Dustin narrows his eyes and chews slightly on his lower lip. "Something else to investigate, then..." he murmurs. "I guess I'll have to ask some of the old guard about if anyone's tried this before - I don't need to waste my time replicating results, especially if the results are 'it doesn't work.'"

And by 'ask some of the old guard' Dustin of course really means 'sift through old network entries to see if anyone's documented their attempts.' Seeking people out directly for information? Don't be absurd. That is absolutely a last-ditch attempt for him.

"...Not that it matters anyway." His shoulders suddenly slump, like the wind's been taken out of him. "I don't have any tools. I could try to brute-force it but that could actually risk damaging the internals - unacceptable. Could try making my own to fit whatever's holding these things together...would take time though, and that knowledge might also be locked behind the terminals..."

Again Dustin overlooks the obvious 'ask if someone else has appropriate hardware and borrow it' path. That option might as well not even exist. He steps away from Cal and goes back to closely observing the nearest spaceship's hull, lost in thought as he pulls his improvised notebook back out to continue taking sketches.