For some reason the game just doesn't register the 'Pirate Spacesuit' in my inventory when I go to spacewalk to unlock the elevator, nor does it if you wear the suit.
I tried tp-ing with cheats out onto the spacewalk tile where you fight the bot that's messing with the elevator, but as far as I can see there's no combat encounter there either. You can still complete Zheng Shi, it just requires you to go through the slave disguise route or tp, and if you want to go up to the rec dec you have to use cheats, so this bug isn't game breaking, just an annoyance.
I tried tp-ing with cheats out onto the spacewalk tile where you fight the bot that's messing with the elevator, but as far as I can see there's no combat encounter there either. You can still complete Zheng Shi, it just requires you to go through the slave disguise route or tp, and if you want to go up to the rec dec you have to use cheats, so this bug isn't game breaking, just an annoyance.