New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (37 page)

Molly wasn't sure if she believed
it. "We just need fuel, and materials as the purser pointed out." She
nodded to the purser.

"Well, that's interesting,”
the Captain nodded.

"We could start a shipping
company! An entire fleet of traders!" Shandra said excited. "Does
that mean I could sit in the big chair one day?" she asked eyes bright.

Jennie nodded. "It's
possible," she smiled.

The Captain's eyebrows were
raised. "Well, we’ll have to think this one over," she said, taking
the sting out of her gruff voice with effort.

Molly nodded. "We still have
a lot to do on this ship, so we have plenty of time," she said
diplomatically. She set the tablet down.

The captain nodded. "Yes, on
that note, how are things going in sickbay doctor?"

The doctor looked up from his
tablet. "Hmm? Oh sorry Captain, I was reading a... oh never mind." He
set the tablet down on the table. "I'm about ready to try the first Regen,
we've had plenty of practice since those brawls and engineering have sent us so
many injured lately," he said. He tapped the table with one finger.

Molly blushed. "Yeah, we
took a few hits," she murmured. She rubbed her arm, she had some scars
too.

"A bit too eager eh?"
the Captain chuckled. "All right, go on?" she urged as she turned to
the doctor.

"Yes, well, as I was saying,
since most of our critical equipment is up and running now, we're about ready
to do some regen on the first cryostasis patient. Um, miss Audrey, the burn
victim who was placed in stasis four years ago. She's the least injured of the
group, so should make the transition smoothly," he said and then nodded at
their eager expressions. "Mindy and I've worked out the protocols
involved, and run the simulations. It's harder to do the micro work with the
goggles and waldo gloves then with implants according to the records, but I
think we can do it," he said.

"Good. Go ahead with it. I'd
like to see her next week."

The doctor nodded. "She
should be up and around in that time. We cloned her a replacement leg, it's
about to decant next shift," he reported.

The purser looked startled.
"You can do that?" she demanded.

He nodded. "Now that sickbay
has most of its equipment online, we can do a lot. It just takes time to learn
how to use the equipment," he shrugged. As if time really mattered in
hyper.

"Speaking of equipment and
power, Captain, do we really need everything on?" Kendra the ops officer
waved her report. "We've been using an awful lot of power lately, and the
fuel reserves are getting low. We have enough to get to the next colony, but
after that..." she sighed. "If we run into a pirate there we'll be
screwed."

The Captain grunted. "We're
working on it, you should be okay while we're in hyper, the hyper collection
array is up," Molly interjected.

Kendra nodded. "My point is
we need to start setting some ground rules on equipment use and budget power.
We can't just go willie nillie with power again; it was hard enough to balance
things," she sighed.  “Much as I'd like to, we can't afford it.”

Molly nodded suddenly subdued.
"The replicators suck a lot of power,” Molly admitted with a reluctant
nod.

"So what do you recommend?
You said a power budget?" The purser asked.

"Yes, we should shut down or
hibernate equipment not in use, and cut power to sections not occupied. We
really don't need all the lights on in the cargo bays when no one's
there," she said firmly. She waved the tablet. The purser grimaced.

"Yeah," Vanessa
admitted. She looked down and made a note.

"Okay, so turn the lights
off when we leave a room," the Chief replied and nodded. "What
else?" The ops officer grimaced. "Well, it would be nice if security
limited its force field use to only when we needed it, or when we're diagnosing
problems, turning them on every shift is getting to be a drain. They’re not
doing anything!" she grumbled.

"Oh?" the Captain
asked. The Chief looked away. "Why are you doing that granddaughter?"

Molly looked up, suddenly
incensed. "She's locking the Admiral down, keeping him isolated."

The Captain stared at Molly then
turned to her granddaughter. "Knock it off. I believe he's proven
himself," she growled. She nodded to Molly. "The force fields and
guards will be removed today." She sat back.

"Um, well Captain, if I may,
can you keep the guards?" Molly asked.

The Chief looked surprised.
"Actually, the Admiral likes them, and is training them. They help him
sometimes, and keep people from bothering him when he's working on delicate
things," Molly said. She tapped the tablet.

"Yes, I noticed he wasn't
here again,” the captain said pointedly. The Captain looked at Jennie. "Is
he busy?"

Jennie nodded. "Aye Captain,
he is realigning and repairing the reactor core with the robots and implants.
We didn't want to disturb him," she explained.

The Captain nodded. "Okay,
the guards can stay, but they will now help him not hinder,” she ordered. She
gave her granddaughter a long look.

The Chief sighed. "Very well
Captain." She glared daggers at the ops officer who squirmed a bit.
"So, why's he working on the reactor? Don't we need it now?" the
doctor asked.

"Oh, no, with the shields
repaired we can use hyperspace to suck free electrons, it's all very neat. We
can stand the reactor down to back up and do some repairs on it. All that nasty
sea water has irradiated a lot of the parts," Jennie explained and then
grimaced. "Doc, you may want to brush up on radiation poisoning in case
someone gets exposed when we pull parts," Jennie said. He nodded sobered
by the thought.

"Thanks for the
warning," he shook his head.

"How bad is the
danger?" the Captain asked.

"It depends on the exposure.
If someone like Dorah or Mindy decides to open a crate with irradiated parts,
it would kill them in a minute," Molly replied and shook her head grimly.

The purser whistled. "Why
are we keeping that junk?"she asked. She looked grim.

Molly nodded to Jennie.
"We're going to expel them when we get out of hyper. We built a kicker pod
and it'll send the junk on a sun scuttle," she explained. She shrugged.
"The Admiral is insisting he handle things, he's the only one with
implants and training," she sighed.

"Okay, I want to check him
over after though," the doctor said.

"Fair enough," the
Captain said nodding to Molly.

"He'll be tired when he gets
done, he's been pretty focused," Molly evaded.

"She means he'll probably
eat and crash," Jennie replied looking at Molly.

"How long has he been
in?" The doctor asked suddenly alert.

"Um, this is his fifth
shift," Molly squirmed a little under his intense gaze.

"five shifts in the past
five days?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Oh no,
five in a row. It's normal for him sometimes. He's...” Molly looked at the
clock on the tablet. "He's been in there about thirty four hours
now."

Shandra grimaced. "I wish I
could do that. It must take incredible stamina... You mean he hasn't eaten or
slept?" she asked.

"What about going to the
bathroom?" the purser asked wrinkling her nose.

"No, it's like he's a block;
he's in the minds of the robots... It's kind of hard to explain," Jennie
said with a helpless shrug.

The doctor looked concerned and
got up. "I think I should look him over."

The Captain waved him down.
"In a moment doctor, I think he knows his own limits."

Molly nodded. "His body can
do all sorts of things; even recycle its own waste for a while. He said he'd be
okay." she said and then shrugged. "He wants to get it all done now;
we'll need the core in three days," she grimaced.

The Captain nodded. "All
right, if there isn't any more news, let’s get to work." She floated back
from the table and turned. The group hastily got up.

Trisha looked over the team. Now
that Irons had the reactor sorted out they just had a few minor chores in the
ship to handle. The doc had been true to his word, Audrey was here now with
them. Things were definitely looking up. "Okay, we have a couple broken
fans on deck four, I'm going to chase down the leak on deck five, that leaves a
sticking pump on deck eight and lighting repairs on deck twelve. Any
volunteers?" She looked the group over. None did. They were all veterans
now, they could handle it.

"Okay, Audrey, you being new
and all to the changes, partner up with Shari and hit the fan repair," she
said nodding to the newly released tech. Audrey looked a little bewildered by
all the changes but was settling in nicely. This was her first shift back on
duty since being released from the sickbay this morning.

Trisha uploaded the file to her tablet.
Audrey nodded. "Zara, you get the sticky pump," she said. She tapped
in the assignment. The rest of you get down to deck twelve and get to work on
the lights there," she finished.

A few groaned at that. "Deck
12 is a shit hole,” one muttered.

"So fix it!" Trisha
said exasperated.

"But isn't it haunted?"
one of the girls asked, voice quavering. Audrey snorted.

Jennie leaned over. "We
figured that out, it was a holo projector someone left on," she said.

The girls settled down
immediately. "Oh."

Jennie smiled. "Good
luck." She waited till the teams left. "So life support is all
handled?" she asked.

Trisha gathered her tools up and
nodded. "Yup."

"All right, I'm working on a
network node on deck eleven; I can check in on the deck eight and twelve crews
in a little while and save you the trip."

Trisha nodded. "Thanks. I'll
peek in on the communication's techs on deck four for you," she said
grudgingly.

Jennie grinned. "Glad we
have it all down to a science," she said. Trisha smiled and left.

"Is that tank supposed to be
that clean?" The gardener looked it over.

"Yeah, but before it was
filled with crap, so it was dark,” Trisha looked it over and carefully checked
her readouts. "Okay, no signs of ammonia or other problems," she
said. She sniffed the air.

The Gardener nodded. "So
what's that made out of?" She rapped the tank.

"Hmm, Oh, ah... Carbon I
think. Diamond composite," Trisha replied mind elsewhere. She looked over
the readouts.

"This tank was once used for
visiting water aliens," she said.

"Okay, this isn't the
problem, it must be upstream." She gathered her kit.

"Water aliens?" the
Gardener asked.

"Yeah the engineer said
there were lots of them in the Federation. The last two generations of ships
even had entire biospheres for them, with swim ways and pools so they could
swim through the ship. It must have been like living in an aquarium,"
Trisha said as she shook her head.

"It would freak me out to
see some giant squid thing looking through the glass at me..." she said
with a grimace. She shook her head and shivered.

The gardener looked thoughtful.
"I dunno, hmmm."

Trisha turned on her...
"What?" The gardener smiled, well, you said that tank is for water
creature’s right?"

Trisha nodded warily. "So
what if we bought some fish on Aquarius? Then we could fill it with fish!"
She grabbed her tablet and flicked through the entries.

Trisha edged to the door trying
to make good on the distraction to make her escape. "Yeah, here it is!
Right here! Fish waste is rich in nutrients! Almost as good as having
poultry!" the gardener said triumphantly. The gardener turned her back and
looked up at the tank. "Thanks!" She waved and started examining the
tank.

“Okay then," Trisha said
softly as she made her escape. "Me and my big mouth," she sighed.

"Gymnasium. How can I help
you?" a girl sitting behind the desk watching a holo in the corner said,
not even looking up.

He scowled. "I'd like to
book the dojo for a session." He set his hand on the desk.

She looked up in surprise.
"Oh Admiral!" She looked over the list. "Dojo? You mean the
padded room?" she asked, wrinkling her pert nose. He nodded. "Are you
sure you don't want the weight room or handball court?" she asked
hopefully. He shook his head. "Well, there's a group using the pool, so I
guess it's okay. Just make sure you don't peek if anyone is in the showers. Or
the locker room." She blushed a bright red.

He chuckled. "I don't think
you can wear any of the workout clothes." She waved to the rack of clothes
behind her. He shook his head; bring his free hand up to drop small duffel on
the desk. "I had my own replicated," he said. "I didn't think
you had any for men, or in my size."

She smiled looking the bag over.
"All right Admiral. What about them?" she asked. She looked over his
shoulder to his escort.

He shrugged. "I don't
know," he said. He turned to the women. "Are you ladies going to hold
up a bulkhead or spar?"

They looked at each other
confused. "Spar?" Frie asked finally, thoroughly confused. He nodded.

 "Can you get them their
Gi's?" he asked the clerk.

She looked confused. "What
are they?" she asked.

He sighed. "Work out clothes
for martial arts." Her expression didn't change. "They are white;
they look like a bathrobe or kimono but with pants," he explained.

Her expression cleared. "Oh
those!" She went into the back.

"We don't have much call for
them..." she called from within the storage room. The guard near the desk
had to lean in to catch what she had said; the Admiral just stepped up his
hearing. "What sizes?" she called out.

The guards looked confused.
"Sizes? He asked." He turned to the blond.

"I'm a 9," she called
out.