboard, that is the white flat tablet with a lot of holes in it, we'll begin by making a simple alarm circuit," he said. The holo projector came on and the circuit diagram was displayed.
"Let’s start with the basics of each part. Now, the resistors are the things that look like beads. The capacitors are the things that look like cans, or like disks,” he said and then held each up. A few of the girls squinted then looked in their own boxes.
"What are all the numbers and letters?" one of the girls asked. He nodded.
"They tell you about the part, they're identifiers. More on that in a minute.” He nodded to Trisha who was bending a resistor. "All right, the other things in your pack are wires, a piezoelectric bell, inductors, some micro chips, and switches.” He reached into the box by the desk and took them out one by one. "Oh, and a battery." He held that up last. "Now, here's what we're going to do..."
When the class ended the girls filed out. Several were excited, talking about making something with their bare hands. Trisha cleared her station slowly, waiting for the crowd to ebb. "So, why are we working with these things?" she asked. She tapped the box. He looked up from his tablet.
“Oh, they may be obsolete, but they still work and are great training tools," he grinned. "I had a kit when I was four; I built my first alarm with it. Shocked my mother when she opened the door to my room and it went off," he chuckled softly.
She laughed. "Okay, so when do we move up?"
He nodded. "In a day or two. You need to learn to crawl before you can walk...or run."
She held her hands out to the ship. "What about flying?" He sat back in the chair.
"Oh, we're doing that now. But when you get the basics down, you'll be able to handle a lot of repairs on your own...and even build new things if you have the mindset," he said. She nodded.
Molly leaned in. "You done in here yet? We have a ship to fix!"
Trisha hastily closed the box and then stacked it with the others. "Coming," she said. The Admiral got up and followed her out.
Molly looked at the giant beef steak tomato in surprise. "Wow! I didn't think they grew that big!" Cookie looked over and grinned. "You like it? The Gardener managed to trade for seeds in t
he last transit. Now that the life support has been overhauled, she's getting a handle on the nutrients and wastes."
She picked the tomato up. "I love it, such fine foods to cook with!" she smiled.
Molly chuckled. "Well, if it makes you happy..." She waved as she closed her toolbox up. "You're good to go; all the replicators are fixed and fully stocked."
Cookie sniffed. "I don't see why we need them when we have this!" she demanded as she waved the tomato under Molly's nose.
Molly took a sniff, and then gently pushed the hand away. "Yeah, but you can't be up cooking all the time, this way graveyard shift can get a snack."
Cookie nodded grudgingly. "Oh all right."
"So, what's engineering doing now?" the Captain asked, taking a sip of her tea.
"We're on a preventive maintenance routine Captain, we're learning how to diagnose problems and fix them," Molly grinned. "Some of the teams are still working on getting their sections up to snuff, we're still behind in propulsion, fuel, and power, but the others are all up to spec now," she grinned, adjusting her glasses.
"Yeah, I noticed the air's a lot cleaner," the purser sniffed.
"So, now that we have this ship working better we can dispense with the Admiral's services?" the Chief asked. Molly and Jennie glared.
"Oh I wouldn't go that far just yet. As Molly just pointed out, propulsion, fuel, and power are still in need of work," the Captain took a sip of her tea again and gave her granddaughter a quelling look.
"So we can make parts for ourselves when we're gone?" the purser asked. "They take a lot of power and materials," she sniffed.
Molly nodded. "Oh yes, and much more, now that we can make parts, we can make parts for other ships!"
The purser's eyes widened. "Help the competition?"
Molly shrugged. "Why not? If they're willing to pay for it..." she said suggestively. She left that hanging.
"Besides, we don't just mean competitors; we can build another ship, or an entire fleet of ships!" Jennie waved around to indicate the ship.
The Captain paused, about to drink her tea. "Well, that's news,” she said. She set the cup down. "Impressive. So we can build our own ships now?" her gravelly voice took on a teasing note.
Molly wasn't sure if she believed it. "We just need fuel, and materials as the purser pointed out." She nodded to the purser.
"Well, that's interesting,” the Captain nodded.
"We could start a shipping company! An entire fleet of traders!" Shandra said excited. "Does that mean I could sit in the big chair one day?" she asked eyes bright.
Jennie nodded. "It's possible," she smiled.
The Captain's eyebrows were raised. "Well, we’ll have to think this one over," she said, taking the sting out of her gruff voice with effort.
Molly nodded. "We still have a lot to do on this ship, so we have plenty of time," she said diplomatically. She set the tablet down.
The captain nodded. "Yes, on that note, how are things going in sickbay doctor?"
The doctor looked up from his tablet. "Hmm? Oh sorry Captain, I was reading a... oh never mind." He set the tablet down on the table. "I'm about ready to try the first Regen, we've had plenty of practice since those brawls and engineering have sent us so many injured lately," he said. He tapped the table with one finger.
Molly blushed. "Yeah, we took a few hits," she murmured. She rubbed her arm, she had some scars too.
"A bit too eager eh?" the Captain chuckled. "All right, go on?" she urged as she turned to the doctor.
"Yes, well, as I was saying, since most of our critical equipment is up and running now, we're about ready to do some regen on the first cryostasis patient. Um, miss Audrey, the burn victim who was placed in stasis four years ago. She's the least injured of the group, so should make the transition smoothly," he said and then nodded at their eager expressions. "Mindy and I've worked out the protocols involved, and run the simulations. It's harder to do the micro work with the goggles and waldo gloves then with implants according to the records, but I think we can do it," he said.
"Good. Go ahead with it. I'd like to see her next week."
The doctor nodded. "She should be up and around in that time. We cloned her a replacement leg, it's about to decant next shift," he reported.
The purser looked startled. "You can do that?" she demanded.
He nodded. "Now that sickbay has most of its equipment online, we can do a lot. It just takes time to learn how to use the equipment," he shrugged. As if time really mattered in hyper.
"Speaking of equipment and power, Captain, do we really need everything on?" Kendra the ops officer waved her report. "We've been using an awful lot of power lately, and the fuel reserves are getting low. We have enough to get to the next colony, but after that..." she sighed. "If we run into a pirate there we'll be screwed."
The Captain grunted. "We're working on it, you should be okay while we're in hyper, the hyper collection array is up," Molly interjected.
Kendra nodded. "My point is we need to start setting some ground rules on equipment use and budget power. We can't just go willie nillie with power again; it was hard enough to balance things," she sighed. “Much as I'd like to, we can't afford it.”
Molly nodded suddenly subdued. "The replicators suck a lot of power,” Molly admitted with a reluctant nod.
"So what do you recommend? You said a power budget?" The purser asked.
"Yes, we should shut down or hibernate equipment not in use, and cut power to sections not occupied. We really don't need all the lights on in the cargo bays when no one's there," she said firmly. She waved the tablet. The purser grimaced.
"Yeah," Vanessa admitted. She looked down and made a note.
"Okay, so turn the lights off when we leave a room," the Chief replied and nodded. "What else?" The ops officer grimaced. "Well, it would be nice if security limited its force field use to only when we needed it, or when we're diagnosing problems, turning them on every shift is getting to be a drain. They’re not doing anything!" she grumbled.
"Oh?" the Captain asked. The Chief looked away. "Why are you doing that granddaughter?"
Molly looked up, suddenly incensed. "She's locking the Admiral down, keeping him isolated."
The Captain stared at Molly then turned to her granddaughter. "Knock it off. I believe he's proven himself," she growled. She nodded to Molly. "The force fields and guards will be removed today." She sat back.
"Um, well Captain, if I may, can you keep the guards?" Molly asked.
The Chief looked surprised. "Actually, the Admiral likes them, and is training them. They help him sometimes, and keep people from bothering him when he's working on delicate things," Molly said. She tapped the tablet.
"Yes, I noticed he wasn't here again,” the captain said pointedly. The Captain looked at Jennie. "Is he busy?"
Jennie nodded. "Aye Captain, he is realigning and repairing the reactor core with the robots and implants. We didn't want to disturb him," she explained.
The Captain nodded. "Okay, the guards can stay, but they will now help him not hinder,” she ordered. She gave her granddaughter a long look.
The Chief sighed. "Very well Captain." She glared daggers at the ops officer who squirmed a bit. "So, why's he working on the reactor? Don't we need it now?" the doctor asked.
"Oh, no, with the shields repaired we can use hyperspace to suck free electrons, it's all very neat. We can stand the reactor down to back up and do some repairs on it. All that nasty sea water has irradiated a lot of the parts," Jennie explained and then grimaced. "Doc, you may want to brush up on radiation poisoning in case someone gets exposed when we pull parts," Jennie said. He nodded sobered by the thought.
"Thanks for the warning," he shook his head.
"How bad is the danger?" the Captain asked.
"It depends on the exposure. If someone like Dorah or Mindy decides to open a crate with irradiated parts, it would kill them in a minute," Molly replied and shook her head grimly.
&nbs
p; The purser whistled. "Why are we keeping that junk?"she asked. She looked grim.
Molly nodded to Jennie. "We're going to expel them when we get out of hyper. We built a kicker pod and it'll send the junk on a sun scuttle," she explained. She shrugged. "The Admiral is insisting he handle things, he's the only one with implants and training," she sighed.
"Okay, I want to check him over after though," the doctor said.
"Fair enough," the Captain said nodding to Molly.
"He'll be tired when he gets done, he's been pretty focused," Molly evaded.
"She means he'll probably eat and crash," Jennie replied looking at Molly.
"How long has he been in?" The doctor asked suddenly alert.
"Um, this is his fifth shift," Molly squirmed a little under his intense gaze.
"five shifts in the past five days?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Oh no, five in a row. It's normal for him sometimes. He's...” Molly looked at the clock on the tablet. "He's been in there about thirty four hours now."
Shandra grimaced. "I wish I could do that. It must take incredible stamina... You mean he hasn't eaten or slept?" she asked.
"What about going to the bathroom?" the purser asked wrinkling her nose.
"No, it's like he's a block; he's in the minds of the robots... It's kind of hard to explain," Jennie said with a helpless shrug.
The doctor looked concerned and got up. "I think I should look him over."
The Captain waved him down. "In a moment doctor, I think he knows his own limits."
Molly nodded. "His body can do all sorts of things; even recycle its own waste for a while. He said he'd be okay." she said and then shrugged. "He wants to get it all done now; we'll need the core in three days," she grimaced.
The Captain nodded. "All right, if there isn't any more news, let’s get to work." She floated back from the table and turned. The group hastily got up.
New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Page 27