“Don't look at me folks; Sprite is a person in her own right. But...” he looked up to the overhead. “I do want to remind the commander that radiation is damaging to organics but does rather nasty things to electronics too,” he replied.
“Touché'” she replied still sounding chastened.
“Hey you asked for it,” he replied. “Teach you to get on a high horse about something.”
“Knock that superiority complex right out of me?” she asked sounding amused.
“Not on your life. Or mine. I know it and you know it.”
“True,” she said coyly.
“As you were saying doc,” Irons said, turning his attention to the doctor. “Radiation. She could have been near the outer hull.”
“Why is that important?”
“Higher radiation dosage there doc.”
O'Mallory looked at the doctor as the room quieted again.
“Say that again?”
“Some parts of the ship are more protected than others. You know that right?” They nodded. “But not as well as others. This is a freighter after all; the holds aren't designed to protect the crew from radiation exposure. Normally inert stuff is stuffed in them not people. Over time you can be exposed. That exposure is cumulative.”
“True,” the doctor said. “That's why we limit exposure around the reactor.”
He shook his head. “Not just the reactor doctor. Cosmic and solar radiation are a problem as well. A good solar storm plays havoc with a ship and its crew if they aren't protected.”
“Which we are.”
“Not quite. You are now but you weren't before. At least not very well. The shields weren't working well at all. Some areas had very little or no coverage.”
“Why?”
“Well, you do realize this is a bulk cargo carrier right? Built with a small crew in mind. Most bulk freighters carried material that wasn't radiation sensitive. That meant the builders could skimp on the radiation shielding around the cargo holds and focus on the crew habitats.”
“Um...” Numiria gave the chief a look. The chief shrugged, still holding her cup.
“It explains why we've had a lot of radiation illness over the year’s doc,” the chief murmured, eyes switching back and forth. She was pretty sure she knew where the admiral was going. It was something they had known in the back of their minds for ages but had lived with for so long they had put it off as something to bear. Something they didn't have a choice in.
“Got ahead of me?” Irons asked amused. He took a sip of his coffee and then put it down. The chief just stared at him. After a moment she cocked her head and arched an eyebrow. He sobered slightly. “Okay, well, someone back oh, six hundred and ninety years ago decided to turn the ship into a habitat. They tacked on additional radiation shielding to the outer hull but came up short due to the surface area. So they went old school. What they did is add a second layer inside the ship in some areas.”
“A double hull,” the doctor responded with a nod. “I know.” She picked at her chicken, not really hungry now.
“Right. Well, that double hull is filled with bladders that are in turn filled with water. The water acts as a radiation buffer.”
“Okay...”
O'Mallory felt like a light had exploded in her head as connections were made. “The hull breaches,” the chief breathed.
Irons glanced at her in approval. She felt a glow at that approving look. “Still ahead of me. Good. Yes. You've had a lot of hull breaches over the years. Most due to meteors. When the meteor hits the hull sometimes it doesn't penetrate all the way through right?”
“It's a blessing,” Numiria said with a nod.
He frowned and shook his head. “No it's not. What it did do was breach the outer hull and vent that section to space. Some of the water flash froze if it was in the sun. But when it did that it expanded buckling the hull. When that section was in the sunlight it thawed and then the water leached out.”
“And when it penetrated we had no water at all. That should have been a warning sign right then and there,” O'Mallory said cursing herself for not seeing it sooner.
“It depends on the location of the breach chief. I'm betting they only put the bladders in where they could. Limited by material you know,” the admiral explained. She nodded and grimaced in response.
“Lovely. So you're saying we have no radiation shielding?” the doctor asked.
“The bare minimum right now. Mainly because we overhauled the energy shields. Maybe a bit more. Enough to ward off cosmic radiation and basic solar radiation but a good solar storm might be a problem. But this is something that needs to be addressed. Eventually.”
“Oh you betcha,” the doctor said firmly. She was already planning on gathering information before laying it out to the ship's council. She wasn't sure how it would be received but the others needed to be aware of the problem. It explained so many of the radiation cases that had puzzled her and her predecessors for so long. And to think it was staring at them right on the other side of the hull this entire time!
“That water probably acted as a life support and fuel reserve. At one point I'm betting it was cycled through the ship. When it became too irradiated it was used as fuel I mean. But that's also a problem. Parts of the ship do not have water.”
“Oh.”
“Also when the ship vented it added to the yaw of the ship forcing an RCS correction burn,” Sprite interjected. “It also made the ship lopsided and out of balance since a lot of the damage is on the port side. That makes steering the ship a little tougher. It also puts a lot of wear on the superstructure.”
“Are we looking at a serious problem?”
“It's a problem but we don't know what or how much of a problem. I suggest we don't borrow trouble and cause hysterics. What we can do is check.”
“Check?” Numiria asked. Her ears flicked forward attentively.
“Check. Run a random radiation sampling of the crew. Check both sides and then run a comparison model. Have someone check the compartments with a Geiger counter. Start with the outermost and then work inward.”
“That we can do,” the chief said with a nod.
“We can also replicate water mats,” he suggested.
“Um...”
“Two meter long plastic mats that are filled with tiny tubes. The tubes fill the mat. You fill them with water to heat or cool an area. You can also use sponge mats but those are harder to move the water.”
“We'll take a look first. As you said, we don't need a panic or to borrow trouble if it isn't there,” the chief said cautiously. She didn't want to get in a row over the materials for that little project.
“But it is something to keep in mind for the long term,” Irons said.
“Oh yes definitely,” the chief and doctor said in unison.
“I plan on having kids some day,” Chief O'Mallory growled.
“Me too,” Numiria echoed with a nod. She finished her breakfast quietly with the others after that. They had more than just food to chew on.
ñChapter 9
Since the reactor was standing down to idle Irons put in for repairs to it. He couldn't work on any emitters but they could work on rebuilding some of the second and third tier control runs. They did what they could for the better part of a week until they ran out of material and were forced to stop.
While he was focused on that the chief and doctor went over the ship with a Geiger counter. They marked the areas of the ship that had a higher radiation exposure. It sparked a lot of talk among the passengers and crew. To quell it the captain ordered the chief to patch the double hull from the inside the best she could and then add water to the bladders.
O'Mallory worked on minor structural repairs inside the ship. Now that they had a functional replicator she wanted to clean up some of the hasty repair jobs that had been tacked in to sections of the ship over the centuries. She had Irons go over the plans of the ship and work out a better distribution of load. Proteus worked out a mor
e efficient system for the life support, heating, and antigrav as well. This kept the crews busy for the first month.
The pace wasn't nearly as frantic as it was when Irons first came aboard of course. A lot of the repairs were hull related so they were mapped and then put off. O'Mallory planned out what she wanted to achieve in Antiguan space, but the list was long... and getting longer every day. After talking with the admiral she broke the list down into three categories. Critical, comfort, and nice to have. It amused the crew but it also put it all into perspective.
One evening she caught Irons sitting in front of a tri-dee chess set. It was a holo projection, and she was amused to see him playing against Esmay while Blackhawk and the other bystanders watched.
“Having fun?” O'Mallory asked as she came in. The crowd turned to her and smiled or shrugged. Irons turned to her and snorted before picking up his beer stein to take a swig.
“All work and no play makes for a dull day,” Irons said putting the stein down. Immediately Blackhawk flicked a finger to a server to refill it. Irons watched the young Terran woman refill the stein from a pitcher and snorted. If they thought they were going to get him hammered they were in for a rude awakening.
“I think you didn't quite get that one right admiral,” O'Mallory said as she took a stein and hooked a wooden stool with her foot to drag it over to her. She sat on it and then took a pull of beer. “Nice,” she said looking down into the mug.
“It helps to have the equipment serviced,” the beer wench murmured in passing. O'Mallory cocked her head. The wench took out a rag and wiped down the bar before tossing the rag over her shoulder. “Irons,” she said.
“Ah,” the chief said with a smile. “That explains it then,” she said turning back to the match. “How are they doing?” she asked. Esmay was the picture of concentration, not her usual insouciance pose she preferred. Obviously Irons was more of a challenge than Esmay had realized.
“The admiral's won three out of four games,” Breia said with a smirk.
“Really? So Esmay's losing her title as chess queen? Wow! How the mighty have fallen!” The chief said with a smirk.
“I haven't lost it quite yet,” Esmay growled. She reached out to touch a bishop but froze. After a moment the hand withdrew ever so slowly. Irons sat back and smiled, holding his beer.
“Well look at you. Relaxing. Beer in one hand, playing chess of all things. I wouldn't have dreamed it in a million years,” O'Mallory said mockingly, shaking her head. “How the mighty have fallen. Did we corrupt you?”
“Even I need a break now and again chief. I like chess. The beer,” he looked at it and then pointed a finger to Blackhawk. “His idea.”
“I insisted,” the broad Native American rumbled. O'Mallory looked him up and down. He was wearing his Cherokee outfit complete with a feather in his cap since he was off duty. She shook her head. “I figured we owed the man a beer since he did fix us up and get us moving.”
“Well, I had a lot of help,” Irons deadpanned with a shrug and a nod to the chief. O'Mallory saluted him with her stein and then drank from it.
“Are you going to move sometime soon or surrender?” Blackhawk asked impatiently.
“Shhhh,” Esmay shushed him, reaching out to grip a holo pawn. “Some people with brains like to exercise them a bit more than sitting on them and just following an arrow on a screen you know...” She moved the piece up a tier and then set it down. “Check.”
The holographic projection wasn't really touched by her fingers of course. Sensors in the bezel sensed where her fingers were in the field matrix and tracked the piece to them until she set it down in an appropriate location and let go.
Irons looked the scene over and pursed his lips. Esmay sat back with a sigh. “Winning?” Blackhawk asked. Esmay didn't answer. She wasn't sure if Irons had seen what she had seen.
“Not by a long shot,” he replied. He reached out with an index finger and moved his bishop to take her now exposed queen. “I think that answers that,” he said with a smile.
“Hey!” she said sitting up straight. Irons smiled as her queen exploded.
“I'm guessing not,” Blackhawk sighed. “Another beer miss,” he said holding his empty stein up to where Breia could see it. “I think it's going to be a long night,” he said.
“Probably,” O'Mallory said, looking down and smiling. It wasn't like Esmay to be off her game. But then again, chess was a strategic game. One that apparently the admiral was good at. Which made sense since he was a military man after all. She wondered if Esmay had figured that out yet or not. Apparently not quite yet.
With the slowdown of work, the internal repairs and rebuilding led to a class on welding tech. Things were settling down into a routine the crew recognized. Every day there was some new project for the engineering team and some of the volunteers to tackle. Irons tried to jump around to keep an eye on the various projects, lending a hand where needed. He also started his classes once more.
He lectured about tack welding, and explained why jumping around to distribute heat and prevent warping was so important. He explained about using filler and grinders to clean the weld up, also that the grinder can generate a lot of heat as well so jumping around to prevent heating is important there as well.
"But you don't use it though? Not filler. I don't remember filler..." Jer'uk asked, top arms in confused and unsure pose.
"I use a different method. I use... well, call it molecular bonding. Also known as nanowelding. I draw material from the sides of the welds and bind them together. The process is tedious and energy intensive."
"But you don't have to grind it smooth."
"Right. But it takes longer and it's harder to do. It makes for a stronger weld but it takes twice as long and is ten times more energy intensive. What we need here is quick and dirty."
"Ah."
“What we're doing it tacking the pieces together to make sure everything fits and to keep them in place while the next stage is test fitted. Can anyone tell me what this is?” he asked, holding up a probe connected by a black centimeter thick cable to an LCD screen.
“Some sort of endoscope?” Yvonne asked wrinkling her nose.
“Not quite. What this is, is a portable X ray machine. So once a weld is finished you run the probe over the weld like so...” He put words to action, running the probe over the weld he had just had them finish. He angled the LCD so they could see the view. “Now, as we move along we see the weld and how far it penetrated. It looks good. No red which is bad.”
“Red is bad. Got it.”
“You want to check every weld. You don't want a bad weld. That means something will break in the future,” he cautioned.
“Are you going to finish anytime soon?” a testy voice asked from the companionway. Irons looked up and then shook his head. From the sound of it a tech wanted the space they were in.
“Working on it. Finishing up now,” Irons called and then turned to the class. “So, weld. Move around, grind smooth, again moving around, and scan the weld to make sure it's proper. Any questions?” The class shook their heads. He looked at the Veraxin. Jer'uk and her companions gave off signs of second or third level agreement.
The changes to the internal parts of the ship were making life interesting for the passengers. Since they were doing it anyways, the chief and Numiria had taken advantage of the dislocation to rearrange things. With the Admiral's help they relocated the most commonly used quarters closer to the center line of the ship. Stores of goods and materials that were not radiation sensitive were placed in the outer hull areas.
The changes made people a bit happier. Ever since their conversation the passengers were nervous about being anywhere near the outer hull. They hadn't before, that amused Irons. The chance of a breach or blow out had been on everyone's minds for years but had been an accepted risk. The threat of radiation though... that held a dread for all of them. He made another note to try to upgrade the infirmary when he got the chance.
The int
eresting thing was that they were putting a lot more design effort into the accommodations. They were thinking it out this time, not throwing it together as someone did centuries ago. Granted whoever had thought up this mess had been a mad genius for it to last this long, but there were tons of rough edges. With a little foresight the barracks for instance had proper bathrooms and lighting.
“Okay people, let's go. We've held them up long enough. Next section you can tack and weld on your own. I'll jump one ahead of you and then spot check you.”
“Test?” Jer'uk asked.
“You're all old enough and experienced enough to know a pass fail. You also know the risks,” Irons replied as they moved out of the compartment.
“About time,” an accusing voice said. Irons turned to the source. A cargo tech was looking a bit annoyed. The class shifted about as the cargo techs started moving in. Yvonne gave Irons a look.
“They want to get some space back. Everyone's crowded.”
“Tell me about it,” Yvonne said. With the changes to the internal parts of the ship they were double bunking, or in her case hot bunking her hammock. Whoever was using it when she was off shift didn't shower nearly often enough.
“Are we really going to rebuild the interior like a passenger ship? With quarters for everyone?” A student asked.
“We're laying the ground work right now,” Irons replied, giving Yvonne an amused look. That had been a bone of contention with the ops officer. He didn't see the need for one full bathroom for every ten people on board the ship. “Unfortunately we don't have the material to dress them out with plumbing and refreshers, let alone vid screens and other things.”
“Frills,” Yvonne said wrinkling her nose. It didn't quite sound convincing though. He was fairly certain she wouldn't mind a few frills if she could have them.
“Something like that,” Irons replied. He wouldn't like to live in a converted cargo bay for most of his life. Now that the repairs were underway people were flocking to some of the interior quarters that had been abandoned as unlivable. He'd had to chase people out of his quarters twice. Cora had apologized each time. He'd considered moving into his launch but then rejected it. Sleeping in the launch was possible, but it was also busy 24/7. His replicators were in constant use still.
Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) Page 19
