Free Athena Lee Chronicles 7: The Martian Inheritance by T S Paul

aside for me or if it’s really bad give it to the Marine.” I pointed out the silent shadow standing by the wall.
     
    “He has been assigned to us in case of any trouble. Now let’s get to work!”
     
     
     
     

Chapter 11
     
     
     
     
    To be a great engineer all you need is the right amount of motivation mixed with confidence in your craft. Many of these crew members had all of that and more. They just needed a firm hand to guide them on their chosen path in life. It’s funny how that statement applies to me, too.
     
    Engineering was starting to look ‘right.’ At least to me. Most of the shiny had worn off as we tore into the equipment. What we found was disgraceful! We all could have been killed. This man had been teaching children! I had to shake my head to clear it. His negligence just boggled my mind.
     
    I was sitting on the edge of ‘MY’ desk staring out the window at the busy bees. Everything was shaping up. Fortunately, some maintenance had been done in vital area’s like life support and the water reclamation plant. Wilson had run facial recognition on the people who looked like they might have been in cahoots with Erlang. Security had them under surveillance just in case. Someone had definitely been paying the former chief. Copies of the records had been sent back under our best possible encryption to be turned over to intelligence. Let them figure it out. I was finally starting to feel safe once again. The tear-down of the impulse engines was bad. From the amount of carbon buildup we figured that the last time this had been done properly was at least a year ago.
     
    My desktop communication system suddenly sounded an alarm. There was a call from the bridge: the Captain was calling me to the bridge. We were scheduled to come out of jump any time now. Soon my real mission would begin.
     
    “Captain, you called for me?” The bridge was alive with movement. Officers scurried here and there updating their systems and preparing for entry. According to our computers at any moment now we should be right on the edge of sector one.
     
    “Yes Athena, and thank you again for getting engineering on the road to recovery. I had no idea that it was so bad down there. While you’re gone Commander Blomkvis will supervise engineering for you. Please get any maintenance scheduling to him before your mission starts.”
     
    “Sir, the engines are winding down!” The Captain spun around and joined the XO next to the Navigation station. Even I could hear the whine of the engines. They were about to cut off. The ship began to vibrate slightly; so far everything was normal. Suddenly the vibration grew exponentially as the jump engines failed earlier then expected. There was a sudden jerk that threw several crewmen to the deck. Then silence, as everyone on the ship took a breath in relief.
     
    “Navigation, where are we?”
     
    “Sir, we stopped short but we are at Right Ascension 19.208042 and Declination -20.951198, that puts us about 200 million kilometers from Mars. We should be seeing the dwarf planet of Pluto any time now.”
     
    “Excellent work Lieutenant Behr. How long on impulse to get to Mars orbit?”
     
    “Sir, we should reach Mars orbit in twelve hours.”
     
    “Commander Lee, status of the jump engines?”
     
    I lowered my link. “Sir, I just got off the comm with Ensign Ellery, as soon as they cool down enough she will begin a full tear down and cleaning. Whatever the problem was, we will repair it. I suspect that the injection system was clogged causing a failure.”
     
    “Tell her good work. Time to get ready for your real mission Commander. Remember it’s dress blues for the landing party. Dismissed.”
     
    I hurried back to engineering. There were schedules to get ready and special orders to give. “Wilson did you check out those four crewmen that we spotted?”
     
    “Yes, Athena. I caught two of them ‘Gun-decking the safety logs’ and the other two asleep on the