Chapter 21

"Tulip's" run to Old Earth was uneventful and boring.

TJ and Morg had been standing unsupervised watches a day out of Gorgipest. Gillard was on the bridge during the approach and berthing at Old London docks but had not intervened as TJ and Morg had combined to complete the evolution.

CPO Dulcie Watts' comment,

"Sure you don't want to take the helm as well, Sir?"

came back to haunt her.

Morg and TJ took the opportunity to do an EVA to repair an intermittent fault in the close —in radar antennae; the casing had come loose and was vibrating against a worn lead. Orville found five of the correct bolts and with a second EVA, they taped the lead, put in the bolts and safety wired them, and then used the lock wire for the sixth bolt. Orville made the entry in his repair log and marked the equipment for repair on return to the Kingdom in his 'puter. They spent an hour or so admiring the view of Enkland and Coneuro before re-entering.

There was a six day layover and TJ and Morg had four days in London Town. They did a quick tour of the town and booked into the Army & Navy Club without trouble on production of identity cards and passports authenticated by the Secretary who was familiar with Mountserrat issued documents.

They spent their mornings doing the tourist things when other tourists were extending their breakfast time. Using information obtained from Cecil Arbent, the A&M Club Secretary (a keener), the men found several warehouses purveying the exotic fabrics and threads for which certain parts of Old Earth were famous. The rather large order was broken into two and fashioned into (large) packs.

As a matter of curious interest, Morg surfed the local 'net for texts on 'couturier' and was almost overwhelmed by the number of 'hits'. He wended his electronic way through the first couple of thousand, retaining only those dealing with the basics for later reading.

During the afternoon and evenings, TJ and Morg made the acquaintance of serving officers and civil servants and discussed events across the galaxy skirting very close to the ban on politics and religion extant in the Club. Several keening introductions were discretely exchanged with the promise that on a future occasion a wider meet could be held away from the A & M Club. The Londoners understood that a courier's itinerary was chaotic but having notice of 'others' wanting to meet, the local 'keeners' could gather with a day's notice. The details were recorded as pending; TJ and Morg provided smears for examination as the locals had an excellent archive of chromosome patterns and it would give all satisfaction to know the position of the visitors in the chain.

Reporting back, they were confronted with the news that the Bosun, two bridge crew and two ERAs had been involved in a ground taxi accident and were in 'spitalfields with injuries which rendered them temporarily unfit for duty although the Bosun and an ERA were mobile with fractures incapacitating them for duty.

TJ looked at Morg who shrugged and after stowing their kit in their cabin (a closet with two bunks), they strolled into the bridge looking about and then walked back to the engine room where they found the Chief poring over his watch and manning bill — a wall mounted flat screen 'puter output.

"Chief, if I remoted the power plant controls to the bridge, would you object."

"TJ, I put that proposal into Third a decade ago and all I got was a pat on the head and told it would be looked at. Here" and Orville changed the screen, "is the master drawing I submitted. The detailed drawings are in there as well. It's based around running a leash through that baseplate there (pointing at the deck and gesturing forward) to the bridge console. Marry the navcom positions and use the spare for engine room monitoring. Scrounge an assault shuttle pilot's chair to replace the helmsman's stool, change the 'wheel' to a three way yoke, change the 'bells' to a seat mounted throttle lever connected to the 'puter control back here and you can get rid of half the crew straight off"

"That was quick" said Morg as TJ was left blinking, "how about two pilot chairs, side by side placed aft of the 'puter screen bank."

"Morg, you spent too much time in shuttles" Orville accused him. "We could get rid of everybody, well, all but a few."

"Take two days?" asked TJ.

"With you two helping, yes. I knows your background. I got friends in low places. (laughed) Tom doesn't hold the commission against you but he's not sure about the Puzzle Palace, though."

They all chuckled but the mirth disappeared as TJ said

"We gotta see Gillard. You too, Orville; and bring those drawings and the parts list."

"Boss, you have a problem. We are shorthanded (which earned him a disgusted look) and we are going to be carrying two passengers. We can't retrieve the passengers until tomorrow and that means possibly day after before we get away. I had an idea about solving the problem but Orville was way ahead of me. He got plans to automate this bucket so it can run with half the official crew, but ... Aint there always a but. We need some parts; we can do without shuttle seats but we can't do without the double shielded cable because it uses the same tunnel as the forward power supply from the engines. You have to approve the temporary modification to the bridge area and claim shorthanded crew as making it necessary."

"I don't have discretionary funds for modifications and any repairs we need get funded through the Ambassador or whoever and that will take time and questions that I wont be able to answer."

Morg's grin just about lit up the bridge.

"What's so demned humourous" demanded Shirley Woods as she joined them, and to Gillard "We can't get Watts for another two days, she tripped and broke it again — wet floor would you believe in supposedly a modern 'spital."

"Oh, Deity, you two or is it three, are crazy" was the XO's reaction when she was brought up to date "but that doesn't answer the question."

Morg meanwhile had taken out his PDA which caused Gillard to look askew at him, and he had been rapidly pushing keys, pausing, looking at the overhead, pushing more keys, saying "Yes!" and shutting it down and repocketing it.

"Where'd you get that thing. I've been trying to get my hands on one of them for years?" Gillard said angrily.

Morg looked at TJ,

"Wonder what the situation is here? Let's look into that, the girls might like them. Sorry, another story. Funds — not a problem. My family has accounts here. I'll fund it and you put in the dockets when we get home and perhaps in two or three decades I get the refund. Problem is where do we get the gear?"

Gillard's eyes got bigger as TJ used his PDA to com the Secretary of the A&M.

"Should work" he muttered "Ah! Cecil, TJ Hobson, we have a need for some shuttle parts and don't know where we can get them in a hurry — yesterday would have been ideal. Wait. Orville your chip. Good man. Cecil, a chip is going down now with our wishlist. What we can do is if you order the list and pick it up we can transfer electronic funds on pick up. We'll hire a shuttle and meet your driver at the ground station. Can I impose for another thing, I have a PDA, Meteor III dash four nine three cee, and my boss eyes it off everytime she sees it and so do Morg's sisters and Aunt. I could do with a bushel of the things. Yes, I'd be taking them off planet immediately — well, in the next two or three days as we have a delay with injured crew; yes, they are over in 'spitalsfield. Good. I'll hold...

He's making a com now to see if he can get the gear...

Thank you, Cecil. Have your driver com me when he has the list with the seller's details and we'll get a shuttle taxi down and meet him at the hiring depot. Yes, I'll bring my passport. Thank you. We'll see you on our next visit and I owe you a favour. Thank you again, Cecil. Hobson clear.

That was almost too easy.

Boss, you look strange. What's up?"

"Somewhere in there TJ" Gillard expostulated "I was supposed to give my approval. I think I just got sidelined. I've had a look at Orville's proposal and I think it's workable too. Shirley, you and I into work dress and we'll take the panels off the console. Orville, back to the engine room with these two and start your end. How are you going to work the pickups? Suit, both of you will go down as, hopefully, you need to go to two places. Get moving so we can get this bucket moving."

The call came through and the funds were transferred. TJ and Morg (in skinnys) took a shuttle taxi from the orbital berth to the ground station and then walked to the Hire depot and paid for a shuttle hire. They waited outside and a short time later a central government ground truck arrived and a most ape like person approached them with a weird greeting to TJ and a keen greeting to Morg,

"I absolutely delight in doing that" said a chuckling cultured voice emanating from the driver of the ground truck "it's amazing really how many normals shy away from me. TJ? Morg? Alistair Wollaston. Cecil says I am to take you to Harveys — just around the corner here to collect two containers total a cubic metre ... the value is on this, when I wave send the funds to the account next to it. I'll just pop inside and collect them for you."

Alistair disappeared through a door into a thoroughly decrepit shop, shook the shopkeepers hand and after a brief chat, the shopkeeper and Alastair waved at them. Morg used his PDA to transfer funds, another friendly wave from the storekeeper and Alaistair reappeared holding onto cords about each container.

"Good Lord, how many of these thing can you use at once. Nigel says you wanted a gross. He said to give you this brochure which he says for a change is understated. The authorities haven't caught up with these yet. Said to tell you they are better than the Meteor and he will see you at the meet next time."

The three men walked back to the depot and unloaded the shuttle truck into the space shuttle and after shaking hands all round they separated. At the orbital, Morg collected a dolly, the contents of the shuttle were transferred and he hauled the load over to "Tulip" while TJ returned the hire shuttle and caught the public shuttle back. By the time TJ returned to "Tulip", Orville and the XO had run the two double shielded cable leashes from the engine room up to the bridge. The leashes had been identified and Orville and the XO disappeared back to the engine room and while Orville made the connections to the 'puter, the XO made the record.

The commander and Morg had positioned the chairs assisted by curious spacers. The base of the chairs had a forward extension plate on which was mounted the three axis 'joy stick' — a peculiarity much loved and retained by Old Earth but virtually unknown off that planet. Morg was momentarily puzzled by the grips on the end of the 'joy' sticks as they were mirror images. He almost blushed with embarrassment when he had to swap the chairs around and had to explain to Clare Gillard who reassured him

"Morg, I didn't even see the difference between the grips."

In the last container Morg found a console of circuit breakers and slots for equipment sets and was puzzling over it when TJ returned.

"Somebody had ideas about what we are about" TJ advised, "look that slots between the chairs so that either occupant can reach any part of it. With a bit more wiring, each of the control panels for each bridge console can be fitted into the seat console and a master panel can be mounted. Centrally positioning the chairs and we can't properly see the end panels. Wait a minute..."

He walked to the back of the bridge and consulted several manuals;

"Thought so. Look you, each of the screens has holo capability and each of them can interchange but a menu and a warning panel of the original function is incorporated into whatever function is selected. I am going to have fun with this."

"No you are not, TJ" Gillard snapped, "not until you explain what you are going to do to my boat."

"My apologies, Ma'am" TJ apologised "I get a bit carried away at times"

Gillard nodded acceptance of the apology and waved 'continue'.

"Central screen is engine room 'puter remote with menu and alarms. Now, project a holo of the front view just above it from an adjacent screen. Then moving outboard project holo views of the outside arcs so that there is a two seventy degree arc about the seats; better still, the two central screens are kept for engine remote and the adjacent screen for the rear ninety arc. Each screen and holo can still be switched through all modalities, visual, IR, UV, radiation, radar, lidar and so on — all controlled from the console by simply linking the existing panels to the seat console. Come to look at it we might have to put a small extension onto the seat console."

Both Clare Gillard and Shirley Woods, who had returned to the bridge followed by a sweaty Chief ERA, stared at TJ somewhat open-mouthed; Gillard gulped,

"'teeth, I hope they don't let you loose on a BB, TJ, but, Hades, I was never going to command anything bigger than this anyway. Do it!"

After a quick discussion, the tunnel was not further breached as it was proofed to under the bridge console; the ends of the double shielded cables were pulled further through and then routed aft on the deck to the pilot's seats, as they were now being called, with a cover fixed to the deck over the cables. The seats were fixed to the deck and the leashes appropriately connected. After putting the seat connections through several test dry runs, the officers decided that the pilots were to be backed up during approaches and departures by an additional ERA to monitor engine room and the captain still to be on the bridge and the Chief ERA in his engine room. While TJ was discussing the watch and manning with the commander, Morg played with a Soyns PDA referring to the brochure manual occasionally; he trotted out a charging bracket and made a few modifications to it after Colin Bolem got a few bits for him from the 'spare bitz' box. He then connected the bracket electronically to the nav panel and physically to the side of the seat console.