New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (13 page)

"Is that all there is to
it?" the guard asked quietly. He looked up as he swapped the bad ram for a
good stick from his kit. The guard was nearby, looking in the box.

"No, there's a bit more too
it, but for an introduction, it makes it a little easier to understand,"
he said. She nodded.

"This,” He ran a finger
along a cable out of the box, then pointed to the pipe it was in. "This
runs to the network. This one goes to the wireless network router modems."
He pointed to the box in the ceiling. "This goes to some of the systems on
this deck." She came closer and looked.

"What about these?" she
asked. She pointed to the red, yellow, black, and blue cables. "They look
different, not like the clear ones," she observed. He nodded.

"Those are the power
cables." She snatched her hand away and gave him a hurt look. "Oh
don't worry; they have plastic shrouds protecting them, and you from
damage." She nodded and stepped back to her post.

"I will upload an
introductory computer class on the network tonight," he called over his
shoulder as he jacked into the computer and ran post.

Jennie watched as the engineer
grasped the handles on either side of electronic module. “Now, you pull it out
slowly,” he said as he pulled. The tray came out exposing cables behind it.
“Okay, once the tray is extended you can work on the cables, or within the
module,” he said. She nodded. Trisha watched.

“So this is what it looks like,”
she said as she reached out. Jennie slapped her hands away. She turned hurt.
“What was that for?”

The Admiral cleared his throat.
“Unless you know the module is not powered, check first,” he said. He placed
his right index finger over the panel, and then brought it closer to it. When
he got two centimeters away a fat blue spark leapt between his finger and the
panel the girls gasped and stepped back.

“See? The front handles are
insulated, but there is a short inside that goes to the exterior case.” He
pulled his hand back then reached around and yanked the power cable. The front
leds went dark. “There, all dark.” He reached again with the finger. “No spark,
see?”

Trisha nodded. Jennie looked over
the panel. “Did it hurt?” Trisha asked as his finger morphed into a screwdriver
and he began removing screws.

“No,” he shook his head. “No, I'm
grounded, so no pain.” He removed the panel and looked inside. The interior
electronics were smoldered and broken on one side. A wire had welded itself to
the right side.

“Darn. Okay, it looks like we
need to pull it.” He looked over to Jennie who nodded and made a note on the
tablet she had. He stepped back and let Trisha pull the jacks for the data
lines.

“How are we going to make sense
of all this?” she asked.

He chuckled. “Look at the jacks.
See their shapes?” he asked. She paused and looked one over.

“What you mean the cables?” She
ran her fingers over the black cables.

“No, not the ODN cables, the
jacks. See the plastic sheaths they come together in.” She looked the blocks of
plastic over. There are tabs on each, and markings. She looked them over.

“The tabs and markings are to
help you identify what it is and how to plug it in. The color of the jack also
helps,” Jen explained. Trish nodded.

“Try it,” Irons suggested. He
indicated the back of the broken panel.

“What?” She shook her head.

“Try it. Try plugging the jack
into each port.” He indicated the ports.

“These are female ends; the jack
on the end of the cable is a male end,” he explained. She looked at it.

“Rather blatant isn't it?” she
asked, wrinkling her nose.

He shrugged. “It works, and it's
self explanatory.”

 She tried the jacks. “Okay, so
this shape means it plugs in here,” she tried it. “No. Oh okay match the
color.” She found the matching color to the right port. “Hey, how come it won’t
go in?” she demanded. She tried to force it but he grabbed her hand.

“Never try to force it,” he said
and looked. “You have it upside down. Flip it.”

She did so, flipping the
connector. “Do you see the tabs and the corresponding notch in the other female
end?” he asked as she plugged it in.

Jennie sighed. “Okay if you’re
finished?” He looked up to see her hefting the replacement module. “We have a
lot more to do this shift,” she said as she smiled. They nodded. “Okay.”

"Actually, my implants are
middle road level; I've seen some that are more extreme than mine," Irons
explained as they worked in the main engineering compartment. Jennie looked up
intrigued.

One of the girls looked
horrified. "Why would anyone do that to their bodies?"

He shrugged. "Some like me
have no choice. I received mine after major injury."

Jennie looked thoughtful.
"So what's the basic implant?" she asked.

He smiled and went back to
rewiring the buss. He was glad they were only working on secondary systems.
"A basic entry implant starts with an IFF, weather you are civilian or
military. A civilian IFF is a simple identification implant. That lets you access
your electronic devices and money, and identifies you to authorities."

One of the girls elbowed another,
and pointedly tapped her work station. The offender blushed and got back to
work. "Implants were a fad a time or two in the past, now...” He paused then
sighed as a wave of regret hit him. "Excuse me, in my time it was
sometimes necessary to get additional implants for your job." Jennie
nodded. "Like the ability to jack in?" she asked.

He smiled. "Right. A lot of
equipment requires someone jacked in to get the best out of them. Ships,
fighters, mecha, shuttles..." he said and then shrugged.

"Did it hurt?" the girl
down the corridor asked. Another shushed her. He waved. "No, the basic IFF
implants were just a pill. Inside was a bunch of nanites that built the IFF in
your body, and another in your palm." He pulled the scorched electronic
box out and set it down on the cart beside him. "The other implant
procedures are a lot more involved. A few require surgery. Medications keep it
from hurting too bad, but the recovery time can be long, he said and then 
shrugged once more.

"And of course, repairs due
to injuries, or more advanced cybernetics are a nightmare of rehab time,"
he said. He shivered a little.

"Oh, it wasn't that
bad." Sprite commented. He clicked his teeth.

"Speak for yourself,"
he sub vocalized.

"I thought I just did?"
she teased.

"Why does this have to be
hardwired?" one of the girls slapped a bulkhead exasperated. Jennie and
the engineer looked up. The woman was running ODN cable. She looked over to the
engineer. "Why can't everything be radio like what you have?"

He cocked his head. "Do you
want the long answer or short?" She sighed.

Jennie snorted. "Okay, give
it to me straight," she finally said.

He nodded and turned to examine
her snarled lines. "Well, radio is nice, but it can drop a signal."

The communications tech down the
corridor stopped looked up from her tablet, and then nodded. "Yes it
can."

He looked up and gave her a nod.
"Also, wireless networks can drop packets, and aren't as fast as a hard
wired network." He tapped the fiber optic line. "This runs at light
speed. A radio LAN runs at radio speed. Because of all the metal in the ship, a
signal has to bounce from one repeater box..." He pointed to the cube in
the ceiling. "To another on a deck." She looked up and scowled.

"During an emergency, or
when we're maneuvering, do you want signals to be corrupted or lost?" he
asked. She shook her head. "That's why we use hard wired lines," he
said in finishing.

She looked over the mess and
sighed. "So why do you have the wireless network?"

The communication's tech looked
over to him interested. "You have a radio?"

He nodded warily. "Among
other things," he said and then shrugged.

"I'm not doing critical
things when I use it. I can access the net, and transfer data, but in an
emergency, or when I'm doing something with a high bandwidth demand, I jack
in." He waved his right hand," he explained.

Jennie nodded. "Were
wireless implants common in your time?" she asked. He nodded.

"They're great for
communications, data transfer, and the like. But," he said indicating the
ship. He waved to the corridor. "Too much of a good thing causes
problems." He turned and pulled a cable. The snarled mess loosened, and
then disappeared.

"What do you mean?" the
communications tech asked, and then ducked as a guard came around, whistling
and tapping her truncheon against her thigh. She gave them a curious look, and
then slowly wandered on.

"Well, for one, if there are
a lot of people, the traffic can cause the network to slow or crash." He
carefully fed the woman running the lines slack, keeping the lines taut though.
"Also, it's a haven for hackers and freebooters..." They finished
running the line. She looked up and nodded.

"Thanks."

He turned back to his work.
"Also, they can be jammed or intercepted," he said.

Jennie looked over, nodded.
"You said there were more advanced implants?" She looked over to him.
He nodded.

She glanced down. "Pass me
the screwdriver will you?" she nodded to the cart. He handed it to her.
"Thanks."

He shrugged. "There were
some pretty extreme and sometimes grotesque cases I know about."

The ODN tech shivered. "I
heard about a few, people stuck in a can and wired up for the rest of their
lives..."

The communication's tech
shivered. "Burr! Did they really do that?" She looked over to him.

"Yes, quite a few
people," he sighed.

"Some were because the
person was born wrong, or suffered a grievous accident. But a few wanted
that," he explained.

Jennie tightened the bolt.
"I just can't see why anyone would want that, living your life as a
computer," she said. He nodded.

"It isn't for everyone. But
there were virtual worlds in the computer networks, so they could be in there
and live entire lives." He waved to the computer box.

"In that?" she
demanded. He nodded.

"It's all programming,"
he said shaking his head. "There were people who required it for their
jobs, but a few got carried away, or thought of it as fashion."

Jennie's eyebrows rose.
"Fashion?" she asked. He shrugged.

"To some, the more away from
normal, the more they disgusted or scared people, the more they liked it.
Multiple eyes, arms, legs, no legs, robotic parts..."

The communications girl shivered.
"Too much for me! Later!" She walked off.

Jennie chuckled. "What makes
you want to bet she'll gossip to everyone she meets?" she asked. The other
girls giggled.

"Can't be helped," he
said.

"So what about you? Why
aren't yours more...robotic?" the girl down the corridor asked. He
finished the last connection and closed the door. "Because, for the
mainstream, we prefer to hide our cybernetics and look as normal as
possible," he shrugged. "I'm not prejudiced against those that were
different, one of the reasons our race accepted other races so easily is
because of the oddballs constantly testing the envelope with weird things like
body sculpts and the like."

The girl nodded and ran her
fingers through her hair, exposing her ears. They were long thin and pointed.
Her eyes were cat like. "I resemble that remark," she said.

He smiled. "Descendant of a
body sculpt I take it?" he asked. She nodded.

"My ancestor was into cats I
guess."

He cocked his head. "Or
elves, there was a fad for those in the 20th and 21st century,” he replied. She
grimaced. "Yeah, but at least she didn't change my teeth," she
smiled. Only her canines were elongated slightly. He nodded.

"Some people did that, they
modified themselves through surgery or genetic tinkering, they didn't think of
the consequences to themselves or their progeny." She nodded and turned
back to her work.

Molly tapped in her entry and
then looked up. "What about this?"

Jennie looked. "Might work.
So, let me get this straight, you, me and Marsha are assistant chief engineers?
Why not call you the chief?" she crossed her arms and looked at Molly
expectantly.

Molly didn't look up from her
tablet. "That's Faith's job." Jennie cocked her head. "Yeah
but..."

 "It's her job, I'm just filling
in," Molly waved her tablet and looked up. "Okay, so you have morning
shift, Martha wants grave, I take it I get evening?" Jen finally asked.
Molly nodded. "Can I have Trish?" Jen asked.

Molly nodded. "Okay, but I
want Keisha, Clarice, Deidra and Sunny."

Jennie looked at her tablet.
"So, that leaves me, wait, why do you want Sunny?"

She looked up at Molly.
"Sunny is your understudy right? I need a computer tech on morning
shift," Molly replied. "Oh, and Keisha will handle the power chores,
who are we, oh I see, I can have Sondra? Wait, isn't she dating Lessa?"

Molly looked up. "So?"

"So unless you want me to
come to you because she is whining about being opposite shifts with Lessa, we
better move her to another shift," Jen said knowingly.

Molly sighed she realized Jen was
right. "That will leave a hole in your shift."

Jennie shrugged. "Can't be
helped."

Trisha came over to see what was
going on. "I finished that fan job, and the leak was a condenser coil,
easy fix," she said. Now that they had a source for parts repairs were
easy. She waved diffident hand. "Someone had a still going on deck three;
we had to tear it apart," she sighed. "When will people learn not to
butcher perfectly good equipment to get their jollies?" She sat on the
edge of the desk. "So, what's up?" Molly nodded her chin to Jen.
"We're just going over the shifts, since you don't want an assistant slot,
Jennie asked for you in evening shift."