New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (40 page)

"Is this true?" the
Captain asked mildly, studying her fingers.

"In self defense
ma'am," he said. He nodded to the Chief.

 "What happened?"the
captain asked.

He grimaced again and started
over. "I was given a work order to repair a replicator in a crew member's
quarters. When I arrived the young woman was there and attempted to...distract
me from my duties." He looked around to the bridge crew. They busied
themselves with their stations.

"Captain, with your
permission, can we adjourn to your wardroom for privacy?" he gave her a
meaningful look but she shook her head with a sigh.

"Too late, the cat's already
out of the bag, and the gossip's probably all over the ship by now," she
said.

He smiled grimly. "Yes, even
in my time scuttlebutt moved faster than light."

She smiled. "Glad you
understand." She gave the Chief a look. "Get the young woman up
here," she ordered.

The Chief bent and softly spoke
into her comm. A few minutes later a disheveled minx arrived. Her hair was
tousled. She took one look at the Admiral and her hands curled into claws. She
lunged, but one of the guards restrained her. The Chief sighed. "As you
can see, emotions are running heated, and Miss Shari is not prone to
that."

 The Captain eyed the girl.
"But she is prone to passion. I see your new teddy under that
blouse," she observed. The girl blushed and shrugged off the arms of the
guards as she came to attention.

"Yes Captain," She
panted a bit, acting like she was going to cry.

"Okay, lets hear it,"
the captain said. She netted her fingers together and listened as the minx
cleared her throat.

"Well Captain, I needed my
replicator repaired and this man came,” she pointed to the Admiral. "When
we were alone in my quarters he attacked me! I fought him off and the guards
had to pull him out of there!" Her eyes teared and she turned to the arms
of the startled guard. She awkwardly held her. The Admiral caught her peeking
with a smug smirk.

"Well, actually Captain, as
I was saying, the young lady tried to...distract me from my duties," he
said. "Captain with your permission?" he asked. He held up his right
hand. The ring finger morphed into his jack.

"What's he doing?" The
minx demanded, clearly startled.

"I'm going to show the
Captain what happened," he said. He walked over to a jack.

"By all means, let's see
it," the captain said indulgently.

 He jacked in and sent a signal
to the bridge holo. The lights dimmed and a life sized hologram of the woman
appeared. "This is from our first encounter," he explained. The sequence
played. The Captain tried to hide a smile at the seduction. "And this is
from the attack."

 The hologram faded out and then
faded in. The scene played out. He carefully did not look at the Chief, but
watched as her hands curled and her lips tightened into a thin line of
disapproval. The minx's did too. One of the girls gasped as the minx tried to
stab him. "Thank you Admiral, I think we've seen enough," the captain
growled.

He cut the transmission.
"Chief, both recordings have been sent to your investigations file for
later review,” he said. He looked over to her and bowed slightly.

She stood wooden. "Captain,
it doesn't matter, he's a passenger, and she's crew."

The Captain waved airily.
"No, this does matter." She gave the minx a long look. "Guards,
escort her to the brig."

He was lying out in the bed,
finally getting some rest when Sprite popped up. "What is it Sprite,"
he asked wearily.

"I was wondering why you
didn't accept her advances Admiral?" she asked, clearly curious about his
behavior earlier in the day. The AI projected herself onto his HUD, and then
sat her virtual self down in the chair. She kicked her feet back and forth.

He looked over to her.
"Remember that doxy on Centiga 5?" he asked, putting his hand under
his head to look up.

"The doxy? Oh miss Albright?
Yes, of course I remember her," she sniffed and wrinkled her pert nose in
disgust. "Poison pure and simple," she said.

He nodded. “Exactly.”

"By your inference you refer
to the minx miss Shari as the same?" she asked.

He nodded. "Exactly,"
he said again.

"Noted Admiral. Still, it
might have been wise to get your... ahem, pipe's cleaned," she said,
clearly uncomfortable in bringing the subject matter up. He turned glaring.

"I don't need advice on
romance from a busy body AI," he growled. The last came out as a warning.

"Who said it would be
romance?" she waved airily.  "According to my database, a little
recreational sex is good for you. No emotional attachment needed," she
suggested.

He  grimaced. "And do you
think after losing everyone I've ever known it would be that easy?" he
asked softly. She froze. "I didn't think so," he said softly. Then
turned his back on her. "Night Sprite." "Good night Admiral,
pleasant dreams," she said.

"New Texas?" He turned to
Molly who handed him the cable end.

"Yeah. Another agro world,
something about ranching," she said. He nodded. "Neo-buffalo,
Neo-cattle, and longhorns," she said. He looked over to Trisha who was
shaking her hand. "Had an accident?" Molly asked.

"No, fell asleep." She
grimaced as she shook her hand some more, then clenched it a few times.
"Wait a few minutes."

He plugged the cable in and
watched the LED's as the MPU booted. "Okay, booting... green lights."
He pulled himself up and out.

"We'll probably take a load
of beef or some calves to the next colony," Jennie said. She shook her
head at the idea. "The beef is bad enough, we have to freeze it. The
calves... They're cute but god they make a mess!" she grimaced. "They
poop and pee all over everything, and make a racket."

Trisha grimaced. "Don't
remind me, we had some interesting growths in life support after the last
time," she said. She wrinkled her nose. "Never could get number three
hold to smell right," she sighed. "I swear one of them must have crapped
in a vent or something." She tapped the control. "Okay, not working.
What happened?" she asked.

 Jennie looked over. "Hmmm.
Did we cross a wire or two?" she asked.

Trisha looked. "I don't
think so." She checked the jacks. "Nope, looks okay."

The Admiral got up and stretched.
"It may look okay, but if a wire was put in the wrong jack, it could be
messing things up," he said. He checked the leds. "Hmmm...."

"What's this I hear about
picking up a few people?" The engineer asked Molly. Things were going a
bit slower this go around. A few of the engineers were even getting some much
deserved downtime on the surface.

Molly smiled. "Only one of
them is for us, there are a couple women who want to be guards, two new
scullery maids, one room maid, and the purser snagged two big girls for the
cargo crews," she shrugged and wrinkled her nose. Neither mentioned that
all of the new recruits had to be women.

"The guards are to replace
the fools that went up when the boat bay blew out," Jennie growled. She
tossed her sandwich down onto her plate disgusted. "I don't see why we get
the shaft; we're the ones doing all the work!" she waved in disgust. Molly
shushed her. Jennie sighed. "Yeah yeah. Still, it isn't fair," she
griped.

The Admiral nodded. "Not
everyone is cut out for engineering Jennie; it takes a hands on knack for a lot
of jobs. Those skills take time and nurturing to develop... On an agro world
that's almost impossible to get," he said. He nodded to the planet on the
wall screen.

Jennie looked over and paused
arrested by the view. "Still isn't right," she muttered. "We're
under staff as it is. Audrey was out first, and she's a life support
tech." She grimaced. "I'm going to stick her on Trisha's team when
she's able," she said to her boss. Molly nodded.  Audrey had tried to keep
up last month but her new leg had cramped up and she had to cut back until the
muscles worked in properly with rehab.

"Good idea, they're pretty
solid, and they should give her time to get up to speed," she said. She
waved to the waitress. "Can I have a refill?" She handed the girl her
empty glass.

"Sure," the girl took
it and went to the bar.

"I hope they're good looking,"
Jennie muttered. Molly sighed and smacked her hand. Jennie looked affronted.
"Well, I'm just saying!" she shook her head.

The Admiral chuckled.
"Remember, many of these people are getting away from a slow life of
drudgery and constant work from sun up to sun down. I bet they age fast with
the work load and lack of medicine," he said. He looked down to the
planet, then shook his head and went back to eating.

"Yeah, and they’re going to
get the same here right?" Jennie asked.

"Not exactly, here they get
adventure," he smiled. "It was the same in my time, join a ship, and
see the galaxy." He took a bite and chewed. Molly took the drink from the
waitress and took a sip.

"Yeah, there's that,"
Jennie said, picking up her sandwich. "And they can learn here," She
indicated the tablet.

Molly nodded as she swallowed.
"Uh huh, and who says they can't switch? We might find an engineer in
there given the right exposure..."

The Admiral smiled. "A
diamond in the rough... you wouldn't be poaching would you?" He chuckled
as the girls tried to look innocent.

"Well, some of our work
isn't that hard," Jennie sniffed. "Running a watch on equipment, or
installing a fan..." She shrugged. "Baby stuff," she said. He
chuckled.

Can we do something about
this?"the doctor asked.

Jennie looked up and over to the
doctor. "What?"

 The Admiral paused as he came
in. "That," the doctor waved to the broken window looking into the
bay.

"What that?" the
Admiral asked and then nodded. "Yes of course. Put it on your
budget." He nodded to Jennie and pushed a cart aside.

"Budget?" the doc
asked.

"Yeah, your sickbay
budget."

The Admiral knelt and morphed his
hand into a multi tool. He plugged it into the jack. "Hmmm." He
looked over to the doc who was running one hand through his hair looking a bit
sheepish. "I must have missed that," the doctor muttered.

Jennie smiled. "Well, you've
been a bit preoccupied," she said. She pointed to the tablet. The doctor
blushed. "Studying?" she asked.

He nodded. "Ah. Working out
the next set of treatments for Faith?" Jenny asked. Half the sleepers were
now awake.

Mindy came in bouncing. "Yes
isn't it wonderful?! MOM too!" She pirouetted grabbed a chart and then
pranced out. Doc shook his head. "So, what did I miss?" Mindy asked. 

Jennie shook her head. "Well
with distractions like that, I can't say I blame you,” she said to the doctor,
ignoring the nurse. She pulled a set of wires out.

"This one?" she asked.

The Admiral shook his head.
"Try the other."

She attached a multi tester to
another lead. "I think I got it," she said as she smiled. "A
couple weeks ago we set up a budget system for each department now that we have
a handle on all the major repairs," she said to the doctor.

She looked over to the Admiral as
he began rewiring the power jack. "Each department has a budget for power,
resources, and replicator time. The ops officers allocate the power as
needed." She waved upwards to indicate the bridge. "Now that the
reactor has been overhauled and we have better fuel, everyone has been
clamoring for more power," she said and then sighed.

But you have to use your budget
wisely. For instance would you rather have that repaired or a new dermal
regenerator?" the Admiral asked as he screwed the plate back on.

The doc looked over to the window
and rubbed his chin in thought. "You're right, I'd take the
generator," he said and then  nodded. "All right, is the information
on the web?" he asked.

Jennie looked up and nodded.
"Yes, and your budget is set up in the medical section, check your
e-mail." She waved to a tablet.

He scrolled for a moment,
murmured his password and then ahahed. "Got it. Thanks," he said. He
hummed as he punched in entries.

"Bow, keel, dorsal, port,
stern, starboard, why don't you say what you mean?" The tech looked over
to the other exasperated.

Jennie chuckled as she overheard.
"You didn't catch the lecture did you?” she asked.

The two of them looked up.
"I did," one admitted.

"Oh, what lecture?" the
other asked confused.

"On ship design. The Admiral
explained why we have those terms and others," she said and shrugged.
"Most of it is hold over things from the early days of ships back on
earth." She tapped the wall. "Like bulkhead." She pointed to the
floor. "And deck... and the bottom of the ship is a keel."

She waved. "Some are carry
over things from animals, like dorsal. I think he said it came from a dorsal
fin," she said.

The blond tech nodded.
"Yeah. Bow and stern, keel, stern, and ventral," She grinned.
"Some of them make sense now. I was reading a holo novel, and was terribly
confused for a long time," she frowned. She shook her head.

"Which one?" the other
tech asked suddenly.

"Um..." The girl was
turning red fast as she squirmed. "Uh, the pirate one..." Her voice
ended in an upward lilt.

She tried to escape but Mary's
lips pursed in a teasing smile as she caught her arm, preventing escape.
"What pirate novel?" Mary demanded.

Keisha squirmed, feeling her ears
redden.

 Jennie chuckled. "I'll just
be over here if anyone needs me."

Keisha looked up alarmed, and
then tried to hide her head as she whispered something to Mary. "What was
that? I didn't quiet hear it?" Mary was a horrible tease and flirt
sometimes Jennie thought as she got back to work.