ALL NOVEL 31. Distractions
"So what do you think?" Piper asked as she looked towards the cute engineer. "Can we do it in eleven days?"
Sarah had her hands on her hips and she furrowed her brow as she slowly looked around the Demeter's main hold. Her gaze lingered on the shelving on the port side of the cargo space.
After a few moments she finally responded, "Eleven days ought to be more than enough, if we were planet-side. It's not the timing that's the issue here. It's the fact that we'd be doing this in the middle of a level-zero transit."
She sighed and added, "Granted we're not talking about making structural modifications to the ship, but it's still going to be a bit of work. And all we have in terms of available space is this hold and the secondary. Which means before we even begin, we need to spend some time working out the logistics? We can't just pile stuff up outside to open up some clear workspace."
"Maybe I could help with that?" Jenny offered. "I'm not exactly designed for inventory management, but in a strange way it's not too far off what I do when I'm working on one of you?"
I kept quiet and listened, there wasn't much I could add to the conversation at this point. I was there for moral support or to help move stuff, if we ended up doing any actual work today. I figured I'd be Sarah's assistant again like I did when she was patching the I/O cable into Jenny's capsule.
The challenge that had our engineer frowning was an idea Piper had last night at dinner. She wanted to know if we could put that grav-sled together, then find some way to safely secure it in the hold so it was available when we needed it, but out of the way the rest of the time.
If we were planet-side you could basically just park the thing and it'd stay put, but being in a moving vessel where gravity wasn't always guaranteed meant the small vehicle had to be positively secured. The last thing you wanted was a tonne of equipment coming loose and smashing up the interior of your ship if things got bumpy.
And stowing it 'out of the way' basically meant 'not taking up cargo space'. Or in other words, we couldn't just strap it to the floor in the middle of the hold, which made the whole project even more of a challenge.
Piper finally asked, "So what are you thinking? What's the best solution?"
Sarah had finished staring at the shelves, now she was looking up at the ceiling. She finally grimaced and looked at the boss, "There's really no best solution. That's the problem."
"My first choice would be to get rid of this shelf here," she said as she gestured to the lower shelf along the port-side wall. "Get that out of the way, then the grav-sled could be stowed on the floor along this wall. That's the easiest, quickest, and maybe safest approach? We can add some kind of restraints or clamps to positively secure the thing in place, we'd be done in three or four days."
"Except," she added with a frown, "Then you're losing the cargo space of the shelf, plus the floorspace the sled would take up, plus the floorspace next to it. Assuming you want to be able to use the thing, it needs room to get in and out, which means it can't be hidden behind a stack of shipping containers."
The engineer looked up at the ceiling again, "Another option would be to hoist it up and stow it under the ceiling, so wouldn't impact the cargo space at all. Odds are we're usually going to have a clear path down the middle of the hold for loading and unloading cargo, so there should always be room to lower the thing down when you want to use it. But rigging up a pulley system and a way to secure it to the ceiling will take some more careful planning, and I don't think it'll be as safe as just parking the thing on the floor."
With a sigh she looked back at Piper and stated, "The last option we can't do in transit. We probably can't do it ourselves at all, but your friend Mel could. That's to add a storage bay on the outside of the ship. Since the grav sled is something you'd only use planet-side anyways, it doesn't need to be stowed in here. We'd only ever use it when we're landed, so stick it on the outside rather than sacrifice any internal cargo space."
"That's how it's usually done," she added. "Most ships I've seen with a grav-sled or other planetary-use vehicles have something like a garage on the outside where that stuff is stowed."
I asked, "Why can't we rig that up? I don't mean while we're in transit, but what about when we're at the Hammersmith? While Piper's surveying the ship for salvage, couldn't we be working on something on the Demeter?"
Sarah smiled, "We could. We could bolt the grav sled to the hull, it'd only take a few hours. The problem is the next time we landed on a world with an atmosphere the grav sled would burn up and get blasted away on entry. And it might tear off part of our hull as it went. A proper storage area would have to be built into the hull's streamlined shell."
"Oh right," I grimaced. Not that the Demeter's dung-beetle-shaped exterior looked all that streamlined, but it worked. More or less.
Piper was silent for a few minutes as she considered the options. She stared at the shelves on the left the way Sarah had, then she looked up at the ceiling.
After another minute or so she finally said "All right. I'm going to think about this for a while before making any decisions. Sarah do we have the tools and equipment on board to do either option? I mean either the shelf transplant or the ceiling fixture. And how long do you figure those options would take?"
The cute engineer nodded, "We definitely have the tools on board to do both. The floor shelf option is the easier of the two and I know we have enough material to fabricate some secure clamps to hold the thing in place. I figure, a day or two to assemble the grav sled, half a day to remove the shelf, a day or two to fabricate a secure clamp mechanism. Say 6 days at most?"
She looked up at the ceiling again and frowned once more, "The challenge for the second option is whether or not there's cable and a hoist mechanism on board? Assuming there is, we're looking at eight or nine days? It's a more complicated option and requires a little more engineering and planning up-front to get it right."
"Understood," Piper replied. "Why don't you check that, then meet the rest of us up on the main deck?"
Sarah agreed and headed aft to the workshop with Jenny, while I followed Piper up the ladder-way. We ended up in the mess, where the captain got herself a mug of coffee from the auto-chef. I did the same, and the two of us sat at the table together.
The engineer and AI joined us a few minutes later, and Sarah got a drink as well before taking the seat next to mine.
"Sorry boss," she apologized after a sip of her drink. "Nothing down there we can use for a hoist. But Jenny and I came up with a workaround, if you wanted to go ahead with the ceiling option."
Piper raised an eyebrow, "Go on?"
Sarah explained, "We can assemble the grav-sled and build a clamp mechanism to secure it to the ceiling, then switch off the ship's gravity and just move it up there manually for now so it's out of the way. Then when we're back at the Hammersmith, I know there's a whole hoist system in the hold there. It'll take us a couple hours to dismantle it. So we grab that and bring it over along with whatever else we're salvaging."
After another sip of coffee the engineer continued, "After the Hammersmith we make your delivery at the mining colony as planned. Then during our six-day transit between the mining colony and your friend's shipyard, we install the hoist system in the Demeter's main hold. So by the time we reach Rolandan-2 we have a way to raise and lower the grav-sled."
The captain looked thoughtful for a few minutes, then asked "The hoist system you're talking about, I take it that isn't just a straight up-and-down pulley? Is it the kind that can also move around laterally?"
"Right," Sarah nodded. "We wouldn't need all that with the grav-sled, we'd only need the lift and lower mechanism."
"What if we took the whole thing though?" Piper asked. "Could we rig this so we have full use of that in the main hold, and a way to stow the grav sled as well? Maybe park the sled to one side of the ceiling so it's not in the way of the hoist mechanism?"
Sarah grinned, "Now we're getting into some feature-creep boss! But yeah theoretically we could do that? I'll have to go back downstairs for another look at the problem, to try and figure out how best to do it."
The captain smiled, "Sounds good. Have another look, figure out if that third option is feasible and what it'll take in terms of time. Then once I know all the details I'll try and make a decision, and we'll go from there."
"Understood," the engineer responded with a grin. "As soon as I finish my coffee I'll head back down and have another look at the situation."
I stayed quiet through the whole exchange, I listened in but Piper and Sarah were the experts. Mostly I was just glad to be away from Ecclestone's World. I knew I'd have to get used to that planet sooner or later, but for now I was a lot happier out in deep space on the Demeter with my ship-mates.
Our departure yesterday was more or less routine, or what passed as routine in this new life of mine.
Once we were clear of the planet Piper had me plot a level-zero course to our next port of call, and that was that. We had just under twelve days of travel ahead of us, and it felt like there wasn't that much to be done.
I made us all a nice dinner, I was taking advantage of all the quality food we took on board. Piper mentioned her idea but rather than work on it immediately we just had a nice relaxing evening. Or, relaxing up till Sarah and I got into our cabin. Then things got a little more heated once again, and I was still having happy thoughts and feelings about those experiences.
This morning when we all got up Piper was back in her casual clothes, today it was a small pair of blue shorts and a tight yellow t-shirt. And Sarah was pushing the 'casual attire' thing even further, she got as far as putting on panties and a little white tee then decided that was enough. She added slip-on shoes before we went down to the lower deck, but that was it.
Next to the two of them I almost felt over-dressed, in my leggings and large loose top. And Jenny appeared the same as she always did, with dark slacks and a light-grey blouse. I wasn't sure if she even had any other options, in terms of how her hologram was dressed. On the other hand I didn't know if she cared either way, so maybe it didn't matter to her.
Our captain also seemed to be in better spirits this morning, which was nice. She still hadn't said anything, but I knew something happened during her last trip into the city yesterday. Her mood was off when she got back, and she stayed quiet and thoughtful through the rest of the day. Even after our launch and once we were en route I could tell something was bothering her.
I almost wondered if this grav-sled project was basically meant to keep us all busy so we'd be too distracted to notice her mood. Or maybe it was meant to distract her from whatever was troubling her.
When Sarah finished her drink she got to her feet. Jenny accompanied the cute engineer and the two of them headed back down to the main hold to figure out the logistics of Piper's new idea.
