ALL NOVEL 39. Curiosity
"What if we could figure out what's in Lebeau's cargo?" Sarah asked. "I'm sure that'd give us some idea what was going on."
The captain shrugged, "Sure. That might just answer all our questions at once. But the containers are sealed, and if we break the seals Lebeau and his contacts will know about it."
My girlfriend smiled. "I understand that boss, but what if there was a way we could look inside without breaking the seals?"
"Like what?" Piper asked. "You're thinking of using a portable sensor to snoop inside? I've already thought about that, but the containers are shielded. Otherwise I'd just get Amanda to use her medical scanner to try and probe what's inside them."
She added, "Turning up the power isn't a good option either. Like the ship's main sensors would be able to see through the shell but anything strong enough to penetrate the container would be strong enough to trip a detector. And if the cargo is that sensitive, I'd assume he's got detectors inside to register any strong sensor probes."
"Makes sense," Sarah responded. She was still smiling though as she added, "We have some similar problems come up in engineering from time to time. Sometimes you need to know what's going on inside some complicated bit of kit while it's running. So you can't just open it up, but hitting it with really strong sensors could potentially disrupt whatever it is you're trying to monitor. So we use a purpose-built low-power high-sensitivity precision scanning system that can see through dense and hardened alloys without upsetting anything delicate going on inside."
Jenny asked, "Where does one get such specialized tools? Or are you saying you had this on the Hammersmith?"
The engineer nodded, "Yeah we did. And assuming it survived the wreck, I know exactly where to find it."
"So if we can recover that and it's intact," I said, "We can use it to find out what we're carrying from Fuminja Epsilon to the mining colony. And what we're taking from the mine back to Lebeau."
The captain asked, "How big is this precision equipment? How much deck space will we have to devote to it?"
Sarah grinned, "That's the best part boss. It's all hand-held. It's usually a three-person job to operate it, but the whole thing stows away in its own case. We can leave it on a shelf in the workshop when we're not using it."
Piper smiled, "All right. Sounds like we've got a growing shopping list of gear we want to recover from the Hammersmith when we get there. We'll make our list the priority, grab this fancy tool of yours and the hoist mechanism first. Once we've got what we need for ourselves, we'll start the actual salvage part of the job."
"If we're making a shopping list, do you mind if I add something to it?" I asked.
"Sure," the boss replied with a shrug. "You want us to try and recover something from your cabin?"
I shook my head, "If anything in the infirmary is intact, it might be a good idea to grab medical supplies. I know you haven't needed me to act as ship's medic yet, but if you ever do I'd feel better having my med-kit properly stocked up."
"All right," Piper agreed. "Maybe we'll get you out there on an EVA, you can try out your new e-suit and grab whatever you need from the infirmary. Assuming we can find it and it's safe to access."
I tried not to look too unhappy as I replied, "Thanks boss."
Exploring around the Hammersmith's shattered hull wasn't exactly something I was looking forward to. And while I was glad to have an e-suit that fit me, I really wasn't a big fan of being out in the void. But I couldn't ask Sarah and Piper to do that stuff if I wasn't prepared to do it myself, so I kept quiet and accepted the captain's suggestion.
"Actually boss," the cute engineer spoke up next. "If you're not opposed to the idea, I wouldn't mind trying to recover a few personal things from my cabin. Assuming it's accessible and the contents haven't been scattered or shattered. I had some pictures of my daughter and her little girl that I'd love to recover."
Piper nodded, "Of course Sarah. I understand. And Amanda if there's anything personal you want to recover from your cabin, don't be shy about asking. We're going to have eight full days there, we can afford to devote at least one of them to taking care of personal business."
"Thanks," I replied. "I didn't have that much but I'll think about it."
After that the conversation sort of tapered off. Eventually Sarah headed down to the lower deck to work on the docking clamps for the grav-sled, and I went along to keep her company.
I helped out where I could, mostly just fetching and handing her tools and things while she worked at turning cargo container hinges and locking mechanisms into something sturdy enough to keep the grav-sled secured.
We worked on that for a couple hours and she eventually had something that looked serviceable, but she wasn't satisfied.
"I think we'll stick to the cargo straps for now," she decided. "I'll keep an eye out for better options when we're at the Hammersmith, but failing that we might just have to ask the boss's friend Mel to have his people install something."
I asked, "What's wrong with the clamp you just made? It looks pretty good."
Sarah shook her head, "Looks ok but it's not strong enough. The metal's too soft, it was easy to work with but I don't trust it not to break at the worst possible moment."
With the decision made I helped her tidy up, we put the tools away in the workshop and the rejected clamps were left with the rest of the scrap. I assumed that would all be dumped overboard when we were at the Hammersmith, to join the rest of the scrap metal floating around the ship's remains.
The two of us headed back up to the main deck and Sarah reported her failure to the captain. Then the four of us just kind of sat around talking and killing time. And to that end, the captain told us a little more about our next stop.
The Fuminja Cluster was a wide asteroid belt in orbit around an unremarkable star. There were two or three dozen asteroids that were big enough to count as miniature moons, large enough to be hollowed out and colonized. Only eight of them had any significant work done on them though, with the rest being reserved for future use.
And of those eight, only two or three were of interest to us. Fuminja Alpha was the biggest, and it served as the main residential colony. Piper rarely had any reason to dock there, but the Demeter had done a few deliveries there back when Gabe was captain.
Fuminja Beta was the next-largest, and it served as the system's main space-port. Our captain had been there several times, though she hadn't set foot in the place in a few years. Nowadays she only visited to top off the Demeter's fuel tanks after making her routine stop at another of the big asteroids.
Two more of the big asteroids were basically home to refineries. Fuminja Gamma processed the more common ores to produce iron, aluminum, copper, tin, and various other typical metals and alloys. Fuminja Delta focused on rare and valuable elements and heavier metals. They handled the precious metals and the radioactive minerals.
Our next destination Fuminja Epsilon was privately-owned, and Piper had never been inside. As far as she knew nobody apart from the folks who worked there ever got further than their docking facilities.
Beyond those locations, there were a few hundred asteroids big enough to support a small habitation. Basically like homesteaders, but without any air or gravity. Or like having a ship with no engines, permanently attached to a chunk of rock.
It was basically another mining colony, like Regulon-4. Except instead of everyone living in a big self-contained underground city where almost everyone worked for the mining corporation, at Fuminja about three-quarters of the population were independent. They'd go out into the asteroid belt in little hardened shuttle-like work pods and look for valuable minerals, that they'd sell to one of the refining companies.
I couldn't really imagine wanting to do that sort of thing for a living, but according to Piper it appealed to some folks. They liked the independence and autonomy, and when they felt social they'd go visit the port or the residential colony for a while.
Eventually the conversation sort of tapered off again and the four of us just sat quietly around the table.
When it was about time I got up and started preparing some dinner for us, and Sarah got some drinks out for me and Piper and herself.
As she did that she commented, "There's still something I'm curious about boss."
From her tone I could tell she was in a teasing mood again, and whatever she was about to ask was anything but serious.
The cute engineer sat back down after setting out the drinks, then with a playful smile she asked "How did you really pass the time on all those long lonely freight runs over the last few years?"
A smile tickled the corners of Piper's lips, and she gestured towards the small lounge area. "There's a vid screen on the wall in there. It's got just under five hundred titles in its library. There might even be one or two I haven't seen more than a couple dozen times. I also have a deck of cards in my cabin, for when I get really bored."
From the captain's tone I was positive she was joking. Or at least, she wasn't entirely serious. She'd probably spent time watching vids and playing cards, but I didn't believe those were her only options and neither did Sarah.
"That can't be it," the engineer stated. "Surely there's other things you do to keep busy?"
"There's always physical workouts," Piper shrugged. "I use the secondary hold for that. Push-ups, sit-ups, you can pull-ups on the cargo shelves. Climb up and down the ladderways. Turn up the ship's gravity a few percent to make it more challenging. It's still boring, but it keeps you in shape."
Before Sarah could respond the captain teased, "Sarah you're career Navy, but you're acting like you've never been on a long haul before. What did you do to pass the time on your last deployment? I'm sure it wasn't all flirting with your roommate."
The cute engineer's cheeks went pink, and I was positive neither of us expected anyone to turn the tables on her when it came to that kind of teasing. And as the roommate in question, I felt my cheeks warming up as well.
Sarah grimaced, "Outside of actual maintenance, which on an old ship like the Hammersmith was a regular requirement? Routines and drills. Drills and routines. As chief engineer I was expected to keep the rest of my staff busy all the time. If I couldn't drill them on something, I'd have them cleaning something else. And every so often the XO would give us a mock-emergency then evaluate our response to it. My team hated it, I hated it, but that's what the Navy wanted."
"Same," I nodded in agreement. "I was the only med-tech on board but I was expected to keep myself busy. Some of it made sense, obviously you wanted the infirmary to be kept spotless and I did that. But you can only clean something so many times, when it's not being used it doesn't get that dirty. The XO would test me regularly too, with simulated emergencies. Other than that I was pretty bored. I spent most of my time daydreaming, in between answering emergency calls for stubbed toes and indigestion among the crew, or broken noses and damaged knuckles among the marines."
Our captain shrugged, "It's not that different for me here. No XO to drill me, but it was up to me to keep the place clean and keep things running. Routine maintenance, minor repairs, I took care of all that sort of thing during the quiet time between ports."
She added, "And you've seen the cockpit, all the modifications and tinkering I did up there. That sort of thing kept me busy too."
I didn't think the ship was all that clean when I first came aboard, but I kept quiet about that. Though to be fair it wasn't awful either, and considering she was all alone I couldn't be too judgemental on that sort of thing. Not to mention, considering the age of the ship I'd rather she prioritized maintenance over cleanliness. And according to Sarah the ship was in good shape, so that was fair.
"So that's it?" the engineer asked. "Maintenance, tinkering, vids, workouts, and cleaning?"
We all knew what sort of answers Sarah was fishing for, but it seemed equally obvious that Piper wasn't going to give her the satisfaction.
Instead our captain rolled her eyes and responded, "If that's not enough to keep you kids occupied I'm sure you two can think of some other ways to pass the time. Or if you're really stuck for things to do, you can pick up some interesting distractions next time we're on Rolandan-2. I understand you can find some very entertaining toys there, if you know where to look."
"Not that I'd know anything about that stuff myself," she added with a smirk.
Jenny and I both kept quiet, though my cheeks were still a bit pink as I served up the meal.
Sarah glanced at me then grinned at the captain and responded, "When we get to Rolandan-2 you'll have to show me and Amanda where you get those interesting distractions and entertaining toys, boss. Especially the ones that you don't know anything about."
