New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (24 page)

"I hear you had a...
stimulating evening..." the Chief said maliciously.

He scowled a bit then shrugged.
"It was entertaining. I don't like taking a night off though, and I hate
to dress up." He hefted a broken motherboard. "I guess I'm a born
techie at heart," he said. She sniffed and shook her head. "Glad it's
over," He said finally.

"Well, I hear that you’re up
for another one next week..."

He looked up startled. "Next
week??!?" His voice rose an octave.

She chuckled maliciously. "I
think not," he growled after a moment.

"Want me to crash the moral
officer's net?" Sprite asked helpfully. He nodded. "Done. And the
purser's too," she said with a grin. He smiled.

 The Chief waved. "Have f
un
...
Admiral," she had to lay that snide barb in as a departing shot.

He shook his head, letting it
wash off. "Call coming in, guess who?" Sprite asked.

He chuckled. "No bets. Put
it through," he said. The moral officer's nasally whine started in right
away.

"Admiral, I seem to be
having trouble with my computer..." The purser cut in as well with a
similar complaint.

"Ladies please! I'm very
busy; we have a lot scheduled over the next month until breakout. Now, I will
schedule your repairs for... a week from now." He hid a smile from the
nearby techs at their screech of indignation.

"A week!!" The purser
almost shrieked.

"Well, since I had to take
time from my busy schedule for that date you arranged, I've fallen behind on
other duties, so it's going to take time to get things sorted out...and since
neither of your systems are a priority, they can wait," he left an edge to
that last bit. He waited as he heard them breath.

"Fine," the purser
snarled.

"I'll talk to the Captain;
maybe we can get alternate space..." The moral officer said.

"Oh, no, sorry, maybe a
minimum site, but storage space is limited now, we are in hyper and the
computers need all their resources to stay on course... you don't want us
hitting anything right?" he asked. They both exclaimed no.

He smiled. "Well then
ladies, I'll see you in a week," he said.

Sprite cut the connection.
"Think they'll figure it out?"

He shrugged. "Don't know,
don't care." He pulled a panel. "It should keep them out of my hair
for a little while though..." he said as he started tracing control runs.

"So, what build are you
on?" he asked as he checked Sprite's status report.

"four point three as you
well know. This current mess will probably make me spawn a new patch and
reincarnation soon," she sighed. "Just what I need." Sprite was
a smart AI, but her limited space meant she actually dreaded evolving. He
chuckled. "I've had to clone some of my code for the ship's AI and network.
I'm not a code slicer though; I don't have your organics imagination. I will
put up a report for you to view," she said all business. An icon blinked
in his mail queue.

He nodded. "Okay."

"Got any ideas on how to pay
back the purser and moral officer for the date from Hades?" Sprite asked.

He chuckled. "Oh yes, in
fact I do, all this water has given me some ideas..." he chuckled evilly.
Sprite's virtual image blinked. "I detest your wicked ways... let’s hear
it!" she smirked.

So did he...”Well I was thinking
dunk tank..."

"So, since the crew is in
such a need of a moral building effort, I thought it best that we have a bit of
a fair, with the two of you serving in the dunk tank," he said as he laid
out his plan to the staff.

The moral officer and purser
blinked. "A fair sounds good...wait, dunk tank? Out of the question!"
the purser said.

He smiled. "You do owe me
remember?" he dropped his voice into a purr. They blinked again.

"But but...” Vanessa
sputtered.

His smile became wicked.
"And of course the Captain has already approved it. In fact she will be
the first one to throw a ball..."

The moral officer visibly
deflated. "Great. Just great," she muttered then glared. "I
suppose you think this is revenge?" she demanded.

He smiled and spread his hands
apart. "Well, idle hands do make for a devil's playground...or so I hear.
Since you two are so hell bent on managing my schedule and trying to turn me
into a gigolo, I thought I would...extract a penance," he smiled.

The purser glared but couldn't
hold it as his cool commanding gaze fell on her. "You have to pay for your
pleasures," he said reminding her. She flinched. Capitalism was her stock
in trade. "I'll let you know the details later," he said. He waved as
he left the compartment.

"That was evil," Tara
said behind him.

 He looked over his shoulder and
smiled. "You think?" She chuckled softly. "Paybacks a
bitch..." he said softly.

"Hi, uh doc, can we get
implants too?" The doctor looked up startled at the girls flocking around
him in his office.

Jennie came in behind them.
"What'd I miss?" she asked, noting the taboo.

“Why would you want implants?
Wouldn't they hurt?" Mindy asked, bouncing up and leaning over to stare
into Trish's eyes.

Trish shrugged. "I don't
know that, but they seem to help the Admiral do a lot." She looked over to
her two companions who nodded. "I think... I mean..." She shrugged
helplessly.

The doctor shook his head. “Even
if I could, I wouldn't cut off perfectly healthy limbs,” he said firmly.

The girls looked crestfallen.
“Thanks for the honest answer,” Jen replied, ushering the girls out.

“Hey there's a problem with power
on deck three,” a tech reported. The girl looked up and glared at the ops
officer. She didn't look up.

“What seems to be the problem?”
the Captain asked.

“Someone didn't balance the loads
right,” Nexi reported, making a significant emphasis on someone.

The Captain cocked an eyebrow,
and then turned to the ops officer. “Kendra?” Kendra didn't respond. The com
officer reached over and slapped her shoulder.

“Ow! What!” she growled and
looked over irritably. “What do you want?” she glared.

The comm officer looked over her
counter to the display. “Instant messaging and mail?” the comm officer asked.
Kendra glared.

The Captain cleared her throat.
“Kendra. What is going on with the power?” The girl looked down and then
grimaced. She checked and gasped.

“Oh sorry,” she said chastened.

The Captain sighed. “All right,
new rule, no checking your mail or messaging on duty unless it's duty related.”
The girls turned and looked at the Captain. Several made motions to protest.
She gripped her armrests and leaned forward. “Is that clear?” she put vitriol
in that last statement. The girls nodded hastily and returned to work.

“Way to go Kendra,” someone
hissed.

"I still don't see why you
haven't fixed the weapons," the Chief snarled.

He gave her a look. "I
can't. You’re a civilian ship remember?"

She shrugged. "So? What does
that have to do with it?" He sighed patiently.

"I can't give civilians
weapons or classified technology, it's against the law," he explained. He
turned to the open panel and leaned in, clipping leads to the wiring inside. He
heard her say something, but waited to come out. "What was that?" he
asked politely.

"I said, there is no law,
the Federation is dead," she was smug when she said it, almost calculating
the hurt it would inflict he thought.

He gave her a cool look.
"The Federation is not dead, not so long as I live," he said softly.

He could hear the dance music
down the corridor. One of the guards looked nonplussed; another interested, but
then sighed. "I'm on duty damn it," she muttered under her breath.

He shook his head. "I have
to fix the head over here and it's tight quarters. I would suggest one of you
stand outside, it's going to be a while though," he said and waved.

The girls looked at each other.
The girl who wanted to check out the party gave the other an imploring look.
The other sighed. "Go."

She turned and put her back to
the wall by the head hatch. The Admiral flicked the occupied sign on, and then
entered as he heard the girl's "YES!" and quick steps away.

He chuckled. "Admiral, is
that wise? To encourage dereliction of duty?" Sprite asked.

He shrugged. "They're
civilians. Besides, the less audience, the better," he replied. He looked
the room over, and then set in to work.

He finished early, but instead of
coming out he sat on the toilet seat and accessed the ship's net via his
wireless LAN. "So, how are things going? His first act was to check the
ship's status. Even though he wasn't in charge some habits were hard to break.
He had no intentions to break that one of course. "Everything is going
well Admiral, I have recompiled the deck one systems and I have them defragging
their idle systems now," Sprite reported.

She projected a network map on
his HUD. There were dozens of geometric shapes, each interconnected with lines
of various colors. He knew from previous experience blackened nodes and lines
were lines out of contact or dead. Nearly half the net was still down; it was a
testament to the crew and the designers of the ship that it could still fly.

"You, yes you!" a
familiar voice snarled. He turned to see the purser striding up to him. She was
scowling. "Did you have to take all of it?" she demanded. He caught a
glint of teeth out of the corner of his eye; one of the guards was smiling.
"Sure, take the shipment meant for the Senka colony, it isn't like we are
going back there with that pirate around, but you took all the metal ore
stockpiled!" she flung her hands up in the air, waving them around.

"Now we don't have anything
to trade for!" she said. She waved at the tablet with the back of her
hand. "Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to get goods to
trade?" He cocked his head.

"Well, you..."

"I'm not finished!" She
stomped her foot then ran her free hand through her hair. She took a deep breath.
"Look, I know these repairs are nice, but we need goods to trade too!
We're a trader get it?" He cocked his head.

"You finished?" he
asked when she wound down. Her eyes glittered. He held up a restraining hand.

"No, you spoke your piece,
my turn," that last part came out stern. Her eyes widened slightly.
"You're right, we have been taking a lot of the ore, and most of the
damaged or ruined parts on board. BUT," he held up a hand as she began to
swell. "BUT we are about to replace it with asteroid ore," he said,
letting that bombshell drop. It had it's intended effect of course. She let out
her breath in a gush, eyes suddenly gleaming.

"Also, we... meaning
you," he bowed and motioned to her with his left hand. "Can offer
replicator services to the colony when we get there. We can make parts for
them, charging them for the services," he explained.

She suddenly smiled catching on
at last. The smile turned into a mischievous grin. "I like it. But what
will we make the parts from?" she asked. She cocked her head. "And
how much to charge?" she stared off at the bulkhead.

"We can use some of the ore
from the belt to start, and if you will take a suggestion..."

She looked down at him again.
"You could charge the weight of the part in the same amount of material,
plus whatever cost you want to tack on for making it, power, transport, and
such," he said.

Her eyes gleamed. "I like
it. Good idea." She turned, tossing her long hair back. "I'll just
check with the Captain then see if we can call them and get a list of what they
would like..." He waved.

"Good luck!" he called.
He turned to see the smirking guards. Their faces froze, and then turned into a
poker face. A few of the techs looked up and smiled. "All right ladies, I
believe we have a class to get too..."

"We'll be emerging from
hyperspace in three... two.... one...NOW!" Shandra called exultantly. The
forward screen rippled then flashed bright, then cleared with a vision of
space.

"Report," the Captain
ordered looking over to the navigator's station.

"Checking now," Shandra
replied.

The ops officer looked over her
console then up to the Captain. "All systems are stable Captain," she
reported. The Captain grunted.

"First sensor reports in, no
tachyon or neutrinos detected," the sensor tech said. She nodded.

"And those are?" she
asked as she sat back in her chair.

"Oh, sorry Captain, they're
FTL particles. Tachyons are used in communications; neutrinos are emitted by
fusion reactors," the tech reported. "No recent plasma travel
detected either Captain; the system is clean as far as we can see." She
tapped out a sequence and the plot replaced the stars on the forward view
screen.

"We've jumped into the local
jump point. I've plotted a course," Shandra said looking up. The course
plot dotted out to the inhabited planet. "I've made a slight deviation so
we can swing by the asteroid belt. It should only add a day to our transit
time," she reported. She looked up to the Captain who nodded in approval.

"Good work," she said.
It would have taken them hours to do all that before. The girls looked
relieved. "I understand the engineer wants to go rock hunting?" she
asked.

She turned to the ops officer who
nodded. "Yes Captain, the engineer said we could feed the rock into the
replicator to restock our supplies, and make new parts," she said. She was
excited but a little dubious. The Captain grunted again.

"We should be passing a
small cluster of rocks off the starboard side in an hour Captain," Shandra
said, and then looked up. "We could pick a few up to test things."