New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (10 page)

Typical, the database had been
corrupted with the viruses. Some of it was unrecoverable. The hard ROM was protected
though, so basic things could still be made. He felt her reboot the system, run
the diagnostics, then give him a report. He looked over to the waitress wiping
her hands with a rag. "Ah, one of the things I need. Do you mind?"

 He put his left hand out. She
gave him a look, and then slowly handed the rag over. He carefully wiped out
the fungus and encrusted goo, then sprayed the area with his nanites. In
moments the remainder had broken down and flowed to the bottom edge, then with
Proteus controlling them, back into his arm. He picked up the hose, checked it
over, and then used nanites and the welder to patch the holes. It wouldn't work
for long, but long enough for a day or two.

He looked around. "whatcha
need?" the waitress called from the back near a table.

 "I need another substrate
container, a full one," he answered.

She nodded, clearly amused but
interested. "Cookie will set you up." The cook nodded and hefted a
half filled jar up and then onto the counter, slamming it down.

That would have to do. He nodded.
"Thanks." She nodded. "Okay, let’s see here...” He plugged the
hose back in, then carefully inserted the substrate container and plugged it
in. It began to burble. "All right... let’s see..." He flicked
through the menu, and found what he wanted. "Coffee. Black."

The computer gave a weak beep,
and then the hopper lit. In a moment a cup was there, and then a brownish black
liquid flowed into it. He nodded. He took the cup up off the hopper and looked
around to the sudden silence. "Computer, breakfast protein bar number four
with banana and strawberries," he said. The computer beeped again. He
looked around; everyone was still quietly staring at him.

"What? Is my coverall on
backwards?" he was amused at their stunned silence. "Just needed a
little repair job, and some antivirus work to get it running again." He
shrugged as he turned to the bar and took a sip. Even the cook was staring. She
had patties of gruel grilled on an improvised stove top. He nodded to her.

The waitress came up, washing her
hands on her apron. "It works better if you use existing silverware,"
he told her as an aside as he took his meal out. She pointed to an empty stool.
He sat, setting the food down.

"Can I try a bite?" she
asked. He smiled and broke a piece off. “It isn't salmon, or anything fancy, I
have a simple palate," he shrugged at her. She was tentative, looking down
then up at him. "Sure, knock yourself out." She took a spoon and cut
off a sample. She brought it to her lips, looked over them to him, and then
took a small bite.

Her eyes widened. "Wow! This
is sugary!"

The compartment became abuzz for
a moment. "Ohhh nice. I like it." She took another bite. He snorted.
"Computer repeat last order," he called as he leaned back. Someone in
the audience chuckled.

He looked over to the two guards.
The one that had caught up was carrying his duffels and tool kit. "Ladies,
we have a busy day ahead of ourselves, I strongly urge you to eat while you
can." They just stood there, stoic. He shrugged. "I warned you."
One of them looked to the other, and then went to the replicator. He pulled out
the tray, and then showed her the menu. She found a simple dish, and after
entering it, it appeared. She took it out, juggling it.

"What's the matter?"
One of the other patrons asked.

"It's hot!" She replied
shifting it from one to the other and shaking her free hand.

 The room became quite.
"Microwave emitter," the admiral told them, he shrugged. "Blow
on it. The microwave wave guides might be a little off. No telling when it was
last calibrated."

She nodded. "Oh hot!"
Managing to juggle it to the bar without spilling it. Cookie handed her a
spoon. She took a bite, her eyes widened. "Oh wow! I haven't had this
since I was a child!" Awe was in her voice. He nodded, looking down at his
plate as he ate.

He felt someone crash into him
and turned in alarm. "Oops, sorry," the girl said, blushing. She
reached up and clicked the wrap around Walkman off. "Sorry, I guess I
wasn't paying attention to where I was going." He tried to get control of
his annoyance.

Jennie didn't. "You need to
look where you’re going Shell! We're in the middle of a delicate moment and you
could have killed us all!" The girl paled. "What are you doing here
anyway? This corridor is off limits, didn't you read the sign?" The girl
blushed and looked down.

"She can't read," the
guard said quietly. He looked over to the guard, then back to the girl. Pity
was now replacing anger.

"Is that true?" he
asked softly. She mumbled something and nodded. He sighed. "Then it's high
time you learned don't you think?" he asked.

She looked up startled. "But
no one will teach me!" Her eyes sparkled with tears.

He sighed. "Okay, I can, or
some of the others can. You can't live your life in ignorance child; you need
to be able to read, especially on a starship."

She looked down at her feet.
"Yes sir."

He sighed. "Okay, let us
finish this, and then we'll see about getting you on your first lesson."

She looked up her face bright eyes
shining and crooked teeth gleaming in a grin. "You mean it?" He
nodded.

"I got it Admiral."
Jennie said.

He looked over. "Balancing
the load is hard enough with implants Jennie, almost impossible without."

She shook her head. "I can
help Admiral," Tara said softly. She waved to the girl. "All I need
to do is watch the readouts and balance these three bars right? Keep them in
the center?" She looked at the controls. "I've watched you often
enough."

He nodded. "All right, give
it a shot. Go as slow as slow though," he ordered.

She nodded. "You don't have
to tell me twice, I don't want to get burned." She gently touched the
controls. "They're sensitive." He nodded. "Right."

He grabbed the girl's elbow.
"You're Shelly right?" he asked. She nodded as he escorted her down
the corridor a ways. "All right Shelly, let’s see. You’re wearing a
Walkman right? Is it hooked into the net?" She shook her head.

He checked it over. "Okay,
it's on, but it's locked out by the firewall." He focused for a moment.

"Accessing, I'm in, password
set up. You’re logged into the net." Sprite reported as the girl grabbed
her ears.

"OH! There was a ping!"
She looked up and smiled. "There's a song now... Oh it’s over." Her
face fell.

He pulled out his tablet.
"Okay, we're going to do a quick exercise while I work. Here's a tablet. I
have a simple file here." He accessed the net and dumped a short text file
to the tablet. "Now, I want you to run your finger under the words."

She looked confused. "Try
it," he urged.

She reached out and ran her
finger under the text, then gasped. "It's reading really fast!" Her
hands went to the earphone.

"Right, go slower."

 Her finger repeated the move,
this time slower. "Okay, now, I want you to do that for each word, and
then say it," he said patiently. She nodded.

"Try it." She practiced
with a short sentence and looked up. "Is it really that easy?" she
asked, seemingly excited.

He shook his head. "A little
bit, but some of it's harder. I can see about writing a reading program for you
later. Right now, try that." She nodded. "I'll be back in a
bit." He turned and went back to the team. "That was fast,” Tara said
not looking up. "We have the first three balanced, but there's a sticky
valve on the fourth line. I think it's a coolant line to the super
conductors."

He nodded. "Even though
they're room temperature devices they still have electricity and have to shed
excess heat."

She flicked the controls and
grimaced. "You mind, I'm working here," she growled. He chuckled
softly.

He hit the switch and watched as
the replicator booted. "This is the last one for now," Jennie studied
the post report. "It looks good. So this is an electronics replicator? I
thought we could do that with the other ones, why a special one?"

He nodded. "Yes, the others
can, but they take a lot longer, and it takes the entire fabricator to do one
part. This is specially designed to do electronics, and can reproduce parts
fast." He scrolled through the menu and selected a tablet. He hit enter
and waved to the small 1 meter cube. A ding sounded. "Done." He
flipped the tray cover up and pulled out a finished tablet.

"See? The nanites are
specialized for electronics. And the material feeds are all purified materials
used in electronics." She nodded.

"Cool, can I try?" she
asked. He nodded.

"Be my guest," he said
stepping aside. She scrolled through the list, and then selected something and
hit enter.

He checked the tablet out.
"So, what else can it do?" she asked after a moment.

He shook his head. "It can
do some superconductors, but it's a specialized unit. No disassemblers, so it
relies on the feeds for material unlike the GP units." She nodded. The
speaker dinged again. "So what did you make?" he asked as she opened
the panel and fished something out.

"Oh that communication
amplifier the bridge has been asking for," she said picking it up. She
looked over to him and smiled.

"Show off," he
chuckled.

He looked over the bridge and
sighed. Besides the usual grime, wiring was hanging from the ceiling. Scorched
tiles and bulkheads indicated some electrical fires in the past. The main
screen was shattered. The glasses where missing, shards of glass still hung
from their ceiling supports.

Each bridge station was shaped in
a U. The crew member manning the station sat in the center, with displays all
around them. The display consoles were one point five meters high, the top of
the consoles had glass LCD displays that could fold up. Many were cracked,
missing, or broken. The bridge floor was relatively clean, someone had cleaned
the debris. Wiring ran from different stations to civilian electronics. A
haphazard repair or replacement it seemed.

Two civilian portable computers
were tied in to replace the damaged ops. He shook his head in dismay. “Bad
huh?” Molly asked as she looked over to him.

The Chief turned and glared. “Get
to work,” she growled.

He shook his head. “I don't know
where to start,” he sighed as he set his toolbox down.

“Think we can fix it all?” Molly
asked concerned. He nodded, pursing his lips in thought.

“Oh we can fix it, it'll just
take time.” He looked over to the display. “Yeah, fortunately time is what we
have in plenty.” He shook his head, “Let’s get started and get a diagnostic
list. I have a partial one, but it's obviously not complete.” He shook his
head.

“What are you doing?” He looked
up to the girl looking over his shoulder. She had her hands on her knees, bent
over.

“I'm pulling this.”

She looked alarmed. “We need
that! Don't do that.”

He shook his head. “We patched in
the milspec version already,” he said. He indicated the open electronics bay at
the bottom of the station. She looked inside.

“Oh my,” she said, unsure. She
looked back. “Are you sure it'll work?” she asked. He nodded. “Well, shouldn't
we leave this up to be sure?”

He shook his head. “No, there's a
virus embedded in it. Also it's causing three conflicts, an IRQ conflict, and
it has a bad GPU.”

She looked confused. “Okay,” she
said, sounding unsure. He nodded.

“Don't worry, I tested the
replacement thoroughly,” he said soothingly.

She nodded. “Okay.” He
disconnected the civilian power, and then pulled the data line. “What the?” the
ops officer said suddenly. He heard her tap furiously. “I lost my...Oh wait,
it's back,” she said. She tapped at the controls.

“Wow! It's fast!” she said,
sounding surprised.

He looked up. “Milspec, without
the conflicts and viruses.”

She looked confused. “What ever
you say as long as it works.” She tapped the controls. “Oh, nice.” She checked
it out while he finished unbolting the civilian module and setting it aside. He
cut himself on a ragged edge of metal someone had cut into the panel to get the
cables in.

“Oh nasty. You should see the
doc,” the tech said, looking over the station. He looked up, then at his hand.

“No problem,” he said and stared.
He felt Proteus stir the nanites. In a moment the bleeding had stopped. In
seconds the scratch was healed. The girl gasped. He looked up. “See? All
better.” he chuckled at her expression and then went back to work.

Jennie pulled herself out from
under a station and bumped the seat. She looked up and got an eyeful up the
crew member skirt. “Enjoying the view?” The girl said sarcastically. She tapped
the controls.

Jennie blushed. “S-sorry.” She
stuttered.

The tech tapped another control.
Jennie finished and got up, then leaned over to the girl. “Just a suggestion,
next time wear panties,” Jennie murmured. The tech blushed furiously as Jennie
left.

The Admiral caught the tidbit and
looked up suddenly, caught the blush then ducked as the Chief glared. He shook
his head. “Okay. Madhouse. Asylum. Loony bin,” he murmured. He shut the door to
the electronics bay.

“Okay next.” He handed the guard
the old part. One offered her hand, but the Chief growled. Hastily she withdrew
it. He sighed and helped himself up. “Okay. We can't do much with navigation
until we're out of hyper. Ops are back up though.”

He checked over the station
controls, the tech nodded. “We have new screens in the replicator queue,” he
said. He motioned her aside. She reluctantly moved over and then checked her
controls. “What are you doing I thought you said no screens are ready?” she
asked.