Read The Veritian Derelict (Junkyard Dogs) Online
Authors: Phillip Nolte
Chapter
27.
UTFN Reclamation Center. December 3, 2598.
Carlisle
rushed to her quarters as quickly as she dared and changed into the special undergarments that had been developed to interface with her prototype command spacesuit before throwing on a coverall and dashing down to the suit room. Once there, she shed the coverall and got into her special command suit. The suit was form-fitted, less than half as bulky as a standard suit, and appeared to be made of a smooth, slightly textured fabric, almost like the skin of a primitive, Old Earth fish called a shark. Though the color of the suit's fabric could be altered to match any background, Carlisle left it on the default color setting which was a non-reflective, white matte finish.
She then
joined the Federation delegation, finding a vacant spot on the front railing of the utility sled as the group left the
Istanbul
to return to the
Greyhound
. At the other end of the transit, Harris, Hawkins and Carlisle remained on the sled while most of the rest of the group disembarked onto the
Greyhound
. Two of Murdoch's temporary crewmen from the
Greyhound
, Orville Steuben and Hal Norbert, both former electricians from the New Ceylon Orbital station, joined them. Kresge spoke to the newly-created salvage crew via suit radio.
"
Harris, remember that you're in command out there
."
"Yes, Sir!" replied Harris.
Because of the need to protect Carlisle's status, the constraints on what kind of subjects could be discussed between the members of the small salvage group made interactions a bit awkward at first as the group set out to investigate the availability of parts to repair the
Greyhound.
Harris had wanted to ask Carlisle why her emails had stopped coming as soon as he discovered she was at the Scrapyard with the Ambassador's delegation. Whether she was willing to talk about it or not remained unknown but he was just going to have to wait for a better opportunity since communications among the members of the salvage crew were only possible by suit radio and any kind of private conversation was impossible. In spite of this issue, as the group got down to the business at hand, the three original Scrapyard survivors slipped quickly back into the easy camaraderie they had shared during their previous ordeal.
If the interpersonal dynamics were going well
enough, their quest to find the parts they needed for the
Greyhound
were not, as they soon ran into a series of snags. After several hours of going through the rows of old cargo ships, the group found themselves on the engineering deck of the fifth and last of the five Bombardier Mark II Cargomasters in the Scrapyard inventory. As they had several times earlier during their former ordeal in the Scrapyard, they had taken advantage of Carlisle's small size, her form-fitted spacesuit and her expertise in zero gravity and had used her to investigate in tight quarters. She had squeezed into the inspection cubby for the Whitney Overdrive unit on the last of the old cargo ships and had just finished inspecting the unit.
"
Lieutenant?"
"What is it,
Dr. Carlisle?"
"
This is damned depressing," she exclaimed. "This unit is in worse shape than the last one!"
All five of
the members of the small delegation felt the sharp bite of disappointment. The hyperdrive unit on this wrecked cargo vessel, which had been their last resort, was in no better shape than any of the other four had been. Worse, none of the units were in much better shape than the badly worn out unit currently in the
Greyhound
.
"I suppose we should have expected this," said Harris, not trying to hide his disappointment. "The main reason these ships wound up here was because they were totally used up."
"I were thinkin' there'd be at least one of them that still had some life in her," observed Hawkins.
"Well," asked
Harris, "what do we do now?"
"Let me be thinkin' about it for a spell,
Sir," Hawkins replied.
"
With due respect, Lieutenant," said Steuben. "What say we go back to the
Greyhound?
I'll bet I'm not the only one who's gettin' hungry."
"
Good idea, Steuben," said Harris as he consulted the chrono display in his suit helmet. "It is almost 2000 hours. Probably time to knock off for the day anyway. Maybe we can brainstorm this problem some more while we have something to eat."
After returning to the
Greyhound
and shedding their spacesuits, the two new crewmen and the trio of Naval personnel met in the bustling mess area to eat and discuss what to do next. The five of them had gotten their food and had just begun their brainstorming session when Helen Murdock joined them.
Since much of the food the personnel
in the Scrapyard were currently eating had been loaded onto the
Greyhound
courtesy of the old smuggling organization, the menu tended to include items not normally available on a tramp cargo ship or in a Naval facility either, for that matter. As Murdock came in, Harris had just picked up the remaining half of his Rueben sandwich but hadn't yet taken a bite.
"
I had an idea on the way over here," Murdock heard Harris say to his two companions. "Dr. Carlisle, can you cross reference powerplants and drive systems on your wrist computer and give us a list of other ship types that might have the parts we need? There should be several files in the downloads of the Scrapyard inventory that you...ah...you were given access to."
"
You'll not be needin' her to be doin' that," said Hawkins, with a twinkle in his eye. "She'll likely be suggestin' one of those precious Orion Mark IV destroyers again, they always were her favorites!"
There was a short silence.
Carlisle reddened slightly but smiled good-naturedly at the old engineer.
"
Point taken, Hawk," she said, "but tell me, why wouldn't the overdrive unit from a Succession era destroyer work in the
Greyhound
?"
Harris and Hawkins looked at one another for a couple of moments.
"You'd best be tellin' her, Lieutenant," said Hawkins.
"Yeah," Murdock joined in, "tell us why that wouldn't work?"
"Well, let's see," said Harris, "By design, destroyers have always been among the fastest ship types available so they've always had lots of power for their size. That's the whole point, high g acceleration capability isn't just a matter of sheer power, it's really all about the power to mass ratio. Even so, the reaction engines on a destroyer like the
Terrie
r are at least twice as powerful as the same engines on the
Greyhound
. Keep in mind that the two types of ship are built for totally different purposes. For moving freight you need maximum efficiency, not the high thrust capability required of a destroyer for rapid maneuvering and chasing down other ships."
"Aye, Lieutenant, that be so, but ain't the Whitney drives pretty much the same?
Can you be checkin', Lass?"
Carlisle brought up a holo display of the two drives.
She mumbled softly as she studied the schematics. Eyes still on the display, she nodded her head and announced, "They're actually about the same size and shape, but the specifications are totally different." She looked at Harris. "Are they similar enough?"
Harris
studied the holo display for several minutes. His look contained some doubt but finally he slowly nodded his head. "Well...yes," He replied, tentatively. "At least I think so. Trouble is, the drive system is matched to the power plant on both types of ship and they wouldn't cross-match very well. The military units were designed for rapid turnover in the Naval yards. You just pulled the old drive module out, and the reactor at the same time, and stuck in a set of new ones that were already refueled, aligned and more or less ready to go. It would probably take more than minor modifications, but we'd be better off stripping the entire drive system and the reactor out of the
Greyhound
and replacing them with the equivalent components from one of the destroyers."
Murdock looked extremely doubtful. "That sounds like a lot of work."
"It may not be as bad as you think," replied Harris, as he continued to think the problem through. "Remember that you wouldn't have to spend time dismantling the systems on the two ships, you'd just strip out the
Greyhound's
drive system and reactor at the same time and put the new components in. It would probably save a lot of time, actually. You just have to be able to handle some fairly massive assemblies without damaging something. We did that sort of thing all the time before we were attacked out here. For the most part, none of that heavy equipment was damaged in the terrorist attack last month. That and the
Rover II
has magnetic grapplers and should be able to handle a job like that without too much trouble."
"What about getting
the assemblies mounted in the
Greyhound
?" asked Murdock.
"We'
d have to look things over pretty carefully," replied Harris, "but, from what I know about merchant hulls, the manufacturers designed them so they could install one of several different types of power plants and a range of drive systems. The builders would bid out the drive system specs and then buy the least expensive one that met their requirements or, just as often, they would build the ships to customer specifications. Because of that, the drive bays were intentionally designed to be somewhat generic. The shipbuilders had several types of mounting hardware -- adaptors really -- that matched the various drive systems and reactors. If you had the right hardware, the components would basically bolt right in, no matter which company had made it."
"What else is different about the military drive units?" asked Murdock.
Harris thought for a moment again.
"The shield generators are integrated into the drive unit
and they're much more powerful than anything you'll find on a civilian ship. Even though the
Greyhound
is almost twice the size of a destroyer, the shielding would be just about as effective as it was on the
Terrier
. With a war coming, heavier shielding might not be a bad side effect."
"I be thinkin' it be time to take another gander a
t them destroyers," said Hawkins, with a sidelong glance at Carlisle. She gave him a satisfied smirk.
"Yeah," replied Harris, "It can't hurt. We'd better get as much information as we can before we try to talk Kresge into a plan this
crazy."
"What have you got on the
Terrier
in your wrist computer?" Harris asked Carlisle.
Carlisle
accessed her wrist computer again.
"
...
FWS Terrier
... Main and Whitney drives...fusion reactor...specifications, including dimensions and mounting points," said Carlisle, eyes slightly glazed as they often were when she interfaced with her wrist computer.
"Here's the info you requested, Lieutenant
," she said, bringing up the information in a 3-D holo display that floated in the air in front of the group. "This is great! According to the maintenance records, the powerplant and drive systems were completely overhauled only a year and a half before the final battle of the Succession War."
"
What's the date on this information?
"
asked Harris.
"
It looks to be from about six months before the final battle," replied Carlisle.
"
That old destroyer has long history of modifications," said Harris, "and we know that some pretty radical things were done to her just before that final battle. I imagine that the maintenance records are correct, but I'd be a lot more confident if we actually confirmed the current configuration of the drive system. I suggest that we get the actual physical measurements on all of the components of both ships." He nodded his head in affirmation of the decision he'd just made. "Finish eating," he said. "We're going to get the dimensions on the
Greyhound's
drive systems tonight and then we're heading out to the
Terrier
to do the same thing first thing in the morning."
"You remember
during the meeting earlier today that F.C. Talbot said he was willing to help out?" said Carlisle.
"Ye
ah, I remember that," replied Harris.
"
Well, since he was among the last engineering officers to actually serve on one of those destroyers, his insights could be really valuable."
"
That's an excellent suggestion, Dr. Carlisle. Can you ask him when you return to the
Istanbul
tonight?"
"No problem, Lieutenant," she replied.
The salvagers took a few more minutes to finish eating and then made their way through the now somewhat crowded
Greyhound
to the engineering section of the old ship. It took them about a half hour to measure all the drive components. That task completed, Carlisle had to head back to the
Istanbul
. As she prepared to leave her old friends, she realized that the last ten hours had been some of the most enjoyable she had experienced in months. She had meshed almost seamlessly with the other members of the team as they had become totally immersed in the problem at hand. For a few hours, all the other issues that had been nibbling at her mind had been pushed aside and temporarily forgotten. She shared her thoughts as she prepared to head back to the
Istanbul
.