New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (25 page)

The ops officer nodded
enthusiastically. "Good idea! The sooner we get material, the sooner they
can make parts to overhaul the systems," she grinned.

The Captain nodded. "Make it
so. I'll go check in with our shuttle pilots and make sure they're up for
this," she ordered. Shandra nodded.

“Syntia's world this is the Io 11
calling in,” Nexi looked over her board and frowned. “I know he said they fixed
the communicator but come on...” She tapped in the controls.

“Anything?” The Captain's
gravelly voice cut into her muttering.

“Nothing yet Captain.” She looked
up and turned to face the Captain. “Wait, getting something,.” she said as she
heard something on her earwig. Her hand went to her headset. She turned and
tapped a control, then turned a retro stat. “Okay, I'm receiving a weak signal,
it's the colony,” she sniffed in distaste. “Cheap junk.”

The Captain chuckled softly. “And
to think we had the same level of equipment last time we were here! I think we
sold them that, what did you call it? Cheap junk?” she asked and then chuckled
at the girls expression.

Nexi blushed. “Sorry Captain.”

“Oh don't worry, we won’t be here
long. Syntia's colony is a dirt poor agro world; they just started digging
themselves out of the caves they were living in,” she said. She shook her head.

“It must really suck to be stuck
ground side,”  Lessa commented, running her hand through her hair.

“Yes, well, I can just imagine
them toiling in the soil, looking up and wondering what life is like up here,”
the captain said and then smiled. “It isn't all tea and biscuits you know,” she
said.

The steward opened the door and
came out bearing a tray. “Well, sometimes it is,” the Captain chuckled, taking
the proffered cup and leaning back.

"Subspace impulse engines,
the hyperdrive, weapons, Shield nodes, the hull, and the reactors are the only
major systems we haven't overhauled," Molly reported. She gave a reluctant
shrug. "Of course that's hard to do when they're in use. We'll do what we
can while in orbit Captain."

The Captain nodded sagely.
"We should be there for a week. Does that sound about right?" She
turned to the purser who nodded.

"Negotiations should be
completed the first day, it's transporting the materials to the space port and
to and from the ship that'll take up the time."

She nodded to the pilot. The
pilot smiled. "We've made a start at overhauling the shuttle, and the
engineer," She waved to him. "Has even repaired the second cargo
shuttle," she said sounding happy. The purser looked up with interest.

Molly nodded excited. "We
can move a lot more goods Captain, in a lot less time."

"What's up?" Jennie
asked as the engineer pulled his skin suit out of his bag.

"What are you doing with
that?" the guard asked.

"Okay ladies, I'm going out
there," he pointed to the airlock. "I'm going to go to the port side
and see if I can fix the rip in the Port fuel tank." He stepped behind a
wall to change into the suit. "You can come with me if you want; there are
two pairs of skin suits in the locker over by the airlock," he said. The
guard pulled out her communicator and stepped aside so she could talk.

"I'm going," Jennie
said, from the tone of her voice she sounded excited.

The guard followed him out the
lock. "Go slow; remember what I told you before. Get a hand hold and lock
in your safety line there," he cautioned and then pointed. She fumbled the
clip, and then got it attached. She turned fast to look around.
"Easy!" She over compensated and began to spin. Her spin sent her
into a tumble, her tether unwinding as she moved away from the craft. She
started panting in her suit over the comm.

"You're okay, you just moved
a little too fast. Grab the line and pull yourself in." He reached her
line and began to pull her line. "You feel that? That's me, I'm pulling
you in." He switched channels. "Jennie, we have a little hiccup here,
wait a few minutes," he called in.

"What? What happened?"
she asked suddenly. He sighed.

"Just a minor control
issue."

The guard began to gibber a
little. "It's so big, so black, I can't stand it, I can't...I gotta get
in..." her voice took on a hysterical edge.

He pulled her to him, and then
grabbed her arm. "Easy girl, you feel me there?"

She began to thrash, screaming in
panic. Jennie called over the radio demanding to know what was going on. The
guard thrashed, slamming the tool kit into his side. He felt the suit try to
absorb the shock, but gasped as the energy momentarily paralyzed his diaphragm.
Sprite sent an electric surge to the muscles and dumped O2 from his reserves
directly into his blood stream. "Easy now, I gotcha, I gotcha." The
woman was sobbing now, shaking in the suit. "Close your eyes now." He
pulled her to face the airlock hatch. She thrashed a bit more.

“I can't breathe!” she gasped. He
could hear her ragged panting. He knew from experience her hysteria had induced
hyperventilation, breathing so hard her body couldn't absorb oxygen.

“Just calm down, you're
panicking. Calm your breathing, listen to my voice. AND STOP THRASHING,”  the
last came out as a bark after her flailing fist struck his helmet.

"Oh my Goddess!" the
guard said, and then locked up into a catatonic state. He took a look and then
checked her stats. She was catatonic all right, sensory overload, and air
deprivation. He pulled her back into the airlock.

The lock cycled and Jennie gasped
as the door opened. "What happened what's wrong?" she demanded. He
pulled the guard out, and Jennie noting her flaccid state lent a hand.

"She froze," he said.

The Chief came around the corner
and stopped. She pulled her weapon and pointed it. "Just what the hell do
you think you’re doing? Set her down now!" she commanded.

He eased the woman to the ground,
and then thumbed the helmet off. "Miss, you're okay now, you can come back
to us."

He tried to shake her, but she
had a vacant stare. "What the hell did you do to her? I swear if you hurt
her you’re going out that airlock with a pulser in your head." the chief
growled. He could hear the whine of the weapon. Defender brought his shields
up. The guards eyes seemed to clear, then she began to thrash and scream, eyes
vacant.

He stepped back and opened a
communication channel. "Medical emergency airlock four port side. We need
a sedative and medical team here now," he growled. He nodded to the Chief.
"She had a bad reaction to space, it looks like agoraphobia. Currently
hysterical. Onset of hypoxia due to hyperventilation."

The Chief's eyes burned into his.
"Roger that. Medic on the way," the answer from the overhead came,
but he ignored it.

"Mind putting that thing
away?" he said. He nodded to the gun. She just glared.

Jennie looked up from holding the
sobbing guard. "He's telling the truth chief, knock it off." She
rocked the girl, murmuring assurances that she was okay, safe. Her fingers
stroked the girl's face and hair. He nodded. "You see, some people can
take space, some can't. She can't," he said nodding his chin to the
overwhelmed woman.

He grunted and got out of the way
as the medic came in and sedated the guard. The Chief glared angry, not
understanding what happened.

"She's agoraphobic,"
the engineer said, looking away.

"This is your fault,"
the Chief shook, hand on her pulser.

"No, it's yours," he
turned to her, eyes cold and gray. "
You
ordered a rookie with no
experience out on a space walk." He met her glare, watched as her jaw
tightened.

His HUD lit with her thermal
image. Defender kept his shields up. "How is she?" The gravelly voice
brought them back from the brink. The Chief blinked, and then her glare slipped
into a poker face. "Hysterical Captain. The medic sedated her," Irons
replied. They turned to the Captain, who nodded, hands together.

"First space walk?" she
asked after a moment. He nodded.

The Chief shot him a look then
back to the Captain. She sighed. "Couldn't hack the black eh?" she
asked, sounding sad. He nodded. "Why were you out there? She asked.

He sighed. "I need to do a
survey of the hull, and make a few repairs that I can't get to in here,"
he explained. She nodded.

"Why not take the shuttle?
It would've been safer," the Captain asked, cocking her head.

He glanced to the Chief then
back. "I requested it, but was denied."

"Denied?" her glance
turned to the Chief. An eyebrow rose. "Is this true?" she demanded.

The Chief jaw loosened and her
nostrils flared. "It was a security risk," was all she said.

The Captain held her look.
"Chief, we're in deep space, and that shuttle has a limited range, where
would he go?"  she asked patiently.

The Chief looked away. The
Captain sighed. "Over ruled. Do the survey with the pilot, and check the
shuttle’s systems out as well. I understand you've been making some progress
with the computers?" she asked. She gazed at the engineer who nodded.

"Aye Captain. There were a
lot of viruses and damage. I rebooted the firewall and security measures."

She nodded. "Good. See that
the Chief gets a full briefing on what you've done, and the passwords,"
she said. She obviously had a bit more computer training then her crew. He
nodded.

"Aye Aye Captain," he
responded. She turned and left. "Well, that was interesting," he
muttered. He nodded to the guard and Chief then picked up his toolkit.

"Where are you going?"
the Chief asked.

"Boat bay," he looked
over his shoulder. "Captain wants this done; I'm going to get it
done." The guard gave the Chief a look and she returned a cool nod.

“You want me to what??” the pilot
asked, hands on her hips. He knew the pose, dominant and in control.

“I want you to wrangle some
asteroids back to the ship,” he said patiently.

Her features began to cloud with
anger. “Not on your life! Do you have any idea how hard it is to fly that beast
in atmo, let alone try to dock with a hunk of rock? Why do you want it anyway?
Don't they have enough rock on the ground?” the woman waved to the exterior
hatch.

He shook his head. “No, I want it
for
us
.” He tapped the metal bulkhead beside him. “I don't want any old
rock; I want certain rocks that we can feed into the replicator,” he explained.
She stared at him.

“You'll do it,” a gravelly voice
said. They turned to the Captain sitting in her chair beside them. “Or do you
think you can't handle it?” one eyebrow raised in challenge.

“I can do it,” the pilot said,
nettled by the implied insult. She looked over to the Captain. “But if this
stunt so much as dings my paint you’re going out an airlock without a suit.”
She turned to glare at the Admiral. He snorted.

“Well, get enough rocks with the
right composition and we can BUILD you a new ship,” he said as way of
compensation. Her eyes widened at that. She looked from the Admiral to the
Chief, and then settled on the Captain.

The Captain was also looking at
the engineer, but returned the inquiring gaze with a nod. “So let’s get
cracking shall we?” she asked. The pilot nodded, beginning to get into the
spirit.

A few hours later he sat in the
cargo shuttle, unsure if this was really going to work though. "See that
one there?" the engineer called, pointing. "Your 11 o'clock
low," he said. She looked in the indicated direction.

"Got it. I see what you
mean, nice," she said. The cratered rock he had indicated had a flat
section. It was a couple hundred tons of material begging to be turned into
something useful. "All right, I'll line up with the flat section and use
the tractor," she said. He nodded.

"Your ship," he said,
sitting back.

"And don't you forget
it," she muttered. Carefully she lined up on the asteroid and docked. The
ship rumbled a little as she flipped a switch.

She studied the readouts then
grinned. "Got it," she said triumphantly. Carefully she nudged the
controls. "It’s like flying in sand," she said, groaning slightly.

She towed the rock to the ship
over the next two hours. "Clear the bay, and rig it for zero g," he
called in when they were lined up.

"Roger that. You could have
said please," one of the radio girls responded.

The pilot rolled her eyes.
"Please?" she snorted.

The bridge officer giggled.
"Okay, cleared and prepped." They passed through the hatch and into
the bay.

"Let it go slow," he
cautioned after she corrected their speed. He watched as she touched the
tractor controls and eased them down. "We're blind here, can we get some
feedback?" he called over the channel.

A moment later someone called
back. "Okay, you're floating there in the bay, the rock is huge! Bigger
than the shuttle!" the woman said.

He grimaced, lips tight in
irritation. "I meant, what's the rock doing, is it moving to the
deck?" he said tightly. He waited a moment.

"No."

He let out a breath, patience
about exhausted with her. “Okay, we really don't want that thing hitting the
deck, it could go through it," he growled. The pilot's eyes widened. She
gulped.

"You didn't say anything
like that!" she said.

He grunted. "I'm going out
to secure it. Make sure the grav plates stay OFF," he ordered. He
unbuckled his harness and got up. He checked his suit readouts on his HUD, and
then cycled the hatch. Outside he toggled his OMS and maneuvered away from the
shuttle, then down. "Okay, looks good, we'll need to secure it with
pitons, then break it down quickly before we get the next one."

He pulled a piton gun out of his
bag. He lined up and fired it in. "What are you doing? The rock is
moving!" the observer reported.