Gall Force Fan Fiction ❯ Another Journey, Another Story ❯ Chapter 7

Gall Force: Another Journey, Another Story

Part Seven

Jame coughed as she ran up the long hallway, forcing her way through the black smoke that was billowing out of a wall panel nearby. She took the portable fire extinguisher she carried and soaked the hot spot with coolant, then cautiously popped the panel off to spray beneath it. She peered in at the circuitry, wincing at the damage, all the melted and charred connections.

'Hope that we can use the salvaged parts to repair it,' Jame thought glumly. The green haired young woman activated her wrist communicator and said, "This is Jame, the fire's out in section 12, subsection 5. Where to next?"

"I've got it logged in," Chris replied from her station in engineering. "The boss says head back down here for now."

"Right," Jame disconnected and jogged down the hall, stowing the extinguisher away in her emergency services backpack. Like most of the crew she was helping out with damage control, dealing with the results of their little skirmish with the Paranoid ships. It was just their rotten luck that the attack had taken out the automatic fire suppression systems.

The lift arrived, and Jame's eyes widened in surprise and a bit of fear as Commander Allaine waited. "Which level?" the brown haired second in command asked her mildly as she returned the younger woman's salute.

"Engineering, Ma'am," Jame squeaked nervously.

"Me, too," Allaine nodded slightly. They descended together, stepping off the lift on the appropriate level. They walked on together as she calmly asked, "How has your transfer from life-sciences to engineering gone?"

Jame looked more than a bit startled at Allaine knowing that piece of information so easily, but she stammered out nervously, "Pretty well, ma'am. I'm making myself useful, and the Chief seems to be happy with my work."

"Good," Allaine said as they entered the massive engineering section together. Jame angled off to report to Chris, puffing out a sigh of relief.

Chris gave her a sympathetic smile as she turned from her damage control station to murmur, "You got to ride a life with the Iron Lady?"

"Shhh," Jame went visibly pale, silently praying that Allaine hadn't heard that, but thankfully she was still busy talking to Lieutenant-Commander Karin. "They don't actually call her that, do they?" she squeaked out worriedly.

"You'd be surprised," Chris said dryly. The sandy haired young woman smiled as she asked, "Did you have any trouble?"

"Not really," Jame said, "but the fire did some real damage to the circuitry there." She sighed, "I hope we don't need to pull it all out, but it looks bad."

"I'll add it to the repair board," Chris made a face as she turned to her control panel. The monitor showed a schematic of the ship, red marks signifying damage. She hit a few keys, adding another spot to an image almost covered in them.

Jame looked up at all the damage indicators and sighed softly. "We're going to have a busy few days, aren't we?" she asked.

"That we are," Lieutenant-Commander Karin said as she joined them.

"Ma'am!" Jame squeaked out, throwing a salute.

"At ease," Karin sounded amused by Jame's automatic formality. The silver haired woman smiled slightly as she turned to the other officer, "And Chris, if I hear you calling Allaine the Iron Lady again, I'll happily bust you back to private, understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," Chris said a bit sheepishly.

"Sorry, ma'am," Jame murmured softly.

Karin gave Jame a wry smile, "Not your fault." The Lieutenant-Commander looked up at the screen thoughtfully, "You've done a good job so far, I'd like to put you in for a permanent transfer to engineering. But only if you're interested."

Jame over at Karin in surprise. Despite her words to the Commander she really wasn't sure how the Chief saw her, and it was gratifying to know she wanted her there. "I'd be honored, Chief," she smiled tentatively.

"That's the spirit," Karin clapped the girl on the shoulder, nearly knocking the smaller woman over. "You've already got a good grounding in the sciences, so we just get you up to speed on your engineering certifications.

"I've already started checking out a few of the training data-cubes on my off hours," Jame admitted a bit sheepishly.

"Nice initiative," Davies noted with a smile.

"Not bad at all," Karin tossed her an impish grin. "I checked in with the library computer to see what was available, and I was a bit surprised to see the 'Hulls and Internal Architecture' cube out. That one of the ones you got?"

"Yes, Chief," Jame nodded. "I'm not sure I got it all, but it was interesting."

"Here's a list of training cubes," Karin handed her a datapad, "but run through these in the order listed, please. That way you'll get the grounding for the more advanced stuff like in the 'Hulls and Architecture' cube."

"And don't try to run through it too fast," Davies spoke up, "I know you're eager, but take your time with this stuff."

"Thank you, Chief," Jame beamed, "I'll do my best!"

Oddly, Lieutenant-Commander Karin's cheeks flushed and she looked away from Jame's adoring gaze uncomfortably. "I'd better get back to it," she said, "excuse me."

"What was that about?" Jame blinked once the Chief Engineer walked off.

Chris just sighed, shaking her head. "Never mind," she advised her wryly. She turned back to the board displaying needed repairs, "Are you still seeing Katrine?"

"Huh?" Jame blinked at the sudden change of subject. "No, not really," she admitted, "she doesn't know I'm interested in her."

"You might want to try telling her," Davies advised, her lips twitching in a smile.

"It's easy to say, not quite that easy to do," Jame sighed. She gave Davies an odd look, "What's so funny, anyway?"

"I just find people very amusing," was Davies dry answer. She called up repair assignments, "Would you like to go with some of the repair teams, get a feel for that?"

"Please," Jame smiled.

Davies noted, "Well, there's a crew going to the medical bays..."

"Ah, not medical, please," Jame sweatdropped.

Davies chuckled softly, "Some of the bridge data conduits were affected, we're still trying to track down the problem. You want to help?"

"Sure," Jame smiled, "but how?"

A control was activated, and a series of bright lines extended from the bridge on the display to different parts of the ship. Several of the lines also ran through sections where damage was being reported.

"We need to check each of those damage points," Davies pointed them out to Jame, "and the automated systems are all off-line."

"A lot of automated systems went down when we were attacked," Jame noted. She pointed and asked, "Where have they checked so far?"

"Top down," Davies marked a series of points.

"Then I'll start on the lower decks and work my way up," Jame smiled.

Davies downloaded a set of schematics marked with the damage points, and passed it over, "Here you go."

"Thanks," and Jame all but ran out in her eagerness.

To be continued...