Sten and Eraan find themselves walking essentially mirrored pathways that lead to a central catwalk in the direction of the bow, overlooking the broad expanse of the shadowy bay, and circles to either side of the bay to meet again in the aft. In the middle of the catwalk at either end, there is a reinforced bulkhead with an iris hatch. At the one that leads to fore, presumably into the main compartment, there is a wall-mounted comlink to the right side of the hatch, and it responds to emergency battery power like the dim lights above and those that light the floors along traffic areas. Testing the com leads to a faint echo you can hear from down in the cargo bay itself. Presumably the hatch at the aft end of the catwalk is identical.
The iris hatch is not currently functioning under power, and it takes no small amount of effort for one or both of Sten and Eraan to open the manual controls. Beyond the forward hatch, is a very small common area, beyond which lie the staterooms -- nine of them in all. Also, to starboard is another closed iris hatch, beside which is mounted a small placard that reads "Fire Control: Authorised Personnel Only".
Moving farther forward toward the bow, Sten and Eraan find the proper common room, the galley, the computer room, and farthest forward, the bridge. All in all, most of the compartments look in decent order, and at first glance the bridge looks good, too. The computer room is a mess, though -- a tangle of wires and circuitry with no apparent sense or order, cabinet-like components that don't seem to fit anywhere. A closer examination of the bridge reveals that panels have been removed from a number of controls there, too, with wires and circuits hanging loose here and there.
To aft, Gerrard's surprise is more immediate. Dealing with an iris hatch in the same manner that Sten and Eraan did, the space beyond is not more cargo space as a trained eye would expect, but improvised engineering space. Quite a bit of it. And even the most cursory examination of the drives located here reveals that they are considerably larger than the drives indicated in the specs for this class. Still, even the enlarged engineering compartment doesn't account for all of the cargo space lost.
Like the discovery in the bow, the engineering room is obviously an abandoned work in progress. Parts and cables and wires lay all about, not in an especially disorganised fashion, but obviously not in functioning order. The faint glow of the comlink lights do seem to be functioning, though. This is especially evident when Eraan tests the system.
!i!