Stellar Nurseries

Woe Unto the Third Generation

Second Engineer Miranda Kline cursed loudly and volubly as she manhandled open the maintenance hatch. Even braced against the hull of the starship, the effects of vacuum welding were difficult to overcome. The light on the shoulder of her vacuum suit illuminated the cubby behind the hatch, revealing neat rows of insulated cables running between brightly-coloured junction boxes. She chinned the microphone in her helmet. "Hey! Costas - or whatever your name is. Pass me a wrench. One with a - ." Miranda paused to look at the bolts securing the junction box lids. "One with a ten millimetre hex driver."

A gloved hand holding a stubby cylinder reached out towards her. "Ten millimetre hex driver. Check."

"Thank you." Second Engineer Kline took the tool, securing it to a ring on her suit with a lanyard, before undoing the bolts on a red junction box. As each bolt came loose, it was stowed away in pouch on the thigh of her suit as carefully as if it were a precious stone. Miranda was all too aware that if a bolt was to drift off into the interstellar void, there were no supply dumps within two light years. "Alright, Costas. Time to show me what you know. Take a look in here and tell me what you think is wrong." Miranda grabbed a nearby handhold and pulled herself a metre along the ship's hull, leaving room for Apprentice Costas to take her place at the hatch.

She watched Costas glance from side to side and lick his lips - a nervous tic that had not endeared him to her. "It's the main circuit to the boom actuator. The circuit breaker has tripped."

"So far, so good, apprentice. Now, tell me why?" Miranda listened as Costas ran through a list of possible faults, stumbling over some of the more complicated pieces of technical jargon. She was sure that she could see red lines of text scrolling across the HUD built into his suit faceplate. Finally, when the would-be engineer came to an uncertain halt, Miranda nodded. "Very good apprentice. Textbook perfect - which is the problem."

"I don't understand."

Miranda sighed. "You looked it up in the manual, didn't you?"

"Of course. Isn't that what the manual is for?" There was a petulant whine to Costas' reply.

"No. Not it isn't. The manual is only meant to be used if you come across something unusual. You're supposed to learn - to remember what you've been taught and to apply that knowledge. That's why you're here." Even through the bulk of his suit, Miranda could read Costas' body language. She wondered if she had been as resentful of authority when she was an apprentice engineer, some twenty years before. "Now, tell me what caused that circuit breaker to trip?"

Costas licked his lips again. "Well, the most likely cause is - ."

Engineer Kline cut him off. "Is the wrong one in this case." She nudged Costas aside. "If you take a look at these terminals, you can see a residue from outgassing on them. That means the cable has overheated due to a flaw in the core. You have to learn to look rather than rely on what the book says. If you'd just restored the power - as you were about to do! - there might have been a flashover." Miranda gave Apprentice Costas a moment to digest this information.

"So what do I do?" Having been presented with the possible consequences of his action, Costas was now paying attention to his mentor.

"Watch and learn."

Miranda went through the repair step-by-step, allowing Costas to assist her when she needed an extra pair of hands. With slow, deliberate movements she removed the offending length of cable and stowed it in a ballistic cloth bag. "We'll take this back for refaccing, and pick up a new piece of cable to replace it. Then we'll come back on the next shift and finish the job."

"But, we've rerouted the circuit. Haven't we fixed the problem?" Costas protested.

Kline glared at the apprentice. "Remember: anything you take with you can kill you ... ."