It's a crummy job, but....

[Brian]

Wending her way through the dust-lined corridors, Finn passes at least one spider-like robot, sunk into a mount of dust a good ten centimeters high, that's just sitting idle, presumably jammed with dust.

Eric's path led him away from the airlock rather abruptly, though since there's still atmosphere (for some reason -- wouldn't the dust be easier to deal with if there were no atmosphere?) sound does carry, and the occasional thump can be heard.

The comm. system relays perfectly, though at the moment Finn is only connected to Hale.  After a few minutes of this, Finn reaches the 'locked' airlock door.  The door itself appears intact, except that someone has used a crowbar to pry off the manual over-ride wheel, and then jammed that same crowbar into the control panel.  It looks to have penetrated the tin plate with quite a bit of force....

[Bjorn]

Bending to examine the mess more closely, Finn frowns.  "Well, this is a heap o' shit," she grumbles.  "Hale, log this.  Ship's Engineer Finn Ezekiel examined the airlock, found the override wheel'd been torn off, crowbar shove t'rough the controls.  Prognosis for repairs, is, uh,"

Her voice trails off temporarily, as she tries to determine the full extent of the damage, and whether it can be bypassed.

[Brian]

The control panel might be reparable, but it's easier and faster to replace it, at least right away.  This will require a stop at the workshop, where Eric presumably just went -- he might still be there, and could be reached on the comm. system.

The really hard part is going to be repairing the wheel.  The machine shops might be up to it, but it's going to be a pain, and welding it in place without fouling the treads immediatly near it is going to be worse.

[Bjorn]

"Prognosis," Finn pronounces, "is that it's possible, but not fun.  Hale, make sure our brave new Cap'n hears about t'is soonish, right?  I'm gonna see what shape the workshop's in."

[Brian]

"Acknowledged," Hale replies, as Finn forges through the dust once more.  It's easy enough to locate the workshop proper from all the swearing that Eric is doing.

A massive load of pipes has been thrown ... or dropped ... or maybe they just bumped around while gravity was off.  Either way, they lie around haphazardly in front of the door to the workshop.  They look like pretty heavy affairs, and Eric is busily trying to stack them in the hall so he can get through the door.

But as Finn enters the hallway, the lights brighten, at least.

[Bjorn]

"Since I c'n see what yer doin'," Finn pipes up in a cheery voice now, "ya wanna hand?"

[Brian]

Eric grunts, and looks up.  "Yeah," he says after a second.  "What the....  What on Congress happened here, anyway?"

[Bjorn]

"Donno," Finn says, moving around to get a grip on one of the pipes.  "But somebody buggared the airlock.  I'd say more'n a star happened here."

[Brian]

"I'll say," Eric mutters darkly.  "And it--"

Whatever else he says is cut off, as Hale notifies Finn: "The Captain requests that you repair the airlock, Crewman Finn."

When he's done, Eric is finished speaking, face invisible behind the reflective mask.

[Bjorn]

"Sorry," Finn says, "didn't catch that.  Hale was tellin' me that our great'n'fearless leader is offici'ly givin' me permission to be fixin' the airlock wot if don't get fixed will prob'ly kill us all.  What were you sayin'?"

[Brian]

Eric snorts.  "Just that this mess doesn't appear to be accidental, either.  I suppose that the pipes may have simply been unmoored when the ship stopped accelerating, but that kind of carelessness seems unlikely."

[Bjorn]

"I's possible," Finn says.  "I mean, they prob'ly weren't expectin' to be vaporized by a new star, sort of fing.  On the other hand, last night or sixteen years ago, dependin' on how you count it, you were tryin' t' tell me somefing about First Crew.  Seems like it'd be a good time to talk about it, ya know?"

[Brian]

Eric sighs, and breaks from shifting pipes around for a moment.  His face is invisible behind his mask, but he sounds remorseful as he says, "I had said an unkind thing.  Only that while they were competent at their duties, they were not ... stellar in the arenas of teamwork.  I wish I had been more vocal about this while it might have ... perhaps ... prevented...."  He trails off and shrugs, almost a comical gesture in the suit, and then starts moving pipes again.

[Bjorn]

"Yeah, well, there's some funny fings about you sayin' that," Finn points out, setting a pipe aside.  "First, o' course, is that yer a geologist, an' not, as I generally unnerstand the situation, the sort of person that high muckety-mucks tend to listen to.

"An' the second fing is that wot we're lookin' at seems to be everyone dyin' wif a good bit o' help to get to that point, because I should let you know, I've used many crowbars and seen many airlocks, but I ain't never seen a crowbar get itself stuck in an airlock door wivvout a whole lotta help, right?"

[Brian]

"I would not exactly call it help," Eric says dryly.  "But point taken."  After shoving aside a few more pipes, the entrance to the workshop is largely cleared, though the floor looks to be strewn with debris and dust.  "Now if only we knew what had happened here...."