The Apprentice Starship Engineer: Book One The Link (4 page)

Bob chuckled softly and gave me directions to the screens to change her flyer and upload the changes to the server to distribute across the ship.

“Thanks for fixing my flyer,” she said, reaching out to me. I felt embarrassed as I took her hand. “My name is Sandra Marsh.”

“Drake Wilson. You’re welcome, Sandra,” I said.

She smiled at me as the door opened. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you tonight then.”

Bob and I watched in silence as she walked away, letting out a sigh together.

Bob socked me in the shoulder. “Not a chance in frozen hell, geeky boy. Let’s button this poor machine up and let it run to failure.” We both laughed as I closed up the panel.

* * * *

I propped up Margret, preparing to study through dinner. Jack had scared me good this afternoon. He’s hard to read, especially when he’s scowling. He’d marched into the shop and called me into his office. I’d thought it was the end and that I’d spend the rest of the trip washing dishes. He’d told me to take a seat, then he’d outlined my apprentice program, making sure I could access the tutorials and study material. He’d made Margret show him that she could indeed get me to them. He’d assigned me the first four chapters of the power and distribution lesson.

“We’re having problems with the distribution system and will need your help to fix it,” he said.

He’d gone on to tell some stories about his own apprenticeship. I guess his journeyman had been meaner than mine. Jack sure had a lot of stories.

After dinner, I arrived at the gym early. Several other people were there and milling about. I was reading when Sandra entered. She wore a karate-like outfit and looked very professional.

I left Margret in my bag and walked up to Sandra. She nodded at me, then introduced herself to the class. She had us introduce ourselves. We were quite a collection. First was Mike, who worked in navigation, then Jillian, who was a programmer, Rod and Terri, who were a married couple and, of course, me.

After introductions, Sandra lined us up and had us begin with some stretching exercises. She continued with sit ups, deep squats and shallow squats. Soon we were all huffing and puffing. She seemed to be just warming up as she had us do fifty pushups. I looked over at her. She pumped them out with ease. At the thirtieth, my form went to hell with my butt sticking up and I didn’t go down all the way. Once we finished with the pushups, she had us all sit and do breathing exercises.

With our exercises completed, she instructed us on how to make a fist and the basic fighting stance. We finished by shadow boxing with each other as she walked around, telling everyone to keep their hands up and start our punch from all the way back. The lesson was two hours long, and I was tired as I headed back to my dorm. I still needed to finish Jack’s reading assignment.

I felt weak, but forced myself to stay away from bed and went straight to the study room.  I began reading chapter three. It was dull stuff about safety when working with high voltage DC power systems. It went on and on about forms and how to fill them out. I was pissed. Weren’t we going to work on broken equipment? I never wanted to be a secretary. I hate forms. Fuming, I finished the fourth chapter about making connections to the bus. If Margret hadn’t nagged me, I probably would have read all night. Being tired, I slept well, not even thinking about the small quarters.

* * * *

I was a bit groggy, but continued my same routine of bringing donuts and coffee to work. While Bob and I munched our donuts and sipped coffee, Jack started his lecture on the day’s task.

“It’s like this,” Jack said, drawing a cigar shape on the screen with his finger. “Three power buses go the length of the ship.” He drew three more lines vertically through the ship. “If one fails, another can supply it. They’re automatically switched so if you’re working in an area you have to switch power off and apply your personal lock at least in two locations.” He handed me two locks. “Everyone working on the section has to have their own locks.”

Bob jumped in. “It’s happened many times. A piece of machinery is down for repairs and a jackass comes along and wants to use the equipment. They see the power is turned off, but they don’t ask anyone. Now you’re working with fifty thousand volts hot and your ass is fried. Kid, that’s why we lock and tag the switches.”

“This is a simple switch order. Drake, go ahead and fill it out. Show us what you got,” Jack said.

It takes so long to do anything with all this safety stuff, I thought. On the farm I just hit the switch and changed out the power unit, but not on a ship with a union. We have our rules, and Jack wasn’t going to fudge on them, particularly when teaching an apprentice. Using Margret, I filled out the switch order. The document spelled out which switches we were going to turn off and what bypass switches we’d be using, if any. Shit, I want to work on equipment, not fill out stupid forms. Although, I had to admit it was a complicated switching, and it’d be easy to get the wrong one. That could be a nasty surprise.

Jack brought up a schematic drawing of the power bus as he checked my switching order, then ran a simulation. To my horror a shunt safety feed came on, powering up the area where we’d be working.

Bob swore as he turned away. “Dumb kid is going to kill us all,” he muttered as he walked out into the shop area.

Jack looked at the switching order and shook his head. “What the hell do you think we’re doing here? A dam kid’s game? If you hit that bus live, you’re done dead. You’re one of those smart guys. Start being wise. We do this so we all get to go home.” He pointed at me. “You screw up another switch order and you’re done. Got it? Now do it again right.”

I looked at my switch order. I’d pulled up the file on the wrong side of the ship. I would have killed us all. Jack had it right—test and check everything. I started over, and after a careful review of the file, I went over the schematic, making sure I hadn’t made a mistake, then ran the simulator. It checked out. 

I asked Jack to check my switch order. He ran the simulator again. “So we’ll each need four locks, correct?” he asked.

Still embarrassed I just nodded. I pushed the anti-gravity cart carrying our tools and power converter as I followed Jack. This wasn’t a farm. It was a starship. I’d better leave the farm behind and do what my journeyman says, I thought.

Bob had locked out the switches before we’d arrived. He led us to the location of each one, and I verified that the switch identifier was correct before applying my lock. Bob laughed as I put on my last one.

“Well, Jack and I made a convert out of a farm boy. You might just make it to your retirement yet,” he said with a smile.

Jack made the connections to the replacement power converter. Determined to be a good apprentice, I’d never let myself get caught in to making the same sloppy mistake as the lock out again.

Finishing up with work on Wednesday, I felt a sense of dread for another of Sandra’s workouts. I was still sore from the last one. I’d hoped Jack would come up with some extra work that couldn’t wait so I could miss our practice, but, in fact, he’d left early! I’d just tell her I couldn’t practice anymore. I’d been up until midnight Tuesday finishing another of Jack’s assignments. I argued with myself all the way to my dorm, then got changed into my workout clothes. I’d talk to her after today’s workout.

Only three of us showed up for practice—myself, Rod and Terri.

Sandra entered, wearing a brave smile. “Well, a bit smaller class. Mike and Jillian have decided not to continue. All the better for you, as it’ll be a lot more intimate. Shall we begin?”

Jillian shook her head. “Sandra, Rod and I have decided not to continue also. It’s just not for us. Sorry.”

Sandra nodded. They both slipped out. The room got quiet. Sandra looked at me with sparkling eyes. “How about you? Are you going to quit also?”

I really hate myself. I can be such a worm. “No, if you still want to teach I want to learn,” I said with my best I’m-motivated smile.

She nodded and then led me through a workout that was harder than the last one. At the end, she suggested I come every day. She’d teach me how to use small weapons. Of course I agreed. That’s what worms do. The trouble with me is I have so much guilt I do what I agree to do.

I berated myself all the way to my dorm, then stayed up past midnight studying, mostly to abuse myself further.

Jack didn’t let up. He taught me as fast as I could learn, and I felt pressured. Meeting with Sandra slowed me down, but seeing her face light up when I came into the gym I couldn’t quit. I was tired and felt pressured to study to keep up with Jack. Her workouts were pure torture. I liked her, and I just couldn’t let her down. I learned to do with a lot less sleep.  

Every day I brought coffee to the shop. Bob had said that was what apprentices were supposed to do. He’d been joking with me, but I went ahead and served him. I enjoyed seeing him get embarrassed. I liked Bob. He was fair at his job and was less of a stiff than Jack. As usual I was getting three cups of coffee on a tray and half a dozen donuts when a woman looked over at me.

“What are you doing? Are you serving those guys?” she asked.

I laughed, pointing a thumb at myself. “Apprentice. I fetch the coffee.”

She scowled. “They can’t do that.”

I smiled. “It’s okay. I work them hard. They earn the coffee. I make them teach me everything, and at the end of the shift, they’re both beat.”

She shook her head. “They shouldn’t allow that. They’re supposed to be training you, not abusing you.”

“Jack and Bob work hard. It’s a way to say thanks,” I said.

She smiled. “My name is Kathy Shelling. I’m your test proctor, and I administer the apprentices. It’s my job to see you’re treated fairly. This isn’t good. You should stop serving them.”

“What If I grab a thermos of coffee and a bag of donuts?”

“On occasion. You aren’t here to serve them. If it continues, I’ll have to take disciplinary action against you all.”

I put the tray down and the cups back. “Yes, ma’am. No coffee.”

When I told Bob and Jack, Bob’s face went pale. Jack said, “I knew it. Shit. You were fine, kid. I should have kept you out of trouble. Sorry.”

The next day, Jack had me go with Bob on trouble calls, and at fourteen hundred we answered a call from lab seven about a cooling complaint. She was a large woman, strong with a very curvy figure.

“Hi, Vivian. I hear you’re hot, and from what I can see, I have to agree,” Bob said smiling.

“Bob, I’m cooking. Soon I’ll be sweating. Cool it down,” she said.

“Well, Vivian, you called the right guy. With a single line, I can cool the hottest women.”

“If you don’t cool me off soon, I‘m going to smack your scrawny ass.”

“Oh, if it were only so simple to gain you’re attention.” Bob sighed as he connected his assistant to her work station’s climate controller.

A gentle breeze stirred her hair. “Ah, that’s better. The only place this woman should be hot and sweaty is in your arms,” she said.

“Vivian, meet Drake, our shit hot apprentice. Soon we’ll have him chilling women all over the ship.”

She looked me up and down with the prettiest eyes I’d ever seen. My heart jumped into my throat.

She smiled, patting Bob’s cheek. “No, he won’t be cooling any women. When do you get off? I’ll have dinner waiting.”

“Give me a couple hours. We have to check the forward air plant.” He turned and looked at me, then chuckled. “Oh, Drake, Vivian’s my wife. I’ve been cooling her for thirty years.”

“Go away. I have work to do. Oh and bring Drake along to dinner,” she said.

“Oh, I’d love to, but I have practice tonight. It ends at nineteen hundred,” I said.

“That’s fine. We’ll have a late dinner then.”

Bob chuckled as we walked away. I followed him into the forward equipment area. Inside it was so loud I could hardly hear him.

“Kid, behind that door is every sneeze, fart and burp that’s been passed in the last hour,” Bob said with a grin. We stood by the main filter section. The roar of air passing was deafening. He directed me over to a wall of old-fashioned mechanical gauges. “We check the electronic meters against these old ones to verify their calibration. Personally, I trust the electronic meters. These old ones are, in my opinion, just junk. This is an example of one of those custom things.” He shook his head, looking at the panel of meters. “They’re pretty. If Jack asks, you can say, yes, Bob showed me.” He looked at me. “You get how to read these?” I nodded. “Good. I don’t have a clue myself.” He turned and walked away. “Come along. We have important stuff to check.”

He showed me through the machine. It was amazing. We had, of course, filter systems on the farm, but nothing compared to this.

He toured me through the environmental control center and brought up schematics of the air flow system. It was as complicated as the power system. With high pressure ducts running throughout the ship, every branch had its own flow controllers and monitors. Environmental alone was a study that would take years to understand.

As we headed to maintenance, my head spun. We hadn’t even gone over the heat extraction system. This ship was a furnace inside. Extracting the heat was very important, and took a lot of equipment.