New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (43 page)

"Damn traitor!" Several
of the women called.

"Traitor?"
"Who?" Trisha and Jennie asked confused.

"Never mind them, let’s get
out of here," Molly replied, grabbing them by the arms and pulling them
back around the bend.

“Admiral, trace amounts of
alcohol detected,” Proteus reported.

“Great, boozed up and in a foul
mood,” one of the guards commented. She had apparently gotten a good whiff of
someone.

“Like being downwind of a
brewery,” The Admiral commented.

"Admiral, come on,"
Molly tugged on his arm.

He shook his head.
"Defender."

"Shields are already up and
on standby," the AI reported.

He nodded. "Access the net,
turn on the security fields."

He looked over to the knee
knocker. "I can't Admiral, they're down," Defender reported as the
emitters glowed, then faded.

"Okay, guess it's time to
play roadblock." He stepped around the guard to the crowd. "Ladies, I
believe you were given an order to disperse. To leave. Time you followed
it," he growled as he eyed the group.

"We're not leaving till that
lying bitch gets hers!" one in the lead pointed to the new recruit.

The Admiral waved her down.
"Softly." He looked over his shoulder to see the recruit had stopped
struggling.

The purser got up, then punched
her in the gut. "You bitch!"

The guards hesitated. "Okay,
not good," Sprite commented.

"Why? Because I want to better
myself?" the recruit gasped, struggling once more.

The guard turned her, placing
herself between the purser and the restrained woman. "Knock it off!"
she bellowed.

"I don't want to toss cargo
the rest of my life, how is that wrong!" the girl shrieked.

"It's not," the Admiral
replied.

"The hell it isn't!"
the loud mouth said lip curled.

"Admiral, I detect a great
deal of alcohol on her breath," Sprite reported.

"Great." He stepped
forward. "All right, let’s all calm down," he said, trying to project
control. He waved to the group.

The girl turned, then snarled and
took a swing. With automatic reflexes he blocked the blow, slapping it aside
into the air. A quick rabbit punch to her diaphragm left her gasping on the
deck. He stood in the standard horse stance, and glared at the crowd. "You
were asked nicely to leave; now you can do so, or join your friends," he
growled.

The women at the back of the
crowd looked up as a whistle sounded. In ones and twos the crowd melted away.
He straightened and nodded to the approaching guards. "Ladies," he
said. He turned to see the purser still trying to get at the recruit. "I
think someone needs to restrain her."

He stepped aside to watch two
women step in and pin the purser to the deck. "Do you know who you’re dealing
with!" the purser shrieked. "I'll have you all spaced for this!"
she cried, muffled sobs started as the guard locked her hands behind her back.
"Damn you! Damn you!" the purser writhed, trying to kick.

"That is quiet enough!"
a hoarse voice snarled. The Admiral looked up to see the Captain float around
the corner. Jennie and Molly followed tentatively.

"I told you to knock it off.
You never did know when to quit," the captain said, eyes cold. The purser
deflated. "I think it's high time you take some time to cool off in the
drunk tank," she growled. She nodded to the guards as they picked the
purser and loud mouth up. The Captain nodded.

The Chief came in. "What's
the problem here?" she demanded. She looked around.

"Late granddaughter,"
the captain said. She shook her head. The Chief was wet, and hastily dressed.

"Caught you in the
pool?" the Captain asked amused. Her granddaughter nodded, never looking
away from the restrained pair.

“What happened?" she asked.

"It seems the purser and a
group of drunken followers didn't like some of the ladies switching
specialties, they decided to hunt a few down and change their minds the hard
way," the lead guard shook her head.

"And your part in
this?" the Chief turned rounding on the engineer.

"Crowd control,” he answered
and shrugged.

She nodded gruffly. "All
right, I'll buy that." Her eyes returned to the purser.

Vanessa writhed and spat, a
bloody tooth landed on the new recruit's coverall. "Dumb bitch didn't know
a good thing when she had it."

The Captain shook her head sadly.
"Vanessa Vanessa..." She sighed after a long moment. "We'll talk
about this when you’re sober." She nodded to the Chief. "They're all
yours," she said floating backwards.

The Chief indicated the recruit
as the purser struggled. "What about her?" she asked.

The Captain stopped. "What
about her? She was involved, take her statement, and then we'll put her before
the Captain's mast tomorrow with the rest. She was a victim, but we still have
to have an investigation," she said. She nodded to the recruit. She nodded
back.

“Put her in her quarters though,
with a guard," the captain said.

The Chief nodded. "Good
idea." She looked the drunks over.

A pair of guards came up hustling
another pair of drunks. "Caught these two running," one said. The
Chief nodded. "Put them in with the rest, we'll sort them out later,"
she growled and then  nodded to the others.

"Was it too much for her to
thank you?" Molly muttered stepping up beside him as the guards left.
"Apparently so." Jennie answered. "Well, that was exciting!
Let’s get back to work, shall we?"

They filed in to the wardroom
later the next morning and sat down heavily. The purser was hand dog, quiet and
sullen. Her face was bruised. Obviously the recruit, Anita Vandrsosovich got in
some punches of her own. "This sucks,"she snarled. She sat down and
impatiently held out her hand to the steward.

"Well, hurry up!" The
steward rushed forward, nearly slopping her drink. She handed the woman the cup
then another to the Chief.

The door opened and the Captain
hovered into the room. "Good morning all," she said politely and
nodded. "I see we're getting a start on our caffeine, some of us old folks
need it." She nodded politely as she pulled up to the table and the steward
set a cup of tea down in front of her.

Another maid set coffee cups down
in front of the other officers and an urn of coffee. The Captain took a
delicate sip, and then set the cup down. "So, we've had an interesting
day!" She looked over to the purser who muttered.

 "Something to say
Vanessa?" she asked, syrupy sweet, but with an underlying hint of steel.

"I am, I mean, Captain, it
isn't right for them to poach my best people!" she said, finally deciding
to just go for it. She slapped the table and glared at the engineering
contingent.

"Is that so?" the
Captain asked and then took another sip. "It seems to me they're all MY
people." She sat back, setting the cup down and stirring it gently.

"Captain, what's next,
recruit the maids?" Vanessa waved to the women in maids uniforms huddled
behind the Captain.

 "And why not?" the
voice of the Admiral cut through her rant. "They can learn like anyone
else, and may be tired of their daily routine."

 She turned on him. “This is all
your fault!" she lashed out at the new target in front of her.

He eyed her for a moment.
"Guilty."

She sat back eyes wide.
"Guilty of wanting people to learn, to give them the opportunity to better
themselves," he said. He waved to them. "The stewards for example may
have untapped potential. Behind that daily drudgery may lurk a Beethoven, or a
navigator like Perez, or a gifted negotiator." He waved to the startled
stewards who blushed. "Give them a chance, they may surprise you," he
added, and then sat back.

"What them?" the moral
officer looked them over with contempt. "All their good for is
drudgery." She shook her head. One of the girls was about to protest but
the Captain's steward restrained her with a hand on her arm.

"You were about to say
something Kasey?" the Captain asked. She turned to the girl.

"Yes Captain. I came aboard
hoping for a better life. I spent my life on a farm, cooking, cleaning, and
making beds. I wanted something more that's why I'm here, why we're all
here," she said, unsure of how to say it. She waved to indicate the
compartment. "I want to see the galaxy, and do more than just make beds
and serve food," she sighed.

The Captain nodded. "Perhaps
it's time we did let you grow a little," she said gently. She looked at
Vanessa, then the moral officer. "Perhaps it is time you were given a
chance to spread your wings," she said, voice firming. She nodded to the
Admiral. "

Thank you Captain," the girl
said, sighing softly and trying to hide her tears.

The Captain turned. "There's
no shame in tears child, and no shame in doing what you've been doing, or
wanting to do more," she nodded to the Admiral. "I forgot that. It
seems we all did." She looked Vanessa and the hunching moral officer over.
"If we had decided that all we could do was what we were told to, we would
never had gotten on this ship and started this journey," she said with a
small smile.

Vanessa looked thoughtful.
"But what can you do?" She turned to the girl.

"I can learn," she
said. She stood shoulders straight with quiet pride. "I've been learning
to read, and I'm learning math. I took the basic first aid course, and I want
to learn more," she said in quiet pride. Vanessa stared at her mouth open.
"I want to learn how to be a pilot," she finally said, eyes shining
with hope.

She looked the engineer in the
eye who nodded. "The Admiral let me use a piloting simulator, I'm still
not very good, but I'm getting better," she admitted.

The pilot looked up. "Which
one? Shuttle sim thirteen or alpha flight?"

The girl squirmed. "Shuttle
flight, but I also tried the ship simulator too," she admitted. She looked
at the Admiral helplessly.

He smiled and nodded in approval.
"Good." She looked relieved.

 The Captain nodded. "All
right, you’re relieved." The girl started to object.

The Captain held up her wrinkled
hand palm out. "No Kasey, you’re going to be in the pilot's program with
Hibiki and the others," she said firmly. She nodded to her long faced
steward. "I want you to make us proud." The girl rushed to the
Captain and hugged her, sobbing. "There there child," the Captain
said softly, patting her head.

"I will! I WILL! I'll make
you proud!" the girl said, over and over.

 The Chief nodded. "See that
you do." She nodded to her grandmother.

"I want you to run a
simulation now. Save the game so we can review it," the pilot ordered.

The girl looked up, dashed her
tears with her hand then nodded. "Yes ma'am." She rushed from the
compartment without a backwards glance.

"Well, that was interesting,
nothing like drama on this ship," the Captain shook her head, taking a sip
of her tea. "Blast it's cold," she muttered. The steward was already
at her side, and took the cup. She handed her another. "Thank you
Charlie," she said, smiling to the middle aged woman. She nodded politely
to the officers. The Chief sat back with an amused look. "So, since that's
settled, let’s move on, how's engineering?" she asked turning to Molly.
They made the usual round of reports, and then broke to return to their duties.

Molly entered the engineering
compartment and looked around in tired satisfaction. The engineers had been
working all out, some working double shifts. Their time in port had been a
magnificent time; so many changes had been rout! Now that they were in the A
note of Beta, she both relished and dreaded the next challenge. She waved to
Jennie and the Admiral as she approached. Jennie smiled and turned, then turned
back to hand her a steaming cup.

"Coffee?" Jennie
offered.

Molly's eyes lit in appreciation.
She took a sip. "Coffee!" She smiled her thanks.

"So, what's on the agenda
today? Overhaul the reactor? What about the antimatter reactor, don't we need
fuel for it?" Molly asked cradling the cup.

The Admiral studied Molly and
shook his head. She had probably six hours of sleep; the girls were killing
themselves trying to keep up with him. He took a breath. "No, we don't
have antimatter, so there's no point working on that system." He shrugged
it off.

"Why not? Can't we make
some?" Jennie asked.

He shook his head. "There
were four ways to make antimatter. Each of them were basically the same, with
just the means of energy to power the particle accelerators that differed.
Giant solar arrays around a star, plasma tap of a star, fusion generators, or a
hyperspace station called a quantum tap."

He sat back and picked up his
coffee. "Obviously, all those methods are out," he said.

Jennie grimaced.
"Okay." She looked down at her tablet. "What about our reactor
then? Or the structural repairs on the bow? You said we need more internal
bracing around that breach," she said.

He nodded. "Yes, but I've
done what I can with the reactor, the rest will have to wait until we can shut
it down in real space again."

He studied Jennie. Her eyes were
bloodshot. She held onto the cup like her life depended on it. He came to a decision.
"No, we need to do a bit of fine tuning with the current systems, work out
the bugs and catch up on the routine maintenance we've let slide during our
last all out effort," he said. He tapped his tablet and uploaded a list.

Trisha looked at hers. "Okay,
I see here, yeah, fans, that leak on deck four, filters, broken heater coil,
this is all minor stuff!" she said in disgust.

He nodded. "Minor stuff has
a way of causing problems, or hiding major problems. Deferred maintenance is a
problem and a bad habit."