Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (22 page)

“Probably,”
Barry said with a laugh. The captain and Veraxin glanced his way. He wasn't
sure if he was being chided for the interruption or the eavesdropping. “If you
gentlemen will excuse us we've got work to do. A timetable to complete. Right?”
he asked, raising his right eyebrow.

The
captain gave him a long look and then a slow reluctant nod.

“I
believe the basic computer repairs should be complete by the end of the shift
or the middle of midrats shift ops. Just to keep you informed,” Irons said. The
Veraxin looked at him, clearly confused as Irons finished that statement. His
antenna bobbed in inquiry for further information. The admiral shrugged.
“Actually, I've been out of the loop for most of the software and hardware
repairs. My AI are handling it. Sprite?”

“Yes
Admiral?”

“Report
on IT repair?”

“Wireless
nodes are the last project to be initiated. We've rebuilt or replaced what was
nonfunctional. Fortunately the system is adaptive and plug and play. I'm
cleaning up a few software bugs now. The driver database has come in handy.
Hopefully no one will be bothered by them but I can't make any promises.”

“Memory?”

“Cleaned
and repaired or replaced. I've spun off cleaner bots to help with that. I do
need to report that another repair bot has been destroyed.”

“Oh?”

“Air
shaft cleaner. I unfortunately do not have any data on the cause. That is the
second cleaner in twenty four hours. It bears investigating,” Sprite said. She
didn't like anyone abusing bots.

“Captain?”
Irons asked, turning his attention on the captain. The captain blinked caught
off guard. He nodded, looking down to Irons. Irons hid a smile. When responding
to a disembodied voice Terrans tended to look up.

“I'll
look into it,” he said gruffly.

The
admiral nodded sagely. “Thank you. The life support repairs are important. I'm
still having trouble accessing some of the network control nodes on decks four
and five and in some of the converted habitat levels. The greenhouse is a mess
as well,” Sprite reported.

“The
greenhouse is always a mess,” Barry muttered.

“I'll
look into it,” the Veraxin chittered, flexing his mandibles and feathery
antenna. “Anything else?”

“A
complete report is in your inbox Ops officer Hir'ruk. You can view it at your
convenience,” Sprite replied politely.

“I'll
look into it,” the Veraxin said. “If you'll excuse me?” he asked, looking at
the captain. The captain nodded.

“Dismissed.”

“Thank
you captain,” the Veraxin said and left.

The
captain looked around at the ships. “Barry give me a tour,” he said waving to
the shuttle behind them. Barry looked over his shoulder and nodded. “I haven't
seen the old girl fly since I was a teen,” the captain murmured, one hand
gently caressing her wing root.

“She'll
fly again soon sir,” the boat bay officer said indicating the open cockpit
door.

“We'll
see,” the captain murmured. Irons watched them go and shook his head. He had
other things to think about though, so he put their animosity aside. Time to
check on the drive.

“Kiev
221 this is Kiev gamma, bay is depressurized and we are under our own power,”
Barry said over the radio an hour and a half later.

“Roger
that. Good flight,” the communications tech responded. Irons cocked his head.
He was in the boat bay observation blister watching the aerospace craft
maneuver out for its trial run. Irons watched Barry take the repaired shuttle
out.

The
pilots did a fly around the ship and then returned for tuning. “She's a little
sluggish but we've got a working ship. A little fine tuning and I think she'll
be ready for a drop,” Barry said climbing out of the craft. He was all smiles
despite the needed tweaking. Irons nodded. Barry sorted the repairs and bugs
out in a couple of hours and then he took the shuttle downside for a run.

Irons
turned at the sound of familiar footfalls. His hands kept moving under
Proteus's control however. “How are we going with the hyperdrive?” O'Mallory
asked.

He
knew that was coming. The chief and the ops officer had asked him every two
hours since he tore it down. Now that he was almost half finished and he had
started rebuilding it they seemed even more anxious to get it repaired.
“Working on it. I can't replicate all the parts at once so it's a pain in the
ass. I've had to nanoweld a few of the governor parts together by hand.”

“Did
you get enough penetration?” O'Mallory asked, looking at the parts to the
governor. There was a giant spring nearby. She wrinkled her nose at it. It was
a little disconcerting to see something that got them into hyper had mechanical
parts in it.

“With
a nanoweld?” Irons asked amused. “Full penetration. Seamless bond. It's
actually stronger than any other form of weld. The metal will break somewhere
else before it breaks the weld.”

“Oh.”

“I'm
getting there,” he said. O'Mallory didn't seem like the type to breath down his
neck. Then again they were pretty close to the deadline.

She
cleared her throat and looked a little uncomfortable. Irons paused what he was
doing and turned to her. “The captain wants to be out of orbit in two hours.”

“Right
on schedule?” Irons asked. She nodded. “He can maneuver; there is no problem
with the engines. I'll have this back together in three hours. I think.”

“You
think?” she asked, hands on her hips. “You don't know?” she demanded.

He
paused and let out a disgusted huff of annoyance. “Chief you and I both know
things can and do go wrong sometimes. I only repaired what I had to repair and
it takes time to tune something this complex. It's a work in progress.”

“And
sometimes things get overlooked,” she nodded and then sighed. She ran her hand
through her hair. She knew that from experience. They were running into that
problem all over the ship. Her crews were strung out and fatigued. Fortunately
there were so many people on board she could stand them down and bring another
crew into play. The oldsters weren't quite up for a full shift but they could
handle small tasks easily. Under supervision of course, some had lost some wits
over the years. The teens and the younger generation she had mixed emotions
about. Some had the skills but didn't have the seasoning. Others she wouldn't
trust with a wrench to save her life.

“I
scanned every part. I can only do a surface scan, but I didn't find any other
damage. Of course that doesn't rule out an internal flaw. But if there was one
it would have cropped up long before now,” he said. Which was true. An internal
flaw would have formed a micro fracture while under load and snapped the pieces
of the governor, spalling them all over the interior of the hyperdrive casing
and possibly destroying the ship. Since that hadn't happened he only had to
deal with the wear and tear on the parts. Some of the gears had been worn down
to nubs.

“Stranger
things have been known to happen. Engineering is perverse in that regard. You
of all people know that,” O'Mallory said disgusted, brushing her hair out of
her eyes again. She needed a trim again but could never find the time.

“Murphy.
I do indeed know it well. We'll get it done,” Irons said with a nod.

“We?”

A
young Veraxin peeked out from behind the control housing and waved an upper
arm. Its mandibles wiggled. O'Mallory's peripheral vision caught the movement
and looked at the Veraxin for a moment.

 “We.
I took on a couple of apprentices to do this. We also means my AI Proteus and
Sprite. Proteus is overseeing the physical repair. Sprite is working on the
software.”

“Which
is ready for tuning when you are admiral,” Sprite reported over the net.
O'Mallory looked up to the speaker and then back to Irons. He shrugged.

“Okay
so we're not all as fast as a certain smart-aleck AI,” he said nettled.
O'Mallory's lips pursed in an almost smile.

“We're
ready admiral,” Jer'uk chittered. “When you are of course,” she said. He looked
over to the Veraxin and nodded.

“Finished
here,” he said picking up the sub assembly and putting it into the governor
housing. “Chief, if you want to watch that's fine but...”

“I'm
going. Fascinating though,” she said taking the pointed hint. It would be
fascinating at any other time period but she didn't want to distract the
admiral now. Besides she had to check on the one thousand and one other
projects currently about to blow up in her face.

“Another
time chief. Putting the physical bits together is easy. It's the tuning that's
tedious. And when we get to working on the shield emitters then it has to be
done all over again,” he sighed. She nodded and left the compartment as he
swung about with the part.

Irons
put the finishing touches on the hyperdrive and then sat back. The last sim had
done well. Tuning had been a pain, ten hours of annoying fiddling, but Jer'uk's
suggestions had helped. He'd had to step the drive back until the rest of the
ship's systems could be brought back up to spec. It was annoying but necessary.
They had to walk before they could run.

He
looked around the room. He was in main engineering; most of the crew had watched
the sim or participated in it. A few were running the numbers now, checking
over the specs that had been pulled from the sensors. The chief was nearby,
leaning over the shoulder of one of her techs and moving her lips as her finger
scrolled through the readouts.

“Admit
it admiral... you'd of built a damn ship if we hadn't come along,” O'Mallory
accused him. Irons turned to her with a raised eyebrow but she wasn't having
any of it. She just smiled at him good naturedly right back.

“Maybe,”
he said with a shrug. “You are forgetting the required raw material.”

“Oh
I'm not forgetting. You'd probably dig up dirt or something.”

“More
along the lines of finding a nice asteroid and setting up shop there,” Irons
admitted with a snort of amusement.

“First
time I've heard this plan,” Sprite said sounding annoyed. Irons grinned
faintly.

“I
don't tell all my plans. Besides, it was a very remote possibility. One I'm
glad I don't have to exercise anytime soon,” he said with a shrug.

“True,”
Sprite said. He could tell by her tone she wasn't going to let it go though. He
was probably going to be bugged about it and other future plans later. He hid a
sigh of annoyance.

“Personally
I like traveling on an established ship. Kiev is all right. Once we get more of
her repaired she'll give other freighters a run for their money.”

O'Mallory
looked around, gauging the amused looks from her eavesdropping crew. A few
caught her looking and made themselves look busy. She snorted as she returned
her attention to the admiral.

“True.
I for one am glad you're here. Let's see if we can use as much of your skills
as we can. I'd like to squeeze every drop out of Kiev.”

“That's
what I'm here for chief. Lead the way to the next project,” he said motioning
to her with his hand. She smiled and pointed.

“To
the shield emitters then. I want to see what you can do there and then we'll
see about that hull breach on deck seven. Maybe you can come up with something
to patch the hole. I think eighty years is long enough to fix a breach.”

“Slave
driver,” he teased with a smile. She smiled back.

“You
asked for it,” she said.

“Don't
I know it,” he mock grumbled. “But yeah, I'm all for it.”

“Good.
Let's put your lazy ass to work then,” she said.

“Lazy?
Me?”

“You've
been idle for this entire conversation right?” she asked amused.

He
opened his mouth and then closed it with a glare as a nearby tech giggled.
“Wow. Got me there. Okay, lead the way,” he replied with a nod.

The
ship had shield emitters all over her exterior hull. The most important
emitters of course were the bow emitters. It did the ship no good to plow into
something at near C so they were kept up at the expense of the other emitters.
But by sacrificing others or patching in parts that weren't built for the
coverage the ship's overall shields were barely up to the task of warding it
from radiation, let alone a stray meteor. Most of the ship had bare radiation
coverage. That explained that hull breach he had helped patch the first week
he'd come aboard. Well, technically the shields had been offline but still.

Reluctantly
he concentrated his efforts on the bow emitters as they got underway. It's a
spectacular sight, being on the hull of a ship when she is underway. The planet
Triang, a brilliant marble of white, green, and blue receded aft as the ship
came about and then moved to the Antigua jump point.

He
heard a sound on the open radio channel and turned to its source. The tech
stopped what he was doing as he knelt near an emitter. “Sorry. I was about to
say 'are we really going to do this?' It sort of hit me all at once. I think
I'm dreaming and don't want to wake up,” the tech said. He sounded bemused at
the thought.