Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Better. Ten pairs installed, we're hooking up the control runs to number ten now. I'm swapping the bots so I can use the larger ones to handle the next step while the smaller ones do the final connections. Assembly line,” he said in short hand.

  “Assembly line?” she asked, wrinkling her nose in thought. She turned to a view screen and watched the feed. One bot was bolting number ten down while two bots were plugging in control runs. A second pair of larger bots including the large Hideyoshi Mantobot were moving to the lock to pick up emitter number eleven. The yellow pencil bot was installing sensors and running control runs ahead of the others. It's manipulators were a blur, moving back and forth making connections with what she hoped was precision.

  “How can you handle so many at the same time?” she asked.

  “Practice. And I'm not all alone. Sprite may be handling software repairs but Proteus is in here with me as well as controlling the bots working on system repairs now,” Irons answered.

  “Proteus?”

  “One of my other AI's. Look chief not to be rude but I'm kind of busy here...”

  “Oh sorry,” she said as he twitched a hand. She backed off and turned away. “I wanted you to know we're down to canned air and we're even tapping the EVA suits. We're going to have to shut down your replicators now.”

  “Damn. Okay,” he said absently, pulling number eleven out of the lock and into the reactor chamber. He pivoted it gently and then lined it up for installation.

  An hour and a half later the repairs were complete. He pulled the other bots out and tucked them into the storage alcoves. The Mantobot was too large however. Grimacing he opened the exterior hatch and ejected the thing. If they had the facilities they could decontaminate the damn thing. He wasn't sure if it was worth the effort though, the bot was a pain in the ass to use. He vowed to make them another as he watched it tumble up the tube and into space. Okay maybe not a Mantobot though, something that actually was easy to use and abuse.

  “Good bye, thanks and good riddance. Chief we're running start up tests now. Time to get the seed and start warm up.”

  “Injectors are priming now Admiral. We've cleared the kink in the fuel line, thanks for pointing it out,” she said. He nodded absently. Proteus had pointed it out, as well as numerous small fuel leaks in their system. All were now patched. He felt the systems aligning, felt the chamber warming.

  “Seed is extracted from the reactor and it is in transit admiral,” Proteus informed him. He raised an eyebrow. That was quick.

  “I anticipated the request,” Sprite said before he could ask.

  “Oh,” he said.

  “Barry is following along at a respectful distance. We should be seeing it in a minute five sir.”

  “Good enough. Chamber status?” he asked, eyes still closed as he watched the implant feeds. He grunted at the display. It wasn't spec, but it would have to do. They were out of time.

  When the bot carrying the seed got there it bobbed and went straight for the chamber door. The airlock opened and a crew member nearby looked up nervously then got out of the way as the bot floated in and then shut the door.

  “What about the bot?” O'Mallory asked.

  “I'll have to eject it. No choice. There isn't any room and it's not built for the radiation,” Irons replied.

  “Ouch,” she said.

  “I'll make another,” Irons said as the seed floated free of its container. He watched the bot eject itself and then turned his attention on the injector and sensor feed.

  “Seed has been picked up by the emitters. Flattening.”

  “Don't let it string out to a ribbon. Keep it bottled to keep it warm,” Irons ordered. If they let the surface area get too large it would lose heat too fast.

  “Noted.”

  “Fuel injection beginning. Lasers are online and chamber is prewarmed. Firing... we have initial ignition but it flamed out.”

  “Prewarm the fuel,” he ordered. They should have done that from the beginning he thought with an irritated kick at himself for not checking. “Any bugs?”

  “Minor and self correcting now Admiral,” Proteus reported.

  O'Mallory felt like a spectator as she and her crew watched the readouts on the rebuilt screens. “Come on baby light,” she muttered softly. “Please please light...”

  “Second attempt. Fuel is breaking alignment. We have a ribbon.”

  “Damn.”

  “Emitter nine is kicking. Compensating,” Proteus reported.

  “Noted. Ignition temperatures?”

  “Life support is offline. Ignition temperatures at forty million degrees Kelvin and climbing at ten million degrees per minute.”

  “Understood. Wait for firing until we're up to one hundred million,” Irons replied. One hundred million degrees Kelvin was the standard temperature to achieve ignition temperatures.

  “Pinch is sustained. We have a ball and ribbon. Minor oscillation detected.”

  “Let's try not to make it worse. Try not to overcompensate,” Irons said patiently. Proteus wasn't really the AI for a job like this. It was a repair and design AI, not a ship AI. Right now though the AI was all they had.

  “Ignition temperatures achieved. Firing lasers. We have ignition,” Proteus reported.

  Irons grunted as the lasers fired on the ball of seed plasma. It flared into a miniature sun and then spread along the ribbon until it met itself.

  He ignored the cheers in the room as Proteus eased the injectors up a bit and the fuel increased. “Tap the stream!” The chief cried.

  “Belay that!” Irons bellowed. “You do that now and you'll strip her and she'll flame out. We need to get a good ball going before you can do that. Just a little longer. Five minutes until we've got a surplus and it's self sustaining,” Irons said.

  “Roger,” O'Mallory grunted.

  “Just a little more chief. Patience,” he said quietly.

  “I gathered that,” she said, eyes on the screen. “We're getting reports of people falling ill all over the ship admiral.”

  “My shuttle is...” he checked. Yes the shuttles were back on task, some of the life support had been restored to the critical decks. Obviously not enough. “It's working on it,” he said.

  “Not enough. It's a launch.”

  “I know. Believe me I know. I'm going to have to tear it's systems down and rebuild the reactor after this,” he sighed.

  “Somehow I think you'll enjoy it,” O'Mallory replied, lips twitching in a small smile. Irons looked up at her and then smiled a little himself.

  “True,” he said with a shrug and a self depreciating chuckle.

  “I'll help,” she said. A few people in the room echoed that. He nodded.

  “Teamwork,” he said. “Chief status on the plasma conduits? We're going to be dumping some plasma soon so we don't want a breach.”

  “Not on my watch,” she said as she turned to her crew. “Check and then check again. Give me a status report.”

  “Reactor output is at nine percent and climbing steadily. We've got a stable bottle chief.”

  “Will wonders never cease,” O'Mallory muttered. Irons snorted softly. The reactor was a stacked double torus; each torus had twenty four paired emitters. Fuel was injected in the center, squeezed and superheated into a fusion reaction then the resulting helium plasma was siphoned off the top and bottom. It was a classic Tokomak generation ninety arrangement, civilian grade of course. The fact that it was stable was a testimony to the crew. Or would have been without the unseen presence of Proteus managing the bottle.

  Sprite was working on a subroutine, collecting data from Proteus and creating a series of control systems for the bottle. It wouldn't be as good as a dedicated AI watching over the bottle, but it would serve the purpose for most applications.

  When the repairs were made the engineer took a break to rest and noticed additional guards and the captain. Defender brought up the audio of the conversation. “I want him off my ship. Now. Preferably spaced,” the cap
tain said coldly but quietly. Irons frowned but continued to study the readouts.

  “Cap after all he's done? Destiny is right, he's an asset!” O'Mallory said in despair.

  “Let them deal with him then,” the captain growled.

  “They can't. They are almost to the jump point and out of range. By the time we get a call through to them it would be too late. Besides, he wants to go on to Antigua.”

  “We have a duty to carry him Cap. He held up his end of the bargain.” O'Mallory glanced his way. “I say he more than held up his end of the bargain.”

  “I...”

  “Cap there is more. He's my godfather,” Warner said gently but firmly. O'Mallory's eyes went wide as the captain turned on the exec. “Yes, that's right. My parents named me after him,” he indicated the still seated Admiral. “He did a great deal for my family. I owe him. We owe him. We pay our debts. I pay my debts.”

  The captain went to retort but was interrupted by the hatch opening. He turned and paused when his wife and daughter pass through. Behind him were the rest of the ship's senior officers and half of the ship's council. He pursed his lips, easily reading his wife.

  Cora ran her hand through her curly blond hair and looked around in confusion. Her daughter Toni pointed to the unfamiliar man seated at a console.

  The captain watched as his daughter and wife made their way with stately grace over to Irons and bowed. Irons looked up amused. The two ladies were obviously mother and daughter from the way the older woman seemed to hover over the teen. Both were lookers but for some reason they didn't look alike. The mother was thin, built like a china doll with short curly Shirley Temple hair. The teen was more closely aligned with Terran normal, about one hundred and fifty centimeters; she towered over her mother by a good twenty centimeters. While her mother's skin was china white her's was much more of a golden hue. Her hair was blond at the roots but with black tips and streaks. Either it was a dye job or she had the genetic change that allowed her hair to change color every year. That had been a big fad back in the mid twenty first century apparently.

  “On behalf of this ship and it's passengers I'd like to thank you for saving our lives Admiral,” she said proffering a fine delicately boned hand.

  Irons stood and took the hand and shook it gently. “Thank you ma'am. It is part of my duty to help ships in distress ma'am,” he said bowing over it slightly.

  “Even if you are on the ship?” she asked, cocking her head and smiling a little.

  “Especially then ma'am,” he said with a snort. She laughed softly as their hands disengaged.

  “My name is Cora, Cora Chambers. I am the captain's wife and in charge of our passengers. I apologize for not meeting you sooner but I was otherwise engaged.”

  “Understandable ma'am. You have quite the passenger compliment to deal with. I don't envy your work load,” he said.

  She sighed and brushed her blond bangs out of her eyes. “Yes it can be strenuous at times. All the different personalities to deal with. It is a challenge but I feel I am up to the task though,” she smiled politely.

  “I don't doubt it ma'am,” he said politely.

  “I'll try to make your stay more comfortable from now on Admiral,” she said firmly and loudly, glancing at her husband. The captain's jaw set.

  “Thank you ma'am.”

  “What are your plans if I may be so bold to ask?” she smiled when she asked that.

  “I'm still forming them ma'am. Things are well, sort of complicated,” he said with a shrug.

  “I understand,” she said, patting him on the arm. She could hear and feel her husband's almost subsonic growl of disapproval across the room. She turned to her daughter with a hand outstretched. “May I introduce you to my daughter Toni? She's a bit of a fan admiral.”

  Irons studied the girl. She was standard Terran stock, mid teens, blond like her mother but with black streaks in her hair, with an air of exasperation hovering around her. She rolled her blue eyes. He snorted softly.

  Cora poked the black and blond haired teen. “Say something silly,” she growled.

  “What's to say?” Toni said as her mother pushed her forward and retreated.

  “Not much. Are you interested in the fleet?” Irons asked.

  She shrugged. “A little. I like to hear some of the stories. I'm a writer.”

  “Really?” Irons asked with a nod.

  “Yes. Mom and dad don't think it's important but...” she shrugged again.

  “I think it is,” Irons mused. She blinked at him.

  “You do?” she asked surprised. “Really? You're not just saying that?”

  He shook his head firmly. “No. What do you like to write?” His eyes locked onto hers.

  “Um... I sort of bounce around. I like poetry but I also like reading and writing history. Interviewing the people on the ship, writing about events and the places we go to...”

  “A reporter,” Irons said with a nod. “I've met a few. If you get a chance talk to Knox news. Maybe they will hire you as a correspondent.”

  “Really?” she practically bounced up and down. He hid an amused snort at the squeal in her voice. A few around her winced.

  “Sure. Knox has gone interstellar. I believe some of the other media outlets will be following shortly. I was dating a reporter a while ago.” He shook his head, feeling like he had put his foot in his mouth.

  “Really?” she asked, going coy. She played with her hair as her lips drooped. He sighed, recognizing the flirting. He really didn't need the complication. Her parents would flip and he was on thin ice as it was.

  “Yes. She's well... she's hopefully going to be better soon. I'm ah, got to get busy here. We need to monitor the bottle, make sure it's stable.”

  “Oh yeah sure, we'll talk later,” she said. She turned and bounced off to her parents and the officers. She turned and waved and then spun back in place. He sighed at the look the captain shot him. Pure poisonous stay away from my daughter look. Wonderful.

  Cora caught her husband glaring and cleared her throat. He looked at her for a moment, not meeting her eyes and then looked away. He had deliberately kept his wife out of the loop about Irons, hoping to get the sordid business done and over with before she had found out. He'd even arranged distractions for her but apparently the crisis had changed things. Or she'd seen them for what they were. He wasn't sure. What he was pretty sure about was that he was going to be sleeping on the couch again soon.

  “I want him gone. We can't trust him. Not after this,” captain Chambers growled desperately. He knew he was sinking fast from Cora's expression.

  “Cap...”

  “Gone,” he snarled.

  “Let's not be too hasty,” the Veraxin said, moving his second hands together. “Please consider the benefits of a man with his expertise on this ship.”

  “He's not interested in staying for long cap, I've talked with him,” O'Mallory said, trying to smooth him over. “And Hir'ruk is right, I need him. Damn if he can pull a miracle like this off in a day then think what he can do while we're here and on our way to Antigua?” she demanded, hands on her hips. “I say he stays.”

  “I'm the captain here,” the captain snarled. “My word is law.”

  “Oh stop it! Robert you are being an unmitigated ass and if you don't stop and get your head out of your ass soon you will spend the next couple of years sleeping on the floor,” Cora growled.

  Toni silently whistled at her step mother's cold determination. Cora stared into her husband's eyes, making damn she got her point across.

  “Cora...”

  “I mean it. Every word of it. You and I are going to discuss this again at a later time. You will not like that conversation either,” she snarled. O'Mallory wasn't the only one to wince as she took her husband to task for his transgression.

  “Henry,” she said, returning to a polite facade. “I understand your parents have a connection with the admiral? Old friends I understand?”

  “Yes,” Warner said
, nodding. “They say he's quite something. He has a reputation of digging into a situation like this and turning it around.”

  “I think that's an excellent idea,” Cora smiled. “Don't you?” Her gaze flicked to each of the other officers with them.

  “We should take this somewhere else to discuss it,” Esmay the Terran chief navigator said, standing behind the doctor's left shoulder. The jackal looked back at her and then shrugged and flicked her ears.

  “Here is fine. This needs to be put to bed here and now so we can get on with things,” Cora said with a slight smile.

  The engineer quietly watched, making sure his defenses were up and ready. He had his AI prep to cut the lights in the room, but from the sounds of the conversation the captain was outnumbered and out voted. Odd, normally it didn't matter. On a ship, any ship the captain's word was law. Apparently not this ship. Oh he had heard of this from times long ago. Ships and even some modern ships that had a divided ownership of the vessel had convoluted chains of command.

  One of the first experiences with democracy in the America's had been pirates. Pirates had elected their captains and had even voted on such things as destinations and major events. The captain was head of the boat but not master of her destiny.

  Things were apparently similar here. The captain didn't look happy. He couldn't blame him for not being happy about his authority being undercut. Some men would stand on principle, defending their authority but captain Chambers apparently knew a losing hand and decided to back away from the situation as gracefully as he could. He had been overruled by a higher authority after all. Irons snorted, spouses tended to do those sorts of things, put everything in perspective as they threw a monkey wrench into the works. He almost felt sorry for the captain for his authority being undermined this way. Almost.

  “Chief,” he called, turning a little to look at her over his left shoulder.

  “Yeah?” O'Mallory asked looking his way. The other officers turned to look as well.

  “The bottle is stable at twenty nine percent and climbing. No major leaks. I was wondering what you want to work on next?” he asked suggestively.