The engineering bay didn’t see a lot of use on the Elegance of Light during our mad dash to Commonwealth space. Mostly because we didn’t have an engineer on board that was fluent in giobhioni technology. Sure, Toftri and Jo spent a requisite amount of time in the section to perform enough preventative maintenance to keep the ship from falling apart around us, but there was no dedicated engineer.
I couldn’t help but think that Jo had made an error in judgement in not bringing one along for the trip. A ship should not be travelling without a dedicated engineer on board, it just offended my sensibilities, especially when the ship was as magnificent as the Elegance.
From the moment I’d seen the ship, I’d been in awe. In fact, it had been me that had named her, struck by the sheer elegance of her lines. She had the graceful curves that reminded me distinctly of a manta ray from Earth’s oceans, with its sweeping wing-like body, twin large viewports looking out the bow like the creature’s eyes. Those viewports being the captains quarters and what was meant to be V.I.P. quarters (Jo had assigned them to me.)
While the ship did not move via the undulating of its wing-like body, it did release energy emissions from all around its periphery. The emissions themselves set up a kind of undulating pattern of light that was almost hypnotic. I yearned like mad to understand the mechanisms by which they worked. Giobhioni drive technology operated on such different principles than anything the Commonwealth had seen before.
I’d attempted to delve into the mechanics of giobhioni engineering on our way to Commonwealth space from the Giobhioni planetoid station, but I’d been too keyed up with anxiety to concentrate. Seriously, how is someone supposed to focus their mind on plasma flow dynamics and field emissions when you know there is a ship containing a possibly deadly contagion headed into populated space? If you can do that? Congratulations, you’re better at compartmentalizing than I am.
But now? Now I was determined to absorb the knowledge and be useful on board the ship. To that end, I stood there at the hatch to the engineering section and stared.
The section was set up in a sort of horseshoe format, surrounding the main antimatter reaction chamber, with a railing around it that integrated workstations allowing an engineer easy access to all pertinent information on the ships systems. Along the outerwall of the section were workbenches and diagnostic stations meant for stripping down and rebuilding parts.
There were also the hatch covers that led into what the giobhioni called Tantaja tubes: The service tunnels that led into the hard to reach sections of the ship, allowing access to replace, repair, or simply tune systems of every type. These tubes were ubiquitous to every spacefaring species it seemed - apart from the Grompaks, they just preferred their ships to be one complete fucking trash-heap of systems inside.
After a good minute, I let out a long sigh and said “Alright Stacy, what would you suggest I start with learning? Sometimes even just the slightest bit of practical hands on makes the theory go down easier.”
“You could always take a look-see at the burned out parts from the aft shield emitter.” She replied hesitantly. She’d been better behaved since she’d sent Boudya to my quarters the previous day. I guess she’d been surprised by how angry I’d been. “Commander Throhx has already replaced the parts that would need more prolonged repair time, so learning on said parts will not affect ship operation.”
“Troubleshooting broken parts?” I asked, “that’s something that’ll get the brain working. Great idea. Work on it with the theory and schematics up on a holoscreen and maybe I’ll have better luck absorbing this.”
Three hours later, I had made some progress with the power conversion matrix in the emitter. Not a lot of progress, but I thought I understood the differences in materials science, and the slight difference in the application of physical sciences involved. It was enough that I thought I could explain the concept to another Commonwealth engineer, and maybe do rudimentary repairs. In fact, I was about to run a diagnostic on repairs I’d done to the matrix on this one.
“Stacy, run a basic diagnostic of the power conversion matrix, please.” I asked politely, aware of how reticent her responses had been. “I want to see if I managed to get a handle on it enough to fix this one.”
“Yes, Thomas. Running”
I sighed, I’d been determined to give her the cold shoulder treatment for at least a couple of days, but I hated things being so formal. From day one of our friendship, we’d been like two teenagers horsing around at the back of the classroom, and it had made me feel young again in so many ways. “Stacy?”
“Yes Thomas?”
“I hope you know I don’t hate you or anything like that.” I said, not knowing quite the right words to say, “I know you weren’t trying to be hurtful, and likely thought you were trying to help, but some things… Well, they can cause friends to get angry, and they need time to cool off. Things between Boudya and I are kinda complicated, at least on my side. Human emotions regarding relationships can get pretty fucked up. Benastians? Most of the time I have no idea what to expect from them in a situation like this, but I prefer not to expect flippancy, it’s safer that way!”
Silence.
“I don’t like us being so standoffish towards each other. I miss the friend that kept me sane back on the station. Can you just promise not to do anything like that again? I’ll trust that you’ve learned from the experience, and we’ll move on?”
The silence continued for a bit longer, then “Tindron and Boudya spoke to me about what happened.” she said finally, her voice over engineering’s P.A. a bare whisper. “They said such an act can be seen as a betrayal of trust? That in some situations it could damage friendships pretty badly?”
“It can, yes.” I explained. “I’ve seen it happen, especially with people who have trauma in their past. Thankfully, I know you thought you were trying to help and have some fun at the same time. You were thinking you’d help break the ice between Boudya and me, weren’t you?”
“Yes?”
“And she didn’t know what she was walking in on any more than I knew it was about to happen?”
“No.”
“Okay then. So in the future, just don’t do something like that unless you’ve tried to talk sense into either of us first, alright?” I explained, “I will admit I can be as fucking dense as a tungsten ingot at times, so I won’t say there won’t be times my friends won’t need to kick my ass to see what’s plain to see for them. But try the simple way first?”
“Alright Tommy-bear.” she replied, a bit of chipperness back in her voice, then a hint of slyness, “In that case, we need to talk about…”
“A-Ha!” Boudya’s voice called from the hatchway into engineering. “I should have known to look for you here! Can’t stand having idle hands, can you?”
I looked over and smiled, seeing Boudya framed in the light of the hatchway. It always amazed me how benastians could be such a juxtaposition of tall and lean, yet their women are so damned curvy and oozing femininity and sexuality at the same time. Boudya stood there, 2.2 meters tall, pure willowy muscle, but with a sensual grace that would test the willpower of even the most celebate of acolytes.
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There was a reason the Commonwealth had rules about the personnel that were assigned to work with benastians in official capacity. Early interactions had been fraught with conflict. Almost entirely brought on by unfaithful partners starting relationships with benastians unaware of the need to check on marital status.
Boudya and I had a history. One that made me just a tad bit nervous about how having her on board the Elegance was going to proceed.
“We’ll talk about whatever you were about to say later Stacy. I promise.” then, to Boudya, “You know how it is. I hate not having something to tinker with. This version of my EVA suit still needs a shake down to really figure out what needs adjustments so there’s not much I can do with it right now. So unless I want to reinvent things like the Optimaster or the Unidriver, which is kinda useless when I have a master hacker as a friend, who could probably grab the plans off the StellarNet and feed them into the MiniFac -”
“Now there’s an idea!” Stacy exclaimed, “and I’m sure I could improve on the designs enough, we could market them as new products!”
I laughed, “Oh boy, I have a bad feeling that the tech scene in the Commonwealth is going to get an upset. Do me a favor if you can Stacy? See if you can’t target Enigma Osiris products specifically, what with all they’ve done.”
“Sure thing my-deliciousness”
Boudya shook her head. “Tindron is fascinated by the friendship you two developed in such a short time. Hell, he’s fascinated by Stacy completely and is already formulating a paper. And don’t worry, Stacy knows all about it, she’s quite excited about making sure people don’t see her as the kind of hostile thing often depicted in old popular media.” She smiled, thinking about her life mate so absorbed by his work, “so what are you working on here?”
“This is part of the aft shield emitter.” I explained, waving at the hunk of tech half disassembled on the workbench, “the one that was badly damaged when we tried to break orbit and got jumped by that ‘pirate’. It’s already been replaced by Jo…I mean Jophixa, since there isn’t a dedicated giobhioni on board. I thought I’d try to bring myself up to speed on their tech with a bit of hands-on experience with this thing.”
“Any luck?”
“Diagnostic complete.” the engineering computer called out with immaculate timing, “Power Conversion Matrix operating at 74% efficiency. Excess heat buildup in section 12.4 and 15.7. Cascade failure calculated at 68.45% on a direct hit to shield under current status. Recommendation: Further repairs required before use.”
I let out a sigh.
“Not the greatest news to hear.” Boudya said, pulling up another stool and taking a seat beside me. “What was it before you started tinkering?”
“Efficiency was at 26%, heat buildup was coming from at least a dozen different sections of the matrix, and the cascade likelihood was at 98%” I told her, “So I have made progress, but this took three hours of work! It’s funny, but you don’t expect there to be such drastically different engineering sciences between species like this. Sure, Human and Benastian tech has differences, but you can easily transfer knowledge of one to the concepts of the other. You don’t feel like you have to go all the way back through university again!”
She peered at the holoscreen filled with various manual pages. “Well, I actually just came from asking Commander Jophixa if I could start studying their technology myself.” she said thoughtfully as her eyes skimmed over the documents, “You’re not the only engineer on board feeling stir crazy with nothing to do! She agrees it’d be better if we had dedicated engineers on board - said she wishes she’d brought one with her, but had been foolishly optimistic that Fleetsec would take your warning seriously right away. She doesn’t want to head all the way back to that station of theirs to pick one up, so if we can get ourselves up to speed, all the better.”
“That’s great! Always easier to learn in the buddy system. Harder to stay focused alone!”
“Let’s see if we can crack the mystery of this damned contraption then, shall we? Then we can go to your quarters and talk after! You can treat me to a cup of that…what’s it called? Graptak? The doctor says it's supposed to be really tasty!”
“Sounds like a plan.” Of course, the whole ‘talk’ thing might have me a bit distracted…
Our trip back to my quarters ended up getting delayed slightly, when Jo dropped in to check in on us and give us an update on something I’d forgotten to consider in our mad dash in the past few days. Fuel.
“We are ok for now.” she told us, pulling up another stool to our engineering workbench. “We were able to top up our antimatter and helium-3 storage tanks back on Yintari before things stepped out the airlock without a suit. After that ‘pirate’ that conveniently came after us when we tried leaving with our three refugees on board, I’m not prepared to just hope it’ll never happen again. We’ll eventually need to refuel.”
“Well helium-3 won’t be too big an issue,” Boudya put in, beating me to it. We’d managed to provide her and the others with translators they could insert into their ears. “Plenty of sources where we can scoop some of that up. Gas giants, especially in systems off main trade lines. Is the Elegance equipped with a ram scoop?”
Jo frowned, and I knew she didn’t recognize the term. “Ram scoop?”
“If I may, Commander?” Stacy cut in, “Many of this time period’s people use a device on their long range ships which allows them to skim the upper layers of atmosphere on a gas giant, or in some more sturdy ships, even a certain distance from some types of star, ‘scooping’ up valuable fuel and manufacturing gases. And no, Boudya, the Elegance does not have such a device. In fact, this was not technology any of the species in our time of origin used. I have an entry in the engineering database of trials being started along these lines by Giobhioni Fleet Command, but it was still in its infancy.”
“And that would only solve our Helium-3 supply issues anyway, not our antimatter issue” I put in. “We’d need a safe place to obtain more of that, and anywhere that Enigma Osiris might be able to sink their corrupt claws into would come with a degree of risk.” I thought for a moment, “The Benastian Cooperative is, of course, allied with the Commonwealth, but is Sovereign in its own right. Could we rely on there being sectors within that would be hostile enough towards a megacorp like EO that we’d be safe enough to refuel there?”
“There are a great many factions within benastian society that detest human megacorps that behave like EO.” Boudya responded, “We aren’t any more immune to corruption, however. But I’ll put together a list of systems I think would be safe, especially ones out towards those coordinates we want to go to. That’s the goal, right Commander? To investigate those locations? Hopefully before Enigma Osiris erases them in some way?”
Jo nodded, “I’ve had Be’tsar Toftri set a course for the nearest location. We’ll do as silent a flyby of it as we can to check on who might be there already. I don’t want to get into any fights where we’re outgunned again.” she sighed and looked between the two of us. “I really should have brought an engineer along, but I prioritized the needs of the station. They were all required there to make sure the last of my people were safe, and make sure the station could be moved somewhere secure. So I’m going to be asking the two of you to do everything you can to get brought up to speed on our tech. We need someone back here operating this section.”
“I might have a way to help hurry that along Commander.” Stacy put in again, sounding hesitant.
“Your tone makes me think this idea is going to involve something I’m going to be iffy on Stacy.”
“It’s not anything dangerous, but it’s only going to be something that will help Thomas, unless we want to either detour back to the station, or have Tzaki Tratsa do the implanting of one of the new types of implants into Boudya.” Stacy was babbling. I hadn’t heard her babble like this in weeks. “And the implant wouldn’t have the same ansible connection Thomas’ has either, not until we swing back to the station anyway. Until then it’d only be connected to the Elegance. And…”
We waited. But when a minute passed without Stacy continuing, I asked, “And? Just spit it out Stacy! What’s got you so nervous?”
I caught Boudya giving me a raised eyebrow, almost as if she knew what was coming. Damn the woman, I thought, she can even read a damned AI better than I can.
“Thomas, it means you’ll have to trust me.” she finally explained in a rush, “I could use your implant to sleep teach you! Feed you the concepts and theory while you sleep each night. The implant has linked itself into your neural pathways well enough, I think it might allow…well, I can’t write information directly into your memory centers like an upload, but in theory, I could make a night’s sleep into something akin to a couple weeks of classroom time.”
“Is there any danger to this?” Boudya asked, seeing that I was obviously in shock from this suggestion. “I’ve seen papers written on experiments that messed with Human sleep cycles, and the results have generally ended with some pretty nasty side effects. I think we can all agree we don’t want Thomas going any further off the deep end than he usually is?”
Jophixa let out one of her rare snort-bray laughs, “No, he’s quite unhinged enough as it is.” she said, still laughing, “remind me to tell you of his tantrum when the Commonwealth FleetSec Officer waved off his warning about the Contagion, and then ordered him to present himself for questioning. It was…what is the word? Epic?”
“Uh, hello? I’m right here!”
This sent all three of them into giggles. I rolled my eyes, but tried to be good natured about it. We’d had a stressful couple days and a good laugh, even if it was at my expense, might help lift the mood. At least they weren’t laughing at Boudya walking in on me with my pants down. “We could always run this under Tratsa’s supervision.” I interjected between their fits of giggles. “She’s already supposed to be monitoring the condition of the implant, what with it being a new design, right? So monitoring it during a new application would have to involve her anyway. I’m sure she’d love to delve more into the sleep cycles and health of humans for all her research.”
Pulling herself together, Jophixa nodded, “Right, excellent idea. So for the first few sessions, you’ll either be in the infirmary, or the Tzaki will monitor you in your quarters.” she paused and gave me a knowing look, “I’m sure neither of you will argue on either option?”
The raised eyebrow I got from Boudya at that comment promised something that was going to be part of our ‘talk’ later on. “No, I doubt it’ll be an issue - unless she prevents me from sleeping that is.”
Jo’s ears drooped, but hey, she started it. Boudya’s raised eyebrow was joined by a slight shaking of her head. Ok, what was that about?
“I’ll let the two of you get back to your work here.” Jo said, standing up. “I'll inform Tzaki Tratsa about the whole sleep learning plan. With luck, after you’re up to speed, Thomas, you can help bring Boudya up to speed faster. We really don’t want to have to swing back to the station, and I don’t think Tratsa will want to do the implant work herself, especially not on the ship. Too much could go wrong.”
With that, she headed out, and we got back to work.