The Admiral shook his head. "Ask me for anything but time," he grunted. They were running low on time. He expected the enemy to be coming through in less than a week.
"Literal quote again Admiral?" Sprite teased. He chuckled. Shelby looked up to him then back to her feed with a frown.
"Wellington, or was it Napoleon? Not sure. That time period anyway. We take the best shot with what we have. But while we wait we can try to sharpen things the best we can." He nodded as Shelby patted the young man then came over.
"They are getting better," she nodded to him.
"That they are number one. That they are. How are you handling your implants?" the Admiral asked. Silently Firefly fed him the data on her usage.
"It's weird. I mean, dad described it to me over and over, but it's hard to put into words. I've wanted implants my entire life," she replied shaking her head. “It sort of tickles,” she admitted. He chuckled.
"It does take some getting used to." He called up a crew chart and entered in a request for usage of implants. After a moment Firefly charted the crew's progress and learning curve and then showed him where Shelby was at on it. She was far ahead of most of the crew. "A few are still getting the hang of it," he observed.
"What? Oh, looking at the chart again?" Shelby asked. He tapped his link to project the data onto the nearby HUD. "I... it's a bit harder to get used to than I thought. I didn't expect the headaches to be honest, though I should have. Dad has them all the time when he is jacked in." She shrugged.
"What really bothers me is the body aches and pains...and don't get me started on cramps!" she shuddered. The Admiral chuckled again.
"Drink plenty of fluids and regular exercise. Limit long term time in the net. If you don't need to be in the net then get out," he shrugged.
"How do you do it?" she asked.
"Me?" He smiled. "I'm wired into the net at all times remember?" He tapped his brow. "Wonders of modern technology. I just don't focus on the net unless I need to. I can also delegate tasks. You have to realize it is a tool. Another channel you can tap to help you. But it can get addictive if you’re not careful," he finished.
"Admiral we're receiving notice from Anvil, the latest shipment of missiles are delayed. Betsy and Captain Guiterez were diverted to SAR," the communication's yeoman looked up from her display to the Admiral. Shelby turned to her with a frown but the Admiral nodded.
"Very well, get me a revised ETA and route it to my inbox." The young woman blushed a little and then nodded turning back to her station. "Don't worry about it Shelby, they have some rough edges, in some cases jagged, but they are coming along fine. It will all come together in time," he smiled. She nodded reluctantly.
Chapter 20
"We're approaching the first derelict now," Dan looked up and over to the Admiral.
"Ping her."
"Sending active ping now. Sensor and IFF ping sent. Two seconds to return." The tech held her hand to her earwig. She had yet to get implants. "Sensor echo confirmed, it’s the Sun-Yat." She typed at her console then looked up. "I've got an eighty percent probability match with her class. She has some damage though," the girl frowned.
"Let's not jump to any conclusions. Put it up on the big screen," Irons nodded to the plot. The girl tapped at her controls frowned then looked up.
"I've got it," Firefly reported as the image came up then stabilized. They could see the image of the derelict ship drifting in a slow tumble. As it drifted gray CG images would outline unknown areas then fill them in when a clear resolution was achieved.
"She's a beat up lady. Think she can still go to the prom Admiral?" Irons turned to see Logan standing in the doorway. Logan was dressed in a skin suit. A work belt with tools was strapped around his waist. Additional tools were strapped to his thighs.
"Worried about getting all dressed up and not having a date Commander?" Firefly teased. That was a legitimate concern. They had just under nine days to get this ship sorted and at the jump point before the admiral's original deadline expired.
"Well, now that you mention it, it would be a shame..." Logan drawled, then smiled. His medical treatments had given him new life. His aged profile had undergone a transformation. He would not get to the young thirty something year old look of the Admiral, but he did look half his present age of one hundred and twenty one.
"Damn," Janice muttered.
Irons turned to look at the plot. "Enhance that," he said pointing.
"Enhancing quadrant delta three. She's breached, it looks like her main fuel tank ruptured. I'd say weapons fire from the heat peel around the breach. See the blistering?" Firefly pointed out the details. Both Logan and the Admiral grunted.
"She must have taken a lance straight through her," Logan muttered. Firefly highlighted similar breaches all over the hull.
"Not all of them are combat damage, some look like micro meteor impacts," Logan said studying the display. The habitat decks were definitely breached. Captain Gutierrez had been right about that. Unlike a standard Federation naval vessel this militia class had windows. He winced.
"Why does she have old fashioned windows?" Janice asked seeing the glint of one reflecting light.
"She's old. Real old," Logan answered not looking away from the image. “She was centuries old even before the Xeno war. Hopefully her frame is worth salvaging.”
"A grand dam. She was probably transported to Pyrax on a freighter when the system was first colonized then reassembled in space. Or she may have been an inner system runabout. I'm not sure. Since she's a militia boat, my information is sketchy at best," Irons answered.
"Right, so should we bother? I mean look at her!" Harris waved to the image.
"Oh ye of little faith. I've seen worse. Hell, we've lived in worse remember?" Logan turned to the tac officer. Harris stared wide eyed.
"Patch the holes, rebuild her power plant, refuel her, clean out her life support, and she'll fly. I don't know how well until I check her engines though," Logan shrugged.
"Are we really going to do this?" Mayweather came in behind Logan. She gently pushed him aside to get past him and onto the bridge.
"Looks that way," Janice replied.
"Good. When do we start?" Mayweather asked, turning to Logan, then to the Admiral.
The Admiral gave Logan a shrug then chuckled. "No time like the present."
"Right, I've got my crew assembled in boat bay two. Sergio are you going to play pilot?" Logan asked.
Sergio jumped up then flinched. He turned to the Admiral. "Permission to..."
"Granted. Go. Be careful," Irons replied.
"We're not detecting any power sources Admiral," the scan tech announced.
"Still a good idea. Debris can hole a ship, or a suit if you get cocky," Irons replied as Sergio, Mayweather, and Logan left. “It's also best to get the idea of safety firmly in your mind at the beginning. Remember, this is step three. We've got a lot more to do.”
"This is Shelby, if we're not going anywhere any time soon can we stand down the engines?" Shelby called.
Firefly's avatar flickered. Irons shot the avatar a look then looked up to the ceiling. "Why? What’s the problem?" Irons asked.
"I don't like the looks of engine two. I want to stand her down and run a diagnostic," Shelby replied. Irons looked at the avatar.
"Firefly?"
"Engine two is not reading up to spec Admiral. The engine is running at forty three percent efficiency, but there is a hard wave harmonic that is throwing things off. We may have a problem with the thrust vector or something further up stream. Perhaps a broken wave guide emitter? Or a short?" Firefly answered after a moment.
"You mean you don't know?" Janice asked.
"Most of my drive sensors are still only connected to subnets. I can't run diagnostics now. It has to be done manually," the AI answered.
"Hence the stand down," Irons nodded. "Go ahead. All fusion drives shut down to maintenance levels. RCS to station keeping. Set wedge and mag sail to station keepin
g as well. Shelby, go ahead and shut down drive two and get busy," he said looking up. “I want a completion ETA ASAP.”
"On it. Thanks."
"Admiral, she's a mess, but she's worthy," Logan said a few hours later. Irons smiled as Logan reported over the communications link.
"She's bingo on everything, but I don't see any damage to her drives that we can't fix. Matt patched in a battery pack to her bridge, her bridge electronics are functional. I've got a crew working on a communications link to Firefly now. Purple Blossom dived right into the air ducts and electricals, she's chasing down shorts and power bleeds a hell of a lot faster then we can."
The AI turned and nodded to the Admiral. "Handshake protocol received and accepted. Admiral, I've accessed her logs do you want to see them?"
Irons waved it away. "Maybe later. Copy them to the file archives. CC a link to Harris and Dan for further review."
Harris looked up and grinned. Dan chuckled. "Oh I think it's going to be a late night again tonight!" he sing songed softly.
"Quiet," Firefly frowned.
"This ship is tight Admiral, only two decks, not much room. I can barely turn around in her bridge. Engineering is pretty tore up. It's just on the other side of the bulkhead." Irons could hear the annoyance in Logan's voice. "I sent Sergio back to pick up more gear. I'd like to get those replicators you built for her in and online ASAP," Logan finished.
"Right, I have him on final now," Firefly confirmed. A video screen popped up with an image of the launch. Irons waved it away.
"Send Shelby over with a spare micro reactor and a couple patch kits and some armor plates. Maybe a couple servers. No wait, I don't think they are compatible.. Crap."
Irons shook his head. "Shelby is busy tearing into drive two Commander. She said something's hinky and wants to figure it out. I'll see if she can send over someone else." He nodded to Firefly who started to scroll names. Two came up. "Okay I've got two, we'll page them and have them meet Sergio in the boat bay."
Irons nodded to the avatar who blinked. "Done."
"I should have known she couldn't resist tearing into the engines. We'll manage. Let me know when Sergio is on his way, he's liable to forget."
Janice nodded. They all knew Sergio was good, but still a little pilot mad.
"Right, will do. Give me a status report in two hours. Firefly out." He waved his hand across his throat in the classic cut motion.
The comm. tech cut the channel. "We're clear ah... sir," she said.
"Admiral, if you were over there could you speed up the repairs?" the tech asked.
"Yes, probably, but I'm not too comfortable leaving Firefly. I don't want to be caught away if the pirates arrive," Irons answered, studying the data Firefly brought up on his display.
"Oh," the girl mumbled.
"She's got a universal docking port Admiral, we could dock," Firefly reported, highlighting the dock.
"Yes but there is a breach here and here. She's a sieve." Irons pointed them out. "When they get her patched up a little more then maybe. I'm also leery about docking till we're sure she won’t short out and blow up," he shrugged.
"Can we upgrade her electronics? This ancient piece of crap is... well... crap. The bandwidth is terrible and the system... Don't get me started on the memory speed." The AI grimaced. Several of the bridge watch chuckled.
"I don't know. The problem is interfacing. Remember, she's old. There is no telling if we can match her old system and old wiring harness with new gear. Some of her systems probably won’t be able to handle it," Irons replied.
"Yeah, that's true. Then again, if they made her modular, then we might have a chance," Harris replied. Irons looked over to him.
"Well, I did do a little research a while back. Some of the ships were modular to make them easier to repair, service, or upgrade in the field," he said. Irons nodded. "That's true of some designs, but there is no telling what that is," Dan waved to the ship. "She's different. Spinal mounted rail gun? Who uses that? I don't remember that back in the Xeno war," he shook his head.
Harris studied his tac readouts then the schematic. "You may be right. Looks like she's got six laser turrets. Singles, not Gatling. They must double as point defense. I wonder if they tore out KEW turrets as an upgrade?"
“Bingo. Probably late addition add ons or something,” Dan said rubbing his jaw. He looked thoughtful. “I do recommend we try to upgrade her, I mean, the interface design will be a bitch, but if we've got to do it anyway...” he turned to Irons.
The Admiral nodded. “We'll see.”
“And get rid of those ridiculous portholes,” Firefly muttered.
"Admiral she's maneuvering! Her RCS is lit... She's firing! We're on a collision course!" a sensor tech called, sounding hysterical.
"Firefly emergency blow, All hands brace for emergency maneuver!" Irons called, then grunted as the ship pitched down. Padds and styluses, along with assorted loose gear suddenly flung up to the ceiling then rained down once more. Janice squeaked as a coffee cup hit her on the back.
"Report," Irons said, turning to see the tech picking herself up off the floor. She looked at her display then turned.
"We're clear, but that was too close," she shuddered.
"Firefly?" Irons asked. "Comm. open a channel," he scowled.
"Channel open Admiral."
"Logan what the devil is going on over there?" he asked with some heat.
"Sorry Admiral, there was a hiccup in the helm controls. Her last order was still embedded in her electronics buffer. When we powered her helm up to clear her she just bucked like a mule." Logan's voice sounded breathless and a bit shaky.
"Everyone okay?" Irons asked suddenly concerned.
"We've got a few injuries, mostly bumps and bruises and a couple broken bones. I definitely hurt my pride. The inertials were off line so some of the crew are out still." Logan sounded concerned as well. He had a right to be, his ship wasn't fully functional yet after twenty something hours of round the clock work.
"Damn," Irons muttered looking around. He found the comm. tech. "Get a med team over there on the next flight. Bump whatever you need. And get me a casualty report here," he sighed as Shelby called in.
"What the hell was that?" she said. "Evans nearly blew us to kingdom come!" Harris paled. The comm. tech winced.
"It is all right Shelby, my fault," her father answered her tiredly." Sun-Yat had a bit of a buck in her we didn't see coming." He exhaled noisily over the channel.
"Well next time warn a gal!" Shelby said, starting to calm down. Irons nodded.
"I'm getting damage reports all over the ship. We'll talk about this later," she snarled then cut the channel. Irons winced.
"I'm glad we weren't docked when that happened. It would have ripped our hull up," Firefly said into the growing silence.
"Yeah," Irons exhaled, getting his own emotions under control then shrugged. "And now you know why I didn't want to do that right off. All right, let's get things sorted out then. Sergio is on final?" He turned to the sensor tech who nodded. He cleared his throat.
She turned. "Oh, sorry, I mean yes Admiral. He's..." she looked down, "twelve minutes out." Irons nodded.
"We've got a couple reports of bumps and bruises, one broken arm, but so far so good," Firefly said.
Irons nodded. "Keep me updated."
Harris suppressed another yawn. Irons glanced his way. They'd been at it for about thirty six hours. Obviously the kid needed a break. Fortunately he had the perfect excuse.
"All right Harris, you and Dan take off, get some rest. I'm giving you the evening watch. Be back here ten minutes before it starts. That’s in six hours so you better get some food and down time." Irons looked over to the tac officer then to the defense officer.
"Dan, you've got the graveyard, so get some food and rest and report back here in thirteen hours. Both of you be prepared for six hours of work though, I'll leave you some exercises to work on," he smiled. Harris's eyes lit. Dan seemed just as exc
ited but then a hint of worry appeared.
"What if we mess up?" he asked.
"On graveyard? Hardly." Harris dismissed the idea as he got up. A tech came in to relieve him. "You'll do fine, just don't crash the mainframe trying to run a sim," he smiled. Dan chuckled. He stretched and then nodded to the tech who came up beside him. He murmured to her for a few moments then followed Harris out.
"Do you think they will be okay with command?" Firefly asked over the private channel.
"They'll do fine. Besides, we've got to start taking chances some time. They need to get some experience and confidence. Develop some command skills," Irons murmured. The AI nodded.
"Hence having them take the evening and night shift on their own. We're going to be here until morning so you can rest up," the AI's avatar turned and smiled. Irons chuckled.
"Now you've got it," he said. "Make sure you give them some good problems, start them on a curve though. Make sure you throw them one twist. I want it all recorded so we can go over them later." The AI nodded.
"Aye aye Admiral, I have a few that would work," the AI sounded smug.
"Don't swamp them just yet. Let them get some confidence. But if you can keep their interest with a challenge, all the better," Irons warned. The AI nodded again.
"Sun-Yat is powered up. They've got her computer rebooted and life support in several compartments. Commander Logan requested a funeral service for the dead," Sprite reported.
Irons grimaced then nodded. "Yeah, a brief one," he replied.
"Drive techs are working now, she's only got the one fusion drive, so it will be easier to work on. They won’t have to sync up multiple ones, but she's a bit slower and sluggish on the helm," Firefly said sounding smug.
"Maybe, but then again, she doesn't have as much mass," Sprite replied sweetly.
"Are you calling me fat?" Firefly asked sounding amused.
"If the ship fits..." Sprite answered with a laugh. Irons chuckled.
Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer) Page 42
