1x1 with Taikunfoo

[Kipori]

(Totally fair, I can't wait till we can just go outside and not have to be consistently worried about who we are around or where we go. Can't say much will change for me since I am a hermit by nature, but it will be nice to have the option to go out again, even if I never take it haha. Work has been pretty great so far, everyone is super nice and seems to have taken to my humour quite well so far. My boss is a bit more strict than the last location but since I mostly work nights I don't see her as often. Sorry to hear about your pup. I hope its nothing super serious and can get treated sooner rather than later, poor thing is having a rough time.
Merry Christmas in advance, hope you have a good one, even if its a bit different than usual haha.)

Miles Walker
He had apparently assumed too soon that the Captain wouldn't have any further problems as minutes after he turned the panel back over to the man, he was being called back. Since he hadn't ventured far, wanting to stay near in case something went wrong, he was back at the Captain's side in a moment, a frown on his face. Miles would have to start giving the man lessons on how to use basic systems if this continued. Even if it didn't the second set of hands that knew basic overrides might be helpful. Mentally adding it to the list of engineering things he needed to teach the man, he shifted his focus back to the task at hand.
"You sure it's the right code?" He had to ask, glancing at the panel. "There isn't any reason it shouldn't work unless they changed the codes."
It wasn't often that codes were changed and that information didn't make it back to the higher-ups. In fact, usually, the higher-ups had to sign off on the code changes, but Miles was beginning to come to terms with the fact that nothing about the situation was normal. If they had changed the codes, then they were worried about a security breach, which made no sense but Miles shook that thought off for the time being. They could worry about the why later, for now, he just needed to get them access to the information that the Captain was after.
Since he had reset the Captain's code to get them into the bridge, he at least would have an easier time of getting around this problem then the last one. There was still a chance that the Captain had set it up so even he didn't have access to the material, but Miles couldn't see a reason where they would feel the need to lock the ship's logs up that tight. If that was the case, well they were going to have to head to the backups and hope that whoever had set up the firewalls here hadn't made it to the backups and done the same thing there.
A long string of numbers and symbols later, he was met with the same denied screen that he was sure the Captain had seen multiple times up to this point. The frown on Miles's face only grew at the screen but he didn't dare try to type the code again. There was a risk of a self-destruct system in place to wipe the logs after a certain number of failed attempts and while the idea was archaic, it was effective. Miles didn't feel like taking the risk.
Letting out a long sigh from his nose, he straightened back up and glanced over his shoulder. "No good, whoever changed the code did a full lockout. You're not going to get in from here." Frustration bled into his tone as he spoke, glaring back at the terminal before shaking the feeling off. Getting angry now would do them no good. "We either have to write the logs off as a lost cause or if Er- Mr. Henson found a safe route to engineering, head there."
Miles doubted the Captain would let them write the logs off. After all, that was the main thing they were here for after survivors and clearly, there were no survivors to be found. So the logs had to be recovered one way or another which meant getting to engineering and recovering the backups.

Zed Kassman
The continued delay was beginning to feel less like happenstance and more like active sabotage at this point. Every step of this mission had been problematic and Zed was finding it both annoying and a bit concerning. He wasn't superstitious, but even he had to admit that this whole thing felt strange. When he had signed on for this recovery crew, he had been told there would be a lot of unknowns and unforeseen complications on the ships they were sent out to, but this seemed extreme. From the strange body to the difficulties with the doors, and now the apparent lockdown of the ship's internal logs, everything just seemed a little off. Not to mention the odd footprints they had come across outside the door, those still made no logical sense in Zed's head and while he was trying not to think about them, his mind kept circling back to them in the silence of waiting for Mr. Walker to fix the newly developed problem. Only this time it seemed that even he couldn't solve the problem, the password they had to work with was outdated and the Engineer seemed hesitant to try anything more here in the bridge. Going all the way to engineering, which Zed assumed was far from the bridge like it was in their own ship, was not high on his to-do list and he almost opened his mouth to suggest he head back to the ship to wait for them but bit back the suggestion. While chances of finding a person were low, much too low to even warrant thinking about, Zed couldn't just leave the pair to move around the ship with their lacking medical training. No, he was going to have to stay with them and go to engineering, even if he didn't like it.

[taikunfoo]

(Hopefully work is still going well- I know you need some more time so no pressure on getting to your responses- I just noticed that I hadn't gotten around to this response so I'm doing it now! Have you made any new friends at work? I think we might have finally gotten his tummy problems taken care of - I know I've said that ~5 times before, but he hasn't thrown up in almost three weeks now and he's started drooling for his meals again. He did throw up once after he finished up his meds when my dad stepped on him, but I don't know if his stomach was unsettled or if he was scared or if he just has a nervous stomach now. Although I'm not sure where that stands now as the other day he he decided to get himself up on a 8ft retaining wall, and then when I tried to get him to turn around to come down the way he came he was like 'oh you want me to jump down? Are you sure? Okay!' Thankfully he was (mostly) okay, but scraped up his nose and lip, but didn't throw up afterwards.
The holidays were good, we normally only celebrate with my immediate family unit so there wasn't much of a change on our end. How about you?)

Captain Tubon
Tripp nodded to Mr. Walker's question- he was certain that the code was correct, and briefly referenced his mission files to confirm that yes, the code was correct.
"Yes, I'm positive that was the correct code." He said, sighing and trying to sound frustrated, when in reality his anxiety and worry about the mission ratcheted about three points higher. Those passwords were hard-coded into the system, and to his knowledge they couldn't be changed without causing serious damage to the system. While there had been folks who could have had the know-how, there were a number of different security measures - some known to the crew and others unknown, like the self-destruct that Mr. Walker had mentioned. The whole point of the codes were to give the military access to the ship if something happened to the crew. There had been resistance to the idea of having remote control over the ship, so they'd compromised by having the military enter their codes in person, although Tripp knew that they likely still had some kind of backdoor where they'd be able to gain remote access over the ship anyways.
There was no way that this could or should be happening.
Eric thankfully interrupted his churning thoughts with a route to engineering, and Tripp was eager to get underway.
"Let's not waste any time- Mr. Henson has sent us the quickest route to the computer core so we can download the data and get out of here." He said, moving quickly towards the entrance of the bridge. "It looks like we'll be heading through some common areas and past sickbay before reaching engineering.." His voice trailed off as he thought. "Dr. Kassman- Engineering is very close to sickbay, would you be comfortable sorting through their computers and seeing if there's anything on them, or perhaps anything you can glean from it? Perhaps any evidence of biohazards or trying to control an outbreak? I know from what we've seen here it isn't likely, but I'd be more comfortable if we could definitively check it off our list of things to consider." He said, talking as he walked, moving purposely with long strides down the hallway. He took in a general state of disarray as he moved- things were scattered or dropped on the floor, some of which had been stepped on after. All of this indicated that they had been caught by whatever this was in a hurry, so disease was very unlikely to be a factor in this at all. Still, it gave Dr. Kassman something to do other than standing around looking for the increasingly unlikely survivor. He reached the end of the habitation area, and came to a stop at an airlock similar to the one they'd entered before. Tripp stopped and turned, realizing that he'd used his nervous energy to walk quickly in order to achieve his objective, but had managed to leave Mr. Walker and Dr. Kassman behind in his haste. Tripp bit back a swear, knowing that he needed to keep an eye on them, as civilians weren't as used to the bulky and heavy suits they were wearing. Thankfully, they rounded the corner quickly, and Tripp got to working on opening the airlock. A quick peek through the window showed no bodies, but it looked like the next section ahead of them was open to the vacuum of space.
"Heads up, this next area looks like it's open to space- I'm not sure if gravity is still working over there, but watch for holes." He said.

Eric Henson
Eric worked to further refine the model of the ship against the schematics, narrowing down the different routes that the captain sent his way to two. One was quicker by about 8 minutes, with an increase in the mean hole size of the hull by 3%, which he deemed an acceptable risk. Still, he sent both routes along to the Captain- it wasn't his decision to make, plus if there was something wrong or a hallway was blocked with debris, they already had the alternate route at hand. When the Captain announced they would be taking the quicker route, Eric quickly started sorting through alternate routes in case the chosen route was blocked by something- no sense in them standing around waiting for him to figure out a way around when he could be doing it in advance. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he pulled up all of the hallway intersections between them and the computer core in engineering, mapping alternate routes along their anticipated path. He finished planning out the alternate routes from the route they were currently taking, and sent over the file to update their maps in case they needed to deviate from their path. He took a break to check in on the other program he'd thrown together to check the ship's recorded position against her digital logs. There was a small list of entries that needed his attention, which he combed through but eventually approved all of them as valid changes to the ship's course after corroborating them with other logs. With this done, he re-focused his attention on adding the holes that were visible in the hull to their map-if anything it would give them a heads up when they were approaching a hole in the floor, or wall where there wasn't any gravity.

[Kipori]

(Thank you for being patient with me, things have been sort of rough these last couple of weeks with school/work and everything else.
I’ve gotten to know a few of my coworkers pretty well but a lot of them are a good 10 or so years older than myself so it’s hard to relate to them too much. That being said, we get along and I enjoy their company so that’s better than nothing.
That’s awesome! I hope the problem is staying away and hasn’t made any comeback in the last couple of weeks. Sounds like you have your hands full with him even when he isn’t having stomach troubles haha.
The holidays were quiet which was sort of odd. We usually have our grandparents over for Christmas dinner and presents but we didn’t this year which was a bit odd. I can’t say I’m to upset since I don’t get along with them super well anyway so the quiet holidays were nice.)

Miles Walker
There was little more he could do with the terminal so Miles turned his back to it and instead looked to the Captain for new orders. The Captain was looking increasingly frustrated and Miles could empathize with that feeling. This entire mission was supposed to be straight forward in and out but was proving to be much more complicated than that. Whether due to the oversight or just lack of planning, Miles wasn’t sure and he wasn’t about to ask either, but he was unimpressed either way. The question about whether the pay was worth all of this lingered in the back of his mind but he was quick to shake it off in favour of focusing his attention on just getting them through this mission. After he could decide if he really wanted this for a career or not. Thinking about it now was pointless given he was in deep space on a ship barely holding together.
Shooting an assessing glance towards the doctor as the Captain moved off at a swift pace, he couldn’t help but voice the question in his head. “Are you alright with splitting up like that?”
The answer came back quick enough and Miles was forced to shrug in agreement even if he didn’t like it much. Splitting up in a ship like this, even if it was just over a short distance seemed like a bad idea but the Captain and Doctor were in agreement that it was the best path forward so he couldn’t argue. He was outnumbered and outranked by both of them after all.
With his concern voiced and dismisses, Miles joined Dr. Kassman in heading for where the Captain had rushed off to, relieved to see that he had waited for them at the airlock rather than pressing ahead and waiting for them farther off. When he heard that they were going to be entering an area that was possibly open to space and filled with holes, he couldn’t say he was thrilled and muttered curses under his breath as he waited for the Captain to get the airlock open and let them through.
“At least there isn’t any dead bodies this time.” He sighed, glancing into the open space with trepidation and clear displeasure. Any area that risked ejecting them into open space was far down on his list of places he wanted to be at any point during this mission.

Zed Kassman
As if reading his mind, the Captain mentioned the sickbay and Zed’s interest peeked a little. It sounded more interesting and up his alley than going to engineering did. He had gained a rough idea of what happened in engineering from Mr. Walker but Zed was under no delusion that he knew anything useful. So, he inclined his head in agreement and was about to follow after the Captain as he rushed off out of the Bridge only to pause momentarily when Mr. Walker directed a question his way.
“I won’t be of any use to you in engineering, best to make myself useful looking for clues in the sickbay computers as to what happened here.” The Captain's plan made perfect sense and his words seemed to be enough to reassure the Engineer, though he still looked disapproving of the plan as he shrugged and headed off in the direction the Captain had went.
With nothing else to do, Zed followed and they reached the Captain again after only a minute. They were at yet another airlock which the Captain was already working to get open for them. The risk of open space beyond the airlock was daunting and worrying but Zed assumed that none of the holes in the walls or floor which were popping up on his visor, work of the Pilot he assumed, seemed big enough to be of serious risk. As long as they were careful of course which Zed had every intention of being. He had seen the damage open space did and read about what it could do, the suits wouldn’t protect them from any of those hazards for very long if exposed.
“Let us hope there is gravity then, it will make this process much faster if we are able to walk rather than float.” It was also that he felt rather stupid floating through an area when he clearly didn’t have the training in order to do so. Zed also had to admit he was thankful that there didn't appear to be any more bodies for them to find, though it did bring up the question of where the people were and why that one body had been there in the first place. Add it to the ever-growing list of mysteries that needed to be solved about this ship and it's crew.

[taikunfoo]

(I'm glad you had a chance to enjoy a quiet holiday it's definitely weird with holidays and 'normal' events not happening, but there are a usually a couple of upsides. It's definitely tricky relating with and getting to know older coworkers at first, but it sounds like you're starting to settle in well! My dog actually had a couple of times he showed that he was nauseous, but he didn't throw up and it's been a little over a week since his last incident. I'm not sure what's going on or if he got some more bad bacteria into him (he decided to pick up both a mouse and a dead squirrel when my dad was keeping an eye on him a couple of weeks back).
I've been trying to think of more things to do with myself since there's nothing to do, and so far haven't come up with much other than technology-related things which I've been trying to minimize lately. I got some seeds from a plant exchange a while ago so I finally started those and have been keeping a better eye on my amaryllis seedlings lately. Have you had a chance to try anything new lately?

On a story-related note, should we start getting the movement alert before or after they split up? Was thinking more of after they split up, causing poor Tripp excess aggravation as now there's something between them and Zed, plus getting everyone back together in engineering.)

Captain Tubon
Tripp worked to cycle the airlock, opening the door as Mr. Walker and Dr. Kassman walked up. He mulled over the engineer's comment, eventually deciding to offer reassurance as he shut the airlock behind them.
"We'll be separated by about fifty feet, and if we need him or he needs us we'll be able to get to each other quickly." He said, checking his map as he walked to the other end of the airlock. Tripp tried to project confidence, even with all of the thoughts swirling around in his head. He paused a moment, hand on the handle of the airlock as he listened to the pilot's suggestion about the handrail, and nodded in agreement.
"That's a good suggestion, as soon as we get out clip yourself onto the railing." He said, his left hand already checking his patch kit secured to his chest. The hallway beyond was dark, and his helmet's lights flicked on automatically. Tripp couldn't see any bodies floating around, but there was one space further down the hall where he could see stars through a hole in the hull. He looked down to his left and found the hand rail, and immediately clipped himself in. Tripp waited for Mr. Walker and Dr. Kassman to come into the hallway behind him, and made sure to carefully check their clips to see that both of them were secure- he didn't want anyone drifting into a hole's sharp edges and getting a puncture in their suit. As he moved forwards, he heard a few small metallic pings, as if there was a rain of metal hail against his suit. Confused and mildly alarmed, Tripp used the handrail to stop himself, holding up a hand to Mr. Walker and Dr. Kassman.
"Hold up a moment." He said, looking around until his helmet's lights came to rest on a few small metallic spheres spiraling around each other, but hadn't quite stuck together yet. "Take a look at this, the metal liquified when the holes were punched in the hole." He said, holding his helmet's lights on the spiraling spheres for a few more moments before continuing forward. "They'll make some sounds on your suit's helmet but I don't think they're a danger to us, just try not to run into any larger than a golf ball." He said, figuring that it would be relatively easy to avoid those-the ones that had been pinging off of his helmet were just barely big enough to see, while the ones he'd had his lights on were about the size of small marbles. While it would be relatively easy to push the larger ones away, they still had a not-insignificant mass to them, given that they were solid metal. The last thing they needed was for someone to crack or make a hole in their helmet.

Eric Henson
Eric sensed the trepidation in Miles' voice and spoke up, hoping to at least quell his and the others fears.
"The holes in this section are on the smaller side, it's not ideal but according to our imaging scanners none of them is greater than 4 feet in diameter. You should be able to just stick out an arm or a leg to prevent yourself from floating out. That being said, I don't have any data on what the edges of the holes are like, they could be sharp and puncture your suit." He paused, pulling up a ship's schematic that listed some of the safety features. "If you look along the hallway, there should be a railing that will double as a anchor point if you want to clip yourself to it as you move through to be more secure." He said, at least giving them an option to increase their safety. There was, of course, the likely chance that the railing had been damaged at one or more points with all of the impacts that this section had, but at least it was something. The last thing they needed was someone getting a hole in his suit, although admittedly they had patch kits and a doctor literally on hand, so Eric hoped that the overall risk was low. He knew that the Captain had more experience than all of them put together and probably five times over with his service, so if there was anyone he'd want to be with on a spacewalk it'd be him. They did get some basic training in zero-g, but it was fairly cursory as they weren't really expected to get outside of the ship. Eric wondered if they should have more training on that - he likened it to having a scuba diver being taught how to doggie paddle before being thrown into the ocean and expected to work. Eric wondered that if he was to submit a suggestion if it would be taken seriously - it might have more weight coming from the Captain, Miles, or Dr. Kassman than himself as he wasn't the one out there, but it couldn't hurt, more paid training time at least.

[Kipori]

(I think I’m getting pretty settled yeah. I think one of my main issues is that I’m one of two guys in the department so it often feels like I’m the odd man out haha, but since I work with the same set group of people most weeks things have been getting more comfortable with time. I can at least joke around with most of them and not feel like i’m going to offend someone accidentally.
Glad to hear your dog is feeling better, or at least showing signs of improvement. Hopefully, things have stayed that way and not backslide at all? Not that he seems to be helping the situation by picking up dead things but what can you do, dogs are dogs.
I can’t say I’ve tried anything new but I’ve been working on getting back into drawing again with some success. I got a new program on my tablet which has been a pain to learn, I used a free one for 2 years so switching is weird, but it’s been a nice distraction and I’m pretty happy with the results I’ve managed to get so far.

I like the idea of getting the alerts after they split up, if only to cause Tripp more stress haha. He clearly won’t be stressed enough if they are all still together and there are movement alerts after all.)

Miles Walker
Between the Captain’s assurance that they wouldn’t be separated by a great distance and Eric’s insistence that the holes in the ship were rather small, Miles felt slightly more at ease with the entire plan. He still didn’t like it and would rather they abandon this mission altogether on the grounds of safety concerns, but knew better than to voice it again. His stance was clear already.
Besides, the airlock was open now and the Captain was already moving through the door so Miles had little choice but to follow after the Doctor, bringing up the rear of their group. Clipping onto the railing and giving it an experimental tug to check the connection, he was ready to move forward when they seemed to come to a stop again at the Captain’s signal. The hall was dark and Miles didn’t want to even get started on what could cause them to stop so suddenly when they had barely moved forward. Luckily it proved to not be a body but instead liquified metal, likely parts of the walls which had been blown out. Not particularly dangerous as far as Miles knew but the heads up was nice since it could be rather startling to run into something floating around like that.
“Better than something sharp and pointy floating around.” He commented. There wasn’t much chance of them running into one fast enough for it to cause damage but knowing their luck so far, that might just happen so Miles made sure to keep his head up and light scanning the area, noting the reflection that bounced off the metal as they moved. With the tether, moving seemed to be easier and they were making better time than they had in the last zero-g area. While they had moved through that space without any injury or issue, it had taken longer since it was clear both he and the Doctor had less training in zero-g than they should have for this mission. Enough to move around, but not enough to get around effectively like they were now. Still, relying on tethers would only get them so far and Miles was sure the railing would run out eventually so he tried his best to focus on the fundamentals of moving in zero-g even while tethered. It was how he had been taught initially after all, so it wasn’t too different, just less controlled and he was pretty distracted by the occasional ting of metal against his suit.

Zed Kassman
Hearing that they would be entering zero-g again had a scowl appearing on Zed’s face but he reluctantly followed the Captain through the airlock. The first time had been more than enough for him but apparently, he was getting around two whether he wanted it or not. At least this time they had the ability to tether down to a railing that had remained secured to the wall despite the damage done. Taking up the middle position in their line as he had before, Zed clipped his tether to the railing, glancing to the Captain for confirmation that he had secured it correctly when he checked them. With the captain okay, he felt more comfortable moving through the space despite the lack of gravity. Not being able to float far from the railing likely had something to do with that but Zed was grateful regardless. He wasn’t in the business of making a fool of himself after all. Stopping proved to be easier as well with the railing there to aid him when the Captain called for them to stop suddenly. At first Zed through the man had spotted about body further down the corridor, something his light couldn’t yet reach but that line of thought was quickly cut off when the Captain’s light caught the metal floating above them. Zed frowned at the sight of the liquified metal, not liking it one bit but neither the Captain or Engineer seemed particularly concerned by this development. Maybe liquified metal floating around was normal in space? Zed wouldn’t know but if they weren’t worried then he saw no reason to be particularly concerned either.
That was until the Captain mentioned avoiding ones bigger than a golf ball, which lead him to silently question why there were balls of liquified metal that big just free-floating around. He chided himself because of course, it could happen, it was zero-gravity after all, anything could float around freely if it felt so inclined.
“Lovely,” He muttered under his breath, huffing at the stupidity of his train of thought. He began to follow the Captain again when the man started to move again, though at a slower pace now that he was on the lookout for liquified metal floating to close to his head. Patch kits or not, Zed was not going to be the one who wrecked his suit first if he could help it.

[taikunfoo]

(Ah gotchya! I'm glad that you're settling in well and making friends How are classes going for you?

Thankfully he's feeling better - no more signs of nausea lately and I've been giving him treats fine and he's also almost completely switched over to his regular food. His poop is looking a lot better too so that's a relief, although it smells worse. As much as that stinks (literally), I'm just glad that he's doing better now. I definitely get that he's going to do dog things, but it's also on me to make sure he doesn't get into anything that's bad for him. My dad is a little more lax about it, which is frustrating as he was literally sick for ~8 months with this and it's likely he picked it up from munching on something dead. On the plus side we know what it is now and to keep an eye out for it and how to treat it, but my dad also let him eat half a dead rabbit and then he immediately got into a dead mouse recently so I'm still a bit frustrated with that.

If you don't mind, I'd love to see what you've been working on! What program are you using now?)

Captain Tubon
Tripp couldn't get over the unnerving sense of something being very off about the whole situation. He wasn't one to disregard his gut feelings, but right now there was nothing he could do to direct himself towards, other than completing the mission. There was no enemy to fight, there was no objective to take over, he could only slowly float along and mind his crew and keep a wary eye out for danger. He was distracted from his thoughts as he passed one of the larger gaps in the hull, and grabbed the safety railing to bring himself to a stop. In the distance he could see the Corvus through the hull, a bit bigger than the background stars and recognizable by her flashing green starboard light. He allowed himself a small smile before continuing on, listening to the metallic pings as fine spheres of metal bounced off of his helmet and suit. Tripp did find a spot ahead where the guardrail had been bisected by something, and he stopped a few feet away, pushing himself firmly to the floor before activating the magnets in his boots to hold them there.
"Coming up we have a damaged and broken railing. When you get to me you're going to unclip from the railing and I can act as your point of contact before you clip back in again on the other side." He said, voice even - it was a fairly simple maneuver as the gap was only about three feet wide, but the last thing they needed was someone getting a hole poked in their suit from drifting off into the sharp edge of a hole. While he could probably.... Tripp quickly put a stop to that line of thinking- while this situation was something he'd trained for, if he started moving at his version of an acceptable speed and bumped into something and got a hole in his suit, he'd be the only one capable of patching it as he would have left his crew behind. If he had one of his military buddies with him, it'd be another story - someone to watch your back and patch you up if you couldn't. Over the years there had been incredible improvements to their suits, as more than a few people had been lost when on their own and unable to bend or twist their suit to get at the hole to patch it. Most people still couldn't get that spot in the center of their back either, hence the need for a partner, especially if they were otherwise incapacitated. Tripp made himself available to Dr. Kassman and Mr. Walker as they worked their way across the gap in the handrail, making sure to double check that they were clipped in properly on the other side before following after them. They should be coming up on sickbay soon, hopefully the doctor would be able to officially rule out any kind of disease known to the crew.

Eric Henson
With the routing to engineering task done and sent to the crew's suit computers, they'd be able to get to engineering regardless of any deviations. He took a look at a few additional highlighted logs from his search program, eventually okaying them as valid course corrections and changes, then returned his attention to the mapping of the ship. They already had one route to engineering, however, they'd need another route back to the shuttle. The way they'd taken to get to engineering was relatively clear with the exception of the hallway that was open to space they were currently in, but they had done that detour to get to the bridge which ultimately would be unnecessary on their return trip to the shuttle. Eric went to work setting up a program to map out their return route, prioritizing the areas they knew were clear from hazards over areas that were likely to have something going on, like holes in the ship. He also flagged the area where they'd come across the damaged handrail - if they were in a hurry that would be something they'd likely overlook.
"I'm working on getting your return route to the shuttle set up." He said, giving a quick update to the Captain to let him know what he was working on. "I also have a program running to try and better identify when they changed course and headed back for home. So far their course changes have been valid, as corroborated against the logs of individual ship systems." He added.

[Kipori]

(Well I haven't failed anything yet so I guess that's a good sign. I'm getting a bit worried about my final projects since I'm not as far along as I would like to be and I am having some issues with groupmates for one of them but hopefully things work out. Or if they don't I've done well enough in other areas of the course to make up for it haha.
Glad to hear he is at least feeling better, even if there are still some problems with him eating dead things and your dad being too lax with him. Knowing what the problem is and what to watch for is good though, should keep it from getting as bad again. Fingers crossed.
I use procreate mainly, though it's weird compared to the free program I was using initially. I like it a lot more since it has more options for clipping masks and alpha locking but I'm still working on getting the sensitivity and all that to where I want it. I'll send a DM with some of the work I've done tho!)

Miles Walker
Nearly bumping into Dr. Kassman when the doctor stopped rather suddenly, or at least it felt sudden but Miles had been distracted by his own thoughts so it was possible he just failed to notice early enough, Miles let out a slight huff. He bit back the follow up comment however when the Captain spoke up over the com and explained why they had stopped. He couldn't really get annoyed about them having to stop because of a giant hole in the wall and a broken railing stalling their progress. They had been moving smoothly enough up to that point that it stood to reason something would cause them trouble sooner rather than later. That was just how this mission was shaping up after all.
At least this was something he had some experience with, having to do similar maneuvers in his zero-gravity training but he had a feeling the real thing was a bit different than a full controlled event. Still, he didn't have a great deal of confidence in the manuvour going smoothly as the Doctor unclipped himself to begin the maneuver. Out of the three, if something was going to go wrong it was going to be with the Doctor so unconsciously, Miles found himself holding his breath as the Doctor moved across the gap, relying on the Captain's grip to get across safely. It took longer than Miles was used to, but the older man seemed to get across with no obvious issues and reclipped without complaint or comment.
After waiting a minute to make sure the Doctor was safely secure on the other side and wouldn't suddenly float away or be in danger for a few minutes, Miles took a deep breath and moved forward.
"I so want a raise after this." He commented dryly to the Captain as he unclipped himself, tightening his grip on the Captain's offered hand. It was disconcerting to be free-floating near a gap in the hull but as the Captain had said, it was only about 3 feet wide and stretching himself out was enough to reach across the gap and get his hand around the railing on the other side. The Doctor had shifted back a bit to give him space to move over which was appreciated since he overestimated how much force he would need when pulling himself across, floating a bit farther than he wanted before clipping himself back to the railing. An experimental tug made him feel safe enough to turn and offer a hand out to the Captain, knowing it was probably redundant since of all of them he would have the most experience with this sort of thing but feeling it was the right thing to do anyway.
"Need a hand or are you good?" He asked, head slightly cocked and waiting. He wouldn't be surprised if the man said he was fine, nor would he take it personally but the Captain had helped them and since he was the one closest to the gap, it seemed fair to offer.

Zed Kassman
Hearing he would have to unclip from the railing had Zed frowning once again, not happy to hear his safety line was about to be removed. It wouldn't be for long and it wasn't a particularly dangerous gap but he didn't like it. Relying on another to keep him from floating out into space was not high on his list of things to so but given they had to cross the gap to get to the sickbay and further along to engineering, it was unavoidable. More so since he was the first required to cross the gap given where he was in their lineup and the fact that the Captain was going to control their crossing. Well, better to get it over with before he found a way to second guess himself into a mental breakdown. Gritting his teeth and ignoring the alarm bells in his mind as he unclipped himself, he took the Captain's offer of guidance and began to cross the gap. Now in the gap, he was able to see out into open space and he had to admit it was quite a sight. Not one he wanted to see for longer than necessary, however, so he didn't allow himself to get distracted by the sight of stars and the Corvus in the distance, instead of reaching for the undamaged railing on the other side of the gap and dragging himself over. The moment he had both hands and his entire body on the other side of the gap, he clipped himself back on and let out a long sigh of relief. He prayed there would be no more gap crossing required before reaching the sickbay. After that, he wasn't worried, he figured between the Captain and Engineer they would be fine crossing any gaps they came across, but he was less sure of his own ability.
Looking down the hall, he moved down the railing while the Engineer was crossing, mostly to try and see if he could catch sight of the sickbay sign or any indication of them being near it. The map showed they were just a little ways off, apparently just enough to not be able to see with the range on his headlamp. Looking back at the others, he had to push back, even more, to avoid being hit by the Engineer who came over with more speed than expected, though no crash actually occurred thanks to the ENgineer grabbing the railing with both hands and stopping himself. Shaking his head, Zed looked back down the hall, not liking the way his stomach flipped looking back at the gap. Apparently, he could handle crossing it, but looking back at it was to much.

[taikunfoo]

(Hopefully you've made some progress with the final projects! Are they coming along well now or are you still having some issues with your groupmates? It's always frustrating when groupmates don't pull their share of the work. Do you have any interesting final projects or are they the usual challenging papers/presentations?

He did start up some not-so-great panting the other day but admittedly he was stressed, and no vomiting so something we're definitely keeping an eye on.

I've heard procreate is pretty good for free software! How do you like drawing on the iPad? I use a tablet but it doesn't have a screen - it was quite the adjustment to not look at what I was drawing and look at the screen instead.)

Captain Tubon
Tripp struggled not to smile at the engineer's comment - a comeback that would have been extremely appropriate for his military crewmates wouldn't fly here, so he simply kept his mouth shut until he could speak without laughing.
"I'll be sure to make a note of your request." He said, then wondering if they'd actually be able to get some kind of compensation for their efforts - their mission out here had been highly unusual, and Tripp was sure that there were more than a few violations present with sending the crew out on a mission before the mandatory one-week shakedown cruise. Still, if a ship appearing on the edge of the solar system when it was supposed to be almost thirty light years away wasn't an emergency, then he wasn't sure what would exactly constitute one. He could definitely submit a tactful mention of a safety concern about not being given enough time to get to know the ship and her crew before being sent out, maybe make a mention of directing the civilian crew towards the proper OSHA resources. Tripp knew that anything with 'OSHA' in it would get flagged, so at the very least someone would read it, and given the military it would generate about two weeks' worth of paperwork across five different desks for them to do anything about it - whether it was supplementary training when they got back to Jupiter station or some extra cash for their pockets, Tripp knew that the civilians had the bargaining power here. As he was already serving, he could submit the paperwork so it wouldn't happen the next time around but that was about it.
When Mr. Walker offered to help, Tripp paused a moment before accepting. He reached out and grabbed his outstretched hand before disengaging the magnetic soles of his boots, and pulled himself over to the railing. He secured his carabiner to it with a click that he felt through his gloves rather than heard, and thanked Mr. Walker. While he didn't need his help, he did value the teambuilding aspect of it, getting used to relying on each other as they were literally all they had out here. An amusing thought drifted to the front of his mind - one of the things he and his friends had often done was play a zero-g version of football/soccer. With enough time in space, anyone was willing to try just about anything, and they literally had a doctor on board if anyone got hurt. The trick would be keeping his zero-g prowess under wraps until then-he could suggest the game but he couldn't push it. While the others knew that he'd trained in zero-g, Tripp wondered if they just thought that his training was an extension of the basic zero-g maneuvers they'd done as civilians to get certified for spaceflight. In reality the military training was a completely different beast - not only had they lived in zero-g for as long as it was physically safe to do so while maintaining their strength and bone density, but they'd also ran mock combat operations which had a completely different set of tricks than what his crew would have learned in the civilian courses. While the crew got the basic how to orient yourself and what to do if you drift into the center of a space and how to get out of it, Tripp had learned just about everything and anything related to living and working in zero-g, including how to win an arm-wrestling contest which was a much greater challenge than it was with normal gravity.

Eric Henson
With his programs up and running, Eric could take a few moments to sit back and actually review some of the results his programs were spitting out at him, rather than reacting to them. So far it had seemed like everything was normal for the ship - there'd been a few minor mechanical mishaps that had been readily solved by the crew's experienced engineers, a few course corrections to avoid debris or to better angle the ship to minimize radiation exposure, but no dramatic course changes and the instruments all agreed with each other, so none of the logs had been tampered with so far. He took some time to sort through a few of the more complicated results, glancing between the map indicating where everyone was on the ship and his work. Still, despite his efforts at corroborating the logs with the course corrections, he couldn't find any instances of the ship turning around at they were almost at the halfway point.
"Hey guys, heads up you're coming up on the infirmary, first door on the left, and then a few hundred feet further at the end of the hall is engineering." He said, noting that they were quickly coming up on them.

[Kipori]

(I definitely did haha. I somehow managed to get a glowing mark on a PowerPoint presentation I felt I did horribly on. Even got told I should go into public speaking because I have the voice for it which...was unexpected haha. My groupmates were a continuing issue but we somehow managed to get everything in on time without ever really talking to each other. Not sure how it worked but we managed and got pretty decent grades all around. Despite feeling like I did badly, the PowerPoint was my favourite to work on. It was a neuropsychology presentation and I decided to look at blindness and how the brain changes to compensate for the loss of vision or other visual deficits. It was really cool to learn how the brain can adapt and other systems can highjack the still functioning parts of the visual system for their own use. Like the auditory system will use the connections the visual system has (as long as they aren't damaged) to allow some blind individuals to maintain their internal visualization skills which they can then use for spatial mapping! Sorry, after history psychology is the one thing that can make me ramble haha. Other than that I just had to write a 20 page paper on British decolonization in Egypt which wasn't too bad, just a bit too political for my tastes.
Poor guy, well at least the vomiting didn't show up again. Not much you can do I guess short of keeping a close eye on him. Hope he's doing alright!
I prefer the iPad to a drawing tablet I think. I tried a friend's Wacom tablet when I was thinking of getting a proper drawing tablet for myself but I couldn't get used to the disconnect between hand and eyes I felt. I'm sure with time I would have been able to get used to it but the iPad works well enough for me. I do miss traditional art sometimes but then try it and remember I can't just erase mistakes haha.)

Miles Walker
It was honestly a bit of a surprise when the Captain accepted his hand. He had expected a polite decline from the man but quickly recovered from his surprise and grinned at the man. He was under no delusion that the Captain had needed the help, but it was nice for him to accept it anyways.
"Gotta help each other out, right?" He said when the Captain thanked him, a teasing lilt to his voice. The thanks have been unnecessary but the Captain had always been one for sticking to formalities. Miles got to wondering if the man was just like that normally or would ease up with time and familiarity. They were all basically strangers after all so Miles couldn't really fault him for being a bit stiff and awkward at times. They surely hadn't made it easy for him so far, what with the ongoing feud, Eric and Dr. Kassman seemed to have. Miles still had no idea what had started that and he made a mental note to ask Eric about it the next time he had the chance. There was surely a story there.
They started to move again, though not getting very far before Eric came over the radio and let them know that the infirmary was just ahead on their left. Dr. Kassman seemed to perk up a bit at that, probably happy to have something to do. His purpose for coming along had been proven moot after all.
"Try not to poke yourself with anything sharp!" He called after the doctor as he broke off from the group, heading for the first door on the left as Eric had said. Miles didn't see any immediate sign indicating it was the infirmary but trusted Eric to get it right. With the damage around them, there was every chance any signage has been torn off.
"And then there were two." He commented, glancing to the Captain. "We sure it's safe to leave him by himself?"

Zed Kassman
The infirmary came up much sooner than he thought it would have. Why it was on the same level as engineering raised some questions but maybe that was normal ship design. Zed had after all only been on a handful of ships during his lifetime. It was entirely possible this was normal. It still struck him as odd but he kept that to himself. They reached the door after a few more minutes. The door was nothing special and stuck half-open, the frame appearing to be warped in a way that kept it from opening or closing more. Not that there was power in the area to power the door anyways. He was lucky enough that it was open more than enough for him to slip through if his judgement was to be believed.
"I will radio if I find anything of note." He hummed, unclipping his tether as he grabbed the raised portion of the door frame. There was just enough of a lip for him to hold onto. "I will remain here until you finish in engineering."
Zed was sure he could join them in engineering if he found nothing worthwhile but decided that it was best if he stayed put rather than moving around the corridor without a spotter. He was not that confident in his ability and felt it was better safe than sorry. Not something he would admit out loud in as many words but internally he was more than willing to admit his doubts.
Fighting an eye roll at the Engineers's comment, Zed pulled himself to the opening and after checking to make sure there were no sharp edges that could puncture his suit, slipped through. As he expected, there was more than enough room for him to comfortably fit through.

[taikunfoo]

(Congrats! It's always a nice feeling when you get good feedback/a good grade on something you thought you did poorly on. Enjoy the compliment, that's great! I found that confidence and momentum are key when giving presentations, as I got further on with my studies it gradually became less of a big deal for me so I stopped worrying about the presentations less and became more focused on trying to remember everything I had to say haha. That's really cool about the brain - I've heard previously that it's really amazing and has the capability to rewire parts of itself (like re-learning how to do things after a stroke) but I never thought about how that would impact someone who lost their sight, thanks for sharing that with me! I bet folks who are blind have a lot better spatial navigation sense than we do.
Unfortunately he did throw up the other day, but otherwise seems to be doing well. He's been doing the usual spring 'grazing' on the fresh grass so I hope it was just that, but it's a wait and see game again. Worst comes to worst we'll give him another dewormer, and if that doesn't work then we'll try those antiacids + antibiotics again. My dad has been pretty good lately about not letting him catch and kill any squirrels/chipmunks so progress on that front!
I definitely feel the disconnect part of the tablet vs seeing what you're drawing - it took a while for me to get over that and even now I'm debating for the next tablet getting a screen one. If only they weren't so expensive! For some reason I always find that the sketches look so much better than the final lines - do you get that as well? Do you work with pencils or pens for traditional art?)

Captain Tubon
Tripp mused over Mr. Walkers' words for a few moments before replying with an earnest "We really do - it's just us out here and we need to minimize the chance that something can go wrong where we can." He paused, contemplating his next words as they propelled themselves down the hallway through another cloud of small metallic spheres. "It's the little things that add up - complacency, forgetfulness, small errors here and there that can snowball and cause a huge problem. Remind me to tell you the story about the time where the plumbing backed up on the first ship I was serving on while the crew had a norovirus, although that might be a good one for after dinner." Tripp said with a grimace, talking about that brought some extremely unpleasant images and sensations that came along with the memories. He'd been one of the arguably lucky ones with only about half of his cabinmates catching the bug at the same time during its' peak, but excess bodily fluids and not enough facilities made for a extremely unpleasant shakedown cruise. While the whole incident had at first been chalked up as new crew space sickness, once seasoned officers started getting sick some eyebrows started to raise, but supposedly no one had done much until the First Officer had been sick in the Captain's lounge, although there were wild variations on the severity and nature of his illness that Tripp wasn't sure which story to believe was true, if any.
Tripp's attention returned to the corridor as Mr. Walker spoke up again, and nodded in response to his question.
"At this point I'm about as comfortable as I can be with this situation - we haven't encountered anyone yet and I doubt that we will at this point in time. We'll be a few hundred feet away from each other so we can reach each other quickly if something goes wrong." He said, not mentioning the general unease he still had with this whole situation, but still wanting to keep his zero-g maneuvers for a future zero-gravity football/soccer game under wraps, although Tripp wondered if the zero-gravity football/soccer would be best played back on Jupiter Station. They'd at least have access to a full medical facility and more than one doctor in case Dr. Kassman was the one who got hurt during a game, rather than be running around in space a few days away from the other nearest medical professional.
As the doctor maneuvered his way through the door Tripp gave it a careful inspection - it appeared warped and stuck in place, albeit with a large enough opening to fit through. "To be on the safe side if you finish up before we do in Engineering please wait in the hallway for us, while things are going well right now if we need to move in a hurry to get back to the shuttle this would be a chokepoint for time and possible suit damage." He noted before continuing on with the Mr. Walker towards engineering. Hopefully they'd be able to access the computers quickly - a quick glance at his clock showed that they still had just over an hour left to get what data they could before having to turn around and head back to the shuttle to make their rendezvous with the Corvus.

Eric Henson
Eric kept reviewing the records at the calculated halfway point, but nothing seemed to make sense! Everything was lining up - the sensors, the internal dampeners and artificial gravity, course corrections, and logs were all in agreement that the ship had kept on flying and hadn't turned around. Maybe the halfway point had been miscalculated? That was pretty unlikely, but not impossible. Eric pressed ahead with the analysis and hoped that he could identify the turn-around point soon - if he couldn't he wasn't sure what to say for an explanation as to how the ship wound back up in the Sol system. Aliens? Wormholes? Time anomaly? Black hole? He certainly didn't know. He sat at his station, rubbing his temples as he tried to come up with a reasonable explanation and failed. Hopefully some of these records that popped up on his screen for a manual review would indicate the turn around point. He did note the time clock counting down just past an hour, and spoke up on the comns as a reminder - part of his responsibility was 'playing secretary' as the rest of the pilots called it while the rest of the crew was off the ship doing their duty.
"Heads up we're just under a hour until you all have to head back to the shuttle. This is a mandatory turn around time and no, there is no flexibility on this timing. Please work with the expectation that if you need to remove things like computer cores or memory banks that you need to start on this before the time is up or they get left behind." He said. There was some flexibility in the turn-around time as it was calculated to give them extra to lug around heavy equipment and to account for slower speeds or mishaps they encountered on the way back, but you couldn't let the crew know that or they'd start taking advantage.