Chapter 6: Settling In Part 2

It was later that night, or in this case, going on 2145 in the Jian Seng, when Javier stepped into the main bridge. Even with the lights showing the same illumination as they did before, the late-night shift was about to begin. Personnel was coming and going. Information was being passed down to the next one.

With the lack of gravity and being away from the centripetal ring, the magnetic boots were keeping everyone anchored to the deck. Those on watch had seatbelts to strap themselves to the chairs to take pressure off of the boots. The cut short or wrapped up woven hair on the crew paid off at this moment as the lack of gravity would quickly send the hair floating around freely.

With Javier, he was relieving no one. He instead stepped into a bridge with one lead officer. He already had met him by now. This man was known for his Chinese complexion and short black hair. He wore a tight gold necklace around his neck that showed iconography that he was not fully aware of. This was Ensign Wu, and he was the more recent of newcomers assigned to the Jian Seng. Having already previous experience on another ship, Wu was dry as Shira and often considered to be a dull character, but easily made up for it by following the rules and being precise. He was still open and professional to others, however.

Regardless, Wu was still well-liked among the crew despite his boring behavior. He sat on his chair. He seemed to be on chat with another crew member. It was evident that he already had relieved the previous commanding officer. He had a tablet in his hand that he was using to type up words. He had a partial mike and earphones on one side of his ear to keep track with someone else.

Marcelle was talking with the person she was going to relieve. She had made it perfectly clear earlier that she was taking up the same watch that Javier was going to partake. The other man unstrapped himself to the seat as he stepped away from it. She went and took up the seat to her console, replacing the man that seemed ready to get some sleep.

Another woman in the room seemed perfectly aloof to Javier’s arrival but for a good reason. Petty Officer Betty was known for her brown hair, mild temper, and somewhat brazen personality. She had assumed the engineer watch stander by the console, happily replacing Obasi that was ready to be relieved.

The moments flashed through Javier’s head of the recent day’s events. Obasi seemed more cool-headed with himself now. Perhaps the talking-to that he had faced earlier had pulled him away from his acts of hatred against Shira. Most likely, he was just quiet now. He didn’t even give a second gander at Javier as he stepped away from the console. He instead just left. Betty seemed somewhat relieved that her watch had taken over one of the more challenges of the day for all engineers. The busted communication equipment was turning into an all-day project.

Javier went and had a seat on one of the far rear console stations. It wasn’t being used now, and it allowed him to have a good view of the room as a whole. Wu was distracted by whoever was talking to him. Betty was keeping an eye on the status of her console.

“Alright...” Wu said dryly as he pushed mike away from his mouth and turned his head at Javier. “How much do you want me to explain this role?”

“It seems very much like my job down on the surface,” Javier replied to him as he secured his seatbelt to the chair. “I would be given the responsibility to a section and oversee it while reporting to a higher command structure.”

“Pretty much, however, in this case, the difference is that you are in a different environment. 99% of the watches are really just us staring at a planet all the time, but my job will be to ensure that you are ready for the 1%. Today will be a little bit of that.”

“Ugh ... fuck. You can say that again, sir,” Betty jumped in. “That was a damn understatement.”

Javier could see that Betty was mentally exhausted. Even if she was doing her best to try to hide it, she was clearly tired and somewhat aggravated. He could see that she almost had her eyes closed as she vaguely looked at the console. Wu seemed to ignore her antics.

“Needless to say...” Wu continued. “The engineers are currently trying to fix the communications array. We have been relying on the backup for several days.”

“Mind me asking, but why not have kept the Jian Seng on the surface?” Javier asked. “I mean, I understand the fact that the repairs can be done in space, but the systems that are down could easily be taken care of on the surface.”

“No ... no, they can’t, sir,” Betty replied. “The Jian Seng is a relic of past usage.”

“You can’t get replacement parts?”

“Sir ... I...” she seemed to get agitated, but Wu turned to look at her.

“Hey...” Wu replied. “He is new on this ship. I know that you are tired, but try to show some respect to an officer as I would to you.”

Betty nodded her head. “Fuck ... I am sorry, sir.”

“It’s alright,” Javier replied. “If it is one thing that I am learning quite well is what the engineers have been doing to keep this ship in full operation.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening,” Betty replied with a less aggravated response. “The Jian Seng is an old ship, and trying to keep everything working is challenging at best.”

“As I recall, the UHN Gabatrix was not much older than this ship. Aren’t the Helix Class Battleships fifty years old?”

Betty shook her head. “The battleships were all pristinely built from new parts and manufactured equipment ... unfortunately, the transports were a different problem. This ship isn’t just older, it was created from existing parts and stocks from ancient 23^rd-century vessels like the CC-1s and CC-2 medium transports. Like ... you know ... the ships that they converted into museums or used to ferry people to the beginning colonies? When you are looking at the interior, you are not just looking at a fifty-five-year-old vessel but history that dates possibly as far back as the evacuation of Earth. Hell ... I wouldn’t be surprised that my great grandfather touched the same levers on the panel. Even by today, we use the CC-5s, and none of them use the original parts anymore.”

Javier thought about what she said. It made sense to him. The UHN wasn’t exactly the type to skip out on money, but even by the time it reached the beginning 24^th century, the military didn’t have much at all. It was only in the last fifty years that the military was expanded and improved as the economy got better as well. Regardless, even by the time, the discovery was made with the Itreans, the UHN was still too small to provide adequate protection. It proved disastrous and would warrant more defeats and hollow victories until the T’rintar clan became an ally.

“I see what you mean...” Javier replied.

“Yeah, I don’t have to hate me saying this,” she continued. “But they should just take this ship and do what they do to all old vessels. They should just turn this ship into a parts ship. Even the technicians rarely work on these anymore and are more familiar with the Magellan or Phalanx class ships. We report an issue, and we get a ‘we will get back with you later’ message. Later on ... nothing.”

“Even the Captain has almost stopped reporting on the mechanical casualties on this ship,” Wu added. “If this ship has a full mechanical breakdown, then the UHN will probably go ahead and remove her from service, but until then, we are pretty much on our own.”

“I see,” Javier concluded.

“But ... it can still fly.”

“I agree,” Marcelle jumped into the conversation. The person she was talking to went ahead and left the room.

“Of course you would fucking say that,” Betty replied to her.

“No. This ship is still really good. I have gotten used to the controls, and flying it is awesome. It is just like flying a big shuttle. It can even outfly the older CC-4s and jump transports even with its ... age.”

“Says the pilot that doesn’t have to worry about keeping her together in one piece,” Betty pointed at her. “All she has to do is slam one of the wings against the hangar bay of Aphadus. BAAM! Know who has to repair it? Yeah, us, the engineers.”

“Hey...” Marcelle replied as she tapped her console and rubbing her fingers across the buttons. “I can fly this ship through anything. Sir, don’t listen to her ... she is just grumpy.”

“Sir,” Betty replied as she looked at him. “Don’t ever side with her. She will just give us the runs like her cooking.”

“Betty...” Wu responded to her, knowing that she took a step too far.

“Ah! I take offense to that. That isn’t fair. I am trying to cook. I don’t want to be remembered as just the pilot.” Marcelle went and waved her hand at her as if she was pushing her away from her.

“So I take it that the engineers are still working on the communications array?” Javier asked.

“Yep ... might have to work on it after my shift is over here.”

“So tell me what your station involves.”

“Umm ... right,” Betty responded as she leaned back on the chair. “This is the engineering console. It provides the basic status of the ship.” She pointed at the left-most panel next to her. “You see this? This shows the equipment operation status of each piece of equipment. The little logo by the starboard front is the status of the comms. There are two of them. We have been using the secondary, which is still at a 100%, but you can see which icon is yellow.”

“Ah...” Javier nodded as he looked at it. “There looks like a lot of systems that are in the yellow.”

“Yep. Replacement parts pretty much prevent us from messing with them, but they turn yellow as soon as it reaches below 95% operational status ... so the news isn’t too bad.”

“What about the sensor system?”

“Unfortunately, it is both at 80% of capacity.”

“That seems like a problem.”

Betty partly shrugged. “I agree, sir, but I would be more concerned if one drops to 75% or below. We switch back and forth on the primary and secondary to ensure that the degradation is more balanced out. Once one is reduced to that, we will cannibalize the parts from one to restore the main to 100%. It is pretty much what we did to the comms array ... the only problem is trying to get the primary restored to some sort of effective operation.”

“Otherwise, the ship becomes a flying mute,” Javier said.

“That wouldn’t be entirely true,” Wu replied. “We have the comms array on the engine and centripetal ring module to communicate, but it still wouldn’t be good, regardless.”

“We do still have basic navigation lights, so we can send coded messages if necessary,” Betty said. “Umm ... I can try to show you some of the basic controls to it.”

“That is good,” Wu told her. “Javier has eight hours with us. By the time he finishes up with this watch, he will have basic operational controls.”

“Aren’t I supposed to command a watch, though?” Javier asked.

“To command a watch, you need to know the basic operations and systems first. Same with me.”

“I don’t mind giving him some instruction,” Marcelle added as she waved her hand at him. There was a big smile on her face. “I can help him fly.”

“Yeah ... like making it crash...” Betty mocked her.

Javier went and removed the Velcro straps. He then stood up as he proceeded to walk over to Betty’s console. She began to point at the various buttons on the console.

“This controls the display functions,” Betty explained. “The next one shows power reroute in case the primary reactor was to go down.”

Shira stood looking down at the chief engineer of the ship. Standing on the starboard passageway leading to the bridge, she remained perfectly composed as her one eye focused on him. In one hand, she had her lit cigarette tucked between her two fingers. Standing next to the main ventilator, the smoke would be drawn to it to prevent it from spilling over the area. On her other hand was her open tilon. Like a tablet, the two metal rods were rolled open, showing a digital display of the ship’s layout. She seemed to be studying the specifications of the Jian Seng while she was listening to the engineers and their arguments.

The passageway consisted of four individuals, not including Shira. This included the chief engineer Whittaker, Amelia, Obasi, and Anderson. Whittaker had a frown look to himself while he would overlook the panel that was ten meters from the bridge door. There was a large panel big enough for personnel to enter between the passageway and the ship’s inner hull. The panel was safely magnetized to the side hull, while the small enclave allowed the people access to the inside’s circuitry and equipment. Both Amelia and Obasi were tucked between these two spaces, seemingly evaluating the mechanical faults. The mechanical innards were only illuminated by the overhead lights of the passageway. Exposed wiring, cylindrical like devices, power regulators, obsolete components, and tools magnetized to the hull had littered the area.

“Chief, we found another broken down J-40 regulator,” Anderson commented as he held a tiny orange cylindrical device.

“Here ... it is the last one,” Whittaker replied as he reached into his back pocket and fished out a brand new one. He handed it to him. “This should work, but don’t tell me if there are any more that aren’t.”

Anderson nodded as he went and headed to the enclave. Shira had seen enough of Whittaker to tell that he was a hardened engineer. His stern face had shown wear and tear to it. While he was still in his forties, it seemed that years of trying to fix things were proving to take their toll on him. He had an augmented arm that was processing the data. A projection was shown that allowed him and Shira to overlook the mechanical schematics of the bulkhead and the mechanical equipment behind the passageway exterior. This was the location of the primary communication array. The large box-like structure jutted from the starboard bow’s section near the main bridge and ended with two antennas.

“I don’t know how good your skills are with engineering, but you can see what is working or not,” Whittaker replied to Shira.

“Junction 3R to 3L are the mainline routes from the primary antenna array,” Shira noted as she took a puff of her cigarette. The display on her tilon maintained the schematic projection.

“Yes, and as you can see, the line is severed between both of them. If we are able to get this line fixed, we will have full capability to the primary communication array.”

“Hmmm ... very interesting.”

“Why are you saying that? My teams have been working on this for weeks.”

“From line 3L, I can see where it splits off to go to the secondary array. This consists of junction blocks 2L to 2G.”

“And as you can see, the line is fully operational. The secondary array is still working that we are using right now. My team is currently fixing junction block 3N.”

Shira was taking a drag from her cigarette. Her eyes seem transfixed on other areas of the ship. She placed the cigarette to her lips as she used her free hand to swipe a couple pages on her tilon display. It showed the layout of other areas of the Jian Seng. She used her fingers to tap the schematics of different components.

“As I said,” Whittaker commented. “I am not expecting you to solve this one. I am sure that Itreans work with different equipment.”

“Not entirely...” Shira coldly replied, taking the cigarette out her mouth. “I do have some knowledge of internal circuitry.”

“I have poured all my thought process into this...” He replied, shaking his head. “The biggest problem is that I only have so many working replacement parts. As you can tell, that was my last J-40.”

“And I suppose you placed an order for more?”

“There are no more. They are only found on the retired CC-1 and CC-2s, but they have been all retired or scrapped. Their components were stripped. Genisen nor Tenix will make any more.”

“Very well.”

“Chief!” Anderson called out to him near the entrance where Amelia and Obasi were at. “We installed it. Powering it up right now...”

There was a slight click of power that was transferred as Whittaker’s projection showed no changes. The line remained red.

“Nothing...” Whitaker said. “I have nothing ... no fucking results.”

“Damn!” an angry voice came from the bulkhead. Either Amelia or Obasi was responsible, but Shira’s ears could tell it was a male voice.

“Chief, could we try taking the working J-40s and have them installed more separated rather on one junction point?”

“What would that accomplish?” the chief replied.

“The system could still run on a degraded state. We can divide out the working ones and let them take up the pressure over the entire line.”

The chief shook his head. “Negative. The secondary array, you can do that, but not on the primary. These older model primary arrays had to be set up that way since they make longer-range pulse transmissions.”

“We can still try to take apart the J-40s like we did before.”

“We tried that twice already. It didn’t warrant any results.”

“No,” Amelia replied as she shifted her body near the entrance of the alcove. “I think if I can look at it again, then I can start rebuilding the J-40 parts. It’s possible we don’t need spare new ones.”

“She has a point,” Shira replied. “When one is left with only one option, it is best to do it. This way, another solution may present itself.”

“Are you suggesting that I stop?” Whittaker asked her.

“We are not stopping. We are trying to fix the communications array.”

“No,” Whittaker got stubborn with her as he pointed his finger at her. “We need this array to work. We will come up with a solution ... even if we don’t get any sleep.”

“That will impair your abilities if you don’t succeed.”

“What do you know? Knowing you Shal’rein, you probably don’t need as much sleep as us.”

Despite the chief’s attempt to pull Obasi away from the galley earlier in the day, Shira could still sense antagonism in Whittaker’s voice. It was directed toward her and not the situation at hand.

“I only need five hours of sleep,” Shira replied. “However, the average human being needs a minimum of seven hours of sleep. You will gain nothing by overexerting yourselves.”

“We will be departing to Palora by tomorrow ... there is no argument that needs to be made but one,” Whittaker said. “We must make sure that this equipment is made functional.”