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\title{Getting out of the Doldrums}
\author{Jo Jaquinta}
\date{}
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{\noindent \it {\Large H}ere's a story about a woman I'd like to meet.}\\

{\noindent \large L}ora  was bored.  Everyone had gone off leaving Daegaer  for 
company.  She wandered about the ship,  Daegaer following.  ``Your 
great company,  you know,  Daegaer,"  she told him. ``A barrel of 
laughs."  He stared blankly at her.  ``Go on,  find something that 
doesn't work.  I will fix it." He held out a snapped stylus. ``Oh, 
very  funny." She wandered back to engineering and pressed a  few 
buttons at random,  then reset them.  ``Go on,  I'll close my eyes 
and you twiddle a few knobs,"  she shut her eyes.  Daegaer turned 
off the light.  ``Gee,  that's a difficult one," she said, turning 
it  back  on.  She pulled out a reference manual.  ``Let's  see  if 
everything meets its tolerance levels." She leafed through a  few 
pages,  ``Go  get  me  a welding  kit,  a  fire  extinguisher,  an 
impedance  tester  and  a milkshake." He sighed  and  loped  off. 
``Strawberry!" she yelled after him.

     She  turned  the  power plant on and  began  increasing  the 
energy  flow.  ``Just  a  shade below red." Daegaer  returned  and 
dropped  the items.  ``Lighting system should be able to take  0.3 
mega-watts,"  she  said  around  the straw.  She  flicked  a  few 
switches  and  the lights glowed a very  intense  white.  Daegaer 
gasped and covered his already shaded eyes.  ``Sorry!" She  turned 
them off.  ``Let's see,  circulatory fans on max." Daegaer held his 
head as she made the connection and flicked the switch.  A gentle 
wind  began  blowing  through  the  ship,  gradually  increasing. 
``Wheee!"  cried  Lora.  She turned it off as the manual's  pages 
began  to  blow about in her hands.  Daegaer sat back up  in  his 
seat.  ``What next?  Purification plant? Boring. Air conditioning? 
Never did like snow\ldots  Hull bonding?  Hmmm\ldots enhances molecular 
bonds  in  crystal structure of hull,  three mega-watts."  Daegaer 
whimpered  quietly.  ``Did you say something?" He shook  his  head 
rapidly. ``I know you can talk. Why do you play mute?" She sighed. 
``Let's  give it a go." She twisted a few wires together and  threw 
the  switch.  An  almost subsonic throb echoed and  quickly  died 
away.  Lora  raised and eyebrow and flicked the switch off and on 
again.  The low noise reverberated throughout the ship. ``I've got 
an idea!"

     She  unwired  the console and set up a small circuit  to  the 
power  flow controller.  She set it to one megawatt and  activated 
it.  The  monitor filled with a square curve and around them  the 
hull emitted a vibrant tone.  She smiled.  ``Go to stores and  get 
forty  meters  of six core cable",  she instructed  Daegaer.  She 
dismantled  the  temporary  circuit  and  began  studying   wiring 
diagrams.

     She worked rapidly most of the afternoon, Daegaer catching a 
bit  of  her  excitement.  Dashing here and  there,  fetching  and 
carrying tools. In late afternoon the sun was setting. They stood 
on the hot cement to one side of the ship.  A thick cable drooped 
out a hatch and ran to a set of many switched boxes that  Daegaer 
sat  at.  A  thin  wire led to the final  apparatus  which  Lora 
carried.

     ``Stoke her up,"  she said.  Daegaer gingerly turned a  knob, 
watching  the head shimmer radiate off the engines.  ``Connect the 
interface."  He threw several large switches.  ``Engage  filters." 
Her activated these and his hand hovered shaking over a large red 
button. ``Activate," she whispered. He pushed it.

     She savored the moment of silence,  then leaped in the  air 
bringing  her hand down sharply on the strings of her  guitar.  The 
sound  blasted from the hull's surface area and exploded over the 
whole shipyard as she sank to her knees,  fingers madly  plucking 
their way up the neck as the sound rose higher and higher. Daegaer 
clung to the console as the ship slid several inches on its madly 
vibrating  landing  gear.  At  her climax, he joined in  with  the 
ship's artillery thundering.

$$\cdot$$

{\noindent \large T}erry
and the others returned that evening to find their lot 
covered in people.  Starport police surrounded the area, and a few 
administrators  in business suits were arguing loudly with  Lora. 
Around her several other spacers had turned up and were chatting 
at  Daegaer.  One  had  brought a howitzer; another held a suitably 
modified ultrasonic combat stunner, and a tight knot worked around 
a plasma cannon making unguessed modifications. Lora waved them 
over.

     ``What is going on here!" demanded Terry.

     ``We just thought we'd have a good old jam session!"

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