Descending the elevator shaft went at a slow pace because Cooper insisted on following the emergency protocols all the way down. "I don't want either of us to slip and hurt ourselves," Cooper explained.

Watanabe just shook her head and continued to go down the elevator shaft.

Eventually they finally made it down the shaft, but immediately ran into an issue.

"There's no door here for exiting or entering the elevator shaft," Cooper said. "Plus, there is an elevator car just below us. I think that the best idea is to enter the lift car and see if the outward doorway is clear. Now we just need to enter the lift car. Any ideas?"

"Let's go," Watanabe said after a moment of thought. "Remember the oxygen in our suits is going to run out soon."

Upon carefully checking the top of the lift car, Cooper noticed a hatch to the interior of the elevator car.

"Watanabe, look here," Cooper said with a wave of her hand. "Can you help me find the keypad to open the hatch?"

"Hai," Watanabe answered.

Because of the dimly lit environment, Cooper couldn't find the hatch release. Therefore, it was very helpful to include Watanabe in the hunt.

After a couple of minutes, both Cooper and Watanabe stumbled onto the proper keypad. As soon as Cooper found it, she began entering her emergency codes. Suddenly, the trap door popped open with a hiss and Cooper made her way inside.

Once there, she immediately started entering codes to exit the lift. Finally, the door opened to the primary hull of the Lexington.

---

"Watanabe, how much time does your suit show that we have left?" Cooper asked as they made their way to the nearest airlock.

"Only about five minutes," Watanabe responded.

"Okay, let's go to the aft airlocks. They are closer than the fore 'locks."

"Roger that."

Cooper was trying not to rush and to do things by the book. Luckily, the main hull was a near weightless environment. That way, they could cover a lot of ground with little effort. 'We're still cutting it close.' she thought as she literally glided through the corridors towards the nearest set of airlocks.

"Time," she called out to Watanabe, not wanting to waste precious oxygen on talking.

"Two minutes, seventeen seconds."

'Shit!' she thought as she floated along the currently airless interior of the hull. 'Were not just cutting it close, we're going to be lucky if we don't pass out before we get there.'

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally made it to the aft locker room, only to learn that it too was in vacuum.

"Grab a suit and drag it into the airlock," Cooper ordered as they entered the section. "Also grab an emergency air canister if you can and hook it into the port in your emergency suit."

Watanabe did as she was told while Cooper cycled the airlock with her codes and grabbed a suit and canister for herself.

'Come on, come on,' she thought impatiently while waiting for the 'lock to cycle. In the meantime, she was fumbled with the oxygen cannister trying to attach it to her emergency suit's port. 'Whoever designed these things has never had to attach one in a genuine accident.'

Cooper was seeing black spots in front of her eyes when she finally got it connected. She immediately gasped for breath as the oxygen flowed. As she did so, Cooper drifted over to Watanabe and connected Watanabe's canister for her. The Asian girl had passed out, but she awoke as soon as the oxygen flowed.

"Are you alright?" Cooper asked.

"Thank you for your help," Watanabe said. "You saved my life."

"Thats what friends are for," Cooper responded with a grin. "Now let's both get dressed in an actual space suit."

---

After putting on the space suits in the airlock, the duo made quick time to the fore 'locks.

"If you assume every section is in vacuum, you can move a lot more quickly," Cooper said. "Just look for the bright red blinking lights and go right through those areas."

"I agree," Watanabe responded. "Now that we have plenty of oxygen, going through breached sections makes the most sense."

Right then Simmons' voice came over their suit coms. "I've discovered the reason that we can't get through to the bridge. The bridge, the mess hall and a large section of the arc itself are simply gone."

"What do you mean gone?" Johnson asked,

"I mean they no longer exist. It looks like a large meteor struck the primary arc and destroyed that section of the ship. I'm going down to the main hull and the secondary bridge located there to get a better idea of the damage the Lexington has taken."

"Look, if something that large had hit the ship we would have felt the impact," Johnson said in protest, only to be cut off by Simmons.

"Not necessarily," Simmons began. "They attached the arcs to the rest of the ship via a maglev system. Since the hit occurred on the arc opposite the one that we were sleeping in the maglev system might have absorbed the majority of the force. I would like to ask someone about it, but I have yet to find a single crew person to ask about it."

"We haven't met a soul." Anderson reported.

"Neither have we," Cooper said. "Do you think the strike took place during the party?"

"It would explain a lot," Simmons admitted. "From what I heard everyone on board except for the six of us were invited. Even the bridge crew were rotating on and off duty so they could take part. Right now, though, this is pure speculation. I should be able to learn more once I get to the secondary bridge."

"Understood," Cooper replied over her suit's 'com. "We are still making our way to secondary engineering. From what we've seen, most of the main hull is in hard vacuum and the lifts aren't working. Be sure to carry a couple of emergency oxygen tanks with you."

"Roger that," Simmons said. "Anything to report, Anderson and Johnson?"

It was Anderson who replied. "I agree with Cooper. Extra oxygen cannisters are a must, since the main hull has no atmosphere to speak of."

"Roger that," Simmons said. "Let's check in as soon as we have additional information."

"Agreed," Cooper said. "Cooper and Watanabe out."

"Anderson and Johnson out."

"Simmons and Kobayashi out."

---

When Cooper and Watanabe finally made it to the forward airlock, they found out the sleds were inoperable.

"Great, so we will have to rappel all the way down," Cooper said. "Are there any ropes and climbing gear in the airlock's emergency storage cabinet?"

Watanabe went back into the airlock to check and came out with an extremely long rope and a nylon bag. Over the short range 'com, the Asian young lady said, "We have all the gear needed to rappel to secondary engineering."

"Oh, thank God," Cooper replied as she took both the rope and the equipment satchel that Watanabe carried.

'Good thing that I used to go indoor rock climbing on the weekends,' Cooper thought as she put a climbing harness over top of Watabe's suit. Then Watanabe helped her to put on her own harness.

"Have you ever been repelling?" Cooper asked.

"Only during training at the academy."

"Well, this is going to be a much longer trip, but it is basically the same concept. The fundamental difference will be that the changing g forces involved. Since we will be starting near the center of the spinning ship, the acceleration is pretty weak. However, the farther we move towards secondary engineering the stronger the forces will be."

"That's basic physics," Watanabe said.

"Yes, it is," Cooper explained. "It's easy for your mind to accept the change, getting your body to realize the difference is going to be hard. Eventually, you will get used to it. "Have you ever rappelled in shifting gee?" Watanabe asked.

"Yes, but only once."

"Where at?"

"On Beta station in orbit around Earth."

---

Cooper carefully tied off the rope to a handhold directly beside the sled's tract after she threaded it through both of their harnesses. That way, they both had something to push off of as they descended. Cooper had volunteered to go first, so she could climb up and help Watanabe in case something went wrong.

'It was a good thing that I did,' Cooper thought as she adjusted Watanabe's harness one hundred meters into the repel.

"Make sure to hold on to the rope both above and below of you so that the harness doesn't become fouled in the main line," Cooper said.

"I will do my best to remember," Watanabe assured Cooper.

"Okay, let's give it another shot."

---

Watanabe was doing well since she was controlling the rope with both hands. Now Cooper was worried about the next hurdle that they faced, namely the spin of the stars in the background. After all, the Lexington was a kilometer long and the ends of the ship were revolving at a very fast rate.

Every once in a while, Watanabe would slow down significantly, and Cooper would have to remind her partner to keep her eyes on the superstructure of the ship.

"Watanabe, if you keep looking at the stars you will quickly become dizzy and disorientated. That could eventually lead to vomiting in your space suit and neither of us wants that to happen."

"I'm trying to. The changes in gravity are making me want to look for 'down.'"

"It's understandable, but we are only halfway to secondary engineering. We have another two hundred and some odd meters to go."

"Understood. I will do my best to keep up."

'I have a bad feeling about this,' Cooper thought as she made her way down the rope. 'It doesn't help that the force of acceleration is already past one gee. What are the forces going to be like when we reach our destination?'

----

'Why do I have to be right?' Cooper thought as they approached their destination. 'It is taking everything I have just to clutch the rope in my hand.'

Cooper looked around at the spare parts depot, which was located just in front of the airlock to secondary engineering. "Yes, we are almost there, and we haven't run out of rope either."

Just then, she came to the end of the tether without noticing it. She had to struggle to catch a hold of the ship's superstructure.

"Damn, I just had to go and jinx myself," Cooper muttered as she held on to the ship with all of her strength. "The last thing I want to happen is to be thrown off into space."

After a few moments, she remembered that the space suits had magnetic shoe soles. So, while holding on for dear life, she used one hand to activate the shoes. The next thing she knew her boots were firmly secured to the nearest metal beam.

"Watanabe," Cooper said over short-range radio. "You are nearing the end of the rope. Be on the lookout as soon as you reach the spare equipment storage area. Also, be sure to activate your magnetic boots when you reach the rope's end, so you stay attached to the ship."

'Between the magnetic force of the boots and the acceleration from the malfunctioning rocket, even I am becoming nauseous,' Cooper thought as she waited for Watanabe.

"Oh, crap!" Watanabe yelled as she reached the end of the rope.

"Grab a hold of the ship and plant your feet!" Cooper commanded.

Watanabe's arms were flailing about as she tried to grab hold of the ship. Meanwhile, her boots kept kicking away from the superstructure of the ship, pushing her away from the Lexington instead of catching a hold of it.

'I hope this doesn't end up like catching on to someone who is drowning,' Cooper thought as she reached out to catch Watanabe as she quickly went by. Through a stoke of blind luck Cooper grabbed hold of the flailing girl's leg and then attached Watanabe's foot to the ship's superstructure.

"Damn it!" Cooper exclaimed. "I think I just dislocated my shoulder!"

---