Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race by Kal Spriggs Read Free Book Online

with Chief Engineer Harbach overseeing production to his exact tolerances, and we’d need eight of them.”  Lieutenant Meridan didn’t dare to look over at his boss any more.  “I’ve got a dozen other fixes that will save us time, short term, and get these ships up and running.”  His voice dropped back to not much more than a murmur, “That’s not including the break time he’s scheduled in for himself.”
    “ I see.” Lucius turned his eyes to the former professor’s puce-colored face.  “What do you think of this?”
    The Commander sputtered, “ Well... This is ridiculous.  This… this idiot doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  He hasn’t spent nearly enough time considering the cumulative failures he will build into the engineering systems by cutting corners like this!”
    “ We don’t have to leave the systems like that.  We can do repairs of the systems over time.” The Lieutenant sighed, “It just doesn’t make sense to spend four months doing everything perfect when we can get it good enough in a lot less time.”
    “ I see.” Lucius stroked his jaw, staring at Harbach for a long moment.  A fix that would let them get operational in a short time would be better than one that took months.  Given time to do full repairs, they could bring those systems up to full efficiency.  “We’ll implement your plan, Lieutenant.  Get to work on it.”  Both Engineering officers rose, but Lucius raised a hand.  “James, stay here a moment.”  Lucius waited for the Lieutenant to close the hatch behind him before he spoke.  He looked up at the taller engineer, “I’ve cut you a great deal of slack, in the years you’ve been here.”
    The engineer interrupted with a shrill protest, “I get things done!  This fool will leave you—”
    Lucius slammed a hand on the desktop.  The crack startled Harbach into silence.  “ Enough!   You get things done, but you try to make things damned perfect!  That may work for an engineering professor, it does not work for an engineering officer.  Sometimes ‘good enough’ is all I ask.”
    Lucius sighed, “I need you, James.  I really do.  I need you at one hundred percent.  The margins of survival are… they’re not good.”
    “I’m doing my–”
    “ No, you are not doing your best.  You’re afraid, and you’re not thinking straight, so you’re going back to how you did things as a professor.”  Lucius shook his head.  “Frankly, James, you’re a teacher, you’re not meant for this kind of life.  But that’s what you have, and that’s where we are.  As soon as we find a safe haven, I can put you off, I’m sure with your skills-“
    “ I’d like to stay, please.”  Harbach's said.
    Lucius paused, “Why?  You’ve never shown anything but disgust with the military.”
    Harbach slumped a bit.  “I—I just don’t have anything else.  I hated teaching.  I hated my students.  They didn’t care, they had no passion , they had no drive!”  The engineer’s face twisted in bitterness.  “They wanted me to pour information into them like they were plants, receiving rain.  They didn’t want to work for it.  It was hell.”  He shook his head, “They didn’t know what it was to learn, and they hated me for making them work.”  His face took on a look of smugness, “I had a thirty percent pass rate in my classes.”
    Lucius stared at him, and spoke slowly, as if to a child, “To me, that means you failed seventy percent of the time.”  He shook his head.  “I see, among other things, we disagree on teaching too.”  He looked at the bitter man in silence for a while, “What do I do with you?  You’re terrible as a department head, you know?”
    The Chief Engineer waved a hand, “I’ve kept this ship flying, and you know it!  My knowledge and expertise—“
    “Has persistently been a pain in the ass.” Lucius responded.  “In any case, for the time being, I’m assigning you to oversight