You indicate to the others that you'll stay for now and Karoff directs the ship on a route toward the station. It makes sense to at least do a cursory inspection of the damage and make sure that at least life support will hold up. And of course there's the other issue of the alleged sabotage and personnel having been lost under circumstances still waiting to be confirmed. Leaving just two operatives to handle it all isn't ideal.

Of the station's eight arms, the docking bay is luckily on the side that's suffered the least damage. Karoff locks on without incident and the panels of the reinforced portal retract with a gentle whirring. Beyond, the station is dark and cold. You all file out and make your way out of the landing bay and down a hallway with the aid of flashlights. With what little power remains rerouted to life support, the portal to the central complex refuse to open. Attempts to contact Oswen on a short range channel fail, and so Hinsman finally gets the door moving with the aid of his gun; wiring the energy cell to the panel next to it, that is. At the jolt of power it snaps open with sudden speed, then begins to close again in slow motion and grinds to a halt about a third of the way. The three of you squeeze past and before long find yourselves in an open area, a kind of joint dining hall and exercise room with dead video screens lining the walls.

The kitchen area behind the dining hall is a disaster zone of empty plastic trays, overflowing trash bins and spoiled food. There's no sign of Matti although you do find her abandoned ice cream bucket. The three of you begin to search area by area. Although reluctant to split up, you do move a bit faster than the others and take to checking into rooms and around corners ahead of them.

A pool of vivid crimson against the polished grey tile is your first confirmation that something has gone wrong. You race forward to Matti Oswen's crumpled form and check her pulse, clamping another hand down on the stub of her severed arm. Lifting the woman from the ground and calling out to the others, you splash your way through the blood, tracking it behind you while more soaks into your uniform.

A medical station was one of the places the three of you had already searched, so you hasten to it and deposit her on a steel table, keeping your grip just above the wound while Hinsman activates the computer.

"This nursing AI was obsolete fifteen years ago," he grumbles, taking a protective suit from a persistently dinging open door and yanking it on over his clothes.

"Isn't that a bit of overkill?" Karoff asks, watching him.

Hinsman's response is muffled through the breathing filter. "It won't let me even proceed without it. This place was last used to quarantine evacuees exposed to Hunger, there's no such thing as overkill as far as the computer is concerned. Just be glad the whole station isn't set to self destruct the moment someone gets a paper cut." He pauses a moment to apply a tourniquet. "Now...Zee, you step back, it hates you too."

Karoff looks at you and snorts. "I imagine so. You look like you just left the scene of an axe murder."

You'd already moved away at Hinsman's order, and now you ruefully wipe you face, hoping to achieve a clean spot. Karoff's ensuing guffaw informs you you probably just made the situation worse.

"I'll go clean up the mess in the hall...and myself," you say, turning to go.

"Zee, wait, wait, Miss Oswen is going to need an arm transplant, don't you think?"

You blink at Karoff. "Are you serious?"

This just provokes more laughter.

Hinsman, who has been preoccupied with the soothing voice of the medical AI and the use of instruments taken out of little drawers that have been popping open in sequence, now shakes his head at the two of you as he changes to clean gloves. "I'm not that good a doctor, I'm afraid. Zee, you go on."

He snaps his fingers at Karoff and in the other hand produces an oversized needle, like a magician's trick. "But I will need a blood donor, and guess who's compatible?"

Already on your way out, you turn and get a glimpse of the pilot's grimace as the door slides shut between you.



Cleaning up is a tedious but straightforward affair. You scrub yourself down and change into a plain grey jumpsuit you find before returning to the scene of the accident and getting to work.

You find a mop and bucket

The door here opens to one of the storage arms of the station. It seems as likely a place as any to find cleaning supplies and so you slip through the door, carefully stepping over the severed limb and making your way down the dimly lit hall. It becomes obvious this is more of an area for discarded equipment waiting for repair or recycling and you pass numerous discarded fuel and energy tanks as well as other assorted clutter before you come to a cleaning machine parked in an alcove. The energy cell is low but even if it only does the job halfway it'll save you a lot of time.

As you're pulling it free, there's a clatter of metal and you see an energy canister was wedged behind it and is now rolling across the floor.

You pick it up

Like the others this canister is spent, cool to the touch and quite heavy. It's similar in size to a fire extinguisher, and since the larger energy cells can be volatile the shell is made with half an inch of steel and interior enamel coating for protection. What gets your attention about this one however is the dried blood and long strands of dark hair caught up on the outside of the sealing mechanism.

That's...unusual, and worth keeping in mind.

You don't want to disturb the others just yet since you doubt they've finished treating Matti Oswen, so you set the canister aside and leave the storage area, activating the cleaning machine to let the bristles and bubbles go to work on the drying blood while your mind rolls over just what may have happened here. Two maintenance workers dead and another seriously injured in circumstances that were odd to say the least. Just why had Matti been in such a hurry to close that door that she lost an arm over it? She hadn't struck you as an especially self motivated type the few minutes you'd seen her on the viewscreen.