Sifting Through the Ashes

[Ebiris]

"Excellent," Albert nods approvingly, rubbing his hands together. "Hale, what's the status of our robot inventory?" he asks the omnipresent ship's computer.

[Brian]

"All but one of our robots are operating normally," Hale replies.  "Of those operational, two are reserved for emergency situations, currently monitoring the ship within the dust-wall.

"The three other robots are currently clearing dust from the outer corridors -- twenty seven hours remain at the current rate of progress before all dust is cleared.

"Crewman Eric is currently working on the final robot, but has filed a report that the robot has been modified at some point exclusively to work outside an atmosphere.  Its joints have all been damaged by the dust beyond repair, and Crewman Eric is attempting to locate replacement joints and pneumatics."

[Bjorn]

"So there ya go," Finn says with a shrug.  "Anyfing in particular you want me t' do in the meantime?"

[Ebiris]

"Not right now," Albert replies, deciding that sending a robot outside can wait until they've cleared all the first-crew-dust.  "I suggest you get some rest. It'll be a while before I can spare a robot to go out and investigate ahead of you."

[Bjorn]

"Not that tired," Finn says.  "I fink I'll go double-check the suits, make sure they're all ready to go, sort of fing, and then give Eric a hand wif fixin' that one bot."

She smiles a bit lopsidedly.  "Assumin' all of that meets wit' th' Cap'n's approval, of course."

[Ebiris]

"Permission granted," Albert nods rigidly.

[Brian]

Finn leaves the bridge, but almost the moment she does so, Hale says, "Captain, I have recieved notification from one of the maintainence bots that suggests the communications array has been."  Hale then paused, the first time in a while.  "Tampered with internally," Hale then spits out, as though there had been no break in speech.  "Until this internal linkup is repaired, the ship will be unable to access the communications array.  One portion of the damage is severed cabling between the central hull and the outer-central hull.  A repair bot is working on it currently.  The secondary portion will require your adjustment of the communications control panel itself."

Finn now goes to It's a Crummy Job, but....

[Ebiris]

"That's something I can do, at least," Albert notes, heading over to the comms station and bringing up a diagnostic.

[Brian]

It doesn't take much work to figure out what went on.  The communications panel was not smashed to pieces or otherwise destroyed, but someone had opened it up and disconnected every piece of hardware from the back of the board.  The majority of the devices are clearly labeled for where they go, and Albert is familiar with the rest from standard usage and maintainence.

But even after the ship lost gravity, everything sitting in the compartment beneath the panel seems to be oddly neatly laid out, not just scattered about.

[Ebiris]

Albert doesn't really pay attention to the perhaps odd neatness, blithely assuming a robot tidied it up or everything was held down magnetically in zero-g.

Putting everything back where it belongs with little effort, he checks over the system to ensure everything now works as it should.

[Brian]

After putting everything back in place, the comm panel actually works the same as it did before.  Of course, now it's actually getting no readings instead of assuming it is.  The bots have finished on the cable, and the diagnostics systems indicate that everything within the ship is working correctly.  It's the comm array externally that'll need to be checked out next.  From the readings that Albert can see, the comm array does have power currently, but isn't communicating with the ship.

[Ebiris]

Albert makes a note to have someone fix that once the ship stops and they've got some more people thawed out.

But now it looks like there's nothing for him to do... again. Twiddling his thumbs, he strolls around the bridge for a bit, whistling tunelessly, before settling in the captain's chair and attempting to adjust it to his posture.

[Brian]

The chair is potentially pretty comfortable, but the previous captain had it adjusted for someone who wanted to sit bolt upright at all times.

[Ebiris]

Albert sits in the chair for a while, growing steadily more bored. Being captain might mean something if he had more of an actual crew...

After a while, he stands up and goes looking for the nearest bed that isn't filled with 'dust' to have a nap in.

[Brian]

Albert and Kenny separately are woken by a broadcast from the PA system requesting their presence on the bridge.

Albert now moves to Day One.