The hangar at Canberra always housed a motley assortment of ships, ranging from run-down old Mules to newly-built Enyo and Raven assault fighters. Today, though, saw something truly unique - an Osprey that was heavily draped with seaweed.
"I thought she was joking," a Hispanic woman muttered, looking over the ship. Lucia Martinez was never particularly open about which branch of the survivors of lost Hispania her family came from, but the lack of a Cardamine breather was something of a clue. But that was two generations ago, she'd been an independent mechanic her whole adult life until Aquila picked her up. "How did that even get here?" she asked the Aquila technician next to her, the distinctly cyber-armed Darren Wilson.
"She towed it, apparently," Darren replied with a shrug.
"I I'm wondering more about the seaweed. I know it's not the point, but..."
"Either held in by the shields or fused to the hull by age, not sure. Let's get to work, this'll be a big job."
There wasn't really an official protocol for a flooded ship, but in the event of unidentified nebula seepage, the first step is to open the emergency power access panel and shut the entire generator down before a thorough cleaning. Darren used his mechanical arm to break the fused lock-latch, and motioned for Lucia to open the door. She did so, and immediately regretted her decision, as a wall of water rushed out, sending a dead fish half her size slamming sideways into her chest.
"I am not paid enough for this," she complained, brushing bits of fish off her jumpsuit.
"Shit, Lucy, go get those hosed off, I'll do the shutdown."
The rest of the initial cleanup was unremarkable and fish-free, though several more panels were holding back more water. The prognosis wasn't good - significant water damage required a nearly complete re-armoring in addition to the already requested configuration update. Almost all of the optronics were completely fried, and a total replacement would be easier than just identifying what's broken and trying to ensure compatibility between old and new systems. And the shield generator couldn't provide more than baseline micrometeor and particle protection.
Frankly, a full replacement would probably be cheaper, but Lucia wasn't in a position to criticize someone for being attached to their ship.