SWEET HOME ALLE BAMMA (SOLBIDYUM WARS SAGA) by Dale Musser Page B

at our stations when she just sort of appeared on the bridge.  None of us saw her arrive and when we did notice her, she was alone.”
    “See if you can find out who this person is!” ordered the captain and then he turned to me.
    “This is most strange, Tibby.  Just last week one of the crew was checking some circuits in the vacant quarters area on the aft end of the ship and he swore that he saw a little man of a similar description in one of the unused crew mess areas.  The crewman reported that this individual simply disappeared and he was unable to find him anywhere in the area.  At first we thought he might have seen another crew member and that from his vantage point the person just appeared to be short and deformed; but now we have this corroborating report.  I must say, it sounds like we have a stowaway onboard.”
    The evidence certainly supported the idea of a stowaway.  The NEW ORLEANS crew was placed on security alert and every crew and service staff member joined Marranalis and the security team to search for this elusive individual, but the search was fruitless.  No one was seen in the vacant areas of the ship that shouldn’t have been there.  At the same time, no one that was questioned admitted to having helped Chanina find her way to the bridge either.  Captain Stonbersa was most perplexed by this mystery and ordered all monitors in the ship activated.  Many of the security monitors in the unused areas of the ship had been deactivated until this strange turn of events.  Even after a diligent review, no one that was not part of the ship’s known complement showed on any of these monitors.
    The senator and his daughter spent the night on the ship and departed early the next morning.  Shortly after, Cantolla announced that she was able to implement some small improvements to the solbidyum reactor unit after reviewing the plans that Lunnie had left behind and the original designs found in the TRITYTE archives.  The new unit configuration was better suited for planetary power distribution and would allow the tremendous energy created in the reactors to be managed with complete efficiency, which meant power would be generated without leakage or dissipation and without the risk of overload on any element of the existing power grid.  She and her team had already constructed two units, which were ready to be put into service.
    I never ceased to marvel at the speed with which it was possible to manufacture items in the Federation territories.  The Federation technology had produced robotic equipment and machinery capable of manufacturing raw goods into finished products within minutes or hours, where on Earth the same processes would have taken much longer.  The solbidyum reactors, for instance, would have taken two weeks or more to manufacture on Earth; whereas the technologically advanced equipment of the Federation required only that the design was uploaded into the computer while the raw materials were supplied to the mechanized factory.  After these initial provisions were made, the computer calculated the most efficient way to use the materials and complete the assembly.  As one part of the factory cut and formed materials according to a template, another area assembled and installed electronic components.  Observing these wondrous machines as they manufactured the solbidyum reactors was almost like watching time-lapse photography.
    While the installation of the solbidyum reactor was taking place, I met with the new recruits for the FSO.  When dining with Admiral Regeny, Captain Stonbersa and Kala earlier that morning, I was approached by Major Sokaia, who had confronted Marranalis the day before.  “Vice Admiral Renwalt,” she said snapping to attention before me, “I wish to make an apology for my comments and actions of yesterday.  I was totally out of line.”  Admiral Regeny was seated across the small table from me with his back to the major, and I noted a smirk on his face as