New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (14 page)

Trisha gave her a look.
"Okay," she shrugged. "Works for me. Now that we have training
on going, and are settling into regular shifts it's easier to deal with."
She craned her neck to read over Molly's shoulder. "Wait, it lists you as
an assistant? Is the Admiral taking the chief slot?" She looked around.

"No, he isn't. The Admiral's
insistent, he's a passenger," Molly sighed, adjusting her glasses. She
took them off after a moment and set them down.

"So who's the chief?"
Trisha asked confused.

"Faith." Molly
answered.

"Faith? She's in cryo!"
Trisha waved exasperated. "Who the hell said that? She doesn't know any of
the systems, all the changes! It may be a year before she's out!" She
shook her head.

Jen frowned. "Don't get her
started; I just tried to talk sense into her. Molly insists it's Faith."
Jennie shrugged. "If she wants to hold the chair for her, more power to
her... unless you want it?" Trisha made fending off motions with both
hands. She shook her head. "No no no.. Hey, that's mean! You knew I would
say that!" The girls chuckled.

"Worked didn't it?" Jen
asked.

"So all the departments are
doing this?" Trisha asked.

"No, just us so far. Well,
the bridge crew had shifts, but they were irregular. I think they're ironing it
out now. The navigators and helm women are on four hour shifts." Molly
waved.

"Why four?" Jen asked confused.

"Cause they need to
rest!" Shandra goosed her suddenly.

 Jen eeped and spun.
"OH!" She rubbed her rear. "Very funny." Molly giggled.

"So, what are you going to
do with all your free time?" she asked Shandra.

Shandra handed Molly a tablet.
"Oh, I'll let you know..." She turned coy, smiled and tossed her
hair. She strutted out. Jen watched her go.

Trisha giggled until Molly leaned
over and swatted her. "Stop that! Worse than kids I swear!" she
sighed in exasperation. "Okay, let’s get back to work. Trish, I believe
you're heading to lunch? Then the deck twelve repairs? Once you do that your
off shift till...  crap, its 1200 now, your new shift starts at 1700."

“What if we need to compare
notes?” Jen asked.

“Oh, we can pop in off shift if
we're bored, or want to get an early start on something. I also expect you at
the senior staff meetings still. Don't worry about that.” Molly answered. “Just
don't tire yourself out trying to keep up with the Admiral,” she said. The
admiral was a force unto himself. She shook her head.

Trisha and Jen looked at the
clock. "Jen, you were working on the computer network? Is it
critical?" Jen shook her head. "Okay, table it for your shift
tonight. Go get some lunch with Trish then get some rest." Jen nodded.

"Slave driver," Trisha
commented as they walked out.

"He's so strong, but stern
all the time!" One of the girls gossiped as she folded laundry with neat
practiced perfection.

"I heard he has a lot of
scars." One of the girls called, balancing a stuffed laundry basket on her
hip.

"So when do we get a chance
to see him?" another asked, ironing an outfit. The door opened. "How
about now?" The girl by the door squeaked in surprise then ducked out past
someone.

The engineer came in carrying a
duffel and toolbox and took a look around. "Ladies," he nodded
politely to them. "This machine free?" he asked. He pointed to the
nearest to the door. A guard followed him in and scowled around.

"No, it doesn't work,"
the girl nearest him said. He gave the blond a look. The girl with the iron was
staring. He cleared his throat, caught her eyes and glanced meaningfully at the
steaming outfit in front of her.

"What oh!" She squealed
in dismay.

"Well, let me see if I can
do something about this." He set his toolkit down and pulled the front
panel off. His finger morphed into a multi tester and he checked the
connections. "Nope, nope." He stopped and stepped around the machine.

"What, what's wrong with it?
Heater coil?" the girl asked.

He grabbed the power plug and
plugged it in. "Nope, it wasn't plugged in," he said. He tried the
machine. It turned on, and started to fill. "Okay, let’s give it a
shot." He leaned over and pulled a couple grimy pairs of coveralls out of
the other duffel. He loaded it, added some soap from the plastic container near
the counter and then turned the machine on.

"Okay, while I wait, what
else is broken here?" he asked. The girls stared.

"That was it?" He
turned and put the panel back on the machine.

"Um, no, Mister engineer
most of the machines are broken," one said. The girls pointed to a bank of
industrial laundry machines. "Okay, I'll take a look." He went from
machine to machine, pulling open panels and checking things. He did a little
rewiring on a few to allow part of their abilities to be used. It took an hour,
just long enough for his laundry to be cleaned and dried. "Okay, we have
three that need heater coils, two that have broken gaskets, one with a frozen
motor, three with broken belts, two with torn gears, and two with control logic
problems."

 He looked up. The girls had
stopped doing the laundry to watch him. "I can put an order in for parts,
but it will be a while before they come in," he said.

One of the girls nodded.
"Yes, but you fixed those other 4 machines, so we should be better
off," she replied with a grin.

He nodded. "As each machine
broke the loads were shifted to the working ones... So they wore out
faster." The girls nodded and made themselves busy as the guard cleared
her throat. He gave her a look and nodded. He pulled out a tablet and entered
the notes. "Okay done.” His machine dinged. "And done I see. Nice
timing."

He opened the door and pulled out
the load. He put it on the table and began to sort and fold. It had been a
while since he had had to do his own laundry, after all that was what robots
and stewards were for, but the skills returned after a few seconds.

 Coveralls, underwear, towels,
socks, and rags were neatly folded into a stack, and then stuffed into the
duffel. He shouldered it and the kit. "Have a good day ladies." He
nodded and left. The guard followed. "Wow, he's cuter then I
thought!" He caught the thread before the hatch closed and snorted.

"Well, it's nice to see
something in good order." He nodded his chin to the ship's plaque.

Jennie smiled. "Isn't it
fate that the Captain found a ship named for a woman?" She smiled at the
bronze embossed Greek figure. Around it were the founder names and the launch
date. The bronze plaque was dark, but obviously polished, even if only with a
rag.

He cleared his throat.
"Well, this ship is a Cabeiri class ship." Jennie and two of the
other techs looked up confused. The guard frowned. "Actually, she's an
epsilon generation of that class," he said and then shrugged at their
blank looks.

“Cabeiri were the descendants of
the blacksmith god Hephaestus in Greek mythology," he explained. He cocked
his head at their confused looks.

"Greek?"

"What is Cabeiri?"

"You lost us." Jennie
said as she looked to the others and then shrugged.

He chuckled and continued
splicing cables. "Ships have been named for various things for thousands
of years. Famous people, or places, or myths." He looked up to the girls.
They were all staring at him.

"The Federation went with
that mix as well, but eventually named the shipyards and programs after
engineers and blacksmith mythology." He finished the splice and tucked the
cable back into the wall panel, then pulled out another shredded one. He took a
moment to let Proteus trace the lines then followed the directions on his HUD.

"There were four class
versions of this ship since it was first conceived." He twitched a hot
wire aside and then stripped a ground wire. "Technically Io didn't have
anything to do with blacksmithing. From the histories I accessed someone got a
hold of some ancient comic books and got their wires crossed."

He looked up and smiled.
"Speaking of which... Kara, be careful with that ribbon cable, it's the
fiber optic data bus for the port sensor feeds..." She started, and then
settled down as she looked down.

A young girl came up holding the
parts he had requested. He checked them over, and then nodded to Jennie.

Jennie grinned and took the top
package. "The new...What did you call it? Processor?" He nodded. The
girl fumbled the packages. He reached up and steadied her. "I got it; they
aren't heavy, just awkward," she said sounding put out. He chuckled.

"That they are. Here, let me
help you with that. He took the bottom package, an LCD display and passed it to
Shandra to replace the burnt one at the console in front of her. Kara reached
up and caught the MPU module the girl tossed to her.

"Easy there, they can be
delicate," he cautioned as he gave the girl a reproving look. She blushed
and handed over the electronic modules. He nodded. "I checked the
computer; the next project is the life support on deck three," he said.
The girl nodded. "You'll probably need a mech and a gravity dolly to help
get it all. She gulped. "No worries, we can all lend a hand when we get
this done," he said as he indicated the wiring hanging from various
places. She nodded.

Kara plugged the module in and
grinned. "There!" She started to button up the panel but he cleared
his throat. She looked up as the girl left.

"Don't forget to run
diagnostics," he suggested. She grimaced and picked up a probe, then
sighing dug into the feeds to test them. He gave the navigator a look; she
ducked, then looked back and nodded with a smile. He nodded.

The module was working, but it
wouldn't hurt to have her double check. "How do you know about the ship
and stuff?" He looked over to Shandra who was had plugged the screen in,
tested it, and was now securing it to the console with the old screws.

"Some of it I learned as a
child in school. Some they taught us at the academy." He looked over to
the plaque. "But I took a shine to it when the COB on my first cruise
explained it," he had a soft wistful look of remembrance.

He looked over to the girls.
"I was a wet behind the ears midshipman. So new I squeaked," he
snorted as they giggled. "They taught us early to pay attention to the
Chief of the boat, the COB."

Shandra clipped the cover plate
on, then took a rag and gave it a quick satisfied wipe. "What's a
COB?" she asked, looking over to him. He chuckled as he finished the
splicing and Proteus reported it was clear to close up.

"A COB is the Chief of the
boat. The senior member and leader of the enlisted on a ship."

She looked confused. "I
thought that officers lead enlisted," she said, sounding like she didn't
believe him. He snorted.

"Of course. But there is a
rank structure in a ship."

Jennie looked up.
"Why?" He nodded to her work as he picked up the plate and set it in
to cover the opening.

"Well, for one thing rank is
a way to show who is in charge. Also it gives people a goal, to show themselves
and others their achievements and career progress," he explained. He
flipped the catches closed. The lower port one stuck, he fiddled with it for a
moment until it caught and locked down. "The rank structure is called the
chain of command. On this ship we have the Captain, then the department heads,
and then each department has its own command structure." He looked over to
the girl at navigation and cleared his throat. After the second throat clearing
she looked up and then gave a smile and thumbs up. He nodded as he cocked his
head.

"Okay, port sensors are up
and running again." He checked Shandra's display. She ran a possessive
finger over the edge. He smiled. "Nothing quite like a job well
done." He nodded to the screen. "Especially when it is putting
something back together." He looked up into her amber eyes. She stilled
for a moment, and then nodded.

"It's like the ship is
coming back to life. It feels I don't know...right I guess you could say,"
she said softly. He nodded.

"Well ladies, I have an
appointment to fix the life support on deck three, so enjoy." He nodded to
each, and then walked out. He caught them murmuring about rank structure with
his enhanced hearing as he left. The guard and Jennie followed.

On Deck three he diverted around
a pair of ladies manhandling scorched sections of duct work out of the ceiling.

Jennie swore softly as she dodged
a falling tool. "Careful!" she called up, glaring.

"Sorry." Was the muttered
reply. The guard nodded to the woman lounging nearby, holding up a bulkhead and
sipping a drink.

"Waiting for
something?" she asked with a lingering look. The woman turned and went
back to making herself look busy. Jennie snorted. She was holding the broken
bits from the bridge, she handed them to a girl as they crossed a passage. The
girl looked confused, and then sighed theatrically.

They ducked around another work
party, and then paused since the path was momentarily blocked by a pair of
ladders and duct work being manhandled by a pair of women. "So what do you
think your rank should be?" one of the girls asked as she stepped up the
ladder.

The other snorted. "I should
be a Chief of course. What do you think Wicki should have?" She shoved her
end up into the hole. Her partner's reply was muffled as they ducked under the
duct and got back underway. He had to smile. The ship's grapevine was like any
other, faster than the speed of light.

"I want to talk to
you!" the security Chief snarled as he stepped around cables.

He paused, giving her a long
look. "Yes?"

She stopped, hands on her hips
and glared. "What's this about you setting up rank on the ship and
undermining my authority?" she stepped close, trying to intimidate him.