Milk Run (Smuggler's Tales From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper Book 1) (21 page)

“Thank you, Ms. Pearson.”

She signaled Zoya on the bridge that Engineering was ready to get underway.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, we wait on the convenience of the captain,” she said and settled down in the seat to wait.

After only a few moments, Zoya’s voice came over the speakers again. “Standby for undock in ten.”

Natalya buckled the seat belt on her chair and noticed which of the crew followed suit. Solomon and her propulsion team all buckled up. Collie seemed busy with Pearson on the next console. Neither of them bothered.

A low thump vibrated the hull. Natalya watched the propulsion systems log the maneuvering thrusters. She felt a tiny slosh of movement before the inertial stabilizers squelched it. Nobody spoke in the room. All eyes remained focused on the tasks in front of them.

Within a few ticks, the kickers rumbled into life just above Natalya’s head. Vacuum isolated most of the noise but vibration propagated through the engine mounts and into the ship’s frame. Natalya found it comforting, even if it made the armrest on her chair hum under her fingertips.

Natalya’s tablet bipped an incoming message from Zoya with a schedule for jumps and their anticipated power needs. She acknowledged and turned to the crew.

“Listen up, my dears. In about half a stan we’re going to make a short hop out of the local. We’ll adjust course and make another longer jump before we huddle down to recharge and regroup. Any questions?”

Solomon lifted her chin and asked, “No sails?”

“Apparently not. We’re going in with kicker velocity and jumping between systems as far as Albert. We’re expecting to pop in to Albert’s system space in about three days.”

Solomon nodded. “That sounds familiar.”

The chronometer ticked down for just over half a stan until Zoya’s voice sounded on the speakers. “Stand by for jump.”

“They’re not wasting any time,” Solomon said and turned back to the propulsion console.

The kicker vibration faded out for a moment and then the Burlesons jammed space-time into a ball for a split second.

“Status?” Natalya asked.

“Power normal. Full charge in half a stan.”

“Propulsion normal. Kickers secured. Burlesons live for jump. Sails and keel on safety standby.” Solomon looked up at Natalya. “We’ve got enough for one more full jump, sar.”

“Stand by. Mr. Blanchard will have to confirm our location and velocity.”

The Burlesons fired again almost immediately.

“Apparently he liked where we were, sar,” Town said.

“Charge time, Ms. Solomon?”

“Full charge in three stans, sar. Enough for another full jump in one.”

“Thank you, Ms. Solomon.”

“Secure from navigation stations. Resume normal watch rotation.” Zoya’s voice sounded calm and measured on the speakers.

As soon as she stopped speaking, the speakers clicked again and Trask’s gravelly tones filled the room. “Take a nap. Get some food. Charlie’s running the numbers and I’m hoping to pick up two full jumps on the next cycle. You’ve got about four stans to do what you need to. Get to it.” The speakers clicked off.

“You heard them,” Natalya said. “Which section has the duty?”

Everybody in the room looked at her like she’d just grown a second head.

“Sar? We don’t have watch sections,” Solomon said.

Natalya felt her eyeballs all but bulge out of their sockets. “What do you mean? Who stands watch while we’re underway?”

Everybody in Engineering Control looked at everybody else. Most of them shrugged.

“You don’t have watches?” Natalya asked.

“We never have before,” Solomon said. “We’re just here to monitor during navigation stations.”

“How do you know if something goes wrong?”

“What could go wrong?” she asked.

Natalya sighed. “I don’t even know where to start.” She keyed her comm to Environmental. “Mr. Knowles, please tell me you’re keeping a watch down there.”

She waited for a few moments. “Mr. Knowles?”

“You looking for me, sar?” Knowles stuck his head into Engineering Control.

“I was just trying to set the watch and Ms. Solomon tells me they don’t have watches in engineering.”

He shrugged. “Never have before. Why?”

“How do you monitor environmental status?”

He held up his tablet. “Slaved it to the console. It tells me if something goes out of balance.”

Natalya sat back in her chair, suddenly aware that the entire room was staring at her. “Thank you, Mr. Knowles. If you have a moment, could we chat in my office?”

“Of course. We’re clear until the old man decides to call navigation stations again.”

“Ms. Solomon, if you’d care to join us?”

“Sure.” Solomon’s lips twitched like she might be trying to suppress a grin.

“The rest of you.” Natalya paused, at a loss as to what to say. “See you later.”

Natalya got up from the chair and beat the rest of the crew out of the control room only by virtue of moving the fastest. She slipped into the chief’s office and took the chair behind the desk, bringing up the engineering overview display on her console before looking at Solomon and Knowles standing uncertainly by the door.

“Sorry. Come in. Sit. I need your help.”

Knowles grinned and Solomon smiled as they each took a chair.

“Not exactly what you’re used to?” Knowles asked.

“No. Nothing close. I’m having heart palpitations at the thought that nobody’s on engineering watch.”

Solomon’s eyes widened slightly. “Really. It’s no big deal.” She jerked a thumb at Knowles. “He’s been the only real environmental guy we’ve had and it’s only his second trip.”

“But surely you’ve had engineering officers before,” Natalya said, her hands spread palm down on her desk as if to anchor her sanity.

“Well, sure. Steve’s been our chief engineer for, gosh. I don’t know. Three or four stanyers now.”

“But he has no engineering background.”

“Well, no, but he’s an officer,” Solomon said. “Isn’t he?”

Knowles shrugged. “I never talked to him long enough to find out. Last trip he’d cruise through environmental a couple of times a week, ask how things were going, and sniff the air. Once he thought maybe a scrubber was off and would I look into it. That’s it.”

“Was it?”

Knowles shook his head. “Damn ship is a brick. With this crew we could probably go the whole round trip without changing out scrubber filters.”

Natalya felt herself staring and had to look down at her hands. “You wouldn’t actually, would you?”

Knowles laughed. “No. We’d be safe enough but the place would get a little whiffy.”

Natalya looked up at the smile in his voice. “You’re really an environmental systems specialist?”

“You want to see my degrees?”

“No, that’s all right. Sorry. I’m just a little gun-shy.” She looked at Solomon, who smiled back. “And your experience?”

“I learned propulsion and fields under old Henry. He’d been making the run almost since Kondur started them up a dozen stanyers ago.”

“Did he have any formal training?”

“Damned if I know. He had the job and taught it to me so he could retire to Bar None and breed cattle.” She paused. “Not personally breed. That is, not with his own—”

Natalya held up a hand. “I get it. Can I ask you some hypotheticals?”

“What? Like a test?” Solomon frowned.

“If you wouldn’t mind. It would make me feel better.”

Solomon glanced at Knowles and shrugged. “Sure. All right.”

“What happens if the sail generator overheats?”

“Safety interlocks shut it down.”

“How do you get them up and running again?”

“Wait for them to cool.”

“Then what happens?”

“The interlocks reset themselves and we’re back in business.” Solomon shrugged. “Same thing with the grav keel generators.”

“How do you find the cause of overheating?”

Solomon blinked and stared at Natalya. “We’ve only had it happen once and it was because some hot-shot on the bridge put out too much sail in a high wind. Strain gauges showed he shoulda reefed up a bit, but he thought it was fun.”

“Oh.” Natalya nodded. “Yeah, that would do it.”

“We don’t get much sail time, truth be told. We’re usually in the Dark between systems. Only time we see them is when we get into a High Liner system like Albert or Siren.” She shrugged. “No call for sails here. A little boost with the kicker and we’re moving.”

“Kicker ever failed?” Natalya asked.

“No,” Solomon said shaking her head and looking down. “We had a fuel pump blow out on us once.”

“Who fixed it?”

“We were on our way back from making a run. Jumped into Dark Knight and had just turned to decelerate when it went out and we lost the port engine. Fuel couplings kicked out so we didn’t spew fuel everywhere. We called Kondur and he sent out a spare and a tech to install it.”

“Why doesn’t he have techs on the ship?” she asked.

Solomon shrugged. “You’d have to ask him.”

Knowles leaned forward in his seat. “May I offer some insight?”

“Of course.”

“Kondur’s been making these runs once or twice a stanyer for as long as I’ve known. They were making the runs when I was a kid, before I went away to school. He’s no fool but he’s also not bound by the same regulations you’re probably used to.”

“How many ships has he lost?”

“None. He’s been running this same ship the whole time.”

“For a dozen stanyers?” Natalya felt the wind whoosh out of her in surprise.

“More like twenty,” Solomon said. “This is a perk. People sign up for these runs stanyers in advance but it’s tough getting the job.”

“Why?”

“Why is it tough? Or why do they sign up?” Solomon asked.

“Either. Both.”

“Competition. Past crew gets priority as long as they don’t screw up. Old Henry had been running fields forever. I’m lucky he took a liking to me,” Solomon said.

“He basically passed his berth to you,” Natalya said.

“Yeah. In effect.”

“Why does everybody want the job?”

“I don’t know what you’re used to makin’, but most of us are gettin’ paid enough on this one trip to live comfy for the next stanyer. Anything we do outside is gravy,” Solomon said.

Knowles nodded. “That’s my excuse. Kondur pays me a good salary to do a job I like, but this is like another whole stanyer’s pay for three months playing aboard ship.”

“How’d you get aboard?”

“Last guy screwed up. Stunk up the ship so bad Captain Trask wouldn’t let him back on. Shipped him back from Dree on a hired packet and made him pay his own passage.” Knowles shrugged.

“Ouch.” Natalya winced at what must have been a hefty pile of credits.

“Did I pass?” Solomon asked.

“Yes, Ms. Solomon. You passed.” Natalya sat back in her seat and looked up at the overhead. “I’m sorry. This flies in the face of everything I’ve grown up believing to be true.”

Knowles grunted. “Yes, well, you ever think why those regulations exist?”

She looked at him, wondering where he was going. “Ship safety?”

“Really? Why?”

“Having people in the loop protects the ship from badly programmed automatic systems.”

“How?” he asked, a small smile struggling to reach his lips.

“People see what doesn’t make sense but a program can’t recognize.”

“Fair enough.” Knowles crossed one long leg over the other as he sat back. “What happens when one of the environmental systems goes out of balance?”

“The computer flags it and flashes an alert to the watch stander.”

“Exactly.” He held up his tablet. “I’m the watch stander.”

“You can’t do it all.”

He shrugged. “Why not? I have people I can tap if I need help with something. I can point Val at scrubber maintenance and she can get a couple of the boys to help her swap them out. What purpose does it serve to have somebody sitting there filling out make-work log entries?”

“In case the system goes wrong.”

He smiled then. “No, it’s to keep the people busy. Without having something to do, some reason to get up in the morning—or in many cases in the middle of the night—there’s no reason to do so. The time can weigh heavily.”

“You’re suggesting that the CPJCT regulations governing ships and crews are so much busy work?” Natalya couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Not at all. Well, maybe.” Knowles shook his head. “I’m actually saying that the regulations are stupid and archaic. The on-board systems are more than capable of doing whatever the average untrained watch stander can do. At least in environmental. Don’t you have a saying about the first rule of watch standing or something?”

“If something looks off, tell somebody,” Natalya said.

“Precisely. Without me—or somebody with my skillset—aboard, if something went wrong in environmental, who would they tell?”

“I don’t know.”

“Me, either. Until you came aboard, I don’t think Kondur ever put an engineer aboard.” He nodded at Solomon. “Melinda here has been trained on the job. She’s good at what she does, but if push comes to shove, we’d need to find somebody with the knowledge, skills, tools, and parts to make it go again. We all recognize that and it’s why Mr. Kondur pays so well for these trips. We all know the risks, more or less.” He shrugged. “Think about it. Catastrophic drive failure will take out the ship before we can respond. No amount of watch standing will help that. Same with fusactors, generators, even the Burlesons. Ever think of what would happen if we jump with one of them out of alignment? Or into an ice field?”

Natalya could think of nothing else to say. “You’re right, Mr. Knowles. I hadn’t really thought it through.”

“Would the ship be safer with a watch set in the engine room?” Knowles shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’ve got the division’s main readouts right here on my tablet. I’ll get the same warnings, the same alerts, the same notices wherever I am on the ship. Serious ones will wake me even if I’m asleep. Since I am trained in environmental systems, I’m also the one who’s best prepared to fix it. I understand the decision to set watches. Or rather, the lack of decision. It’s more of a default action. Like your response has been.” He grinned at her. “You’re the only person aboard who knows how those big chunks of machinery down there work. I mean really knows how they really work. Wouldn’t it make most sense for
you
to be watching over the ship’s engineering instead of having somebody like Mike Town, who knows what’s normal but not what to do about anything that isn’t?”