New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (60 page)

He nodded. "Well, in the
interim, I can cover it," he offered.

She nodded. "Yeah, but you
have that class in the morning, and another in the afternoon. It seems all
you’re doing is teaching lately," she accused.

He smiled. "Yeah, I miss
getting my hands dirty." He shrugged. "The ship is pretty much up to
spec now, we just have routine maintenance and a few repairs on the list
left."

She nodded. "That's true,
and I hear Faith is up next for surgery." She smiled but looked nervous.

"What's the matter? Worried
about her?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, and I was
a bit worried about what she'll think of all this, and losing Molly."

He nodded. Jennie came up behind
him. "Figure anything out?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I was
telling Trish, I can handle the watch, but she pointed out I have a couple
classes," he said.

Jennie nodded. "Yeah."
She waved a tablet. "I narrowed it down to three." she said.

He caught the tablet as she
tossed it to him. "Hmmm... Well, we can have them fill in while I'm in
class, sort of a trial run," he suggested. She nodded.

"Each of them in turn?"
she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, that'll
give us a chance to evaluate their leadership skills, he said."

 Jennie sat down. "Hmm...
Yeah, I forgot that. I was looking for people with the technical chops,"
she said. She sat back in the chair and picked up a screw driver. She tapped it
in her hand.

"Yeah... getting some of the
techs to move in the morning is a royal pain," she admitted after a long
moment of thinking. She shook her head. "One of the reasons I switched
shifts with Molly." Her eyes were clouded.

"Um Jennie? You’re
talking..." Trisha looked concerned.

"What oh?" She looked
up confused. "Sorry," she sighed. "Well, we can try it."

The Admiral nodded. "Okay,
that leaves a hole in their teams though, what about Keisha as a fill in?"
Trisha asked. "Oh wait, she just had the baby," she said and then
grimaced. "How long until she's back on her feet?" she asked Jennie.

Jennie spread her hands apart.
"I have no idea," she said. She looked over to the Admiral. So did
Trisha.

"I um... I don't know, but
usually there was a one month leave period post birth in the navy," he
replied. He shook his head. "It's up to the doc, and Keisha I guess,"
he said.

Trisha nodded. "Yeah."

Jennie frowned. "I heard
Keisha is looking at taking the open ops shift too," she said with a
frown.

Trisha looked up alarmed.
"Well!" She squirmed a little, tapping at her tablet, frowning.

"It's not disloyal you
know." The Admiral sat back. "She's bettering herself. Let it
go."

Trisha nodded but didn't look up.
"She'll still be on the ship, and involved in engineering. At least for
now, if the Captain has you building another ship..." he said and then
shrugged.

"Build another ship?"
Jennie asked in disbelief. "After we just finished fixing this one?"
Consternation warred with disbelief on each of the women's faces.

He smiled. "The Captain is
considering it." He crossed his arms. Jennie did as well.

"Well if she wants us to do
it after all the work we did...” she growled. She shook her head. He smiled.

"Not up for the
challenge?" he teased. She glared.

Trisha sighed. "Oh not the
challenge, just the sheer drudgery..." she said. He chuckled. Jennie's
eyes gleamed.

"Think of it this way, you
get the chance to build a ship from the keel out, the first people to do it
since the fall of civilization?" he said suggestively.

Jennie's eyes began to gleam.
"And the more ships we build... who knows, I might be a Chief
engineer!" Jennie said with a gloating grin.

Trisha looked up alarmed.
"Hey now, don't be promoting me to your spot!" She fended off the
motion with both hands.

The Admiral chuckled. "With
this ship you can build a fleet, who knows Trish; you could be a Captain
someday," he teased.

Trisha looked alarmed then
amused. "Me in the Captain's chair? Not bloody likely!" She chuckled.
"Besides, that's a long ways off. Let’s focus on the here and now,"
she said. She waved to the tablet. "So which of our three do we start
first?" she demanded. He chuckled at her downplay.

“Admiral, thanks for the new
guitar,” Miley leaned over his chair and kissed him on the cheek. He blushed.

“No problem,” he mumbled. She
smiled as she walked around his chair and to her usual seat. She tuned the
guitar then began to strum it lightly.

“This is nice,” Jen commented, shifting
Tia a little.

 “For you maybe, I have the end
that bites,” Shandra mock grumbled.

Tia looked up from her place in
Shandra's lap and smiled. “So Admiral, has your family always been in space?”
Tia asked.

Bonny sat down across next to him
and took a sip. “You’re Admiral Irons?” she asked.

He nodded. “Of the Iron family?”
she demanded.

He chuckled. “Guilty.”

She shook her head looking a
little bemused. “Yes Tia, he's a born and bred spacer.” She shook her head
wonderingly.

“How do you know?” Jen asked,
curious. She looked to the nurse, then back to the Admiral. “If that doesn't
bother you,” she said.

He grunted. “No, it's okay. Yes
it bothers me a little, but it's part of history now.”

“You see, my first ancestors in
space were the Mario brothers,” he explained. He was met with blank looks.
“They were named after famous characters in video games,” he said.

“Mario and Luigi Irons,” Bonny
said and nodded. “The first on Mars.” She sat back triumphant.

Irons nodded. “Well, Mario was on
the first team, but not the first. I understand it was a team effort,” he
chuckled. “Luigi was ground control; he was crippled in a vehicle accident,” he
sighed. “His brother took his place.”

“So they went to Mars?” Tia
asked.

He nodded. “First team of humans
on another planet. Like Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969.” Her eyes were
wide. “Oh.”

He smiled. “They didn't have a
tenth of what we had, they flew on liquid fueled rockets, and landed with
thrusters and parachutes,” he said.

Deidra came over and chuckled.
“The good old days of flight. I heard about that. I checked your historical
database, some of that is hard to believe.” She looked over to the other women.
“Imagine riding on a rocket, filled with explosives that can go off at the
slightest spark,” she said and then shook her head. He chuckled at the
expressions around the room.

“Anyway, Mario and his team
secretly built a base on Mars, much to the consternation of the politicians in
power at the time,” he said. 

Jen chuckled. “Did an end run
around them?” she asked.

He smiled. “Well, they were a few
million miles away.” Shandra chuckled. “He ended up extending his tour, and
eventually  had a child on Mars since he was married to one of the scientists.
They had the second child born on another world, Jonathan.”

Tia looked amazed. “Is that why
you’re named Jon?” she asked.

He shook his head and chuckled.
“No, I'm named after another guy in history, not an ancestor. John Henry Irons,
mythical iron man of the railroad,” he said.

Tia's eyes were wide. “Come on squirt,
time for bed,” Shandra hefted her up and to her shoulder, then got up. “Good
goddess your heavy! Too much beans and brustle sprouts!” she mock growled,
tickling the squirming bundle. Tia giggled. She waved goodbye to everyone as
Jen followed them out.

He handed the tablet to Jennie.
"So, out of the three, who do you think can handle first shift until Faith
is out of the doctor's clutches?" he asked. Each of the three had been in
charge of their shift for three days, now it was time to get the decision over
with.

Jennie looked up and over the
tablet. "I'm not sure, let me check with Molly." She froze then her
face falls into sadness.

He sighed feeling a pang of
remorse. "I wish we could," he said softly. She patted his arm.

"I... I mean." He pulled
her to his chest. She sobbed. "I miss her so much!" she cried.

He sighed. "Me too, me
too."

Trisha came in, took in the scene
and nodded. “I just finished the repairs on the port side," she said
softly, handing the Admiral a tablet. Jennie's sobs softened then stopped. She
squeezed him once more, and then separated, wiping her eyes. Trisha handed her
a hanky. She mumbled thanks.

"Doctor to Jennie and
engineering?" They looked up to the overhead. The voice sounded tired but
elated.

"Go ahead doc. What can we
do for you?" Jennie said, wiping her eyes.

"I wanted to let you know,
we finished the last surgery with Faith, she's out of cryo and resting
comfortably," the doctor said softly.

The Admiral smiled. "That's
good news doc. When can she have visitors?" Irons asked as the girls
around her broke into smiles and cheers. He looked up anticipating a response.

"Not for a shift or
two," they could hear exhaustion dripping in his voice.

"Sounds like you need it
more than the patient. Good work doc, get some rest," Irons said.

The doctor's tone changed.
"Giving medical advice without a doctor's permission?" they could
hear the smile in his tired voice from the tone. Jennie giggled a watery
giggle.

Trisha smiled. "I think you
could use it doc, you sound like you just tried to chase the Admiral around for
a round the clock bender," she said making a face. They all chuckled at
this.

The Admiral spread his hands
apart and tried to scowl, but couldn't hold it. "What can I say?"

She smiled. "Nothing if you
know what's good for you."

The doctor chuckled. "All
right, I'll get some rest since we have a good staff here now,” he said.
"Good night doc, and thanks," Jennie said, looking up.

"Admiral I was wondering
about something..." Jennie asked him as they examined the ship's status.
He nodded to Jennie. "I was wondering about the replicator. You said in
class that replicators lock out weapons and other restricted things," she
said. He nodded warily. He could tell where this was going.

"Not good," Sprite
said.

"How did we make the guns
and grenades?" Jennie asked. She looked at him. He thought about dodging
the question then sighed.

"Well, as a military officer
I have some keys that unlock some restricted tech," he said.

She nodded. "Oh." She
looked over to the others some distance away. "I thought so. And you want
to keep that a secret right?" she asked. She looked at him with innocent
eyes.

He sighed. "Yes. You hit the
nail right on the head," he replied. He turned and checked the status of
the drive.

"Thanks for trusting
me," she said. He looked over to her. She smiled.

"If the Captain keeps to the
previous circuits the ship has traveled in the past, we should be making port
in the Pyrax system," Sprite pulled up a star chart and projected the
ship's circuit in red. "We have one agrarian colony Gaston, then
Pyrax,"

He studied the graphic.
"What do we have on Pyrax, anything current?" he asked. He vaguely
remembered the system, it had once had a thriving space industry, and he had
passed through it in a brief lay over.

"Accessing. Got it,
according to the Purser's journal, the system has a series of small space
colonies and one mining station," Sprite reported. Text scrolled in a
small window on his HUD. "The habitable planets were destroyed in the war,
only a few small mining colonies and the mining station survived. The government
is city state. The ship makes port at the central station. The commander is a
port Admiral. According to this he's very corrupt and vile."

Sprite highlighted the indicated
text for a moment then began scrolling again. "Other ships make port in the
system, and from the records the Captain has identified a dozen derelict ships
for possible salvage," she said.

He grunted. "Not bad. What
about the station?"

He watched as she scrolled the
log. "It's big, with over fifteen thousand people on it. Self sustaining
hydroponics, limited industry. They can make parts; apparently they trade crude
components to passing ships for goods. They also charge a substantial port
fee," Sprite's head shook. "It seems the Purser isn't happy about the
exorbitant price of docking," she said dryly. He chuckled.

"That looks like a good
place to get off," he said. He nodded as Sprite closed the text window.

"May I ask why
Admiral?" her virtual face looked expectantly at him.

"Because it's a crossroads.
We also may get some materials there, and it looks like it's serving as a seed
to restart civilization. Let’s see if we can jump start it a little," he
replied.

The head nodded. "But we're
doing that here right?" she asked. He shrugged.

"Call it itchy feet, call it
self preservation. Eventually the Captain or Chief are going to think we've
outgrown our usefulness and try something we'll all regret," he replied.

Sprite nodded. "Good point.
I accessed the ship's roster, there's an entry that Rodriguez boarded there,
and she may have relations you can use as contacts," she said. He nodded.

"So, how long are you going
to keep him around to make him suffer?" the Admiral asked the Captain as
she watched Bart's latest tantrum.

"I dunno, he's a handful,
but entertaining."

He chuckled. "Well, every
court does need a jester," he said.

She turned and looked up to him
with twinkling eyes and a small smile. "There is that." She gave a
regal nod then returned to watching Bart and the guards. He was on the floor on
his knees, wailing.

"Still, having what, two
guards watch him every shift is a bit of a waste of man...excuse me, woman
power," the admiral said. The Captain gave an um hum grunt.