Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (23 page)

“Let's
focus on the task at hand then. A little less dreaming and a little more
concentration,” O'Mallory said, looking up from where she was on the hull.
Irons looked over to her and then back to the emitter he was in front of.
O'Mallory had on a battered orange suit that was a bit big for her. It said
boss lady on the back in bright reflective white tape.

He
had deliberately chosen the worst node. The node with the weakest field and
most likely to fail. It was probably well past it's service life and teetering
close to max impedance. He started unscrewing the screws holding the cover
plate down.

“It
is freaky how you can do that,” a tech commented. Irons looked at his bare arm
which had morphed into a powered screwdriver for the task at hand.

“You
get used to it,” Irons replied, pocketing the screw in his utility bag and then
moving on to the next.

“We've
got a weld here chief,” a tech reported sounding irritated. Irons grimaced.
They had run into some stripped and broken bolts and now welds. Some of the
welds were from something overheating or electricity arcing on the hull but in
a few instances they had found someone had welded a door shut instead of
screwing it shut. That was slowing down their progress. Fortunately his
replicator was still stuck on the parts for the first emitter now. He'd
initialized it and kept in contact through the radio.

“Break
the weld. Use a grinder or sawzall if you have to. Get it done.” O'Mallory
ordered, clearly annoyed at the distraction.

“Use
a drill if it's a tack or button weld. Bore it out but be careful of anything
behind it,” Irons suggested.

“Right,
we know the drill,” the tech replied nettled.

“Glad
someone does,” O'Mallory muttered. A few techs looked her way. She indicated to
them to get back to work. They turned and returned their attention to the
tasked at hand.

Irons
pulled the last bolt out and then stepped back as his assistant pulled the
panel off. He frowned as bits and cables drifted up and out. One of the power
cables had shorted and welded itself to the inside of the cover. The tech
turned it so they could see the damage.

“Not
good.”

“Not
what I expected but it's something we can repair. Bridge is this emitter
powered down?” he asked over the command frequency.

“Emitter
is down now. We need that back up quickly,” the ops officer replied. “We've cut
acceleration for now.”

“And
I bet the captain is foaming at the mouth,” Irons said dryly, making sure he
wasn't transmitting that last. “Roger that,” he said opening the channel once
more. “We'll get this done quickly. Be advised there are shorts all over the
inside cover. All crews beware of your node cover plates. They could be live,”
he warned.

“Lovely,”
O'Mallory sighed.

“Should
we really be doing this? I mean while we're underway?” a tech asked.

“No
time like the present. We'll do our best.” Irons moved in and reached out with
his right hand. His hand morphed, plugging into the jacks as micro manipulators
unfolded and began to repair the surface damage. He could feel his nanites
moving into the node.

“It
is as we feared, emitter is near max impedance. I am repairing the short. I've
uploaded a manifest of parts. Please get them here ASAP if you want this node
back.”

“Roger.
We're sort of in a hurry. I so don't want the ship to run into anything with
the shield cap down.”

“You
and me both,” Irons replied. “We're working on it. Get those parts in motion
bridge.”

“Roger
that.”

It
took about ten minutes to get the parts he and the others had requested out to
them. While he was waiting he had pulled the old parts and had a tech run them
back to the airlock to be recycled.

After
a half hour he finished up and stepped back to let the tech plug in the power
cables. He gently explained what to do and then watched as they did it. When
they were finished the electronics came alive and he could feel Sprite reaching
out through his transmitter to have the emitter's processors run a POST check.

“POST
is positive. All lights are green. We'll need to re-tune the emitter but she's
alive again admiral. Field is stable,” Sprite reported thirty seconds later.

“Good.
Next?” he asked. “You can handle the cover plate right?” he asked the techs
around him. They nodded. He handed over the bolts and then turned to the
nearest emitter.

“We're
getting some funky error codes here,” the tech there said looking up from the
tablet in his hands.

“Interaction
with the node I just finished repairing. On my way,” Irons replied.

After
a marathon double shift O'Mallory called the crews in for rest. They were tired
and sweaty but triumphant. Irons nodded as they exited the lock and started
shucking the EVA gear. “Damn. Did we do good or just a minor patch job?” a
weary but exhilarated tech asked.

“Who
knows,” another deadpanned pessimistically. Irons wasn't sure if the tech was
just being a smart ass or really didn't know or care if it worked. Not a good
sign.

“We
did well. Not as good as a full replacement but that will suffice to get us up
a couple of more octaves. I'm still going out to work on the other emitters as
soon as I recharge,” Irons replied.

“Shit,”
a tech muttered.

“Relax.
Second shift can handle it,” Irons said. A hand was raised.

“Yes?”

“We're
second shift. First and second,” A female gorilla said dryly.

“Oh.
Um, well, third?” he asked. She shook her head. He looked at O'Mallory. She
took her helmet off and tucked it under one arm and then took a long swig of
water from a sports bottle an EVA tech handed her.

“Don't
look at me,” she said. “I'm wiped out,” she said.

“The
Scarab?” he asked.

“What
about it?” she asked. They had used the Scarab to run the larger parts from the
boat bay to the crews. It had been a hassle, each time they had had to evacuate
the boat bay and then open it to space to get a load out. Finally Irons had
told them to just stack the parts and run them all at once. That had worked
better.

“Okay,
I can do it on my own,” he said.

“Absolutely
not,” she said shaking her head.

“Chief,
I'm fine. I'm a...”

“Admiral
I don't have to remind you of the buddy system do I?” she asked testily. He
stopped and sighed.

“Okay
then... what do you suggest?” he asked looking around the compartment. All the
techs were looking away, trying to pretend like they weren't there.

“I
suggest
we
get some downtime. One shift minimum. While we're doing that
you
can go over the readouts from the other emitters and replicate the common
parts. That way we can plug and play what we can in the time we've got.”

“I'm
already doing that chief,” he said with a smile.

She
studied him for a moment. He cocked his head, returning her gaze. She shook her
head and wiped her sweatband off. “Figures,” she muttered.

“I'll
have enough parts for two emitters in an hour. But then I'm out of material again,”
Irons reported.

“Shit,”
she sighed. She knew what that meant. Without more material the replicator was
down. Something they didn't like to do. The replicator was working nonstop.

“If
I swap out the broken parts we'll have some more material. But some of the
parts are replacement parts for stuff that was yanked out to replace parts in
the bow emitters.”

“You
don't have to tell me what I already know Irons,” she said testily. “I'm
thinking.”

“Okay,”
Irons said nodding as the techs around them started to strip and change. The
pong in the air was strong enough to cut with a knife. Too many warm sweaty
bodies in too confined quarters.

“Okay,”
she coughed after a moment and waved a hand over her mouth. “I think I've come
to a decision. We get the hell out of here, get some food and then I'll chase
someone up to buddy with you. Then the rest of us get some downtime while you
work.”

“Chief...”
a tech said. She looked over to him. “Not complaining or anything but...”

“It
doesn't have to be an engineering tech. Someone suit qualified will work. They
can play gopher while I tear into the guts of the emitters,” the admiral
suggested.

“That
might work,” O'Mallory mused. “I've got a couple of people in mind. I can have
them practice with you since they are green. Do them good to get some hull
time.”

“Works,”
Irons said with a nod. He looked around to the compartment. The suits were all
heavily patched. One man had a sleeve that was too long. He winced and made a
note to do something about it later.

Irons
took the greenhorns out with only a slight hesitation over their status. There
were three, all Terrans. It quickly became apparent that they had all had some
hull time so he became less concerned about watching over them to make sure
they didn't do anything stupid.

“We're
good admiral. I'm careful,” a tech said waving a hand as she anchored herself
with a safety line. “And Barry's got a crew in the Scarab for SAR if someone
goes Dutchman on us.”

“Don't
even talk about that,” someone else growled. He was holding a set of tools and
looked nervous about having one hand full. “I've done this before but damn.
It's hard to walk with your hands full.”

“Next
one we'll see if we can get the Scarab to give us a ride,” Irons replied as he
moved.

As
he worked on the emitters the techs peppered him with questions. Normally it
would be a distraction but since they were waiting on a run of parts it passed
the time. He filled them in, explaining the basic theory and then pointing out
individual subsystems.

When
they finished that ring of emitters he escorted them back into the ship. The
techs were tired but excited. He smiled politely as they stripped and moved out
as the next shift took their place.

“Still
going out?” O'Mallory asked as she pulled her EVA suit from her locker. She tossed
him a water bottle. He caught it and tucked them under one arm.

“Definitely
chief,” he said, unhooking the hose from the recharge station. “I'm recharged
and ready when you are,” he said with a smile.

“Not
quiet refueled,” she said, tossing him an energy bar. He caught it and
chuckled. “You're welcome,” she said lifting her foot up to the bench to remove
her boots. He turned away, giving her some privacy as he ate quickly. A tech
handed him a second water bottle and he sucked it down.

“Are
you like made out of the Iron you are named after?” a tech asked.

“No
man it's the implants,” another tech answered, ducking to get into his suit.
His was a generic suit, not a skin suit most professional EVA techs took for
granted.

“It's
that and training,” Irons answered. One of the other techs had her blue suit
on, or at least the bottom. The top had its sleeves tied around her waist. She
had her helmet under one arm. It had a mohawk on it. “I've been doing this sort
of thing for nearly a century. Try repairing a ship in a battle. That's
freaky.”

“I
can imagine,” a tech said dryly as looks were exchanged. Irons shrugged them
off.

“Let's
leave it at imagining please,” O'Mallory said, putting her sweat band on and
then cocking her head to stick her earwig on. She did a quick mike check and
then nodded.

The
midship emitters were difficult to repair but they managed to get a bare
minimum up and running at the end of the shift. Irons knew that balancing the
load was going to be a royal pain in the ass. The crew is experienced now in
the tasks and equipment so they moved faster at their assigned tasks. The
emitters that were stripped clean were bypassed. They would have to do
something about them in Antiguan space. For now he'd have to make sure the EPS
system routed around them.

The
aft emitters were the worst of the lot. O'Mallory is enthused when they find an
intact emitter that had been knocked off the net by a broken plasma line.
Repaired it had come online all green.

Another
emitter had its electronics shorted by something. Irons had explained how to
strip the node down and repair it. He wasn't happy about the damage though. The
node's breakers should have protected it. It bode ill for some of the other
emitters. Even if they hadn't been fried the spike might have done other
damage.

“The
bridge is balancing the load,” Sprite informed him as second shift started to
wrap up.

“Oh?”

“I
believe the captain is about done with waiting on our repairs,” Sprite informed
him.

“Ours?”
he asked.

“Okay
mostly yours. Yours, the crew's, and Proteus,” she said dryly. Irons snorted.
“He wants to get underway again,” she added.

“We
are underway,” he replied with a raised eyebrow.