Read Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) for Free Online

captain asked, clearly confused.
    “My
AI Captain. Sprite is a smart AI assigned to me before I went into stasis.”
    “Okay...”
    “I
suggest Chief O'Mallory cut nonessential services and evacuate decks that have
problems with plasma leaks or overloaded life support. I'm on my way to main
engineering.”
    The
captain looked at the security chief who was scowling down at his board and
pressing buttons. He looked up and shrugged. Q’Bert was a good Naga but not
very good with computers.
    “Can
you help?” The captain asked looking up at the ceiling. He felt bleak, like his
whole world was coming down around him. Which in a way it was, he'd spent his
entire life on Kiev, he'd been born in her sickbay fifty years ago and from the
look of things he was liable to die here. Soon.
    “I'm
certainly going to try Captain. I suggest you set up a Goth plan, a Go To Hell
Plan. Essentially evacuating the ship to the planet with whatever shuttle craft
you have.”
    “I...”
the captain looked down and wiped at his sweaty brow. The heat exchangers were
already offline. “I'm not sure we can do that. I know we can't. We only have
one functional shuttle other than well, yours and well...”
    “You
may want to stage your people now. Evacuate the non-essentials,” Irons said,
moving warily though a group of people. Most stepped aside.
    “I...
there is no way we can evacuate seven thousand people Admiral. I... the
shuttle can't handle that. Not in the time we have left.”
    “ Seven ?”
Irons asked surprised, slowing to a halt. A bulk carrier was only rated for a
hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty. Seven thousand though? Where the
hell were they putting them all? He wondered. Where were they getting the life
support?
    “Checking
files. Yes admiral, the crew in the main section is one hundred twenty however
the cargo holds have been converted into habitats. I am estimating around six
thousand plus individuals in there,” Sprite reported.
    “Who
was that?” The captain asked.
    “My
AI. Commander Sprite, Captain Chambers of the Kiev. Captain, Sprite.” He'd deal
with her little oversight later.
    “Pleased,”
Sprite said dryly. “I take it the time for, as the admiral pithily loves to put
it, 'dicking around' is over captain?” she asked.
    “Yes.
For the time being.”
    “Truce,”
Irons said shaking his head. Here he was the wronged party and the captain
sounded like an ass. Like he was pulling teeth. He'd heard and experienced
stiff necked captains but this one was a piece of work.
    “What
can you do?” O'Mallory asked. Irons snorted. Trust Sprite to have tied the
chief engineer into the conversation. From her position indicated on his HUD,
O'Mallory had changed course for main engineering. “You're an admiral no
offense. I mean...”
    “I'm
an engineering admiral chief,” Irons said. “With AI support and access
to a small military grade replicator and database of parts. I just finished
rebuilding Anvil space station, the star freighter Destiny, not to mention the
Io 11 and building a start up yard in Pyrax. I can handle a bulk carrier easily
Chief. I can do it in my sleep.”
    “Oh,”
O'Mallory said eyes wide, eyebrows up near her hairline. “If you say so,” she
said dubiously.
    “Chief
I've been an engineer for a hundred and four years. I may have been on ice in
stasis for seven hundred and thirteen years but that doesn't mean I'm rusty.
Besides, I'm all you've got now,” he said with a tight lipped smile.
    “True,”
she said grudgingly.
    “We
need your ship. We need...”
    “Yes
you need my help. No you're not getting my ship or her parts,” Irons
replied firmly, answering the captain and trying to cut off his attitude. He
squeezed through a partially closed airlock door and entered the main corridor
to engineering. It was heavily patched. He winced at the view. The corridor had
been breached more than once.
    “Chief,
please let your crew know we're coming. I'll need unrestricted access to