Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (9 page)

“Yes,”
The Veraxin nodded. His four eye stalks rotated and then focused on the captain.
“I think any decisions about our... guest may be premature,” he said
diplomatically. He was both warning Chambers and offering the man a way out of
his statement without wounding his pride.

“I'd
like to see what else he can do. His AI are digging into the repairs whenever
he is jacked in. I wonder if he can get us up to factory new?” O'Mallory mused.

“It
is seventy point nine five percent possible given the right mix,” a new female
voice broke in on the conversation.

“Who
is this?” the captain demanded. Did one of the kids hack the intercom again?
What the hell were they thinking distracting the crew at this critical time? He
thought with a mental snarl.

“One
of the AI,” O'Mallory answered.

“The
Chief is correct captain. I am the admiral's adjunct, my name is Commander
Sprite. I am repairing your ship's software and noted the topic of your current
conversation.”

“You
have repaired the communications?” The ops officer asked.

“The
software yes. You need to replace a few components. I've added it to the secondary
list of replacement parts. Actually tertiary list, the secondary list is more
critical components.”

“Oh,”
the Veraxin cocked his head.

“This
isn't the first time the admiral has rebuilt a ship in the past several years.
He's rebuilt several with our help. With the right mix this ship can be brought
back up to spec, almost as good as new.”

“Interesting,”
the Veraxin said. The captain set his jaw, silently fuming over the interloper.

“The
right mix?” O'Mallory asked.

“Training,
people, parts, power, replicators, and time. All are variables, but one of the
largest is the will to get it done and get out of his way to let him do it.”

“I
for one would like to see this happen,” the chief said slowly. “If it's even
possible.”

“It
will take a great deal of time. I believe the admiral was planning on helping
you rebuild your ship in transit to where ever we end up anyway.”

“Interesting.
I was on my way to check in on him when I was done here,” O'Mallory said with a
pointed hint in her tone.

“We'll
talk about this later,” the captain said gruffly. He reached out and cut the
communications link with a flick of a finger. He glared at the Veraxin who just
shrugged his upper arms and then left the compartment.

O'Mallory
entered the bay and noted his audience. She started forward angrily to get them
back to work, but then stopped short as the admiral's lecture registered.
Intrigued she paused and listened as he used the holo to bring up an exploded
view of an emitter, and then explained in layman's terms how it worked.

The
kids were utterly fascinated, sitting around in a half circle in the front row.
Some of the Terrans were sitting Indian style, a couple of the other species
were either tucked up or sitting comfortably for their species. It surprised
her that not one kid made a noise and they didn't fidget. They were totally
enraptured by the lesson.

She
noticed the guard’s interest as well and snorting in amusement. That was fast
work; Irons had gone from a potential threat to a subject of wonder and
interest. She caught Iron's amused look so she shook her head and chuckled at
his wry half smile and shrug.

When
he finished the lecture she asked how much longer. He cocked his head and then
reported to her. Nodding she smiled at the guilty faces of the crew and told them
to carry on. Smiling in relief the youngsters peppered him with more questions
and Quinna laughed as she made her exit. She knew the little sprouts wouldn't
be able to hold it in for that long without blowing spectacularly.

As
the last pair of emitters were finished the admiral felt a kick to the ship.
The hull shuddered and he tapped the link to the computer. Sprite flashed the
ship's schematic and then highlighted a damaged area with a karat. One deck up
and two sections towards the bow a micro meteor had breached the hull,
peppering it with debris. With the life support underpowered they precious air
was being sucked out the breach.

“Hull
breach!” He barked to the startled crew. Barry's eyes went wide. “One deck up
two sections forward. Move people! Sorry kids, I've got to go. Use the holo to
look at stuff. I'll be back in a bit,” he said rushing off. He sprang into
action, flashing out the door and up the nearest ladder. Racing down the
corridor he found a young man who had used his arm to temporarily seal the
breach. The gash in the hull was almost as long as his forearm and the engineer
winced at the nasty vacuum burn the crew member was exposing himself to. The
boy was in obvious agony but he was manfully trying to protect his ship and his
crew. Fortunately the hole was small enough that it wasn't going to suck him
through.

The
work party that had been with the engineer came running up with patch materials
and sprang into action. Irons rested a hand on the hull near the lad's arm. He
felt a force field emit from his hand, slicing through the boy's flesh but
sealing the breach.

They
pulled the crew member away from the breach and used a hull plate to cover it.
The engineer warned them of centimeter sized holes along this section and two
Terran kids and a Veraxin split up and used strips of paper to find the holes.
It looked like they had done this drill before. From the look of the hull... he
wrinkled his nose. Yeah, from its patches they have had a lot of practice.

One
of the young women was trying to set up a gas powered welder and he noted the
fuel gauge. He slapped it out of her hand as she went to ignite it and curtly
told her to check her gauge. Startled she looked, and went ashen. He grabbed
her glove and put it on his flesh hand. It didn't cover much of his hand since
his was much bigger than hers. He pushed it down anyway so he could palm the
plate.

Motioning
the crew holding it to step aside, they moved too slow so he pushed one aside.
He accessed his implants and reconfigured his arm to welder, and began tacking
the plate to the amazement of the kids. Grimacing from the flash and sparks, he
averted his eyes and welded the seams by feel and implant sensors. He could
have done a nanite weld but he didn't want to have to explain it to the crew.
At least not yet.

The
exec and Chief came running up behind them. The kids turned as the chief passed
them by. The exec took in the injured crew member holding his arm and ordered
him to be escorted to sickbay. A pair of kids helped the crying boy to his feet
and down the passage.

“Irons
just what the hell do you think you are doing?”

“Hull
breach sir,” the guard said.

“Oh?”

“He's
right,” the chief said. She was watching over Irons shoulder as he welded.
“Want me to take over?” she asked. He snorted softly.

“Hardly,
chief,” he said moving his body aside so she could see his hand was doing the
welding.

“Oh!”
she said eyes wide.

“The
welder is out of fuel,” a crew member said. The girl with it looked
embarrassed.

“How...”

“Never
mind that now,” O'Mallory said waving the protest off. “What's important is
that it's covered.” She looked at the kids who were holding patches over other
pieces of the hull all along the wall.

“Seems
like you've got your work cut out for you,” she said amused as another welder came
up with a kit.

“It's
all part of the job,” Irons replied as he finished up.

Mollified
the exec stepped back and took in the damage. O'Mallory had ignored the exec to
look at the patch job and nodded at the welding. It was professional; Irons had
jumped around to avoid heat warping the hull. It was clean; she winced as a kid
with a grinder went at it. Barry was further down, working on a centimeter
sized hole.

“How...
I mean I know you've got implants but...” she asked how he did it, and he
raised his arm and showed her his welder. “What else do you have in your bag of
tricks I wonder?” she asked intrigued. Before he could answer he was drowned
out by the kids asking how he had the implants and did they hurt. Laughing the
engineer told them about his time, and how he had received them after losing
his arm and legs in combat as they walked the corridors back to the bay. The
exec looked thoughtful as he watched them go.

In
the bay the chief took charge of the final pair of emitters, and asked if he
could do more as spares. He watched the tight faces of the kids, then sighed
and nodded. The exec had just followed them in and was looking at him funny so
he turned. “Problem Mr. Warner?” he asked politely.

The
kids looked at the exec. One of them seemed to gulp. Irons was curious though,
he didn't read anything wrong in the area. O'Mallory also looked curious; she
crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the exec.

“I
have someone you should meet admiral,” he said quietly under such scrutiny.

“All
right, give me a minute here,” Irons said. The engineer uploaded the new forms
to the replicator. He logged in and uploaded the key and then instructs a pair
of eager students on how to take the parts out of the replicator and keep the
feedstock full.

“Since
these are smaller and not emitters they should be easier. Each tray will be
done quickly. Listen for the chime.” He warned them. They nodded.

“If
you'll follow me Admiral?” The exec asked him and the kids groaned looking
disappointed. “Sprite?” he asked.

“Are
you kidding me?” she asked in disbelief.

“I'm
not asking you to drop everything. Just tone it down. They survived this long
without being factory spec,” he said.

“Oh
very well,” she sighed. “Any particular subject you had in mind?” she asked.
She was ninety nine point nine five percent sure she knew already. She spun a
bot off to handle the task. She really only needed a chatbot engine to handle
the questions. Anything that popped through the bot's database would be flagged
to her. She could step in in a microsecond to take over if needed.

The
engineer smiled and asked his AI to go to holo mode and give them a lecture on
AI. Behind the kids the holo sprang to life in a fountain of light. Fireworks
popped behind them, startling all of them to spin about. The fireworks spun
faster and faster. They ooohed and awed as the lights dimmed. The display
formed a torus that formed into a glowing ball. After a moment a pixie
stretched as the glow faded. Irons smiled. Sprite always loved to play the
pixie for the kids. Sprite introduced herself to the startled kids, and then
began telling them about AI. Smiling, the exec escorted the engineer out.

“So
that's your AI?” Warner asked.

“One
of them anyway. I can't go very far for long. She's using up a lot of
bandwidth. Actually, both of them are,” he grimaced. Proteus had boosted his
transceiver to its max level to squeeze as much bandwidth out as possible.
However there was an increase in noise from having the gain up so high.
Apparently the wifi links hadn't been installed yet. He'd have to talk with
O'Mallory to get that done.

“Hopefully
this won't take long Admiral,” Warner said with a cautious nod. He turned his
head to see O'Mallory heading out with the load of parts. He really wanted to
go with O'Mallory, this could wait, but something itched at his psyche.
Something told him, told his gut that this was important enough a diversion to
allow.

Irons
nodded to a crew member installing a remote wifi repeater box. Apparently
Sprite
had
slipped a few in to help the AI's with their bandwidth
problems. He couldn't blame them. Hopefully this wouldn't take long so he would
be able to jack in soon. The lights were dim in the corridors, He didn't have a
problem but the exec wasn't happy. He could feel a chill in the air; they had
cut the air flow, not a good sign. They were on the shaded side of the ship,
but he was pretty sure the sunny side was heating up fast. They'd have to make
this side trip a quick one.

“What's
this about?” he asked.

The
exec ducked through a hatch and looked back briefly. Irons noted the pair of
goggles on his face. The exec was wearing primitive night vision goggles.
Smart. “I want you to see the people you're trying to save. Some in
particular,” was Warner's cryptic reply.

Irons
thought about it briefly for a moment and then shrugged.

They
made their way to the habitats, and the exec explained as they went that the
first forward pair of cargo pods were converted into habitats. “There are over
seven thousand, four hundred and ninety three humans, a dozen or so Neo's most
of them canines, and about two hundred and fifty nine of seven of the more
common but different alien species made their home on this ship.”

Nodding,
the engineer accessed the system and pulled up a status report. Sprite and
Proteus sent him a quick paragraph with stats then refocused on what they were
doing.

The
work on the reactor was going slow; the crew wasn’t as efficient as he was with
the robots. He made a note to get down there when they finished here. The exec
entered a clean area and he turned as he opened a door. An ocelot colored
Talasian passed out of the room and the exec stepped back.