New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (59 page)

In careful measured steps the
detail lifted then moved the coffins into the airlock. They set them down on
dollies inside then exited. The hatch closed as the last one left. "Now we
give the bodies of our beloved crew mates to space. Some day may the goddess of
space give back our dead," the Captain finished hoarsely and then sat down
heavily in her chair. Wearied beyond measure.

The Chief gave her grandmother a
concerned look then called. "Attention on deck!" Some of the girls
were a bit slow getting to their feet. Tia stood between Jen and Shandra, Eyes
red. She saluted the airlock. The Chief nodded to her. She flicked her hands on
the controls and the exterior hatch opened. The rush of expelling air sent the
coffins tumbling out into space.

"Dismissed," the
Captain said softly.

Jennie grabbed his elbow. He
looked down and nodded. She handed him a glass as she looked him over. He was
wearing full formal uniform, complete with fruit salad and his cover tucked
under his arm. "Dress whites. If only Molly could have seen you now,"
she said and sighed. "You look like a hero from the holo novels," she
said. He shook his head. "Where were you? I didn't see you at the
memorial," she said.

He sighed. "I was in the
back I was the first out when the Captain dismissed us," he replied
quietly. She nodded.

"She's taking it hard,"
Jennie said. She sniffed, turning to wipe a tear. "I'm going to miss
Molly."

He patted her arm awkwardly.
"We all will. It's hard to lose a crew mate, even harder to lose one close
to you."

 Jennie sighed. "So, how did
you manage to get Fara to do the uniform on such short notice?" She waved.
"Complete with medals," she observed. She examined them. "There
are quite a few."

He shrugged. "I didn't
bother Fara. We got the textile replicator working remember?" he asked.
She nodded. "So, I have my measurements on file. I uploaded them and then
let the machine do the work," he explained.

She nodded. "I see. Well,
you look good in it," she said.

He nodded. "Least I could
do, they deserved it, and they were friends." She looked at him for a
moment, and then hugged him. He juggled the drink and laid his cheek on her
hair patting her back. "We'll get through it, one day at a time," he
said softly. Unshed tears made his eyes itchy. He realized Molly had been his
first friend here, and losing her was hard, probably harder then losing the
Federation. He sighed.

She sniffled then broke free.
"Thanks. I better go mingle a little," she said. He nodded. "I'm
here if you need someone to talk too," he murmured. She nodded.

"Are you going through with
it?" He looked up from the tablet he had been reading as the girls in the
corner talked quietly. One was Kess, the other two were also descendants of
gene-sculpts.

"Go through with what?
Oh!" Kess reached up and touched her ears.

"It isn't all that hard. It
only took a day for the doc to fix Sonja here up," the first girl said.
The tall purple haired girl waved to the Asian girl.

 Kess studied her then looked
down. "Maybe. Maybe," She muttered and turned to leave.

"Think it over," one of
the girls said.

He cleared his throat. "Even
in this day and age it isn't easy to feel different," he said. They looked
over to him. "Your ancestors did the sculpting to stand out, or to better
adapt to a planet." He waved to the LCD window of the planet spinning
slowly below. It was a recording of course, they were in hyper. A pair of girls
sitting at a table in front of the window looked up and then back to the view.
"Feeling different is difficult, you feel like you stand out," he
said. One of the girls looked him over.

"Yeah, and you fit in,"
one of the girls said.

He shook his head. "I feel
like an outcast as much as you do. More." He held up his right hand and
sent signals to morph it. "I'm a visitor from the past," he said and
grimaced at their expressions.

"Why does your hand look
normal?" Kess asked.

He looked over to Kess.
"Just because I have implants doesn't mean that I want them to stand out
and mark me as different. It's easier to get things done when people don't get
in the way." He looked his hand over.

"We all want to fit into the
norm in some small way. Some don't. Some like being different, standing out,"
he said and then shrugged. "The bio-sculpts had a purpose beyond adapting,
they made society adapt to them."

One of the girls snorted. "I
can't stand the stares," she said.

He nodded. "Some can't
handle that. Some people are afraid of what's different," he said
grimacing once more.

"It doesn't help that your
ancestors decided to go with a predator theme, it evokes primitive fight or
flight reflexes in many," he said.

One of the girls poked Tena.
"Maybe you should switch to security?" she joked.

Tena grimaced. "No thank
you, a couple days of following orders and I'd want to rip her hair out,"
she growled. No one said whose hair; they all knew who she meant.

Some of the girls chuckled.
"Your eyes can be adjusted, to look totally Terran, or partially,” Irons
said. He pointed to his eye. "Mine are a mix of sculpt and implants."
His eye cycled into low light mode, slitting, then back.

"I think being able to see
in low light is good," Tena said softly. He nodded. "But I could do
without the ears," she grimaced and pulled at her ears.

He chuckled. "Yeah, hearing
someone flushing two decks away does get annoying over time," he replied.
Tena nodded. "If there were more Neos or non-terrans on board you wouldn't
feel as different. Unfortunately you don't, so you don't have that example to
live up to," he said and then shrugged.

Kess sat down across from him.
"What was it like?" she asked. He looked at her."I mean, what
was it like living with so many different species!" She rubbed her hair
over her left ear then put her right forearm across the table and leaned
forward eager. A few of the other patrons leaned forward.

He grunted. "Well, I knew
quite a few different species. You've met a few I understand."

He accessed the galley controls
and dimmed the lights. The holographic system came on and a Telerite was
projected. Some of the girls gasped at the squat mole like alien. "Some
were burrowers and nesters like the Telerites or Nubian wasps," he
explained. A two meter tall spindle wasp was projected next. "I've run
into dozens of species personally, and I can speak many different
languages," he said and then shrugged.

"When I received my first
implants, they included a language implant so I can speak with most of the
known species," he said and then shrugged again. The hologram changed to a
Ssilli, then a Gashg. "Of course some of the aliens weren't so
alien." He pulled up a Terran chimp, gorilla, whale, dolphin, and
orangutan. "Mankind used genetic engineering to uplift some of our cousins
to the stars. Neos. Dolphins," The dolphin swam in a circle.

"Dolphins were one of our
best pilots until the Ssilli were discovered," he said and then shrugged.
"As an Admiral I had to deal with all sorts of species," he grimaced
wryly. "Believe me; sometimes trying to deal with the species protocol was
a royal pain!"

"Tell me about it,"
Sprite muttered. He chuckled.

"Fortunately I had good
people who kept me relatively straight," he smiled to Kess.

"Why thank you
Admiral," Sprite chuckled.

"When I went into stasis
there were over one hundred...” Sprite projected a number onto his HUD.
"Excuse me, one hundred and twenty one different species in the
Federation... and let’s see twelve different versions of mankind not including
the neos," he said and then smiled a little in amusement at their
expressions. The girls were avidly watching him.

"Different kinds of humans?
Like bio-sculpts?" Tena asked. He nodded.

"And heavy worlders, cyborgs
like me but even more changed and different genies," he explained.  Sprite
projected a few of the people of each he had met. He turned away from the holo
with a pang of remorse.

"You miss them," Kess
said. He looked up to her cat eyes. "

A little. Hell, a lot," he
admitted and then sighed.

"Many of the species are now
dust on the wind," he finally said. His face was bleak.

She patted his hand. "I'm
sorry I brought it up." She started to withdraw and he held her hand.

"No, it's not a problem.” He
waved to the hologram. "Lets see if I have my flag commissioning ceremony
on file."

Sprite took the cue and projected
it. He blushed a bit as he watched Vice Admiral Danforth award him the star of
valor and promote him to Admiral. The girls were mesmerized at the tall tree
like alien. "He was really in the navy?" one asked. He nodded as someone
shushed the first.

"Can you turn it up?"
someone asked in the back. Sprite obliged without prompting.
"Thanks," she murmured.

He sighed. "What's
that?" one girl asked and pointed. Someone shushed her.

"Delquir, they were called
fairy people by Terrans. Hollow bones and gossamer wings," he replied.
They watched as the pixie like creature fluttered up to him. "She was the
ambassador of their people; she's thanking me for saving their world." He
shrugged and waved the holo off. Some of the group grumbled at that. He
grimaced.. "Okay okay, I'll put it back on." Sprite returned to
playing the scene. "I'll leave it up," he said. He waved and left.

"Faith's right arm will need
to be replaced from the elbow down. I'm replicating a new one now. Her inner organs
are being replicated now as well. Due to her exposure most of her abdominal
muscles and skin will need to be replaced too," The doctor looked up from
his chart. "So far so good,” he said in his report. He turned as a pale
Keisha came in cradling her over extended tummy.

The woman cradled the baby cooing
softly to it. The Admiral approached tentatively. She looked up and smiled,
then looked down at her baby. "Isn't she darling?" Mindy cooed
softly. "What's her name?"

Keisha looked up and smiled.
"Molly." She rocked the child gently as the Admiral felt his eyes
mist.

"She'll never know her
godmother, but she'll carry her name," Keisha said, sitting back. Tears
welled in her eyes.

Mindy wiped her own eyes, and
then used her hanky to wipe Keisha's. "That's a lovely name. Don't you
agree Admiral?" she asked.

He nodded, patting Keisha's
ankle. "Yes, I think it's a great name. She was a good woman," he
murmured.

Keisha smiled. "I think you
have company."

He turned to see a tech standing
in the doorway. "Take care," he said. He patted her ankle again and
went to see what the tech wanted.

"Keisha had her baby?"
she asked.

He waved her back through the
hatch. "Keep your voice down." The girl craned her neck around the
Admiral, trying to catch a glimpse. He moved to the side so she could get a
better view. "What is it?" she demanded. She looked forlorn.

"A girl,” he replied. She
smiled. "She named her Molly," he told her softly.

The girl looked torn, and then
wiped her eyes. "Yeah." She looked up. "Trish asked me to find
you," she said.

He shook his head. "She
could have paged me."

She shrugged. "I wanted to
see the baby anyway," she said.

He nodded. "Don't keep her
too long, she had a long delivery." The girl looked again, and then
nodded. "I'll just pay my respects," she murmured.

He nodded "I'll be in
engineering."

He went on his way. "That's
nice," Sprite commented, subdued.

"Yes it is," he sighed
as the lift doors closed. "Engineering, deck eight," he ordered. The lift
started.

"I understand it's hard on
you Admiral, you've lost so much," Sprite murmured.

He nodded. "Yeah, Molly was
my first friend in this time," he said. He looked at the polished door,
then away. "Damn," he muttered.

The lift paused at another floor,
the door opened and a crew member squeaked. "I can catch another,"
she said.

He stepped back and to the side.
"By no means, come in," he said. She daintily stepped in.

"Hold the lift!"
someone called. He reached out and palmed the door, making it go back for a
moment. Another crew member came running up, wrestling with a giant Teddy bear.
"It's for Keisha. Sickbay," she said.

He waved. "I just came from
there; you'll have to wait a moment."

She huffed. The other girl cooed
at the Teddy. "Oh isn't she just darling?" she squealed. She petted
the faux fur. "Where did you? The replicator?" she asked.

The crew member nodded. "I
found a way to program it into the replicator, it took forever!" she said
and then rolled her eyes. "It's pretty neat." she smiled smugly.
"I even made another just for Dorah," she giggled. "It's
blue."

He sighed as the two of them went
into the usual gossip chatter. The lift opened and he made his escape.
"Have fun," he waved. They didn't look up as the doors closed.

"Well, glad they’re
learning," he murmured and then shook his head. "Teddy bears?"
He waved to a passing tech. She nodded then returned to studying her tablet.

"Well, at least she learned
how to do it, and did it without help." Sprite answered.

 He nodded. "Yeah, good to
know." He entered engineering and looked around as the guards caught up to
him.

Trisha looked up from her
console. "Over here Admiral," she said. He stepped around a cart load
of parts and over to her console. "I've been working on the roster, moving
things around. I'm still in charge of life support, but Jennie wants a shift
leader for first shift," she said and then grimaced. "I don't know
any of their skill levels, and neither does she," she replied.