New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (15 page)

He snorted. "Hardly, I was
working on the bridge and we were discussing various subjects. How rank works
on a ship was one of the ones brought up," he explained with a shrug.

She glared. "So you admit
you're undermining my authority!" She had her hand on the butt of her pistol.
He tried to throttle his temper.

"No Ma'am, I did not,"
he said cooly. The Chief's lip quivered in a snarl.

"It's true Ma'am," a
voice behind him said. He looked over to the guard. She looked down. "He
discussed the history of the ship, and how the Federation military was set up.
That's all." Jennie, who was looking away, caught the Chief's eyes and
nodded confirmation. He cocked an eye at her.

"If you'll excuse us, we
have work to complete," Irons said. She didn't get out of the way, so he
turned to the side and stepped around her. He could feel the heat of her breath
as he passed.

"Admiral are you almost finished?"
He heard the exasperated voice but ignored it as he finished his weld. Unlike
old traditional welders his built in welder used nanites and a plasma toroid to
heat and meld the material together.

"Proteus, you have it?"

"Of course Admiral." He
felt Proteus take over control of his arm.

He looked over his left shoulder.
"I will be done in a few minutes. Why?" He felt the fatigue, he knew
he needed rest.

 Hopefully there wasn't another
problem. "I was wondering when you would get some rest," the girl
said, clearly irritated.

He sighed. "After this is
finished I promise," he said. The woman nodded. Proteus finished the weld
and pulled his arm back. "It looks good." He checked the thermal and
ultrasonic read. Proteus blinked a green light on his HUD. "Yup, we're
good to go here." He turned to the women.

One of them was holding his
duffel. "After you ladies."

One gave him a dirty look but the
other, Tara nodded. "Lead the way Delphi." The girl gave her a look,
and then complied. They went down the corridors to the lift. "Don't tell
me the brig again, there are guest quarters you know," he sighed.

"No, you broke the door
remember? The Chief has somewhere more...secure in mind."

He turned and gave Delphi a look.
She returned it with a challenging gaze. He sighed. "Okay." The lift
ended with a jerk. "Gotta fix that," he sighed.

"Later Admiral," Tara
said as she patted his arm. Delphi's nostril's flared as she passed him with an
elbow in the ribs.

"This way," the other
woman said coldly. They followed. Delphi led them to an airlock. "In
here." He looked. On the floor was his bedroll and blanket.

"I don't think so," he
said. He reached in and grabbed the roll and blanket and tossed it out.
"No, I draw the line at airlocks." He gave Delphi a look.

"She said here," she
said stubbornly.

He shrugged. "Fine." He
kicked the roll against the bulkhead, and then wearily knelt.

"What are you doing?"
Tara asked.

"She did say here," he
replied. He rolled the bed roll out, duffel to the bulkhead then laid down. He
flipped the blanket over his side. "Night ladies."

They moved off whispering to one
another. "We can't let him sleep there, what was she thinking?"
Delphi asked.

"Do you honestly expect him
to sleep in the airlock?" Tara responded.

"Hey, I don't want to get in
trouble if she finds out he didn't sleep in there." Delphi responded.
"Well, we'll just have to live with it." Tara sighed. "I for one
am leaving him alone, he deserves it. I'd offer him my bunk, but it's on deck
six," she sighed and looked over to him. "Let him sleep."

The Admiral had his eyes closed.
"The lights are almost out in this section anyway. You take that end, I'll
take this one," Tara urged. She nodded her chin to the other end.

Delphi snarled then turned.
"Fine." She managed to kick the Admiral as she stepped over him.
"Oh, sorry," she said snidely. He sighed.

"Quite all right, you
apparently can't walk," he said. She turned but Tara snapped her fingers
and pointed. The woman punched a wall plate then went to the bend in the
corridor.

"The ship is looking so much
better already!" the girl sent to wake him practically bounced as he
looked over to her. He sighed. Too damn early in the morning to put up with
chipper crap. Especially without caffeine. He eyed the girl then stretched.
Despite the nanites he was a little sore, he must have slept wrong. He rubbed
his shoulder and felt Proteus release endorphins and a muscle relaxant.

"And you are?" he
asked. He gave the girl a long look wishing she would go away.

"I'm Leesa; I wanted to
thank you for doing such a good job. But why are you sleeping on the corridor
floor?" she asked. She waved to his bedroll.

He sighed, and then got an idea.
"Well, the Chief said there are no available rooms, so I have to sleep
where I can," he said as if explaining. He shrugged. One of the guards
blushed. The two had been changed out in the night.

Lessa frowned. "Oh! That's
not right; we have a lot of empty quarters! You’re doing so much for us, the
least we could do is give you a bed to sleep on!" The girl's eyebrows knit
together in thought.

He sighed a little theatrically.
"Tell that to the Captain."

The girl's expression cleared
then she smiled. "I will!" she said firmly. He looked up a little
alarmed. "I'll just go do that right now!" She rushed off. He reached
up, sighed, and then put his hand down shaking his head. He gathered that would
be an interesting interview. He gathered up his gear.

"Admiral, you should know
the airlock you were supposed to sleep in cycled in the night." He froze
at Sprite's report then finished folding the bedding.

 "Okay. Not good," he
said. He finished with the blanket and rolled the bedroll up.

"Why don’t I do some
snooping, I think from now on I need to keep a better eye on things,"
Defender cut in.

He nodded. "Good idea. Get
on it," he sub vocalized. "Sprite, why don't you see if the Chief can
have a few accidents?"

He tossed the blanket on top of
the roll then picked the bundle up. "Permanent ones I should think?"
she asked a little to hopefully.

He sighed. "No, just nasty
ones. Nothing with permanent injuries," he said suggestively. He nodded to
the lead guard. "Ladies. Time to get cleaned up.” He shouldered the duffel
and pointed to the nearby head. The guard nodded. He stepped into the head and turned
on the light.

His eyes watered at the smell.
"Gah!" He looked over to the overflowing toilet. Not good.
"Okay, I can hold it." He ran the water in the sink, wrinkling his
nose at the smell.

"Admiral, she is about to
take a shower, should I play with the controls?" Sprite asked.

He smiled wickedly. "Yes,
but not until she is in. Scald her medium rare." Sprite's icon blinked in
acknowledgment. "I think her gravity plates should malfunction as
well," the AI reported.

"Don't get carried
away."

He sighed as he washed his hands
and splashed water on his face. "Don't drink it," Proteus reported.

"I wasn't even dreaming of
it. Gray water...Hell nasty water." He shut the tap off and pulled a towel
out. "Is there another head working? I'll have to get cleaned up before
hitting the galley." He knew his implants would handle his waste,
recycling it quite a few times, but eventually he would have to purge to make
room for new.

“The head near the galley, bow
side is working according to sensors," Sprite reported. "Ah good,
scalded and floating naked and wet," She sounded satisfied. "Now for
a stuck door," He sighed. He should have known better then to have turned
Sprite's malicious side loose. "And let’s turn out the lights..." she
said as she snickered.

He shook his head. "Never
let an AI do revenge." He tossed the towel into the bag.

"Oops, she has
claustrophobia...Oh boy, she's a screamer," Sprite reported a moment
later. He grunted "Someone's at the hatch, yup, manual bypass initiated,
she's in." Her head came up on the HUD. "Wanna see?" she asked.
He shook his head.

After a visit to the other head
and galley he went to work. The girl Jennie, and other be-speckled girl, Molly,
the acting Chief engineer followed him around for a bit. "The security
Chief is on her way...and boy is she in a snit," Sprite reported fifteen
minutes into their shift.

"Defenses on line,"
Defender reported. He could feel the tingle and slight vibration as the shield
emitters spun up to strength.

"What the hell happened
today?" she said as the hatch opened.

"What do you mean?"
Molly asked nervously, adjusting her glasses. The Admiral finished his check of
the logs and then busied himself with the nearby patched control run.
"What do I mean? I mean my quarters! The water, the gravity, the hatch,
the lights?" she snarled slamming her hand on the console. Molly shivered.

"Accidents happen," the
Admiral murmured.

"What? What did you
say?" the Chief snarled. He looked up. Her face was blotchy with red marks
that extended down her neck. Her hair was a mess.

"I said, accidents happen,
like oh, let’s say airlocks cycling," he said firmly. He locked his gaze
to hers.

"Don't try me," she
snarled.

"Personally, I don't like
accidents and malfunctions. That is why we are working on fixing things,"
he said simply. He kept his gaze locked to hers. "Of course, some
accidents are a bit...more dangerous than others," he said locking eyes
with the chief. Molly and Jennie were gaping at the two of them.

"Yes Miss Chief, we need to
get back to work. We need to get as many repairs done as possible," Molly
managed to recover and insert herself between them. He broke off.

"Yes, good point." He
looked over the log.

The Chief snarled. "This
isn't over."

As she turned and left. "Did
she really try to kill you?" Jennie asked shaken.

"Yes," He replied.

"Did you do that? All that
stuff?" Jennie leaned over to him and asked more softly.

He chuckled. "Oh, I wouldn't
do a thing like that would I?" he smiled evilly. She shook her head and
giggled.

"Admiral Can you show me how
to fix the brig?" Tara asked him. He turned.

"Sure. Get a parts list of
what needs replacing, and we can replicate the parts then swap them out. I
would start with the hinges, bars, and force field emitters,” he suggested as
he smiled. She grimaced. He shook his head at her expression.

"Okay, let’s start with the
obvious." He keyed in the hinges and emitters. "Okay, they're on the
list. Um...down a ways though I am afraid, they aren't priorities," he
said.

She sighed. "The Chief wants
it right away."

He shook his head. "I can
get the hinges, but the emitters are a bit of a stretch, too many competing
priorities." He went through the menu and bumped it up. “Okay, the hinges
and lock will be ready in an hour."

She nodded. "I asked Jen to
get someone to cut out the old and patch in the new." He looked up then
keyed in the video feed for the brig on the console. "How did you do
that?" she asked as he smiled. "Military secret." They watched
as a pair of girls used a plasma torch to cut off the old torn hinges.

"Okay, looks like they're
doing fine," he said and then grunted as a girl squealed. "Oops,
spoke to soon." The girl slapped at her arm where a spark had landed. Her
outfit smoldered. She was crying. He tapped the communications channel and
typed in sickbay.

"Sickbay, is someone
sick?" the nurse Mindy asked.

"There's a burn victim
coming your way, girl who was hit with a spark."

There was a pause. "Who is
this?"

Tara leaned over his shoulder.
"Never mind that Mindy, get the first aid kit out and get ready." She
looked at the video feed as the two girls left the brig. "It doesn't take
two of them to get to sickbay," she muttered, shaking her head.

He came in to the galley for an
evening meal and stopped in the hatch as the sound of music washed over him. It
was coming from a darkened corner. His enhanced sight easily made out the girl
sitting on a stool strumming an ancient plastic guitar. The instrument was
battered, cracked, but still in tune. He nodded to her and went to the replicator.

The girl finished the set and
then took a sip of water. She wrung her hands out and looked over the audience
as they clapped. Hastily he set his fork down and clapped as well. "More
Miley more!" She smiled softly.

"She's good huh?" His
table mate leaned over to him. He nodded.

"I'm glad some things
survived," he said simply. He nodded to the girl and smiled. She blushed.
Jennie came into the galley dressed in a red kimono. "Tea." She
waited as the machine finished the cup and went dark. Carefully she took the
cup out and took a sip. She looked over to Miley and nodded.

Her eyes roved over the audience
and then locked onto the Admiral. She smiled and came over. "Moonlighting
Admiral?" she asked. He chuckled.

"Just taking a break."

Her smile widened. "And here
I thought the rumors of you being all robot were true," her smile took the
sting out of that. He was sensitive to cracks about his implants sometimes.

"Nope, some of me feels like
rubber. Doing the fine motor control work really takes it out of you." She
nodded as she sat down next to him.

"Let me guess, I get to
sleep in the cargo bay? Aren't you scared I'll steal everything?" he
demanded. He looked exasperated.

The chief smiled.
"Try."

He shook his head. "No, my
family has never turned jack. I'm not about to start." He waved.
"Lead on Brunhilda."

She gave him a cool look. They
marched down the corridors to a cargo hatch. "In here." The hatch
door opened and he looked in. his night vision kicked in since the lights were
off.