Paul Johnson kicked back and put his feet up on a dormant console, taking off his helmet. The power was still out when they found the generator room, and they had settled in right away, beginning repairs. While Paul ran his fingers through his hair, the rest of Team Bravo occupied the generator-room below him, visible through the glass of his control booth.
On the far side of the room, beside the door, stood the drell Ostan, vigilant as ever, gun in hand. He hadn't spoken much since they touched down with the shuttle, and continued to stay alert although their scanners hadn't picked anything up in the vicinity.
Next was the engineer Emmerding, fumbling around with the massive generator that almost filled the whole room, alternating between cursing and fumbling some more. He was capable, Paul knew as much, but he knew it and that was the problem.
Last in Bravo Team was the asari Alisa, the only one in the team he knew on a first name basis. She was pacing the room up and down, nervously checking her Omni-Tool for contacts, much to the dismay of Emmerding.
"If you don't mind, I'm trying to repair a generator the size of a small house. Would you relax?" He snapped after Alisa passed him again.
That got her attention, but didn't get her to stop: "How am I supposed to relax if there's Reapers on the station? How can anyone?"
"We don't even know if they are on the station anymore. Or were to begin with - who knows what those airheads from Alpha Team really saw." Emmerding replied.
"Kaj knows what she's doing." Paul remarked, opening a channel with the rest of the team. "If she says there are Reapers here, you bet your ass there are Reapers here."
"Fine. What about the new guy, then? Helfer, was it? Heard he had some connections to Cerberus, what's up with that?" Emmerding offered, as he stepped inside a part of the generator, his voice being muffled by the hard steel shell.
Alisa stopped and looked up to Paul. She looked concerned. "He didn't seem like a bad person. I don't know, Paul …" she said, hesitantly.
He returned her look with an icy stare. "Once with Cerberus …"
He couldn't finish his sentence, because a muffled scream of joy sounded out of the interior of the generator. Moments later, the big machine roared back to life, the lamps in the room flickering alight.
"Am I good or am I good?" Emmerding said cocky as he stepped out. Meanwhile, Paul opened a channel to the Poltergeist.
"Command, this is Bravo Leader. We restored Power, proceed to advance to meet Alpha Team and secure station. Do you copy?"
Professional and quick as always, du Pont's voice sounded: "We copy. Good work."
Paul donned his helmet again, the environmental seals hissing softly as it closed. "Alright Team." he began as he stepped out of the booth and down the stairs. "Form up on me, let's see what Alpha Team was doing while Emmerding worked his magic."
Ironically, the second the words left his mouth, the lights around them began to flicker again. The generator roared louder, trying to pump out more and more power, before shutting down with a loud bang, snuffing out the light. Team Bravo stood there, befuddled.
Paul opened a channel again. "Command, scratch that. Generator just kicked the bucket, we'll try again. You copy?"
No reply came.
"Command, do you copy?" Paul asked again.
Still nothing.
"Commander du Pont, do you read?"
For a third time, only silence was his answer.
"I lost my connection with the ship. Anybody else?" Paul asked, turning to his team.
The room lit up in an orange glow as multiple Omni-Tools were activated. "I lost mine, too!" Alisa stated, closing her Tool again. "Mine's dead, too." Emmerding growled frustrated. "I lost my connection as well." Kel Ostan completed the batch.
"Damn." Paul cursed. "Emmerding, can you tell me why the generator died after 20 seconds?"
"I'm looking into it right now." He fingered wildly on his Tool. "It … seems like there was a power surge, somewhere west of us. It drew so much power it overloaded the generator and shut it down."
"Can you fix it?"
"Not without looking at what caused the surge. If we start it up again now, it will just draw too much power and shut the generator down again."
Paul groaned and raised his hand to rub his temple, but only ended up touching the side of his helmet. "Alright." He said with clenching teeth. "We'll look into the cause of the surge, then double back here and fix it again. If we haven't died from boredom until then, maybe we can get some action with the lights on. Form up on me, Team. Time to move out."