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

Dani carefully constructs a reasonable facade of cargo crates labeled "Genuine Dehydrated West IV Mud - Cosmetic Use Only" around the real payload.

K3VN makes a general scan of the mining station. It seems to be attached to an asteroid.
The scan yields nothing abnormal at first but at closer look K3VN can see some minor anomalies in the data. An irregular phase shift.
As if some kind of energy fluctuation is distorting the signal. The effect is very small but detectable.
He also can't see any kind of RADAR or LIDAR emissions from the stations which could be a sign that the station is having some kind of trouble or it could mean that the station just doesn't care to scan the space around it

From the bridge Adonis begins to hail the station relating the name of the ship and the cargo they have been contracted to deliver. He ends with a request for docking instructions.

Adonis hails the station but he gets no response. He repeats the hail on several frequencies and is about to give up when he gets a reply with a lot of static coming over the galactic emergency frequency

*static* Hello *static* ... you hear me? Are you the ore transport *static* You *static* earlier than expected.
*static* because of fluctuations in our energy grid *static* Do you have a technician to send over *static* docking port non-operational *static* need to do a spacewalk *static* probably the energy distribution unit near the docking port *static* Do you cop... *static*

Anyone in Dani's vicinity would be able to see her eyes gain that manic glee and her mind essentially go *ping!* when Technician and Spacewalk are mentioned. The weird little smile does not make it any less mildly alarming.

It seems like the station is having some kind of trouble. You could quickly approach it and look for damaged parts. Or you could try your luck with the communications system and establish a stable voice channel to the station.
Maybe you also want to do something else? You could just steer the ship in front of the docking port and shove the cargo out of the airlock. After all you are hired to deliver goods, not to repair mining stations...

Adonis jumps back into his seat and starts to maneuver the ship closer to the dock. He turns to whoever else is on the bridge and says, "See if you can raise anyone on the station. If we can't establish communications we'll just have to push the cargo into the dock or whatever is beyond that airlock."

Would you like to download the Mushroom Messenger App?

K3VN shakes his head. "Do not download the Mushroom Messenger unless you want uncomfortably targeted advertisements. Hailing the station." He speaks over the intercom. He still doesn't get up. "Attention Station. This is the Sycorax II. Requesting status update."

Dotty heads back from the passenger lounge, slides down the ladder to the crew deck and heads forward to the bridge.

She sits down in the one of the chairs near the back and looks at the sensor data.

@optimumsquare: Give me a mechanical/comm roll
@Emberskyes: You can have another look at the sensor data and try to extract additional information with a mechanical/sensors roll

I am going to grab some medical supplies and put my kevlar vest on. If we don't have communications by the time we are going to dock we will want to be ready for any surprises.

Dotty looks through the sensor data but ultimatively comes to the same conclusion as K3VN. There are some slight energy variations in the sensor data and other than that Dotty can't see anything unusual

K3VN cycles through the communication frequencies and can see that the station is in fact trying to respond to the hail but the response is weak and distorted. K3VN collects some data from the minor beams of the main communication frequency and can quickly calculate an algorithm that filters out the distortions of the main signal.
Transmitting algorithm to the Mushroom Corporation for evaluation Nonono don't do that! Abort!
Fortunatly K3VN is able to stop the transmission before it even starts

K3VN repeats the hail in order to see if its filtering algorithm improves the clarity of transmission

Helllo!? Can you here me now? This is foreman Jamal Holdswirth! Sycorax II!? Never heard of you guys. Your'e not the transporter scheduled to collect our ore. Are you pirates? I hope not. We don't have much to offer. Our energy grid collapsed due to.. well an accident. If you could lend us a hand and reroute the energy away from the main energy distribution unit we'd be in your debt forever. Maybe I could scrape together a little reward. There is an alternative energy distribution unit near the docking port but you have to do a spacewalk to get there. Do you copy?

Dani stands next to the Cap'n, practically vibrating with anticipation of his order.

Adonis can feel Dani trembling with excitement at his shoulder. "Up to you Dani. You wanta take a look? I don't think we should take a lot of time but an hour or two shouldn't matter if it's safe."

"Your description of the situation is vague and raises questions. Could you please elaborate on the nature of this accident so we can help you troubleshoot the problem."

She shouldn't go out alone just in case. K3vn would be a good choice as he does not need air. I could suit up as well but it is not my main area of expertise, I would be there to help hold the tools basically.

The foremen responds to K3VN's question
Oh boy. I had hoped that you didn't ask. It's a bit embarrassing. We ran out of beer and even though we placed an order for some more we weren't keen on having nothing to drink for the weeks until the delivery arrives. So we thought 'Ey, humans have been brewing beer since the stone age, we can do it too!'
Long story short. We built a makeshift brewery and used our food supply to brew something resembling beer.
So we wanted to celebrate our success and drank a whole lot of it. Dave, our mechanic, became piss drunk but also felt a bit sick. Before we could react he puked into our main energy distribution unit. Apparently that somehow caused our electric grid to collapse and we are stuck on emergency power. Only life support and emergency lighting. Nothing else works anymore.
We have an electrician for exactly this kind of situation but this beer we brewed apparently had some side effects and half of our crew, including the electrician are in sick bay and our medical computer isn't working. Our electrician can't move one foot without dry heaving but she said that we could reboot the electricity grid if we reroute the power to the other energy distribution unit near the docking port.
So yeah and that's where we are now. As said before: Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Adonis turns off the comm mic and says to those in or near the bridge, "I like to party as much as the next guy, but that's just flat out ridiculous. I'm tempted to just let them stew, drop off our cargo and get outta here."