Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (27 page)

“Why?”

“Well,
you do realize this is a bulk cargo carrier right? Built with a small crew in
mind. Most bulk freighters carried material that wasn't radiation sensitive.
That meant the builders could skimp on the radiation shielding around the cargo
holds and focus on the crew habitats.”

“Um...”
Numiria gave the chief a look. The chief shrugged, still holding her cup.

“It
explains why we've had a lot of radiation illness over the year’s doc,” the
chief murmured, eyes switching back and forth. She was pretty sure she knew
where the admiral was going. It was something they had known in the back of
their minds for ages but had lived with for so long they had put it off as
something to bear. Something they didn't have a choice in.

“Got
ahead of me?” Irons asked amused. He took a sip of his coffee and then put it
down. The chief just stared at him. After a moment she cocked her head and
arched an eyebrow. He sobered slightly. “Okay, well, someone back oh, six
hundred and ninety years ago decided to turn the ship into a habitat. They
tacked on additional radiation shielding to the outer hull but came up short
due to the surface area. So they went old school. What they did is add a second
layer inside the ship in some areas.”

“A
double hull,” the doctor responded with a nod. “I know.” She picked at her
chicken, not really hungry now.

“Right.
Well, that double hull is filled with bladders that are in turn filled with
water. The water acts as a radiation buffer.”

“Okay...”

O'Mallory
felt like a light had exploded in her head as connections were made. “The hull
breaches,” the chief breathed.

Irons
glanced at her in approval. She felt a glow at that approving look. “Still
ahead of me. Good. Yes. You've had a lot of hull breaches over the years. Most
due to meteors. When the meteor hits the hull sometimes it doesn't penetrate
all the way through right?”

“It's
a blessing,” Numiria said with a nod.

He
frowned and shook his head. “No it's not. What it did do was breach the outer
hull and vent that section to space. Some of the water flash froze if it was in
the sun. But when it did that it expanded buckling the hull. When that section
was in the sunlight it thawed and then the water leached out.”

“And
when it penetrated we had no water at all. That should have been a warning sign
right then and there,” O'Mallory said cursing herself for not seeing it sooner.

“It
depends on the location of the breach chief. I'm betting they only put the
bladders in where they could. Limited by material you know,” the admiral explained.
She nodded and grimaced in response.

“Lovely.
So you're saying we have no radiation shielding?” the doctor asked.

“The
bare minimum right now. Mainly because we overhauled the energy shields. Maybe
a bit more. Enough to ward off cosmic radiation and basic solar radiation but a
good solar storm might be a problem. But this is something that needs to be
addressed. Eventually.”

“Oh
you betcha,” the doctor said firmly. She was already planning on gathering
information before laying it out to the ship's council. She wasn't sure how it
would be received but the others needed to be aware of the problem. It
explained so many of the radiation cases that had puzzled her and her
predecessors for so long. And to think it was staring at them right on the
other side of the hull this entire time!

“That
water probably acted as a life support and fuel reserve. At one point I'm
betting it was cycled through the ship. When it became too irradiated it was
used as fuel I mean. But that's also a problem. Parts of the ship do not have
water.”

“Oh.”

“Also
when the ship vented it added to the yaw of the ship forcing an RCS correction
burn,” Sprite interjected. “It also made the ship lopsided and out of balance
since a lot of the damage is on the port side. That makes steering the ship a
little tougher. It also puts a lot of wear on the superstructure.”

“Are
we looking at a serious problem?”

“It's
a problem but we don't know what or how much of a problem. I suggest we don't
borrow trouble and cause hysterics. What we can do is check.”

“Check?”
Numiria asked. Her ears flicked forward attentively.

“Check.
Run a random radiation sampling of the crew. Check both sides and then run a
comparison model. Have someone check the compartments with a Geiger counter.
Start with the outermost and then work inward.”

“That
we can do,” the chief said with a nod.

“We
can also replicate water mats,” he suggested.

“Um...”

“Two
meter long plastic mats that are filled with tiny tubes. The tubes fill the
mat. You fill them with water to heat or cool an area. You can also use sponge
mats but those are harder to move the water.”

“We'll
take a look first. As you said, we don't need a panic or to borrow trouble if
it isn't there,” the chief said cautiously. She didn't want to get in a row
over the materials for that little project.

“But
it is something to keep in mind for the long term,” Irons said.

“Oh
yes definitely,” the chief and doctor said in unison.

“I
plan on having kids some day,” Chief O'Mallory growled.

“Me
too,” Numiria echoed with a nod. She finished her breakfast quietly with the
others after that. They had more than just food to chew on.

Since
the reactor was standing down to idle Irons put in for repairs to it. He
couldn't work on any emitters but they could work on rebuilding some of the
second and third tier control runs. They did what they could for the better
part of a week until they ran out of material and were forced to stop.

While
he was focused on that the chief and doctor went over the ship with a Geiger
counter. They marked the areas of the ship that had a higher radiation
exposure. It sparked a lot of talk among the passengers and crew. To quell it
the captain ordered the chief to patch the double hull from the inside the best
she could and then add water to the bladders.

O'Mallory
worked on minor structural repairs inside the ship. Now that they had a
functional replicator she wanted to clean up some of the hasty repair jobs that
had been tacked in to sections of the ship over the centuries. She had Irons go
over the plans of the ship and work out a better distribution of load. Proteus
worked out a more efficient system for the life support, heating, and antigrav
as well. This kept the crews busy for the first month.

The
pace wasn't nearly as frantic as it was when Irons first came aboard of course.
A lot of the repairs were hull related so they were mapped and then put off.
O'Mallory planned out what she wanted to achieve in Antiguan space, but the
list was long... and getting longer every day. After talking with the admiral she
broke the list down into three categories. Critical, comfort, and nice to have.
It amused the crew but it also put it all into perspective.

One
evening she caught Irons sitting in front of a tri-dee chess set. It was a holo
projection, and she was amused to see him playing against Esmay while Blackhawk
and the other bystanders watched.

“Having
fun?” O'Mallory asked as she came in. The crowd turned to her and smiled or
shrugged. Irons turned to her and snorted before picking up his beer stein to
take a swig.

“All
work and no play makes for a dull day,” Irons said putting the stein down.
Immediately Blackhawk flicked a finger to a server to refill it. Irons watched
the young Terran woman refill the stein from a pitcher and snorted. If they
thought they were going to get him hammered they were in for a rude awakening.

“I
think you didn't quite get that one right admiral,” O'Mallory said as she took
a stein and hooked a wooden stool with her foot to drag it over to her. She sat
on it and then took a pull of beer. “Nice,” she said looking down into the mug.

“It
helps to have the equipment serviced,” the beer wench murmured in passing.
O'Mallory cocked her head. The wench took out a rag and wiped down the bar
before tossing the rag over her shoulder. “Irons,” she said.

“Ah,”
the chief said with a smile. “That explains it then,” she said turning back to
the match. “How are they doing?” she asked. Esmay was the picture of
concentration, not her usual insouciance pose she preferred. Obviously Irons
was more of a challenge than Esmay had realized.

“The
admiral's won three out of four games,” Breia said with a smirk.

“Really?
So Esmay's losing her title as chess queen? Wow! How the mighty have fallen!”
The chief said with a smirk.

“I
haven't lost it quite yet,” Esmay growled. She reached out to touch a bishop
but froze. After a moment the hand withdrew ever so slowly. Irons sat back and
smiled, holding his beer.

“Well
look at you. Relaxing. Beer in one hand, playing chess of all things. I
wouldn't have dreamed it in a million years,” O'Mallory said mockingly, shaking
her head. “How the mighty have fallen. Did we corrupt you?”

“Even
I need a break now and again chief. I like chess. The beer,” he looked at it
and then pointed a finger to Blackhawk. “His idea.”

“I
insisted,” the broad Native American rumbled. O'Mallory looked him up and down.
He was wearing his Cherokee outfit complete with a feather in his cap since he
was off duty. She shook her head. “I figured we owed the man a beer since he
did fix us up and get us moving.”

“Well,
I had a lot of help,” Irons deadpanned with a shrug and a nod to the chief.
O'Mallory saluted him with her stein and then drank from it.

“Are
you going to move sometime soon or surrender?” Blackhawk asked impatiently.

“Shhhh,”
Esmay shushed him, reaching out to grip a holo pawn. “Some people with brains
like to exercise them a bit more than sitting on them and just following an
arrow on a screen you know...” She moved the piece up a tier and then set it
down. “Check.”

The
holographic projection wasn't really touched by her fingers of course. Sensors
in the bezel sensed where her fingers were in the field matrix and tracked the
piece to them until she set it down in an appropriate location and let go.

Irons
looked the scene over and pursed his lips. Esmay sat back with a sigh.
“Winning?” Blackhawk asked. Esmay didn't answer. She wasn't sure if Irons had
seen what she had seen.

“Not
by a long shot,” he replied. He reached out with an index finger and moved his
bishop to take her now exposed queen. “I think that answers that,” he said with
a smile.

“Hey!”
she said sitting up straight. Irons smiled as her queen exploded.

“I'm
guessing not,” Blackhawk sighed. “Another beer miss,” he said holding his empty
stein up to where Breia could see it. “I think it's going to be a long night,”
he said.

“Probably,”
O'Mallory said, looking down and smiling. It wasn't like Esmay to be off her
game. But then again, chess was a strategic game. One that apparently the
admiral was good at. Which made sense since he was a military man after all.
She wondered if Esmay had figured that out yet or not. Apparently not quite
yet.

With
the slowdown of work, the internal repairs and rebuilding led to a class on
welding tech. Things were settling down into a routine the crew recognized.
Every day there was some new project for the engineering team and some of the
volunteers to tackle. Irons tried to jump around to keep an eye on the various
projects, lending a hand where needed. He also started his classes once more.

He
lectured about tack welding, and explained why jumping around to distribute
heat and prevent warping was so important. He explained about using filler and
grinders to clean the weld up, also that the grinder can generate a lot of heat
as well so jumping around to prevent heating is important there as well.

"But
you don't use it though? Not filler. I don't remember filler..." Jer'uk
asked, top arms in confused and unsure pose.

"I
use a different method. I use... well, call it molecular bonding. Also known as
nanowelding. I draw material from the sides of the welds and bind them
together. The process is tedious and energy intensive."

"But
you don't have to grind it smooth."

"Right.
But it takes longer and it's harder to do. It makes for a stronger weld but it
takes twice as long and is ten times more energy intensive. What we need here
is quick and dirty."

"Ah."

“What
we're doing it tacking the pieces together to make sure everything fits and to
keep them in place while the next stage is test fitted. Can anyone tell me what
this is?” he asked, holding up a probe connected by a black centimeter thick
cable to an LCD screen.

“Some
sort of endoscope?” Yvonne asked wrinkling her nose.

“Not
quite. What this is, is a portable X ray machine. So once a weld is finished you
run the probe over the weld like so...” He put words to action, running the
probe over the weld he had just had them finish. He angled the LCD so they
could see the view. “Now, as we move along we see the weld and how far it
penetrated. It looks good. No red which is bad.”