Read Online Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) by Chris Hechtl - Free Book Online Page A

kilogram of weight.
    “It's
a civilian model of course. I don't know its radiation rating but it's been out
on the hull without problems,” she said before he could ask.
    Pencil
bots, hell, just about all civilian bots weren't milspec. Therefore they
weren't really designed to handle hard jobs in high levels of radiation. Pencil
bots weren't really designed to work out of atmosphere so if this one did it
was either a mod or a series S. He'd find out later.
    “Okay...”
He shrugged. He'd sick Proteus on the little bot. That would allow the AI to do
a lot of the fine fiddly bits and keep up with the balancing act. Since Proteus
was nanite based it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for the AI to handle. It
still didn't help pick and carry the large loads though.
    “Yvonne
dug up our old Hideyoshi Mantobot nine thousand. I know it's a pain but it's
the biggest we've got.”
    “Big
is a relative term,” Irons replied. He and just about every Terran engineer
hated Hideyoshi Mantobots. They were built for aliens with eyes and senses
different than the standard Terran norm. He'd had to pilot one once and it had
given him a headache.
    For
one thing the bots were designed after insects. Even a Veraxin would have
trouble handling the vision system. The nine thousand series had a mantis style
body, with a big broad head and widely spaced eyes. It's arms were long and
spindly, with a large claw in place of a hand. The claw bent back along the
forearm. Small finger claws were arranged along the sides of some for easier
gripping and manipulating of objects.
    The
legs were spindly things; the feet were bare spring levers. The robot really
didn't so much walk as it did bounce. To stay upright it would shift back and
forth, side to side, usually making it's operator sea sick after a short time.
    “Okay.”
Right now any help would work. He was going to task the robots from the shuttle
too.
    “I
know it's a pain in the ass admiral...” she said.
    “We'll
get it done. I've used one before. Briefly.”
    “ Very briefly I would bet,” she replied dryly.
    “True,”
he chuckled. Apparently the opinion of the bot hadn't changed in the centuries
he had slumbered.
    “I'll
use it to pitch and carry. That should limit exposure with the damn thing.”
    “We're
installing the parts you've been sending over now.”
    “Good.”
    “I'm
surprised you sent over so many electronic parts.”
    “Milspec
I think,” Irons said absently. “I've got my secondary replicator making them. I
think Sprite slipped them into the list to help with the reactor controls.
You've got a lot of banks of memory that need to be replaced. Entire registers
I believe.”
    “So
I see. I've got a note here with directions,” she said dryly.
    “I
didn't do it,” he said spreading his hands and snorting softly.
    “Admiral
how are we going to reignite this? There is only one functional laser. The last
time this happened I think it was a fluke that we even got it restarted. Since
we've drained off the plasma we don't have anything to use...”
    “Seed,”
he replied before she lost all her self control. “I'll seed it. I'm also
replicating replacement laser emitters chief,” Irons replied.
    “Seed?”
    “Same
trick we used on Anvil. Or in I should say. One of the engineers
suggested it. We tapped one reactor and fed hot plasma from it to the reactor we
were initializing.”
    “Oh.”
    “We'll
tap my reactor for some of it and any residual plasma in your systems.”
    “If
we don't get this started soon we're going to have serious maneuvering
problems.”
    “I
know. We're working on it, chief” he said with a nod to the crew. The channel
clicked closed.
    “You
heard the lady, let's get back to work,” he said. He went over to the
replicator and jacked in. He felt Sprite immediately lunge through the open
bandwidth of the jack and into the shuttle's communications systems and sighed.
He was now stuck here for a little while.
     
    “Um...”
Irons turned at