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

the tap on his arm. “Can you um... tell me how it works?” a
girl asked. The youngest crew member asked shyly how the replicator can make
parts. She was about thirteen he judged. Human female, Asian phenotype with an
overbite and dimples. The patched overalls and pig tails made her cute. He
looked over to a pack of adults and kids who were trying not to look curious.
He was pretty sure they had more important things to do, but then again, maybe
they didn't. He snorted.
    “Hang
on a second,” he informed them and then entered the ship and pulled out a holo
projector. Setting it up in the bay, he used his implants to tap it and project
the replicator. He explained how it worked to an avid audience, and felt his
mental processes going into full teacher mode. He mentally snorted when he
noticed the guards had even gotten into it. When he's finished with the brief
overview they peppered him with questions.
    Over
the next several hours the final pairs of emitters and the parts for the lasers
were replicated. He lectured them with an overview of many different pieces of
technology, even touching into basics of flight mechanics.
    He
noticed the pairs carrying the parts have been returning rather quickly and
nodded. They also seemed to be spreading the word, others were streaming in
now. He had to mentally laugh at that. There were now about a hundred people in
the bay. He wondered if anything was getting done.
     
    The
captain paced in his wardroom, trying to keep from feeling so damn helpless.
His ship, his whole world was crumbling around him. Right now their entire
future rested on this one man, this admiral. Hir'ruk and some of the senior
staff were with him. From the expressions some of them shared they too were
feeling completely helpless. His finger stabbed down on the intercom button.
“Where are we on repairs? Can you get the reactor restarted?” he called.
    “It
looks good. If we can finish the repairs we should be able to do a start up in
about three hours,” Chief O'Mallory reported over the intercom link.
    His
face worked. Decisions were laid out before him; they were increasingly looking
bleak and ugly. He didn't like the path they were on but didn't see a means to
get off of it. “Ah. Chief we need that power.”
    “I
know. We're working as fast as we can captain. That Admiral guy is a life
saver,” O'Mallory replied with a hint of relief and awe in her voice.
    The
captain grunted. He didn't like owing the man so much.  He wasn't sure what the
man's angle was, why he was helping them like this after what they had tried to
do. “I want him off my ship. As soon as we get the reactor up and running I'm
putting him off.”
    O'Mallory
took a deep breath. She'd feared as much. “Captain, he's been an asset. He's
more than paid for his transit to Antigua.”
    The
Veraxin Ops officer Hir'ruk bobbed a nod. “We have taken the opportunity to
repair some of the critical systems now that power is offline. This Admiral has
helped repair the ship's computer and has slipped us some parts to aide in
that.”
    “I've
managed to finally plug that slow plasma leak we've been putting up with for
over a century captain. Now that we don't have plasma running through the lines
it was simple.”
    “Oh?”
The Veraxin asked, moving his mandibles. “The one on deck ten?”
    “No,
not that one. Deck four, right outside the reactor. We've lost about four
percent per hour there remember?”
    “Yes,”
The Veraxin nodded. His four eye stalks rotated and then focused on the captain.
“I think any decisions about our... guest may be premature,” he said
diplomatically. He was both warning Chambers and offering the man a way out of
his statement without wounding his pride.
    “I'd
like to see what else he can do. His AI are digging into the repairs whenever
he is jacked in. I wonder if he can get us up to factory new?” O'Mallory mused.
    “It
is seventy point nine five percent possible given the right mix,” a new female
voice