Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (42 page)

“Let's
go people, you heard the lady,” the head nurse said with a nod. She turned to
her staff. “Those not on duty but on this project report to the classroom... I
mean lounge. The rest of us have work to do. Get on it,” she said firmly.

“Thank
you,” Numiria said to her students and the head nurse as the rest of the staff
moved out.

“We
were only stating the obvious truth,” Chilly said. The elf nodded. Ezri nodded.

“I
know. I'm glad you have come far enough along to realize it. And to remind me
and the others of it. Thank you again.” She turned to the nurse. “Helga...”

The
silver haired Terran smiled sympathetically. “I've already cleaned up the mess.
Well, I had the orderlies do some of it and called in an engineering crew to
take care of that blasted pod. I'm betting that was the problem. The pod.”

“You
think it messed her up?” The Veraxin asked, looking at the nurse. “In what
way?”

“I'm
betting, and this is only a hunch mind you,” the nurse said holding up a
restraining hand. “I'm betting something got missed when they stuffed her into
that thing. I think something was irradiated and it kept giving off radiation
even after she was in stasis. The radiation chewed her up.”

Light
Touch looked at Numiria in concern. “We based our assumptions on the records of
the patient.”

“We
won't do that again,” Numiria growled. She looked at Helga. “Get someone to go
over that compartment with a Geiger counter. I should have done that but I
didn't think of it when we were doing it before. There was no need since they
were in stasis after all. Apparently I was wrong about that. Find out if anyone
else has the same problem.” Helga nodded. Numiria turned to look at the
Veraxin. “We'll need detailed records of our next patient. Current records, not
something we pulled up from the files. We'll compare the two.”

“Got
it. The next patient isn't a radiation exposure though,” the Veraxin said. “I
believe it is a burn and severe trauma patient.”

Light
Touch looked at Numiria. “Shall we skip it?”

“Her.
She's pregnant too,” the Veraxin said waving his tablet.

“I'm
surprised she didn't miscarriage,” the head nurse murmured, eyes sad.

“She
will if we don't handle her case delicately. Skip to someone a little less
complicated. We'll come back to her,” Numiria ordered.

“I'll
look at the list,” the Veraxin said. “There are many to choose from.”

“We
will get back to her. That I promise,” Numiria said firmly. The others nodded.

The
captain tapped his manicured fingernail on the new table, wondering if he
should put in for a new desk for his office. He was listening to the replicator
chief's report. He shot the Telerite nearby a look. Blur looked insufferably
pleased with himself. He could see why.

“So,
we've got all the food replicators repaired and running. Recycling has been
repaired and upgraded. I understand it is now designed to handle our passenger
load.”

“Which
it was never designed to do in the first place. Good job,” Warner said, nodding
to the chief engineer.

Quinna
O'Mallory leaned forward and shrugged. “Wasn't really me. I was working on the
replicator compartment. It was Lobo and the Admiral,” she said spreading her
hands.

“Still
a good job. On both projects,” the captain said with a nod. “Your people are
doing wonders. Please pass on all our thanks,” he said.

O'Mallory
nodded. She gave Martha a look. The young woman sat down. “With an industrial
replicator of our own we really don't need the admiral any more do we?” Blur
said.

O'Mallory
sighed, rolling her eyes. Here we go, she thought annoyed. “That isn't exactly
true,” she said, frowning.

“But
he's not a necessity,” Blur said doggedly.

“True
in some ways but not all. But if we want to continue operating at this level
then we need to implement the asteroid plan. To do that we need the admiral's
participation,” O'Mallory replied.

“Why?”
Hir'ruk asked.

“Because
the admiral holds the keys to the restricted list,” Martha blurted out.

“Correct,”
O'Mallory said as the council turned on the interloper. She smiled
encouragingly to the young woman who was busy hunching her shoulders and
looking down at her hands. O'Mallory glared at the other occupants of the
compartment. “Unfortunately having an industrial replicator doesn't do you a
whole lot of good for some repair projects. Like oh say reactor parts. Or
hyperdrive parts. Or a dozen or so other things we still need.”

“But
we don't need them right now do we?” The captain asked.

“Some
no, not
yet
,” she said tartly. “We will however eventually. I for one
would like to have spares,” she said.

Cora
put a restraining hand on her husband's. He looked down at it and pursed his
lips but didn't say anything.

There
was a long simmering moment before the chief grunted. “I think that with the
new schedule my people will be able to implement all the repair plans we have
made. If it works out then we should be able to hit Beta band when we leave
Antigua,” she said, glancing at Blackhawk.

The
Native American hated meetings. He looked up from where he had been carving a
stick and then shrugged. “I've simmed it a few times. I think we need more
practice. Full bridge sims,” he admitted.

“A
good idea,” Warner said. He looked at Esmay. “Are you up for the challenge?” he
asked.

“We're
adjusting our heading. Um... yeah,” Esmay said.

“Adjusting
the heading? Why?” The captain asked tartly. He hadn't heard this before now
and was incensed to have found out in this way.

Esmay
squirmed a little in discomfort under his intent gaze. She looked at Blackhawk
who spread his hands apart. Finally she grimaced. “I... we didn't take into
account the speed when we planned the course. That... set off our markers.”

“Are
we off course?” Hir'ruk asked in sudden distress.

Esmay
shook her head firmly. “No. I don't think so. The problem is I'm not sure where
on the course we are. Normally we can tell by what we run into on the course
itself. But the compression ratio is different so it's harder to make
adjustments. I'm pretty sure we're going to come out near Antigua, but I'm not
sure how
far
out.”

“Please
tell me we're not going to overshoot,” the captain sighed rubbing his brow.

“No,
I don't think it will come to that. We'll hit the hyper wall before we do.”

“Lovely,”
the captain sighed. “And you're just telling us now?” he asked icily.

“Um,
well...”

“The
admiral asked. We hadn't thought of it until now. Actually his AI Sprite put us
onto the problem. We just confirmed it not even fifteen minutes before this
meeting,” Blackhawk interjected.

“Still...”

“It's
over and done with now dear,” Cora said. He looked at her scowling blackly. She
cocked an eyebrow. Finally he relented.

“I'm
pretty sure we'll come out near the Antigua jump point. We may be an AU or two
further out or in from it though. We'll know more when we start dropping
speed.”

“And
that will be?” Blur asked.

“In
twenty seven and a half days,” she said.

“Oh,”
he said.

“I've
also discovered that nine of our sleepers are past the point of recovery
despite anything we can do. They were placed in stasis in their clothing.”

“Why
is that a problem doctor?” Hir'ruk asked. He showed baffled confusion.

Numiria
sighed. “Because the clothing itself was contaminated. Irradiated in other
words. They were thrown into the stasis pods before being stripped down. The
radioactive objects continued to emit neutrons. Since the articles of clothing
or in two cases skin suits were in contact with the patient's body for
centuries... prolonged exposure has severely degraded their cellular system,”
she explained, ears flat.

“I
thought...” Cora hesitated. “I thought stasis prevented that?”

The
doctor shook her head. “In normal circumstances it limits or slows the
metabolic rate of the patient. Slowing it to an indefinite crawl. But it
doesn't halt the life process. Nor does it protect the patient from exposure.”

“Oh.”

“Their
DNA strands were hopelessly irradiated and fragmented. One of the skin suit
wearers had her helmet irradiated. It did significant damage to her brain.”

“Oh.”

“We
decided to end their suffering as peacefully as we can. I was going to talk to
you about arranging memorial services,” the jackal said, looking at Cora. Her
ears slowly returned to their alert status.

Cora
was uncertain. She looked at the captain. He shrugged a little. “I'll need
their names to find out if they have any living relatives,” Cora said quietly.

“I'll
send you an e-mail,” the doctor murmured.

“Thank
you for trying doctor,” the captain said. The doctor looked away uncomfortably
for a moment and then straightened her shoulders.

“Is
that all?” he asked after a long pause.

“No.”

“Continue
then,” he said. The captain seemed to brace for the next bit of bad news.

“On
another happier note,” Numiria said, interrupting. “I've got some good news.
Our first three sleepers are awake. Well, they are out of stasis anyway.”

There
was a murmur around the compartment over that new bombshell. Finally Mr. Warner
interrupted with a throat clearing sound. When the room quieted he turned to
her. “How are they doctor?”

“Well.
Or on their way to a full recovery,” she said, ears forward, tail wagging
behind her in full show of her excitement.

“That
is good news!” Cora said, smiling radiantly. “How are they handling it?”

“Mentally
you mean?” The doctor asked, tail slowing and then drooping. Her ears went
back. “That is an issue,” she said slowly. “Unfortunately they each have time
shock even though they knew what they were getting into. I've asked my staff to
look into treatment methods.”

“Time
shock,” Hir'ruk said showing surprise and concern. “Depression?”

The
doctor nodded. “That is one of the symptoms. One of the primary ones. Adjusting
to the fact that most of your family is dead is a major shock to any mental
state.” There was an awkward silence for a moment.

“I
wonder how the admiral is taking it,” Cora said quietly. More than one person
looked at her in surprised concern.

“I
don't think any of us have ever thought of it,” Hir'ruk said, showing second
level embarrassment.

“I
have. My parents have. They've gone through it as well of course,” Warner said
softly. They turned to him. “I think finding someone from his own time period
helps. It's helped them a bit. I know they've talked a few times since his
arrival. It would help if he would take a bit more time off and just sit down
with them and talk. I think it would do all of them a world of good.”

“Could
your parents help?” Numiria asked. “They have gone through this. I heard that
establishing bonds helps. Finding living kin to bond with... getting into group
therapy sessions and making new attachments will anchor them to our time and
help them to adjust.”

“I...
I can ask. Mom's still having problems,” Warner said with a wince.

“I'm
working on it,” Numiria said, ears back. “I'm... I'm sorry; implant tech is a
little out of my field.”

“Do
any of the sleepers have implants?” O'Mallory asked. Martha looked surprised at
that question.

“The
older ones do,” Numiria said, checking her tablet. “None of the three I've
awakened though. Why?”

“Implants
help to run a ship. Someone with implants can do the job of ten people when it
comes to managing the reactor. I believe it's the same for some of the bridge
stations too,” she said, nodding to Blackhawk and Esmay.

“It's
possible,” the doctor murmured. “I can look into it.”

“Thanks,”
O'Mallory said.

“Can
you do implants now?” Blur asked suddenly. They all turned to him. “I mean, not
just for the crew but we could sell the services...”

The
crew turned back to Numiria expectantly. She squirmed a little and then sighed.
“Unfortunately no,” she admitted. Faces fell around her. “It's beyond what we
can do. I think.”

“You
can do basic level one implants,” Sprite interjected from the overhead. “That
is a possibility with your new infirmary doctor,” Sprite said as they looked
up. Her holo image appeared in the center of the table. Their eyes turned to
that image. She looked around to each of them and then back to the doctor. Her
holo image had her hands held behind her back.

“You...
level one?” Numiria asked, looking at her tablet to look it up.

“Basic
Ident chip implants doctor. They go into the right or left hand of the user.
They allow basic access to some systems and allows the ship to track their
movements on the ship,” the AI explained.