Chapter 2: To the mining station and beyond...

Derek makes his way to the airlock waiting for the ship to dock. he does gather his armor and weapons just in case.

"Is it safe?" Dotty asks when Stitches shows up, "I mean I don't suppose it's never really safe is it given that there's a hard vacuum all around us." She's dressed in a vacc suit with the helmet off standing next to the airlock door.

"I ain't never really put much thought into just how much the universe wants us dead until this very moment."

Dani checks her air, decides not to take any chances with the gear they have to work with, and heads inside the .... station. Capn'll forgive her, right? She just wants to see if the damage is as bad as they say, maybe she can fix it.

The Sycorax II docks with the mining station. The airlock equalizes the pressure between the station and the ship and finally opens.
The docking port opens into some kind of storage facility about as big as a living room. A status screen beside the airlock indicates that the station is booting the main systems one after the other.

A door at the other side of the storage facility opens and a woman and a man enter.
Both look (and smell) as if they haven't showered in weeks. Their eyes are bloodshot and they walk a bit insecurely.

The man begins to speak Aye. Jamal's my name. This is my deputy foreman Christine. Wow thanks a lot. You really saved us a lot of trouble. If we'd have waited for the ore transporter a whole month of work would've been lost and I'd have lost my job.

He uncomfortably hops from one leg to the other and begins to speak in a voice that sounds quite high pitched for a man like him
You don't happen to have some medical staff on board haven't you? Half our crew is still sick and management saved a few bucks by not providing a doctor. I know it's a lot to ask from you after all you have done for us...
He looks at them in a way that somehow resembles a really dirty puppy

Adonis toggles on the comm link to the suit radios and says, "Cap'n Clemment here. You 'bout done with those repairs Dani? Don't forget to deliver that cargo. Clemment out."

Looking at the pair as they approach, Derek shakes his head as they let their other need be known.

Do you know the cause of the sickness? I am a trained medic but depending on what it is you may need more than I can offer.

Dani acknowledges the order with a crisp "Aye Cap'n. Get done and get out." She then begins to examine the power couplings and relays to see if she can find the real problem, as she suspects it goes deeper than a fouled regulator.

Dotty pulls out her pad and starts looking at the cargo lots from this mining station to see whether there is anything going in the direction that they’re headed. While she doesn’t expect much maybe there’s something.

Well I guess it has something to do with the beer we brewed. Since they drank it they have pretty bad stomach aches. Can't eat more than diluted nutrient paste or they vomit. Maybe you know how to treat this or at least which medicine to order..? the foreman replies to Derek's inquiry.
His deputy nods solemny with a concerned face. We brewed the beer using starch and some of the yeast from a growing bed for nutritional yeast. Maybe this information helps she adds

Dani has a look at the power grid and quickly finds the cause for the power outage. Apparently the control chip of the power distribution unit burnt out some time ago and the whole grid was controlled by the auxiliary one.
The auxiliary unit is crusted in what appears to be dried vomit and burnt out too. This sent the whole power grid in a permanent reboot cycle that was only broken when Dani rerouted the energy to the unit at the docking port.
She sifts through the supplies of the station and finds a broken auxiliary generator with a functional control chip.
She repairs the main energy distribution unit and it springs to life with a satisfying hum. Another job well done

Dotty scans the cargo hold. Unfortunately all crates are either supplies for the station or are labeled for shipping in the opposite direction. After all they are headed for a region of space with hardly any settlements.
One thing she notices is that while most crates are labeled with the code of a refining station she knows, there are two that are not labeled at all.
Maybe an oversight... or maybe not

Derek reaches over and hits the intercom button for the bridge. They got some sick people her as well, do I have time to go over and take a look to see if we can help?

While he waits for a response he asks them, I hope you at least have a medical bay here. Ours is fairly limited so if you have one it that may be a help. I will at least need to see one of the sick people to get some blood-work and see if I can find the problem. Just note I am not a doctor but a combat medic though I have some skills that may help.

Adonis responds to Holloway at the airlock. "You are all aware that anything you volunteer to do delays our primary purpose and it also give anyone with ulterior motives a greater opportunity to do us harm. Keep that in mind if you decide to get involved. You all can defer decisions to me even though I'm merely the pilot. I won't tell you what to do only remind you of the consequences that could result from your actions. And if you haven't done so yet, please send over the cargo that we were paid to deliver. Do you need my help to finish that?"

Derek calls back, I am going to check out what is wrong while we are unloading, Might just be a bad case of food poisoning but i will watch the clock.

He turns to those at the dock, Show me your medlab and I will see what I can find, though I only have limited time to spend as we are on another job that is somewhat time sensitive.

Once at the medlab he will run some tests and see if he can find what is wrong.

Dotty inspects the mystery crates in the loading area. Looking at the seals, any markings, that manner of thing.

Dani responds, "I did my bit, changed the fuse. After this, they are on their own. Heading back in."

The crates that Dotty notice are ore hoppers filled with a material that apparently was mined from the asteroid that the mining station is attached to.
There are a lot like them in the loading bay and apart from the missing label they don't seem to stand out at all. The ore doesn't look any different too. At least to Dotty's perspective as a layman.

Jamal leads Stitches to the sickbay.
It is full of sick people, some even have to lie down on foldable beds because of the limited medical beds. A strange stench hangs in the air as if something sweet is rotting.
The small lab in the sickbay is not very well equipped but Stitches finds enough equipment to pull some samples from the patients, colorizes them with chemicals and examines them under the microscope.
He quickly realizes that the beer was contaminated with Clostridium Cometicarii, a bacterium that thrives in space stations if proper hygiene is not maintained and enough nutrients are provided.
Just like in a makeshift brewery onboard a mining station in space.
There are good antibiotics against this and until they arrive a solution of epsom salt in water can help treat the symptoms.

You got to stop making your beer. Not only did it cause you to lose power but is also contaminated which is making everyone sick. You need to order the antibiotic, tricortical but while waiting a epsom salt solution can help treat the symptoms. Some may even make a recovery with just that., Derek says and puts the necessary information into their computer so they can treat those who are sick.

Momentarily a message comes across everyone's private comm channel from Clemment. "It's time to wrap it up and get on our way, people. We've got more serious business to take care of."