sooner I’m outta here."
Not a real charmer, this one. Ada and I pulled all of the boxes out and dropped them in a line. As we did, I could see that her shop had two fairly obvious replicators and at least twenty different small robots with varying appendages. I was more than glad when the bay finally completed the pressurization cycle.
"Well. That couldn’t have taken a lot longer," she grumbled. "So what’s the drama you wanted to show me?" Her mood was clearly deteriorating.
I led her through the aft door to the berth deck and pointed at the open bilge hatch. "We haven’t been able to clean up around the ribs. It’s a real mess down there."
She jumped down into the pit, "Your grav generator’s running low. Can you put it back up to .6g? Yeah, you left a right proper mess down here and that’s not in our contract."
"We ran out of time," I said.
"If I leave now, you’ll lose your fifteen hundred credit expedite fee," she said.
I was starting to get annoyed with her attitude and was surprised when Ada stepped in. "I bet you have a service for that. What’s the up-charge for cleaning, repair and paint?" she asked.
"Not sure, wasn’t in the contract. Give me a minute." She brushed past us on the way to her vehicle and returned after a few minutes with a fist sized robot and dropped it in the hole. It hovered, centering in the open space. She instructed the bot and it started traversing the bilge. "It already knows the project, but we only scanned the parts of the hull where we were going to put in the field. I need to fill in the details."
The bot returned after several minutes. Betty Sparkles gestured for several more minutes and finally appeared to have completed her assessment. "Twenty-three hundred credits and I’ll throw in disposal of all of those bags you already pulled out."
"Deal," I said. As soon as I said it a contract showed up in my comm queue. I was suspicious that this was a more common event than she was letting on.
"I’ll need you to keep clear of the aft hallway here while my boys get to work. The more you get in the way, the longer they’ll take."
"Where’s your crew?" I asked.
"You’re standing in their way." She nodded behind me and I turned to see a hovering fleet of robots that had previously been dormant in her fabrication shop. They descended into the bilge one after another. The final robot in the armada flitted between the open hatches, closing them one by one. "I’ll be back in four hours. They’ll be done by then if you stay out of the way."
"You’re not sticking around?" I asked. I was certainly not expecting her to leave, since it was illegal to leave an autonomous robot unaccompanied.
"It’s all in your contract." She brushed past me and through the open door to the cargo bay.
***
Nick had left me with a budget of eighty thousand credits to fix the septic, water and atmospheric systems and as much interior work as possible. We’d gotten off to a bad start with the septic system and the atmospheric system was nearly as bad. We just weren’t going to get everything and I needed to make some tradeoffs. I wasn’t about to skimp on primary systems, so it was going to have to be the interior.
By late Thursday the interior, while a little short on amenities, had at least been thoroughly scrubbed and repainted. In addition to that, we had a new atmo scrubber complete with a full load of O2 crystals. I was amazed at just how cheery the ship looked with the grime and rust-laden metal gone.
"How much of the furniture are you replacing on the bridge deck?" Nick asked. The five of us had ended up back at the pizzeria in University Hills. It was out of the way, but the environment was right.
"The couch on the bridge will be fine, but pilot’s chairs are shot. I’m re-using the Captain’s Quarter’s furniture from Sterra’s Gift . I’m also bringing over some of the galley equipment and the screens from the engine room," I answered. "What have you guys been
Not a real charmer, this one. Ada and I pulled all of the boxes out and dropped them in a line. As we did, I could see that her shop had two fairly obvious replicators and at least twenty different small robots with varying appendages. I was more than glad when the bay finally completed the pressurization cycle.
"Well. That couldn’t have taken a lot longer," she grumbled. "So what’s the drama you wanted to show me?" Her mood was clearly deteriorating.
I led her through the aft door to the berth deck and pointed at the open bilge hatch. "We haven’t been able to clean up around the ribs. It’s a real mess down there."
She jumped down into the pit, "Your grav generator’s running low. Can you put it back up to .6g? Yeah, you left a right proper mess down here and that’s not in our contract."
"We ran out of time," I said.
"If I leave now, you’ll lose your fifteen hundred credit expedite fee," she said.
I was starting to get annoyed with her attitude and was surprised when Ada stepped in. "I bet you have a service for that. What’s the up-charge for cleaning, repair and paint?" she asked.
"Not sure, wasn’t in the contract. Give me a minute." She brushed past us on the way to her vehicle and returned after a few minutes with a fist sized robot and dropped it in the hole. It hovered, centering in the open space. She instructed the bot and it started traversing the bilge. "It already knows the project, but we only scanned the parts of the hull where we were going to put in the field. I need to fill in the details."
The bot returned after several minutes. Betty Sparkles gestured for several more minutes and finally appeared to have completed her assessment. "Twenty-three hundred credits and I’ll throw in disposal of all of those bags you already pulled out."
"Deal," I said. As soon as I said it a contract showed up in my comm queue. I was suspicious that this was a more common event than she was letting on.
"I’ll need you to keep clear of the aft hallway here while my boys get to work. The more you get in the way, the longer they’ll take."
"Where’s your crew?" I asked.
"You’re standing in their way." She nodded behind me and I turned to see a hovering fleet of robots that had previously been dormant in her fabrication shop. They descended into the bilge one after another. The final robot in the armada flitted between the open hatches, closing them one by one. "I’ll be back in four hours. They’ll be done by then if you stay out of the way."
"You’re not sticking around?" I asked. I was certainly not expecting her to leave, since it was illegal to leave an autonomous robot unaccompanied.
"It’s all in your contract." She brushed past me and through the open door to the cargo bay.
***
Nick had left me with a budget of eighty thousand credits to fix the septic, water and atmospheric systems and as much interior work as possible. We’d gotten off to a bad start with the septic system and the atmospheric system was nearly as bad. We just weren’t going to get everything and I needed to make some tradeoffs. I wasn’t about to skimp on primary systems, so it was going to have to be the interior.
By late Thursday the interior, while a little short on amenities, had at least been thoroughly scrubbed and repainted. In addition to that, we had a new atmo scrubber complete with a full load of O2 crystals. I was amazed at just how cheery the ship looked with the grime and rust-laden metal gone.
"How much of the furniture are you replacing on the bridge deck?" Nick asked. The five of us had ended up back at the pizzeria in University Hills. It was out of the way, but the environment was right.
"The couch on the bridge will be fine, but pilot’s chairs are shot. I’m re-using the Captain’s Quarter’s furniture from Sterra’s Gift . I’m also bringing over some of the galley equipment and the screens from the engine room," I answered. "What have you guys been
Similar Books
