"No need," he said. He held up his middle finger and watched it morph into a socket.
"Oh, I forgot about that. One man walking tool kit and machine shop," she said. He chuckled. "How do you get that?" one of the nearby girls asked.
He looked over. "You get your arms and legs blown off," he said. He heard the gasp as he locked onto the bolt. A sharp grunt of grinding noise from his finger and the bolt was turning freely. "I was injured in a battle. I had the choice of a clone replacement, or artificial. There was a long line for clone replacement parts...so I opted to play guinea pig," he said. He pulled the bolt free then looked up to see the girls staring at him. He shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."
One of the girls nodded. "Um okay... but, what's a Guinea pig?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. He chuckled and leaned over to the next bolt.
"Prepare for docking." He felt the ship twitch as the OMS kicked slightly, aligning the two vessels minutely. "Alignment confirmed. Docking commencing." The ship shifted again, and then stopped. "Docking complete," the overhead squelched for a moment. "All hear this, security to the docking port prepare to receive visitors." He looked over to the guards; they were already moving to obey. He nodded.
Sometime later he ran into a group being escorted by a guard. "You have some ship, and it's so clean! And functional!" pure envy dripped from the short balding man in the rumpled coverall. The Purser nodded.
"That's because of the Admiral here and our engineering staff," Jennie replied, waving to him.
The Chief looked over to her and glared. "Admiral?" the male asked, he looked thoroughly confused.
"Yes, we found him in a life pod a few months ago. We were chased out of the system by pirates and stumbled upon him by accident," Jennie continued on blithely ignoring the Chief's dagger eyes. Irons mouth twisted in a tight smile. It had been nine months ago actually.
"It's nice to meet you Admiral," the man said and held held out his hand.
The Admiral set down the panel he had been holding and shook his proffered hand. "Nice to meet you as well mister...?"
"Oh, sorry, this is Captain Andros Bright of the Pelican," Vanessa replied smoothly.
He nodded. "Pleasure to meet you Captain."
The Captain nodded eagerly. "Say, do you know how to repair a Smythe series six plasma engine?" he asked and then waved. "Mine has a hiccup every few micro seconds that makes the ship shiver and buck," he shook his head. "Can't seem to get a handle on it," he sighed.
The Admiral slowly nodded. "It sounds like either a computer problem or contamination on your electric grid."
Jennie nodded. "Or a clogged fuel injector," she said. The classes were coming in handy.
He nodded. "Possible. You’re using straight sea water?" he asked.
He turned to the Captain. He nodded. "Why yes!" He sighed.
Irons grimaced. "Best that your current ships can handle I suppose. But it has a lot of particles that tend to clog up the works after building up in the fuel lines over time." He shook his head. "I can't really say much more without seeing it." He placed the panel back onto the wall. "Finished here. I'm about to go off shift, if you'd like me to take a look, I can spare a couple hours..." he said suggestively.
The Captain brightened. "Thank you!"
Captain Bright nodded eagerly and practically bounced. "Our gravity is out on deck three too; can you do something about that?" he asked. The man smacked the Admiral on the shoulder.
"Well, I can take a look if there's time. If you need parts you'll need to contact the purser and Miss Jennie here to arrange for a trade." He waved to Jennie and bowed over his hand. She blushed.
"Jennie?" the captain asked turning.
He nodded. "Miss Jennie here is the assistant chief engineer. The young woman you met earlier is the acting chief engineer."
The Chief was looking nonplussed. "I thought you were the Chief?" the Captain asked.
"Oh, no, I'm a passenger, just working my passage," he replied and then shrugged. "Let me see what I can do," he said.
The Captain nodded. "Garth here...” He waved to a stocky man with a scar on his face. "Garth can show you to the ship," he said as he nodded to his assistant. The Chief leaned over and whispered to a guard. She followed them as they left.
It took a few minutes to get to the Pelican's engineering core. "All right, let’s see." He looked around.
A burly man shouldering a wrench looked him over with disdain. "And what do you think you’re doing here?" he snarled.
"Your Captain asked me to diagnose your engine problem." He nodded to the controls. "With your Chief's permission...?" Irons asked politely.
The man snarled. Garth came forward. The man back down sullenly. "Over there," he finally said. He pointed with the wrench.
"All right. I'm going to need to jack in." He examined the jack, and then morphed his hand.
Garth and the burly man gasped. "What the hell are you?"
He jacked in. "A cyborg from your past," Irons replied.
He felt Sprite's handshake protocol, and firewalls slam up. "Initiating antivirus procedures," she said, he echoed it out loud.
"Anti virus? What are you talking about?" the man said, grabbing his left arm.
"Your computer is infected with viruses, I'm cleaning them out. The viruses are damaging your electronics and systems," Irons explained. He shook the hand off, concentrating on Sprite's work.
"Shields ready Captain, defensive protocols on line," Defender responded.
"Done. Virus quarantine, purge, and inoculation completed. I'm copying the ship's logs and interesting files to the Io for later study. I'm rerouting the software around the damaged systems Admiral. It'll take me a few minutes," Sprite reported a few minutes later.
He nodded. "All right, the viruses have been killed, I'm working on fixing the software damage and then I'll access your drives diagnostics," he said out loud for the Pelican crew's benefit. He checked the field strength of their shields. Less than ten percent, hyperdrive was barely Alpha D band. "Your hyperdrive is out of alignment with your sensors."
Sprite squirted him the diagnostics for the ship engines. He opened the file and a virus attacked. "Oops, guess I missed one," Sprite responded, killing it. "All right, try again," she said.
He grimaced. "Okay, if there aren't any more nasty surprises..." he said it bitingly.
"Sorry," she said again. He checked the file, eyes scanning it quickly.
"Well, you have all three problems it looks like. Clogged fuel lines and fuel injector ports, depolarized electric grid, and electronic ignition wiring problem. It looks like a faulty or damaged wiring harness...port side, along the aft bulkhead," he reported. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight Garth scrambling for a pen to write on a nearby clipboard.
"I can't do anything from in here for that. The deck three gravity...hmmm... yeah, impedance reached in over half the grid. The rest was overloaded in a power surge. It looks like an EPS conduit upstream breached out and when the blockage was stopped the flow wasn't turned down, the overflow hit deck three's lines and overloaded the life support systems on the deck. Some system recovery, but the power surge made the electronics that returned spotty at best," he reported.
He looked over to the Chief. "I would suggest a complete overhaul of the deck life support." The Chief looked bleak. "And where can we get parts? No one but Pyrax makes them?!" he grimaced. "Well, you can make up a shopping list and ask your Captain to trade for them with the Io 11." He looked over to Garth.
"How, you have the parts?" Garth asked, tapping the desk.
"Some in stores possibly, but most will have to be replicated," Irons replied. He turned his attention back to the net, ignoring the look the two shared between each other.
"All right, that's the best I can do Admiral. This ship is a deathtrap. No replicators and it's falling apart," Sprite commented hours later. "You’re not going to go on this are you?"
He shook his head as he withdrew and looked up
. "All right gents, the software repair is done. I rerouted the electronics the best I can," he said. He looked over to Garth who was scowling.
"I just heard from the purser, He's trading most of our cargo for the parts we need," Garth said. He looked bleak. "We'll get a small replicator though," he said.
He turned to the Admiral. "I'm not sure it'll help," He said with a nod.
"I uploaded some documentation to help you, and flagged the manuals,” he said after a moment. "Let me see about doing a few patches while I'm here, starting with that plasma buss." He sat up straight and set his hand on the console. "I would suggest trying to repair a cleaning robot or trading for one. The little things do a mountain of work, and save on energy," he suggested. He waved at the grime covered walls.
"Been meaning to do something about that," the Chief muttered.
The guard turned to the engineer closing her eyes briefly and wrinkling her nose. "I'm sure," he nodded as he got up. Garth was staring at his hand. He held it up. "See, all better,” he smiled.
"So, are you going?" the Chief of security asked him as he returned to the ship. She wrinkled her nose at his pong. "Gaah."
He shrugged. "Sorry, sweat goes with work." He sighed wearily, and looked back. "Not on your life," he replied softly. She nodded looking amused.
"I guess you’re stuck with me a little longer Chief." He had to be imagining her small tight lipped smile. Ever since he had started training the guards in martial arts and her counseling sessions she had seemed to warm to him...or at least turned down her active dislike and meddling. She nodded to the guard who turned and left with a sigh of relief.
"Well, you took most of your break to gallivant."
He smiled. "It was worth it. Another ship out there is good for civilization."
She looked him over. "You really mean that don't you?" she asked softly.
He nodded. "I know competition isn't what you want, but you are so far out of their league it isn't funny." He shrugged. "They can barely hit alpha D as it is. Months, sometimes years in transit between systems."
She shook her head. "Before you came along we were almost doing the same, the best we could do was alpha E," she admitted.
He nodded. "But now look at you." He turned and walked with her down the corridor. "Beta band, you're armed, engines overhauled, power core overhauled, industrial grade replicators, and systems that are almost one hundred percent...or as close as we can get to that," he said.
She nodded. "Good to hear."
He nodded back. "With this ship you could rebuild entire worlds."
She looked up startled. "Really?" she asked warily.
He nodded. "Yes. The best they'll ever be is a tramp freighter on the ragged edge of survival," he said, wrinkling his nose. She nodded.
"So, how did we make out with Pelican?” Irons asked.
The purser looked up and nodded. "Um, I think we did all right, but I think they made out a little better in the long run. I think the data exchange will bear fruit later on once we have time to go over it in detail," she gave the Admiral a long look.
“I still can't believe you talked me into exchanging a replicator and those parts for that extra air car. I don't know what good it'll do in the long run,” she said and then shrugged the thought off.
"Oh, I think helping them will help you in the long run, besides, those air car frames could come in handy once engineering cleans them up and restores them," the engineer commented dryly.
The Captain looked him over. "Air cars?"
Jennie smiled. "You should see the Ford! Wow! What a beaut! And it can do over two hundred and forty kph!"
The Captain looked a little confused then shrugged. "If you say so. Why do we need them?" she asked. She turned to the purser who turned to the engineer.
"Well..." he drawled, stalling for time. He came up with a thought. "Well, you can trade them to planets," he said.
She nodded. "Go on, why will they want air cars?" she asked.
He nodded. "Well, some will want them for status. I believe you still deal in gems and rare minerals?" he asked.
She nodded. "Pyrax and a few other colonies still like luxury goods," she said.
He nodded and rubbed his chin. "Well, they can also be used by colonies to move people and goods. A few of the air cars can be rebuilt into cargo Lorries to carry goods," he suggested. She nodded. The purser caught on.
"And with more cargo vehicles they can do trade among themselves right?" she asked. He nodded. Dawning comprehension flashed on her face, and then she smiled evilly. "Besides, we'll be the ones to supply them with parts and tools!" she said with a grin. She turned triumphantly to the Captain who smiled as well.
"Good!" the captain said, chuckling.
He chuckled. "What ever floats your canoe," he nodded to Jennie. "They can also use the trucks to transport goods to the space port easier."
She nodded. "But it'll also help them get back to civilization a little right?" she asked.
He nodded. "It's good that we caught Pelican before they could bring them to Pyrax to have them smelted," he said. She sighed in relief.
The Captain chuckled. "You just want a new challenge," she said and then smiled.
"Well, since most of the ship is now working, why not? I need to keep the girls busy..." he said with a grin. She grinned back.
“You’re serious about those air cars?” Molly asked as she leaned over to him and adjusted her glasses. He nodded. Tia came over and hugged Molly. She kissed her cheek and murmured to her. Tia nodded and ran off with a backward wave. “Imp.” Molly snorted.
“So, we have a bunch of air frames to play with... This wouldn't be a sneaky way to get us to learn a little mechanical engineering would it?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Perish the thought! I wouldn't be that sneaky would I?” he asked. He gave her mock glower his best innocent expression. After a moment they both chuckled.
She patted his arm. “Okay, we can have some fun,” she said as she smiled.
“Any excuse to play with tools,” Jennie replied, coming over while polishing a torque wrench. “So, when do we get started? My shift doesn't start for a couple hours,” she asked. She hefted the wrench to her shoulder and looked between the two of them.
“No time like the present,” the Admiral smiled as he got to his feet.
"What the heck are you carrying?" He looked over to the girl trying to juggle plates of metal, and failing. With a clatter they fell.
"Oh hell," she grumbled and bent to pick them up.
He went over and picked a few up. "So what's all this?" he asked. He took a look at one. It looked like a primitive armor from a combat suit.
"Oh, it's an Avalonian suit of armor." The girl looked over to him then shrugged. "The planet below has some nasty predators. They need this stuff to survive," she explained and then shrugged.
"Dead weight to me," she grumbled.
"Okay." He hefted the armor he was carrying and followed her. The guards looked at one another and followed. The girl led them to the port forward boat bay.
"Watch out!" She dodged a hurtling kid. "Watch it twerp!" The girl spun around and stuck out her tongue. "Little monster," she growled.
He chuckled. "Who's the munch-kin?" he asked.
She looked over her shoulder. "Molly's brat Tia."
He felt shock rush through him. He'd seen the girl with Molly but never put it together. "Molly has a kid?" he asked.
"Oh, adopted. The pigtailed runt latched onto her at her last leave. Probably why she hasn't gone on another," she chuckled.
He could hear the guard’s chuckle behind them. He shrugged. "She's an orphan, her parents died of a fever a few years ago. She was begging in the space port, and Molly took a shine to her. The brat is cute I admit," the girl said. She walked through the hatch.
He followed, but one of the guards placed a restraining hand on his arm. "We can't let you in there," the guard said. He turned. "Sorry Admiral, orders," she said looking uncomfor
table. His eyes narrowed..
The woman returned and took the remaining armor, not meeting his eyes. "Sorry. I forgot," she muttered. He turned as she left.
"Care to explain that?" he growled.
One of the girls gulped. "Um, the Chief and Captain decided that you’re restricted to the ship," she said, now thoroughly uncomfortable. He locked eyes with the one who gulped.
"Oh did they?" he asked softly, dangerously. Both girls took an involuntary step backwards.
"Um, I think you should take it up with them Admiral," the blond with pigtails replied.
"I'll do that,” he replied.
He turned to head to the bridge but a call came from the overhead speaker. "Admiral, we're having trouble with the port injector again..." He looked up. "Admiral?" the voice asked.
He grunted. "Be there in a few minutes."
He looked over to the guards then left. "Whew! I'm not looking forward to that interview," the blond muttered.
"Oh I am...” the other said gleefully.
“Sprite is this in the database?” he sub vocalized as he stomped to his next destination. He seethed, but a lifetime of military discipline made his outward appearance look the same as ever. He even nodded politely to a passing crew member.
“Checking. There's some new security on the ship's security net, I'll just try the back door...I'm in.”
He went past a crew member and nodded to her. “Well?” he growled.
“Admiral, you’re not going to like this,” she finally said.
He shook his head. “I already have a pretty good idea. Spit it out,” he growled.
“Item, restrict Admiral to the ship. The person known as the Admiral is not to leave the ship. He is to be denied access to the boat bays unless specifically given permission by the Captain or Chief of security. Use of force to detain is authorized,” Sprite paused. “That's in the general orders.”
He grunted, shaking his head. “First she can't get rid of me fast enough, now she won’t let me leave? Women,” he growled in disgust. He smiled as a nearby girl looked up indignant. “Not you, it was a...oh never mind,” he said and waved. He passed the confused woman and went on his way.
New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Page 36