Free Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) by Chris Hechtl

broke in on the conversation.
    “Who
is this?” the captain demanded. Did one of the kids hack the intercom again?
What the hell were they thinking distracting the crew at this critical time? He
thought with a mental snarl.
    “One
of the AI,” O'Mallory answered.
    “The
Chief is correct captain. I am the admiral's adjunct, my name is Commander
Sprite. I am repairing your ship's software and noted the topic of your current
conversation.”
    “You
have repaired the communications?” The ops officer asked.
    “The
software yes. You need to replace a few components. I've added it to the secondary
list of replacement parts. Actually tertiary list, the secondary list is more
critical components.”
    “Oh,”
the Veraxin cocked his head.
    “This
isn't the first time the admiral has rebuilt a ship in the past several years.
He's rebuilt several with our help. With the right mix this ship can be brought
back up to spec, almost as good as new.”
    “Interesting,”
the Veraxin said. The captain set his jaw, silently fuming over the interloper.
    “The
right mix?” O'Mallory asked.
    “Training,
people, parts, power, replicators, and time. All are variables, but one of the
largest is the will to get it done and get out of his way to let him do it.”
    “I
for one would like to see this happen,” the chief said slowly. “If it's even
possible.”
    “It
will take a great deal of time. I believe the admiral was planning on helping
you rebuild your ship in transit to where ever we end up anyway.”
    “Interesting.
I was on my way to check in on him when I was done here,” O'Mallory said with a
pointed hint in her tone.
    “We'll
talk about this later,” the captain said gruffly. He reached out and cut the
communications link with a flick of a finger. He glared at the Veraxin who just
shrugged his upper arms and then left the compartment.
     
    O'Mallory
entered the bay and noted his audience. She started forward angrily to get them
back to work, but then stopped short as the admiral's lecture registered.
Intrigued she paused and listened as he used the holo to bring up an exploded
view of an emitter, and then explained in layman's terms how it worked.
    The
kids were utterly fascinated, sitting around in a half circle in the front row.
Some of the Terrans were sitting Indian style, a couple of the other species
were either tucked up or sitting comfortably for their species. It surprised
her that not one kid made a noise and they didn't fidget. They were totally
enraptured by the lesson.
    She
noticed the guard’s interest as well and snorting in amusement. That was fast
work; Irons had gone from a potential threat to a subject of wonder and
interest. She caught Iron's amused look so she shook her head and chuckled at
his wry half smile and shrug.
    When
he finished the lecture she asked how much longer. He cocked his head and then
reported to her. Nodding she smiled at the guilty faces of the crew and told them
to carry on. Smiling in relief the youngsters peppered him with more questions
and Quinna laughed as she made her exit. She knew the little sprouts wouldn't
be able to hold it in for that long without blowing spectacularly.
    As
the last pair of emitters were finished the admiral felt a kick to the ship.
The hull shuddered and he tapped the link to the computer. Sprite flashed the
ship's schematic and then highlighted a damaged area with a karat. One deck up
and two sections towards the bow a micro meteor had breached the hull,
peppering it with debris. With the life support underpowered they precious air
was being sucked out the breach.
    “Hull
breach!” He barked to the startled crew. Barry's eyes went wide. “One deck up
two sections forward. Move people! Sorry kids, I've got to go. Use the holo to
look at stuff. I'll be back in a bit,” he said rushing off. He sprang into
action, flashing out the door and up the nearest ladder. Racing down the
corridor he found a young man who had used his arm to temporarily seal