A Huntin' They Will Go

Posted on Sun May 24th, 2015 @ 1:09am by Cadet Senior Grade Eli Ziyad & Vic & Ensign Reva Madhava & Cadet Senior Grade Chance Conradi

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Jeffries Tubes

*Nexus, Early Morning*

"Why am I here?" Reva complained. "This is my day off."

"You're here so you can get us access to Jeffries tubes we normally can't get into." Chance answered, gulping down coffee.

"Is this an authorized thing?" She glared at him then answered her own question: "No. If it was, you'd have access. Why are we going into the Jtubes?"

“Because, Reva, we are on a hunt.” Eli appeared, two large glasses of orange juice in hand. He passed one to Reva, then sat down at the table with them. “For spiders. We didn’t really want to go to Commander Leroy and tell him we may have an infestation until we’re sure.”

"Spiders! You mean like that mons -- ah, like Iggy? That size?" Reva wasn't so sure she wanted to go along now.

“Little Iggys...maybe.” It was Vic who spoke now, popping up from behind the bar, coffee in hand. “Actually we’re looking for the missing link - her mate Jerry.”

"She has a mate! And little Iggys... Oh no. Nonono," she shook her head, stopping only when Chance said, "Imagine not going with us, helping us, and then running across them later, when you're out trying to fix something."

Horrified by that thought, she stopped and said, "Good point. I'm in."

“Excellent.” Eli gave Reva a bright, sunny smile, his juice all but forgotten as he watched her.

Catching a bit of Eli's mood and look, she smiled flirtatiously. "Just promise me, Eli, that you'll keep them off of me."

Catching her look, Chance glowered at her for half a second then said, "We might need to keep more than little spiderlings off you." He flashed a grin at Eli.

“What?” Eli pulled his gaze from Reva to look at Chance. “What else do you expect to be in those tubes that we’d have to keep off her?”

Vic laughed as he sipped his coffee and almost choked. “Yeah Chance, what?”

"Who knows! We might find a slime-spitting.... something or other down there. And you've heard of that Goodshire guy's bug collection, right? He could have had an escape and not even know it."

Reva rolled her eyes. "Not happening! Engineering designed and installed those habitats! Besides, Oz is off on the Ptolemy." She knew Goodshire as Oz, not the Chief of Security.

“I don’t think Oz is in the habit of spitting slime,” Eli responded. “At least not since… well...never mind about that. It’s all good now. Juice. Juice is good.” He lifted his glass and drained it.

"Wrong Oz, Eli," Reva touched his forearm. "Not Zeferino, Goodshire."

“Oh.” Eli’s face flushed an instant red. “Sorry.” He glanced to Chance, looking sheepish.

Chance shrugged and winked at Eli, passing the thought, I thought she meant Oz - Oralia, too. That's going to get really confusing if he keeps that nickname.

“Lt. Goodshire is away on the Ptolemy anyhow,” Vic added. “So about the only clingers she’ll see are cadets.”

Chance snorted into his coffee. Reva laughed lightly. "Maybe we should get going. Any idea where to start?"

"I'd guess near the Sr. Officers' quarters, since Iggy isn't terribly fast on her feet," Chance answered. He'd already given lots of thought to this and had slept better thinking that any little spiderlings would infest the Admirals' and those folk's quarters before ever getting down to the Cadets' level.

“Makes sense.” Vic finished his coffee. “We should check near the CDO’s place too. Jackson said that Iggy’s there playing nanny these days.”

"Kh'ali?" Chance breathed out in a whoosh. "And Commander Leroy is not a fan of arachnids."

“So we have some starting places.” Eli stood and returned his glass to the bar. “And now, to quote Jackson, it’s time to go huntin’.” Eli’s drawl was actually passable.

Standing, Chance adjusted a couple of items hanging from his belt. One item looked like a long-handled flyswatter. Because it was. "Ready," he said, then led the way to the turbolift.

The group emerged on deck 13 and fell in step behind Reva. Not a bad view, was Vic’s internal comment and Eli laughed. Vic shot him a ‘hush’ look and they continued on.

Glancing back, Reva gave Vic the evil eye. "Access is over here," she said and stopped by a nondescript bulkhead. She spoke to the computer, giving orders and a code. A moment later, a hatch opened. "Here we go," she started to bend to slide into the tube but stopped. "I'll let one of you go first."

Chance realized she was looking at him. He shook his head and looked at Eli then gestured at the hatch.

Eli pointed to Vic. “He’s the oldest. He should go first.”

Vic crossed his arms and gave Eli a friendly glare. “Hey, beauty before age...or something like that. Besides, it’s ladies first, so Reva wins on both counts.”

She shot a glare at all three then muttered something about men and having no balls as she bent and slid into the hatch. Chance didn't care about the glare or the comment; he was enjoying the view. He followed her.

Eli crawled in after Chance and was followed by Vic, who closed the hatch. As they made their way along, Eli smiled. Nice view. This time it was Vic who laughed, the sound echoing off the walls of the tube.

Yes, yes it is. Boyhowdy, is it ever, Chance sent back. He happily shuffled after Reva on his hands and knees. A few shuffles later, they came to a junction and he stood up. "Ick," he said, swiping at a thick strand of webbing.

Reva was trying to clear the same from her hair. It wasn't going well. "Maybe Doctor Harding could remove her silk pockets or whatever creates this," she grumped.

“She needs those,” Eli commented. “For getting places and disabling her food.” He paused a moment as a thought occurred to him. “I wonder if she wraps up Jerry? If so, we might find him swinging in a breeze somewhere.”

"That's a terrible thought!" Chance looked stricken. "Wait... Where's the station's sweet spot?"

"Dead center," Reva said. She'd given up on getting the webbing out of her hair and was now pulling strands off the equipment around them. "Do you think we're in the wrong place?"

Reconsidering it, Chance shook his head. "She'd need to be close."

“It would take her forever to get all the way down there. I wonder, though, if I could sense something?” He stopped and grew quiet as he expanded his senses. Normally, that would mean chaos but here, deeper into the station, the excess noise was muted.

Vic leaned against the wall of the junction, watching Eli carefully, monitoring him.

Poking around, Chance asked Reva, "How close is Oz's - ah, Oralia Zeferino's - quarters?"

She paused and oriented herself. "Down that tube, two junctions."

Pulling out his flyswatter, he headed into that tube. A moment later, he could be heard shouting and cursing. The shouting grew louder as Chance scrabbled backward out of the tube.

“They’re just down--” Eli started to speak but Chance’s reappearance interrupted him. “There…” he finished. “It felt like a lot.”

"It was huge! Not like Iggy big, but big! And it had boxing gloves! What the fuck!" Chance was a little traumatized by what he'd seen.

“Boxing gloves?” Vic blinked in surprise. “Where would a spider get boxing gloves?”

“Is it Jerry?” Eli asked. “And were there babies? I sensed a buzz, like lots of minds...well more like white noise.”

"What? Oh no. Little ones. Oh gods. I just saw ...it must be Jerry. He's blonde. Smaller than Iggy, skinny, but his front legs have big bulbs on 'em." Chance swiped at webbing in his hair and neatly smacked himself in the head with his flyswatter.

Eli looked to Reva at that bit of information. “Any ideas why?”

"Me? No," she shook her head.

"Yeah - the males store sperm in their front feet," Chance said. "So Jerry is ready to do the deed, if he hasn't already. Eli, how about you go this time?"

“Oh peachy.” Vic rubbed the back of his neck and muttered. “Let’s go Eli. And you two,” he pointed to Reva and Chance, “figure out what we’re going to do with this thing.”

Eli moved on down the tube and Vic followed. Soon Chance and Reva were out of sight and sitting before them was Jerry. The Jerry. Vic gave a low whistle.

Eli nodded. “Yeah. Just imagine the possibilities. Chance said it could be hundreds.”

Not much bothered Vic but the mental image of hundreds of spiders crawling through the station gave him a case of the serious willies. “Okay, time to get this done.” He backed away and Eli came with him. When they returned, he shivered. “Okay gang, I think we need to find him and Iggy a honeymoon suite that will keep their ‘activities’ contained.

"Here," Chance pulled something from his belt. "I came prepared, former Boy Scout and all that." He held out a collapsible box. "Volunteers?"

Vic eyed the box, then Chance. “Yeah, yeah, I’m the oldest.” He took the box and started back down the tube. “But if you hear screams, come get me.”

"Yeah, I'll do that," Reva said, watching him go.

“Liar.” The word drifted back to them along with Vic’s laughter. Everything was quiet for several minutes, then a single word came back to them.

“Sonuvabitch!”

Reva ducked into the tube and quickly reached Vic's legs, "Need me to haul you out of here Vic?" She had her hand on his calf.

Riley is a lucky man, he thought and back behind them, he heard laughter once more. “I have Jerry in the box but Reva...scoot up here and take a look at this.” He moved over to make room for her.

She crawled up beside him and whispered, "Good thing Starfleet has me on inhibitors." She saw the box and how it shook. "Gods. That thing must be huge."

Vic raised an eyebrow at her. “More like a pity.” He immediately kicked himself. “And do not tell Riley I said that.”

"Riley who?" She laughed then spied what he'd had her crawl up here for. "Oh, crap. Is that what I think it is?"

“I think we've found Eli’s white noise. Can you pull it down? We have to get that thing closed up before they decide to hatch.” Vic wrinkled his nose as they looked at the large egg sac. “Ick.”

"You're going to owe me," she said then scooted forward and reached for the egg sac. "Eeewww," she pulled it down gingerly. "Okay, let's get back." This close, touching it, she could feel the white noise Eli had mentioned.

They returned to Chance and Eli with the box and egg sac in hand. “Okay Chance, take that off her hands and let’s get the hell out of here. Do you have any more of those habitats Reva?”

Horrified all over again, Chance produced another box and Reva carefully set the sac in it. "I do. We made a couple extra that are portable. They're in a cargo hold." She rubbed her hands on her pants trying to rid them of the spider silk. "Ugh. This has been the worst hunting party I've ever been on."

“Ditto,” Vic agreed. “Eli, hang back and see if you sense any more white noise in case there’s something we missed.”

“Will do. I’ll meet you all back at the Nexus.” He looked to Chance and smiled. “Now we need to figure out how to tell Iggy and Oz about this.”

"Jackson is supposed to do that, right?" Chance looked worried. "I'm going to hang back with Eli, guys."

“Oh...yes. Thank the fates for that.” He watched as Reva and Vic departed with the boxes, then turned back to Chance once they were alone. “I think we just dodged a big bullet, to use your phrase.”

"I think we just got left alone in a hard-to-access Jeffries tube," Chance said, pulling Eli close for a kiss.

Eli wrapped his arms around Chance, drawing out the kiss then he smiled. “I heard From Kh’ali earlier. She wants me to come to her office - she has good news she said.”

"Really? About your application?" He was pulling at Eli's shirt.

“Yes.” Eli’s breath quickened as his shirt fluttered to the floor of the tube. “So….I’ll go see about that…..later.”

"Yeah, later," Chance chuckled and made sure they didn't have any more intelligent conversation.

********************
Ensign Reva Madhava
Cadet Chance Conradi
Cadet Eli Ziyad
Vic