| 911 at Airlock D-3 |
| Summary: | Depressed and feeling useless, Ulixes decides to take out the trash he considers himself to be. |
| Date: | 28 Dec 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | Exhausted Utility |
| Players: |
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| Around and in Airlock D-3 |
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| An airlock is an airlock, yo. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #305 |
Ulixes has been barely moving at all save to get the a very occasional meal. He mostly just lies in bed, stares off into space, or sleeps. That makes it a rather strange thing that he's walking down the corridor, head bowed slightly and gait a little bit uneasy - he hasn't been on his feet much for a while. Reaching a seemingly meaningless hatch in the wall, he squints a little and slides his fingers under it to pop it free. Placing the cover carefully on the floor, he stands back up and reaches in to toy with the wiring. A moment later, the airlock hatch next to him hisses open and he pulls a small stretch of wire neatly in two - the visible controls for the airlock immediately becoming inert. That done, he moves about and steps into the airlock itself.
After the most recent Cylon assault, Engineering has been working more overtime than usual. Harried and hurried as the snipes may be, something like a hatch cover on the floor doesn't go unnoticed for very long. A young Crewman named Barnes is the one to make the discovery. Retrieving the cover to pop it back in place, there is no way she misses the damaged wiring. Looking around, though, she can't find who might've been working on the unit. For a moment, perplexity trumps all. Then comes a more proactive curiosity that prompts her to take a closer look at the panel and its contents.
The wiring within the panel is repairable, but it looks as though it may take a little time - whoever was toying with it rerouted the controls to another panel nearby. In fact, that same person now closes the airlock with a loud hiss. Inside the now-sealed airlock, Ulixes takes a moment to turn about on the spot and investigate his surroundings.
Barnes knows enough to know /that/ isn't supposed to happen. "What the— Hey!" Too late. The palm of one gloved hand bangs against viewport of the now sealed hatch. "Hey! You're not supposed to be in there!" Bam! Bam! "HEY!" So not good. "Shit." Beat. "Shitshitshit." And she's off to summon a damage control team and quite possibly some MPs.
Ulixes watches Barnes go, barely aware of her presence by the way he casually glances sidelong towards the viewport. He doesn't immediately seek to do what he came here to do. Instead, he kind of sits down on the floor and looks thoughtful as he stares at the wall.
Getting on the horn, the young Crewman calls out, "Attention! Damage Control team and security report to airlock D-3! I say again: DC and MPs to airlock D-3!"
Gack. Being on duty can stink sometimes. Sofia is one of the damage control team. Wires and electricity are definitely part of her thing. She's in her on duty greens, toolkit about her waist clinking loudly. It takes her a few minutes to make it down with the others, several fumbling steps. Actually, it takes them all a few minutes. She's one of the snipes along, though. "Barnes!" Sofia chirps. "What's going on-" Though she might be beaten to it by whomever is in charge.
The closest MPs are going to respond to the call, therefore it's just a matter of moments before there's the heavy clunk of boots hot-footing it down the corridor in their black battle gear with weapons at the ready but not yet drawn. Private Adams and Private McCoy are the ones that report, drawing up to the Airlock with one splitting off to look at the viewport and the other searching out Barnes to get the siterep.
To see Ulixes walking down the corridor in a haze may have been unusual. To see Greje Karthasi walking down the corridor in a haze is nigh unto a commonplace. Sometimes being in motion helps her think, you see. And so, elbows in toward one another, forearms making a cradle for the spine of a book held open with clasping fingers up at the tops of the pages, she reads a few lines, then looks off into the seam where wall meets ceiling, lips moving in a pensive moment. How strange it is when, in one of these interludes, the ceiling speaks back, startling her into some proximity with reality as she spins her back to the wall, letting room for the small herd of people who subsequently go hurrying past. Airlock D-3. Her eyes scour the corridor for purchase on some item that would let her know where she is. Finally, she just follows timidly on in the wake of the MPs who had gone past. "I say," she remarks, unbearably polite and meek. "What's happened?"
The good thing about an airlock is that it's very quiet. And despite all the commotion outside, Ulixes is enjoying the blissful, total silence that comes along with being sealed up the way he is. He's still seated on the floor for the moment, in profile to the viewport out to the rest of the ship, and he seems to be reciting something to himself … or singing. Whatever he's doing, he's paying precious little attention to the goings on outside.
"Wolfe!" Yeah, Barnes is relieved to get some back-up. Doubly so when she sees the MPs. "Sirs." Sitrep? Right. "Someone re-routed the circuitry so the airlock won't open." Bad, yes. What makes it a full-blown incident is, "A guy's trapped inside. I don't know if /he/ did it or someone else locked him in there, but he wasn't freaking out, so I think it was his doing." And since it's better to be safe than sorry, she's being safe. Rushing back to the scene of the incident in-progress, she quickly peeks through the viewport. "What's he doing?" Other than sitting on the ground. "He looks like he's talking to himself." At which point, she steps away to let someone else take a gander.
McCoy looks to the panel now rendered useless if the wire he's curled a finger around is any indication. When all else fails, you beat on it, and that's what the young private does. His hand balls up in a fist and he starts beating on the viewport. "Oy! Release the hatch from the inside. THE INSIDE." And then if that isn't clear in the muffled booth that Ulixes is trapped in, he provides hand gestures. Adams looks at Sofia and her obvious outfit. "You. Fix it!" Followed by more insistent pointing.
Karthasi doesn't go to gawk, leaving the front row seats to the people who actually might be able to do something to help. For her part, she closes her book, leaving a finger inserted in between the pages she'd been regarding. But even someone as generally oblivious as she is begins to piece together that there is someone inside the airlock, either by accident or by choice. From her position at the back of the group, whether observed or not, she does speak up in her usual soft-spoken manner. "Perhaps it would be prudent to contact the deck. They may be able to send a Raptor to the outside of the hatchway in case the outer door were to open somehow." She's too discreet to mention who may or may not be the one opening it.
"Hey!" Sofia nods. She blinks at McCoy and nods. She doesn't answer verbally, though fear walks across her face and sneaks a peek. "Ulixes!" Gack! Her eyes go wide. Fear streaks across. "What the heck are you doing-" She's obviously worried about the Sagittarian man now. Huff. Nevermind, there's work to do. She pulls her gloves on and starts peering at the wires and panel. "Ugh." She's going to try to make heads or tails, but there's a sinking feeling in her gut about it all.
It isn't the noise from outside that attracts Ulixes' attention, but the vision of people waving and shouting from beyond the viewport - a sight he catches out of the corner of his eye. He sits there for a moment, regarding the people outside as though they might not even be there, and gives an 'OK' sign with his hands. That done, he stands up and moves over to the hatch on the inside of the airlock and begins to pry it open.
Adams snaps a quick, "Yes sir." To the suggestion from the quiet Greje about getting on the wireless about a Raptor being deployed to the outside of the airlock. Any idea is a good idea as far as he's concerned. McCoy practically has his nose against the glass so he can follow the movement of Ulixes inside. "Hey! He's doing it!" The man presuming that Shortcut is attempting to fix the problem from the inside even as Sofia works on it from the outside.
"You know him?" Barnes asks Sofia, even though the answer is rather obvious. "What department is he in?" Based on what the pilot is wearing, it's not evident. At what McCoy relays, she's decidedly bewildered. "He is?" Judging by her expression, that doesn't make sense. Then back to her fellow snipe, "How's it coming along?"
Quinn was, technically, off duty. Hopefully, someone will call the on duty LSO and send a Raptor around to the hatch — just in case — but this is a small ship and word got around to Maggie, 'Mumsie' to some, pretty damn fast. She had served on the Victory with the man and has been visiting his silent self in sickbay on a regular basis. Hell, it was probably one of the regulars from sickbay that told her. She's rushed to the airlock as fast as a nearly 8 month pregnant, middle aged woman can, just in her sweats and breathless by the time she gets to the scene. "Tobias?" she calls down the hall, towards the crowd, terrified that the worst has already happened.
Someone listened to her. How about that? Greje has sufficient presence of bearing not to look surprised, at least. She tucks the book under her arm and takes a timid half-step closer to the scene, only to step back again to make room for the very pregnant woman barreling through. Seeing her short of breath, she steps to, and offers her an arm as an assistance to her making it the rest of the way. "They are working on it," she tells the other woman meekly.
"Yeah, Air wing," Sofia nods. She looks worried and her eyes go wide. "Doing it?" A confused look. "It's - coming. I think we're gonna need new wires," Sofia remarks with a frown. "I just visited him the other day…" There's worry. And here comes Quinn too. She looks over and then back. "Do we have some here? I might," she rustles through. Searching.
"Yeah, I think he's trying to open it from the inside," reports back McCoy, who's starting to look a little unsettled about someone possibly dying from an accidental airlocking. Oh the paperwork this'll cause. Meanwhile, Adams is a pace down the hall, relaying the issue to the interim LSO.
Never mind that Barnes isn't part of 3M and Sofia is. The former offers to the latter, "I'll run down to supply and see if we have any." That said, she dashes off.
Ulixes crouches down slightly to look inside the hatch he's got open, adjusting something as the power moves from the internal airlock door to the one on the outside. He nods his head, a solemn expression on his face as he turns back around and moves towards the viewport. He ducks his head slightly, looking through the transparent section at the people outside.
The LSO gets the information smoothly; Maggie's fill in really is good at his job. She trained him well. A few moments later, there is a Raptor loading up for launch with one of the on-call crews. It'll take about five minutes, but a bird is on its way. Meanwhile, Maggie herself leans just a touch against the priest as she crosses closer to the glass. Her eyes are wide with worry, throat tightening a bit as her mind spills over the worst possibilities. She waves gently at Tobias, forcing a faint smile to her lips. "Toby! We'll get you out, just wait a bit!" She makes quiet, calming motions with her free hand.
McCoy sees the little light go green across the way, "Oh hell no! Hey! HEY!" Bang bang go his fists on the hatch again, though they are useless tools against the thick metal. "The crazy frakker is going to vent himself!"
Karthasi escorts Quinn to the inner airlock door, letting herself function more or less as a two-legged walking stick, arms twinging just slightly as McCoy beats upon the hatch in such close quarters. "Ah—!" comes a mild cry from her as events proceed in a manner most unsatisfactory, but she stifles any further expression in favor of letting the woman on her arm endeavor to calm the man of her acquaintance.
"Yeah," Sofia nods as Barnes goes to see if there's any of that wire. She tries to peek over at Ulixes. Her eyes close at McCoy's announcement. She hisses softly through her teeth, worry visible as she squints and fidgets. C'mon, she peers worriedly down the hallway.
Unfortunately, supply is on an entirely different floor, which means Barnes won't return for a wee bit. In the meanwhile, another member of the DC team suggests, "Why don't we just cut the power so he can't vent himself? We can switch it back on once we've handled the repairs." Turning to Quinn, the Specialist says, "You seem to know him. See if you can talk him out of it. I can bring you over to one of the comms."
Ulixes shakes his head at Quinn through the viewport, getting at least a general idea of what she is saying from reading her lips and hand gestures. He makes another 'OK' gesture with his hand, still shaking his head. Apparently, he isn't familiar enough with airlocks to know where the comm unit is.
Quinn gives Greje's hand a tight, warmer squeeze, both of thanks and fear for the entire mess of the situation. Her worst fears have suddenly been confirmed as others mention that he might be trying to vent himself. Maggie steps up, letting go of the priestess unless the woman wants to come, and heading in the direction of the specialist. "Please… make it fast… I want to talk to him." Her eyes never leave Ulixes', or she tries not at least, as she reaches for the comm as she's directed.
Karthasi is left behind, but not for long, some magnetic force causing her to drift closer to Quinn as the woman walks away, her own eyes fixed just past the window at the man beyond, the strange disjunction of the shaking head and the OK sign. She must realize that he can't hear her, or else any words she might have for him have stuck in her throat in the moment.
McCoy shakes his head in a 'no'. Because no things aren't okay. Adams pads back up, "They need a few minutes yet on the bird," he huffs.
Sofia is fearful as she waits, but she is quiet. She tries not to show it lest she upset any of the others. Instead, she does her best to, um, set out her tools and make sure they're good and ready.
"This way, Captain," leads the Specialist, likely meaning Quinn and not Karthasi. Then, to the others, he adds, "I'll see if I can get someone to do an override."
Ulixes looks sidelong and spots the comm unit when Quinn gestures in that direction, reaching out to push a button. A moment later, his voice comes crackling through the speaker on the other side, "Hi." Not exactly a great explanation of why he's locked himself in the airlock, but thems the breaks.
Quinn scoops up that comm the moment she's shown to it, her fingertips shaking, just a touch, but she keeps her voice steady. She gives him a sad, sweet smile, her other hand reaching up to splay against the glass as she looks in towards him. "Toby… I don't know how or why this happened, but I want you to stay with me. Alright? We didn't get through all this shite… everything… Just for it to go down like this. Please?" She calls out gently.
With engineering on the panel and the LSO trying to talk the man down through the intercom, there is little else the two MPs McCoy and Adams can do but stand back and simply wait. "When they get him out of there, we take him into custody," McCoy quietly tells his counterpart.
Karthasi is right in the same boat as McCoy and Adams. Metaphorical boat, anyhow. She finally steps back again, letting the woman talk to her companion, and, lifting her chin, she turns to look to the MPs, speaking to them in a low voice. "Will you take him to Medical, first? They should have a look at him and make sure he hasn't done anything else detrimental to himself. And he ought to be assigned a member of the psych staff to look to him," she points out, voice edging on fretful.
"C'mon Toby, don't do this," Sofia looks worried, glancing over as she waits. Her expression is quietly fearful, but at least she's ready when the wires get here. For now, the snipe isn't talking much. Just glancing.
One engineer to do a systems override on airlock D-3, check. Ximena comes in not long after the call came down, The Chair kitted out with her full complement of gadgets and widgets, all the goodies an engineer needs to save the day. Sort of. "Crewman, what's the status on your repair?" Not that Ximena stops to go and inspect Sofia's work. Instead, she's heading for the forward access panel, looking, most likely, to get elbows deep in some wiring of her own. "Marines," she offers in passing.
Ulixes shakes his head, peering through the viewport, "Hey, no. No, no, no. I planned all this out. Don't get all worried about it. Not gonna make a mess, the wiring is all fixable - or it should be, I'm no snipe. Don't worry." He cranes his neck, looking through the viewport past Quinn and offering Sofia a smile before turning his attention back to the LSO.
The Priestess might not exactly be actively speaking, but Maggie's eyes flicker back towards Greje, certainly having the sick hope that the woman is still there. For better or for worse. She doesn't dare ask for final prayers, but there is a sick fear to her eyes that says she's thinking it as she looks the woman over for a heartbeat and then gazes back towards Ulixes. "Planned what out? Why would you do this? … Gods, Toby, please… I know, I -know- you don't feel right… that you've felt like this wasn't… life wasn't … That there wasn't any hope. But please, please… Let us show you there is. I promise you… Promise you with every breath I have, we do have a chance here. You have to fight for it, though. We've fought so long… since the Victory. Don't give up now. Please."
Private McCoy looks to Greje, "Yes, sir. We'll transport him to medical where he'll remain restrained under guard until such a time as a doctor clears him and his CO decides if he's to face charges for tampering with military property and reckless endangerment." McCoy and Adams both look to Ximena. "Chief."
Meanwhile, several floors away, Crewman Barnes has finally arrived at supply and is restlessly waiting for her requisition order to be filled.
A wince at the charges mentioned. Sofia looks to McCoy. "So far so good, we're just waiting for Barnes to get back with the new wires. It's a crude job, but he bashed 'em good," Sofia admits. She's mostly quiet, barely smiling at all at Xim. A blink at Ulixes, she smiles weakly. Though it's tinged with sadness. "We're really going to miss him if he does this…" She's hoping he doesn't.
"As long as he's got oxygen in there, we can wait on the wires, if we have to." Supply is supply, and notoriously slow, "As long as he can't vent himself into space, he can sit it out until we get him out." It's really not that Ximena is unfeeling, despite the fact that most everyone in the room is a stranger to her, with the exception of her engineering snipes. But once a Marine, always a Marine, and Marines get it done. Do the job. Think and feel after. Once Ximena tracks down the proper panel, she adjusts The Chair, using the hydraulics to lift herself to what would once have been her normal height. That done, a screwdriver comes out and she sets to work.
Karthasi's stoic features are colored with a somewhat sickly sympathy as the Private mentions bringing up charges. "He needs help, not an inquisition," she points out, with a modicum more zest than is her wont, but still with the proper cadence of a Caprican Academic. But there's no sense arguing the case with McCoy, is there? Other people decide that sort of thing. In the midst of this she sadly misses the fact that Quinn's looking for her aid.
Ulixes doesn't seem all that depressed. In fact, he seems like he's in his usual good spirits - if not a bit subdued. The fact that some of the people on the other side of the glass are upset does give him pause, though, and his brow furrows, "I already thought about it. It's not that I don't think you guys'll find somewhere to rebuild one day or anything like that. Just … I can't be part of it. I figured it out. And even if they manage to get me out of here, it's not like I'll ever be flying again after this. They'll probably just lock me in the brig again."
The lack of emotion behind the glass only makes things worse. Maggie's fingertips tighten against that pane, the very tips of her hands white and bloodless she's pressing so hard. She swallows tightly against the painful lump in her throat, "…Tobias… please. You can fly again, you just need help. Not the brig. I promise you that. I will do -everything- in my -power-… to make certain you're flying again. When you're ready. When you're thinking clearly. You're not thinking clearly right now! Just sit, relax and wait. We'll get you out of there soon." She blinks against some moisture in her eyes, not wanting to cry in front of him but not really able to stop herself either.
The pair of marines fall silent, looking rather stoic and detached as they cross their arms over their chests in almost a synchronized maneuver.
A nod. "Well, we're kinda worried he's gonna pry them open," Sofia admits. She seems a bit tense, obviously worried. She takes a deep breath and watches Ximena, doing her best to keep out of the way. She fidgets.
The soft whirring of an electric screwdriver is all the answer that comes from Ximena's quarter, as she works at removing the access panel housing the wiring that controls most of, well, everything in this section of the hangar bay. Once the panel's unlatched, the Chief tugs it off, lowering it, and herself back to the floor, before she's back up to the required height. A datapad with a lead wire for the panel's access port replaces the screwdriver. "With what? A crowbar and the strength of Hercules? If we were talking about the doors to the freight elevator, maybe. But that airlock is graded to withstand a lot more damage than human hands can do."
Ulixes points past Quinn at the marines and shakes his head, "I know what they're here for, and it's not to braid my hair and talk about boys." The pilot shakes his head, stepping away from the door and moving over towards the panel he's opened inside the airlock. The comm unit is still on, but he's no longer talking face to face anymore. He reaches in and begins to look at the wires, "It'll be quick. Quickest thing I could think of."
Quinn shakes her head almost violently, her eyes flickering back to the snipes for another moment, desperate for them to have the solution -now-. She gazes back to Ulixes again, "They're just here to make certain you don't hurt yourself! Please, Toby, they're not going to lock you away forever… I promise… I bet my career on you, they're just here to make certain we can help you get better… Please…" Her voice crackles with a tear that does finally spill free. "Look at me. Talk to me. You don't want to do this… "
Well, now it's just a matter of racing against the clock to see who's the better engineer. The pilot, or the Chief. The lead for the datapad is plugged in, and the program booted up. Thumbscan and fingerprint ID to access the system, before Ximena begins to scroll through on the search for the one that will lock out the airlock, without doing unnecessary damage to life support or the surrounding hangar bays. Wouldn't do much good to keep the man from spacing himself, only to have him die of asphyxiation.
It's like trying to talk to a brick wall, anyhow, at this point, and so Greje turns, her own arms anxiously crossing her chest, hugging her book to herself as if it were a life raft in the middle of a rapid river.
"Come on, come on, come on…" Success! Barnes /finally/ gets her hands on the required wires. Now it's just a matter of hauling ass back to the airlock. Between Point A and Point B, however, are a few flights of stairs.
The Chief has two things enormously on her side. The first, is that she has the blueprints and schematics for the wiring system in hand, as it were, so finding the right wires isn't all that difficult. The second, is that she's familiar with the ways in which the wiring in the ship is both labeled and interconnected. Pull blue, rewire green to orange, and life support will be unaffected. Bridge purple with blue with 2-stripes and the power from the door is cut off, the electricity routed out and back into the system. There's a brief flicker of the lighting inside the bay as blue with 2-stripes is bridged back to blue with no stripes but red hashes to reroute lighting as well. Effectively, all of the controls for the electrical system has been routed out of the panel Ulixes is hacking away at and replaced by the overrides in Ximena's. "This would have been a bit easier if we could have pumped something into the air vents to knock him out." But joking aside, "Now we wait him out."
Sofia blinks at Xim, somewhere between impressed and surprised. "I see. That would be easier I guess," She concedes and looks over to the marines. Then back over. For now, she just kind of quietly waits, frowning.
Ulixes toys with the wires for a little longer before he realizes what has happened and his arms fall down to his sides, shaking his head and looking defeated, "You can't let me go, can you? Just have to keep me around despite the fact that I'm not doing anything for anybody. Heaven forbid I do /anything/ that might be good for other people. Keep me good and useless, hm? Harmless idiot who can make us chuckle or make us feel good about ourselves because as bad as things get, we don't have it as bad as him." And then, like a light switch going off in his head, he flies off the handle. He lunges at the viewport, slamming himself bodily against it as though he can't feel any pain. He slams his fists repeatedly against the transparent panel, so hard that eventually he begins to leave blood behind where they have been landing. He kicks and punches and thrashes against the immovable hatch, shouting and screaming the whole time in his native, Sagittarian tongue.
"Tobias! It's not like that! Please… Gods…" And then he starts flinging himself against the viewport and Maggie nearly drops the wireless. She's trying not to cry, really, but controlling her own emotions hasn't been the strongest suit of Quinn's lately. "Stop, Toby. Just stop it." She states firmly into the wireless, not screaming or yelling an order, but trying to be commanding. Summoning the woman who was his direct superior officer for so many years up from her own heart.
Karthasi stands as if stricken by some of the things that are coming across the comms from inside of the airlock. But finally, as Quinn seems to be losing it, herself, she moves back to the woman's side, reaching a timid set of fingers for the comm mic, if Quinn will hand it to her. "Tobias?" she asks, a shield of calm over her voice as she tries to get his attention away from his massacre of his hands.
The problem with juryrigging is that you really can't always just fix it and forget it. Especially not when you're trying to keep someone inside a room meant more to let people out. "He's got it bad?" There's a certain wryness to Ximena's tone, light, barely noticeable, before she falls back to doing the job at hand. "We'll need to inform the flight control team that this bay will be inoperable until we made sure that he hasn't done any permanent damage or compromised any of the safety systems inside."
Ulixes continues to slam his fists against the viewport, alternating between that and the comm unit where the voices are coming out. He's become unhinged, it seems, but as calmer tones come through into the otherwise silent airlock he begins to calm down a little. He retreats back and away from the hatch leading inside, turning about and beginning to pace back and forth on the opposite side of the airlock.
During the attempted talking it out and the subsequent freak-out, Barnes is busy traversing the stairwell. Running down the hallway, she waves the wires in all their glory. "I got 'em!"
Quinn is clearly totally useless. She shakily sets down the wireless, having done no good what so ever. A few uncertain steps are taken backwards, arms folded across the small indentation between breasts and belly, half hugging herself as she watches the disaster in progress.
Karthasi takes up the wireless as Quinn sets it down. Okay, Greje. Now, what? She clears her throat, once, and then opens up the comm line again. "Tobias, can you hear me?" she asks him, voice monotone and quite polite. "If you can hear me, nod your head." Because nothing calms a man down like a good game of Simon Says.
Ulixes frowns, snapping over his shoulder slightly at Karthasi, "I hear you." He continues to pace back and forth, occasionally lashing out at the airlock around him but otherwise non-violent for the time being.
Sofia pauses. She smiles as Barnes waves the wires. "Hey! Awesome, thanks!" She beams at her fellow crewman, obviously grateful. "Here, let's um, get started. You got this one?" She offers to Barnes, willing to split the work since sitting still is likely a chore by now.
With immediate danger out of the way, at least the sort that would lead him to instant death, Ximena turns to begin a partial diagnostic of the damage that was done to the airlock panel, doing what she can from her position near her access panel, a glance turning to Barnes as she returns, "All power has been rerouted out of the interior wiring, you'll need to do the repairs blind, before I feed power back into the system." It's like a pop quiz! Repairs from memory!
Quinn is remaining off to the side, listening to the Priestess and the desperate man inside the airlock. She's barely moving now otherwise.
The chief is here? Great! The power has been re-rerouted? Awesome! Barnes is being told she'll have to help make blind electrical repairs? Doh! Handing off the wires, she sputters, "B-but I'm M&R…" Electrical is so not her thing.
"Okay, that's good," Greje encourages the man behind the door. "You're with the Air Wing here aboardship," she tells him, rather than asks him, before going on to ask for his confirmation: "Is that right?" Keep talking.
Ulixes pauses a moment to glare across the airlock at the viewport, features creasing into a frown, "Not for long." He continues to pace.
Karthasi swallows, once, at the reply, but she doesn't let it phase outwardly over the comms. "Tell me what you do with the Air Wing. What sort of ship do you fly?" she goes on to ask, coming up to the very hatchway, standing not an inch away from it as she continues to speak in that droning professorial tone so apt to put students in the back of the lecture hall to sleep.
"Oh - er? No, I got it. it was just -" Sofia was trying to be helpful and failing, much like a walrus at gymnastics. She will carefully take the wires, and start to work then. Sofia looks between the others. "That's okay, I got it. I was just - um, since you brought 'em-" She goes quiet as Ximena offers a diagnosis. Oh gods. Well. Memory, don't fail her now.
And still the marines stand by, shifting occasionally as their impatience grows.
"Raptor," Ulixes answers flatly, as though he doesn't like answering the questions at all but is doing so anyway. He pauses in his pacing for a moment, looking down at the floor.
"Not today you're not." That is Ximena's only answer to Barnes, as the woman tries to play hot potato with the electrical wiring. "As an M&E, you're expected to be knowledgeable in the all of the fundamentals of all of the other engineering disciplines, because more than any of the others, your department will have the most overlap. And when they're not around, you'll need to learn to do for yourself. Watch Sofia. See how she replaces what's been damaged, try to figure out why she's doing what she's doing and why in that order. If you have questions, ask." Hey, the raptor pilot isn't going anywhere at the moment, Ximena might as well do her job, which includes instructing her people.
"Aye, aye, Chief," Barnes replies like a good Crewman. Her sense of dread doesn't abate, though. Looking over Sofia's shoulder to watch the other snipe at work, the question she does ask doesn't pertain to the repairs. "Did anyone contact that guy's CO?" Squadron Leader or CAG, it doesn't make much difference to her as it's all part of the pilot's chain of command.
At the suggestion of calling the CAG, now that the man's occupation becomes clear, Adams is quick to move again. "I'll get the major on the horn." Marine seems to be another word for receptionist tonight.
"And how many times a day do you go out on patrol in the Raptor, Tobias?" Greje keeps asking the questions. If she's trying to make a point, she's taking her time in getting there. Maybe she just wants to keep him hinged to reality. "What does your work day look like?"
Ulixes frowns further, apparently something Greje said has worked him up, "Zero. And my work day looks like the inside of my quarters." He turns back about, moving towards the viewport once again, "Why don't you all just do yourselves a favor and open the airlock?"
Karthasi looks aside to Quinn with a silent query riding at her eyebrows as she hits that nerve again. But she doesn't stop to ask Quinn what's been going on with Tobias. Not when Tobias himself is right here to answer her questions. "What happened, Tobias? Were you injured? Did you get in trouble?" she asks.
Quinn isn't really sure what to say. She doesn't want Ulixes to hear her talking about him, wouldn't that just make it worse? She just shakes her head slightly at the woman's questions, lingering near by for whatever useless support she can be.
With the repair well underway, Ximena returns to her panel, setting her own attention to the task of wiring the door to open without allowing Ulixes any control of, well, anything, from the inside of the bay. Raptor pilots, always making things tricky. "Let me know if you run into any snags."
"It's okay, this is how-" She's, at least, a polite co-worker. She tilts her head. "I think so," she replies. Sofia holds the wires so Barnes can see them. "And I think so," she explains. A little nose wrinkle. She's concentrating though, keeping a piece of wire or two in her offhand as she needs. "So far so good," she smiles over to Xim. "I hope he comes out okay."
Ulixes shakes his head, still angry although now he's back at the viewport, "No. I got in trouble. They took away my flight status … and I don't blame them. I'm not much use to anybody. Which is why I'm here in the first place!" He slams his fists on the viewport once again, even though they're already a bloody pulp, "They're just gonna drag me out of here and tell me I can't fly again … "
"What did you get in trouble for, Tobias?" No, Greje's not leaving him alone on this point. "What happened? Tell me." For all her voice is calm and gentle, there's something about that last that sounds to be more than a suggestion.
Quinn calls in the background. "Tobias, you -can- fly again. You just have to work for it. We'll get you back in the craft, but you have to be willing to fight to fly… not just give up. Please…" Someone should probably drag the pregnant woman out of there before she says anything else stupid.
Ulixes waves a hand dismissively at the viewport, "I … I don't even remember. Got drunk. Made a ruckus in the mess. Doesn't matter now." He frowns, apparently not willing to hear that he's going to fly again.
Ximena works her way through the panel, taking her time. Slow and steady doesn't always win the race, but it at least gets you most of the way, "I'm ready to power up the panel as soon as you've completed the repairs, Sofia." Mostly the conversation that doesn't involve engineering has really gone in one ear and out the other.
Karthasi looks aside to Quinn, then back into the isolation chamber Tobias has made for himself. "That doesn't sound like all of that much. There are few crimes which cannot be expiated with proper service and devotion." There, she's talking like a priest. "You only have to accept responsibility for your actions and step up to find what you must do to make them right. Nobody here wants to lose you, Tobias. Nobody here can afford to."
Sofia is working quickly, the tip of her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. "Almost… there!" She's got it. "See, that part-" She explains to Barnes the finishing touch. "It should be good to carry a current now," she offers over to Ximena, grateful for the distraction of work.
"Um… ohhhhkay…" Barnes may or may not actually get it, but she's studiously been observing, at least.
Quinn takes that look from Karthasi and does actually get it to truly shut up this time. And she does.
Ulixes continues to frown for the time being, although he doesn't answer. He's also not pounding on every solid surface in the airlock, so that's a good thing as well. All he can do now is wait, although he moves close to the viewport to gain a better look of the person talking him down off the ledge so to speak.
As soon as Ximena gets the all clear, she goes about the business of sending power back into the panel Sofia's just repaired. The sooner the raptor pilot is out, the sooner he can be taken into custody, medical or otherwise.
Karthasi looked at Quinn because she was listening to her, not because she wanted her to be quiet. And she does so again as Quinn suddenly falls silent again, wondering where she'd gotten to, only to turn back and stumble a half-step back to have found herself suddenly face-to-face with the self-condemned, her mouth opening, but no voice issuing from therein for the long moment it takes her to remember to bring the comm back up to her mouth. "Tobias. This has not gone too far. This can be turned around. You just need to let us show you the steps to take."
Ulixes continues to stare out the viewport at Karthasi for a long moment, in silence, before he sighs and nods his head. Defeated, it would seem. He takes a step back towards the middle of the room and sits down, waiting for the airlock to get opened and the MPs to do their thing.
"Okay, ready?" Sofia grunts. She'll open the door then, if no one objects. She is quiet though, worried about Ulixes. "C'mon, we're pals…" She bites her lower lip hard. Now she watches the others.
Quinn didn't actually get the helpful thing. Maggie was fairly certain she had made things worse. So she's still staying quiet, waiting on the edge there to be of any actual assistance with the Marines, or a shoulder to lean on if Ulixes would take it. But, otherwise, she's not daring to intrude and make things worse.
Karthasi does not object to the door opening. She keeps the book she'd been reading hugged tight to her chest, as if shielding herself from whatever else was going on. But wherever Tobias gets taken, she'll be going along, whether to medical or to the brig. He's not in his right brains right now, and she will do what she can to help make the first steps toward making this right.
Damn near the second the airlock hisses open, the marines are moving forward to take custody of Ulixes. Perhaps out of some respect for the Captain and her recent efforts, or the pregnant lady on the verge of tears, they are actually surprisingly unforceful should Ulixes cooperate. Restrains, however, are most certainly used.
In light of the successful, relatively recent suicide of LTJG Tisiphone Apostolos and the even more recent failed suicide attempt of Allen Rejn, this incident is being treated with all seriousness and concern. As such, the pilot is escorted to the sickbay aboard the Praetorian and placed under suicide watch, pending a complete psychiatric eval. As is the case in such an event, both Shortcut's CAG and SL are contacted to determine what will happen next.