Close Enough To A Plan

Posted on Thu Sep 21st, 2023 @ 6:59am by The Narrator & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Lieutenant Jayla Kij MD & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper

1,688 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: World Wide Web
Location: Engineering of The Wreck
Timeline: After Twisted

The antique nuclear reactor made a fitting nest for Proximal to be held up in when the rescue team returned. His spider-like form huddled atop the control and fission rods that protruded from the end cap, his head turning like the turret of a point defence cannon to look upon them as they entered. As the away team spread out, the helmet lights illuminating the scene, a small spherical sensor drone scooted in after them. The remote drone was piloted by Fox, acting as both a recording and sensor device and a means by which the pilot could maintain contact with the away team.

“CLICK Fewer than before. If you have come to seek shelter with me following the predations of the local fauna, then I assure you there is only so much thermal radioactive decay to go around.” The head turned back, nesting down into the squat core of the main body, the chrome box of clicking gears and gently pulsing sacks that looked like balloons made of livers. “CLICK And I am not predisposed to granting you such a kindness having had my own request so cavalierly rebuffed by your own hand. Find your own fissile materials.”

Javi made a discreet signal, forestalling the incredulous noises she knew some of the others might make, as she stepped out of the half circle and forward towards the entity, keeping her rifle attached to her back. "I discussed your request with our Commanding Officer, Proximal. We are here to escort you to our vessel. Are you able to move on your own or would you like our assistance?"

Muted from the DSRV's side, the little drone kept a discreet and sensible distance from this new and wondrous sentient discovery, but it made a point of also ensuring excellent angles of visual recording were achieved to the watcher behind its controls. Fox studied the landscape and its curious inhabitant right up until the sensors around his own physical form began to demand his attention. He'd catch up on the data later.

"CLICK Assistance?" Proximal stated, its voice buzzing over the comm as its mechanical legs twitched and shuddered under it, hunkering down onto the radioactive pile. "CLICK I have not needed the aid of others for my own locomotion since my first shelling. But I am pondering, as I am wealthy in time it seems, as to the value of my presence. After all, it would seem that your commanding officer has need of me. A need that you must now offer after your own unkindness to a marooned soul such as myself."

A hollow chuckling like the warble of some marsh bird followed his words. It then stood up, sideways to the away team's perspective as it had nestled down on the end cap of the reactor. Then walking in a crab-like fashion proximal transitioned from the vertical to the horizontal, standing before them.

"CLICK So...which one of you will carry my possessions?"

The two Security officers, two humans, cradled their phasers and took up flanking positions. They would be nobody's bellhops.

Jayla rolled her eyes. “Good grief,” she said. “I’ll do it if these lugs aren’t strong enough.”

"Our orders, ma'am," said Prue, the Senior CPO with silverfox strands across his temple, without breaking vigilance of their surroundings, "are to ensure the security and safe return, ma'am, of the away team, ma'am, including yourself, ma'am." His staccato use of the word "ma'am" clearly defied the respect otherwise inherent to the term.

“Mhm,” replied Jayla. “Where is it?” she asked Proximal.

“How much do you have?” Two Operations techs stepped up, the CPO asking the question, and set their anti-gravity equipment down. They ignored the apparent spat between the CMO and the Security techs.

High above their heads, the silent spherical drone bobbed, then spun lazily around to get a 360 view of the scene.

Javi withdrew to the edge behind the rest of the personnel, letting the lights from her suit illuminate the corners of the big room, holding her phaser rifle in both hands as she walked. Bhéara paced ahead of her, performing advanced recon, her tail lazily flicking as they went.

Taking a path its pilot assumed was out of Proximal's, at least immediate, reach, Fox studied the big fella and ensured he had the recording. Then he shifted upwards out of obvious visual range, and tagged along above Javi and her FELINE. In the DSRV the pilot still gave an involuntary shiver at the perceived proximity to said 'cat' but, like the Commander, he was curious to see what else was in here. He recorded in 360, ensuring to maintain a feed on their new-to-be passenger/guide, sound recording but not being shared from the DSRV side. "Medic vs Security - round one to your guys," he told Suda over their private comm channel.

"CLICK Oh just one or two things," Porximal said and gestured with a claw towards the area of engineering behind its bulk. Netted webbing held bundles and boxes against the wall and whims of zero gee. Some of them had the same dual language lettering of the ship they were on, where as others were of clear alien origin.

"CLICK A bauble or two from my time aboard this ship, the log files I have within me, and one or two trinkets I salvaged from other wrecks in this graveyard of stellar misfortune," Proximal muttered, stepping forward with delicate scuttling steps. "CLICK Still I am most interested in the means by which you have avoided, or negated the plasma leviathans. They are a most fearsome and hardy astrobiological entity. That secret would be worth something to one or two civilisations in the local medium. We could be...partners, or perhaps merely I could act as the agent of your good fortune huuum?"

"If its limbs aren't broken, ma'am, then I respectfully request it stows whatever gear it can carry so we can get the hell out of here," said SCPO Prue to Javi. The plasma leviathan talk was beginning to spook him in all the wrong ways.

Not out of arrogance, Jayla had already moved towards the pile and was busy examining it for something she could carry, seemingly completely unaware of the rest of her surroundings. “I take it the log files are on this PADD?” she asked, pointing to the only one she spotted on the wall. “Or is there a data chip somewhere in here?”

"Mission profile stated the objective data is contained within the principal via cybernetic storage," Prue reported, his impatience tempered by professionalism. "So he is the only mission critical component." The sense of urgency in his voice was not veiled.

“Oh that’s right, I knew that,” muttered Jayla distractedly. “Still, we can’t deny him a few personal effects, can we? Say, as much as I can carry without help?”

The younger petty officer rolled his eyes just enough for Prue to notice. "At the ready, O'Neil." While O'Neil nodded in chastisement, Prue ignored Jayla and waited for Javi to give an order that didn't escalate risk in a hazardous environment.

From the drone that bobbed innocently in the space before Javi, came a quick torrent of unmistakable swearing quickly followed by Fox's voice wrapped in urgency. "Commander, we have a serious problem out here. Requesting your ETA."

"CLICK A problem?" Proximal asked, scuttling close to Jayla as she seemed to be on its side. "CLICK I assumed you had pacified this medium suitably?"

"Situation's kinda... fluid," came the somewhat cocky sounding reply. "We're mobile, need update on ETA."

"Time to go," Prue suggested as strongly as his noncommissioned status allowed and maybe then some.

"CLICK Finally, something we can agree on," Proximal said and began to scurry towards the exit and into the corridor, shoulder-checking the guard there.

“Well, there’s no need to be rude about it!” Jayla muttered disapprovingly, already heading towards the exit herself.

Javi sighed as she followed the rest out, approving of how the Security pair were in front, Proximal, and the doc behind them, followed by her Ops techs with the tethered items on the antigrav. She brought up the rear, Bhéara facing backward on her shoulder to help guard their rear. She nodded at the drone above her, "Keep an eye on the rest of the group, Fox. We've got the rear covered."

"Yes ma'am," confirmed the pilot's voice, and then the mike made an almost imperceptible click as it was muted from his side.

"CLICK Now let us...what?" Proximal had scuttled up to the opening in the hull where the two airlock doors had been left open to space. The wane half-light of the pox star shone in, painting his crab-like frame in unflattering shadows and shades. "CLICK Where is your vessel! Your starship!"

"Our vessel is nearby," Javi addressed the two questions before she directed her attention to the part of her team present. "Set up a perimeter," she nodded at Proximal and the doc, watching as everyone else circled the two of them. "Stay put," was the order directed at their guest as she walked back towards the entry, concerned about the other half of the team scavenging for information.

Chief Prue repeated Javi's order with hand signals. The perimeter quickly formed and phasers were at the ready.

"CLICK. Ah yes, staying put. Something I have been doing for quite some time," Proximal growled.

Jayla gave Proximal a look. “So you should be good at it,” she pointed out in a tone that was significantly more caustic than her usual one. Great. She was channeling Belar again. “Just stay calm, okay?” she added in a softer tone. “We’ll get this figured out.”

"If you want to run back to where we found you, then go for it," Prue snapped at the arrogant cybernetic lifeform. "We're going to wait here until our extraction comes back."

 

RSS Feed