Lazahr perked an incredulous eyebrow as Lambda attempted to explain the situation, his slight frown remaining ever-present throughout the explanation. Raising one hand, palm outward as if to halt the explanation, he began;

"Wait a moment, you're confusing me. Either you're struggling with the syntax of language or time is fluid in your experience...I'm going to assume the former for the sake of the conversation. Your samples, which are various trinkets of no real significance to anyone other than you, were confiscated by a member of this crew because you didn't complete your duties on time? Furthermore you have no idea who actually took them except that they're on the engineering staff?" 

Letting out a gentle sigh and shaking his head slightly, Lazahr looked between the two again. 

"I'm...not really sure I can help you with that information but I'll look into it." 

"I apologize if i am discussing matters larger than my rank qualifies, Captain. I had some free time and saw it appropriate to apply my spare intellect to potential issues that could be occurring."

Mantovani didn't really expect to be talking to the captain about the station, seeing as previously it was the automaton and that woman mentioning it in conversation. However, direct speech with the largest title holder on-board could allow Mantovani to get into his good graces, perhaps giving Mantovani greater leverage over others on board...

He dismissed that idea.

 Ideas like that also got him out of good standings with others. Whilst in this confined space he could ill afford to make enemies of the crew. Mantovani decided upon resigning those thoughts for later. Back to the task at hand

"the probes failed?" a surprised expression filled his visage.

"Might i enquire as to why?"

Lazahr listened to them both in turn, his frown softening a little as they continued to explain the situation. 

"Knowing who took your samples is important, Lambda. If it was someone of a higher rank and station than myself then I'm hardly in a position to overturn the confiscation. However, you state you've satisfied the condition under which they were taken so perhaps an appeal to the armory is in order as our astute friend suggests. I would happily escort you there if you'd prefer?" 

"Something drained the energy from the probe", Ylona answered in Valorum's stead, "Battery was dead before it even hit the surface. Didn't even make a nice crater, because it's a subterranean setting. Punches deep down, but no splash. And unless you know a way to get somebody there alive and back again without using any kind of energy it eats, I doubt you can help."

The offer of aid made λ lift up suddenly, gaining a few inches in height. He paused to remember the phrase for gratitude.

"Thank-you-I-would-be-most-appreciative. We have gone whenever The Lazahr is ready."

"Perhaps I might be of assistance, moy drug, or is it perhaps me you are seeking?” A voice spoke up from behind them. “Ignatov Lyosha; Chief Steward and Manager of Onboard Logistics for the Savior.”

Lyosha approached the trio slowly, data pad in hand, and stopped short to look them over one by one. Turning his attention back to his data pad for a moment, the man muttered away to himself quietly for a minute or so before speaking up once more. “Lazahr, Lambda and … Mazatl, da? What appears to be the problem?”

((I'd been struggling to think on how to introduce my character. If there are any issues with my post please feel free to let me know and I'll amend it.))

Mantovani turned to ylona and raised a smooth eyebrow.

"As for how to get personnel on and off of that station, that would depend on the types of energy it consumes."

His expression rests

"However i must apologise but i didnt quite know what you mean by 'punches deep down but no splash'."

"What's not to understand? The probe didn't make a crater because we set it to make a hole instead. It looked like something was below the surface, like a Titanium deposit, and that's the kind of probe we sent out."

"I see. I understand what you meant about it being a subterranean probe however... actually nevermind."

Mantovani looked at the floor for a moment before reposting his gaze back at ylona.

"Was it only electrical energy that was absorbed?"

"From what Sister Skeler has reported, yes. The probe was completely sapped of its battery."

7-4-1-N-7-3-D has finished the checkup of the cargo, at least the part that it had access to. It checked its request for a maintenance checkup, no engineer applied for it yet and as it had nothing to do the machine concluded it would return to it charger, and let its own diagnostics run once more if none has till then, tick off the request after that and seek for a new task to fulfill. Routing its path the Sower realized it would have to move through some of the hallways. 7-4-1 preferred to move through the smaller maintenance tunnels which offered fewer opportunities to interact with the other crew in unforeseen ways.

"Chemical thrusters might work, but we would essentially be flying blind without any sensors and there would be little hope of rescue should something go wrong."  Skeler pursed her lips thoughtfully, "What I wouldn't give for one of our old boarding pods and a mass driver.  That would eliminate the issue entirely except for, again, the retrieval issue. Hmm..."

She called up a playback of the drone's flight path, the machine gliding smoothly and slowly, then a slight dip with red indicators of the loss of the power before the probe was dragged in by gravity into the surface.   It was a bit of distance, but it should be possible with the gear they had on board...

"We could use the asteroid tether,"   Angela said, returning the display the point the probe had lost power, "We should be able to establish a safe orbit a bit outside of the range of the draining field.   It's a long shot, but the tether cable should reach.    Harpoon the surface and hook a pod to the tether, navigating it down with a chem thruster.   It massively decreases the risk and no sensors required.  Any thoughts?"   

'I think that's it.' Dhanyl thought. He closed different windows of cv's and crew evaluations, saved the list and shut down the overlay of his visor, figuratively returning back to reality. All assignments had been made, all tasks allocated. Everything to those most qualified. No, not quite correctly formulated. Everything to those whose qualification was sufficient for the importance and difficulty of the task. 'Otherwise, I'd have to do this all on my own', the Sophon thought, and chuckled lightly.

Looking around, he noticed his first subject standing on the bridge, right next to the Captain. The engineering Lady with her hellish smoke sticks. She would be the one cracking open the Data core, so they could access the data within. He noticed that she was currently discussing something with a few other people, including, Dhanyl noted, the Horatio that he chose for the decryption process.

After engaging the respiratory filters of his suit, the smell of these "Cigarets" tended to linger wherever she stood, he approached Angel and tugged at her sleeve to get her attention. 

"Can I help yo..."   Angela tried to hide her annoyance at the distraction the best she could, thoughts she'd pushed to the back of her mind falling into place as she noticed the sophon,  "Oh, right...the data core.   I'll talk to the captain when we get a moment and have it transferred to your lab.   Be careful with it, okay?   I tried to make a data dump from it but I can't tell if it's actually usable." 

"That's if the stationary orbit is outside of the drain range, which it wouldn't be if I had built that defense", Ylona commented after a moment of thought, "And also, chemical thrusters? Where are we going to get all that reaction mass? We'd need a counterweight for our crawler to get it down to something useful. Also, how do we communicate? Pull three times on the tether when there's trouble?"

Mantovani pondered upon both Angela's and Ylona's statements. His head hung low in thought.

A tether...

A new idea sprang forth.

"If a tether is a viable option we can simply set up a shuttle with a winch system."

He looked up.

"It we can successfully harpoon the surface at the right angle, the away team can 'zip line' down to the surface; maybe using chemical thrusters to control the descent. When they are in need of extraction,  they simply attach to the tether, unhook the harpoon and the winch is used to reel them back into orbit. it may seem crazy, but considering that there is no atmosphere and that the station is not large enough to generate that strong of a gravitational field, its entirely feasible.

Besides, i doubt the Endless built thier stations to defend against such a low tech approach method."

Bringing a hand up to his chin he contemplated some more.

"As for communications... we only need to use a method that does not require electrical energy."

Mantovani turned to the sophon.

"Dhanyl, may i ask you, with your knowledge, about some possible methods of non-electrical communication we could potentially use?"