Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) (46 page)

“
Ma'am?”
Jethro asked concerned. He shot a glance at his partner then returned
his attention to the officer.

“
With the
Admiral gone we can't build anything from the restricted list,”
she said after a moment.

“
I heard that
ma'am. I was wondering why we couldn't get into San Diego,” he
replied cautiously. She nodded. San Diego was a micro Dyson sphere,
really a Bernall sphere the Navy was working on as a base. Take an
asteroid of the right material, pack it's core with ice volatiles,
like say from a comet, then seal them in and superheat the entire
thing and when the outside turned molten the inside would superheat
into gas and inflate it.

Which was San Diego
in a nutshell. Or in this case a kilometer thick shell of a sphere
about thirty kilometers in diameter. The station to be had finished
cooling, they had cut the door with Firefly's weapons, but then work
had stopped when the Admiral had departed the system. That had pretty
much been the story for the entire system as one by one projects were
slowed or stopped by his absence.

Word was little or
nothing was getting done in the yard. Work across the system had
fallen behind, slowed, or completely stopped. Just when things were
looking up they get a kick in the teeth and are back to the dark
ages. Or backsliding that way.

“
The problem
with San Diego is that there is something restricted? Her replicators
Ma'am?” he asked when she didn't say anything.

“
No. But
that's part of her problem. No the real problem is we don't have her
power plants.”

“
Oh.”

“
And unless
you can see an alternative... maybe dig some up under a rock
somewhere...” she grimaced, lips puckering in a sour frown.
Shelby wasn't sure why she was dumping this on a jarhead.

Jethro thought hard.
She put her hand on the hatch control. “Ma'am um...”

“
Spit it out
marine,” she looked at him.

“
Uh, What
about... those panel things?” he asked feeling lame.

“
What panel
things?” she asked coolly, pausing and cocking an eyebrow up at
him.

“
The ones that
turn light to energy. Couldn't we use them?” he asked, feeling
lame.

She blinked at him
in disbelief for a moment. “You are talking about...
Solar
panels?”

“
Yes, them
ma'am,” he nodded, glad she understood him.

“
Do you have
any idea how many it would take?” she demanded shaking her
head.

“
No ma'am. But
if we had a um, big place for them we could collect power. Maybe on
the outside of the station? It has a lot of surface area after all.
You wont be able to make enough power for weapons and stuff, but
maybe life support? We can make as many as we need right?”

“
So?”

“
I'm not an
engineer ma'am but can't we beam some of the energy to where we need
it?”

“
That won't
work on a ship,” she said, eyes going half lidded and then
moving back and forth rapidly.

“
No ma'am, but
it will work on the station. If we had them near the sun they could
beam energy to where we need it. Like the yard or San Diego,”
he replied feeling more than a little nervous. Perhaps the gunny was
right, when around an officer it was best to keep one's trap
shut
.
He was in the thick of it though and the only way out he could see
was through.

“
Ma'am some
progress is better than
no
progress. Keep
moving forward. Don't bunch up and don't fall back. It's not in our
nature.”

She stared at him
for a moment. He tried not to fidget as he went instinctively to
attention.

“
You know, I
didn't think of that. I don't think anyone did. We've been too busy
feeling sorry for ourselves to think of that,” she shook
herself and then smiled a little.

“
Gunny taught
us there is a solution to every problem ma'am. You just need to find
it. If high tech doesn't work, try a work around for now. If that
doesn't work,
make
it fit. Think
outside the box. It wont be pretty but if it works it works.”

“
Gunny huh?
I'll have to remember that. Good job. I shot dad an e-mail with your
proposal. We'll see what we can do,” she nodded and tugged on
her jacket hem.

He was surprised and
a little embarrassed but kept his mouth shut. Suddenly she grinned.

“
Dad just got
back to me. He's turning the air blue cause he didn't think of it
sooner. Admiral Irons had been working on a plasma tap to make
antimatter, we can use the support structure for that. Good job.
We'll see if we can plug some of the other holes this way.”

“
Yes ma'am.”

“
Good job,”
she said again. She patted his shoulder nodded again and went inside.
He felt a bit of a glow at that.

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
Think we'll
get off this chicken shit detail sometime this century?” Sergei
griped trying not to itch. Armor was great, but when you've got fur,
it made you want to scratch. A lot. He wasn't sure why the hell they
needed to wear unpowered armor holding up a bulkhead babysitting
officers. It's not like they needed someone to hold their hands after
all. Then again...

“
Guarding the
old lady is not a chicken shit detail,” Jethro sighed.
“Sergei...” The hatch opened suddenly and he shut up.

“
Old lady?”
the captain demanded coming out, scowling fiercely, hands on her
hips.

Sergei looked at
Jethro then nodded to him when the captain looked his way. She turned
her attention on the panther.

“
Old
lady?” she
asked again. He winced and braced to attention. She came closer. He
tried not to breath to deep, she was wearing lavender perfume. He
hoped his eyes wouldn't start watering. That was the last thing he
needed. He willed his sinuses shut.

“
Well?”
she said, practically nose to nose to him. He kept his eyes locked on
the bulkhead ten centimeters above her head. “You've got
something to say marine?”

“
No offense
intended ma'am,” Jethro said quietly. Sergei snickered softly.
She shot him a look and then went over to him and glared balefully.
He shot to attention and gulped after a moment.

“
Captain,
um...” the XO said in the hatchway. “I believe we've got
an inspection tour to prep for?”

“
Coming,”
she glared again at both marines. “I am not
old
.
Pass that around,” she growled and marched back inside.

Sergei gushed a sigh
in a deep exhale, slumping slightly. Jethro just shook his head.

On the other side of
the hatch Mayweather smiled slightly, eyes dancing at the XO. Shelby
shook her head. “Toying with the marines again?”

“
It's a dirty
job, but it does have some perks,” Mayweather said with a small
smile.

“
I see that,”
Shelby said chuckling softly. “Unfortunately you enjoy it too
much.”

“
It's why they
pay me the big bucks,” Mayweather said sitting in her chair.

“
And why they
bury me in paperwork,” Shelby said, lips twisting in a sardonic
frown as she sat again.

“
Well, you
asked for it.”

“
You know,
technically I still out rank you. By date of rank at least,”
Shelby growled. “We could always swap places. It'd be a
learning experience.” Mayweather shot her a look and then
snorted.

“
Not on your
life,” Mayweather said shaking her head. “Not on my worst
day.”

“
Spoil sport,”
Shelby chuckled, eyes dancing. “I give it another nanosecond
before that's all over the ship you know. You did that with a crewman
down the access hatchway in full view and earshot.” She watched
Mayweather smirk. “Which was your intent all along. A little
social engineering skipper?”

Mayweather noted the
nickname but didn't call her on it. It was a hell of a lot better
than o
ld
lady after all. “I prefer that any day over
old
lady,” Mayweather growled. “I am not now nor will I ever
be
old,
” Mayweather said firmly. Shelby grinned.

“
Okay, I'll
see that it gets passed around as well. Now, we usually start in the
bow and work our way back for the weekly inspection but you mentioned
wanting to shake things up? Catch a few people napping? How about...”

 ...*...*...*...*...

“
Heard you had
an interesting day with the XO and the skipper?” Hurranna
burbled a laugh coming into the troop bay.

“
Don't start,”
Jethro growled, turning over so he could see the tablet better. He
wasn't sure why some of the humans called it a padd. Odd name. Tablet
too. He scrolled to the next article and then felt a bump.

“
What?”
He growled looking up to see Hurranna looking over him.

“
What'cha got
there?” she asked, snatching it out of his hand.

“
Hey! I was
reading that!”

“
Right, you
were. Now I am,” she said staying out of arms reach easily. She
rapidly scanned the tablet screen as he reached for her, almost
falling out of his rack.

“
What the
hell! Give it back, what are you, four?”

“
You both
sound like it,” Sergei growled from his rack nearby. “And
if you don't shut up soon, I'll have to play pappa and come tan your
ass.”

“
You and what
army fuzz for brains,” Hurranna said playfully, still reading
and keeping the tablet out of reach.

“
You know you
can download it yourself, or get it over your implants,” Jethro
said exasperated.

“
So could
you,” she retorted. “Besides, what fun is that?”
she asked smiling sweetly and waving the tablet. He growled giving
in.

“
The news?
You?”

“
It's...
I'm... Look, I'm practicing my reading skills okay?”

“
Yeah okay,”
she shook her head. She knew better than to tease him about his
skills in that department. “Vulcan?”

“
The factory
ship. It's actually Hephaestus. Thirty three, or something.”

“
Okay, and
that means?”

“
The same
thing,” Sergei sighed. “Vulcan is the name of the AI. I
just did a search and it seems the Hephaestus thing is the same
thing. One's Greek, one's Roman. Whatever they are.”

“
Okay, and
that helps us because?” she asked patiently.

“
I was looking
up the factory ship specs. I wanted to know how they can make stuff
with the Admiral gone,” he said reaching out suddenly and
snatching the tablet out of her hands.

“
Oh,”
she blinked in thought. “Uhm...”

“
When the
Admiral left we were left high and dry remember?”

“
Yeah I
remember that!” she said testily.

“
Well, I was
curios where the factory ship was getting it's parts from.”

“
And?”
she asked patiently.

“
And it seems
the Admiral in his foresight went and stockpiled the ship with parts
he had to be on hand to make. Reactor parts, computer core parts,
stuff like that. Generic designs that can be retrofitted for any
power plant, or put together into a plant if needed.”

“
Oh,”
she blinked again, trying to figure out what he meant.

“
It mean's
they aren't building parts, they are just using what they have on
hand and putting the pieces together. When they are gone they are
gone.”

“
Ohhhh,”
she said, suddenly understanding and not liking it. She sighed,
shaking her head. “Okay, that sucks.”

“
Exactly.”

“
So why are
they out there?”

“
To do what
they can with what they have. Priority basis. And they can still make
life support stuff.”