Episode 14: Making it Work
(Fall, 2072)
By
And
The Bendross Players
Tristan Mancuso was very tall and very thin. He was a native of Orbit city one of a very small minority of humanity who had been born in space. Tristan's family moved to orbit city as soon as they had gotten artificial gravity some twelve years ago. Tristan still regretted every inch per second squared.
And for all of his family abandoning zero g so their children could still return to Earth and walk on it, Tristan hadn't been back in ten years and showed no inclination to go. He was a spacer. It was in his blood.
He was also one of the quirkier and more ingenious space structure engineers in orbit city.
For some reason Hamilton and Tristan had clicked. There was no rational explanation for it. They were literally from two different worlds. Nevertheless, there was small quiet click and the two men got along.
"Hey, Tristan." Hamilton said as he walked into the Engineering lab. Technically, it was called an office, but Tristan had set it up like the engineering labs at the colleges he'd gone to. It was very casual, but with high intensity neural energy flowing across it.
There were fewer people these days. Most of Tristan's staff had been let go.
"Hey, Ham." Tristan waved absently. He was working on the Bendross III's CDP drive. It was elegant in theory, but the execution seemed rugged and clunky to Tristan.
"I'm surprised that you're still here, buddy. I saw in the comptroller's files that the engineering department for the Bendross III has been seriously downsized. Budget approaching high values of zero." Hamilton said.
"Well I no longer appear on the Engineering budget." Tristan explained. "Ranscombe and I renegotiated."
"For?"
"A berth. I are a colonist." Tristan said.
Hamilton smiled "Hey! Welcome aboard! Now you'll be motivated about this." He slipped a copy of the Bendross III's blue prints into Tristan's terminal.
Tristan looked at it for a few moments. "What moron did those revisions as of ninety days ago? And why wasn't I notified? Bugs and slime, look at these! They're all wrong!"
Hamilton said "You can thank Dr. Jon Dou for spotting these. She had enough experience with life support systems to spot the buggy filters."
Tristan blinked. "They're installing the filter cartridges? They're moving faster than I thought. We'll have to rip out about the last two weeks work and reinstall from the original blue prints."
"Do you have a copy of those blue prints off line?" Hamilton asked.
"Do I look stupid?"
"No, but Hamilton does. Speak slowly." Jon Dou advised.
Tristan grinned faintly "I have them on MVDs, three copies. One here, one in Ranscombe's office and one for Mister Bendross himself."
Hamilton thought. "Can I have a copy on MVD? I'd like to be able to refresh the working copy in the system. Tristan, I don't think this was an accident."
Tristan looked up "The security in our system is that bad?"
"It was 'til they got me in there. I think these working plans were deliberately sabotaged."
Tristan nodded. "Okay. I'll get those to you. You'll need clean copies of the operating software for the ship, too won't you?"
"While I'm wishing, do you have clean copies of the operating system and apps for the Bendross Space ops system too?" Hamilton asked.
Tristan shrugged. "That'll take a little while, but I can get them for you."
"Please do. The life you save might be your own." Hamilton said.
Tristan smiled. "Who ever has in for us has already had their best day. Nothing more will happen that I can't fix."
"My hero!" Hamilton gushed at him. "What did we ever do before you joined the mission?"
"You were superstitiously alone in the cold and the dark. I'll have most of that stuff you wanted by this afternoon." Tristan said "see you then?"
Hamilton shot him with thumb and forefinger "see you 'round Tristan."
-*-
Walking back towards the Bendross III Jon Dou said "Well that was an easy fix. Good thing Tristan was prepared."
"I don't know about that." Hamilton said "I don't think Ranscombe has the budget to rip out the last two weeks of work and do it all again. Bendross Corp's space ops is about broke."
"And if they don't find the money?" Jon Dou asked quietly.
"We're out in the main corridor of Orbit City with signs that say 'will colonize for food'."
TBC
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.