New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (36 page)

"What do you have in
mind?" she asked Jennie, and then turned to the Admiral.

"Yes Captain, we need to
pull people from the other departments and settle them in others," he
said.

 The purser started to protest
again but the Captain held up her hand. "As to the all hands on deck
during loading, we now have working cargo equipment correct?" she asked.
He nodded. "I seem to recall a lot of your crews sitting around jawing
while only a few did the real work dear," she turned to the purser.
"Well, but I...” Vanessa sputtered.

"You’re more worried about
losing your handball team I bet," The Chief observed dryly.

"That's not it at all!"
the purser said affronted. "I demand you take that back!" she glared.
The Chief's lip curled in response.

"Now now ladies, let’s not
have a brawl here! We need to set a good example," the Captain's clipped
tone made the two back down.

"Sorry Captain," Both
mumbled after a moment.

"I see everyone is a bit on
edge today. Get me that proposal to look over,” she ordered. The Admiral
silently passed her a tablet.

She smiled. "Anticipating
things as usual," she said. She scrolled through the list, and then looked
up. "You want twenty for your department, and six for medical?" she
asked. She looked over to the doctor who looked up surprised.

"Why? They have no
training?" he asked. He shook his head, looking over to the Admiral.

"They each took the basic
CPR course, so they can help out a little in emergencies. Give them some
additional training and they can serve as sick berth attendants. That'll free
up you and nurse Mindy for other projects and it'll allow you time off at
night."

The doctor suddenly looked
relieved. He rubbed his chin. "Could work, they could handle the minor
bumps and bruises you and the others send me while I focus on learning the more
advanced equipment," he said. He sat back, then picked up his coffee cup
and took a sip. The Admiral mirrored the action. "Yes, this sounds
good," he said after a moment. He turned and nodded to the Captain who smiled.
"Glad you approve," she said with a wry smile and then nodded.

"You could also use the help
during emergencies; the attendants could be the first on scene, allowing you
and nurse Mindy to triage in sickbay. They can also help when you're working on
the stasis patients," the Admiral observed.

"No need to get your rockets
flaring Admiral, we got the point," the Captain waved further discussion
off. "But some of these others, you realize that some are, how do I say,
hard to train?" she asked. He shrugged.

"Training takes time and
patience. We have that in spades in hyper," he said. He waved to the view
port with the view of stars. It was a simulation of course, a direct view into
hyper was not possible for organics. "At the very least we can have them
as gophers as they learn," he finished. The purser grunted. "A few
might transfer back later," he said and then shrugged.

"Okay, I'll approve
this," the captain said. She waved off the burgeoning protests from the
purser and chief. "We're in hyper, what else are they going to do? Sit in
the brig for a month?" She shook her head. "If it doesn't work out,
we can transfer them back, no harm done."

The Admiral nodded. "They
have to serve their sentence first though," she growled. She gave him a
stern look.

He nodded. "Agreed, every
crime has a penance," he replied.

She smiled. "Glad you agree,
now get out of here and get back to work." She waved the officers out as
she turned to leave.

Hastily they jumped to their
feet; the doc slopped some of his coffee. They filed out; the Admiral lingered
behind with Jennie. "Admiral, what have you volunteered us for this
time?" she groaned.

"Well, you were complaining
about not having enough help..." he chuckled.

"All right what the hell do
you think you’re trying to prove poaching my people?" the purser
confronted them as they exited. She had her hands on her hips, chin jutting
out. Her jowls shook in righteous wrath.

"They aren't doing anything
right now except getting into trouble; I would think you would be happy?"
the Admiral said calmly, stepping around her.

She tried to block her path but
the Chief came up behind her. "Is there a problem here?" she growled.
She made it clear in her tone, there better not be.

"No, ah..." She mumbled
then glared. "This isn't over," she growled low to Irons.

He shrugged. "Okay, if you
say so," he replied.

"So why did you pick some of
them?" the chief asked.

He pulled out another tablet from
a pocket and handed it to the Chief. She took a look then handed it to Jennie.

"Okay... Oh, huh, wait,
Sheneria, I know her, she was in a couple classes... hmmm," she murmured.
She scrolled through the logs. "Come to think of it, I recognize a few of
these other names," she said looking up to him. 

He nodded. "Some have the
aptitude; some just want to try it. You can’t blame them for wanting to better
themselves, spending their lives tossing cargo is back breaking labor no one
loves or admires," he said and then shrugged.

"Tell that to the downers,
you realize she's just going to recruit more right?" the Chief stated
shaking her head.

"That's between you, her,
and the Captain," he replied, taking the tablet as Jennie handed it to
him. "What do you mean?" the Chief asked.

"Well, each of them should
be vetted to make sure they're suitable, and not a security risk," he
suggested to her. She nodded. "The doctor should get involved to give them
a check up, last thing we need is someone coming in who's sick or has a
virus," he said.

The Chief nodded again. "Good
point," she said. For once her eyes had a twinkle. "That should spike
her guns neatly," she smiled. The event was so rare, the Admiral was
momentarily thrown.

"Once we get a handle on
things, I want to get that shooting bay set up for your department," he
said. He nodded politely to her.

The Chief nodded.
"Good."

"In fact, I have a couple
stunner designs I could pass off to you to try as well, something with more
range and shots then the civilian ones you have," he suggested.

She nodded again but her eyes
narrowed. "Always good to hear." He smiled as she turned to leave.
"I'll see you later,” she said.

He smiled. "Always a
pleasure Chief." He nodded as she left.

"Why are you baiting
her?" Jennie murmured.

"Seemed like a good idea at
the time?" he asked with a shrug. Jen sighed then chuckled softly.

The tech leaned over, examining
the dishwasher. "Hmmm." Cookie came in, wiping her hands on her
apron. "I thought the Admiral was going to do this?" she asked
confused.

"Nope, Molly sicked him on
another project, so I volunteered," the tech said. She studied the
controls, and then opened the door. "Hmmm...” She closed the door and
plugged her multi tool in.

"What's that?" the
scullery maid asked. Cookie motioned her back to work but she glared.

"Oh it's a diagnostic
tool," the tech replied. She tapped it a few times. "Hmmm...”

 "I don't like the sound of
that Hmm. Maybe the Admiral should be here..." Cookie said nervously.

"Oh, I got it, it looks like
the ultrasonics are fried. Easy fix," the girl looked up to cookie and
grinned. "Really, not a problem, I've fixed the ultrasonic showers after
the Admiral showed me, this isn't that far away from it, just different,"
she replied with a shrug. She took a screwdriver out and went to work. "Okay
if you say so, but stay out of the way, and you better hurry, the lunch crowd
is going to hit in an hour," Cookie said over her shoulder as she turned
to a simmering pot.

The tech smiled. "Be out of
your hairnet in two shakes of a wrench," she grinned.

“Doctor I hear you want to
institute a check up of the entire crew?” Molly looked up confused. “Why? No
one is hurt right?”

The doctor shook his head. “I've
been reading the medical texts; it states that regular checkups can detect
problems early allowing for earlier less invasive treatment.” He looked over to
Leri. “Like cancer.” She mumbled something then nodded. “Okay doc, I'm not
doing anything now that we're ship shape, I'll volunteer,” she said sounding
nervous.

He chuckled. “And can I suggest
the same for the rest of the bridge crew? To set a good example?” he looked
them over. The chief stubbornly shook her head no. The doc sighed.

“I'll do it, me too,” Kendra
said. Kendra and Shandra reluctantly raised their hands.

“Well, that's a start,” he
sighed.

The girls filed into the wardroom
and went to their seats talking with each other. Trisha looked down at the
package on her desk. "What the heck is this?" She opened the top and
looked inside. "Baggies of beads and wires? What is this arts and crafts?"
she demanded. She held up a bead.

"That's not a bead that's a
resistor. We're going to do a little hands on today to give you some experience
translating a circuit diagram to the real thing," the Admiral said as he
entered the room.

He nodded to Trisha as she sat
down abruptly. "All right ladies, if you'll take out the breadboard, that
is the white flat tablet with a lot of holes in it, we'll begin by making a
simple alarm circuit," he said. The holo projector came on and the circuit
diagram was displayed.

"Let’s start with the basics
of each part. Now, the resistors are the things that look like beads. The
capacitors are the things that look like cans, or like disks,”  he said and
then held each up. A few of the girls squinted then looked in their own boxes.

"What are all the numbers
and letters?" one of the girls asked.  He nodded.

"They tell you about the
part, they're identifiers. More on that in a minute.” He nodded to Trisha who
was bending a resistor. "All right, the other things in your pack are
wires, a piezoelectric bell, inductors, some micro chips, and switches.” He
reached into the box by the desk and took them out one by one. "Oh, and a
battery." He held that up last. "Now, here's what we're going to
do..."

When the class ended the girls
filed out. Several were excited, talking about making something with their bare
hands. Trisha cleared her station slowly, waiting for the crowd to ebb.
"So, why are we working with these things?" she asked. She tapped the
box. He looked up from his tablet.

“Oh, they may be obsolete, but
they still work and are great training tools," he grinned. "I had a
kit when I was four; I built my first alarm with it. Shocked my mother when she
opened the door to my room and it went off," he chuckled softly.

She laughed. "Okay, so when
do we move up?"

He nodded. "In a day or two.
You need to learn to crawl before you can walk...or run."

She held her hands out to the
ship. "What about flying?" He sat back in the chair.

 "Oh, we're doing that now.
But when you get the basics down, you'll be able to handle a lot of repairs on
your own...and even build new things if you have the mindset," he said.
She nodded.

Molly leaned in. "You done
in here yet? We have a ship to fix!"

Trisha hastily closed the box and
then stacked it with the others. "Coming," she said. The Admiral got
up and followed her out.

Molly looked at the giant beef
steak tomato in surprise. "Wow! I didn't think they grew that big!"
Cookie looked over and grinned. "You like it? The Gardener managed to
trade for seeds in the last transit. Now that the life support has been
overhauled, she's getting a handle on the nutrients and wastes."

She picked the tomato up. "I
love it, such fine foods to cook with!" she smiled.

Molly chuckled. "Well, if it
makes you happy..." She waved as she closed her toolbox up. "You're
good to go; all the replicators are fixed and fully stocked."

Cookie sniffed. "I don't see
why we need them when we have this!" she demanded as she waved the tomato
under Molly's nose.

Molly took a sniff, and then
gently pushed the hand away. "Yeah, but you can't be up cooking all the
time, this way graveyard shift can get a snack."

Cookie nodded grudgingly.
"Oh all right."

"So, what's engineering
doing now?" the Captain asked, taking a sip of her tea.

"We're on a preventive
maintenance routine Captain, we're learning how to diagnose problems and fix
them," Molly grinned. "Some of the teams are still working on getting
their sections up to snuff, we're still behind in propulsion, fuel, and power,
but the others are all up to spec now," she grinned, adjusting her
glasses.

"Yeah, I noticed the air's a
lot cleaner," the purser sniffed. 

"So, now that we have this
ship working better we can dispense with the Admiral's services?" the
Chief asked. Molly and Jennie glared.

"Oh I wouldn't go that far
just yet. As Molly just pointed out, propulsion, fuel, and power are still in
need of work," the Captain took a sip of her tea again and gave her
granddaughter a quelling look.

"So we can make parts for
ourselves when we're gone?" the purser asked. "They take a lot of
power and materials," she sniffed.

Molly nodded. "Oh yes, and
much more, now that we can make parts, we can make parts for other ships!"

The purser's eyes widened.
"Help the competition?"

Molly shrugged. "Why not? If
they're willing to pay for it..." she said suggestively. She left that
hanging.

"Besides, we don't just mean
competitors; we can build another ship, or an entire fleet of ships!"
Jennie waved around to indicate the ship.

The Captain paused, about to
drink her tea. "Well, that's news,” she said. She set the cup down.
"Impressive. So we can build our own ships now?" her gravelly voice
took on a teasing note.