Draaaaaag the door open?

The door sticks, but once Margaret gets a prybar on it, it starts sliding slowly open. Beyond is a dark tunnel, which winds slightly as it vanishes into the distance beyond Margaret's light.

Once more unto the breach, then.

It's pitch dark down here, not ordinary darkness but the cave-darkness that no eye or camera can adjust to. After the second time she trips on something she turns on her flashlight despite having no idea how much battery it has.

The tunnel leads on into the dark for minutes, the light from her flashlight really only picking out a tiny cone of light inside the darkness. She's not sure how far she's gone so far, only that it's quiet and dark, her steps and a distant dripping the only sounds. After a while, what could be ten or fifteen minutes, the walls change as the tunnels seem to be sloping down. Now, there's occasional spots of what look like corrosion or maybe mold on parts of the walls, the rails, and even the power conduits. After a while further, it starts looking like there could even be cracks in the case of the tunnel walls. Finally, she comes to another one of the doors, sealed across the tunnel.

She's on the other side of the door this time, so it's less clear which panel is hiding the wires she needs to get at. Fortunately, there's nothing stopping her from prying off panels until she finds the one she wants.

It takes a little more checking--it turns out this time, the same sensor overrides are hiding in the other wall rail, but finally the door *clicks* and can be persuaded to open.

Great. She leaves the ripped-off panels on the floor and heads into presumably-Lambda.

Beyond the door is...more tunnel. It's different than the one behind her, though whether for better or worse is hard to say. There's a few flickering emergency lights in this section, which is a supplement to Margaret's light, but the walls seem to be in noticeably worse shape. As the tunnel slopes down and to the right, there's a puddle ahead that quickly grows to fill the full width of the tunnel, even if it looks to be only about ten inches deep. Someplace ahead, around the curve of the tunnel, there's an echoing electronic ringing noise.

Down here a puddle could go from ten inches deep to who knows how many meters in a moment. She shuffles forward into it, not putting her weight on a foot until she knows there's solid floor underneath.

It looks like there is indeed solid floor, especially sticking to the edges. She splashes across the several meters of water. The emergency lighting ripples over the surface of the disturbed water, and in the distance the electronic beeping ring continues.

She tries to follow the beeping to its source, inasmuch as that's possible in the echoing space.

Fortunately, there's also a light once she rounds a slight corner--there's a comm panel on the wall, ringing away in the dark. Apparently the emergency power in this section extends to the intercomm--maybe this half of the tunnel is powered from Lambda for emergency power?

Maybe it's Catherine! Margaret runs to the comm panel and looks for the button to pick up.

There's a marked button for "TALK". When pressed, there's a crackle as the call connects. "Mar...Margaret, are you there?"

"Yes! Catherine, is that you? I'm in the shuttle tunnel!"

"Are you all right? The system says the power's in emergency backup, and warning about potential hull breaches and flooding in that section."

"There's definitely water but it isn't rising much. Where in Lambda are you?"

"I'm up in the laboratories, but the system's warning there may be structural problems in the shuttle station. You might need to come around outside."

"Okay. Is there an airlock somewhere I can come back in?" 

"Yeah, there will be. Just look for the maintenance hatch for your section, there should be a way from there to the Lambda pressure lock."

"Okay. Um--I found Amy. She's--trapped--in the shuttle station on the other end. I told her I would try to get help."

"Amy? Amy...Azzaro? She's alive?"

Yeah, but she's--she's sort of. Stuck in a blob of gel? Apparently it's been keeping her alive but I don't know how to get her out safely and IreallyhopeyoudoandI'mscared. Sorry."

"It'll be OK. Just get to Lambda, I'll be...hang on, what's tha..." The line goes dead, and the screen's "ready" display goes to black.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Margaret pokes despairingly at the screen a few times, but the problem is clearly on the other end. Then she gets moving down the hall again, looking for the airlock out, desperately hoping Catherine will still be alive in the laboratories when she gets there.