looping speech, before even first save

so i decide to run EOC after not playing it in ages. Get to lucretia’s base (still as young cal) haven’t saved yet, and when Clay starts describing the various consoles, hangar / email etc it enters some kind of loop, no way of getting out, clicking etc just gets to next dialogue. very annoying. Escape doesn’t do anything, no way of accessing menus at all..

patched it to 14.6 before even starting the game, knowing how ridden with bugs it was, didn’t expect one so soon.. any help?

thanks