New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (27 page)

"Like one of cookies
colanders. A rock did this?" she asked shocked.

He chuckled. "Most likely,
when the ship's shields were down and she was a derelict." He finished the
weld and floated back a meter to give it a thorough scan. "That did
it."

"Dinner is served. Or at
least dinner plate patches," Molly called over the net a few minutes
later. "I'll get them. I'm closest," Robin called, and then began to
move. She pushed off, and then quickly tumbled. "Oh crap!" she
squealed and tried to reach out for something.

"Careful!" Rodriguez
and the Admiral called.

"Use your jets!" Jennie
called. The girl fumbled with the controls then hit one; her suit tumbled and
then puffed forward. She reached out; grabbing a sliver of metal then cried and
jerked her hand back. A trail of blood floated in the path of her hands. The
droplets froze instantly. She jerked then hit another shard with her arm.
"I'm breached!" she called, voice rising in fear.

The others could hear a hissing
sound. "The suit will stop it, but you’re going to have a vacuum burn on
that hand," the Admiral replied as he expertly jetted to her side. He
reached out and arrested her motion, then pulsed her down away from the
stalactites.

"Whew!" Jennie called.

"Nice save," Rodriguez
observed.

He pulled the girl to the airlock
and opened the door. "I'm sorry, so sorry," Robin sobbed.

He touched down and toggled his
boots. "Accidents happen, especially to people new to a dangerous
situation. Don't worry doc will fix you up," he said. He pushed her into
the lock and grabbed the plates. She clutched her hand, her suit shaking.

"Is she going to be
okay?" Molly called over the net.

"Vacuum burns, and a jagged
cut. Get doc and the nurse on it," he reported over the net. She gave him
a double click response.  As the airlock door closed he turned with the plates.
"All right, let’s get this compartment patched and get out of here."

Rodriguez pulled out her torch
from her side bag. “Ready, these two I can handle, the other three need some
cutting first."

He jetted up to her and handed
her a pair of patches. "What can I do?" Jennie asked.

Rodriguez pulled a portable
plasma torch out of her bag and handed it to her. "Cut the bent pieces
around the holes near the bottom of the deck."

Jennie looked around. "Which
way is bottom? I lost track."

Rodriguez chuckled. "Check
the door for orientation." She bent over the first hole and began to tack.

"Oh," a world of
embarrassment was in that simple reply.

"Greenhorn." Rodriguez
teased.

“I think we need classes on EVA
later,” Molly commented.

 “Put it on the list.” Jennie
giggled as she finished the last cut. “All done here. This cuts like, well,
like a hot knife through butter,” she said, sounding a bit awed.

The Admiral chuckled. “There
isn't anything like using the right tools for the job,” he replied. She giggled
at Rodriguez's expression.

Jennie slapped a plate over the
hissing crack. "Got it." She made sure the plate was seated properly,
slapped down her welding helmet, and then pulled up her welder. She tacked the
perimeter, and then set in to do a nice bead around the perimeter.

"Good, nice technique,"
the Admiral commented. 

"This is the last one on
this deck," she said. She sounded tired. He knew they were, they all were
even him. They'd been at it two shifts.

He chuckled tiredly. "That
we know of." He watched the sparks.

"So, what next?" she
asked. She finished and looked up.

He studied the weld. "Not
bad," he said in approval. He looked over his shoulder. The purser was
there already, positively bouncing. He nodded. "Can we help you?" he
asked. She came in the compartment looking around.

"All fixed?" she asked.
She touched a patch. "Are you sure they'll hold?"

Jennie grumped. "Of
course!" Irons smiled.

"Okay, clear out, I have
plans for this space," she said dismissively. She waved to a girl.
"Bring them in!"

They turned to see a convoy of
girls laden with packages begin to come in and look around. "Look on your
own time ladies!" the purser called impatiently. A girl released a pair of
cleaning robots, which promptly went to work. He grunted.

"You haven't left yet?"
Vanessa demanded. She turned to them.

Jennie turned the valve off on
her welder and got up. "We're going we're going," she growled in
disgust. She pulled her mask up and grabbed the handle of the welding cart.
"Least you could have done was say thank you," she murmured.
"You coming?" She tossed a glance over her shoulder to the Admiral.
He shrugged and followed.

"Oh, make sure you get compartment
32A on deck two fixed next!" The purser called as they flattened to allow
a trolley to pass.

A look of profound disgust
crossed Jen's face. "Yeah right," she said, heading down the deck.

The guards followed. "Um,
this isn't the way to the lift," one of them called.

"I know," Jen said as
she smiled. He looked over his shoulder to see them, they were confused.
"Don't worry about it," Jennie called, lifting the welding cart up
over a knee knocker.

"We're just taking a
detour..." she said by way of explanation.

He caught up to her. "Act of
rebellion?" he asked softly.

She looked up, eyes flashing a
little mayhem. "Maybe a little. I was just thinking about welding the
hatch to her quarters shut," she growled.

He chuckled. "I'd help, but
I'd never hear the end of it," he replied. She glanced at him and grinned.

"You've got a point. Let’s
say we go tuck this stuff away in the equipment locker then go for a cup of
coffee?" she suggested.

He smiled. "Sounds good to
me. He turned to the guards. "Coffee break." They nodded, expressions
clearing.

"All right ladies, take a
seat and let’s get started." Molly smiled as the group rustled around
taking their seats. "Now, we have a lot on our plate. Once we get through
the abbreviated training course, we are going to hit the hull running,"
she smiled to the Admiral who nodded.

"The Admiral and pilot
Deidra managed to do an initial survey of the damage, it is pretty extensive as
we all knew." A holo appeared beside her. "Now, for the first space
walks we are going to work on orientation, survey work and minor hull
repair." She pointed to the port side. "Starting with the port side.
After that we will move on to replacing the broken shield nodes, replacing antenna,
and re-aligning the port lidar array,"  she said. She looked down at her
notes.

"All that?" Jen asked
disbelieving.

Molly looked up. "All that
and more. We are going to run ourselves ragged. Ever since the Admiral and
Deidra brought in those asteroids we've been building parts and hull plate
patches. Trust me, you'll sleep when we're in hyper, I wouldn't plan on much
sleep before then." A few of the girls grimaced. "We have three more
days before we make orbit, then another seven in orbit, then six across the
system to the hyper limit. Don't plan on getting any downtime," until
then. She shook her head. A few of the girls murmured.

"We've-, okay hold it down,
I said hold it down! Wait until I am done to talk. There, that's better,"
she looked exasperated. "Look folks, we've wanted, wished, and dreamed for
Io to be repaired, here's our chance! All the replicators are churning out
parts, we have the suits. Forty people have volunteered," she said. Jen
nodded, as did Rodriguez, Wendy, and Robin.

"We're going to run the
training course with the Admiral," Robin said.

"Right. Okay, now, we are
going to break the teams down into fast learners and slower people, and give
the fast learners the harder tasks. Get some rest, and then meet the Admiral in
the handball court later today," she nodded in dismissal and straightened.

The group broke up with women
talking amongst themselves. "Is she crazy? We can't do all that? Sure the
hull, but damn! I heard we may make beta if we get it all done..."

Another girl looked up.
"Beta? Are you sure?"

The Admiral cleared his throat.
The women froze and looked over to him. "Ladies, if and I do mean
IF
we get this done, and there are no unforeseen problems,
yes
we will make
beta when we leave. We're going to have to work our butts off to make it
possible though," he cautioned. The crew broke into cheers as they left.

The airlock opened. The class
looked up as two more girls came in, blushing. He motioned them to have a seat.
"Okay, now that we are all here..." He gave the two tardy students a
glower. They scrunched down in their seats. "We can get started." He
motioned to Rodriguez. "Miss Rodriguez, Jennie, Robin, Gia, Wendy, and I
have the most experience with space walks and repairs," he glanced at his
assistants.

"We are going to start this
slow, with a little test. In a moment we will cut the gravity to the
compartment to familiarize you with free fall. On each seat there is a bag.
Keep it on you," he cautioned. The girls pulled the bag out and shook it
out.

"What's it for?" one of
the girls asked curious.

Jennie looked over with an evil
grin. "Barf." She motioned for them to get up. "Move to the
center of the room. We're going to cut the plating as soon as the chairs are
put away."

Rodriguez, Robin, and Wendy were
folding the chairs and using bungees to bundle them together. "All right,
first off you’re going to float. Your stomach won’t like that," she said.

Jennie nodded. "I was born
in free fall."

The Admiral and Rodriguez looked
up. "Me too," the chorused then looked at each other and smiled.

"Didn't help me though, I
whooped my cookies anyway when I was older," the Admiral said. A few of
the girls giggled, a few looked even more nervous.

Robin positioned herself near the
door controls. "Okay here we go," she said. He nodded to her. She
touched the controls. After a moment they began to float.

"Oh oh!" Some of them
called.

"It's zero g handball
ladies," Robin called out. Some took it in stride, moving with practiced
ease. The ones who were new to the sensation began to spin and tumble. One
threw up violently, spraying vomit in a cloud around her. Girls exploded away
from her, bumping into each other as they tried to escape the mess.

"EWWW!" Some screamed.

"That is so gross!" a
girl said in disgust. The unfortunate victim apologized. Like a wave, the smell
propagated out, and a few of the girls ended up sick in the bags. Rodriguez had
the sick girl clean up her mess.

"Yuck," Some of the
girls were wrinkling their noses.  A few were gagging and turning green.

"All right, now, as you can
see, every action has a reaction," Rodriguez demonstrated by pushing
against a girl, they went off in opposite directions. "When you’re working
outside, remember that. Remember that even though you’re in free fall and you
can move big heavy things, they still have mass and take time to stop."
She turned and stopped herself with practiced ease.

"It's really easy to get
injured or killed in space. Take your time, plan your actions," Jennie
called out.

The Admiral moved among them,
offering advice here and there where needed. After an hour they called an end
to the exercise. He mentally sorted the group into the ones with experience
like Chelsie the blue handball Captain, to the inexperienced and completely
clueless like Dorah. He squirted a list of the experienced people to the
tablets Jennie and Rodriguez had. "All right ladies. Jennie and Miss Rodriguez
here have a list of people who are ready for the suit familiarity class."

He nodded to them as they called
out names. When they had left the compartment the remaining members looked
around a little guilty. "Okay ladies, you need a bit more experience with
free fall," he said simply. A few groaned at that. He nodded to Robin.

 "Robin and Wendy will
supervise you," he said nodding to the two ladies. He leaned over to Wendy
as Robin sorted them out with a quick question and answer session. "Give
them another hour or two, but don't push it too hard on them, let them
play." She nodded. He went over to the bundle of chairs, dug under it to
his duffel and pulled out a pair of balls. He tossed them into the air to the
girls. They were caught easily.

"All right ladies, have a
little fun while you practice. He turned to open the door, shouldering the
duffel.

The door opened and Mindy
squeaked. "OH! Mister engineer sorry! I was just checking in to see if
anyone was hurt."

He shook his head. "A little
space sick, but they're getting the hang of it," he said.

She looked concerned. "Space
sick! Maybe we should get them to sickbay!" she looked around the class.

Robin cut the gravity and they
began to float. After a moment they seemed to get the hang of it. Only a couple
turned green.

Mindy sniffed. "EW! What
died in here?" She looked around wrinkling her nose and waving her hand in
front of her face. He stepped past her.

"Space sick. A few
barfed," Irons said. He shook his head. "You can practice with them
if you like. I would suggest changing your clothes though."

She looked down at her skimpy
mini skirt uniform. "What's wrong with this? Don't you like it?" she
asked, pouting a bit.

He grimaced. "It's....um...
very fetching. But not exactly appropriate in free fall." He waved back to
the room.

The girls were floating around in
coveralls. "Um..." She looked confused.

"Unless of course you don't
mind people looking up your skirt as it flutters around..." He nodded to
the guards.

Mindy looked back into the room
seeing Dorah spike the ball with predictable results. "It does look like
fun....Maybe I should change..." He heard as he walked away.