Resistance is futile (IV)

"My apologies Ian, but quite the contrary. The defective gene has been corrected and all degenerative effects have already been repaired. It was necessary to chart the progression of ALS I believe you called it to determine exactly how far back I would have to go to ensure complete physical repair. You should have noticed an immediate physical improvement, indeed combined with the combination of drugs designed for those undertaking military service you should be experiencing severe euphoria."

"According to the Captain's instructions while under medical exam you have also had the necessary information and clearances inputted into your mind to fulfil the Chief Science Officer's position. I shall unlock the information now..."

Ian thought to himself in the moment before his frontal lobe tingled, Is there anything these guys don't have? Then he felt a slight tug in his brain and he felt no great change. He looked at the wall and marvelled at it's creation as the chemical formula and technical schematic for the nano-optronic Luminating Informational Display that coated the walls flashed into his mind. Hmm, that's interesting he though, and like a trickle of water breaching a dam his mind exploded. A few seconds later he picked himself up off the floor....floor? He must have fallen off the bed at some point and looked around dazed as a wealth of new information teemed through his mind.

"IAN, are you alright?" Sam asked in a panic, "Summoning aid..."

"No Sam, that won't be necessary. I'm alright, a little sore and dazed but alright. Do I even need to ask for an explanation....." Ian said, but hastily replied "No don't worry about it, I know all about how the learner is supposed to work but there's nothing about it being that.....rushed." Ian sat back down cradling his head as the pain in his head dissipated and his shoulder throbbed.

"Ian, there is something different about your species. Imperials never had that reaction to learning devices. They were designed specifically for their minds to allow for slow and easy absorption over a half hour period after the information was unlocked. Both Matt and Anna completed assimilation in roughly a thirty second period. You completed assimilation in 12.342 seconds, nearly half that of the other two."

Ian smiled and said, "I always knew I was smarter then those two."

Sam said, "No Ian, intelligence plays no part in assimilation times. However your minds are different from Imperials, yours is simply more so then Anna and Matt. Now the Captain asked you to join him. Do you require me to plot a path for you or are you capable of finding your own way."

Ian shook his head, clearing a the last of the residual fog. "For the moment I think it'd be better if you plotted my route for me Sam. Just until I'm sure I know my way around."

"Very well Major." Sam finished and a bright red line appeared on the floor leading out of the room which Ian quickly followed.

Ian followed the red line slowly at first, his mind swimming with facts, figures and thesis's as the base principles behind the technology assaulted his consciousness as he walked the deck. About half way to his destination he had to stop and find a waste station where he spent a couple of minutes puking his guts up. This seemed to clear his head a little and by the time he had gotten to one of the vertical transport hubs his mind had finished integrating most of the data.

When he reached the engineering deck the information coming at him was less an assault and more an unwelcome memory refusing to be ignored. Ian closed his eyes and hung to a support to keep himself upright and struggled to control the last few remnants which circled forlornly in almost a valiant last gesture of defiance and then were gone. Ian reopened his eyes and stood there for a moment, looking and searching himself. He felt good, the headache was gone and his shoulder had stopped throbbing. But more importantly he knew, and he was himself again.

Ian eventually made it to the main Damage Control Center or DCC 1 and found Matt alternating between grinning, moving his head in an odd way that suggested, ah it's not so bad and fluent curses in several earth languages as well as a few that sounded like Imperi. He entered the room without saying anything and leaned back on the wall before saying "That great huh?"

Without looking back Matt said, "Actually it could be a hell of a lot worse. The ship has held up fairly well considering it's been buried under a mountain for the last ten thousand years. The biggest problem that I can see according to the diagnostics is the sabotage. The Matter/Anti-Matter reactor is basically a big paperweight, not that we have the ability to generate anti-matter in any way shape or form."

"To be succinct, there's a buckled main strut that is a critical repair item, the ship will never have viable structural integrity until that's fixed. On top of that, we've got massive power problems, I've managed to get a single fusion reactor online but we've only got enough fuel to run it at about half capacity. "

"I've got all the bots currently assigned to either tapping into the aquifer or ferrying more water down for hydrolysis to keep the reactor running. Without it Sam's dead, his power reserves were almost completely depleted when I found him. Finally what power we are generating is somehow being bled off to the barest minimum before it gets to where it's needed which is emergency reserves. That's what I was swearing at, I can't seem to find the problem." Matt sighed with exasperation, "Any thoughts in that brain of yours?"

Ian looked at Matt a little nervously, "Umm, Matt. I hope you don't expect me to fix this for you, I know the principles, but you know I'm useless with my hands..."

Matt turned to look at Ian, "I know that man, don't worry about it. We should have our Chief Engineer recruited and indoctrinated by sometime tonight or early tomorrow. So don't sweat it, Now the main Science Labs were destroyed in some sort of experiment the previous crew performed before colonising good ol' Terra Firma. So I've had Sam set you up across the way, shall we go see it?"

Ian nodded enthusiastically as Matt smiled, same old Ian. Give the man a watch and he'd not rest till he'd pulled it apart to see how it worked. Pity that's where the interest always ended, to many a watch's horror. Ian and Matt walked at a comfortable pace to a transport hub and moved to the appropriate section of the ship. On the way they talked about how this ship was like the embodiment of their dreams and how Matt meant to take it back into space.

When they arrived at the appropriate section, they disembarked the transport hub and continued walking down several corridors which lit up as they entered them. As they moved through the different sections the corridors they had already progressed through returned to pitch black as the ship was currently in energy saving mode. However eventually they reached the site of the old Science Labs.

"See what I mean," Matt said as he pointed to the old Labs. Ian poked his head in the door and after a moment of curiosity pulled his head back out.

"What the hell where they doing in there?" Ian asked in a slightly dismayed tone.

"As far as I can tell, because the log is pretty degraded. They were experimenting with some kind of substance to fix their power problems. But they couldn't get to work and ended up blowing most of the science team up in the process. Now while we do have major power issues, I don't want a repeat of that."

Matt showed Ian into the new Labs which had been outfitted in the old repository vault. "I had Sam set you up in here because containment shouldn't be an issue. So feel free to use whatever you have to, to come up with a solution to our technical problems. Once we get a repair team going you'll probably be doing a lot of co-operative work with whoever we get."

"Sam?" Matt said.

"Yes Captain?" Sam replied almost immediately.

"Grant Major Matrovsky here access to any material or information he may need to help come up with solutions to our technical problems."

"Aye, Captain." Sam replied.

"There that should be all you need, you're cleared to come and go as you need. Just remember I will be holding a progress update/briefing every morning at 0900. Be there or be square." Matt looked at Ian for a moment to ensure he'd understood then Matt left Ian too it as he had to check back at DCC1 before looking into expanding the hydrolysis rig to cope with the increased water flow once they hooked into the aquifer.