Upon reaching engineering, Astrid was relieved to learn it was clear of any rodents. They couldn’t possibly be that stupid, could they? Why wouldn’t they try to seize engineering, which would allow them to cripple the ship, making it unable to escape or hammer their fleet while making boarding and subsequent capture easier? And with a ship like the Monroe, making the repairs would have been well worth it. Unless the boarding attempt has already been thwarted, Astrid assumed there were more on their way and promptly sealed the doors, confident that hydraulic doors with maglocks would hold them for some time, at least if the bridge situation was any indication, since the Satasi up front was still breathing.

Knowing she wasn’t of much use in a fight, Astrid chose to stay in engineering, take stock of damage and what was happening around the ship instead of going out and being a hinderance. One expected casualty for the day was bad enough, no need to go out and be in the way of people who actually knew what they were doing.

Dev’s transmission only served to further infuriate Astrid. In his defense, that wasn’t a hard thing to do. She thought of stealing and dismantling that grenade launcher so many times. If he wasn’t bathsit crazy, she’d have tried already. Then again, if that man wasn’t so far off the deep end, they wouldn’t be having this problem in the first place. [color=FFB435]“No, we can’t. You might think we can, but it’s not going to be you cleaning up your mess. The rats and other scoundrels are perfectly capable of messing this barge up, the last thing we need is an explosives maniac with a happy trigger finger. Hammering this out takes time and I have to sleep and eat too, you know? This time it may be just some lights or some metal plates in the corridor, but what’s next? A high-pressure oxygen tank? Some fuel cells? How about the armory?”[/color] How did that man even live to be 33 years old with all ten fingers given this lifestyle?