Dust to Dust

[Brian]

<Brian>  After climbing down the stairs where Kelly is prodding at some console, and Albert is looking between a whole lot more of them, Kieran is able to navigate through the halls to the airlock between the Prometheus and the Eidolon.
<Kieran>  Kieran clicks his tongue as he walks, trying to puzzle out this little mystery.  Something clearly went very, very wrong back before the 'accident' . . .
<Brian>  The locker in the wall next to the airlock should contain some suits -- but these are slightly bulkier, meant to work in no atmosphere instead of just to protect against radiation. This will require stripping down and donning the skin-suit that goes on beneath it, a process that takes about a minute for the experienced ... but it was also required training to go on the mission.
<Kieran>  Kieran digs a suit out of the locker and sets to getting changed into it.
<Brian>  Opening the locker reveals that everything within looks completely untouched from the day the ship took off. But everything appears to be in working condition, and the 'rupture/puncture' LEDs on the wrists of the skin-suit report normal functions. The bulkier outer suit seems to be in working condition as well.
<Brian>  Not bad for sitting in a closet for more than fifteen years.
<Kieran>  Kieran does, a minor amount of caution surfacing from his years in space, checks the skin and outer suit he's going to be using.
<Brian>  Everything appears to be in order. But then, the outer hull has atmosphere. It's just irradiated.
<Kieran>  Kieran strips down and dons the pressure suit fairly quickly, having done this many times before.
<Brian>  The ease of practice helps quite a bit, and after a minute or two, everything is in place, and looks intact.
<Kieran>  Kieran checks himself over quickly once more, then steps into the airlock.
<Kieran>  Sealing the suit, of course. ;)
<Brian>  The airlock pressurizes a bit before releasing Kieran into the outer hull, the Eidolon proper. This doesn't do much to the suit, but when the door is opened, it does push the dust back from the entrance a bit.
<Kieran>  Looking around briefly, Kieran starts heading for the port airlock.
<Brian>  The dust in the interior halls is hard to see, the maintenance 'bots doing a good job of taking care of it. But in the outer hull, it's piled thick, like dark snow nearly ten centimeters thick in places. Thick tracks in the dust indicate that someone has gone this way before.
<Kieran>  Finn, of course, since she reported the crowbar in the first place. Kieran ignores the tracks and continues.
<Brian>  The tracks lead directly to the door, where Kieran can see exactly what Finn reported -- though it's a bit more daunting in person. One edge of the manual over-ride wheel pokes up above the dust. The control panel itself looks like it was probably beaten a few times before someone shoved the crowbar right
into the center.
<Kieran>  Kieran steps past the wheel and examines the crowbar, trying to glean several points of information: (A) How hard would someone have had to shove that crowbar to do that much damage?  (B) How effective a means of disabling the airlock *is* that?  (C) Any fingerprints visible upon a close examination of the crowbar?
<Brian>  The answer to these questions is:
A: VERY hard. The immediate suggestion is a Demeterian did it. Normal humans probably aren't that strong.
B: If the manual switch in the control box was locked before it was damaged, then the airlock essentially becomes inoperable.
C: Nothing immediately is revealed to the naked eye ... but there is a doctor in thaw. Since the only person who should have handled the crowbar would be Finn, and she was wearing gloves, it would probably be removable without damaging any evidence ... if you're strong enough to haul it free. Even if there are no
fingerprints, the thing looks prime to check for genetic samples.
<Kieran>  "Hale, can you see this crowbar through your pickups?"
<Brian>  "Negative," he replies. "Dust is obscuring my sensors. I can pick it up on your suit's sensors, however."
<Kieran>  "From your files, who among the first crew had the physical capacity to do this?"
<Brian>  There's a pause, as Hale considers this.
<Brian>  After a while, Hale reports, "Primarily, any crewman who had
augmentation of any kinds. Secondarily, Dragon Hodges Meyer."
<Kieran>  "Any information on who might have had such augmentation?"
<Brian>  "According to medical records, only four crewmen had any augmentation of any time," Hale says after a moment. "One of these was on the First Crew: Aquilla native Jared Freyman.
<Brian>  "Augmentation: visual pickup embedded in the mastoid. Without it, Crewman Freyman was blind in one eye, and lacked depth perception. Additionally, his left eye was synthetic. Without this augmentation, Jared would likely have been unable to pilot."
<Kieran>  "Hm. So that wouldn't have given him the strength for this?"
<Brian>  "Negative," Hale replies. "Except...." And then he trails off and doesn't actually say anything.
<Kieran>  "Except what?"
<Brian>  "Unknown. It appears that a database concerning confidential information regarding the First Crew has been damaged or altered in some way. I am unable to obtain permission to access it."
<Kieran>  "Hale, who has or had authority to deny you access to that information, and who has the authority to override that?"
<Brian>  "Unknown. It is assumed that Crewman Kelly could alter the database permissions manually. This appears to be within his skill-set. However, he lacks the required permissions. Presumably Captain Albert has the authority to override any and all locks, as the highest ranking authority available to us."
<Brian>  "This assumes, however," Hale warns, almost as an afterthought, "that the database is sealed, and not damaged. I am unable to ascertain which is occurring at this juncture."
<Kieran>  "Hmm," Kieran thinks for a second, "Please convey this conversation to them after we finish speaking.  Hale, are you aware of any other deliberate damage to Eidolon systems?"
<Brian>  "The airflow system in the outer hull of the Eidolon has been disabled until the dust can be removed from the corridors," Hale says. "This is the only additional deliberately halted system I am aware of."
<Brian>  Another pause, and then, "Many of my sensors are currently obscured, and I am not able to access the external repair robots. There may be further damages I am not yet aware of."
<Kieran>  "If you become aware of any more deliberate disabling or damage to systems, please make me aware immediately," Kieran taps the wall near the destroyed panel, "Hale, do you have any information as to who, if any, of the first crew would have been outside when this incident occurred?"
<Brian>  "Understood," Hale replies. After a moment of consideration, he adds, "Logic would suggest one of the EVA specialists. The First Crew's EVA specialist and communications expert was Eden native Julie Briggs-Hearth."
<Kieran>  "She would have been able to use another airlock to re-enter the Eidolon - do you see any obvious inaccuracies in that statement?"
<Brian>  "The other airlock is currently sealed from the outside," Hale reports.
<Kieran>  "Do you have any information as to why this would have been done?"
<Brian>  "Negative. Outside of deliberate editing of the history files, this must have happened within a twelve hour window between automated backup cycles."
<Kieran>  "Right," Kieran attempts to get a grip on the crowbar and remove it from the panel himself (not really liking his odds), "What about the vehicle airlocks, would a person on the outside of the ship been able to use those?"
<Brian>  "Affirmative. Emergency manual overrides are in place on both vehicle entrances."
<Kieran>  "Hale, tell me how many pressure suits are not currently in their usual storage areas and report status on all of them, excluding my own."
<Brian>  There's another pause. "Two pressure suits are currently missing from the ship. Three are near the starboard airlock in the gangway. All others are within their proper storage units."
<Kieran>  Kieran doesn't respond for a moment, putting some effort into attempting to remove the crowbar . . .
<Brian>  It doesn't seem to want to budge much.
<Kieran>  Kieran bites off a curse.
<Kieran>  "When you were first reactivated after the emergency reconstruction, could you detect the missing pressure suits?  Additionally, is the Eidolon missing any vehicles?"
<Kieran>  Letting go of the crowbar for now, Kieran starts walking in the direction of the starboard airlock.
<Brian>  "Negative. There is no record of the missing suits. All vehicles are currently in place." Another pause. "One of the probes is missing."
<Kieran>  "I assume the probes are unaccounted for in your logs?"
<Brian>  There's another of the now familiar pauses.
<Brian>  "That section of the database is currently damaged or locked."
<Kieran>  "Please convey our previous conversation to the captain now, with this addendum: I believe that the maintenance bot in the port airlock was trapped there deliberately.  Why this was done is unknown, but it was sent there for what seems to be a spurious reason, and it's logs don't quite fit together with the evidence.  I'm going to go and check the starboard airlock, then the vehicle bay, I'll explain when I return to the bridge.  I also recommend that when a doctor is released from quarantine that the crowbar be subjected to genetic analysis to see who last used it.  Abernase out."

[Rezantis]

Kieran asks Hale another question - "Hale, list unusual circumstances on the Eidolon that you have not previously related to me and that you believe should be brought to my attention, in descending order of priority." - while he trudges to the far side of the the ship to distract himself from his one overwhelming thought right now.

This bloody pressure suit is heavy in standard g.

[Brian]

Hale seems to consider this, giving Kieran enough time to round the fore section of the outer hull, and start closing in on the starboard airlock before replying, "List output:

Prime: While still operational, all of the oxygen regulator controls have been altered in a way that is not known to me.  Within the inner hull, four of the five oxygen refiltration units have been modified to include a remotely activated 'kill' switch.  These switches have been removed from the four reachable units.  Within quarantine, the fifth has not been accessed according to the door logs.  The only known control for these switches was located in Captain Kim Landy's quarters, and is currently in the robotics maintainence lab.  Only Captain Albert and the current security officer (unassigned) may access this locker.  There has been no access to the external oxygen plants yet.

Secondary: At intervals generally near course-correction or times of changing acceleration/deceleration, and intermittently throughout standard operations, audio-pickups detect a resonation throughout the ship, as though a very slow-moving bit of debris has been deflected by the hull.  Triangulation suggests that the source of these noises is near the comm. array.

Tertiary: While all vehicles and related supplies are undamaged, all survival-related equipment excluding pressure suits has been removed from them and is now stored in the cargo bay.

List ends."

[Rezantis]

Kieran blanches inside his suit.

"Hale, forward that list immediately to the bridge.  Then answer: who modified the units to add killswitches, can you grant me access to the quarantine sector to remove the switch from the fifth, and . . . do you have records of the first crew's behaviour from before the incident?"

[Brian]

"Affirmative," Hale replies.  At about this time, Kieran rounds the corner where the pressure suits lie in the corridor.  Three of them are collapsed in untidy piles, as though they had been dropped on the floor instead of put back in the locker.  The identifying tags give their 'home' as the starboard Prometheus/Eidolon storage locker.

There do not appear to be any bodies inside the suits.  As Hale had warned, the airlock is currently sealed.  What can be seen of the airlock through the window looks normal.

[Rezantis]

Kieran grabs one of the suits and starts dragging it towards a maintenance station, where he can pull the 'black box' or equivalent out of it as he waits for an answer to his previous queries.

[Brian]

The nearest station would be back on the Prometheus section of the ship at this point.

[Rezantis]

Kieran, suppressing his annoyance, picks up the suit and starts walking . . . not really having any more questions for the moment, as he mulls over what he's uncovered.

[Brian]

The airlock pressurizes again, another breeze clearing the door before admitting Kieran into the central hull.  Once there, the suit is found to have a lot of dust and a skinsuit in it.

[Rezantis]

Kieran . . . winces, as this had slipped his mind, and continues with the suit (slightly more respectfully) to the maintenance station so he can check the recorder.

[Brian]

The maintainence system efficiently cleans the suit, and then connects to the control panel to read back the logs.

Upon examination, however, it appears that whatever knocked out the rest of the ship's systems got to the recorder on the suit, as well.  Records indicate that the same thing happened to the suit Kieran is wearing, but since it was already in the locker, it was automatically repaired long before thaw.  The suit doesn't have a rod logic backup.

[Rezantis]

Feeling somewhat reluctant to go and get the other suits right now and frustrated at another dead end attempt to search for answers, Kieran heads back to the airlock to change back into his jumpsuit before going to manually inspect the oxygen refiltrators inside the Prometheus (excepting the one in the quarantine chamber, which he leaves until last).

[Brian]

This takes some time, but is easy enough to take care of.  Inspection shows where the repair bots have removed wiring -- they look to have restored everything to working order on the first three units.  The fourth is on the bridge.

[Rezantis]

Kieran heads back up to the bridge, for now, to check the fourth of the units.

Better to be thorough, given Hale's . . . instability when they woke up.

[Brian]

Kieran now returns to Field Promotions.