...Into the ...legs?

Climbing was hard work, and the next time Whitewolf stopped to catch his breath, Seymour popped his head out of his mouth, hair all covered in mucus. “I say gentlemen, I've just had a thought. To get to Main Engineering we could cut across the Medibay on Deck 5. It might be quicker.”

It wasn't quicker, as they later found out, but that wasn't the reason Seymour suggested it. The entrance to the Medibay was through the waiting room, which looked relatively unscathed after 3 million years. However, opening the door to the main surgery exposed them to a view they weren't expecting. Instead of seeing a well stocked room of medical equipment and beds, they were faced with an expanse of space, and the familiar pull of the vacuum. Air whistled past them and Seymour fell onto the floor, desperately grabbing onto the floor plates with his fingernails to stop himself being sucked out into space.

Whitewolf quickly jabbed the close button and the whistling stopped. “Did you see dat camaradas?” Gomez shouted.
“It's as it the entire Medibay has been gouged out of the Blue Dwarf.” Jay said. “There was just a chunk of the Blue Dwarf missing.”
Cass started reading the system logs on a wall plate and quickly piped up. “It says here the Medibay was jettisoned in an emergency by Dr Keto.”
“I wondered where he'd gone!” Seymour said.
“Well that's our short cut out of the question. Thanks Seymour.” Jay said sarcastically.
“Hey, it jolly well beats riding in the tonsil express.” Seymour said, pointing at the hamster's mouth.
Seymour pulled himself up onto a waiting room chair and opened a cupboard door. “Oh jolly good show!” He congratulated himself and pulled out a pair of robotic legs. “Look at these spiffing things, do you think one of you chaps could help fit them for me?”

The 'chap' that helped him was Cassandra, who looked the prosthetics up and down. “Hmm, they're psy-legs. The company who made them went into administration a few years ago... sorry... 3 million and a few years ago. They work by a psychic link to the wearers mind. If you think about walking, you walk.”
“Does it have to plug into my head or something?”
“No, it just connects to the closest mind.”
“Enough of the technical twoddle, help me fit them!” Seymour said excitedly, and Cassandra helped strap them onto his stumps. “Hold on, why did the company go into administration?”
“They made shoddy products.” Cass said.
“Hey, what?” Seymour said. “They're not going to make me walk off a cliff are they?” He tested the legs by thinking about stepping forward. “Come on, come on...” The legs took one step forward.
“By jove, these are amazing!” He said. “No more 2nd class hamster transport for me!”

The metal legs spun around, making Seymour look like he was doing a pirouette. Then he started thrusting his pelvis like Elvis. “Blimey, what's happening? I'm not thinking about doing this!” Seymour yelled.
“No, but I am!” Said Whitewolf.
“What!” Seymour said. “Stop it. These are my legs!”
The robotic appendages then started kicking Seymour in his own buttock, which was quite a feat of engineering.
“Take them off, they're rubbish! I'd rather endure hamster breath over there than be operated by remote control by everyone else.”
“You're not going back in my mouth.” Whitewolf said.
“Oh please. I didn't mean any offense, it was actually jolly nice. Like being in a womb, I felt all safe.”
“You taste funny!” Said Whitewolf.
“I do not. That's Clive Christian cologne. Queen Brittany brought it back for me from Titan for my birthday. She had to tell her exactly what to buy mind, she was going to buy me a Lynx box set.”

“We'd better continue to Engineering. We're actually not that far.” Jay said, and they all started walking out into the corridor, including Seymour, although his legs didn't stop and he walked into the opposite wall.
“Bloody legs!”
A roar from far away alerted them to one of the brown beasts at the end of the corridor. It started running towards them, scraping it's huge shoulders on both walls simultaneously.
“This way!” Jay recommended, and everyone started running. Apart from Seymour.
“Run! Run!” He shouted to the legs, and screwed up his face to command the legs, but it wasn't working. “Err... Mr Whitewolf!” He shouted at the Hamster who was now a few meters away. The Hamster turned, and concentrated on the legs. They instantly started running away from the beast.

After some running, and a few flights of stairs they were at the entrance of Main Engineering control centre. Banks of computer terminals lined the room, and several doorways lead to larger rooms with complex engines and pumps. Several TV screens showed key areas of the ship, like the Promenade where the rodents were sat in their tents, the arboretum showing the Huzards, and many cargo decks and engineering rooms. Many of the lower decks just showed static with the message “camera malfunction”.
It was the screen showing outside the Drive Room that interested the team the most. The Simulants were firing their weapons at the sturdy metal door.
“It won't take long before they're inside.” Said Jay.

< Tag – so what can we do here? Is there a control for automated turrets? Maybe we can remove oxygen or gravity to stop the Simulants? Will that even help? Do Simulants even need oxygen? Or maybe there's something better we can do? Or nothing at all? Maybe we can only sit and watch them take control of the ship? >