New Dawn (Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  He grimaced. "No. Tara is ambulatory and alert, but Jennie got a full face of it. There's some skin, lung, and toxic damage. The doctor will have his hands full," Irons explained. The doctor grunted, and didn't look up.

  "Get me a report when things settle down," the captain ordered.

  He nodded as she cut the channel on her end. He looked over to see the passage filled with people. "All right people, time to get out of here and back to your stations, this air is contaminated. Let's give the doctor room to work and the girl’s room to breathe," he ordered. The guards normally with him were just as bad as the other looky loos.

  He waved to them. A few reluctantly turned and left, a few moved a bit slower, taking looks over their shoulders and murmuring. He grimaced again. The med team had both girls on the litters. Tara protested but the doctor put his hand on her shoulder to restrain her. "Tara there could be lingering effects, the less you move the less it will get into your bloodstream," the doctor said. He looked worried. The first team was already moving off with Jennie.

  "Make a hole!" The lead girl called to the looky loos ahead. The nurse followed, carrying the pack and IV.

  "Jennie, whatever possessed you to pop a seal when you knew better?" the Captain demanded. She was standing at her bedside holding her hand. Tara had left after a cursory exam.

  "Sorry ma'am," Jennie slurred. She was bandaged, with an oxygen mask muffling her rough voice. "No talking I said!" the pixie like nurse came up eyebrows knit. She waggled a finger at the patient then the Captain. "She has severe damage to her larynx and esophagus, not to mention soft tissue damage to her mouth, lips, face, and gums."

  The Captain patted her leg. Jennie let tears slip under her bandages. "We'll get her into a Regen tank in a little bit. We have Kendra in there now after that plasma burst two days ago,” Mindy said. “Don't worry, it won’t mess your face up!" the nurse cooed, patting her hand. She checked the read outs then flounced off.

  "Sometimes I wonder about that girl," the Captain muttered. She sighed. "All right Jennie, get some rest. I think you've learned a valuable lesson, and been punished enough. I'll see you at dinner tomorrow," she said. She patted the girls hand as she weakly nodded.

  "That was a really stupid thing to do," The Admiral glared. Jennie ducked her head and muttered a sorry. He grimaced. "Talk about a grizzly lesson to the life support techs. You could've been killed." That ended with a growl. "Or killed others," he said with another grimace before relenting. "All right, let’s see if we can get this life support fixed. Or do you want to work on something else?" he asked. He was unsure if she was ready to get back in the saddle yet. She looked up. Tears sparkled in her eyes.

  Her skin was smooth; a dip in the Regen tank cleared away a lot of skin damage. "I think I can handle it," she said, voice still rough.

  He nodded. "I think we'll start with the hardware first." He led her down the corridor to a work station. A pair of techs were there. "Ladies," he nodded to them. "Okay, pop quiz. What's this?" he pointed to a graph.

  "Ammonia," one of the techs said, looking at him like he had asked a stupid question.

  “Got it. Why is it important to monitor?" he asked. She looked confused. He turned to the other tech who also looked confused. Then Jennie.

  Jennie shrugged. "It's used in the garden, and is a byproduct of solid waste," she answered.

  He nodded. "Yes, but it's also a poison," he said. She paled. "Mix this with the wrong ingredients like bleach, and it gets nasty," he said with a grimace.

  "One of humanities first weapons of mass destruction was that gunk," he said. He tapped the monitor. The girls looked at the readout.

  "And we have a ton of it?" The first white haired tech asked, paling.

  "Yes, we do. That's just this deck, and it's a bit high," he said. He shook his head.

  “Three... two... one... Downward translation complete, we have breakout in the Proxima system!” Lessa reported triumphantly. It had taken them less then two months to make the journey.

  The Captain smiled and nodded. “Good, good, do we have any news from our sensors yet?” she asked. She looked over to the sensor tech.

  “Nothing on neutrino or the tachyon detectors Captain,” she frowned at her plot. “Wait, I'm getting a faint source from the planet, two of them. Most likely a fusion reactor.”

  The Captain nodded sagely. “Yes, well, we all knew they were more advanced than the other colonies, their ancestors must have converted a reactor or two to work for them before the fall,” she said. She sat back watching the bridge crew.

  “Captain, inner system course plotted, ready to execute on your command,” Lessa said.

  “Well, that was certainly fast,” she said with a small smile of approval. She gave Lessa an approving nod. “Make it so helm,” she nodded to Shandra.

  “Now we can get those smelly animals out of my ship,” the Captain muttered.

  “Here here!” the chief replied softly

  The Captain looked up to her granddaughter and smiled. “Don't get too anxious; we still have several days before we get there.”

  “Well, actually Captain, we have three days before we make orbit,” Lessa turned nodding to the Captain with a small smile.

  “Only three days? My my, we have come a long way,” the captain murmured and then nodded. “I seem to recall taking weeks in subspace, now only three days?”

  “It'll be a lot shorter after the next round of repairs Captain. We have to rebuild the thruster cone on the port side. Once we do that and some other repairs...” Shandra pulled herself out the tank and pulled her goggles up. “We'll be the fastest thing in the universe,” she grinned. “In or out of hyper.”

  The Captain chuckled. “Well, we have three days to orbit; I suggest we make the best use of that time. I'm only planning a week in orbit,” she said. Shandra nodded as she pulled herself out of the tank.

  “I'm going to fly one of the shuttles to grab as many asteroids as we can. I can't believe I got talked into letting Hibiki ride shotgun with me,” she said wrinkling her nose. She shook her head.

  One of the girls giggled. “Well, I think he'd prefer you over Dorah!” someone else laughed. The chief scowled. “As you were,” she growled.

  “All right, get on it. I want the unloading expedited as well,” the captain ordered. She sighed. “Goddess knows we've been burning through fuel. We may soak the reserves just buying more.”

  Kendra looked up and shook her head. “Not really Captain, the Admiral's going to lasso an ice ball for us to mine,” she informed her.

  The Captain looked up. “An ice ball?”

  “Comet.”

  “Oh.” Her eyebrows beetled together. “Now how's he going to do that?” she asked thoughtfully.

  “Very carefully as I understand it,” Shandra replied, exiting the bridge with a parting grin.

  "Things are looking up; we have a complete ship for once," Jennie looked excited. "I mean, every deck is solid now, no leaks, and no breached sections. We even have a couple full cargo holds that we didn't before!" She smiled to Molly who nodded.

  "That's great. What about the engines?" Molly asked.

  She sobered. "Well, we're in the middle of the first overhaul cycle; it'll be a while before they're finished. I just hope nothing nasty comes knocking before they're back up," Jen said and then shivered.

  "Well, fortunately the neutrino and tachyon detectors are on line, so we should be okay," Molly answered, looking over her board. "Wow! He even fixed the hyperdrive! If this is right, we should be going into the B note of Beta when we leave here!" Her voice was filled with awe.

  "Really?" Jennie leaned over studying the screen's read outs. "That's amazing!"

  “We need a lot more structural repairs before we can get to Gamma though,” Molly sighed.

  “You always have to take the downside and be a wet blanket,” Jen grumped.

  He reached down and petted the tom in his lap. The cat raised its head, accepting the praise and then laid i
t back down, closing its eyes in contentment. "Are you here because your motor needs a tune up?" he teased, smiling softly.

  Molly chuckled. He looked over to her. She had a kitten in her lap. "I never get over how cute they are," she said.

  He nodded. "I'm glad the Captain kept up the tradition," he said. She shrugged.

  "Well, we didn't have them at first, but when a shipment of grain ended up bringing stowaway rats, we didn't have a choice," she wrinkled her nose. Jennie leaned over her seat and looked at her display. She pointed to a readout, murmured an okay, then left. "The purser wasn't happy, she didn't see a profit, but when a rat fried itself in the deck four wiring, she saw the light," she giggled suddenly. "Or should I say didn't? After all it cut the lights in that section."

  He chuckled. "I bet she likes trading the kits though," he observed, stroking the soft pelt. She nodded.

  "But getting them away from Dorah is a pain!" she replied with a grimace. She shook her head, smiling, adjusted her glasses then looked at her display. "So, things are looking a lot better, sensors are now aligned to within ten percent tolerance, better than we've ever gotten. Jennie said the EVA team has finished replacing the starboard and keel shield nodes, so we should hit the A or B note of Beta band when we leave," she reported. He nodded.

  "I said it's time for you to leave!" a female voice snarled.

  He heard a scuffle and shouts. He rounded the corner at a trot and paused. "What's going on here?" Sprite fed subsonics into his voice. The scuffle stopped abruptly. They sorted themselves out into a handball team and a group of spacers. "Ladies?" he growled. The morale officer came pounding up behind him, as did a security team. One of the guards must have called when he had first heard the noise.

  "We need to practice," one of the handball team members said. She like her team mates were wearing padding of patched or improvised gear.

  "So do WE!" Nancy said looking indignant. "We have a spacewalk in an hour and need to go over the motions," she said.

  He nodded. "Good idea." He turned to the moral officer. "Not my call though, the rec deck is your domain," he said. She looked confused. All three women looked at him. He grimaced at their expressions. They began to argue.

  "Sprite open a channel to the port boat bay," he said softly.

  There was a click and then; "Port aft boat bay, Michelle here. What can you do me out of today?" the girl asked.

  He smiled. "Michelle? This is the Admiral, do you have anything scheduled in your bay for the next hour?" he asked.

  He waited as she checked. "Um, no, a work crew is scheduled for next shift... Why?" she asked. He watched as the trio's argument became heated. "Nancy needs a place to practice. Do you mind?"

  She cleared her throat in surprise. "No, no problem," she said.

  He nodded. "Okay, I'll send them over there. Admiral out." Sprite closed the channel. He cleared his throat. A second throat clearing didn't work. He smacked his hands together with a loud clap. That did it. The trio and the others froze. "Thank you for your attention. Nancy," he turned to her. "I just got off the line with Michelle in the port aft boat bay, it's free and you can practice there," he said. The moral officer looked confused. "If of course that's okay with Miss Cortez?" he gave her an inquiring look. She looked to the team then nodded sheepishly. "Okay, ladies, let’s get this sorted out."

  "Do you know how long we'll be here for?" the blond tech asked Molly as she shouldered the wave guide up.

  "No idea. Probably a week or two. I'm betting a week. Looking for shore leave?" Molly teased.

  "I wouldn't mind a little. But I think we have a lot planned right?" the tech asked.

  Molly grunted and then gasped as she slid the bolt into place. "There! Yeah, we're going to try to tear down the hyperdrive and give it a full overhaul. We're also going to repair those cracked spars," she replied.

  Terrie blinked. "I thought we did that already? Is it possible to break it down?" She blinked then looked at Molly with surprise. "I didn't know anyone could do that!"

  Molly smiled. "The Admiral can. We fabricated the parts, just need to take it off line and repair it. In fact, he's working on the hyperdrive now," she said. The ratchet slipped through her fingers and clanged to the deck below. "Dang!" she said.

  "Hey watch it!" a pixie voice called up.

  "Can you get that for me? Our hands are full."

  A tech grumbled and handed it up. "So, going to the class tonight?" Terrie asked.

  "Oh, I already saw that one. I am going to try to get the engineer to start a new one on wave propagation theory in hyperspace," Molly replied.

  Terrie looked confused. "Hey wait, I missed the last two basic classes, don't get him off in a tangent. I need to get some rest you know," she grumped.

  Molly snickered. "Oh, don't worry, I overheard him talking to Jennie, I think she's going to do the basic course so he can work on the next step with us," she grinned. "I'm so glad we have the chance to learn all this! Beats staring at the bulkhead or gossiping any day!" She ran her hand over the glistening new parts.

  "Yeah, there's that," Terrie responded.

  "Do you think he'll get off here?" she asked after a long moment. She sounded worried.

  Molly shook her head. "This is an agrarian world. The only ones who come here are us. There'd be no point to it. The Admiral's a born spacer," she said. Terri sighed in relief.

  “Admiral, can you pass me that torch you’re using?” Trisha asked him, not looking over to where he was. He finished the nanite weld of the AC duct then pulled his hand up so she can see it.

  “I would, but I'm kind of attached to it if you know what I mean?” he said.

  She looked over irritably then chuckled. “Oh sorry, I forgot.”

  He shook his head, smiling. “What do you need?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I need a tack here, here...Oops!” she said and then grunted. The duct shifted, as she shifted her hands to point. She manhandled it back into position. “And up here. Once it's tacked I can get my welding gear and finish the job,” she said.

  He nodded. “Okay, hold it.” He flattened his left hand onto the duct to steady it and then began to tack at the indicated spots.

  “Wow, I don't feel any heat, and there's only a little light! How can you do that without gas or welding wire?” she asked.

  He finished the next tack and looked up. “Nanites.” She gasped a little and reared back. He sighed. “Nanites are robots, nothing more. I control them. They aren't going to destroy the ship or kill everyone,” he explained.

  She tried to absorb that, but he could tell she was having trouble. “Check out the database when you go off shift,” he said.

  She nodded woodenly. “I'll do that.”

  He nodded locking eyes with her. “See that you do.” He couldn't help slipping into command mode, He was getting tired of the ancient fear eroding his working relationship with the crew. It had taken some weeks to get over their phobia when they found out.

  The hatch opened and the girl reared back startled. “What's that?” She watched fascinated as fractal shapes spun in a complex web. “Oh my!” She looked over to Shandra who was wearing a virtual headset and had a set of goggles. “Oh wow...”

  Shandra was motioning, acting like she was swimming. “What are you doing?” the girl asked. Shandra shushed her. “Don't shush me!” Indignantly the girl came into the room and looked around. “What is that?” she demanded. Shandra hit a tangle and the holo went red then burst into a bright flare. The girl eeped and reared back.

  Shandra pulled the goggles up and glared at the intruder. “What?” she glared.

  The intruder looked around blinking furiously. “What was that?!?” she asked motioning to the holo.

  Shandra shook her head. “Simulator. Flight simulator.” She looked over to the intruder. “What do you want?” she asked testily, setting the gloves down and picking up a glass of water for a drink.

  The girl looked around then stood straight, shoulders back.
“Sorry, the Captain asked me to find you.” She waved to the communicator. “For some reason no one could contact you,” she said.

  Shandra froze then carefully set the glass down. “I shut it off,” she muttered. She looked over to the girl. “Did she say what she wanted?”

  The girl shook her head. “Well you're late for the meeting...” she said.

  Shandra looked up alarmed, then to the digital time display. “Damn!” She hastily pulled the goggles off then ran her fingers through her hair. “Damn!” She checked the mirror.

  “You're fine, you better get moving and not keep them waiting,” the girl said.

  She nodded. “Crap, I didn't even take a shower,” she muttered. She rushed out the door. The girl followed her. They jogged down the corridors to the lift. Two other crew members told Shandra she was late.

  She grimaced. “Going to catch it,” she sighed. In the lift she hit the bridge button and sighed again. The messenger nodded. “So what were you doing? Flight simulator? Is that what navigating is like?” She waved like Shandra had been doing.

  Shandra nodded. “That was a flight sim for Gamma band. Actually, the highest octave of gamma band.”

  The messenger's eyes widened. “Why?”

  Shandra looked her over. “Eventually we'll get to it.”

  The girl nodded. “How did you get that?” She cocked her head.

  Shandra grinned. “Where else? The engineer set it up for the navigators and helm crew.” She chuckled as the lift stopped. “My stop,” she said. The doors opened and she left.

  “Good luck,” the messenger called as she left with a wave.

  Jennie handed him a fuel line just as the shuddering began. The ship pitched up, then shuddered some more. "Not good," she said. Tools clattered to the deck. Jennie swore. "Definitely not good. If this much is getting through the inertial buffers, Admiral, I think you need to get up there." The ride smoothed out.

  "No, they can handle it without me jogging their elbows," he replied.