Junkyard Dogs 1: The Scrapyard Incident Read Online Free PDF

You'll have to help me find them, but
I can't wait to get out into the Scrapyard and have a look."
    Kresge finished
his dinner, but didn't have time to linger as he had a number of duties to
perform, including preparations for his trip to New Ceylon the following
morning. He got up from the table.
    "You'll have
to excuse me," he said. "I have to meet with a man looking for some
cargo ship parts and then I have to get some packing done." After glancing
back and forth between the two younger officers, his gaze came to rest on
Harris. "I trust that you two can find something to talk about?"
    Harris colored
slightly. "No problem, Sir. Have a safe journey tomorrow."
    "Thanks,
Lieutenant. Goodnight, Ensign."
    "Goodnight,
Sir."
    Kresge made his
way out of the mess area, stopping for short conversations with the occupants
of several tables before exiting.
    Carlisle wondered
briefly about the Lieutenant's mild, but noticeable reaction to Kresge's
seemingly innocent question, but decided it wasn't worth pursuing.
    "So,
Lieutenant Harris, we've talked quite a lot about me, what about you?"
    "Ryan,
please. Not much to tell, I grew up in Darwin -- that's on the southeastern
edge of the big continent. My dad was orchard manager for a coffee plantation
until he retired four years ago. I worked there myself for five summers, while
I was still going to school. I went to the New Ceylon Technical College and
joined the Federation Navy two months after I finished my engineering degree. I
attended boot camp and officer's training at the Navy's Technical Institute on
Old Earth for a couple of years and then came back here."
    "You came
right back here?"
    "It's not as
bad as you think. I requested it. My dad was having some health problems and it
was good to be close by."
    "Is he
okay?"
    "He is now,
but it looked pretty bad until he began to respond to the treatments. I should
request different duty, and I probably will, eventually, but I find that I
really like this place. It grows on you. It's also good for my profession, if
you can believe it. I get to see a bunch of different ways of solving
engineering problems by examining the entire spectrum of approaches that the
designers used on these old ships."
    "I know what
you mean. I've been studying different classes of ship as part of my research.
I can see where it could get addicting." She took a sip of her coffee.
"If you had your pick, what sort of duty would you like next?"
    Harris thought
for a moment.
    "To start
out with I'd like to be an engineer on one of the new destroyers or maybe even
a light cruiser, if I could swing it, and work my way up from there. What about
you?"
    "Well...I
have to finish this damned degree before I can do anything else.   I seem to be pretty good at tactics...I would
hope that I could get a post somewhere...," she trailed off.
    Harris recalled
Kresge's reference to Spacers, personality quirks and undecided academy brass
and sensed that this subject might be a little sensitive, especially since they
barely knew each other. He changed the subject.
    "That device
on your wrist... Is that one of the new Hartwell wrist computers?"
    Her face lit up.
    "Yeah, you
want to see it?"
    "Of course!"
    She laid her left
forearm down on the table in front of him, wrist up, so he could have a better
look the device. Held in place by a two centimeter-wide, self-adjusting
neo-kevlar wristband, the computer was an elongated oval about six centimeters
by two that was only a slim two or three millimeters in thickness. It was also
curved across the short axis to fit comfortably around her wrist and forearm.
    "I read
about those in last month's issue of "Future Technology." Is it as
good as they say?"
    "It's even
better! This is the control panel here. It's equipped with the new Cyberdex
virtual keyboard, but I use voice commands just as much. I've got my
dissertation, all of my references and a raft of other archival material right
here on my wrist. It's like having an entire library with