The Rocky Horror Show

Posted on Fri Oct 12th, 2018 @ 6:33pm by

1,645 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: S1:3: Myriad Problems
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: MD 61 02.13

Ensign Lodis and the four other members of the ExSec team that had assembled outside of the shuttle bay meticulously went over their equipment one more time. She'd run security in the heart of Federation Space, on the fringe colonies, even a space station or two. All she'd needed then was the uniform and a stern word or two, which her New Foundland ancestors had imprinted into her blood.

But Expedition Security for the Long Jump Project was not a place for a rent-a-cop. She was kitted out in a kinetic dampening body armour, a pulse phaser carbine, with a targeting monocle synced to its sights. She was carrying enough firepower to knock over the security office of the first colony she'd ever guarded.

And yet, like worried children, she and the other ExSec officers waited for the boss to get there before entering the shuttle bay.

Vic walked in quickly, wearing his full armor as well, they were at war now. "I knew I should of gone with the red armor that hugs my figure." he quipped trying to relieve the tension they all felt.

Nervous smiles soon died. They'd all heard the captains announcement over the intercom, felt the shaking. They'd also heard from their fellows in weapons control how the system had gone active, targeted the colony barge with the bow cannons. There were those in ExSec who wanted blood.

"Door control says space tight doors are still holding, so there's atmosphere in there," Londis said. "We checked the physical pressure taps as well, and they look good. Good things the Cap'n had everyone out there since that weird fellow parked his shuttle there."

She nodded to her fellow ExSec officer, who worked the door controls with a wave of his hand. The hatch slowly rose, revealing a darkness illuminated only by the fluorescent emergency stripes on the floor marking taxiways and fuel lines. The air that rolled across them from beyond was cold, turning their breath to clouds of steam. The officer tried to turn the lights on, but shook his head after a moment.

"Great..." Londis said, gave her carbine a twitch as the torch under its barrel flicked on. "Reminds me of New New Brunswick."

"Stay frosty, Nunez on point standard file in on my mark." Vic held his breath then said "Mark." The team walked in one after the other rifles at the ready.
"Clear... Clear... Clear..." he heard from the various members of his team calling out their status.

The collections of carbine mounted flashlights painted the shuttle bay in narrow swathes of illumination, the bright lights glinting off the hulls of shuttles and puddles of spilt space lubricant. And then one of the beams caught a glistening patch of scales.

"Contact! 2 O'clock!" Nunez barked as more lights drifted over to paint the scene. Mazarian rested in a heap of coils and limbs on the floor, the Myriad shuttle behind him. He looked like he'd been beaten to within an inch of his life, with thick dark almost black blood dripping from wounds and the swelling wound of an eye. One of his upper forelimbs hung at an angle that even for the serpentine alien looked unnatural.

"Londis to medicial, I need a xenobiology trauma team in the shuttle bay stat!" the New Foundlander barked into her combadge. As she did so Mazarian's head turned stiffly, his remaining good idea landing on Victor as he tried to say something.

"Hold positions." Vic said as he approached cautiously, "What the hell happened?!"

"You...need to run...vent!" Mazarian hissed, a frothy foam of too pink blood welling up from his lipless mouth. From the direction of the shuttle a lumbering shadow appeared, each footfall a dull metal shaking thud. Flashlight beams caught grey faceted stone and lurid orange coils.

Londis reacted first, and fired a trio of shots into the lumbering mass. Two of them phaser blasts caught the stonework of the beast, causing it to glow demonically red. The third caught one of the connection coils, filling the air with a rancid seared meat smell. But it didn't stop. With a woosh of passing air, something collided with Londis and sent her flying into the darkness, her carbine skittering off into the shadows.

Nunez held down the trigger, peppering shot after shot into the creature until the rock of its form glowed. Humanoid in form, somewhat sloping shoulders, and lurid coils of worms connecting all of the limbs soon stood over the ExSec officer. A massive club like arm fell on him, a powerful hand gripping his shoulder with a crunch and lifting him up.

"Just as we were told..." the thing said, as the hand closed tighter on the captured ExSec officer. Bones began to splinter and soon Nunez was screaming in agony. "Just meat and bones."

"Reynolds to bridge, lock on the ExSec team and beam us directly to sickbay then vent the hangar!" Vic shouted as he began to fire as well. He pulled out his hand phaser and set it to stun, aiming at nunez the best he could then firing, stunning the officer so as to provide them some sort of relief from the pain.

"Bridge to Reynolds, without the main computer we're going to have trouble with pattern recognition. It won't be a safe transport!" a worried voice came form combadge.

The rock monster, because really what else could it be, looked at the stunned officer in its hand and shook him. Bones ground under the force and a little more blood splattered the floor, but clearly, it wasn't all that interested in dead meat. With a careless toss, Nunez flew into the air, landing in a dead heap somewhere on the floor.

"You are the leader of meat?" it asked in that odd booming voice, a network of worms knitting across the broad 'head' of the monster, forming a lattice that seemed to look at Victor. "Bring me more, I have need of much more sport than you."

It raised both hands into the air, a pair of rocky pile drivers set to fall.

"Oh crap." Vic said as he bolted back away from the monster hoping it would fall by overreaching to smash him, "Get.... out!" he shouted between pants of breath to the rest of his team

Nunez wasn't going anywhere, even when the deck plates heaved and dented under the colossal strength of the beast. It looked up, ready to break even more things and people when a light source appeared in the hanger. one of the Traveller's Work Bee's has risen off the floor, the bright yellow industrial vehicle glowing like a sun from its many hazard lights.

Its two heavy duty manipulator arms unfolded, their clamps opening and closing with whining servos.

"Get Nunez clear Boss!" Londis said from the Work Bee's cockpit, its antigrav unit hissing and growling as it moved towards the monster. "This bitch is mine!"

The beast turned to look at the worker bee and that was Vic's cue. He dropped his rifle and ran to Nunez as quickly as he could without falling. As soon as he got to him he grabbed his arm and hoisted him over his shoulder with a grunt. "You need to lose some weight," Vic said as he began to heave-ho towards the exit where the rest of his team, save Londis who was using the worker bee like a mech.

Victor was joined by the trauma team, who had rushed to the shuttlebay upon his call. Even as one of the MedTech's reached Victor and help him, others were dragging a nearly unconscious Mazarian out of the shuttle bay. Beyond the door stood an engineer, an unobtrusive panel unbolted and laid at his feet. "EMERGENCY VENT" blinked ominously from the open panels control screen.

Within the shuttlebay, the beast and the Work Bee collided. The mechanical arms of the construction vehicle grabbed at the monster's limbs, crushing stone where powerful servo's connected. For a moment it seemed likely Londis would win...and then the worms began to pour out of the rock limbs. They coiled about the arms of the Work Bee, leaving behind caustic hissing trails of slim as the yellow paint job fizzled. Londis work the controls and slammed the beast down hard, again and again, only accomplishing the act of flinging a few of the worms free and cartwheeling the pod towards the shuttle doors.

Then a bright blue flash filled the cabin of the work bee, and it thunked hard to the deck with a screech of metal as its antigrav's cut out. In that same moment, Londis materialised out of thin air, pulling off the smoking remains of the one time use site-to-site transporter harness.

"Emergency locker in the Work Bee's cab!" she sputtered, shaking as she looked at Victor. "Hit the vent control before it get's its act back together!"

Vic didn't wait for the engineer to do it, he hurried over and punched the panel authorizing the vent. The forcefield dropped and everything inside the bay began to fly out but the rock beast held on tight until the worker bee it fought desperately against smacked it in the face causing it to lose it's grip. "Everyone ok?" he asked.

"We need to get your team to sickbay, not to mention the alien here," the MedTech said nodding at Nunez and Mazarian. "And given the main computer is still not an option, we're down to grav gurney's and the hop along express."

"But hey..." Londis said from the floor, where she'd slumped down to rest. "We didn't die today, so that's a bonus."

"If you were Klingon and said that, I'd be worried. Let's move, these two aren't getting any better from our tender hands." Vic said

 

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