"In the bilge?"
"Yes."
I wasn't yet used to his relatively terse answers.
"We're having problems with the waste system. It's backing up. Nothing you're doing, is it?" I asked.
"No. But I did notice an alert on the ship's status," he said. "I assumed you would be monitoring it."
"You're right, we normally do. We've been repairing other systems, I guess, and I hadn't seen it yet."
"I understand. Are you requesting my assistance?" he asked.
"No," I said with a deep sigh. "The waste and septic have, unfortunately, become something of a specialty for me."
"Very well."
I made my way along the keel and looked over to where Jonathan was working. He was attaching thick plates to the keel with a welder and it appeared that he'd re-tasked the small critter defense bots we'd taken on in Lèger Nuage to help him.
I turned to port and located the waste pipe that drained the main head. We'd been using the main head for better than a day, which meant the blockage probably wasn't directly below, otherwise we'd have backed up immediately.
Trace blockage, starting at head drain. I requested.
My HUD illuminated the gravity assist tubing that moved waste through the septic system. As expected, it was red directly beneath both the shower and toilet fixtures. I had to shimmy behind one of the ribs of the ship. As I did, the problem became immediately obvious. We'd taken a previously undiscovered strike to the hull. An I-Beam had pierced the armored hull and stopped once it came into contact with the keel. The damage to the septic field had become the least of my concerns.
"All hands. We have a potential loss of pressure in the bilge."
"What's up, Liam," Nick asked over the comm.
"Looks like debris from Mastodon pierced the hull. I don't have eyes on the impact site just now, but I'd like everyone to keep their face shields up," I said.
"Understood."
"Jonathan, you okay if I seal us in down here? We might lose atmo," I said.
"Thank you for the warning. We'll be okay. And I renew my offer of assistance."
"I'll get some tools, then take you up on that," I said.
I made my way back to the entry hatch leading to the aft bunk room and jumped up onto the berth deck. I'd need tools to remove the obstruction, so I grabbed another welder/cutter, a jack and a toolkit. Once I was back in the hole, I pulled the panel closed behind me and sealed it.
"Marny, are you suited up?" I asked.
"I thought we were done with all that, Cap," Marny said. I could hear the pain killers in her voice.
"She's good, Liam. How long will we be at risk?" Tabby asked. Nick must have sent her down to help Marny back into her vac-suit.
"Shouldn't be too long. I closed us in down here," I said. "I'll let you know as soon as we're solid."
Jonathan had reoriented himself by the time I got back. He'd positioned himself forward of the I-beam and was inspecting where it had come in contact with the keel.
"We'll need to repair this once we have access to a shipyard," Jonathan gestured to the keel, which looked fine to me.
"What are you seeing?"
"Micro fractures in the crystalline structure. It is safe for normal operation, but combat maneuvers would be dangerous," he said.
"Great. This trip just gets more expensive," I said. I looked down the length of the beam and saw where it had pierced the hull and foam sealer had deployed.
"We think you haven't talked to Nick extensively," he said.
"I'm not following. Help me get this jack wedged in here. Maybe we can free this beam and push it out," I said.
"Very well."
We placed the hydraulic jack against the keel and slid the lip of it under the end of the beam.
"I'll break the foam while you apply pressure," I said, leaving Jonathan with the jack.
The foam was rigid but brittle. A few sharp raps with a hammer and the plug holding the atmo in the bilge popped out, never to be seen again. Atmo whistled through the hole.
"It's moving, Master Liam," Jonathan said.
"Seriously… please just call me Liam," I said. The beam shuddered as the jack pushed.
I moved back along the length of the beam using the hammer, attempting to free it from the septic system it had plowed through.
"It's moving, Captain," Jonathan said.
I sighed. It was an improvement, I supposed. The beam had moved several centimeters, but we had meters to go.
"Keep it coming," I said. "How much travel does that jack have?"
"Another twenty centimeters."
"Wait one."
I grabbed a temporary hull patch kit and worked my way back down the beam. Now that the beam was moving, the interior pressure would work to force it out. Before I could get there, however, the beam started moving by itself.
"Captain, it's moving independently," Jonathan warned.
"That's good. I'll guide it out," I said.
All hands, we're decompressing the bilge.
I didn't think anyone was in danger. I'd sealed us in, but better safe than sorry.
I pushed on the beam to help unstick it and was careful to position myself so I wouldn't get caught by the beam if it decided to make a hasty exit. Fortunately, the hole was perfectly beam-sized and I was able to work it out slowly until it got to the last two meters when the pressure overcame the friction and it disappeared from sight.
With the beam no longer blocking the breach in our hull, the remaining atmosphere was free to escape. I'd been expecting the rush and allowed myself to be sucked toward the hole, pushing the hull patch kit in front of me. My AI inflated the kit as a sphere and I guided it into place. Upon contact, it adhered to the surrounding hull and deflated.
"Thank you, Jonathan," I said.
"You are welcome. Do you require further assistance?"
"No. How is the fold-space generator coming along?"
"I am working on the final installation," he said.
"Did Anino share with you how he thought this would go after we found Cape of Good Hope? It seems like he'd have more of a plan than just jump out here and see how it goes," I said.
"Yes, Master Anino made extensive plans with many different contingencies. Perhaps it would be better to have this conversation with your entire crew."
"Sure. But just so I know, did one of his plans include getting murdered by Tullas?" I asked.
"Master Anino often talked of his own death and many of us feel he sought it out."
"He was suicidal?"
"Not by what we understand to be the classical definition. He saw value in his own life, but he also believed that his own life's value was diminished if he was unwilling to risk it for the good of those people he felt he'd let down. It is what drew him to you and your crew."
"I'm not following what drew him to us?"
"Your willingness to take great risks for the benefit of others."
"That's crazy. If I'd have known everything we were going to run into at the start, I don't think we'd have taken this job," I said.
"That was something we discussed with Master Anino at length. It was his belief that you would find a way to survive, just as you did with the Sephelodon."
"We survived by pure luck. If Cape hadn't intervened when she did, we'd have been goners," I said.
"And yet, you survived. Please understand, the very idea of luck is offensive to silicate based life forms such as ourselves. But, there is something about your crew that consistently defies logic at critical junctures. To borrow an idiom that is equally nonsensical and applicable, you and your crew appear to make your own luck."
It was a strange thing for him to say. I'd have liked to have gotten into it more deeply, but the fact of the matter was, I had other things that needed my immediate attention.
"That's a lot to think about," I said and turned to look at the ruined portion of the septic system.
"Indeed," Jonathan replied and turned back to the project he'd been working o
n. I was impressed that he understood I was ending the conversation, although working with Anino had probably been good training.
Create prioritized queue of replacement parts for septic field.
A list popped onto my HUD. With our small replicator, it would take over twenty hours to manufacture acceptable, temporary parts.
Establish comm with Engineer Rastof.
"Moonie here. How can I help, Captain?"
"What kind of replicator availability do you have?"
"Two Class-C sitting idle and nothing high priority on the D," he said. "Send me your list."
My AI, overhearing the conversation, split the work into the four queues and blinked a request for approval from me to transmit its recommendations. I nodded approval and it was transmitted.
"Isn't that always the case," Rastof guffawed. "Why is it these birds always get hit in the shitter?"
I smiled. If only he knew.
The three hours it took to complete the manufacturing would give me time to place a more permanent patch on the hull and clean the existing mess in the bilge.
When I opened the hatch into the aft bunkroom, I noticed Tabby sitting on Ada's bunk, waiting for me.
"Is that a new smell you've invented?" she asked.
"Very funny. Your mask is closed."
I lifted the jack and welder/cutter onto the floor of the bunkroom, then pulled myself up and out.
"You need help?" she asked.
"Sure. We need to weld a patch onto the hull," I said.
"Go measure. I'll bring it out."
It was a good plan. Until I got outside, we wouldn't know for sure how big a patch was needed. I arc-jetted through the pressure barrier to the small hallway that led to the external hatch and then out the pressure barrier to space.
If there was good news to be had, it was that the beam had struck our armor so sharply that the hole it created wasn't much wider than the beam itself.
"Tabbs, I'll need a thirty centimeter square or round," I said.
"Round it is," she said.
I pulled a zero-g reciprocating hammer from my tool belt and got to work on the opening. All I needed to do was bend down anything that stood proud of the normal line of the hull. Due to the nature of the damage, there wasn't much to fix and by the time I'd finished, Tabby was jetting along the bottom of the hull with a patch and magnetic clamp in tow.
"Good timing," I said.
"Something about 'hull breach' just hustles a girl right along."
Tabby expertly lay the patch in place and positioned the magnetic clamp so it held the disc firmly to the hull.
"You want to do the honors?"
I held the welder out. It wasn't so long ago that I'd taught her how to use it.
"Sure."
She grabbed the welder and got right to work. I jetted backward for a better view. There were plenty of scorch marks and abrasions on the hull, but I didn't see any more issues.
"I'm going to finish the hull scan if you've got that," I said.
"Copy," she replied. Her terse response only meant that she was concentrating.
A hull scan had been one of many priorities we hadn't gotten to yet. It wasn't difficult, simply requiring one of us to jet over the entire surface of the ship. I flitted back and forth until my AI was satisfied I'd given it a sufficient view. The report I got back wasn't surprising. There were several suspect spots, but nothing that would prevent us from sailing. By the time I got back to Tabby, she was detaching the magnetic clamps.
"Want to help in the bilge?" I asked.
"Sure, what are we doing?"
"First job is to pull off all of the couplings on either side of the damaged septic field. It'll be messy, but it's not hard."
"You really know how to show a girl a good time."
"I can't think of anyone I'd rather crawl into the darkest part of the ship with," I said.
"Ooooh. Talk dirty to me."
"Doesn't get much dirtier than the bilge."
"All hands. We should be holding atmo again. Hull scan is showing solid," I said.
"Hey, Liam, how's that head drain coming?" Ada asked.
"Let me guess, things are becoming urgent?"
"Good guess."
"I have some parts being manufactured on Cape, want to go get 'em for me?"
"Yes! A hundred times yes!" she said.
Tabby and I were almost run over by Ada as she exited the pressure barrier on the way over to Cape. Theoretically, we could visit Cape anytime we wanted, but there was tension on the larger ship, so we avoided it like the plague.
"I'll go with her," Tabby said.
"Don't take too long. You'll miss all of the fun," I said.
They returned carrying bundles of freshly manufactured parts. Unlike Sterra's Gift, Hotspur's bilge had plenty of room to move around in and I'd already removed all of the broken pieces and was swabbing up the goop that had fallen on the floor.
"If you want, you could take those bags I've already filled back to Cape. They've a reclaimer," I said. It was a luxury a smaller ship like Hotspur couldn't afford.
"You planned that," Ada said.
"Pure coincidence. And you shouldn't complain. I already put the bad stuff in bags," I said. "Would it help if I said I'll have a working head by the time you get back?"
"I've always wondered if your head worked at all," Ada quipped.
Tabby leaned over to her and whispered and they both giggled. It was the second time today they'd shared an inside joke at my expense. I just shook my head, gratefully accepting the bundles of piping. To think at one point Tabby had been jealous of Ada and my relationship.
I finally emerged from the bilge a couple of hours later. I'd had messier cleanups, but that was small consolation. My vac-suit was going to smell for weeks.
Marny surprised me when I came down the hallway. She was sitting upright at the mess table with her vac-suit peeled back and a tight wrap around her chest.
"What are you doing up?" I asked.
"Almost out of the woods, Cap," she said. "And boy do you stink."
"Right. Anyone working on dinner?" I asked as I turned the corner which gave me a good view of the galley where I was surprised to see Jonathan hard at work.
"I've quite a repertoire, Captain. I hope you don't mind," he said.
"Ordinarily, I'd say you'd have to arm wrestle Marny, but I think she's unlikely to object today," I said.
"We've been having a lovely conversation," he said. "I'd wanted a chance to ask her about her experience in the Amazonian war."
"Cap, you really don't need to be polite," Marny said with an obvious gulp. "Let's continue this conversation after you've run that suit through the freshener."
"Fair enough. Can you ask Tabbs to bring me a fresh liner?" I pulled off my vac-suit and fed it into the freshener.
"Aye, aye, Cap," she said.
I closed the door behind me, stripped off my suit liner, lathered up and watched with satisfaction as soapy water disappeared into the gravity-assisted drain. I didn't even see Tabby replace my old suit liner with a fresh one. Once the water was turned off, the smell of garlic grabbed my attention, adding a sense of urgency to getting dressed.
When I reemerged into the combined mess/galley the whole crew was already seated and steaming bowls of food were piled on the table. I wasn't particularly surprised to see that we'd invited Captain LeGrande, her first officer Johannes Grossman and Engineer Rastof. It was a tight fit, but the way the food smelled, I didn't care.
"Captain, would you like to say a few words before we eat?" Marny asked. No one was eating yet, waiting for me, and I appreciated her subtle reminder.
"Thank you, Marny, I will," I said. I grabbed my glass of white wine. "A toast. To new friends."
We all drank and it was my responsibility to start eating, which I was more than happy to do.
"Jonathan, it's delicious," I said after a few minutes.
"Thank you, Captain." I was surprised to see that he was also eatin
g, although less gustily than the rest of us.
"Captain Hoffen, have you been successful in repairing your fold-space generator?" LeGrande asked.
"I haven't had a chance to update Liam, but thanks in no small part to Mr. Rastof, we're very close," Nick said.
"Have you discussed my idea of finding a new home?" I asked.
"We have, at length." LeGrande glanced at her first officer and then to Rastof. "We're not of a single mind and have questions. For example, how do we find a suitable planet? Would you just leave us here while you're looking for it and what if you couldn't return?"
"Unfortunately, we don't have answers to most of your questions. It's not like we have a catalog of planets for you to choose from, but I think your last question is the most important," I said.
"How's that?"
"This is about survival. The longer you sit out here in the deep dark, the more at risk you are. You need to be someplace where you have a chance to survive," I said.
"On that we agree," Grossman said.
"Have you ruled out sending people back to Tipperary with us?" I asked.
"Tullas' threats were clear. If any of our crew return, she will go after all of our families. I believe that meant your families as well, Captain Hoffen," Grossman said.
"That bitch," Ada said.
"Captain Hoffen, how do you know your return won't trigger Tullas into going after our families?" Grossman asked. "We shouldn't allow anyone to return."
"Why would she involve your families for our actions?" I asked.
"She's a power-hungry zealot," he said.
"That is not a reasonable assessment," Jonathan said.
"Excuse me?" Grossman asked. He grew agitated and I hoped that Jonathan saw it as well.
"Lorraine Tullas has been consistent in her actions," Jonathan said. "Belirand has an objective to keep knowledge away from the population. She would gain nothing in hurting your families. There is no risk to information leakage."
"And you're willing to risk our families on your theory?"
"As opposed to what?" Tabby asked. "Stay here and die? That isn't going to happen. If you want to die out here, that's up to you. Remember, we came here to help."
"And you're doing a bang up job of it," Grossman said.
"That's enough, Johannes," LeGrande said.
"I understand your concern, Johannes. We all have families," I said. "But we can't be frozen by fear. We have to trust Belirand to act rationally. We'll keep their secret and find a way to survive."
A Matter of Honor (Privateer Tales Book 9) Page 18