ISS Yoi-no-Myōjō
Exterior Access Hatch, Docking Ring, Deck MD
Yontō-kikanshi Erik Beornson kept his breathing steady as the inner airlock cycled behind him. Although this was by no means his first extra-vehicular repair job, he had never lost his respect for just how easily space would kill you if you didn't give it the respect it deserved. So, while the airlock chugged and hummed it's way through it's auto-sequencing, the Fourth Engineer minkan performed his own final check, making sure that his
orchidgear nanomaterial toolbag was firmly tethered to his suit. Satisfied, Erik let out a last, deep breath as the outer airlock began to cycle open.
Stepping out onto the hull of a spaceborne ship was always something of an experience and the Motoyoshi's Evenstar didn't fail to deliver. Especially given his viewpoint from the inside edge of the inner side of the docking ring. He could look 'up' and see the majestic hull of the modified Tanya-class Expeditionary Heavy Cruiser spread out above him like some majestic metal sea creature. After taking a moment to appreciate the view, Erik rolled back on his ankles and felt his
gravity boots lock down on the plating below his suited feet. As was always advisable, he rolled his ankles both ways to unlock and lock them a few more times to make sure the boots were in good working condition before he released his tether from the outer airlock.
It took several minutes to carefully navigate his way to the target co-ordinates, a compartment only a short distance from where the Misha-Class Explorer Ship, The Winter Plum, was docked to the Evenstar. Unfortunately Erik didn't have the best angle from which to properly appreciate the Misha's attractive lines, so instead focused himself on finding out why one of the docking ring compartments was not registering as airtight. Usually this was the kind of job for a repair crew of ratings, but in all the departure-related chaos it had slipped down the priority list until Erik had spotted it while looking for a task to do. Given he'd only just completed a tour in damage control, the minkan was more than qualified to complete the job.
Arriving at the correct co-ordinates, the engineer could immediately spot the problem. Some corner-cutting son of a Rixxikor and a Gravlat had not only poorly welded a patch onto the hull, but they'd also obviously not bothered to seal the underlying space if the signs of outgassing were anything to go by. Erik restrained a sigh and made a mental note to try and find out exactly whom was responsible for such a shoddy piece of work and feed them to the Chief Engineer. This wasn't going to be quite as easy as he'd hoped. Fortunately, the Evenstar had departed Port Jiyuu with a full complement of the latest tools and equipment to come out of Yugumo and several of them could currently be found in his toolbag.
The particular tool he needed now though was actually strapped to his back. The
multipurpose plasma tool was so much more convenient than some of the handheld units Erik had had to make do with in the past. Kneeling and locking his gravity boots down, the minkan used the volumetric controls to set the appropriate gas mixture for the plasma he needed to work with Yamataium and activated the tool. Carefully, he got to work slicing through the shoddily welded plate until it came free. Quickly deactivating the plasma tool, Erik retrieved a
graviton clamp anchor from his toolbag and within a matter of moments, had the offending panel secured to the hull of the docking ring via anchor's graviton generators. If you could believe the specs on them, which Erik had learned to do since coming to work for Yugumo, that anchor would hold out longer than his life support would.
With the offending plate removed, the engineer could see inside the cavity it had supposedly been covering. Well, whatever the original damage had been, the interior lining had a crack in it. Nothing major, but enough to allow the small pressure leak that had sent him out here in the first place. As it happened, one of the recent developments by Yugumo happened to be a fancy hull-sealing nanogel and fortunately Erik had an applicator gun with a cartridge of
Starshield Gel already loaded into it. Honestly, the damage control specialist in him loved the stuff - even if he hadn't had much chance to use it yet, where he had it had cut significant time off of the repair job. Just pump the gel in, ensure your crack is filled, flick the switch and let the magic happen. Simple enough you could trust any greenhorn to use it correctly. Probably. Maybe - after all he'd seen greenie's do some real dumb things over the years.
With a soft snort and shake of his head, Erik leaned forward and got to work.
