Chapter Twenty-Seven.

Niol Orbital

2352-August-19

When I got to the bridge for morning watch, the pre-departure tension had already started to build. Mr. von Ickles took his place at the console beside me and we talked about the new simulation.

The data showed that the ship had shutdown systems and components just as the designers intended, and it had restored the systems according to specification. After that point, things started going wrong and the problems started in the aft boat deck. I hoped the data would mean something to Mr. Kelley.

We only had the watch for a short time before the captain came onto the bridge and the party started in earnest. I had enough experience in the systems console to run my own displays and Mr. von Ickles made no comment as I scanned first through the data integrity checks, then the high level diagnostics. I pulled the morning logs and got the virtual ship as ready for getting underway as the real one.

The tugs arrived, linking into our communications network and tying on their towing fields. The captain ch.o.r.eographed the whole extravaganza and, once more, it went off without a hitch. As we dropped back, I thought I saw the Penny docked but I could not be sure. At the designated distance, the tugs dropped their links and we came about, setting sail for the Deep Dark and Umber beyond.

As we secured from navigation detail and a.s.sumed normal watches, I turned to Mr. von Ickles. "I see what you mean about the first time, sar," I said with a grin. "But it's still quite a show."

He smiled back at me. "Yes, it is, Mr. w.a.n.g. Yes, it is."

I pulled up the failure display one last time to watch it run through. I let it loop, replaying the incident in my mind as the graphic ticked by. The other officers on the bridge came to look at it, even the captain. Mr. Kelley stood behind Mr. von Ickles, pulling on his lower lip with thumb and forefinger while staring at the looping display. There was something there, but we weren't seeing it.

The simulation was on the third loop and I was staring dreamily at the place on the schematic that represented where I had been walking when the power went out. The gravity failed, sending me adrift, and when it came back on I slammed onto the deck.

"Gravity," I said, and added, "sar." when I realized I had spoken aloud.

They all looked at me. Mr. Kelley squinted his eyes in thought. "Keep going, Mr. w.a.n.g."

"Gravity went out and the ship slewed a little, sar. It was enough that the field collector plates on all four scrubbers unseated and got sucked out of position before the power came back up."

Mr. Kelley nodded, "I remember. d.a.m.nedest thing I'd ever seen."

I pointed to the boat deck where the first sensor went dead. "We've a.s.suming that something with the EMP killed this, sar, Right?"

"Yes, Mr. w.a.n.g. What else could it be?"

"What if something fell on it, broke it, and shorted it out? Would that have taken out all those systems, sar?" I asked Mr. Kelley.

"If something fell on it?" he asked. "But-" He leaned into the display.

Mr. von Ickles, Mr. Maxwell, and the captain all stared at the screen as well.

The captain ordered, "Freeze that, if you would, Mr. w.a.n.g, just before the point where the boat dock sensor fails."

"Aye, Captain," I said, and inched the display forward. until the frame directly before the component failure.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Mr. Kelley said in disgust.

The captain was shaking her head. "That can't be right."

"Right or not, that's what happened unless Mr. w.a.n.g made a data error, Captain," Mr. Kelley put in.

The captain said, "Mr. w.a.n.g, can you please double-check the status of the Systems Continuity Breakers at this point in time?"

"Yes, Captain." I scrolled through the list of systems data. "The sensor grid for the SCB shut down normally when the power overrides took everything off-line, sar."

"When did they come back online, Mr. w.a.n.g?"

"They didn't, Captain. At least not within the window of this log data."

Mr. Maxwell shook his head. "So all the fault breakers were offline?"

"Yup," Mr. Kelley said. "The ship was wide open. When the systems cabinet failed, that's probably all that kept us from having that spike rip right through the sail generators."

"It's so obvious!" Mr. Kelley said in disgust.

Mr. von Ickles looked startled at that and glanced at me with a grin.

"We were looking for some kind of EMP interference wave or a flaw in EMP shielding," Mr. Kelley just shook his head. "I'm gonna be kicking myself for the next stanyer over this."

The captain asked, "What fell on it to short it out? Was it from physical damage? Do we know?"

"Not at the moment, Captain," Mr. Kelley said, "but I'll know as much as we can find out in a couple of tics. Mr. w.a.n.g? Can you pull up the maintenance records for the period beginning at this point and going forward until you find anybody doing anything in the boat deck?"

I popped another list up on my starboard screen. It took a tick or two but I found the record identifying the replaced sensor. "Sensor broken. Heat damage. Scorching on casing." It was initialed AX.

"Hardly conclusive," Mr. Kelley was muttering, "but that's as solid an explanation as we've had in weeks."

"When you get a chance, Mr. Kelley," the captain said, "would you ask Mr. Xia about that sensor head?"

Mr. Kelley was still gazing at the display and nodding slowly to himself. "Aye, aye, Captain. And I think I'm going to go take another look at the boat deck myself. All this time I've thought the EMP caused these failures."

"We all were, Fred," Mr. Maxwell said. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Nope," Mr. Kelley shook himself from his contemplation of the display. "Let's go see what we can find."

The captain clapped me on the shoulder. "Nicely done, Mr. w.a.n.g," she said, and the officers, except Mr. von Ickles headed off the bridge.

Mr. von Ickles smiled at me from his console. "You said it had to be something obvious. I almost laughed out loud when Mr. Kelley said that," he told me.

"Well, you see what you expect to see, sar," I said with a shrug. "I've certainly done my share of that lately."

"Still, what made you think of the gravity?" he asked.

"When it came back on it, I dropped hard. It made something of an impression, sar."

"Was the deck damaged?"

"No, sar. I checked."

We sat there grinning at each other for a tick and he said, "Nice work, Mr. w.a.n.g."

"Thank you, sar."

We both secured our stations then and I headed for the mess deck. Cookie had spiced beefalo on the menu and I was hungry enough to eat one raw. It felt good to be underway.

While I ate lunch, Mr. Kelley and Mr. Maxwell came onto the mess deck. Mr. Kelly had a portable fire extinguisher with him and brought it over to me. It was metal, heavy, and about half a meter long. It also had a scorch-mark along the base.

"Let me guess, sar," I said to him. "It hangs above the burned out sensor?"

"Yup," Mr. Kelley said. "I thought you might like to see it."

Mr. Maxwell continued, "This seems to support your hypothesis, Mr. w.a.n.g. The boat deck uses magnetic latches."

"The cleanup crews found these down all over the ship, but n.o.body thought to do more than just pick them up and re-rack them," Mr. Kelley said. "We'll want to take that little item up with the designers."

"But, sar, why don't they fall off the bulkhead every time there's a power fluctuation," I asked.

"I don't know, Mr. w.a.n.g, but we might have taken enough of a yaw when the sail generator went down that they just slipped off the latch in zero-g."

Mr. Maxwell added, "We seem to have excellent evidence that the ship worked exactly as designed, but we do need to look into adjusting the continuity breakers. If those had been on, this wouldn't have been able to do so much damage. Thank you for your work, Mr. w.a.n.g. Well done."

Three days out of Niol, I began to get worried.

We had just taken over the evening watch and I finished my routine maintenance and systems scans. There was nothing left to do. For weeks I had had the data and systems problems stemming from the near catastrophe in Betrus. Now, the statement Mr. von Ickles had made about needing to find a way to make the position permanent came back to me. What possible value could I add on a regular basis to make it worth keeping my slot open?

Mr. von Ickles must have seen me sitting and staring at my console because he came over and asked, "Are you all right, Mr. w.a.n.g?"

"Troubled, sar. What am I going to do to contribute now that we've got the EMP problem solved?"

"Ah, you're worried they're going to take the slot away?"

"No, sar. Well, yes, sar, a little." I had to correct myself. "But the bigger problem is why am I here?"

"Well, that's a question men have been asking themselves as long as we've been capable of asking," he said with a grin.

I had to chuckle. "I meant what am I contributing to the trip, sar."

He smiled an odd, almost gentle smile. "So did I, Mr. w.a.n.g. Isn't that really the question we all ask ourselves? What am I contributing to the trip?"

It clicked into place then. All of it. The whole swirling ma.s.s of angst and uncertainty snapped into focus. I took a deep breath and let it out. Not a sigh, but something like it.

"When you put it like that, sar," I said with a smile, "it's so obvious."

"So, what do we need to be more effective as a ship?" he asked.

"Well, sar, the mechanics of the ships operations seem pretty well optimized."

"You might be surprised about that," he said, "but go on."

"Well, sar, Pip and Cookie built some software to help with market a.n.a.lysis and trading. Would it be appropriate for me to work on that? Maybe take some of what I've learned in building these displays to help them visualize trades maybe?"

"Perfect, Mr. w.a.n.g. Why don't you look that over and see what we can to help out? You might also check with Sandy Belterson on her astrogation updates."

"Really, sar?"

"The ship is designed by people who know how to build ships, but they don't necessarily know what it takes to make their living flying them. What makes sense for them is sometimes less than intuitive for those of us out here in the Deep Dark."

"You think I could help, sar? I don't know the first thing about this stuff, really."

"I think that gives you a leg up on the people who designed it, Mr. w.a.n.g," he said with a grin.

"How's that, sar?"

"Well, they thought they knew what we needed done. You're laboring under no such false belief."

I spent the rest of that mid-watch running through the cargo simulations that Pip had built. I got a feel for what it was doing, very loosely, but I was going to need to talk with him about what he needed before I could mess with it. I thought I saw some things I could do with the way he plotted price trends against cargo and port. While I was at it, I took a look at the cargo manifest reporting. Compared to the systems display we had for communications status, cargo manifests seemed rather-for lack of a better word-primitive. Of course, if that was all they needed, then perhaps I was trying to fix something that wasn't broken.

Still, it was something to do and by the time the watch was over I had lined up about eight different projects. I didn't know if any of them had merit, but until I looked into them, I wouldn't know. The next day was my twenty-four off so I took a run and a long sauna before heading to my bunk. As I settled down to sleep, I thought about Bev, the flying living room, and the academy. I wondered where Brill might work in there, or even Pip.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

Umber System

2352-October-05

We were two days out of Umber and Pip was ecstatic. All the way from Niol we worked to improve his cargo trading software. We spent the first few weeks just bringing me up to speed on what it did and how it did it. I developed some new code for him that let him siphon off more of the beacon data on cargo pricing. In addition, I had discovered that we could get access to Confederation economic indexes as we pa.s.sed the jump beacons so we were able to begin adjusting our trade expectations based on baseline economic data. I did not understand it myself, but I was happy to set up the data handling and visualization routines.