New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (38 page)

"Are we going to get a
chance to practice fight?" she asked, suddenly interested. He nodded.

"That's the idea," he
said.

The other guard looked confused
then shrugged. "I'm a ten," she called out.

The girl came out a moment later
with two plastic covered packages. "Here you go. There isn't a belt though
except these," She held up a bunch of belts, all different colors.
"Frie, you'd look good with a blue, it matches your eyes," she said.

The Admiral snorted.
"They're actually to denote rank in martial arts," he said. He gave
the guards a long measuring look. "Have you any training in martial
arts?"

They both shook their heads.
"No, I don't know what you’re talking about," the blond Frie said
softly.

He smiled politely. "I
wasn't sure if you had, you have some of the moves, but they aren't
polished," he said with a tight lipped smile. "When in doubt, start
over." He turned to the clerk. “Give them each a white belt. We'll work
out rank later.” Each of the guards picked up their packages and nodded to the
locker. "I’ll be in the men's room. Meet you in the dojo in five," He
walked into the men's room without a backwards glance.

five minutes and forty seconds
later he was working on his warm up katas when the two came out, fumbling at
their belts. "How do they work, they're too long," the black girl
with pink hair said fumbling with the belt.

He chuckled. "Well, there's
a technique and tradition to it. I'll explain." He carefully untied his
own black belt and explained how it works. Both women mimicked his movements.
When they finished Frie smiled. "So, how come yours is black with six of
those knots?"  she asked. She nodded to his belt. "Black is for
masters. The knots are the ranks. I'm only a sixth Dan. There are nine,"
he explained.

Her eyes were wide. "And
you’re going to teach us?" she asked. He nodded. "Why?"

He shrugged looking over the
battered patched padding. "Why not?"

The clerk watched the girls
stumble out, one rubbing her shoulder. "Rough day?" she asked. He
smiled at the girl's expression. "I was wondering Admiral, why don't we
have more facilities?" she waved to indicate the recreation area. "Handball,
zero g ball, the dojo, pool, gym and weight room. But why don't we have other
things? Anvil station in Pyrax has a holo suite," she said. He nodded as
he cataloged that factoid.

"Well, in the ship's fleet
days everyone had implants, so we could jack into the net," he explained.
She looked confused. "So?"

He shrugged. "So, we could
feed a virtual reality direct to our brain. I wasn't much for real time games,
but I did get into strategic ones."

 Her eyes were wide. "So,
you can jack in and play games?"

He nodded. "Or view mail, or
enter virtual worlds. There was even a virtual bar," he explained. She
waved. "But isn't it make believe?" one of the guards asked as she
came out toweling her hair.

"Yes and no, Virtual
reality's a simulation, so yes it's make believe, but it feeds information
direct to your brain, so it blurs the line a bit. You can feel pain, see, hear,
smell, touch, taste..."

She looked confused. "If you
can do all that why have this?" she waved.

He smiled. "Because virtual
reality doesn't exercise the body, only the mind. And you need a strong body
when the chips are down in a crisis," he said. She nodded slowly.
"Besides, it uses very little power and computer time, and it's fun
too," he said. Frie joined them. He nodded to the girl behind the counter
as they turned to leave. She waved as they left.

Molly picked though her salad and
then held up a cucumber. "Neat huh? We grow most of our salad stuff.” Tia
smiled. “Did you see the gardens? They stink but they are pretty."

Molly munched the cucumber then
rooted around for another. "Yes, they definitely have a...bountiful
odor." She fiddled with her glasses then sighed. "I've been meaning
to try to do something about that but could never get the time!" she said.
She shrugged exasperated. Tia looked embarrassed.

The admiral nodded. "One
thing at a time." He looked up as a bunch of girls came in. One had a hand
over the side of her face, like she was whispering something to another, but
was actually tittering with laughter.

"Giggle quartet has arrived,"
Molly sighed, not looking up.

Jennie nodded. "Well, that’s
it for me, I have to get down to engineering and check on things," Jennie
said and then smirked a half smile. "Yeah, we'll catch up later. See you
around squirt," she said, tugging on Tia's hair in passing.

“Admiral you’re the perfect
person to try this out,” the waitress set a tall clear glass of foamy brown
liquid in front of him.

He took a look. “What is it?
Nubian? No, looks like a shake...” He looked at it then up to the girl. She
grinned. “Cookie says it's a chocolate shake. She replicated the chocolate, but
the rest is all made here.” She waved to cookie.

The Admiral leaned forward and
waved. The cook was leaning forward, hands spread apart on the counter in front
of her. “Well? Aren't you going to try it?” she demanded.

He looked it over. “Well, you’re
missing the utensils. I need a straw, or a spoon,” he said. He picked the glass
up and admired it. The waitress went over and picked up a spoon, then came
back. He tried to ignore her bump and grind walk. Molly chuckled.

“Here,” she said and handed him
the spoon.

“Thank you.” He took the
proffered utensil and then carefully fished out a spoonful. He took a bite then
nodded. “A bit watery, but still good.”

The cook frowned. “Thicker?”

He nodded. “Usually. But it's all
a part of the customer's taste, some like it this way.” He took another bite.

“Let me try!” Molly said using
her fork. He sighed as she dipped it in. “Oh oops!” The forkful immediately
came off. “Okay.” She snatched a spoon off of a nearby table then took a bite.
“Oh heavenly!” she rolled her eyes in appreciation.

She snagged the glass and leaned
back. Tia tried to get her spoon in, but her mom playfully blocked her. He
looked at her then chuckled. “Trust a woman to snag the chocolate for herself,”
he said dryly. She looked up and grinned.

"So why does the inertial
dampening not work when we get hit like that?" a tech in the back raised
her hand and asked. They only had a little over a week left in hyper. His
evening classes were now popular, more popular then ever before. So popular a
few people had played hooky or switched shifts to attend.

He pulled up a graph. "The
dampeners have a limited use. They can smooth out large actions, but there's a
lag.” The gaps in the graph were highlighted.

"From the time a motion is
sensed, to when it's felt there are all sorts of things that have to be done,
the computer's have to calculate the forces involved, and the exact counter
forces needed to repel them. Then they have to run it through a safety
subroutine to make sure it won’t kill anyone," he explained. Beside the
graph code scrolled. "In that time the motion can be felt. With motion
that's sharp and unannounced..." He smacked his right fist into his left palm.
We feel it," he said. He shook his left hand a moment. The class tittered.

Jen came into main engineering
with Trisha on her heels. She looked around then spotted Molly in her office.
“I'll see what's going on,” Trisha passed her and walked over to a knot of
giggling girls. “All right ladies, break it up,” Trisha growled.

“Yeah right,” Jen said under her
breath. She sauntered over to Molly's door and knocked on the jam. “Hi ya boss
lady, you about done yet?”

Molly looked up from her tablet
and sat back. “Just about,” she said. She swiveled the chair back and forth.

“That today's to-do list?” Jen
held out her hand.

“Maybe,” Molly sighed. “Every day
we have to add more things. Are we ever going to see the bottom of the list?”
She shook her head ruefully.

“Coffee, cream, sugar,” Jen
ordered, tapping the replicator controls. After a moment it glowed.

“Make a feline supplement number
one,” Molly said, looking down at her tablet once more.

“What for?” Jen asked, gathering
up the coffee and turning around. She caught sight of mama cat in Molly's lap.
“Oh,” she chuckled silently as she ordered the dish.

“Here you go,” she said. The cat
looked up, then stretched and got down. She stretched as she moved, purred,
then got into the important business of eating.

Molly chuckled, stretching
herself. “Finally!”

Jen saluted her with her cup.
“You could have moved her you know.”

Molly smiled. “And get a dirty
look?”

Jen shook her head in
resignation. “Molly, Molly, you're too much of a soft touch.” The door to engineering
opened and they could hear the patter of feet. “Speaking of trouble...”

Tia burst into the room and
handed Molly a picture. The pigtailed girl bounced. “Look at it mommy look!”

Molly smiled and took a look. She
sat back, examining the portrait. “Is this the Captain?” she asked.

Tia grinned. “Yes she posed for
us. I think she fell asleep though,” she said. Jen chuckled.

“Wouldn't put it past her,” Molly
commented, grinning at the girl, then Jen. Jen reached out and tweaked a
pigtail, then sat back fast. The girl whirled and glared, taking in her
innocent look and not buying it for a second.

“Oh, hey squirt. Survived Dorah's
Day care once more I see... well maybe we'll get lucky tomorrow,” Jen teased.
Tia frowned and then kicked Jen's shin. “Oh OW! Why you little brat!” Jen
grabbed the girl before she could bolt, and then settled back, tickling her
into a shrieking squirming ball. Molly chuckled.

“Careful, that's a new outfit, I
don't want her to pee her pants,” Molly cautioned. Tia squealed. “Mommy help
me!”

Molly sighed theatrically. “If I
must I must, here, let me tickle her feet!” she said reaching out.

Tia squealed louder. “I said help
me not her!” she said between gales of laughter. Jen chuckled and let the kid
rest.

Tia panted for a moment, and then
sat up. “What a work out,” Jen sighed, giving the girl a hug.

Molly got up. “Okay, I just
wanted to go over a few things here and here...”

Trisha came in. “Hey boss, oh hi
ya squirt!” she gave Tia a mischievous look. Tia shrank back, then squirmed
free of Jen and hid behind her mom. Molly smiled as she handed over the tablet.

“Make sure you check the deck one
electronics in bay twelve, there's been some lost data packets and a couple
voltage spikes, we may have some issues from that overheating incident,” Molly
said. Jen grimaced.

“Check over the ducting and heat
exchange systems, if you have time, see if we can purge a couple of the lines
and replace them with new,” Molly continued.

Trisha grimaced. “Messy,” she
sighed. “Okay, anything else?”

Tia managed to get around Molly
and edged to the door with her mom in hand. “Come on mom! I gotta go!”

Molly chuckled. “Just a sec
dear.”

“No I mean I gotta GO!” she said
even more urgently. Molly noted her hunched over and doing the pee pee dance.

Molly rolled her eyes. “Duty
calls. Or at least the call of nature,” she said with a twinkle. She handed the
tablet to Jen.

“Have fun with the tyrant twerp!”
Trisha called after them. Tia spun and stuck out her tongue, then dragged her
reluctant mom out. Trisha chuckled. “She has her hands full with that one. So,
let’s get started shall we?”

The class was settling down and
he nodded. "Okay, before we get into the scheduled lecture I'm going to
take a moment to answer some of your questions." He looked over the sea of
faces until Sprite highlighted a heart shaped one. "Nara is it?" he
asked, nodding to the girl. She looked surprised then nodded. "Nara go
ahead."

She got up and brushed her hands
on her hips then cleared her throat. "I was looking over the background
and I was confused about how the computer can see the data. How it translates
it from electrical and light impulses to code?" she asked and then sat
down abruptly.

He nodded. "Okay to
understand that we need to take a little time trip." He turned and the
holo projector sprang to life.

"Some of you may notice this
is a new projector, it has a built in board ability." He poked a finger at
the hologram. A ripple emitted from his finger as it stopped. "Force
field," he said as the class ohed softly. "Okay, now, the basic
impulses that make up code are binary ones and zeros." He wrote that on
the board as a one and zero. “Now a one is an on. And a zero is an off."
He turned to class and sat back on the lip of the desk. "When you
translate that, it means a one or on means a pulse of light. An off is the off
time when there is no light," he explained. Some of the heads nodded.

"Now, we take that binary
and create machine code," he said building off the first. Some of the
girls looked excited. He turned and drew a series of dots and dashes.
"Now, when that machine code is translated, the computer has the symbology
of the operating language." He turned and nodded to the class. "Next
question... let’s see..."

Sprite highlighted a red haired
girl with a blunt freckled face. "Susa?" he asked.

She looked up and then stood.
"If there was a machine war in the past, how did we survive it? I mean,
we're completely dependent on machines," she waved to indicate the ship.

He nodded and smiled. "I see
someone has gotten into the historical database," he said. She blushed.

"Want me to answer
this?" Sprite asked coquettishly.

He clicked his teeth. "Good.
Okay, the first machine war was before my time, about three hundred years
before I was born." He turned and waved to the holo. It cleared and a time
line reappeared. "Okay, this is the time line of advances in AI. As you
can see, it's an exponential curve. But, it was a bit limited." He turned
and nodded to Susa.