New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (17 page)

"What are you doing?"
Tara asked. He smiled.

"Venting." He waited a
moment. "Okay, they should be dead now." He tapped the controls.
"I am putting it on a ten minute delay, and then it will restore the
air," he said. He tapped out the command then hefted the duffels.
"Time for the head," he said. He nodded to the girls.

"Don't like rats I take
it?" Frie asked amused. He smiled and looked at her over his shoulder.

"I don't know of anyone who
does. It was the insects that bugged me the most though."

Frie looked alarmed.
"Insects?" She stopped and turned to look back at the hatch, then
down. Something skittered past her. She jumped and stomped.

Tara stomped as well. "Got
it," she growled. She shook her blond mane. "Damn bugs. We get them
every time," she sighed. He tapped at the door.

"I'm
in
here!" a
girl called from the other side.

"Okay," he replied. He
looked around.

"Wanna try a different
one?" Tara suggested. He shook his head.

"There are five on this deck
in good order... or should I say, good odor," he said.

Tara smiled. "Yeah, but
you're fixing that right?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes, but it's
slow going, I need to get a class going to teach the life support staff."
A girl came out of the head. She gaped at the Admiral. "Thanks. Only be a
moment." He stepped in.

The clatter of metal hitting the
deck made him look up in alarm. Jennie whirled then growled. "You startled
me! Don't be so clumsy!"

Molly was bending over to pick up
the hull plate. "Well, don't leave stuff where people walk! Why is this
here anyway! You know we like things neat!" Jennie started to retort and
the Admiral waved.

"For you're info, I put it
there," he interjected. Both women looked at him. "It's a cross
section of the hull; I want to show the class."

Molly looked it over with
interest. "What's all this pitting?" She fingered the pits and
engraved sections.

"Micro meteor impacts when
the ship was a derelict," the admiral replied absently.

She brought the panel up to look
through a hole. "That isn't good," she observed. He nodded.

"The inner layers caught the
rest when the first was breached," he explained. She set the plate down
and looked at the sandwich of stacked materials.

"This is a cross section of
our hull?" she asked, examining it closely.

"Yes it is," he said.

She nodded. "Thought
so." She hummed for a moment.

"Why does it have
gaps?" she asked after a moment. He nodded.

"Those are to dissipate
kinetic energy. A projectile hits the first layer of armor..." He pointed
to the plate, “And if it breaches the composite layer it then goes into that
void. The void allows the object to spread out, absorbing some of the impact
over a greater area," he explained. She nodded.

"What about these
layers..." she started to ask. He nodded as her voice trailed off.
"Well, the layer with the fine mesh is the inner super conductive layer.
That's what protects the ship and crew from radiation when the shields are
down." She looked up and blinked owlishly at him.

"So that's why we don't get
fried?" she asked. He nodded.

"The layer of fine pipes is
a coolant layer. It balances the temperature on the hull and also keeps it from
flexing." She nodded. "Some of the layers are carbon composite, some
are old school Kevlar. There are also some ceramic layers. The outermost is
metal of course," he explained. She rapped her knuckles on the metal
plate. "Of course," he smiled. "Armor plate is a bit
different," he said.

She nodded. "Why paint?"
she asked looking him in the eye.

"Why not?" he asked.
She looked confused as he threw the question back at her.

"On a planet paint is used
to protect against the elements." Trisha said, looking things over as she
wiped her hands on a rag.

He nodded. "Same deal here.
It adds a layer of radiation protection, thermal protection, and other
things."

 She nodded. "Oh, on
warships it does other things, like dissipate sensor energy and other
things," she said absently. She waved a dismissive hand.

 "Someone's been doing their
homework," Trisha teased. Molly blushed. "Good for you!" Trisha
patted her arm. "Wish I had the knack, all I can stand is life
support." She waved and left the room.

Jennie palmed the door control
then reeled back at the blast of sound. "Only yooouuuuu tell me..."
She wrinkled her nose and covered her ears.

"Shut that noise off!"

The nurse looked up annoyed.
"It's not noise! That's classical music!" Jennie reached over and
flipped the volume down to off.

"It's noise!" Jennie
retorted. “And if you want the equipment fixed, it stays off.”

The nurse sniffed. "Some
people have no taste in the fine arts!" she turned with a huff and left.
Jennie watched her leave. "I was thinkin the same thing," she
observed dryly. The Admiral chuckled.

The Captain came into her
quarters and noticed the group of women all gathered around the door to her
head. "Now what's going on here? What are you doing in my quarters?"
She was annoyed, expecting some quiet time. The girls looked back guiltily,
making a hole where she could just see the engineer kneeling near the toilet.

"Oh, sorry Captain, we were
just showing the class some plumbing." He fiddled with a pipe and murmured
to someone the Captain couldn't quite see.

"Eh?" she grunted. The
girls smiled tentatively.

 "Well, I am glad their
busy, since they are always getting into mischief," she huffed. She gave
the girls a jaundice eye. Some of them giggled.

"We should be finished here
in a few minutes Captain." He bent down behind the toilet.

"All right, I will be in my
wardroom," she sniffed and pushed the controls to turn her chair. The
girls were excited about these classes. Her granddaughter had mentioned them,
but at the time she hadn't known they were so popular. Of course it may have
been because he was a mythical hero, or just because he was a male. Hopefully
he was discreet; she didn't need the headache of jealous girls.

She turned to give him a look.
Trisha handed him a rag as he sat up. "All right ladies, that should be
about it. I turned the water back on while I was under there, so the tank will
fill. Trisha if you will do the honors?" The girl blushed but leaned over
and pushed the flush. The water gushed loudly. "Now we check for a leak
around the bottom." He pointed. The girls looked.

 "Nope, none, I don't see
any," the nearest girls said in unison. Some of the others leaned in to
take a peek.

"Now, we log the
repair..." He pulled out a tablet and went through the motions. "And
now we move on to the next job." He got up and motioned the girls out. He
nodded to the Captain who had paused in the doorway to the wardroom.

She turned and gave him a small
smile. After they left she floated over and took a look. She flushed the
toilet, and then turned as it swooshed and looked into the shower. It was
clean, with brand new fixtures. "Nice," she murmured. She tried the
controls and then turned the water spray off.

He noticed a trio of giggling
girls carrying sets of goggles. "What are you doing with those?" he
pointed.

The trio stopped and looked at
the goggles. "Oh, Jedzia found them in the computer, they're virtual
reality goggles," one of the girls answered.

"Now we can see stuff in
3D!" another said, and then giggled.

He nodded. "Okay."

One of the girls waved the goggles.
"We can even access the ship's net, so we can check out your lectures in
3D," she said. She wrinkled her nose. "It is a lot easier then
reading it on a tablet." He nodded. "Good point. Just be careful,
they can give you a headache if you use them too long, and make you sick if you
come out of virtual too fast," he cautioned. They looked at the goggles
with apprehension. He hid a small smile. "Just use good judgment."

One of the girls looked over to
the others. "We will, or at least I will, I'm not sure about them..."
The other two looked offended for a moment, and then the trio fell into
bickering as they left. He grimaced wryly, shaking his head.

He was lying on his stomach,
carefully placing the last emitter. "Okay, that should about do it."
He tapped the controls.

Jennie watched. "That never
gets old," she said. She grinned at the blue light.

Molly nodded. "Yeah, seeing
things working again..." she sighed. "Okay, my part is done here
too." She sat up and pulled her communicator out of her pocket. "This
is Molly, we're ready here," she said. She looked at the wiring job.

"Rerouting power now,"
Trisha in engineering said. The module came to life. In a moment the emitter
began to glow softly, and then they felt vertigo before it stabilized.
"Emitter is initialized; we have a good balance... Yes. Nice power curve,
leveling off now," Trisha reported from engineering.

Faintly the Admiral could hear
something sparking. "What's that?" he asked, suddenly concerned. He
turned Sprite was in the net, Defender couldn't pinpoint the source. "It's
not from here...” he said.

"What? What isn't
here?" Molly looked up. "Sounds..."

"Admiral! Fire detected in
electrical compartment 2c behind you, get out of there!" Sprite came in to
his consciousness.

"Great. Electrical
fire," he said, looking around. He turned to the source.

"Get out of there,"
Sprite urged.

Molly scrambled just as the panel
edges smoked. In seconds smoke billowed out the top edge. The flicker of flames
could be seen through the vents. "Crap. Not good," Irons muttered.
"Where's the nearest extinguisher?" he asked looking around.

"There isn't one on this
deck, get out of there!" Sprite replied.

He pulled Molly away from
approaching the panel. "No don’t, get back." The panel popped open as
an alarm began to eep. The guards were coughing. Cindy staggered down the
corridor. "Get everyone back, alert the bridge." He waved to the
guards. They stumbled. One tried to pull her com out. "Not here!"
Smoke billowed out into the corridor, in moments it was too hard to see.

He waved to a side door. The
emergency door down where Cindy had stumbled slammed shut. "No, this
way," he said as he waved to Jennie. She stumbled and fell. He grabbed her
arm and pulled her into a fireman's carry.

Molly coughed. "We can't
see!" She grabbed his arm.

"Hang onto each other, form
a chain!" His thermal vision came up. Sprite laid out the deck plan as
well. “Okay, we have four meters to safety, just keep it together," he
urged. He carried them into the compartment. He set Jennie down as Molly and
the guards stumbled in. One of the guards had a breather. She buddy breathed
with the other.

"What happened?" Molly
coughed. Jennie shook her head; she was coughing too much to respond. "In
here," Irons said. The Admiral grabbed each of them and moved them into a
side room. He turned the air up. "It seems we had an accident. An
electrical fire broke out in a compartment." Molly coughed.

Mindy arrived, wearing a gas mask
and carrying another. "Gee this tank is heavy!" she moaned. The
Admiral took the extra mask and put it on Molly.

"Take a few breaths,"
he urged. She did. After the third one he placed the mask up to Jennie. She
tried to fend it off but he was insistent. "Breath. Again. Now
again." After her third breath he switched back to Molly. "Keep going
back and forth with the masks Mindy." He exited the compartment.

"Wait don't you need
one?" She asked as the door shut.

"With Proteus?" he
muttered. "Got it covered Admiral; scavengers are removing the carbon monoxide
and dioxide at fifty three percent efficiency. I recommend staying away from
higher concentrations however," Proteus reported.

He nodded. "Good to
know." His eyes cycled into thermal vision once more. Sprite placed a
karat onto a fallen crew member. Gently he grabbed an arm and dragged her to
the side compartment.

"Here's another," a
girl said. Someone tapped at his elbow.

A guard held out a mask. He waved
it off, then down to the girls. "Help them, they need it." The guard
coughed eyes puffy and watering. "Make sure the doc checks you both
out." He nodded to Frie, who was lying against the bulkhead, cradling the
gas mask against her face. He turned and exited. "Okay. Sitrep?"

Sprite karated the burning
electrical compartment. "Some flammables in the compartment and frayed or
shorted wires. The life support system to this deck has been contained but is
overloaded. We need to get that fire out," she said. He grunted.

"Yeah, we need foam."
He looked over the area.

"Admiral, there isn't
any," Sprite replied after a moment. He grunted again, this time in
annoyance at himself.

"Oops."

Sprite's head came up. "Oops
is right."

His lip curled. "It's not
like you thought of it either,” he growled.

She blinked. "Rebuke accepted.
Sorry Admiral." He went over to the fire. One of the crew was trying to
drag a hose. "No, not water!" He yelled. He waved it away.

"Pull everyone out of the
section," he ordered. She looked at him. "Go!" He grabbed her
arm and yanked her. "Sprite...”

"Already working on it
Admiral, clearing the deck now. I suggest you leave,” she said.

He nodded and coughed.
"Yeah, good idea," he coughed. He pulled back to the room.

"Corridor is cleared, door
sealed,” Sprite said.

He checked the readouts. "Do
it." He watched the life support readings on the other side suddenly begin
to fall.

"What are you doing?"
Molly coughed.

"The only thing we can,
cutting off the air supply of the fire," he said. He waited until the O2
levels were near zero. "Sprite?" he asked softly.