Chronicles of Athena Lee (14 page)

“Nut's” I said. “This hole can't be fixed by us. Let me think. Help get the cover off this panel.” We had to pry the cover off in places where it had melted.

I looked at some of the undamaged circuits and thought of something. Many years ago when I had built my station I had a similar problem. “Jacobs and Ellery, crawl back through to the boat bay. I need as much of the conduit that we brought as you can get. Unroll it down to here. Contact the XO and see if he can get another shuttle or pinnace over to this ship. I have an idea.” The two crew took off. Time to get to work.

Jacobs returned a short while later with Commander Wang in tow. The commander waved off my salute. “Lieutenant, what do you have?” He saw the large hole. “Can you fix it?”

Shaking my head I replied “No, sir. But I can make something else work instead. Are we able to get another shuttle over here?”

He was watching me carefully. “Our captain sent one of the pinnaces, it should be here in twenty minutes. Why do you need it?”

Crewman Itoi and I had been stripping out the connectors to life support. The panel controlled all the small oxygen generators and carbon filters around the ship. It has fail safes but with that hole....Well, you know.

“What I intend to do is run conduit from here to the boat bay. We will connect the emergency life support pods and the ships themselves to the conduit. Our ships will power life support over here.”

“I have never heard of doing that, will it work? I don't want to damage those ships.” He had raised both of his eyebrows in surprise.

“Sir, it will work. I have done this before, sort of. We really don't have a choice. Life support is at” looking at the readout, “less than 8% and falling.”

“If it damages the ship's, I will hold you responsible. Do it.” He moved out of the way and let us work.

Ellery was almost to us, so I sent Jacobs to help her. We connected the conduit to the panel and rewired the system around the hole. Giving the three team members careful instructions, I sent them back to the boat bay to hook up the ships.

I had forgotten that Commander Wang was in the room, jumping when he spoke. “Why did you send your team instead of going yourself?”

I let out a breath. “What we are doing can be dangerous. I have done this before and trust myself more to do it right.” I glanced at the commander. “This engineering crew is very poorly trained, is that normal?”

“What do you mean, poorly trained?” He was scowling now.

“They show zero initiative, are somewhat ignorant of standard procedures and how things work. They know how to do their own jobs, but ask something else and they get lost.”

“I don't think that is a training issue. Commander Arthur likes his crew to follow his orders to the letter.” He was thinking now.

“We are engineers and free thinkers all. Innovation and creativity are our stock- in-trade.” The panel started to hum. Gauges and lights came on. The readings showed life support coming back on. I shut down those areas such as engineering that had known fires or hull breaches.

“There you go commander, life support restored. For now.”

Chapter 7

I headed for engineering, leaving crewman Itoi to monitor life support. We had to get the fires out and engineering under control. Traveling by access tube again we headed aft. Smoke and ash were billowing down the tube. It was getting too thick to see.

“Jacobs, Ellery, it’s getting too hot, we need to take the next starboard hatch up ahead.”

They both signaled that they received me. Through the smoke I could see a port side hatchway. Trying the hatch we found it unlocked. As soon as we exited the tube I saw that we were in the firefighting bunker room. Thank the space gods! I could see racks of bunker gear and air tanks on the walls.

“The engineering compartment is very close. Our suits can handle the heat from a fire only up to 1200 degrees. If the heat warnings go off on your suit, get out! This is the bunker room. Suit up. Make sure your air tank is full and if possible grab an extra. With that I suited up too.

We opened the compartment door and went out into a smoke filled corridor. Engineering was to starboard. Movement and flames could be seen through the door.

One of the Happy's crew saw us and ran over. “Are we glad to see you!”

I had to yell to be heard, “ What is the progress with the fire? Have you gotten it under control?”

“Um, that's your job. We have been spraying water on the fire but nothing seems to work. With you here we will get our people to safety.” He took off grabbing the other crew members.

Civilians! Damn it this is going to be rough. The main room of engineering was somewhat clear of debris. Hot smoke was rolling above the deck.

“We need to get the decks in here cooled down. All this hot smoke could cause a flash over and we will never get it under control. Activate the foam systems, if you can, in all compartments. Jacobs grab those fire hoses they were using and soak down everything as we move forward. We need at least an inch on all the decks to cool them down.” Following my instruction the crewman grabbed a fire hose. I told Ellery to go back to the fire room and get as many foam sprayers as she could find. Checking the readouts on the consoles, I could see that all of engineering was engulfed. So far there was no sign of Midshipman Bartleby and his team. I hope that they didn't get trapped.

Ellery returned with the sprayers. I motioned her closer so I didn't have to yell. “We need to start a boundary system here. That door”, pointing to the engine access door, “needs to be closed or anything we do is for naught.”

With Jacobs spraying us, we got to the door and manually closed it.

“Spray the door to help cool this side, then follow us. The hatch is designed to be fire-proof. It should hold for a little while. This room is now the warm zone. If you get overwhelmed this room is our last line of defense.” They followed me as I entered the rooms surrounding the engine spaces.

The first room was easy. The foam system had done it’s job here.

“This is the start of our boundary. This room can reignite at anytime. Keep a close eye on all cable accesses or portals. Jacobs soak it all down.” I heard yelling, it was coming from behind me. Looking back I saw Bartleby and his crew. Maybe there is a space god.

“Ma'am, we got trapped by the fire. When the suppression system kicked on we were able to get out.” All three of them looked tired.

“That main room is the warm zone, we need to keep it that way. Station one crewman in it to spray the walls and hatches with water. Send another back up the access tubes to the XO. Tell them we need firefighting help if possible. Then come with us, we have established a boundary and we need to keep it.” He turned and gave orders.

We might have a chance here if we can just get on top of it. Now we could open the next door. Smoke billowed out. The room was engulfed in flame. This was the plasma control room and the start of this mess. Using the hand held sprayers we began pushing the fire back. I spotted the cut off valve for the plasma array. A War Shot had penetrated the bulkhead and punched a hole through the automatic system. The manual controls looked intact.

I yelled at Midshipman Bartleby. “Get over here! You look stronger than me, try pumping this lever. These old systems work, they just need more muscle than I have!” The hydraulic pump was working. The plasma fire in this room was going out.

Jacobs was at his hoses end, so I sent him back to the warm zone to help out. This room was open to space so regular fires were not a problem anyway. The hatch to the engine room was melted, welding it shut. The metal bulkhead had actually buckled with the heat. We needed to backtrack.

Sealing the pressure doors behind us, we entered the main room.

“Ellery, switch with Jacobs. Jacobs I need for you to go and relieve crewman Itoi back in life support. Have him report here. Everyone else take five.” I bent over the main control panels looking at the damage. If we could repair it we might be able to stop the engine fire. “Bartleby, when you have rested take a look at this controller and see if you and your team can fix it.”

I was getting tired. The tube hatch slid open and one of my people stepped out, followed by the XO and several marines. Finally, some help.

“Status Lieutenant?” he said. My team must have been a sight in our flame and heat scorched suits.

“Using the ’box method’, we have established a boundary zone around the fire. This room is our warm zone. The port compartment has been cleared. The plasma control room is open to space and plasma is controlled. Pressure doors are closed to keep in life support. My team is taking a short break then we are moving on to the starboard side.”

“Rest a moment lieutenant. Your team has worked wonders so far.” I thanked him and leaned against the console.

“Commander, if we can get the engine vents open we can put the fire out. If we can repair the controls here then we can open them.”

“Say you can't, what then.” he asked.

“Two options then, sir. Have someone EVA and open them manually from the outside is one option. The other is to abandon ship sir.”

“Abandon, no we can't do that just yet. We still need answers. Fix the controls. I have marines and am not afraid to use them. If we have to, they can get that vent open for you.”

We didn't need the marines. My team did their jobs the right way.

Chapter 8

By the god’s I was tired. Fighting that fire took over six hours of my life that I can’t get back. Rather than returning to the boat bay I decided to stay here in engineering. Midshipman Bartleby, and two crewmen were dismantling the engine control circuits. While we were here it was both a teaching experience and a repair moment. We had closed the engine vents and restored life support to the engine room. The engine itself was a total loss. Maybe someone could use it for parts, but it was pretty crispy. The Happy actually had two backup generators, one that had to have been on the Apollo missions it was so old. I had not even seen one like it at Sam’s before. The other was brand new. The new generator had the words ‘
Property of EOS Oneders
” stenciled on its base. Now that we had comms back with our ship I told Wilson to run a search on that name.

I was staring at a circuit diagram when the hatch opened and the shouting began.

“LEE, WHAT IN THE COCKAMANIE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY SHIPS!” Commander Arthur was here. His face inflamed and scowling he resumed his tirade against me. “YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR AN ENGINEER WHAT SORT OF JERRY-RIGGED-CRAP HAVE YOU DONE NOW!”

I calmly replied to the commander. “Sir, those connections were needed to…” He never let me finish. He began to berate me. “No excuses Lee! What is this I hear about Ensign Porter? You will drop those charges now. You are the worst officer and engineer I have ever seen. Sergeant?” A small squad of marines came forward. “Arrest this good-for-nothing..Officer.” The marines approached me and roughly grabbed my arms, putting handcuffs on me.

“BELAY THAT ORDER!”

The XO, Commander Wang strode into the room. “What is the meaning of this!” Wang demanded.

The marine sergeant was the first to answer. “Sir, we were to arrest Lieutenant Lee on the orders of Chief Engineer Arthur.”

“On what charges?” The XO asked.

Turning to Commander Arthur the XO smiled and said, “so you finally decided to come over here and take the credit. How many officers did you bring with you?” Commander Arthur had a shocked look on his face. “Sergeant, how many officers did this man bring with him?”

The Marine seeing the writing on the wall answered quickly. “Sir, he brought all but two of his officers.”

“Where did he leave them? I don’t see them here.”

“Sir, two officers took control of the life support system. Another two started dismantling something in the boat bay. The last two should be around here somewhere, sir.”

“Well sergeant, release the lieutenant and go round up those missing officers please. Including the ones in life support. Bring them all to the boat bay. The final two are already entertaining some of your brethren. Thank you sergeant.” The sergeant and his men hurried out of engineering.

“So Commander Arthur what to do with you. Why don’t you come with me please.” The XO motioned to the door.

“Sir, she needs to be dealt with because of the mess she made of the shuttle and pinnace alone! We may need a shipyard to repair what she did. She shouldn’t even be an engineer.”