New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) (5 page)

"Let him go," the other
woman, Tara, said softly. The dark woman looked over to her. "Where's he
going to go on a ship? Let him do his job."

The dark woman sighed and removed
her hand. "Go, and get on with it." He sighed. 

As he crawled down within the
tight confines of the crawlspace, he winced when his elbow hit a broken spar.
"Going to have to fix that,” he sighed shaking his arm out. Right on the
funny bone too. Endorphins flooded the area, the pain ebbed.

"How's it going in
there?" He winced at the echoing voice from the hatch.

"Not there yet," he
replied, and then continued crawling. The web of optical fibers was just ahead.
"Hurry up!" the woman yelled. He sighed.

"This is a perfect time to
delegate," Sprite commented.

"You trust one of those
wanna-bee's to this?" he asked.

"What?" The echoing
reply.

He swore under his breath.
"Never mind. I'm at the first problem and looking at it now," he
called back.

"No, since they're having
trouble finding their backsides with nav beacons..." Sprite answered. He
chuckled.

"Well, they aren't all bad,
some are half way there," he answered, thinking of Molly. He sighed as
Proteus started feeding data on the lines to his HUD. Proteus took charge of
his right hand, unplugging patched lines and replacing them with new fibers he
had brought in with him.

"Like who?" Sprite asked.

"Jennie and Molly are okay.
Still green though." He twisted aside as a fat cable came down when a
supporting cable was pulled.

"Hey watch it," he
said.

"Sorry Admiral."
Proteus responded.

He felt Defender and Sprite also
send rejoinders in the data link they shared. “All right you three, that's
enough, let’s get back to work."

"Hey, what are you doing
down there? We just lost the communications feed!" a different voice
yelled.

He sighed. "I know that, I
just pulled it." Proteus quickly patched in the new line.

"Oh, never mind, we got it
back." He sighed. The echo and yelling was getting on his nerves.

"Mr. Admiral? Molly says not
to yank anything important, we're in hyper," a more girlish voice said. He
sighed again

"Yes, I know that!" He
let the exasperation creep into his voice. He heard the girl turn and say he
didn't need to be sarcastic. He sighed. He fed the next ODN cable through the
clips then quickly unplugged the old one and plugged the new in. He had to move
fast down the crawlspace to patch the other end in. "Hey, we lost the
navigational feed!"

He swore. The backup should have
kicked in. "Sprite?" He felt the ship shudder.

"No good Admiral, too many
circuits are down." He plugged the free end into the jack. "Okay in.
I am taking momentary control... Okay, they're balanced again," she
reported as the ride smoothed. He sighed in relief.

"That was a little too close
Admiral, I agree, let’s stop while we're ahead?" Sprite commented.
"Good point," he grunted.

"I better check the backup
systems out and work on them first," Proteus said, clearly chastened by
the close call. Proteus plotted the back up control run.

"Send in the back up
lines!" he called after a moment.

"What?"

"The backup lines, near the
port...um left side of the hatch!" He waited.

"Oh, found them!" He
heard them scrambling. "Here they are!"

He felt something bump his foot.
"Great." He crawled to a cross corridor, then did a three point turn.

He went back and grabbed the
cables, then backed them into the crawlspace. When he got to the first run he
stopped and plugged the end in. The first line lit, the second didn't.
"Got a problem here." He observed.

"It is further upstream
Admiral, nothing you can do here."

He looked it over. "Yeah,
all right." He crawled backwards to the cross corridor, then repeated his
three point turn.

Okay, next one let’s see..."
Proteus highlighted the backup line on his HUD.

"Got it," he said. He
crawled over to it, and then rolled onto his back. He fed the line through the
clips, then removed the old line and jacked the ODN cables in.

"First is green Admiral.
Second is dead. Third is... Flickering. Intermittent fault upstream. Looks like
a UART about to go belly up."

He sighed as he coiled the old
cables. "All right, add it to the list. Next?"

“So what are you doing in there?
How can you see?” Molly called up from the entrance to the space. The echoing
sounds made him wince.

“I've got good eyes,” he called
back, looking at her. He watched with low light vision as she blocked the crawl
space entryway. He took a moment to study her, and then he went back to work.
“Molly, why don't you go replicate a tool kit, engineer's kit two I think, just
make sure it has an LED flash light and work light, that way you can join me,”
after a moment she left.

"So, how long until we reach
the next port of call?" he asked. He'd just finished the wiring job and
was out of the tubes for a moment. He checked the ships stats then blanched.
"D note of Alpha band?"

Sprite pulled up the hyperdrive
specs. "I don't think it's the hyperdrive as much as the other systems.
Most of the navigational systems are patched from civilian ships. Most of the
hyperspace sensors are degraded or down." A ship's silhouette was projected,
with its sensor cones and blind spots. "There's a seventy percent
probability that they are not comfortable with higher transit speeds. The
reaction times would have to be high, since the sensors are myopic."

He nodded. "So, replacing
the sensors, computer hardware, software, balancing the shields, remaking the
hyper collector, rebuilding the navigational suite, and what else?" He
opened an office program and began to list things.  Sprite of course took over
and did it faster.

"Well, to get into the
higher beta and gamma bands the fusion reactor, shield nodes, and hyperdrive
will need to be overhauled. The fuel supply will need to be upgraded; they are
currently using semi pure hydrogen," she reported.

He winced. "That is going to
mean a lot of radiation damage."

Sprite scanned the records.
"There's only a partial log, the computer system is...wild. It looks like
the previous ship's Captain managed a partial purge before expiring."

The AI projected a hash of code.
"What we have here is a failure to communicate. They didn’t just patch in
civilian hardware, there is also civilian grade software and... viruses,"
she said in distaste.

He shook his head. "They
used what they had on hand to salvage the ship I guess."

Sprite projected her head onto his
HUD. "No, some of this is dated prior to the ship's last action," she
reported, clearly annoyed.

He looked over to the bulkhead,
trying to suppress his surprise and shock. "You’re telling me they were
using civilian grade materials on a fleet tender? For heaven's sake why? This
ship can make anything it or an entire fleet needs!"

He shook his head, then got up
and paced. "From what I have pieced together the Federation navy was in
dire straits before the end of the war," Sprite said.

He shook his head. "That
still doesn't explain why they would use that crap," he sighed.

"Actually, since replicator
1 was in diagnostic mode and replicator three was locked out with a bus fault,
the assumption could be made that the navy's choice of... organic personnel left
a lot to be desired," Sprite commented dryly.

"You mean dregs,” he said,
clearly unhappy at the thought.

"So, definitely need a
fusion core overhaul and new fuel supply to get into the higher bands," he
added that to his file.

"Yes, a consistent power
supply that doesn't give an occasional burp is vital. You know of course I can
do that," she said souding annoyed. He snorted. Sprite always hated it
when he did things it could do for him.

"Just keeping in
practice."  He looked over the list.

"Start with the easy things
and work our way down?" Sprite highlighted the sensors. "If you can
concentrate on this, I can dive into the net and try to rebuild it."

"Ho boy, what a mess,"
Sprite pulled up a directory and showed it to him.

Proteus highlighted various areas
where memory was down or corrupted. "Admiral, there are so many problems,
I don't know where to start, the hash of civilian and military hardware and
software..."

He sighed. "You have the
antivirus and firewall up right?" Sprite lit a green light on his HUD.

"Updated it with ours right?
With a firewall? Heuristic virus scanning too?" Again the green light.
"Then it seems to me you've made a start. Clone the antivirus bots and
sick them on different mainframes but set them to quarantine not kill, we don't
want to muck up the code if something has a tendril or two wired." Again
the green light.

"Bots released," Sprite
said a moment later.

He nodded leaning over to unscrew
a panel. "Okay, start disinfecting non essential systems, start with life
support. Have Proteus help you since it was designed to repair both hardware
and software. Proteus, give her a decision tree, directory tree..."

"Already working on it
Admiral, uploading the software directory tree for life support,
communications, and a basic OS."

He nodded. "Before you
implement anything, scavenge the net for driver files and DLL files, copy them
to a root directory, then get to work. Clone them and patch them where needed,
alter the clones to fit where needed."

 "Okay, I see where you’re
going with this. Can I borrow the other AI when needed?” Sprite asked. Defender
put up a red light.

"I think what Defender means
is that he needs to watch my back. Proteus can help when I am not using
him."

Sprite sighed. "This is
insane."

He chuckled. "Welcome to the
real world. Just make sure you don't recompile something vital, or something
someone will notice," he smiled.

"Or do any major code
surgery during jump?" Sprite teased back. He shuddered. "Yeah, good
point," she said after a moment and then nodded. "I can locate the
changes needed and write a patch program, then make the changes when we exit
hyper. It will eat into the processor cycles though." He nodded.

"Stamp out the viruses
first, and make minor repairs. Keep it simple and with limited to life support
and noncritical systems," he ordered.

She nodded. "Aye aye
Admiral. With your permission, I will be in the network," she said
formally.

He chuckled, "Go on, and get
out of here. You always love playing in a net."

The door opened and Jennie peaked
in. "Are you talking to me Admiral?"

He shook his head. "No, just
working up a to do list and working on the software repairs." He picked up
his toolbox by the door. "Shall we?"

The hologram was starting to
become normal to the crew, they were not oohing and ahing it he thought wryly
as he checked the audience. Two days and they were getting better. "All
right ladies, here is a ship's schematic." He sent a signal and a network
of lines appeared, all branching out of a single source. "All right, these
lines are the plasma conduits. They all start here, at the fusion reactor.
There's a secondary set here, for the antimatter reactor, but those have no
fuel. I noticed someone has been scavenging them for parts as well." He
waved and those faded out.

"Now, here's the main trunk
going to the primary ship systems." He traced his finger along the
thickest line. It highlighted and blinked. "This line goes to the
hyperdrive, engines, as well as the critical ships systems like shields and life
support." Each branch glowed a different color. After a moment they faded.
"Now, these smaller branches come off the main line to feed secondary
systems, and then branch out more and more to feed individual systems on the
different decks." He rotated the ship's profile so they could see it from
different angles.

"It looks like a tree,"
one girl said.

"More like a sponge.,
another replied.

Molly shook her head. "No,
it looks like the veins and arteries of a body," she said. The Admiral
looked over to her and nodded.

"That's right it does!"
One of the girls snapped her fingers and nodded. "I remember now! I saw
the doctor staring at a picture of a body with lines like this!" She
looked excited and studied the image.

"Good. Now, here are the
bleeds and breaches." Areas that were breached or bleeding cut off or
started to bleed. "Most of them are locked down, but we still have signs
of some loss of pressure, so we know some of the leaks aren't contained. They
may be venting in the unpressurized decks." A few looked alarmed. He
nodded. "Right, the ship is slowly bleeding to death."

Molly sighed. "And that is
why we're here, to come up with a plan to fix this," she said as she
waved.

"Oh, not just stop it, but
to rebuild it," the Admiral replied.

 She looked over to him and
smiled. "One thing at a time," she said. He smiled as she blushed and
dimpled, realizing she had used one of his phrases.

"Okay, next up are the ODN
lines. Think of them as the ship's nervous system." He pulled up the ODN
lines. "Unlike the plasma conduits, the ships ODN cables are distributed,
with the only critical trunks going to the bridge and engineering. All other
lines are in a cluster network formation,"  he explained. The women looked
confused. He shrugged.

"Sorry, techno speak,"
he said. Molly giggled. "Okay, what I mean to say is, each deck and each
system has their own computers, so they only have communication lines running
between the systems. They have multiple lines for redundancy." He zoomed
into the navigational module and highlighted each bus in turn. "If one bus
is damaged or is under repair, others will take up the load. The plasma
conduits have a similar network, but it is not as advanced," he explained.