Field Promotions

[Dracos]

Since he does have time and isn't a heartless fellow, he answers most of them politely to pass the time.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"The sensors don't look damaged," Kieran announces loudly, switching the subjects from his jibing of Albert as he reads the diagnostic report, "but it seems as though they're clogged.  It shouldn't be too hard to clean them, but . . . Hale?  Can you estimate roughly how much dust that would take to clog up the sensors?"

[Brian]

"An even coating would only need to be two centimeters deep across the surface of the sensory array to reduce effectiveness to the current level," Hale replies after a moment.  "Anything between two and five centimeters would have the same result, however."

[Bjorn]

Finn raises both eyebrows.  "I'm goin' out there to sweep?" she asks, half jokingly, half incredruously.   "Wot fun."

[Rezantis]

Kieran whistles softly, ignoring Finn's comment for the moment.

"Given the orientation and velocity of the ship when you came back online, and the density of the dust-cloud the ship had passed through, calculate the length of time it would have taken to accumulate two centimetres of dust."

[Brian]

Hale ponders this for a long time.  When he answers, a good five minutes later, he says, "The estimate is approximately fourteen months.  More accurate results pending a precise measurement of dust accumulation."

[Rezantis]

Kieran looks thoughtful, and tries to call up some diagnostics on the communications array.

"Ah, well.  They gave us everything else, so I'm quite sure brooms were included . . ."

[Brian]

The communications array is apparently currently packed with dust.  Someone must have been working on it when the accident happened.  The PPC module had burnt out, which they do from time to time.  They've got a life expectancy of 5 years, normally, so the timing is right for a replacement.  There's a number of replacement units on the ship, but according to Hale, one of them was left in the airlock, probably so the unit could be examined before any changes were made.

[Rezantis]

Kieran attempts to pull up some diagnostics on the maintenance bots, if he can, since he's going through all this anyway.

"Hale, who are you waking up in the next two cycles?"

[Brian]

Two of the maintainence bots are fine, puttering around the Promethius and making sure everything is okay.  Hale hasn't bothered sending them beyond the Prometheus because that section of the ship wasn't vital to the mission, and the dust that killed the other four bots is still out there.  Of the four Eidolon exterior bots, three of them are shut down due to dust.  Remote pickups can see them in the corridors, which are a good five centimeters thick with the (radioactive!) stuff.

The fourth is actually in perfect condition, and sitting idle.  It's currently in an airlock with the PPC unit.  According to Hale, that airlock has been manually sealed, however, and so this specific repair robot is trapped there.  No logs explain why this has been done.

When prompted, Hale offers the dosiers of the next ten crewmen to be unthawed.  Their profiles designate them as a pilot, a doctor, a biologist, a botanist, another EVA specialist (this one non-FTL), a navigator, another engineer, a communications operator (since Albert is now acting captain), a physicist, and a general computer specialist (non-AI).

[Rezantis]

Kieran checks what information he has access to - including cameras - to see if he can find out which side the airlock was sealed from.

[Brian]

Oddly enough, it appears to have been done from the ship side of the door.  There's no status on the external airlock door, even though it's currently pressurized.

That specific robot reports fixing a pressure leak -- one of the pressure seals had been blown at some point in the past.  It also reports taking damage at the same time, though it appears to be limited to the casing of the robot, as its motive and comm. systems are still operational.

After being knocked down when the seal was blown, the robot was able to apparently catch the PPC unit, and then repair the seal.  This process is most likely what disabled monitoring on the door, as those systems need to be reset by a human technician to verify that the robot's work was done correctly.  The robot's design makes it hard to knock over, though.  It's low to the ground, pretty boxy, and has eight telescoping legs (modeled after a spider).  When it's using these legs for tasks, the frame is able to mount itself temporarily onto the grilled floors, walls, and ceilings of the ship.

[Rezantis]

Kieran thinks for a moment, trying to remember back to the dinner.

"Kelly, isn't it?" he turns to the aforementioned, "Can you come and help me look at something?"

[Dracos]

"Hum?  Uh, sure." Kelly shook his head, closed what he was doing, and went over to see what that guy wanted.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Kieran taps on the console again as Kelly walks over, indicating the robot in the airlock.

"I'm trying to work out what happened to this robot," he says, looking slightly frustrated, "but it's descriptions aren't very helpful.  I'd like you to check the rod logic memory of the robot for me, it might be more specific."