“Oh.”
“Seems simple enough,” one tech said, glancing at Everette. The computer tech wrinkled his nose.
“Sometimes the simplest things are the easiest way to go. Quick, cheap, and you get results,” Bailey said nodding.
“Right, so we made a jig out of bar stock and then we had people tacking the pieces into sub-assemblies, and then combining the sub assemblies into larger and larger structures. Once our people got the hang of it it went together well,” Irons explained.
“But people don't do it anymore. My sister was on that crew and she got transferred. Something about a bot?” a young veraxin asked.
“Right,” the Admiral said with a nod. “Once we had things going we built drones to help put the pieces together, and robots to handle the sub-assemblies. That way we can put our people on the more complex tasks,” he said.
“Saving the replicators for other more important stuff. And the people did the stuff the bots couldn't,” Everette said nodding and turning to the group. They nodded back.
“Right. Hephaestus built an extruder to make plate so we could tack it on over areas. It also made dedicated extruders for wiring and plumbing,”
“Yes my sister became a rigger and welder for plumbing and electrical,” the veraxin said bobbing a nod.
“Right. Once we had the core structure together people knew what they were doing and we turned them loose. The yard is growing exponentially now.”
“What about since you're not there?”
“What about it?” Irons asked the replicator tech.
The kid looked down for a moment then back to the Admiral. “I heard replicators don't work without you around,” he said and then blushed.
“No they work, they worked fine when I wasn't in Pyrax last year, and the seven centuries while I was asleep. What they wont do is build from the proscribed list. Anyone who tries it will end up with the replicator shutting down and eating itself.”
“Ouch,” Everette said wincing.
“Yeah,” Irons said nodding. “But my not being there does put a crimp in our building schedules. Commander Logan and the yard dogs, that's slang for yard workers, no offense...” he shot a look at the veraxin who bobbed a nod. “They had just laid down the first three ships, including a factory ship.”
“Seriously?” Everette goggled at him as the group broke into furious muttering and excited chatter. Irons smiled waiting it out.
“Yes,” he said as they calmed down enough to hear. “Yes, we were well on our way to getting Prometheus done when this mess cropped up. But unfortunately I didn't get the chance to build the parts that no one else can.”
“Oh, well that sucks,” a kid said shaking his head.
“Exactly. I did have time to build most of the critical parts for Hecate, one of the escorts. They should be able to get her done with work arounds. But after that they will be stuck building structure or rebuilding basic things on the Bismark and other ships that are still laid up.”
“That sucks,” Everette said making a face.
“Yes,” Irons said nodding.
“You can always ship the parts back Admiral,” Bailey said rubbing his whiskered chin thoughtfully. They turned to look at the chimp. He shrugged under the collective gaze. “I'm just sayin' you know, you could do that. We or another ship could haul them back,” he finished. The group turned their attention back to Irons.
“That is a distinct possibility chief, one I'll have to consider carefully,” The Admiral said, crossing his arms and putting his head down to think. “Very carefully.”
“What about, well, you know, how you built the ships?” a kid asked.
“What about them?” Irons asked looking up.
“How...”
“How did we do it? Sub assemblies. We start one piece at a time from a blueprint and build them into sub assemblies and then combine them. We built segments called blocks. Each block contained everything it needed in the room. All there and ready to go. We just had to slot it into place, weld it, and then connect the fittings and electricals.”
“Oh.”
“We used the replicators to build transhab fabric extruders, and they make the inflatable habitats. We also used the plate and truss extruders to make bays for the sub assembly areas. Here,” he held up his right hand and concentrated, sending a signal.
His palm morphed into a holo projector. His fingers curled up to help with the image. “Can someone dim the lights?” he asked looking to the kid near the switch. The young woman nodded and turned, touching the controls.
“See, the slips are octagonal cylinders with these box shapes connected to the outer faces. These are the sub assembly bays,” he said as the holo of the yard appeared and then zoomed into a slip. It slowly rotated as the group gathered around, eyes wide. “We used the replicators to make dedicated part factories. They churn out parts like the extruders. Then we put the pieces together. Once you have the assemblies going you transfer the finished ones to the central bay to put the ship together, from the center out.”
“Oh,” Everette said. He exhaled softly, watching the holo.
“I'll upload this to the mainframe since it's hard for some of you to see clearly,” Irons said.
“Now once we've got the basic ship done we transfer it to a fitting bay to make room for the next ship to be built. The fitting bay fits the bits together, adds other things, and runs tests. Once she's passed she transfers to another dock to take on limited stores and then she goes through her builders trials,” he explained.
“Where, wow,” a woman said in the open hatch. “Where to start? What the frack comes immediately to mind,” she said, hands on her hips.
“Impromptu bull session Cecily don't think anything of it,” Bailey said.
“Chief?” she asked looking towards the chimp's voice. She couldn't see him through the crowd.
“Over here,” he said raising a long simian hand and then pointing down to where he was.
“Oh, okay,” she said coming in. “What's this about?”
“Q and A about the yard. Got any questions?” Everette asked amused.
“Yes, no... um...” They laughed at her confused expression. She shook her head. “Okay, I got one, where did you get the blueprints for the yard and the ships. Hell the individual parts alone let alone the entire ships!” she said.
Irons smiled. “I'm an engineering Admiral, so it is all stock in trade for me. I can pull designs from my sleep,” he said.
“Which he sometimes does,” Sprite said dryly from the console speaker. They turned to the voice and then back.
“Sprite adding her two credits worth,” he said shaking his head in amusement.
“I have some blueprint plans in my memory. A lot of it is modular and can be scaled for the ship in need.”
“Plug and play. Got that,” Bailey said with a nod. “We've got some of that. Hell this ship was held together with prayer and rigger tape until we fell into your hands,” the chimp said.
“Right. Well, we also picked up some bits from Io's surviving memory modules and Firefly of course,” Irons said.
“Oh yeah, forgot that,” Cecily said shaking her head.
“Most replicators have parts in their memories. At least the good ones. They have generic part designs in their memory.”
“They do?” the replicator tech asked surprised.
“Of course,” Irons said nodding. He went over to the replicator and checked. “You're idle?” he asked. The kid nodded.
“Okay, how about...” Irons said. The holo went out and he jacked in. “How about this?” he asked.
“What are you doing?” the tech asked surprised.
“Well, chief Bailey suggested it,” the Admiral said. In a moment the tray was covered in growing shapes. He unjacked. The kid looked at the read out and then up at the Admiral.
“Fuel injectors? For a fusion reactor?”
“Right. I used my access code. These are for the yard, but you can have a couple for spar
es here chief,” he said turning to Bailey. The chimp nodded and then smiled.
“Thanks Admiral, don't mind if I do,” he said.
“I'll make up some parts and lease a cargo hold. You are right, Destiny can bring the parts back for Commander Logan and the teams there. They can put them to good use in the ships. I'd like to see some of those ships out here,” Irons said waving.
“Yeah, I gathered that,” the chief said.
“Can I get into the navy? Get this?” the replicator tech asked waving to indicate the Admiral.
“You've got two options. You can go full time career, or you can apply for a reserve posting. Since Destiny is in the naval reserve you could argue that you should have a reserve posting.”
“Destiny is? Wait, since when?” one of the kids asked. The babble of voices started up again. Accusing eyes turned to the Admiral as they quieted.
“Destiny and Hephaestus, in fact all the former pirate ships were inducted in the Navy as reserve ships. I thought you knew that. Your captain should have been in the reserve but he declined the honor,” he explained.
“I thought we were part of Pyrax?” Everette asked.
“You are and you aren't. You see the Pyrax government leased the use of Destiny. Technically they haven't paid for it yet, nor the factory ship. We were arguing over that when well...” he indicated the ship.
“Oh, gotcha. One of the reasons they ran you out of town I suppose,” Everette said nodding. “Too cheap to pay the bill.”
“Possibly,” the chief said, he got off the stool and smacked his hands together. “Well this has been fun kiddies, but I've got more stops to make. Let's get a move on Admiral, I know you've got plans for the afternoon,” he moved to the door.
“If you have any questions you can check the wiki on the mainframe or shoot an e-mail to my account. I or Sprite will answer,” Irons said as they walked out. He heard the kids murmuring over that. He snorted at the chimp who shook his shaggy balding head. “Okay chief, who do we drop in on next? Or should I say drop in on someone and get dropped in on ourselves?” he asked amused.
“Funny.”
They made the rounds around that deck then moved on. Irons went through the motions, nodding politely to people but not saying much.
“Something on your mind John?” the chief asked as they entered the lift.
“What makes you say that?” Irons asked amused.
“Cat got your tongue, that's why,” the chief said with a sniff. “You're a billion kilometers away.”
“Something like that. I'm thinking of another metaphor. Another saying.”
“Oh? Do tell,” the chimp said crossing his arms again. He jutted his chin out.
Irons snorted. “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life,” he said.
“Ah. And the connection is...”
“We've been thinking about sending shipments of parts and survival gear down to the colonists. What we really should be doing is sending them teaching material and the equipment to make their own stuff,” the Admiral explained.
“By equipment you mean extruders and such?” the chief asked nodding. “Could work,” he said as he rubbed his chin. “Makes sense now that someone's mentioned it. I wish you would have put it up sooner,” he said dryly.
“Give me a break chief, I just remembered it,” the Admiral said shaking his head. “I wasn't into... he caught the chimp's amused expression and snorted. “Okay you got me you hairy ape. Cute.”
“I was just going to let you go on and on...” the chief said smiling broadly.
“Funny. Laugh a minute,” Irons said shaking his head but smiling.
“I'll talk to Charles and crew working on stuff like that and see what they say. We'll see what we can do. I was wondering though, what happens to the replicators when your not around?”
“They work.”
“Not what I meant. Not at all,” the chimp said waving the thought aside. I mean maintenance. They are robots after all, machinery. Everything needs routine maintenance. And the nanites... there have got to be some losses.”
“There is,” Irons said nodding as he sobered. “nanites are lost when they malfunction, or get walled off inside something or are accidentally melted when exposed to excess heat. They can also be torn apart by the gravitational shear from the force emitters, or from friction between parts,” he grimaced. “Or cooked by repeated exposure to vacuum, cold, or radiation.”
“So...”
“So the replicator slows down. It takes longer and longer to make each part. Which was what happened on Anvil. They were down to making one piece at a time, not doing entire trays of parts.”
“Oh. That'd suck.”
“Yeah.”
“And you're the only guy who can fix it. I bet they are pissed now. I... you know, if they were behind that whole virus and sabotage, and I wouldn't put it past them, then I bet they are scared,” he grimaced and then tugged on one ear. “Come to think of it, if anything does happen to you, we're screwed.”
“I told them and told them,” Irons said with a shrug. “Not my fault they didn't listen.”
“Another metaphor just sprang to mind something about a herbivore and water. Lead? Led?” the chimp said looking exasperated.
“Can't lead a horse to water and make them drink?” Irons said smiling a wane smile.
The chimp snapped his fingers. “That's the one. Yeah,” So what now?”
“Well, I'm going to do what I can for the people down there, and do what I can to send stuff back to Horatio to keep him busy.”
“Ah, good idea.”
“After that, well, I'll take it one system at a time I guess.”
“Oh. I thought you'd say something like that,” the chimp sighed.
“Best we can do. We have to work with what we have.”
“True,” the chimp snorted. “At least until we make more,” he said shooting the Admiral an amused look.
“Something like that,” Irons said amused.
Chapter 11
Charlie Notuma was put out over the Admiral's request for storage space. Irons could tell just from the sound of the man's approach. He'd thought that Sprite's request to handle it would have kept him out of such a simple transaction. Apparently not so, Notuma had decided to track him down in main engineering and confront him about the idea. “I don't see why you need all that space I mean, a hundred cubic meters?” He waved a tablet as he came over to Irons.
The Admiral turned. He'd seen the purser coming on his HUD. Of course he hadn't needed it, Sprite had quietly warned him of Notuma with a text message on his HUD after the purser had gotten her request and had immediately made his way here. “You'd be surprised what equipment and raw material need in the way of space. And I'll need space to assemble things.”
“Nothing dangerous of course.” Charlie was ever the soul of discretion. Irons could tell the man was fishing.
Irons smiled slightly. “Hardly,” he said, easily deflecting the question.
“How are you planning on paying for this? You do intend to pay for it right?” Charlie asked, suddenly sounding triumphant. “And the fuel you've been burning of course.” He sounded smugly sure of himself. Irons wasn't sure he liked that.
“You mean you haven't been crediting his account for labor and materials?” Sprite asked amused.
The purser looked at the ceiling in stunned befuddlement. “Credit? Labor? What labor?” Around them techs were trying to look busy while turning an ear to the discussion. Irons hid a frown. This was going to be all over the ship's grapevine soon. He didn't need any embellishments.
“Well, lets see, a shift of work in the galley, then lets see, repairs to the ship for the past several weeks, replacement of parts and materials in transit, then over the past five weeks stocking the ship with materials and parts from his runs with his shuttle.”
“Um, I... ah...”
“Of course his fuel expenses were covered by the fuel he recov
ered. One of the points he had in making the journey in the first place,” she said rolling on. “Shall we compare ledgers?”
“I thought that was all for free!” Charlie said, staring at the Admiral as if he'd been betrayed. Irons hid a smile as he sat back and sipped his coffee.
“Since when? And don't forget my labors on your behalf. And Proteus for that matter. I've got the spread sheet right here mister purser sir.” Sprite had a vengeful air Irons found delightful. Maybe it was seeing the pale shock on the normally greedy pursers face.
“Um...” the purser's mouth opened and closed for a moment before he finally closed it with a clomp. He scowled. “Fine, whatever, you can have your space,” he muttered.
“And power, and the materials he brings in. We'll settle up with the rest at a later date. You don't have to be there Admiral if you don't want to be.” Sprite sounded a bit dismissive. She knew how he hated sitting through dickering like that. He usually left the details to her to iron out.
“We'll see.”
“I know you're busy, and accounting bores you to tears.”
“I said we'll see,” he said smiling, but with a touch of steel in his tone. “I'll need the space right away of course, and the power hook ups. I've already cleared that with chief Bailey of course.”
“Whatever,” Charlie said crossly, picking up his tablet and storming out of the room. Irons snorted, shaking his head.
Sprite's eyes were flashing. He wasn't sure if it was annoyance or not. “Accountants, you've got to love them. They can't see past their ledger books. Give me, give me, give me, but when it comes time to pay they squeal like a stuck...”
“Sprite,” he sighed, hand over his eyes. The thought of her rant getting into the station's grapevine...
“It's just, damn that greedy turd shafts me something wicked Admiral.”
“Shafts you?”
“What? I'm trying on metaphors and colloquialisms for size.”
“That one doesn't fit.”
“Okay. Whatever,” she said still slightly cross. “Why do you need the space anyway?”
Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) Page 20