Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (85 page)

“Indeed
it does commander, indeed it does,” he murmured. “May it never ever be easy.”

Sparks
heard the familiar jingle of an approaching tool belt and smirked.  Freeze
always had his tool belt festooned with tools and bits of his trade, so much so
that he had to wear suspenders to keep it from falling down around his ankles.
He knew the feeling, he had the same problem. Multi-tools were great but
specialty tools like his drill and driver not to mention is pliers, wire
strippers and other tools were just easier to grab and use. Besides, with them
he didn't have to figure out which button did what and if it broke he got a new
one but could still use the other tools.

He,
like his buddy Sparks and their respective spouses, had seen the writing on the
wall and jumped ship at the first opportunity. The station offered unique
opportunities, not just for growth but also for comfort and work in general. It
helped that they had come over together, he just wasn't sure if it was going to
become permanent or not. From the sounds of the wives it was seemingly more
likely every day. The ladies were settling in now, picking out quarters and
even picking out upholstery fabric patterns for the furniture they wanted.

That
pretty much told him he was here to stay. He just wasn't sure about Freeze and
the kids. Their kids weren't interested in leaving Kiev. Each of them had their
own lives now, their own thing going on. They had growing pairs of careers now
that their parents, like hundreds of others were out of the way. He'd miss the
kids but if Freeze didn't make the jump permanent... he wasn't sure what he'd
do. Probably end up getting a divorce, he mused darkly. Some bonds were thicker
then blood or love.

He
felt the shadow and smiled as the footfalls slowed and then stopped. Right on
time. He turned, stripping a wire and then crimping a new connector onto it.
“That you Freeze?” he drawled, using his screwdriver to lock the wire down into
the junction box. So far so good, he hadn't narrowed down the loud humming here
but things were looking up. One down a hundred billion trillion to go. There
was something to be said about steady work. Here on the station they had that
in spades.

Which
reminded him. He needed to tell Freeze tomorrow night's game had been bumped
again to the following night. He'd caught the news in passing this morning on
his way here. Joe the foreman slash supervisor slash whatever had rearranged
the schedule once again. It was damn inconvenient when people did things like
that. Didn't they realize they were interfering with their spades night? After
all, they had a score to settle from last week's drubbing!

“Yeah
who'd yeah think the tooth fairy?” Freeze grumped, setting his toolbox down
nearby and then pulling off a panel. He was a life support tech, mainly focused
on heating and air conditioning or HAC over the complex nest of recycling
systems. He'd spent a lot of time with Freeze, they'd grown up together. Their
kids were engaged to be married. Both kids were smart and eager to run Kiev
ragged now that the old hands were stepping aside to make room for them.

“You
and Ezri still thinking about staying?” Sparks asked, looking up to his nominal
partner. Freeze was a good spades partner, pretty good poker player and a
normally nice guy. Except early in the morning like now. Right now he was a
crab. He'd be that way until damn near noon.

Freeze
said it was a lack of coffee. Sparks was pretty sure the surly attitude was
part act to keep people away. Freeze admitted he did his best work in the
morning when no one bothered him.

“We're
staying,” Freeze said with a grunt, pulling a driver off his tool belt to get
down to removing a shorted out fan. The blades of the meter wide fan turned
idly in the breeze coming from the ducts.

“You
like this place?”

“Ezri
wants more brats,” Freeze grunted, changing tool tips. He hated it when they
used nonstandard bolts for something. Why couldn't they ever keep things
simple?

“Oh,”
Sparks grunted. His wife was interested in staying as well, again for the same
reason. Of course that complicated things. He like Freeze had had a vasectomy
after their first and only kid was born.

Both
men were nearly fifty; they had been born in the same year. Their wives were
both medics, Ezri was a full on nurse, Regina was an SBA. The two ladies had a
sister friendship going, in many ways like the brotherhood the men shared.
Regina had taken care of the brats when they were younger and had even
volunteered in the day care and the school for years before returning to her
medical career.

Both
men were eager to work, they like a lot of people wanted to see what
opportunities the station presented to them. Also by clearing the decks of Kiev
it opened more opportunities up for the kids. Captain Chambers had recently
said over the intercom in his weekly address that if enough people emigrated he
would lift the ban on animals and on having more than one child. The address
had been simultaneously broadcast on the station. Sparks had realized that
wouldn't bother them if they remained, Ezri and Regina could have all the brats
they wanted, four legged, six or two.

Living
here had its own opportunities though. Both of the women were eager to have
more kids for some reason. Both wanted large families. They had the room here,
plenty of room. He'd heard about some weird stuff here too. Something called
theme parks and resorts. He planned on looking into it more later.

“Do
they have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it is to have kids?” Freeze
asked. “I swear she doesn't remember, just the good stuff,” he grumped, pulling
the last bolt free and then pulling the fan out. He for one wasn't looking
forward to the moaning and groaning, the bitching and emotional periods and the
screaming in pain when the kid eventually decided to make an appearance. He
didn't think his hand could take much more abuse; Ezri had damn near crushed
his the last time.

Freeze
was a shorter guy, about a hundred and forty centimeters tall. He had worn
glasses up until a month ago when Ezri had dragged him in for corrective
surgery. Now he blinked a lot and constantly tried to stop himself from looking
for his glasses. He had black hair done up in a top knot to keep it out of the
way. Fortunately he didn't have the gut that some of the other guys in his
profession got overtime. He didn't have a choice; Ezri forced him to exercise
with him every other day as a bonding thing. They walked all over the place in
the evenings as well.

Of
course Sparks knew about that part first hand. Regina had dragged him off to
join them for their evening walks from time to time. If he couldn't distract
her with something else of course.

Freeze
grunted as he set the fan aside. He wasn't sure why they wanted to get this
sorted out just now. They weren't planning on using this section for a few more
weeks. The servo was probably fried in the thing. He wasn't sure why they used
a servo in something that just needed a basic electric motor. Stupid.

“I
like the steady work. Kiev is getting boring,” Sparks said. Freeze looked over
to the other man. Sparks was looking at a pair of wires he was busy twisting
together. He snorted softly.

“Yeah,
it's gotten dull. I think we did too good a job fixing the ship,” Freeze
admitted. Which was true, both had risen to the challenge unlike some people.
They'd actually enjoyed learning new things and he had liked that the ship had
responded so well to the repairs. It was brighter, cleaner, and the air and
water was great. He kept telling himself that the station could be the same
with a bit of work. Okay, a lot of work.

“Yup,
time to let the kids keep it together while we move on to bigger and better
things,” Sparks drawled. Freeze started in on the screws for the motor housing.
The blade looked fine, not nicked or anything, he could probably get away with
just replacing the motor. It was a plastic coated fan; it had a black stripe on
the blades that let someone know the fan was active. The black stripe on each
of the blades formed a circle when they spun.

“Well,
bigger anyway. Not exactly better,” Freeze grunted, pulling the motor housing
off. He studied the inside and then pulled the wire plugs and then unbolted the
motor and tossed it aside after a casual look.

“Fried?”
Sparks asked.

“You
know it,” Freeze grunted.

“Figures.
I'm running into all sorts of crappy shit here. I mean not to code crap.”

“I've
seen it too,” Freeze grunted, pulling a replacement motor from his bag and then
wiring it in. “HAC ducts not taped at the junctions, holes, all sorts of crap.”

“Figures.”

“Lowest
bidder?” Freeze asked.

“Probably.
You'd think a factory satellite would invest in a little extra quality control
and inspection,” Sparks commented, tucking the wiring into the junction box and
then locking the cover plate down. “That's done,” he said. “I think there is a
short somewhere.”

“Might
of been what fried the motor,” Freeze said noncommittally.

“Maybe,”
Sparks said. He pulled a line tracer out and plugged it into the junction box
port and then started pinging. Then he pulled a wand out to trace the ping
through the bulkhead. The ping would resonate through the wiring, allowing him
to see it with the wand. If it ran into something he'd know when the green
light turned red.

“Done,”
Freeze said, putting the fan back in place and plugging it in.

“Got
something,” Sparks said. He was one hundred and sixty centimeters tall, tall
enough to just reach the bottom of the angled overhead panel if he stood on his
booted toes. The panel arched up to the ceiling, making you feel like you were
in a cave. Some of the angled panels had vents, others had cameras or sensors.
Fortunately this one was clean.

He
liked to tease Freeze about these panels but this morning he skipped it. Freeze
had to use a step ladder to get to the overhead panels. Of course Sparks had a
hell of a time bending over to get to the panels along the deck. It hurt his
back if he had to bend over for more than a minute or two. Getting up and down
from the deck was also a pain. He pulled the clips holding the panel in and
then the panel.

Unfortunately
when he did the rat’s nest of wiring behind the bulkhead slipped from where a
Denubian rat had tucked it up into the cubby and down onto the duct Freeze had
his hand on. Wires stripped by the hungry teeth of the rat touched bare metal
and a jolt of energy ripped down the metal duct.

Freeze
froze in place and then shook a bit. Sparks heard angry buzzing, a screaming
alarm, and looked down at his belt and then over to his partner. “SHIT!” he
bellowed, turning and using the panel in his hands to knock Freeze away from
the duct. When his hand broke contact with the duct his shaking stopped and he
crumpled.

“Damn
it man,” Sparks swore, laying his partner out. He reached for his mike.
“Medical emergency, level nineteen sector um, eight beta. We're half way down
from the lift junction. Electrocution. Get someone here stat!” he screamed.

“Roger,”
an unfamiliar voice answered right away.

Sparks
was too busy to listen; he checked the man's hand. It was burned but not too
badly. Freeze had been shocked, but not by a large amount, not enough kill him
right off. But a milliamp was enough to stop a Terran heart. He felt for a
pulse and didn't find one. “Shit!” he started CPR.

“Don't
make me kiss you bro,” he said in between reps. He grimaced. It was more
important to keep the blood flowing right now. Freeze's heart had most likely
stopped. He was pushing and grunting, focusing on his efforts. He didn't stop
when he heard the soft lift chime and then pounding feet behind him coming
their way.

“Get
in here! No pulse!” he snarled.

“Move!”
the paramedic said, pushing him aside to slap a sensor on Freeze's chest. The
box dissolved the clothing underneath it and then went to work, pumping nanites
into his blood stream. The nanites went to his heart, pumping shocks into it to
get it going again.

“He's
been electrocuted,” Sparks said, using the back of his hand to rub at his
sweaty brow.

“Shit,”
the medic said as others rushed in. Sparks found himself moving to the outside
of the growing crowd of people and robots. A Naga moved in with a hover
stretcher. It coiled under it and started handing off equipment.

“He's
in defib. Oxygen's applied. Get him moving,” the lead paramedic said, lifting
Freeze's body with the others onto the stretcher. They were moving fast Sparks
realized, they had him cleared and on their way to the lift in under two
minutes.

“Anthony,”
a familiar voice said. He turned at the hand on his shoulder. His eyes met Joe,
his super. “What the hell happened?” Joe demanded.

“Shit
happened. I pulled a panel and I guess something fell and shorted the duct he
was touching,” he said indicating the duct. There were bits of burnt skin on
the duct. He winced. “Careful!” he said as his portly boss reached for it. Joe
changed his mind and pulled a wand. He pointed it at the duct and it screamed.
He grunted.

“Shit,”
he muttered. They could both see the medics hustling the HAC tech into the
lift. They watched until the doors closed and then Sparks slumped as it all hit
him.