Chapter 4

Mare has the narrative for a time:

It didn’t take me long to discover what was wrong with the first piece of equipment that I had started work on, and I was able to correct the problem in a short time. The problem was that I found the same problem on the next four pieces of equipment that I worked on. It wasn’t until the sixth piece of equipment that I found a real problem that required replacing a part. There were parts available there in the maintenance area, but they were kept in a cage, and it was locked. I went to find Ski to see about the key. I found him in the office area going over a bunch of real paper invoices at his desk.

“You use real paper documents!” I said in an amazed voice on seeing this.

“Yes, we tried using hand held devices, but they all wound up broken. Paper is a lot cheaper to replace. The shuttles are equipped to scan them to be sure that they match the load they are expecting. That data was sent to them by the computers here at the warehouses. Their on-board computers match them up, and send the receipt back electronically, but I have to match everything up to be sure that everything was delivered and to the correct shuttle,” he told me in a tired voice.

“Do you need something?” he asked next.

“I need a part for the piece of equipment that I’m working on,” I told him, before adding, “By the way, do you know that you have a problem with someone changing the wiring on some of your equipment?”

“Changing the wiring?” he asked in a surprised voice.

“Yes, I found the same problem on the first five pieces of equipment that I worked on,” I told him. “I returned the wiring to the correct configuration, and they all work fine now,” I added.

“Show me what you found, and then we’ll see about the part that you need,” he told me.

Back out in the maintenance bay, I quickly found another machine with the wiring problem and showed him the wires before returning them to the correct configuration and starting the machine.

“This makes how many with this problem?” Ski asked.

“This is the sixth one,” I told him, as he looked around at the remaining equipment.

“And you haven’t replaced any parts yet?” he asked in an upset voice.

“No, I just returned the wiring to the correct configuration,” I told him.

“And we have been going through new parts for repairs in record numbers,” he said in an angry voice. “That’s not to mention that the maintenance guys have been drawing overtime for all of that repair work,” he continued.

“It sounds like they have a fine racket going,” I said, before remembering to ask,”What happens to the old parts?”

“They go into the trash mostly,” he said, as it dawned on him how the money was being made.

“I’ll be damned,” he said, “Those bastards are stealing parts and reselling them!”

“That’s what it sounds like to me,” I told him.

“No wonder they can all afford to take two weeks of vacation in the tropics,” he said in an angry vice, before turning to me.

“Don’t mention this to anyone, and show me what you are doing on the next piece that you find that has the wiring changed. I’m going to have to take this to Internal Security, so they can investigate all of this, and we can fire those bastards and sent them to jail,” he told me.

We went to the parts cage then, and I got the part that I needed to repair the machine that I was working on. Ski stayed to check the broken part before we put it in the trash container. It hadn’t been emptied yet that week, and we found several brand new parts in there, still in their original boxes. We left them there, and Ski went to call Internal Security.

Half an hour or so later, a couple of hard looking men in suits arrived, and Ski called me into the office from the piece of equipment that I was working on.

“Tell them what you found,” he told me.

“It would be easier to show them, as I’ve found another one with the same problem,” I told him.

“Okay,” one of the men agreed, and we went out into the maintenance bay. I demonstrated that the piece of equipment didn’t work before showing them the wiring, and then showing them how I reconfigured it and starting the machine. One of the men had used a digital camera to record what I had done and said. Ski took them over to the trash dumpster and showed them the parts in their original boxes.

“We’ll be back shortly and put trackers on each of those parts. We’ll see where they lead us,” the one who appeared to be in charge told Ski.

I finished the last piece of equipment needing repair a short time after they left and went to find Ski.

“I’m finished with the equipment,” I told him when I found him. He turned and looked at me incredulously.

“You’re sure!” he asked.

“Yes, you can go out and fire each one up if you don’t believe me,” I told him.

“It would have taken those bums working for me three or four days with overtime to fix that much equipment,” he told me in disgust.

“You should take a break for a while,” he added, as he calmed down and looked at his watch. “You have only been here something over six hours, but you’ve done the work it would have taken two or three of my men at least three days to accomplish. You are definitely due a break,” he finished. That was when another man entered the office from the maintenance bay.

“Ski, we need another tractor. The one that we have been using all day has broken down,” he told us before noticing me.

“Oh sorry, didn’t know that you were busy,” he added.

“This is Marianne. She’s the new seasonal maintenance tech. She has the equipment repaired, so you’re in luck. We’ll take three tractors out to the line. You can have two of them and we’ll tow the broken one back with the third,” Ski told the other man, before turning to me.

“This is Smitty. He’s one of the line supervisors,” he told me, before adding, “Let’s go.”

We fired up three of the tractors in maintenance and followed Smitty out to the line where the broken tractor was. There were two men waiting there when we arrived. They seemed surprised to see three of us, each with a tractor.

“Why don’t you have that tractor disconnected from the trailer yet?” Smitty growled at them.

“The connector won’t release,” one of them told him. Smitty closed his eyes for a second or so before growling at them again.

“Get the sledge hammer and hit it,” he growled.

“We did, it’s still stuck,” the other man told him holding out the ten pound sledge hammer.

“Give me the hammer,” I told them, as I stepped off the tractor that I had driven out there. The two men gave me a look that said they didn’t believe that some girl was going to release a connector that they hadn’t been able to.

“Give it to her,” Ski told them in a loud voice. They handed me the hammer, and I checked the handle for cracks and then the head to ensure that it wasn’t loose, before going to check the connector. It was a standard connector like the ones that we used on Telchines, only a lighter duty one. Planting my feet about thirty inches apart, I tapped the connector with the head of the hammer before raising it above my head and then slamming it down on the connector with all of my strength. There was a large ‘Bang” as the hammer hit and then the connector popped loose with a loud ‘Pingggg’, as it disengaged. The two men were standing there with shocked expressions on their faces at what I had done.

“We both hit that thing a couple of times each and it wouldn’t come loose,” the one said, defensively.

“This is our new seasonal maintenance tech,” Ski told them by way of introduction. “And she is from Telchines,” he added with a smile to looks of confusion from the two men.

I quickly had my tug hooked up to the broken one, and was ready to return to maintenance shortly. I pulled the dead tug away from the trailer, and Smitty backed his tug up to it. We could all hear the connector when it coupled up to it.

“I’ll take the other one over to the loading bay, Ski,” Smitty told us, as he turned his tug over to the other two men and stepped on to Ski’s tug. Ski joined me on mine, and we took off for maintenance.

“You can leave that one for the night shift guy,” he told me when we reached maintenance, but added, “but take a look at it to see if it really is broken.” A quick inspection revealed what was wrong with it, and I pointed it out to Ski who wrote a note to the night shift supervisor and the repair guy.

“You still need to take a break,” Ski told me. “You can work out in cargo tomorrow, if there isn’t anything that requires repair,” he added. We just sat in the office for a time until my scheduled eight hours were up. Will joined us as I was preparing to leave, and we left together.

“Everyone on the line was talking about you and the sledge hammer,” he told me on the way to the personnel gate.

“Really?”

“Yes, they couldn’t believe that a female got that connector loose with just one blow,” he told me and smiled. Ski had told us how to get to the gate, where we showed them our badges to leave. The rock miners were waiting at the bus stop when we arrived there.

“So, you got jobs,” Thorn said seeing our badges as we joined them.

“Yes,” Will told him.

“Together?” one of the others asked.

“Nearly,” Will told him.

“What do you mean, both of you have cargo badges,” the second guy asked.

“Mare is in maintenance part of the time,” Will told him

“You got a job as a maintenance tech?” Thorn asked in surprise.

“Yes,” I told him. “Their equipment is nearly the same as that used in the mines at home. It’s just the lighter version of what we use.”

“Damn, and you’re the one with all of the muscles,” one of the others said.

“Not all of those muscles are in her arms and back,” Will told them. “Some of then are up between her ears,” he added.