She nodded. "Oh, on warships it does other things, like dissipate sensor energy and other things," she said absently. She waved a dismissive hand.
"Someone's been doing their homework," Trisha teased. Molly blushed. "Good for you!" Trisha patted her arm. "Wish I had the knack, all I can stand is life support." She waved and left the room.
Jennie palmed the door control then reeled back at the blast of sound. "Only yooouuuuu tell me..." She wrinkled her nose and covered her ears.
"Shut that noise off!"
The nurse looked up annoyed. "It's not noise! That's classical music!" Jennie reached over and flipped the volume down to off.
"It's noise!" Jennie retorted. “And if you want the equipment fixed, it stays off.”
The nurse sniffed. "Some people have no taste in the fine arts!" she turned with a huff and left. Jennie watched her leave. "I was thinkin the same thing," she observed dryly. The Admiral chuckled.
The Captain came into her quarters and noticed the group of women all gathered around the door to her head. "Now what's going on here? What are you doing in my quarters?" She was annoyed, expecting some quiet time. The girls looked back guiltily, making a hole where she could just see the engineer kneeling near the toilet.
"Oh, sorry Captain, we were just showing the class some plumbing." He fiddled with a pipe and murmured to someone the Captain couldn't quite see.
"Eh?" she grunted. The girls smiled tentatively.
"Well, I am glad their busy, since they are always getting into mischief," she huffed. She gave the girls a jaundice eye. Some of them giggled.
"We should be finished here in a few minutes Captain." He bent down behind the toilet.
"All right, I will be in my wardroom," she sniffed and pushed the controls to turn her chair. The girls were excited about these classes. Her granddaughter had mentioned them, but at the time she hadn't known they were so popular. Of course it may have been because he was a mythical hero, or just because he was a male. Hopefully he was discreet; she didn't need the headache of jealous girls.
She turned to give him a look. Trisha handed him a rag as he sat up. "All right ladies, that should be about it. I turned the water back on while I was under there, so the tank will fill. Trisha if you will do the honors?" The girl blushed but leaned over and pushed the flush. The water gushed loudly. "Now we check for a leak around the bottom." He pointed. The girls looked.
"Nope, none, I don't see any," the nearest girls said in unison. Some of the others leaned in to take a peek.
"Now, we log the repair..." He pulled out a tablet and went through the motions. "And now we move on to the next job." He got up and motioned the girls out. He nodded to the Captain who had paused in the doorway to the wardroom.
She turned and gave him a small smile. After they left she floated over and took a look. She flushed the toilet, and then turned as it swooshed and looked into the shower. It was clean, with brand new fixtures. "Nice," she murmured. She tried the controls and then turned the water spray off.
He noticed a trio of giggling girls carrying sets of goggles. "What are you doing with those?" he pointed.
The trio stopped and looked at the goggles. "Oh, Jedzia found them in the computer, they're virtual reality goggles," one of the girls answered.
"Now we can see stuff in 3D!" another said, and then giggled.
He nodded. "Okay."
One of the girls waved the goggles. "We can even access the ship's net, so we can check out your lectures in 3D," she said. She wrinkled her nose. "It is a lot easier then reading it on a tablet." He nodded. "Good point. Just be careful, they can give you a headache if you use them too long, and make you sick if you come out of virtual too fast," he cautioned. They looked at the goggles with apprehension. He hid a small smile. "Just use good judgment."
One of the girls looked over to the others. "We will, or at least I will, I'm not sure about them..." The other two looked offended for a moment, and then the trio fell into bickering as they left. He grimaced wryly, shaking his head.
He was lying on his stomach, carefully placing the last emitter. "Okay, that should about do it." He tapped the controls.
Jennie watched. "That never gets old," she said. She grinned at the blue light.
Molly nodded. "Yeah, seeing things working again..." she sighed. "Okay, my part is done here too." She sat up and pulled her communicator out of her pocket. "This is Molly, we're ready here," she said. She looked at the wiring job.
"Rerouting power now," Trisha in engineering said. The module came to life. In a moment the emitter began to glow softly, and then they felt vertigo before it stabilized. "Emitter is initialized; we have a good balance... Yes. Nice power curve, leveling off now," Trisha reported from engineering.
Faintly the Admiral could hear something sparking. "What's that?" he asked, suddenly concerned. He turned Sprite was in the net, Defender couldn't pinpoint the source. "It's not from here...” he said.
"What? What isn't here?" Molly looked up. "Sounds..."
"Admiral! Fire detected in electrical compartment 2c behind you, get out of there!" Sprite came in to his consciousness.
"Great. Electrical fire," he said, looking around. He turned to the source.
"Get out of there," Sprite urged.
Molly scrambled just as the panel edges smoked. In seconds smoke billowed out the top edge. The flicker of flames could be seen through the vents. "Crap. Not good," Irons muttered. "Where's the nearest extinguisher?" he asked looking around.
"There isn't one on this deck, get out of there!" Sprite replied.
He pulled Molly away from approaching the panel. "No don’t, get back." The panel popped open as an alarm began to eep. The guards were coughing. Cindy staggered down the corridor. "Get everyone back, alert the bridge." He waved to the guards. They stumbled. One tried to pull her com out. "Not here!" Smoke billowed out into the corridor, in moments it was too hard to see.
He waved to a side door. The emergency door down where Cindy had stumbled slammed shut. "No, this way," he said as he waved to Jennie. She stumbled and fell. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into a fireman's carry.
Molly coughed. "We can't see!" She grabbed his arm.
"Hang onto each other, form a chain!" His thermal vision came up. Sprite laid out the deck plan as well. “Okay, we have four meters to safety, just keep it together," he urged. He carried them into the compartment. He set Jennie down as Molly and the guards stumbled in. One of the guards had a breather. She buddy breathed with the other.
"What happened?" Molly coughed. Jennie shook her head; she was coughing too much to respond. "In here," Irons said. The Admiral grabbed each of them and moved them into a side room. He turned the air up. "It seems we had an accident. An electrical fire broke out in a compartment." Molly coughed.
Mindy arrived, wearing a gas mask and carrying another. "Gee this tank is heavy!" she moaned. The Admiral took the extra mask and put it on Molly.
"Take a few breaths," he urged. She did. After the third one he placed the mask up to Jennie. She tried to fend it off but he was insistent. "Breath. Again. Now again." After her third breath he switched back to Molly. "Keep going back and forth with the masks Mindy." He exited the compartment.
"Wait don't you need one?" She asked as the door shut.
"With Proteus?" he muttered. "Got it covered Admiral; scavengers are removing the carbon monoxide and dioxide at fifty three percent efficiency. I recommend staying away from higher concentrations however," Proteus reported.
He nodded. "Good to know." His eyes cycled into thermal vision once more. Sprite placed a karat onto a fallen crew member. Gently he grabbed an arm and dragged her to the side compartment.
"Here's another," a girl said. Someone tapped at his elbow.
A guard held out a mask. He waved it off, then down to the girls. "Help them, they need it." The guard coughed eyes puffy and watering. "Make sure the doc checks you both out." He nodded to Frie, who was lying against the bulkhead, cradling
the gas mask against her face. He turned and exited. "Okay. Sitrep?"
Sprite karated the burning electrical compartment. "Some flammables in the compartment and frayed or shorted wires. The life support system to this deck has been contained but is overloaded. We need to get that fire out," she said. He grunted.
"Yeah, we need foam." He looked over the area.
"Admiral, there isn't any," Sprite replied after a moment. He grunted again, this time in annoyance at himself.
"Oops."
Sprite's head came up. "Oops is right."
His lip curled. "It's not like you thought of it either,” he growled.
She blinked. "Rebuke accepted. Sorry Admiral." He went over to the fire. One of the crew was trying to drag a hose. "No, not water!" He yelled. He waved it away.
"Pull everyone out of the section," he ordered. She looked at him. "Go!" He grabbed her arm and yanked her. "Sprite...”
"Already working on it Admiral, clearing the deck now. I suggest you leave,” she said.
He nodded and coughed. "Yeah, good idea," he coughed. He pulled back to the room.
"Corridor is cleared, door sealed,” Sprite said.
He checked the readouts. "Do it." He watched the life support readings on the other side suddenly begin to fall.
"What are you doing?" Molly coughed.
"The only thing we can, cutting off the air supply of the fire," he said. He waited until the O2 levels were near zero. "Sprite?" he asked softly.
"Still reading thermal hot spots... Give it a minute or two longer," she said. He nodded and turned to the others.
"Head count?" he asked.
Molly shook her head. "I think...” She looked around uncertain. "Yeah, we're missing Cindy, but everyone else is here. She went the other way," she said. He nodded.
"Sprite?" he asked softly. He watched as Molly took a breath.
"She's okay, on the other side of the fire doors down the corridor," Sprite reported. He sighed in relief.
"She's safe," he said out loud. He nodded to the guards. "Good work." They shrugged. He turned to the controls.
"How much longer?" Molly asked.
"Are we trapped? We're trapped aren't we?" Mindy's voice had a hysterical edge. He gave her a cool look.
Molly patted her hand reassuringly. "We're fine."
Jennie didn't look reassured, but gulped as the Admiral nodded to her. He returned his attention to the controls. "Okay... No more thermal spots detected. I rerouted power and data around that compartment as well," Sprite reported.
"Good. Okay." He tapped the controls. The O2 levels began to rise.
"Looks like we'll need to replace the CO2 scrubbers on this deck sooner than expected," he said as he shook his head.
Jennie grinned. "That'll set Trisha off."
He chuckled, "yeah. That and the soot stains."
"Admiral, the doctor and a team are on the other side of the emergency doors," Sprite reported. He nodded.
"Okay," he said. He tapped the controls. It was more for show, Sprite did the real work. "Doors released. Emergency crew is here." The door opened and the doc came in. The relief crew had masks and towed a fire fighting kit.
"Who's bad?" the doctor asked through the mask. The doc stopped to look at the soot stained Admiral. "Admiral you’re not even wearing a mask!"
The Admiral waved a hand. "No problem, see to the others."
The doc looked confused, but obeyed after a moment. "Okay." He kept sneaking glances at the Admiral who turned his back.
"Report," the chief said coming in. She had a full mask on. "What happened?"
Frie took a deep breath then waved. "Over here chief." In a few moments she outlined what had happened.
The chief nodded. "Good work." She left without a look at the Admiral. He shrugged at the outraged look on many faces.
"Don't worry about it. I need a shower more than thanks anyway," he said as he left.
“Admiral, as much as I want the ship completely repaired, I'm going to have to scale you back some,” The Captain's announcement had been expected. He sighed and nodded.
“Okay, we're about done with what we can do with the stock pile or raw material on hand. I take it you want us to slow down and work on routine repairs and only one to one rebuild replacements?”
The Captain's brows knit. “one to one?” she asked. He nodded.
“Cut the damaged part out of the loop, remove it, rebuild it, and then put it back in,” he explained. She nodded. “Yes, that may work for non essential systems,” she replied. The ops officer cleared her throat. “As long as we have the power available.”
He nodded. “We still have the hover pallets to fix,” Vanessa, the purser grumped. “I don't see why now, you've taken half of our feedstock. Just what are you planning to do to replace it all? Refined metal doesn't just float around you know!” she harped.
He chuckled. “Actually it does,” he smiled, getting an idea.
“We'll talk about it later; I have an appointment with Dorah and the kids,” the captain growled. The Captain waved them out. “Go on, shoo, stay out of trouble.” The Admiral wasn't the only one to chuckle as they exited.
Gia watched the engineer as he calibrated the hover pallet. The engineering crew had been forced to scale back some of their repair efforts until new material could be acquired. Frie looked over to her and shrugged. Gia cleared her throat. "So what did you mean about that Heavy worlder comment the other day?"
He looked up and frowned. "From your build, and that of Frie over there, you look like you're descendant of heavy worlders."
Gia's brows knit. "Because we're short?"
He shook his head. "No, well, yes, that's part of it, but also because of your build. You’re stocky, with massive muscles," he explained.
Frie frowned dangerously. "So what?"
He looked over to her. "So, I thought you were a descendant of heavy worlders, either through genetic engineering or natural selection."
She cocked her head. "What do you mean?" she asked, confused. He grunted.
"Well, when humanity first began to colonize the stars, we found many worlds that were in the Goldilocks zone, but had too much, or too little gravity." He locked down the cover plate. "Okay, this one is done." He got up and cleaned his hands.
"My ancestress was a gene sculpted," Gia replied quietly.
Frie looked over to her. "You sure?"
Gia nodded. "Great gram was a scientist during the Xeno war. She was in a G shielded base when they hit the Himalaya colony," she said quietly. He accessed the Galactica database and did a search. Quickly he absorbed the short entry paragraph.
"The planet is a high G one, one of the highest. With the colonists living on the mountains right?" he asked.
She nodded. "I guess so. But there was some sort of moss or lichen that grew on the lower slopes. Down below the colonies. It had some medicinal uses so they set up a base with artificial gravity," she said. He nodded.
"I don't get it," Frie replied confused.
"They used artificial gravity to cancel out the higher gravity of the planet. Or at least cut it down to bearable strength," Irons explained.
Gia nodded. "The base was in a sheltered valley, under an overhang cell of rock. When the Xeno’s came, they wiped out the towns, colonies, everything," she said, her eyes were filled with hatred.
"Grandam turned the power plant off and cut the gravity down to just bearable levels to hide. Several couldn't stand it and died," she shook her head at the loss. "When they were sure the Xeno’s had left, or when they couldn't stand it anymore, they used the escape vehicles and some makeshift equipment to hike back up the mountain."
He patted her arm. "forty eight people were there. They went back several times to scavenge what they could. Eventually a wandering independent freighter came by hoping for salvage," she said as she smiled. "What they found was grandam. She traded what moss and gear they had for transport off that rock. Thirty five of them made it off," she said but
then her face cleared. "And here I am!"
The Admiral nodded. "I'm glad you kept your roots and know some of your history," he said quietly. She nodded. "Okay, why don't we go catch some lunch and I'll see what I have in my files about heavy worlders," he said.
He gathered up his tools and then stood. "You wouldn't happen to know your ancestors’ name would you?" Gia asked as she smiled. "Doctor Gia Brown."
He entered that into the search engine. Her name and a brief bio came up. "Hmm, she was a prominent scientist. I can see you in her," he said, comparing the thumbnail image to Gia.
Gia and Frie stopped and turned. "You knew her?" Gia asked suddenly intent.
He shook his head. "No, but I have her bio, and holo image," he said.
Gia looked excited. "I want to see!"
He waved. "Well, there's a screen in the galley now that we fixed it," he said.
She smiled. "Well, don't just stand there, come on!" He chuckled as he followed.
"All right doctor, I've found five medical texts in the files, including a high school health course, biochem course, and an introductory to xenobiology," The Admiral said, sitting down.
The doctor sighed. "I have found dozens of crystals with medical information, but it's all gibberish to me," he said as he shook his head.
"Well, I have a medical dictionary program, some files from the Encyclopedia Galactica, as well as a basic first aid program in my implants I can upload. With that, the other programs in the main frame, and what files we can recover from those..." Irons shrugged. He indicated the crystals on the doctor's desk. "We should have a basic course lined up for you. We can tailor it for the nurses and sick berth attendants too."
The doctor nodded. "Good good...wait, sick berth attendants?" he asked. He looked up confused. Irons smiled. "They're like paramedics. They reach the injured first. They also act as orderlies and nurses in sickbay," he explained.
The doctor sat back. “Mindy won’t like it, competition."
He waved to indicate the dancing girl on the other side of the glass. "Too bad," the Admiral replied, smiling.
"Oh, I didn't mean I was against it," the doctor chuckled. "She gets rather full of herself from time to time. I think dropping her a peg or two may be worth it."
New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Page 13
