Rookie Privateer

by McFarlane, Jamie

  I decided grime was the first order of business. My tools were straightforward - a brush and heavy duty cleaning powder. Before I started, I decided to check the filtering system. Growing up on a space station and in habitation pods, I knew water was always reclaimed. It was too expensive to simply allow it to go to waste.

  The overall design of the water reclamation and filtering system was familiar enough. There was black water reclamation and gray water reclamation. Gray water was the drain from the sink and shower and black was the toilet. The most critical was the black system because while we could all make it ten days without a shower, we certainly wouldn't make it more than another couple of hours without the toilet.

  I browsed through the ship's systems and found the main head and its black water system. I discovered that this was one of those non-critical systems with yellow warnings I had filtered out. Not good. The black water system was operating at five percent and on the verge of total shut down. The closest access panel, PH-3, was beneath the floor of the hallway.

  The hallway floor was caked with grime and even finding the star-headed bolts was a task. I retrieved a tool set from the engine room and pulled a panel off the floor. The bolts were in terrible shape and I ended up breaking one off in the process and had to drill it out. Half an hour into my job, all I had accomplished was to make the hallway nearly impassable.

  Working in 1.5 gravity is not enjoyable. I was getting grumpy again. Fortunately, no one bothered me. I thought I heard Xie's door open once, but she must have had the good sense not to try to talk to me.

  Beneath the hallway, running the length of the ship, was yet another meter high hallway. I broke even more bolts pulling panel PH-3. Most were completely corroded with rust and suspicious goo. I was going to have to re-weld the brackets all along the bottom of the panel. Once I pulled off the panel, an awful wave of stench hit me full-on. I wretched and then didn’t breath again until I could raise my vac-suit helmet.

  The compartment beneath the main head was also only a meter tall, though it was the same width and depth as the head. I pulled a couple of magnetic lights out of the tool box and placed them on the walls for illumination. There was a mass of plumbing filters, pipes and tanks in the small space and there appeared to be at least a three inch layer of semi-frozen black sludge on the floor.

  I fired up my AI to overlay the individual components as I looked at them with a green, yellow or red glow indicating their current status. The display provided by my AI made things pretty obvious. There were only two green glowing components. The rest of the system was overwhelmingly yellow and red.

  Limit status overlay to black water waste.

  This command eliminated components related to the shower, sink, and the supply side of the toilet. The sludge problem was most likely limited to just the waste side. I had seen this type of thing before, but it had always been Big Pete's problem to solve. I had helped, of course, but ugh, it was never good. As a rule of thumb, you never ignored the head's maintenance schedule unless you wanted to deal with messes like this.

  Show aft head status.

  Two yellow components appeared on the display and otherwise everything else was green. Perfect. It was much closer to being operational than the main head. I would switch gears and get that sorted out first.

  I grabbed the tool box and made my way to the aft hatch H-4. The bolts on this panel came off intact after some work. There were no working lights back here either, but my suit was capable of lighting the area up reasonably well. I grabbed another magnetic light and stuck it inside the small space.

  The black water system is designed to take the solids and hold them in a series of pipes with membranes to help filter liquids and solids. Specially designed bacteria break solids down, generating a small amount of energy. The primary benefit of this engineered bacteria is that it consumes a vast majority of the volume of physical waste while also consuming carbon dioxide. The small amount of remaining waste is periodically removed and placed in a frozen cartridge. The resultant waste is basically sand and has no real value, having been stripped of all its useful nutrients.

  I could see the waste tubes running beneath the grated floor of the crawlspace starting aft of the bridge for twenty meters. Both the main head and the secondary head dumped (pardon the pun) their waste into one central pipe that zig-zagged back and forth under the floor. That pipe contained filtering membranes and it was supposed to connect to the storage canisters somewhere near the secondary head. Once filled, the cartridges were designed to be removed or flushed out and re-attached.

  Pulling off the panel in front of the secondary head, I saw with some dismay, that the cartridges were completely missing. Shortsighted didn't begin to describe the stupidity of this. Cartridges weren't even remotely expensive to manufacture and were reusable. On station, I could have replicated one for less than thirty m-creds, but I had no way to manufacture one right now.

  If I wasn’t able to get this fixed, we were in for a long ride to Baru Manush.

  The job turned out to be less of a nightmare than I thought it would be. Whoever designed the waste system must have, number one, been a frakking genius, and number two, spent a lot of time sitting in crap. I discovered I was able to remove the sections of pipe in front of where the cartridges attached and clean them out by dumping their contents into waste bags. I strapped bags in place of where the cartridges would normally attach. It would get us to Baru Manush. I added a reminder to check the waste bags every forty-eight hours and replace the cartridges once we got to our destination.

  I lugged the filled bags down the crawlspace and tossed them up into the hallway. I didn't have the energy to replace all of the panels I had taken off, so settled for tacking in the hall floor with a couple of new bolts. I dropped the bags into the pressurized airlock and programmed the space to freeze and run at low pressure. I lowered my mask and, sure enough, that ugly sewage smell persevered. There was still a puddle of half frozen goo underneath the main head and, possibly, some overflow under the secondary head as well.

  I stepped onto the bridge. Nick turned to look at me. "You smell bad," Nick stretched the last word out for several seconds.

  "Solids were backed up. No cartridges either. I need another hour to get the secondary head cleaned up."

  "You sure? Want me to switch out with you?" He didn't sound excited about the prospect.

  "Nah. I'm smelly but I think the secondary head will at least process now. The main head is pretty well gunked up though."

  I jumped back down into the crawlspace with another bag, a scraper, and a stiff brush. It took forty-five minutes, but I was able to peel up the mostly frozen goo under the main head and get it into the bag. Pipes were obviously backed up with sludge, had lost their seal, and would need replacing. If we avoided using the toilet, the shower would most likely work. I finished below by replacing the panels and added a maintenance item in Nick's master list to re-weld the corroded bulkheads.

  The aft head was only two meters square with a generous sink, toilet, and a broken null-gravity head adapter. I removed the head adapter first, figuring it wouldn't make sense to clean something that was broken.

  It was made of the same material as the main head and was every bit as disgusting. It was as if a room full of monkeys had been fed prunes and let loose. I started at the top and found, to my surprise, that once the cleaning paste was wet, it did an amazing job of removing grime - a pleasant word for what I believed was all over this room. Buoyed by success, I kept at it for another hour and left the room, proud of the job I'd done. I also noticed with satisfaction that the toilet successfully processed the waste and the sink drained well.

  In the captain’s quarters, I peeled off my vac-suit and suit liner to run through the suit-freshener. While I was pulling on a fresh liner, my back was to the door and I didn't notice Xie leaning on the door frame looking at me.

  I had my suit liner up to my waist when I finally saw her.

  "Hey, do you mind? I'm c
hanging here," I said, embarrassed.

  "You get all of that from when we got jumped in The Down Under?" Xie asked, perusing the different bruises and scrapes on my torso. With all of the excitement of getting the ship going, I had nearly forgotten about getting jumped twice by goons.

  "No, ran into some other trouble the day before." I finished pulling my liner over my shoulders and zipped it up.

  "What's all that about?" Xie asked.

  "Well, to be truthful I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on why we got jumped," I responded.

  Xie looked shocked. "Me? What would I know about it?"

  "No idea, that's why I asked." I couldn’t understand why she was getting defensive.

  "Dunno." Now she sounded annoyed.

  "Well, you took care of that one guy pretty neatly. You have some serious moves." I sat on the couch to pull my vac-suit on.

  Xie gave me what I could only describe as a lecherous look. "Oh, I have moves."

  She had to be at least ten years older than me, but I had to admit she was very attractive. Her straight black hair hung forward over her left shoulder and draped down over her chest. Her lithe frame was slightly more filled in than Tabby's and her hips were shapely without being thick. Even with that, I wasn't the least bit interested in her not-so-veiled flirtation.

  I realized I had been staring at her, obviously considering her proposal. She stared back, enjoying the tension.

  "Oh, sorry. I have a girlfriend." I felt a bit flustered.

  Xie crossed the room and sat next to me on the couch and placed her hand on my leg a little too far up for my comfort. She leaned in and suggested, "She wouldn't need to know a thing. Isn't she headed to school anyway?"

  It was hard to think with her sitting that close, especially when I felt her breasts pushed up against my arm. I gently picked up her hand and placed it back in her own lap and then stood up to pull my vac-suit over my suit-liner.

  "Yeah, no. I can't, Xie." The sucky thing was I wanted to. Xie was right here, warm and smelling really nice. Then I felt guilty, like I was betraying Tabby by just thinking about it.

  Xie looked disappointed, even going so far as to push her lips forward in a pout. I wasn't prepared for female drama. It was one of the things that attracted me to Tabby. I needed to change the subject.

  "Any chance you would show me some of those moves you used on that guy in The Down Under?" Her graceful handling of one of the thugs, even though he had a flechette pointed at her, was impressive.

  Xie lost some of her pout and held her hand out for a little help out of the couch. It made sense. I had struggled under the 1.5 gravity we were currently flying with. I offered her my right hand.

  Xie grabbed my hand and as she came to a standing position, gripped it hard, crunching my fingers together at the same time she twisted it into my body. I naturally turned away from the pain, putting her directly behind me. She quickly followed by grabbing hair on the back of my head and pulling downward.

  "What the frak!" I cried, pissed at the turn of events.

  "Lesson one, Liam. Always assume you are at risk."

  Xie pushed my head and arm forward abruptly, causing me to stumble into the couch. I turned to watch her stalk out of the room and head aft. I felt like calling after her and asking what her problem was, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

  I found Nick on the bridge. "Ready to change shifts?" I asked.

  "Yup." Nick jumped up.

  "Anything going on?" I had read it was standard operating procedure to get a status report before taking over a bridge watch.

  "We are still under hard burn. All systems are nominal," Nick said.

  "You are relieved." I said, mostly joking with my formality.

  Nick nodded in approval. "I stand relieved."

  "Let's move to four hour shifts," I said. "I think it's impossible to get anything done in a two-hour shift." Nick was already heading off of the bridge. I suspected he had something big to work on. He hadn't stopped working for days and, after what I ran into with the septic system, I could only imagine how bad the other systems were.

  "Roger that," he replied and exited the bridge.

  Update displays to Hoffen One. Automate changing displays when I assume bridge watch. The AI responded with a positive chime.

  Add septic system status to main display. Maybe it was because of my recent efforts, but it seemed a mistake not to consider the septic system critical. It still showed as yellow, but I knew from experience it could take days to get everything flowing correctly. Next shift I would have to hit the main head and at least get the shower running. For now, however, it felt great to just sit in the pilot's chair.

  It was not unreasonable to nap while on watch, especially for poorly manned ships like ours. The navigation computer would automatically make adjustments for objects, like debris, that passed nearby. If, however, the object had any sign of life, the AI would immediately warn the standing watch. It would be unusual to find an uncharted object out here, but it wasn't unheard of. Even more unlikely would be for us to encounter another ship, but if we did the AI would know about it well in advance.

  While I dozed in and out, I thought about my last day with Tabby and wondered what she was up to. She wouldn't make it to the Naval Academy by the time we arrived at Baru Manush. I really needed to send her a recording. We were too far away to communicate two-way without the Navy's communication equipment on the Kuznetsov. I wondered if the equipment the Navy had installed on Sterra's Gift would be able to initiate that level of communications, but I wasn't about to find out.

  "Permission to enter the bridge," Nick asked from outside the bridge's open door.

  "Enter." I replied a little groggily. I was starting to believe that Nick was training me on ship etiquette. I still had an hour left. "What's up?"

  Nick handed me a pouch of water and a meal bar. I was both hungry and thirsty, so his timing was good.

  "Nothing much. I need to do some reading on the atmo generator."

  "Anything bad going on?" I hated to think what would happen if our atmo systems failed.

  "Yes and no. Nothing to worry about with three of us, but the algae systems are completely down. We're running on crystals," Nick said and dropped into the starboard pilot's chair.

  I was surprised my display didn't show a failure in such a critical system. Show atmospheric systems. My vid-screen showed a solid green display on top, but the next line showed a red failure. I drilled into it and discovered it was the algae regeneration system. It seemed incomprehensible that the algae system wasn't considered critical.

  "That's weird, the algae isn't a critical system." I said.

  "I knew about it and downgraded it for the trip. Our atmo crystal system is in great shape and we have enough crystal for ten trips."

  "Think you can get the algae system running?"

  "No chance. Best I can do is get it cleaned out and start a regeneration process once we reach Baru Manush. We need seed material and I didn't have any place to put it. All of the plants are dead and we're missing parts."

  "I am starting to guess those pirates didn't fly this thing very far." I had been trying to work out what Sterra's Gift had been used for. "Where's Xie?" I hadn't seen her since I started bridge watch.

  "Must be in her bunk room. Haven't seen her." Nick studied my face. I could tell he was wondering if there was something going on between Xie and me, but I also knew he wouldn't ask. Nick knew I wouldn't tell him and so he would try to read it in my face. It was a mental game we'd played before.

  I got up from my chair and pushed the bridge door closed. I had Nick's full attention now.

  "Have you given any thought to why the ship was torn apart?" I asked.

  "Yup, someone was looking for something. Didn't find it though."

  "Why do you think that?" I had learned to trust Nick's intuition.

  "The ship was systematically tossed. The item has to be small, too." I was about to ask how he knew that, but he he
ld up his hand to hold me off. "Even small spaces were torn up or had panels removed. Why would you rip open the padding on the pilot chairs? Why would someone bring something that valuable or secret on a raid?"

  "I pretty much assumed they were scuttling the ship. You know, if they can't have it then no one can?" I was beginning to doubt my obviously simplistic view.

  "Why would a pirate scuttle the ship? Plus, where did the equipment go? They were stuck in the ship until the sheriff's department got ‘em out and locked 'em up." Nick sounded certain.

  "Knock, knock." Xie's voice came through the bridge door as she pushed it open. "What are you boys up to? Am I breaking into a secret meeting?"

  There was a small hint of panic in Nick's face. He wasn't one for intrigue.

  "Nope, come on in. We were just doing a little planning. Nothing we can't get back to. What's up?" I asked.

  "I was wondering when you thought the shower would be up and running. Do you have anything on this tub other than meal bars? And, do you plan to make coffee more than once a day?"

  I chuckled, "Wow, that's a lot of wondering. Let me give it my best shot. Shower tomorrow, but I suspect it won't do much more than get you wet. Meal bars are it and coffee will be ready every morning at 0400. We don't have enough for multiple pots each day. A luxury ride, we aren't."

  "Well, I suppose I knew most of that before I booked the ride. You guys play cards?"

  I looked at Nick. We had been running pretty hard for the last few days. Cards sounded like a good idea to me.

  "You have cards?" I asked.

  "Thought you would never ask." Xie sauntered over between us and sat up on the bulkhead under the armored glass. It was an unusual place to sit but I didn't see any harm in it. "The game is five card draw ..." I had a feeling I was about to be taken for a ride.