New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (56 page)

"I came in to check on
Jedzia, she was sitting up in bed sipping something and the doctor was going on
about neural dendrite regeneration and stuff... way over my head," she
said and rolled her eyes.

The Admiral chuckled. "Fair
is fair, they probably think the same about us and hyperdrive mechanics."
Jennie chuckled.

Molly sputtered and fixed her
glasses. "But hyperdrive mechanics are easy!" The surrounding crew at
the tables laughed at that, as did the Admiral and Jennie.

Molly blushed furiously.
"Okay okay, ha ha," she muttered.

Jennie threw her napkin at her.
"You really do need a break if you’re that way, I could use one too, and
maybe after we fix the computer core on deck eleven, I'll see if I can get some
downtime," she said.

Molly nodded. "It's good to
stop and smell the flowers sometimes." She gave the Admiral a mischievous
look. "I think you should come with us Admiral!" she said. She waved
to the view port.

He chuckled. "Maybe if we
get this list sorted out.
if
the Captain and Chief will let me!"
Jennie giggled at that.

"Centennial?" Trisha
looked over the tablet and sniffed. "Funny name," she said. They were
about to enter orbit of the planet.

The Admiral shrugged. "The
crew of the explorer ship named the planet and system."

Trisha's eyes were wide.
"Did you know them?"

He shook his head and laughed.
"No, that was a couple centuries before I was born. No, the planet is
named because it was the one hundredth star system that the explorer Drake went
too. They discovered a planet...Let’s see,"  he said reaching to pull up
the data.

Sprite pulled up the basic data
on his HUD. "They found a planet in 2219; it had two planets that were in
the Goldilocks zone."

Jennie raised her hand. "You
lost me teach."

He sighed as they giggled.
"Okay, Goldilocks tripped you up right?" he asked. She nodded.
"Let’s see, um... Let’s see if I have it on file."

Sprite pulled up the text from
the ship's database. "Okay, I'm shooting you a link. The basic story is
finding something in the middle, not to hot, not to cold, not to bright, not to
dark, etc," he explained. The class nodded. Sprite projected a generic
star system layout then highlighted the Goldilocks zone. "The Goldilocks
zone, seen here with this bright band, differs on the star, but basically it's
where life zone planets can be found. Some need a boost to terraform," he
explained. He pointed to the outer and inner edges. "The inner most layer
is the best, a planet with a stable orbit, good neighbors, and stable
atmosphere can develop a biosphere with little or no help." The hologram
zoomed in to an image of Earth.

 "What planet is that?"
a girl in the back asked.

He turned and stiffened.
"Earth," he breathed quietly.

"Oh. Why name it after the
ground?" the girl in the back asked confused.

"It's the home world of the
human race," he replied, voice roughening a bit. He turned and nodded to
Jennie. "We also called it Terra, which means Earth." He shrugged.
"That's why species from our home world, including us are called Terran."
He gazed at the students for a moment. "That's all for tonight ladies, I
need to get some rest," he said. He left quickly as the class began to get
up and murmur.

"This is a bit early; think
that holo opened a wound?" Jennie asked, leaning over to Trisha.

Trisha shrugged. "Maybe. I
was wondering why he didn't know it was the planet. Did you see the look on his
face? It was a surprise to him," She grimaced.

Jennie froze. "You know,
you’re right, that is odd," she said. She gathered her tablet up and
walked past the milling group around the projector.

"Sprite, what's the big
idea?" he demanded quietly as he nodded to the guards. The guards
followed, hot stepping into a trot to try to keep up with his longer legs and
fast pace.

"I don't know what you’re
talking about Admiral?" Sprite said projecting her face on the HUD. Her
body followed and she kept pace with him. "You should slow down; you’re
losing your posse."

 He turned and glared at the
guards then continued. "Knock it off Sprite, spill it," he growled.

She sighed. "As you wish.
That's the stock data from the encyclopedia I found," she said.

He grunted. "You could have
warned me."

"I was wondering, where do
you get your cosmetics and bathroom supplies since you didn't use the
replicators?" he asked. He turned to the purser who looked up from her
tablet.

 "Huh? Oh um, we trade for
them of course. I allocate a generous proportion to each crew member, but they
always use more," she said sourly.

"In fact, we're going to one
of the colonies now," the Captain said, netting her fingers together.
"It's a cross roads, since they managed to hang onto civilization a bit
better." She shrugged.

"How did they do that?"
he asked.

"Oh, they were sparsely
populated, but were some sort of lower tech Terran colony," she said. She
waved her left hand airily.

"A BTB," he murmured.

Molly looked over to him.
"What's a BTB?" she asked. She wrinkled her nose in confusion.

He grimaced. "A back to
basics colony," he explained. The Captain cocked an eyebrow in query.
"Some people didn't like technology, or wanted to retire to an agrarian
colony. Some were cultists, or people who got into a fad of living as period
century people...like medieval times, or that Victorian colony." He
shrugged. "Some were low tech for religious or moral reasons like the
Amish and technophobes."

He shook his head. "Most of
the people were okay, but there was the occasional cult that turned into a terrorist
cell." His eyes darkened at that.

"Well, this one was a basic
colony, the planet didn't need a lot of terraforming, and so when the war hit
and the planet was scorched, it bounced back faster," the captain said. He
nodded.

"The next planet is Gaston,
that's another trade goods colony; we get most of our gemstones from
them," the purser said. He nodded.

"Yes, we trade the fabrics,
cosmetics, perfumes, and gems to the rich in Pyrax," Molly said.

"It barely covers the
docking fees," the Captain growled. "Most of our profit from Pyrax is
in trading for rare metals," she sighed.

The purser nodded. "We
usually pick them up in Senka, but that pirate chased us out." She shook
her head.

"I'm glad you showed us how
to snag the odd asteroid, that made the difference," the Captain said as
she nodded to him.

"So, who is this Sprite you
keep mentioning?" Molly asked.

He turned alarmed to Molly.
"Um...When did I mention Sprite?" he cursed himself.

"Just now, I could see your
lips moving," she said. He sighed defeated.

"Boss, I'm technically
classified," Sprite warned him.

He shrugged. "Sprite is my
AI that manages my implants," He half lied.

"Oh, okay," Molly
wrinkled her nose.

He looked over his shoulder to
the guard. "I would prefer that the Chief not hear about it, she's
paranoid enough."

Molly nodded again, this time a
little slower. "Your secret's safe with me Admiral." She hid her hand
as she giggled.

"You’re going
downside?" he asked, changing the subject. Now that they were in orbit and
the formalities were taken care of the crew were eager to get ground side for
shore leave.

She nodded. "I'm on the next
shuttle. I want to see that chemical plant; it's primitive compared to
ours..." She waved to the nearby replicator. "But we might be able to
trade the technology, or upgrade it."

He shook his head. Once an
engineer, always an engineer. "Besides, I hear there's a tavern near the
spaceport that makes this mondo drink..." she said suggestively and
grinned. She bounced a bit, and then grabbed his arm. "You should come
with me! There's a bit of the old town still standing, so you can look around,
just like old times!"she said. 

He shivered. "A trip down
memory lane isn't what I need." He shook his head.

She patted his arm. "I'm
sorry for reminding you," she said softy. "So, Sprite is your
AI," she said and then nodded.

"Well, you see, Admiral's
are given a staff of people to manage their duties," he explained. She
looked confused. "A staff?" He nodded.

"A secretary, flag
lieutenant, and others. About a dozen people," he replied. She wrinkled
her nose and adjusted her glasses. He shook his head. "Are you going to
have the laser treatment?" he asked. She took her glasses off and examined
them.

"Yeah, on the way to
Gaston," she said. She shook her head and put her glasses on. "So,
why do you need so many people? You do fine here!" she said. She waved to
the engineering.

 He chuckled. "Well, an
Admiral's in charge of a fleet or facility, or even an entire sector," he
said.

Her eyes widened at that. "I
forgot about that. So many ships and things!" she said. He shrugged.
"Now hear this! Shuttle two departing in five minutes repeat, shuttle two
departing in five!" the overhead speaker squawked. They both looked up at
the speaker.

 "Okay that's my cue; I'll
see you down there!" She grabbed her duffel and raced out. He chuckled.

The bucking of the shuttle made
her look up from her tablet and tighten her webbing. "Exciting!" one
of the girls up front said. Another shudder made her grab her armrests.

"Sorry folks, we're running
into turbulence," the pilot said over the comm. Molly looked out to the
LCD window. She could see the hull glowing with red plasma.

"Wow!" Tia clutched at
the arm rests, pale with fear. Molly patted her hand. Tia released her grip and
clutched at it, making Molly gasp.

 "It's okay," she said.
She set the tablet down in her lap, thought better of it when a buck sent it
into the air. She caught it and stowed it. "Just a little
turbulence." She waved to Dorah who was staring straight ahead. "So,
going my way?" she teased. The shuddering eased.

Dorah let out a gasp then looked
over to Molly. "Sorry, huh?"

Molly chuckled and adjusted her
glasses. "Never mind."

They were blinded by the morning
sun as they exited the craft a few minutes later. "Wow! It's so
bright!" Molly stepped onto the boarding ramp.

"One side ladies, we have
more people and cargo to unload," The cargo master said.

"Oh, sorry," Molly said
as she stepped down the ramp, holding her bag to her side and then walked over
to the nose.

"Careful, don't touch, the
skin is still hot," the pilot said, looking up from her tablet.

"I can see that," Molly
studied the waves of heat radiating out from the craft. They made the air
shimmer.

“Mom that's so cool!” Tia
exclaimed.

"Wow!" She shook her
head.

"I never thought the sky was
so blue!"Dorah exclaimed.

She looked over to Dorah who was
looking up at the sky in wonder. She chuckled. "Or the plants!" Tia
said. She dropped to her knees and ran her hands through the grass. She picked
a flower and smelled it. "Oh wow!"

She got up and rushed over to
Molly. "Smell this!" She took a cautious sniff, then a deeper inhale.
"Oh yes! Beautiful," she said and smiled.

Dorah pirouetted. "Such
beauty!" She danced around in the grass. Some of the other passengers
shook their heads.

"First time on land?"
one of them asked. Another shook her head.

"No, she's always like this.
Total ditz," someone else said.

Molly turned annoyed but Dorah
grabbed her hand as well as Tia's and wrenched her around. "Come on!
There's so much to see!" She waved to the distant town. Molly looked in
the indicated direction and nodded. They could see people milling about,
hundreds. "Wow! I've never seen so many people together all at once! Come
on! Let’s see what's going on!" Dorah dragged her forward. Chuckling Molly
adjusted her glasses and allowed herself to be led.

At the edge of town the group
began to slow on some instinct. The people looked odd Molly thought to herself.
No, not odd, angry, and scared. She looked over to a woman and child. The woman
scooped the child into her arms and rushed into a house. "What's going
on?" Dorah asked, looking around. "Is something wrong? Did someone
forget to take a bath before we came?" she asked, suddenly nervous. She
looked over to Molly who shrugged.

"I'm not sure."

“Mom, we should, I mean, I don't
like this, something's wrong,” Tia observed quietly. She was walking beside
Molly.

Molly nodded. “Stick with me
kiddo we'll get to the bottom of it.”

They entered the town square and
turned to the left as someone cleared their throat. "Welcome to New
Liberty capital of Centennial," a man said. Molly turned to see a portly
man holding a gun. She could feel Tia gasp and clutch at her hand, then ease
behind her. "I'm afraid; your visit is not going to be a pleasant
one," the man said. Several people behind him growled a bit, hefting
weapons. Molly looked to the right and spotted another group.

"They're all around
us!" Dorah whispered. "What do we do?" she asked.

 Molly shook her head. "I
don't know."

"No sudden moves," one
of the girls said softly. Molly looked over and saw it was Vanessa the Purser.

"So what do you want?"
the captain demanded when the call came in. She tried to suppress her rage but
only partially succeeded. "What will it cost to safely return my people?
Not to mention my shuttle?" her tone was acid black.

The engineer winced. Sprite had
alerted him the moment someone in the shuttle had gotten a mayday off. "We
need to leave this system, take your shuttle and pick up everyone and evacuate
us all. Once we're off we'll release them," the voice on the other end was
scratchy with static, and tinged with desperation.