Twisted, Coiled & Wreathed

Posted on Tue Jul 18th, 2023 @ 8:05pm by Captain William Maddox & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Lieutenant Jayla Kij MD & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper & Ensign Asami Inoue & Chief Warrant Officer Mara O’Sullivan

2,185 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: World Wide Web
Location: The Wreck, The Scrimshaw Star
Timeline: After 'The Red Circle'

"Could you repeat your last?"

Maddox's image on the DSRV's view screen flickered and wavered, turning the bridge of the Daedalus into a watercolour painting before the signal was reacquired.

"We've had to move away from your entry point to the Scrimshaw Star to support the mining team," the captain continued as another wave of interference washed over the machine. "Science Officer T'lyn is still investigating the source of the interference. But so far it's only affecting long-range comms. You cut off just after you said you found a survivor?"

“That is correct, Captain. It appeared to be mainly mechanical for its physical form and quite sentient,” Javi replied while Mara attempted to send their readings over to the Bridge again.

"Mechnical? A synthetic life form?" Maddox said, an eyebrow raised. Like any captain of his age, he recalled the splendour and majesty of the Utopia Plantia Dock Yards which had sprawled across Mars's surface and orbital lanes. Had being the operative words until a Synthetic workforce revolt turned the Martian surface into a furnace with orbital weapons fire.

“It appeared so, let’s see if we can send again… Hopefully, the informational scan was received this time, Sir?” Mara inquired as she looked up from the console she was working on, knowing Javi wouldn’t mind that she answered. “Looked like a rather large crustacean with equally large opinions, Captain.”

"Don't judge a book by its-" Maddox began to say, his gaze diverting to a screen on his armrest that lit up with the scan data. He then paused, his fingers flicking through the data panes. "Looks like you've got yourself a M4-SA4: Messier 4 Species Amalgam, 4th Entry. Looks like the crew of Canopus Station ran into one of these things, or something like it back in the 2390's. A modified baseline humanoid life form with extensive cybernetic enhancements to their physical structure. Though the one pic we have on file is a little more...gaudy than the one you've come across."

Said picture was displayed alongside Maddox's flickering comm's transmission, showing what at first looked like a very thin and malnourished form. Until you noticed that the ribs were picked out in gold life, the spine curled backwards and up into an overhead track system, and the bare skull was inlaid with precious stones and metals. The arms, long and dexterous fingers, were also similarly jewelled with oily bare muscle fibre looking like silk in the light of the hologram.

Compared to this, Proximal was a very poor member of this civilisation judging by his more utilitarian modifications.

Fox simply stared at the imagery on screen, grinned and let out a low whistle in admiration of this epic display. An epitome of Shiny, with definite emphasis on the capital letter.

"That one was called Harbour Master, ran a roving black-market in various relics from other civilisations in the globular cluster, including trade in life forms from those civilisations. Whilst deplorable, the station commander's logs do note that they operate by a strict code of Host & Guest Rights. They make a deal, they'll stick to it," Maddox explained by way of paying his dues to the exposition guild. "Though given Messier 4 is 8000 light years away and on the other side of the Galactic Barrier does beg the question as to what that one is doing here."

"Captain, where did Harbor Master come from? Could they be indigenous to this part of space?" Asami asked, sitting up a bit in her seat.

"What I told you is the grand depth and width of the file entry on these things Ensign. No species noun, no home planet, just a random encounter in a roving space slave market. What Starfleet Intelligence and the Office of Special Investigation can infer from it is that these beings are wide travelling, they are earmarked as useful intelligence sources," Maddox's face fell and his eyes closed. "Meaning apart from the fact it seems to have ingested the logs from the Icarus beacon it dismantled, it's a prime intelligence source for the region. Both on local polities and tensions, but also on navigation hazards like the grav tides we ran into."

Meaning there would be debriefings Maddox would have to attend with this creature alongside Mister Finch...Sigh.

"Commander, you know I'm going to have to order you to rescue this 'Proximal' from that wreck. Even if I can see the self-serving bastard energy like Cherkov radiation radiating from just the scan images your suits took," Maddox said resignedly.

"Son of a bitch!" shouted Suda as he did his damnedest to dent the bulkhead with his fist.

Asami let out a little yelp jumping in her seat as the DSRV seemed to shake back and forth as Suda dented the inner hull. "Fucking hell" she murmured, cheeks reddening hoping that no one noticed or heard her cry of surprise.

"Exactly!" Suda exclaimed, mistaking Asami's murmur for agreement. "The fuckest of hells!" Lowering his head, he said, "My personal log will note this is a mistake. But captain's orders are captain's orders."

“Neither our pilot nor I appreciate you attempting to dent the DSRV,” Javi commented with a frown. She turned her attention back to the wavering image of their CO,” We will attempt to rescue the “Proximal,” Captain.”

"It's character building," said Fox with a lopsided smile. Suda was always gonna do Suda well. And eating humble pie was definitely worse when it involved a giant intelligent metal crab-spider who was about to become essentially crew. Fun times. "Just like going back in and nicely telling our new friend that he can ride home with us, right buddy?" He added, grinning broadly now as he rested a mock-comforting hand on Suda's shoulder. Any deeper concerns the pilot might have were absolutely buried beneath a need to progress with the wider rescue mission. Somewhere out there important people were waiting for a rescue too. If Prox was a lead in that direction, Fox would take it. He also had a lot of questions, but those would keep for now.

"Speaking of denting our ride, is our new friend gonna ride top-side, boss?" Fox asked Javi directly, the casual reference unintentionally given.

"Javi I leave the details of the recovery to you. The Daedalus will be out of range of you for direct support. Recover the asset, and return to the Daedalus," Maddox looked off-screen. "Also be aware we have reason to believe the rocks in this area are infested with an exo-morphic entity. Rock Spiders. They've been attacking the mining team, so you might run into them."

"Spiders..." The word fell out of Suda's mouth dripping with disdain. "I fuckin' hate spiders." He shuddered inside his EV suit. "Well, let's get to it before our window slips. It was already going to be tight missing the backswing of those incoming planetoids and now the DSRV has to chase down the Daedalus."

“I’ll watch out for spiders,” offered Jayla. She didn’t mind them and knew that most people found them creepy. It was the least she could do.

"As will I," Morpheus piped up from the charging station he'd plugged himself into. "The existence of these spiders was alluded to both by Proximal and minor abrasion damage seen on the engineering door. Our return might be more lively than we experienced before."

"The "new friend" should fit inside and if not, we'll improvise," Javi replied to Fox before returning her attention to their CO," How has the mining team been dealing with the spiders so far, Captain?" She needed to know for both strategizing and to learn how her wife was doing.

"According to their shuttle pilot they've retreated inside the asteroid to a cavern. The shuttle is returning to the Daedalus with nacelle damage. These Spiders apparently jumped off the surface of the rock they were nested in and went straight for the nacelles, crushing it like a tin can. It's why we're moving in to support directly," Maddox said. A fresh wave of static washed over the screen, and then remained to distort the image even further.

Fox silently winced at the news the other shuttle had suffered severe nacelle damage. That didn't bode well. He wanted to ask if Hask was okay, but figured he had to be if the shuttle was headed back to Daedalus. Spiders that could crush shuttles.... definitely not good news.

"Captain, a solar photon burst has been detected from the surface of the star. Short-range communications will begin to deteriorate at a significant rate," the prissy tone of T'lyn said from off-screen.

"Well you heard her Javi, time to cut this call short. I'll go get the mining team, you focus on securing our friend and anything else from that wreck that might be useful. Once we've got the mining team we'll swing back around and pick you up," Maddox's voice said, the image utterly washed out. And then it was gone, replaced by a Loss Of Signal screen.

"You heard the captain. Let's get that giant centipede and get the hell out of here." Suda was already on his way out the door. "Security personnel will be remobilized in two minutes. I'll leave Commander MacArthur to fill out the rest of the away team."

Mara’s face registered the concern she felt at hearing that the “spiders” crushed the warp nacelles so easily. She glanced at Javi, who was staring through a viewport at the debris field around them.

Hearing that the Mining team was trapped, her wife was, made Javi’s jaw tighten as she throttled the outage and concern she was feeling, forcibly setting both emotions aside for the time being. She took a deep breath, reorienting herself to her current mission and responsibilities, turning around to look at her team. “Sit down, Commander.” Bhéara’s growl underscored her order to Javi’s fellow officer, her tail lashing, reminds him that he wasn’t in charge. “We will split up in order to accomplish what the Captain ordered. Chief, take most of the Security detail along with the Commander, several of our Ops personnel, and Ensign Inoue to scavenge. Dr. Kij and the remaining personnel are with me to rescue this Proximal. Everyone take a phaser rifle along with Type IIs. Lieutenant Fox, be prepared for a hot extraction. Gear up and move out.”

"Copy that," Suda said with clear internal disagreement. Going back in to salvage was a mistake, but orders were orders.

"Uh..." Said Fox, his attention 99% focused on the shuttle's sensor readouts in the aftermath of a load of blips and colour shifts. "Might wanna scale down the away team, Commander," he suggested. "We just got washed over by a high-energy photon wave. Readout's saying it's 78% solar weather mixed with 10% reactor failure of a class 4 fusion torus and we get a mini-anomaly for free with that deal. It's definitely got some specifically directed intent behind it," he added, studying the DSRV's report. "So just might be the first in a wider assault."

Fox tapped the screen as if that might alter the reading (a throwback to older craft he'd started out on) and made a non-verbal concerned noise. "Ambient stellar radiation's gone up to Medium, sir." And they both knew what that meant - danger had now risen from Low (minimal risk of cellular damage) to Medium (Median risk of cellular damage without medical intervention). "Oh," the pilot added, before Javi could respond. "And I gotta fault with the port-forward optical sensor. Think it's spiders?" He asked, checking his phaser pistol as he readied to be left alone again.

"Looks like I'm taking a cold walk," Suda said as he reaffixed the helmet of his EV suit. "I'll rejoin the scavenger team just as soon as I visually confirm the DSRV exterior hull is clear of hostiles."

“Stay with the DSRV with the personnel you need to keep it secure, Commander, the scavenger team can handle having light protection. Chief, check this area with the Ensign. PO, make sure we have the anti-grav ,” Javi ordered, lighting up an area on Mara’s HUD. “Doc, you can stay here or go with us. Let’s go, folks.” She picked up a rifle, checked it’s status, then moved out the hatch.

"Copy that," Suda said again, reluctantly this time. As much as these dumb motherfuckers aggravated him, keeping them safe was still his duty. He looked at Asami and added, "Watch yourself, kid."

"I don't need you to personally babysit me," said Fox with a wry smile to Suda as everyone else left. "Just a couple of your team will do." His grin vanished, seriousness taking over his expression as he added. "Kinda worried about them dealing with the M4-SA4 without you on their side..."

"Orders are orders," Suda said gruffly, "so shut the fuck up."

 

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