Garath dropped the panel onto the floor as Edwards unbolted and swung open the door into the equipment level. A cramped corridor led down the side of the ship, at the end of which openings passed into the cargo bay and the drive sector. Next to this entrance was a small locker, from which Edwards took two pairs of ear defenders.
Access was gained by releasing several latches and ducking under a low lintel. With the ear defenders in place conversation was still possible due to strategically placed microphones picking up the engine noise and subtracting it from other sounds that were relayed to speakers in the defenders. Most ships used better insulated engines.
They carefully threaded their way between the engine's ancillary equipment until they reached the sealed off compartment containing the main drives and generators. Edwards peered at the maze of pipes and cables in the ceiling.
"Looks OK," he noted. "Pass us the toolkit."
"What toolkit?"
"There was one around here somewhere when I was looking earlier."
Garath cast his gaze around until he found a box wedged between a bulkhead and the hyperdrive feeds. "This it?" he called back.
"Yeah, cheers." Edwards quickly extracted some sort of wrench from the kit and started tightening connectors. He put the wrench back, pressed a button on a wall-mounted intercom, and asked the bridge for a report.
"
Edwards passed the toolkit back to Garath and took a couple of steps back. Probing around the ceiling, he quickly found a catch, which when released caused a roof panel to swing open. He reached up and grabbed a handle, twisted it, then pulled down, at which point a ladder dropped down from the hole in the roof. At the top of the ladder he squirmed round to disappear into the narrow opening.
There was a bit of banging and a curse, then Edwards' head reappeared in the hole. "Chuck the tools up."
Garath took hold of the ladder in one hand and jumped onto the bottom rung so that Edwards could reach down and easily take the kit from him. Freed of the burden, he also climbed up into the ceiling.
The crawlway was tight but short, and opened into a low, wide space. Across it the area between floor and ceiling was taken up with an arrangement of plates contained within a clear box. Bunches of cables entered the box at numerous points; the two largest collections passed fore and aft into the rest of the ship.
Via one of the ever-present intercom points Edwards warned the bridge that he was about to shut down power to the shield distributor, then peered into box.
"Think I've got it," he grunted after some minutes.
"Oh?" Garath asked curiously.
"There's a charge plate going. Give us a hand with the cover."
With one of them working on each side they quickly undid the bolts holding the transparent cover in place and carefully levered it off. Edwards reached in to remove the defective plate.
There was a sudden flash and a bang. Garath instinctively jumped and cracked his head against something hard in the confined space. He lay there groggily for a while, unaware of the questioning voices on the intercom. When he finally managed to lift himself from the floor he saw Edwards sprawled back against the crawlway entrance.
There was no sign of life on the body. Garath hauled himself back over to the intercom.
"Edwards is dead. Residual charge in the plates, got him as he reached in."
"
"The power's off. Must be something to do with the fault." His voice sounded tired.
"
"Forget it. I'm out of here." He flicked the intercom off and headed back to the drive sector.
On the bridge Kirrik snarled at the now dead commlink and stood up.
"I'll go myself," he told Aeyris.
Kirrik met Garath as he was climbing down the ladder. He opened his mouth to shout at the man, but stopped himself when he saw blood dripping down from Garath's head.
"Get that looked at," he ordered him, then climbed up as Garath staggered out.
Kirrik ignored Edwards' body and moved straight to the defective device. Nearby lights claimed that there was no power to it, and any built up charge should have dissipated itself when the unfortunate Edwards came into contact with it, but Kirrik took something from the spilled toolbox and gently tossed it towards the plates.
The spanner hit them and dropped down onto the floor in a completely unspectacular manner. Somewhat satisfied that it was safe he quickly found the plate Edwards had been trying to remove, and pulled hard. Half of it came away in his hand, but the rest remained where it was, too closely surrounded by the others to be accessible. The break had been there before, causing an intermittent connection that stopped the continual smooth flow of power the Zieman emitters needed, but leaving half a plate in would disrupt the field to the point where it could cause the entire assembly to burn out.