Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (36 page)

Bryan
met her at the shuttle on the second trip. He had a couple of dozen packages at
his feet. “I've got spares and I can make more so don't worry,” he said as she
frowned and her ears went flat. “And the Admiral is already replicating
replacement tools for me as well,” he hugged her. “Goddess speed.”

“You
as well,” she said returning the hug, but her eyes were on the shuttle.

“Hurry
up we don't have all day! Window's closing!” the pilot called.

“I'm
coming!” she called. Bryan helped her bring the gear to the cargo lock. A cargo
handler packed it in. She caught sight of an air car inside.

“Who...”

“You,”
Bryan said, taking her by the elbow and steering her to the lock. “The Admiral
of course. There is also a micro replicator, fuel, a micro reactor, solar
blankets, wind turbine, emergency shelters, a ton of other stuff, and enough
emergency rations to live out the winter. Good luck,” he said gruffly. She
turned and gave him one more fierce hug then bounded up the stairs, dashing
tears.

“Last
call. Clear the deck,” the boat bay officer said. Bryan waved then turned
walking out as the shuttle lock closed.

“She'll
land on her feet,” Irons said from the boat bay hatch as Bryan exited the boat
bay. He stepped aside to let the medic through then the hatch closed.

“She's
a cat. They always do,” the medic said passing him. He patted the Admiral's
arm. “That was a generous thing you did. All that gear.”

“She
needed it,” Irons replied with a shrug. “I know she'll put it to good use.”
That was one of the reasons he'd done it. She was a medic. Anything she did to
better herself would in some way help those in the community around her. Which
in turn paid it forward to the next generation.

“Yeah,”
Bryan nodded. “Yeah, that she will,” he sighed.

“Why
are we doing this?” a tech asked, suiting up, the last shuttle had just docked
and they were now leaving the system.

“You're
asking me?” his blue haired partner asked, testing his oxy bottle. Green, he
had plenty of air, and just enough nitrogen. Good. “I have no clue. Not one
fracking clue. Just told to do the job and don't ask stupid questions.”

“What's
this thing for anyway?” the tech asked nudging the ball with a foot. It wasn't
like he had anything better to do, he just hated the idea of doing a space walk
while the ship was underway. What if they had... he controlled his fearful
shiver. It was best not to think of a dutch... he winced as he realized he was
thinking of it. Firmly he turned his attention on his gear.

Fortunately
most of his gear was in good shape. They had replaced all the suits in Pyrax,
and he'd had enough space walks since they had left to break everything in
properly. The last thing that had needed fixing was the fan. It's bearings had
been giving off an incredibly annoying buzzing sound until he'd finally gotten
a replacement.

“Speaking
of which...” the blue haired tech sighed looking away and shaking his head in
amused disgust.

“Careful!”
Everette said coming into the airlock and holding up a restraining hand. “It's
a neutrino detector. The only one we've got. It's a bitch to make and
calibrate. It took a couple of weeks to get it right.”

“Okay,”
the EVA tech looked puzzled. “And we need this
why
?”

“It...
look okay it's in the bow. Right... um...” Everette pulled a tablet out and
pulled up a shot of the ship. “Here,” he said. He pointed to a spot on the bow.
“See that dip? It's for this. We hook it up right there. It will help the bridge
crew.”

“Why?”

“It
detects neutrinos,” the young man explained. Everette shrugged. “It's a sensor.
I don't have a clue.”

“I
do,” a voice rumbled behind them. He turned to see Admiral Irons come into the
lock. The Admiral was dressed in a skin suit but one sleeve was missing. “About
ready?” he asked, nodding politely to the others.

“What?
You're going too?”

“Yup.
Chief Bailey wants me to teach you how to do this and set up the other
sensors,” Irons hefted a crate. “We've got a couple of hours to replace the bow
sensors. I've got the mass spectrometer here. The basic spectrometer is in the
corridor. We've got a mess of cameras to replace and the graviton detector will
have to wait till next run.”

“Um...”

“They
are sensors to guide the ship. To keep it from bumping into nasty things,” he
explained patiently.

“Okay,
I get that.”

“Besides
it's an order,” the Admiral said with an amused look. “And I'm not about to
argue with the chief on it. Are you?” He turned to the others, dogging his
helmet.

“Uh..
No, when you put it that way.” Everette dogged his own helmet then checked his
readings. “Aren't you missing a sleeve?”

“Artificial
arm,” Irons replied. He ran his index finger over the near invisible seam
around the arm. “It's sealed, don't worry.” They didn't know that it was a
nanite seal, better than anything they had. He had no intention of telling them
either. He wasn't in the mood for hysterics.

“Oh.”

“I've
used this suit for three, no four years.”

“Oh,”
Everette said again and then got busy double and triple checking his seals.
Irons checked him as well and gave him a thumbs up.

Sprite
bounced into each of the other suits electronics, confirmed they were ready,
then out. She lit a green light on the Admiral's HUD.

“Green,”
Irons said nodding to the tech at the door. The air in the chamber evacuated
and their suit lights turned on. “I would have preferred doing this in orbit,
but we got side tracked by other things,” Irons grimaced.

“So,
neutrino...”

“It
detects particles that nuclear things emit. Think of it that way. Stars, ships,
space stations, power plants basically. Anything that uses a nuclear reaction.”

“Oh,”
the tech grunted.

“I'd
say anything that lets us know about another ship is a good thing,” Everette
said softly. “I for one don't want to be scooped up by a pirate.”

“Bingo,”
Sprite said smugly to the Admiral. She had a running bet with him that the
geeky computer tech would be the first to figure that out. Obviously she'd won
that bet.

“Ah.
Okay, yeah, good point,” the EVA tech nodded in sudden understanding. “So how
does this thing work?”

“It's
a giant ball of cameras and sensors. Around it is a ball of heavy water kept in
by a shielded shell. When a neutrino comes in it reacts with the heavy water.
That is picked up by the cameras, which tells the computer where the neutrino's
were coming from. It's nearly faster than light since neutrino's have almost
negligible mass,” Irons explained.

“Oh.
Sorry I asked,” the tech muttered.

“And
the others?” Everette asked, not sorry at all. One of the EVA techs grimaced.

“Spectrometers
bounce incoming light around mirrors and special grates that break it up into
the electromagnetic spectrum for sensors to pick up. These sensors can detect
changes in the wavelengths. This tells us about an object. It's composition,
stuff like that.”

“Okay.”

“It
isn't as useful for some things like a freighter. Though it does have it's uses
in Hyperspace. We have three different versions, a passive spectrograph, a
laser one, which bounces a light out to get a reflection back, and a mass
spectrometer.”

“So
why do we need them?”

“Every
little bit of data helps,” Irons shrugged. “In this case it can help the bridge
see things, what they are made of, and the computer can then compute their mass
and gravitational index. If lets say, it's a star, it can then alter the
shields to be the most energy efficient for that star.”

“Oh,”
the tech grimaced as they got to the bow. The sensors had already been pulled
in dry dock. Irons was a little surprised they had gone out without new ones.
They had flown to Agnosta on the bare minimum. Something he wasn't happy about.
Even on Io 11 he'd had the willies about running that sort of risk. Then again,
after they had discovered the sabotage, perhaps it wasn't so surprising.

“Lets
get to work,” Everette said nodding. Each of them clipped their safety lines in
then went to work opening packages.

“All
connections are shape and color coded. Red to red, black to black. If you can't
see well, switch to IR. Some of the wiring harness have IR tags your scanners
should be able to see. When in doubt, call me. I'll be focusing on the graviton
detector.”

“Yes
sir,” Everette gave a thumbs up. “I've got the tablet here. I think we'll be
okay.”

“Well,
that was fun,” Everette said, undoing and then racking his helmet hours later.
He was proud that his hands weren't shaking. He went to use his forearm to wipe
sweat from his face but the tech grabbed his arm then tossed him a towel.

“Don't
ever use a suit man. Sweat will get into stuff, corrode metals, and the water
will crystallize when it freezes. Nasty stuff happens,” he said. He shook his
head. Greenhorns. The kid was dangerous to everyone around him.

“Thanks.”

“Next
time wear a sweat band,” the other tech said, not looking up. He used the towel
to dry his blue hair.

“Yeah,
I'll remember that. First time,” Everette said shrugging. The others froze and
looked at him. “What?”

“You
really are a greenhorn?”

“Um...
I swapped with Benita, she's got some stomach bug. Besides, I wanted to do it.
It's not like it's hard, just plug and play.” He spread his hands helplessly.

“Okay
but...”

“It's
no big deal.”

“You're
a rookie. On...”

“Seriously.
No big deal. I didn't get hurt,” the kid said, spreading his hands apart.

“Which
isn't the point. You're supposed to be watching their backs as much as they
watch yours,” the Admiral sighed. “They and I took it for granted that you knew
the routine.”

“Yeah,
well, I did this years ago. It's not that hard. Like riding a bicycle, what
ever that is.”

“You...
Wait you said you didn't..”

“On
this tub. I've done it a million times on my home turf as a kid. Come on, Pyrax
remember? It's a space colony.”

“Okay.
Not everyone went out though.”

“Yeah
well, I did,” Everette shrugged. “It's fun to see the stars. I used to do it
when I was little when we were done work. We'd sit out on the hull and watch
the gas giant, or the debris, or just stared at the stars.”

“Okay...”

“How'd
you get a suit?” Irons asked amused.

“I,
well, we used rescue balls when we were young. Marsha had a suit because she
was a tween. When I was older I rated a suit.”

“Ah,”
Irons nodded in understanding.

“I'm
going to go eat lunch. I've got to swap the lidar in thirty.”

“Um...”
One of the techs blinked.

“It's
got a time issue,” Everette said, taking his gloves off.

“Ah,”
Irons nodded.

“Not
following.”

“Electronics
need a time. Sensors do as well. Lidar works by sending a laser out. It hits
something then comes back. The computer can get a lot of info from that, like
the spectrograph thing. But it can also get a sense of the object's speed, shape,
and direction by comparing the time it takes for the signal to go out and come
back,” Irons explained.

“Which
it can't do when it's clock is screwed up. Which is why I get to go fix it,”
Everette grinned.

“Um,
you realize it's not as simple as pulling a chip. Not in space.”

“Pull
the casing off, pull the equipment rack out, pull the card, swap it for the new
one, bag the old, button everything back up.. how hard can it be?” Everette
asked turning and spreading his hands apart. “Easy as pie. Speaking of which, I
think I'm going to get me some before it's all gone. Meet you there!” He rushed
off.

Oh
brother,” one of the EVA techs said, shaking his head.

“Yeah.
Something tells me... oh boy.”

Everette
grimaced as the others worked on their projects. Everyone had somewhere to be
and something to do including him. Only he was having problems. He wondered if
the others did? He looked around then applied the screw gun to the stubborn
bolt. One more try before he resorted to sterner measures... “Come on you...”

“Careful,”
a voice said over his radio. He froze. It took him a moment to realize it was
female.

He
looked up in confusion. “Uh...”

“It's
Britney you dolt. Nice. I'm monitoring your camera feed.”

“Oh,”
he whacked at the stubborn bolt with the handle of the gun. The head sheered
off and then floated off.

“Oh
great, now you've done it,” Britney sighed. “Nice one. Now we've got to re-tap
that bolt and pull it out.”