Free Scrapyard Ship by Mark Wayne McGinnis Page A

will—whatever information was required was right there, available for the asking.
    First stop was engineering, situated on Deck Two. Jason left Mollie in the care of Dira, who had volunteered to show her the Zoo.
    Fully nanotized, and just as Lieutenant Perkins had promised, the DeckPorts were now intuitive, or personally attuned to which floor and location Jason wished to visit.
    Stepping through to Level Two, Jason easily found the section marked Engineering. He had showered, shaved and dressed in the provided captain's everyday spacer's jumpsuit—similar to those worn by the other officers. On his collar were the new captain's pins from his father. The Engineering door dematerialized as Jason entered. Engineering was a large section; some areas were open to the two decks above and below. Black gangways of some kind of composite material crisscrossed the bulkheads at various levels. Several crewmembers above him had stopped to look over the railing. Apparently visitors were uncommon in Engineering. Two men were having a heated discussion ahead of Jason. They looked up at the same time—both came to attention.
    "As you were, gentlemen," Jason said, smiling, with his hand out to shake. "I'm Captain Reynolds." Jason immediately thought how strange it was that several days ago he had found it difficult to own that title, but things were different now. The men shook hands.
    “I’m Chief Horris, but everyone just calls me Chief. This is Seaman Bristol.” Bristol nodded, but quickly excused himself. Jason eyed the Chief, who was a big man—his overalls tight across his large belly.
    “Nice to meet you, Chief—hope I’m not interrupting anything important?” Jason queried, gesturing towards Bristol’s rapid departure.
    “Not at all, sir…just not in agreement with one of the rank and file—nothing I can’t handle.”
    “I don’t mean to step on your command style, Chief, but it’s not the crews’ place to argue with their superiors. That’s flat out insubordination.”
    “Well… I don’t think it’s as much insubordination, as it is young stubbornness. You know how it is…”
    “No, Chief, I’m sorry, but I don’t. And you’re not doing Seaman Bristol or anyone else on this ship any favors by encouraging lax conduct. When the time comes, and it will, you’ll want crewmembers who take orders, not argue with them.”
    “Aye, sir—and yes, I agree. Guess we’ve let things run amuck too long around here.” Chief looked a bit sheepish. “How ‘bout I show you around Engineering. This is an incredible ship, and boy, is she fast. Of course FTL is nothing new; all the Alliance vessels travel beyond the speed of light, but The Lilly comes at it differently—not bending space around the ship, but bending space around projected multiverse versions of the ship. The admiral never fully tested the ship’s capabilities in that regard.”
    Jason spent the next hour on a tour of Engineering. Chief Horris did a good job pointing out the various systems that drove the ship. Jason found he not only understood the mechanical aspects of the two large drive units, but much of the theoretical properties behind them as well. Unfortunately, his recent HyperLearning curriculum had not included anything relating to one aspect of The Lilly—specifically, her exotic drive antimatter configuration.
    “I’d like to tell you we have everything figured out, but we don’t. Ricket seems to have the best theoretical mind on board, but even he has yet to figure out some of its technology. We have two antimatter drive units that don’t use standard antiprotons. The technology on The Lilly is in undiscovered territory. Fortunately, systems in Engineering don’t seem to need much in the way of maintenance. As far as I know, they’ve never gone down.”
    “What if they were damaged in battle? How will you repair them?”
    “That was a major concern of the admiral as well. In fact, that’s the primary reason the ship has been