Today’s story is the second and final part of “The Engineers Curse” by Tehrasha Darkon, who’s IRC chat room is now old enough to have children of its own.  More stories taking place around the characters in this story can be found on SoFurry.

Last time, Elrod, the engineer’s mate, was given a seemingly simple task, which rapidly spiraled out of control, as each attempt to fix the issue only resulted in more problems.  Four days have now passed, and the simple task he was given is no nearer to completion.

Read for you by Khaki, your faithful fireside companion.

You’re listening to The Voice of Dog. I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,

and Today’s story is the second and final part of

“The Engineers Curse”

by Tehrasha Darkon,

who’s IRC chat room is now old enough to have children of its own.

More stories taking place around the characters in this story

can be found on SoFurry.

Last time, Elrod, the engineer’s mate,

was given a seemingly simple task,

which rapidly spiraled out of control, as each attempt to fix the issue

only resulted in more problems.

Four days have now passed,

and the simple task he was given

is no nearer to completion.

Please enjoy “The Engineer’s Curse”

by Tehrasha Darkon,

Part 2 of 2 On the fifth day,

Elrod wandered into the galley and found it empty.

"Where is everyone?"

he yawned. "Most of the crew is asleep.

Breakfast is not scheduled for another six hours,"

replied Lance's voice.

"Breakfast? What time is it?"

asked the exhausted wolf.

Lance informed him of the current time,

date, and year, just to be safe.

"Thanks, Lance" replied Elrod sarcastically,

as he picked up a tin cup

and dribbled the last of the left-over coffee into it.

It had probably been distilling itself since yesterday morning

and was noticeably thicker than usual.

Cringing at its bitterness

he leaned against a support pillar

and closed his eyes.

He could still see it all in his mind.

The relays and modules with wires

criss-crossing between them,

the blinking lights that shouldn't,

and the dead unblinking indicators that should.

He lightly tapped his forehead against the pole

in frustration. Then a smell tickled his nose. 'Food?'

he thought to himself.

Opening his eyes, he was disappointed to see that the pole he was pressed against was still coated

in splattered soup residue.

Desperate, he was just about to give the stain a lick,

when his eyes fell upon the notice board hanging on the far wall.

Usually the board was covered in

'lost and found' messages,

or pictures of exotic places the crew had recently visited,

or more accurately,

the exotic and scantily dressed people they claimed to have met there.

Now the majority of the board had been taken over

by an intricate betting pool,

with outcomes listed down the side,

and the betting odds and amounts populating the grid.

It took him a few moments to realize that he and his current task

were the subject of the betting.

There were bets on whether he would fail or succeed.

Bets on how many days he would last before giving up.

There was even a column suggesting that the job might kill him.

The odds did not look to be in his favor,

though he did notice at least one person had bet on him succeeding,

and though the bet was only for one credit,

the odds were one-thousand to one.

The smile that gave him

was quickly wiped away by the next sip of the viscous coffee,

which made him shudder.

Invigorated by the potent drink,

and the knowledge that someone had faith in his abilities, however small,

he poured the rest of the black liquid down the drain,

and returned to his task. ---

On the bridge, Chief was

desperately trying to find anything that would take his mind off of the activities

taking place in the cargo bay,

but morbid curiosity kept drawing him back to the security cameras. 'To

make sure Elrod was safe,'

he kept telling himself, though he knew it was a lie.

The curse still had a hold on him as well,

and this latest attempt to conquer it had only reminded him of its existence,

and reawakened the demon

that had remained dormant in the back of his mind.

He wanted to be down there with the poor boy.

To help if he could,

to give him sage advice and prevent him from chasing shadows,

or even just to let him know that he wasn't alone in his frustration.

A warning buzzer went off,

accompanied by a blinking red light

on the panel to the Chief's left.

The figure on the security camera

suddenly became very animated.

Stomping around in circles while waving his arms about,

it was obvious that he was livid.

Even with the audio muted, the Chief could hear the words in his head,

as the wolf continued to flail and make

rude gestures at the open panel.

Then the Chief cringed

as he watched the boy

haul back and kick his toolbox.

It didn't move much,

but tipped sideways, spilling some of its contents onto the deck,

as the wolf continued to howl and curse

while hopping on one foot.

"How many does that make?" asked

Reg as he stepped onto the bridge.

"What?" asked the Chief,

startled at the captain’s sudden appearance.

"How many times has he triggered the pressure doors?"

asked the rabbit again, pointing at the blinking red light.

"Oh, I don't know. I've lost count,"

replied the Chief.

"Lance, what's the score?"

asked Reg. "The main pressure doors have been asked to open twenty three times since he started.

The lights in the bay have gone out eight times,

and the fire suppression system has been triggered twice," replied the AI.

"There have also been fourteen separate unique anomalous errors which have not repeated themselves as yet."

The captain sighed.

"Why are you on the bridge, Reg?

Your shift doesn't start for another four hours," said the Chief.

Reg hooked a thumb toward the security monitor,

where the wolf was now laying prone, pounding on the deck plates with his fists.

"Couldn't sleep. Same as you,"

said the captain with a knowing glance.

The Chief nodded

and slumped back into the command chair.

"Do you think he will give up?"

asked Reg. "I don't know.

I didn't expect him to last this long,"

admitted the Chief.

Reg frowned. "As much as I hate to do it, I'm going to have to call a stop to it after today,"

said the Captain.

"We reach port in two days,

and I need that cargo bay to be back in operational condition."

The Chief nodded.

"I'll tell him. Then I will help him put it all back together.

together." Reg gave the ferret's shoulder a squeeze.

"Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

he asked with a grin.

The Chief returned the smile. ---

After his shift on the bridge ended,

Chief went down to the cargo bay to deliver the bad news.

When he entered the bay, he found most of the modules back in their racks

with Elrod busily reconnecting the wires.

"Hey, Chief! I'm done.

No more. I quit. I'm going to put all of this back the way I found it,

and you can leave me at the next port of call," said the wolf.

He sounded his usual happy self again,

as though an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders,

and sounded genuinely happy to be leaving.

"Wait just a minute.

Nobody said anything about you leaving," said the Chief,

"You aren't the first engineer to be defeated by this..

this.." He waved his hand in the general direction of the panel,

"This.. thing." The wolf slumped against the wall.

When he turned to face the ferret,

he looked lost. His eyes full of tears

and shaking as though about to panic.

"It’s just a pair of crossed wires!"

he whined, before breaking down into sobs.

The Chief pulled the wolf

to his chest and patted him on the back reassuringly.

"I know, I know," he repeated.

"Let me help you get this back together,

then we can both get some rest. OK?"

The wolf nodded, and the two men set to work. ---

Reg stopped in to check their progress

just as the last module was being mounted to the rack.

Leaving the wolf to weld it in place,

the Chief informed the captain that everything would be

'normal' again in just a few hours.

The rabbit nodded and

had just turned to leave when a fresh wave of swearing erupted from Elrod.

"Dammit! Reset the welder, would you Chief?"

asked the wolf. "Sure thing,"

replied Chief as he checked the device.

The safety had not tripped, all of the connectors were tight,

and there was still power to the unit.

The ferret cycled the power switch anyway.

"Try now," he called to the wolf.

"Nope, still nothing,"

came the response.

Chief walked over to the wolf, who handed him the welding tip.

The ferret shook the handle violently,

banged it on the floor a couple times,

then dragged the probe across the deck plates, but there were no sparks.

He walked back to the welder

and shook its chassis.

There was still nothing, despite the display indicating that power was available.

He was about to power cycle the unit again

when Elrod gave a blood curdling scream

which made the fur on the Chief's neck stand up.

Reg came sprinting back into the cargo bay.

"What happened?" shouted the captain.

The wolf was standing in front of the panel,

both paws clamped over his muzzle,

and his eyes wide open in shock.

The Chief and Reg both approached slowly as the wolf

cautiously raised his hand

and pointed a shaking finger

at the open panel.

All of the relays were green

and operating normally as they should be,

and the pair of crossed wires at the back of the panel

had not been changed back yet.

They were still wired

'properly', black to black

and blue to blue.

"What did you do?" gasped the Chief in a whisper.

"Nothing! Since the welder was dead, I was about to manually crimp this last connection,

when I noticed everything was green.

But.. but.. the wires!"

he squeaked, still pointing a shaking finger.

"Yeah, I see it. Which wire were you crimping?" asked

the Chief. "This one,"

he said, pointing to the tiny red wire

which was only barely making contact with its relay.

"Pull the wire off,"

said Reg. "What?" shrieked Elrod and Chief in unison.

"Pull the red wire off

of the relay," repeated the captain,

softly and calmly.

The wolf looked at the Chief nervously

and the ferret nodded.

The moment the wire came away from the contact,

half of the relays in the panel went red,

and the photonic welder came to life,

its probe tip arcing and sparking as it danced across the metal floor.

"Now put it back," said the captain.

When Elrod reconnected the wire,

everything turned green again,

and the welder fell silent.

Its display was still indicating that it was powered up,

but the probe tip was no longer attempting to weld the deck plates together.

"Now crimp it in place,"

said Reg, just as calmly.

The Chief handed Elrod the crimping tool

and the wolf locked the wire into place.

Reg then casually walked over to where the welder was plugged into its power socket,

and jerked the cord out of the wall.

All of the relays remained green. All three men looked at

each other, then back at the panel, then

at the disconnected welder. ---

"Clear a path! Make way!" shouted Lance,

as his hologram floated down the corridor like a ghost.

Reg and Chief were right behind him

as they pushed the welder along,

followed closely by Elrod,

as he carried the trailing bundle of cables in his arms.

"Coming through! Captain on deck!"

continued the AI.

Reg ran ahead, passing through Lance's image,

and had the airlock door open

by the time Chief arrived with the welder.

The two men then shoved the machine into the airlock,

where it skittered to one side before falling over with a heavy clang.

Reg already had his key inserted and the safety disabled

when Elrod flung the cables in after it,

kicking the tail end of one through the door just as it closed.

The moment the door was sealed,

Reg smashed the 'purge' button with his fist.

The outer doors snapped open

and the welder was sucked silently out into space,

with its cables writhing and flailing about behind it.

When the outer doors closed,

the Chief and Elrod

both slumped against the bulkhead,

and began laughing.

Reg was smiling to himself

when he turned to congratulate the pair,

but standing between them

was Hender. "Did I just watch three grown men, and an AI,

throw a piece of repair equipment into space,

in the hopes that it took some kind of evil curse along with it?"

asked the medic. Reg straightened his flight jacket,

then kissed the tip of his finger

and touched it against the Tree of Life she wore around her neck.

"Yes. Yes you did," he said with a smile.

"Beer is on me!" he shouted to the curious crew members who had gathered in the corridor.

There was a loud cheer from the crew

and everyone began to flock to the galley.

Chief kissed his finger, and touched it to the tiny silver tree

as he passed, just as the captain had.

Elrod was unsure about the significance,

but kissed his finger anyway,

leaving a black smudge on his lips.

When he turned to touch the tiny talisman,

the raccoon scowled at him.

Kissing her own fingers,

she clasped the icon

and dropped it down the front of her jacket.

Elrod blushed, then hurried himself along to the galley. ---

That night, with the decades long nightmare behind them,

the three engineers were finally able to get some restful sleep.

Reg in his own quarters,

the Chief on the bridge,

strapped into the command chair, with his feet up on the steering yolk,

and Elrod, still fully clothed,

sprawled across his bunk.

Lance, who never actually slept,

nevertheless found himself unusually restless.

Repeatedly recalculating the estimated mass of the photonic welder,

combined with the ship’s velocity and bearing when it was ejected.

Trying to determine

what planetary systems and gravity wells existed in its future path,

and where it might end up.

Hender was also unable to sleep.

She lay awake on her bed,

idly toying with the silver talisman at her neck.

As she felt the cool metal moving between her fingers,

a tiny part of her was questioning how much faith she had in her own belief system,

while the rest of her was busily trying to decide

how she was going to spend

one thousand credits.

This was the second

and final part of

“The Engineer’s Curse”

by Tehrasha Darkon,

read for you by Khaki,

your faithful fireside companion.

As always, you can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,

or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you for listening

to The Voice of Dog.