New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Read Free

virus inoculation commencing. Do you think they'll
notice?" she asked. He shook his head.
    "I doubt it; they're most
likely focused on the external threat," he said and then paused in
thought. "Can we use a substitute cable? What about from the
replicators?"
    Sprite brought up the schematic
of the replicators. "Unfortunately as you can see the cables are short,
and between a support spar and bulkhead. No way to access them without a
gravity collar to lift the replicators or plasma torch to cut through the
hull."
    He grimaced. "Okay, so
that's out, any other ideas?" He watched as Sprite brought up a list, and
then automatically began to weed and discard items. "Wait hold it, the
plasma weapons, why not that?" he asked.
    She brought up the indicated one.
"To do that would alert the crew to our presence and take away their last
weapon."
    He winced. He didn't like it but
they didn't have a choice. "No choice, I already discarded trying to
splice something or scavenge the shuttles."
    He turned and looked around the
bay as Sprite detached his hand and returned it to normal. Junk littered the
sides and corners. Shuttles and cargo littered the deck. Some cargo was hanging
from nets. "What about the cargo?" he asked, looking around.
    "Scanning. No cargo manifest
in the mainframe. Accessing. Found it. It was on an external device.
Primitive." He waited. "No, cargo is mostly trade goods, foods,
primitive tools, raw metals and material, some seeds, chemicals, and
beads."
    "Civilization has fallen
that far?" he asked as he made his way to the hatch.
    "Civilization stopped six
hundred and ninety two years ago Admiral," she answered him quietly. He
stopped with a jerk, and then sighed. "Damn....Damn." He shook his
head.
    "Anyone at the hatch?"
he asked as they stepped up to it.
    "Yes Admiral, one
guard." They felt the ship buck and shudder. "That was a hit, shields
are down. Most likely the stern," Sprite answered him before the question
was asked. He nodded as she highlighted a maintenance tube hatch. He turned to
it.
    He exited near the weapons, glad
there was no guard. "Admiral, have you thought about how you’re going to
detach it if they are firing weapons? Or move it to the hyperdrive?"
    He sighed. "Good points. Can
you access a wireless node?"
    "Yes Admiral, I'm in. I left
a back door and was monitoring things." Sprite answered.
    "All right, order a crew
member to get a grav cart and work crew here. Then bypass the fire controls and
drop this thing into local fire control only. Lock the bridge control
out." He went to work, opening the hatch, checking the chamber within, and
then moving quickly to the panel Sprite indicated. Proteus rebooted fast, and
began reconfiguring his arm. "Work crew on their way. Are you sure about
this?" He felt the ship shudder. "Yeah, too late anyway."
Proteus reported the cable was serviceable, but near max impedance.
    He pulled the coupler off and
removed the cover plate to the thick cable below. "Work crew is at the
outer hatch." He turned and exited the hatch. He took the women, dressed
in gaudy revealing costumes in one glance. They looked shocked, one had her jaw
open and was backing up, a blond in a coverall and tank top was shaking.
    “Molly what do we do?” One
whispered.
    "What are you waiting for an
engraved invite? Get in here and help!" he used command voice to compel
them. Startled they obeyed.
    He snapped out orders to pull the
secondary bypass, drain the cable, and then pull it out. "All right, we're
going to get this thing down to engineering and replace the broken hyperdrive
cable." Sprite highlighted the leader, the blond with the top of her
coverall knotted around her waist. "Molly right?" he asked. She
nodded, adjusting her glasses. "All right, call down to engineering, have
them pull the old cable carefully. We need to get this one installed
fast."
    She nodded, coming to a decision.
"You heard the man, get to work!" She waved to one of the women to
maneuver the gravity cart under