New Dawn (Wandering Engineer) Read Free Page B

attached
there. He pointed to the free port. "We'll get this end off while you’re working
on that." She nodded and motioned her crew to get the cable off and the
end up. They grunted as they muscled the heavy cable up. "Sprite, get into
the computer, cut power to that shunt so they don't get fried," he ordered
quietly. Sprite signaled okay with an audio trill. He nodded.
    "All right, that leaves the
rest of us to get this end off." He looked it over. Proteus enhanced his
vision, pulling up the junction and highlighting it. The copper had melted and
fussed to the outside of the coupler jacket. He sighed. "Okay, stand
back." He motioned them back as he sent mental commands to reconfigure his
arm to a plasma torch. Proteus downgraded his vision.
    He heard the gasp behind him, but
ignored it as he went to work. Sparks flew, and then the copper melted and
flowed. "Get a set of gloves; get ready to pull on the other end when I
tell you." He heard scrambling; he hoped they were doing it. After a few
moments he had the entire end ready. "All right pull." He stepped
back as the cable moved, then slowly moved back. He stepped in to torch a few
areas that were still clinging. Copper dripped down and pooled, glowing on the
deck. "Mind that spill, don't step in it." He checked the linkage as
the cable moved out of the way.
    "Burned, great," he
sighed. "Nothing is ever easy," he grumbled as he turned.
"You." A woman looked up.
    "Me?" She squeaked.
    "Yes, you. Get me a new
coupling jack. Grab a work crew and scavenge it fast." She nodded and
rushed off. He cut the old one off, and then checked over the hyperdrive while
he waited.
    It was in pretty poor condition,
but serviceable. There were scorch marks here and there; some looked like from
a firefight. He turned to Molly's work crew. They were having a hard time with
the jacket connections. He stepped around the cable and lent a hand. A moment
of work had the cable end attached. The crew was tentative. "I cut power
to this junction." He guessed at their slow actions.
    The ship shuddered. He looked up
and motioned to three of the women. “Go back to your duties. Let the bridge know
we should have the hyperdrive up in ten minutes.” They nodded and left at a
jog.
    "Molly, Shield status?"
She looked up surprised. "Stern shields are intermittent. Bow shields are
twenty percent," she said immediately.
    He nodded. "Can you take a
work crew to check the shields? Be careful of the heat sinks," he ordered.
She grimaced and then nodded.
    The woman he had sent to get the
coupler arrived with another woman, walking backward, carrying the bundle. He
grabbed it before it slipped out of their arms and hefted it. The women stepped
back, staring at him. He shrugged. "Thank you, you can return to your
duties." The woman mutely stared at him. He wasn't paying attention; he
had already turned and started splicing in the jack coupling.
    He made fast work of the
connections with the welder, and then hefted the end of the cable. "Okay,
here goes." He plugged it in. "Proteus, give me a boot test of the
drive, and cable integrity." A wait prompt appeared in his field of
vision, blinked a moment, then the hyperdrive stats came up. Not good, the best
they could get was the low alpha bands, but enough to get out of here.” He
stepped away from the drive just as a security team arrived. He noticed Molly's
sudden wary look.
     He nodded to her. "Call the
bridge; let them know the hyperdrive is back on line." He had had to raise
his voice over the chaos for her to hear him. When he pointed to the drive the
compartment went quiet for a split second then broke into cheers. He snorted,
they weren't out of the woods just yet. "As you were people, we still have
work to do. Navigation and shields, be ready for hyperdrive slipstream on
command." He turned to Molly. "What next?" Sprite highlighted
the navigational sensors, then the shields.
    "We have a water jacket
around the shield heat sinks, but they're saturated," she