New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (3 page)

"All right, that leaves the
rest of us to get this end off." He looked it over. Proteus enhanced his
vision, pulling up the junction and highlighting it. The copper had melted and
fussed to the outside of the coupler jacket. He sighed. "Okay, stand
back." He motioned them back as he sent mental commands to reconfigure his
arm to a plasma torch. Proteus downgraded his vision.

He heard the gasp behind him, but
ignored it as he went to work. Sparks flew, and then the copper melted and
flowed. "Get a set of gloves; get ready to pull on the other end when I
tell you." He heard scrambling; he hoped they were doing it. After a few
moments he had the entire end ready. "All right pull." He stepped
back as the cable moved, then slowly moved back. He stepped in to torch a few
areas that were still clinging. Copper dripped down and pooled, glowing on the
deck. "Mind that spill, don't step in it." He checked the linkage as
the cable moved out of the way.

"Burned, great," he
sighed. "Nothing is ever easy," he grumbled as he turned.
"You." A woman looked up.

"Me?" She squeaked.

"Yes, you. Get me a new
coupling jack. Grab a work crew and scavenge it fast." She nodded and
rushed off. He cut the old one off, and then checked over the hyperdrive while
he waited.

It was in pretty poor condition,
but serviceable. There were scorch marks here and there; some looked like from
a firefight. He turned to Molly's work crew. They were having a hard time with
the jacket connections. He stepped around the cable and lent a hand. A moment
of work had the cable end attached. The crew was tentative. "I cut power
to this junction." He guessed at their slow actions.

The ship shuddered. He looked up
and motioned to three of the women. “Go back to your duties. Let the bridge know
we should have the hyperdrive up in ten minutes.” They nodded and left at a
jog.

"Molly, Shield status?"
She looked up surprised. "Stern shields are intermittent. Bow shields are
twenty percent," she said immediately.

He nodded. "Can you take a
work crew to check the shields? Be careful of the heat sinks," he ordered.
She grimaced and then nodded.

The woman he had sent to get the
coupler arrived with another woman, walking backward, carrying the bundle. He
grabbed it before it slipped out of their arms and hefted it. The women stepped
back, staring at him. He shrugged. "Thank you, you can return to your
duties." The woman mutely stared at him. He wasn't paying attention; he
had already turned and started splicing in the jack coupling.

He made fast work of the
connections with the welder, and then hefted the end of the cable. "Okay,
here goes." He plugged it in. "Proteus, give me a boot test of the
drive, and cable integrity." A wait prompt appeared in his field of
vision, blinked a moment, then the hyperdrive stats came up. Not good, the best
they could get was the low alpha bands, but enough to get out of here.” He
stepped away from the drive just as a security team arrived. He noticed Molly's
sudden wary look.

 He nodded to her. "Call the
bridge; let them know the hyperdrive is back on line." He had had to raise
his voice over the chaos for her to hear him. When he pointed to the drive the
compartment went quiet for a split second then broke into cheers. He snorted,
they weren't out of the woods just yet. "As you were people, we still have
work to do. Navigation and shields, be ready for hyperdrive slipstream on
command." He turned to Molly. "What next?" Sprite highlighted
the navigational sensors, then the shields.

"We have a water jacket
around the shield heat sinks, but they're saturated," she said. He nodded,
wincing at the idea of using water as a coolant.

They felt a jerk, then the
engines hum slowed and the thrum of the hyperdrive began to quicken in pace.
"Guess we're in hyper," she said. He nodded. She smiled a relieved
smile.

"I'm going to do a quick
overview then settle in to help with the most critical problems. Can you get a
work part to police the old cable and debris?" he asked her. She looked
confused for a moment.

"Police?" she indicated
the guards.

"No, remove the old cable
for recycling," he explained quickly.

She nodded. "What about
them?" She indicated the confused guards.

"What about them? Think I
should put them to work?" he asked as he tapped into the computer. One of
the guards started to protest, but he ignored it. Molly muttered a good luck
and left.

Navigation was pretty primitive,
the sensors were nearly myopic. Much like the lady who had just left, reduced
to primitive contrivances. "Damn, where to start?" he asked himself.
He pulled off an access panel and climbed part of the way in. Cables dangled
around him, some shredded. Sprite and Proteus began highlighting cables to fix.
A few minutes of patching and splicing and he had the lines repaired. Nanites
were great for splicing, melding broken materials quickly and seamlessly.

He felt someone tap his foot, and
then kick it. When he didn't respond he felt hands grab his leg and pull, hard.
Defender pulled his shields up just as a boot stomped down, only softening the
blow to his chest. "Get off, I have work to do!" He knew it was no
use though. He let them cuff him and then heave him to his feet. The
compartment was quiet.

Molly started to protest angry,
but he waved it off with a quick curt shake of his head. The angry guards
turned to look at her, and he knew he was dealing with amateurs. He sighed.
"All right ladies, you now have my undivided attention. Care to tell me why?"
he asked, growling.

They glared. "Captain wants
you."

He stilled. "Okay, lead the
way." He motioned with his captive hands, careful not to break the crude
restraints. Two led, two followed, escorting him around debris filled and dimly
lit corridors to the bridge. He grimaced at the damage, ducking broken wiring,
spars, and wincing at open panels and jury rigged repairs. Grime was
everywhere, the walls, floor, one guard slipped in something, nearly falling.
He stepped around her and followed the others politely.

Sprite indicated they were at the
Captain's ready room. "None of them have augmentation,” Defender reported.
He cocked his head as one of the women pushed the doorbell. His enhanced
hearing could hear the weak scratchy trill through the hatch.

"Come!" A strong voice
called.

Within was an older woman seated
behind a desk and a glaring heavily armed Amazon. The Amazon was wearing peace
officer body armor, cut down to fit her. She had a silver jumpsuit on under the
armor, and blue hair. Over the chest armor she wore a peace officer shoulder
harness with what looked like a stunner on the right side, and a knife on the
left. On her hip was another holster in a western style belt. Defender
highlighted it then did a burst scan. A karat appeared over the holster,
Defender identified it as a neural disruptor, a nasty weapon. Above her right
eye was a civilian grade HUD and vision enhancer. It looked like chrome
jewelry.

 The woman behind the desk looked
old, her wrinkled face full of character. She wore a black robe that covered
her body, complete with a loose hood shaped like a shawl. Her sleeves had gold
arm bands similar to those of the navy. Her eyes were sparkling blue, live with
intelligence and fire. Obviously the Captain.

He snapped too, ignoring the
sudden alertness of his guards. She netted her hands together in front of her,
elbows on the desk. A light was flickering in the corner nook behind him cables
swayed back and forth. Her face twitched and she winced. "Get someone to
fix that before my headache gets any worse," she ordered. One of the
guards looked to the Amazon, then pulled out a comm and turned away to give a
soft command.

"So we have you to thank for
our escape, eh?" The Captain gave him a long look. He cocked his head.

The Amazon seemed to protest, and
then settled into a smoldering glare. "He cut the plasma gun power
coupling. Now we have NO weapons." The Captain cocked an eyebrow.

He shrugged. "Although it is
nice to have weapons, the drive was more important." She gave a small nod,
eyes gleaming. The Amazon gave a slow hiss. "Now that we're in hyper the
crew are free to repair the damage." The Captain nodded again. The hatch
chime sounded, she winced and nodded. A guard leaned over and slapped the
controls. The doors opened and a teenager came in. She looked startled, but
recovered when one of the guards pointed to the light and cables.

"So, what do we do with you
mister stow away?" the captain asked, clearly amused. He gave her a long
look.

"I was in the life
pod." She nodded.

"I checked the pod, it was
empty." The Amazon interrupted.

He gave her a look. "Of
course, I got out of it." The Captain snorted.

"You fixed the hyperdrive
right?" The Captain asked. He nodded.

He had his senses heightened, he
noted the guards were relaxed, but the Amazon was tense. The teenage tech was
about to get electrocuted. "Excuse me for a moment." He flicked his
wrists, snapping the cuffs and turned, moving with blinding speed to the tech
and slapping her hands away from the live power line.

"Touch that and you would
have gotten killed young lady." The guards were slow to react, but they
did after a stunned second, one turned and hit his back with the butt of her
gun. Defender's shields absorbed the blow, and he turned. "Sorry Captain,
but the young lady was in danger of injury." One of the guards tried to
tackle him; he twisted his torso tossing her off. Another tangled around his
legs. A loud slap stopped them all. The Captain was standing, one hand flat on
the desk. Her anger was obvious. Everyone froze. "Leave him alone,"
she said commandingly. The Amazon seemed to protest, but the glare of the
Captain made her sullenly put away her weapon. Sheepishly the others let go.

He shook off their hands then
helped the tech to her feet. "With your permission Captain may I help this
young lady for a moment?" He turned to her. She quirked an eyebrow, then
gave a slow nod. He turned to the girl. She still had her hand in his. He
smiled. "All right young lady, let’s try this again."

With quick words he sketched out
the different cables in the trunk, she excitedly found the right line and he
repaired it. She watched in awe as his arm morphed, fingers turning into a
splicer. He spliced the line for her, and then did a few other broken ones. The
light came on dim, and then brightened to normal radiance. He nodded.
"Okay, remember what I taught you." He pointed out the power line.
"Think you can fix some of the lights in the corridors?" he asked.

She nodded and smiled. “Thanks,
my name is Jordan,” she said softly.

He smiled. “Pleased to meet you
Jordan, my name is  Admiral Irons.” He had been listening to the argument
between the Captain and security Chief and turned to the Captain.

"With your permission
Ma'am?" he asked.

The Captain looked up.
"What?" she was confused.

He indicated the tech. "With
your permission Ma'am Miss Jordan would like to repair the corridor
lighting." The Captain stared for a moment then gave a dismissing wave and
nod.

The teen piled up her tools as he
replaced the cover plate and smiled. "Good luck," she whispered.

He pulled off the cuffs and
handed them to a startled guard then went back to standing at attention. The
Captain waved the Chief off and looked up at him with a smile. "So, you’re
a navy engineer?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes Ma'am,"
that was a safe reply.

"Twelve years ago I salvaged
this ship." She smiled coquettishly He nodded. "I have been using her
as a free trader. Any problem with that?" she asked, but her tone said he
better not have one.

"No Ma'am, the law of
salvage applies," Irons replied.

She nodded. "We were going
to trade you and your pod to the Pyrax stationers so they would heal our Chief
engineer."

The Captain gave a hard look, and
then turned to look out the window. "These are hard times right now son,
we have fallen, so far. So far," she said softly.

He nodded. "Captain, in
exchange for passage to a port of my choice, I will repair your systems the
best I can, and if possible help repair your sickbay." She gave him a long
look, and then gave a triumphant glance to the security Chief.

"And why would you do
that?" she asked lips quirking in a smile.

"I can't help wanting to fix
things Ma'am," he shrugged. "Besides, it beats sitting in a
brig."

She chuckled. "So it does,
so it does. All right young man, you may get to work."

He nodded as he came to
attention. "Thank you Ma'am." He did an about face and left the
compartment. The Chief hastily indicated two of the guards to follow. He could
hear the Captain say that they could still trade him down the road, but this
might be a lucky break. He snorted.

"Where do you think you’re
going?" one of the guards, a tall muscular black haired woman asked. He
stepped around a piece of debris.

"Replicator 1. I might be
able to get it on line," he answered.

She snorted. "Fat chance,
we've tried for 12 years."

He nodded. "Well, let’s just
see here shall we?" He turned a corner and dodged a crew woman.

"If you don't mind my
asking, what's with the outfits?" He indicated the startled woman. He gave
the scantily clad woman a polite nod as they passed.

"What do you mean?" He
turned to the guard on his left.

"Well, you’re not exactly
wearing clothes that fit the job description." He indicated her black
leotard V neck dress with open back and short boots.

She blushed. "Captain traded
for them years ago. They were in a storage warehouse," the other woman
snarled. "They were for a whore house. So what? Clothes are clothes."