He shook his head. "No, we need to replace the line; it's frayed and patched too much as it is." She looked it over. "But we can't do it with the stuck injector on the port side."
He nodded. "Right, we're going to have to fabricate the parts for a new injector, shut down that feed, drain it, and then break it down and swap the parts for the new," he explained.
She looked it over. "Okay."
He nodded. "I know, it sounds like a lot, and it is, but it'll be worth it," he said.
She nodded. "Okay. What were you saying about excess neutrons?" she asked.
He sighed. "Well, with raw hydrogen as the fuel source the reactor is running at twenty percent efficiency."
She looked it over. "Twenty percent?" she asked. He nodded. "What happens to the other eighty?" She asked brows knit as she frowned and looked at a tablet.
"Well, the other eighty percent are neutrons. They bounce around, irradiating the inside of the reactor," he explained. She looked alarmed. He nodded.
"Yes it's as bad as you think. We're looking at a re-core or complete replacement. So far I've been doing minor stuff, tune ups and minor repairs, but now we can do it right," he said.
She squirmed. "Is that even possible?" she asked. He smiled. "Silly me, of course it is." She muttered then smiled in turn. "Okay, where do we start?"
"I see someone is enjoying the holographic projection system in the right way..." he teased as he came into main engineering. He looked over Jennie's shoulder to see a circuit diagram floating above the desk. "Nice, but it looks like there's a short in the bounce circuit here..." He reached around her to tap the indicated area.
"What? Hold on...” She highlighted the area then zoomed in. "Oh geese, how could I have missed that!" she sighed sitting back. He chuckled.
"Trying your hand at advanced diagnostics?" he asked. She nodded wearily. "It's good to know, but a good engineer learns the basics, and then let's the machinery do the work for them, then double checks."
She gave him a look. "That's not what you said earlier."
He shrugged. "You have to have the fundamentals down first of course, and you need to double check the work, not follow the program blindly." She nodded.
“Sometimes it's a good idea to take a step back, take a break, and get a fresh perspective to solve a sticky problem. Turn it on its head works too, if you can't solve the problem, change it,” he said. She looked exasperated.
Trisha looked over her to the hologram. "She still at it?" she demanded. She glanced at the Admiral. He chuckled as she sighed in exasperation and pretended to strangle Jennie. "Hours and hours staring at little lines! Ugh!"
Jennie fought her off laughing. "Look who's talking miss life support."
Trisha chuckled. "Yeah, but I get air ducts, and scrubbers and heaters, anything electronic broke I send to you for repair," she said. She ducked as Jennie tossed a towel at her. "Meanie! Beating up on poor defenseless life support techs!" she joked. The Admiral laughed with them.
“Lying little trollop," Molly sniffed as the minx walked by head high.
The Admiral popped his head up out of the opening in the floor. "Is she gone?" he asked.
Jennie giggled. "Yup. Oops! She's coming back." He ducked back down. When Molly called that the coast was clear again he checked his implants to be sure.
"Sprite keep a track on her, keep me away from her., he ordered. Sprite lit a green light on his HUD.
He looked up out of the hole. "You sure?"
Molly laughed. "Oh get up you coward." He sniffed. "Save entire worlds, face down raging Xenos but afraid of a minx?" Molly demanded.
He stood up. "You betcha, women are evil," he grinned when she scowled. "Present company excluded of course," he said hastily.
She chuckled. "Oh, after a crack like that I wouldn't count us out so fast..." His eyes widened in mock fear. Jennie giggled.
"Admiral, if I may ask, why did everything collapse?" a girl asked. He looked over to the girl in the back. She blushed. "I mean civilization. We have this..." She waved to indicate she ship.
He nodded. "Good question," he stalled for a moment, crossing his arms and tucking his chin into his chest.
"Power Admiral and replicators," Sprite prompted. He closed his eyes then opened them. "Civilian power cores need the right kind of fuel," Sprite hinted again.
He made an O with his mouth. "Okay." He looked up to the class. "The answer is four fold. The first are the replicators. They're deliberately limited in what they can do, and if you try to bypass them they shut down and scramble themselves," he said. Several of the girls nodded.
"The next is training. The war took the best percentage of people. It ate them up, either on the battle field, or when the star systems were destroyed," he explained with a wince. Some of the girls looked affronted. "No offense to your ancestors, they were survivors," he added. A few looked relieved.
"And the third?" the girl in the back prompted.
"Well, the third is leadership. When most of the central worlds fell, leadership, and a majority of industry went with them." He tapped the holographic controls to project the galaxy, then the Federation as it fell. "When they fell the colonies were on their own," he said quietly.
"And the last?" Molly asked.
"Power," he said it simply. "This ship has power in plenty, but that's because it's a military ship. Military ships have adaptive reactors. That allows them to scrounge for fuel when they're low." He shrugged. "We can run the reactor on just about anything, including waste."
One of the girls smiled. "Let’s try cookies green bean casserole!" The class chuckled at this.
He nodded. "Civilian fusion reactors can't do that, they were designed to use deuterium and helium 3." One of the girls raised her hand tentatively. "Yes Misha?"
She put her hand down abruptly. "Did...” she stopped. "Um, didn't you say in chem class that deuterium is made from water?" she asked.
He nodded. "Right."
"So, um, couldn't they just use sea water?"she asked.
He shook his head. "In theory yes, but you see, most fuel came from space. Stars emit massive quantities of helium 3 and deuterium, which build up on the Jovian planets, and on airless moons," he explained.
One of the girls looked confused. Another leaned over to her and stage whispered. "He means gas giants," she said.
She nodded. "Oooh."
He smiled. "Right, gas giants. So when the space industry was smashed..." They began connecting the dots...
"Fuel was lost..." some muttered.
He nodded. "Exactly. The replicators can't make parts for deuterium extraction; deuterium is used to make bombs among other things," he explained and then grimaced. "So without fuel, the reactors shut down."
"But there are solar and wind power right?" a girl asked.
He nodded. "And hydroelectric,.” he said. “Each of those don't have a thousandth of a percent the power ration of a planetary fusion reactor." Some of the girls looked awed. "They could power a lot of things, and did, if they were still in good shape. Remember, many of the colonies were flattened and scorched, cities were nuked, and most of the industry was there," he said. Several nodded.
"The storms that were set off probably flattened the wind turbines and covered or destroyed the solar panels. Hydroelectric dams would have been destroyed from space or would have burst as the climate shifted."
A few of the girls nodded. "That happened on Airea 3 and Seti Alpha 4."
He nodded. "Right. Without power the survivors were thrown back into the Stone Age. People with high tech devices, suddenly tossed back into the Stone Age, with no foreknowledge," he sighed, shaking his head.
"What about those with implants?" a girl asked.
He looked over, face bleak. "No power," he said. She looked confused.
Molly cut in. "The implants require power. Some can tap the body’s native ability to make energy, with thermal or electric collection arrays, but most required a periodic jolt of power," she explained
.
He nodded. "A few like mine can tap water as well, but for the most part, no power, no life."
"You realize you're spending more and more time in the classroom? It used to be a couple hours, now it's half a shift," Molly said as she adjusted her glasses. She seemed amused. The class had just ended but his usual crowd had lingered.
"Yeah, how come?" Trisha asked coming up behind Molly, munching an apple. "Not that I'm complaining or anything."
He chuckled. "Well, it started as a helping hand, to explain things, but it kind of grew." He shrugged and thought for a moment.
"Give a man a fish he feeds his family for a day, teach a man to fish he can feed them for life," he parsed that out slowly.
The girls looked confused. "What does that have to do with engineering?"
He smiled. "Old saying. It means if I just helped you, the ship would be repaired, but after I left things would slowly break down since you'd only understand limited things. But teach them to you..."
Molly nodded in excited understanding. "Oh, I get it!"
Trisha's eyes were wide. "Yeah."
He nodded. "And what you've learned, you can pass on to others," he said. He looked them over, suddenly serious. "That's my price to you, to teach others what you've learned so they can grow as well."
Both girls froze, and then nodded slowly. "Fair enough," Trisha replied, taking another bite.
"I like it," Molly replied.
"I see you set up a machine shop for antigrav..." Irons said.
He looked over to Jennie who nodded. "Some of the girls are really taking to the antigravity theory and hands on repair. So I asked the Captain and she approved," she said.
He nodded. "Good idea. So they repair the grav plates and other things?" he asked. She nodded
"Yes, we can now send them the components and they'll send us a rebuild," she said and then smiled. "Much more efficient method then rebuilding them on the spot, don't you agree? I'm working on setting up a similar shop for electronics as well," she said.
He smiled as she nodded politely to him and turned away. "They're learning," he said softly.
"That they are Admiral," Sprite said voice rich in approval as well.
"So, you’ve been with us for nearly a year and five stops Admiral, but you haven't gotten off yet, dare I say you’re going to be with us for a while?" Molly teased as she stirred her drink idly.
He smiled. "I'll get off when the work is done...or the Chief will throw me off." He cocked his head to the two guards.
Jennie sighed. "You'd think after a year, and all the work you've done they'd get the paranoia out, but noooo..."
Molly shook her head. "Ease up, they're just doing their jobs." She gave the Admiral a guilty look.
He shrugged. "She has a point Jennie, but then again,” he nodded to Molly, “So does Jennie. I wish they would find a happy middle ground," he sighed.
Jennie leaned back sipping her drink. "So, I hear you’re up for the next landfall Molly?" She gave Molly a long look.
Molly blushed. "Well, it's not like we haven't gotten a handle on everything, the doc has all but the Chief engineer and doctor out of stasis and back on duty, so we're covered..." she said. She wrinkled her nose.
"I came in to check on Jedzia, she was sitting up in bed sipping something and the doctor was going on about neural dendrite regeneration and stuff... way over my head," she said and rolled her eyes.
The Admiral chuckled. "Fair is fair, they probably think the same about us and hyperdrive mechanics." Jennie chuckled.
Molly sputtered and fixed her glasses. "But hyperdrive mechanics are easy!" The surrounding crew at the tables laughed at that, as did the Admiral and Jennie.
Molly blushed furiously. "Okay okay, ha ha," she muttered.
Jennie threw her napkin at her. "You really do need a break if you’re that way, I could use one too, and maybe after we fix the computer core on deck eleven, I'll see if I can get some downtime," she said.
Molly nodded. "It's good to stop and smell the flowers sometimes." She gave the Admiral a mischievous look. "I think you should come with us Admiral!" she said. She waved to the view port.
He chuckled. "Maybe if we get this list sorted out. if the Captain and Chief will let me!" Jennie giggled at that.
"Centennial?" Trisha looked over the tablet and sniffed. "Funny name," she said. They were about to enter orbit of the planet.
The Admiral shrugged. "The crew of the explorer ship named the planet and system."
Trisha's eyes were wide. "Did you know them?"
He shook his head and laughed. "No, that was a couple centuries before I was born. No, the planet is named because it was the one hundredth star system that the explorer Drake went too. They discovered a planet...Let’s see," he said reaching to pull up the data.
Sprite pulled up the basic data on his HUD. "They found a planet in 2219; it had two planets that were in the Goldilocks zone."
Jennie raised her hand. "You lost me teach."
He sighed as they giggled. "Okay, Goldilocks tripped you up right?" he asked. She nodded. "Let’s see, um... Let’s see if I have it on file."
Sprite pulled up the text from the ship's database. "Okay, I'm shooting you a link. The basic story is finding something in the middle, not to hot, not to cold, not to bright, not to dark, etc," he explained. The class nodded. Sprite projected a generic star system layout then highlighted the Goldilocks zone. "The Goldilocks zone, seen here with this bright band, differs on the star, but basically it's where life zone planets can be found. Some need a boost to terraform," he explained. He pointed to the outer and inner edges. "The inner most layer is the best, a planet with a stable orbit, good neighbors, and stable atmosphere can develop a biosphere with little or no help." The hologram zoomed in to an image of Earth.
"What planet is that?" a girl in the back asked.
He turned and stiffened. "Earth," he breathed quietly.
"Oh. Why name it after the ground?" the girl in the back asked confused.
"It's the home world of the human race," he replied, voice roughening a bit. He turned and nodded to Jennie. "We also called it Terra, which means Earth." He shrugged. "That's why species from our home world, including us are called Terran." He gazed at the students for a moment. "That's all for tonight ladies, I need to get some rest," he said. He left quickly as the class began to get up and murmur.
"This is a bit early; think that holo opened a wound?" Jennie asked, leaning over to Trisha.
Trisha shrugged. "Maybe. I was wondering why he didn't know it was the planet. Did you see the look on his face? It was a surprise to him," She grimaced.
Jennie froze. "You know, you’re right, that is odd," she said. She gathered her tablet up and walked past the milling group around the projector.
"Sprite, what's the big idea?" he demanded quietly as he nodded to the guards. The guards followed, hot stepping into a trot to try to keep up with his longer legs and fast pace.
"I don't know what you’re talking about Admiral?" Sprite said projecting her face on the HUD. Her body followed and she kept pace with him. "You should slow down; you’re losing your posse."
He turned and glared at the guards then continued. "Knock it off Sprite, spill it," he growled.
She sighed. "As you wish. That's the stock data from the encyclopedia I found," she said.
He grunted. "You could have warned me."
"I was wondering, where do you get your cosmetics and bathroom supplies since you didn't use the replicators?" he asked. He turned to the purser who looked up from her tablet.
"Huh? Oh um, we trade for them of course. I allocate a generous proportion to each crew member, but they always use more," she said sourly.
"In fact, we're going to one of the colonies now," the Captain said, netting her fingers together. "It's a cross roads, since they managed to hang onto civilization a bit better." She shrugged.
"How did they do that?" he asked.
"Oh, they were sparsely p
opulated, but were some sort of lower tech Terran colony," she said. She waved her left hand airily.
"A BTB," he murmured.
Molly looked over to him. "What's a BTB?" she asked. She wrinkled her nose in confusion.
He grimaced. "A back to basics colony," he explained. The Captain cocked an eyebrow in query. "Some people didn't like technology, or wanted to retire to an agrarian colony. Some were cultists, or people who got into a fad of living as period century people...like medieval times, or that Victorian colony." He shrugged. "Some were low tech for religious or moral reasons like the Amish and technophobes."
He shook his head. "Most of the people were okay, but there was the occasional cult that turned into a terrorist cell." His eyes darkened at that.
"Well, this one was a basic colony, the planet didn't need a lot of terraforming, and so when the war hit and the planet was scorched, it bounced back faster," the captain said. He nodded.
"The next planet is Gaston, that's another trade goods colony; we get most of our gemstones from them," the purser said. He nodded.
"Yes, we trade the fabrics, cosmetics, perfumes, and gems to the rich in Pyrax," Molly said.
"It barely covers the docking fees," the Captain growled. "Most of our profit from Pyrax is in trading for rare metals," she sighed.
The purser nodded. "We usually pick them up in Senka, but that pirate chased us out." She shook her head.
"I'm glad you showed us how to snag the odd asteroid, that made the difference," the Captain said as she nodded to him.
"So, who is this Sprite you keep mentioning?" Molly asked.
He turned alarmed to Molly. "Um...When did I mention Sprite?" he cursed himself.
"Just now, I could see your lips moving," she said. He sighed defeated.
"Boss, I'm technically classified," Sprite warned him.
He shrugged. "Sprite is my AI that manages my implants," He half lied.
"Oh, okay," Molly wrinkled her nose.
He looked over his shoulder to the guard. "I would prefer that the Chief not hear about it, she's paranoid enough."
New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Page 41