Cold Comfort pt 7: Along Came a Spider
Posted on 19 Oct 2022 @ 6:42pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Command Master Chief Tāne HaiRoa
Edited on on 06 Feb 2024 @ 10:25pm
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: DSSO 717
Timeline: M3 - Backstory, following Cold Comfort pt 6: Sparks Will Fly
3620 words - 7.2 OF Standard Post Measure
Reflexively, Calliope rolled to one side as a claw like appendage drove into the control panel she'd been standing at a moment before. She dove under the console and made behind a wall of lattice work supporting various cabling as the screeching rose in pitch, some levels at which Calliope was certain she was unable to actually register. Enraged, her attacker drew up on rear legs to a full ten feet tall, all legs flailing out before reaching and yanking at the barrier between them, wrenching the cables out and creating massive arcs in the live wires.
"Holy Sh—" Calliope cut around to the other side of the spherical center mass, looking for any kind of cover or escape, but she'd effectively been cut off from making a path back to through the bay. The eight legged creature was circling in whatever direction Calliope fainted towards, threatening with powerful snaps of claws on it's strongest, upper most appendages.
It screamed again, frustrated with the standoff. Calliope wasn't too happy either, and watching the power countdown in her heads up was just compounding the situation.
As the arcing from the broken cables died down, Calliope noticed another light flashing— a constant sulfur yellow glow rising and falling in intensity, encircling the center mass of the angry creature containing her. Was it some kind of collar for this apparent Breen guard dog?
She fainted left far enough to get the creature to commit to a rush and then dodged the opposite direction, diving back under the relative cover of the control panel and making a grab for the nearest thing she had on her hover cart.
Just as four arms were closing in on her, Calliope sprang back upright and switched the laser cutter into a long arc, waving the sword of hot, arcing light from side to side as a warning.
The creature shrank back and it was then that the translator picked up on a Breen phrase, changing it into something in standard.
"She complies!" The translator seemed to think it was a plea, and a female in vocal translation tones.
Calliope stopped, still wielding the torch and then lurched slightly forward with one extra step. The creature recoiled at the sudden motion.
"You can speak the Breen Language?"
"She is complying." It said again, its arms forming up small against the body.
Calliope relaxed her torch arm. "Does she have a name?"
"She is of the Drellex. She is not knowing what is having a name."
"Okay, Drellex lady. Listen, I'm Calliope, of the Federation of Planets. The Breen, they took you from the rest of your kind, the Drellex?"
The Drellex surged forward but Calliope backpedaled and raised the torch, turning up the power for effect. Something about the aborted leap made Calliope think it was half-hearted.
"She must protect! Or She will be regretting not complying!"
"Your collar." Calliope looked closer where there were self inflected claw marks around the device. "They control you with that ring?"
"She hates it!" There was a great screeching again as she clawed at the ground with all her legs, peeling into the surface of the decking.
"Okay! Yeah. It's pretty cruel. Would... you let me try to get it off?"
The Drellex didn't answer at first, but seemed to grow calmer. "Only Jor-Breen key can remove it without venom death."
"Do you know where Jor keeps the key?"
"On Jor's self."
"How do you do in warmer temperatures?"
"She is slowed by the cold. She misses the heat of her own home stars."
"Slowed huh?" Calliope chuckled in spite of her own terror, imagining the Drellex moving even faster than she had just witnessed. "Listen, I'm going to turn off the torch. If you can help me disable Jor's ship, I know a place where you can hide, it's warmer, and the collar won't work there. I know a place where Jor can't make you comply. When my Federation friends return we can try to to send you back to your stars."
The Drellex did not answer exactly, But Calliope saw a shift in her arachnid body language, spidery appendages moving into a slightly more comfortable gesture, and a tapping of a foot in a slow rhythm that might have been like clapping an agreement.
"Okay, Calliope's a friend of the Drellex. And She is a friend of Calliope. I'm trusting you to trust me."
The space suited officer stood under the rising shadow of the Drellex and she turned off the laser torch. Trust was all they had between them. And for one moment, as the exoskeleton arms descended over her like a cage, she was uncertain if she'd made a fatal error in that trust....
.... But to Calliope's immense relief, the Drellex just happened to find it more convenient to step over than around her.
Calliope watched her time tick down. She'd spent half of it making friends."I've got less than twelve minutes, now."
"She is not knowing what is having minutes."
"I won't waste either of our time explaining it." Calliope said as she found a safety kill switch and hit it. The core began a power down sequence, and the spiraling energy died down , sucking back into the core unit. The room felt even colder than it already was once the reactor ran into a low state. Something inside was still reacting, but it was clear she'd disengaged the power to the ship.
"Can you just finish pulling out the rest of the power cables? I think you've already done half of the work here." Calliope requested.
The Drellex seemed all too happy to participate and to lay to ruins to what had amounted to her prison. Calliope let her get creative at uprooting and slashing things. Spider lady had some additional screaming to amend her physical effort. It reminded Calliope of some of her own best therapy sessions.
Meanwhile Calliope resumed the laser cutter and made haste across the bay to the lone shuttle. There was no obvious way aboard the locked up and shut down vessel. So turning the laser cutter to full, she decided on efficiently punching a series of drilled holes into what looked like engine manifolds.
Her battery counter was running down, only 3 minutes, but she couldn't help herself and took an extra moment to scribe CZ+LQ across a view port low enough for her to reach, making sure to compromise the integrity of the plating. "I think that does it," she said proudly. "No, wait." She etched a heart around it. "There, that's better. Nothing says I love you like some personalized vandalism."
With a clatter, Calliope threw the spent laser cutter aside and waved to the Drellex who was having an equally good time dismantling things.
"Come on, sister. I have to get back to the Station atmosphere. And we have to hide you before the ion storm lets Jor activate your collar again."
As they got to the ramp, Calliope saw a panel that reminded her an awful lot of a computer core casing. "Excuse me, Friend Drellex. Can you pry this off for me?"
The spider reached around the space suited woman such that it felt to Calliope she had six spindly arms growing out of her own back and then with incredible strength ripped the panel completely out of the bolts, top to bottom, casting it over the rail of the ramp.
Calliope looked over the array of core rods. "Eenie meenie, miny moe," she sing-songed as she random selected as many as she could from seemingly important looking junctures, stuffing them into her suit's utility pockets like hoarding treasure from the vault.
"Eenie meenie, miny moe." The Drellex sang in mimic, randomly also unplugging more chips and casting them to the floor like confetti.
Calliope winced. The sound was terrifying. "You're a singer, huh?"
"Drellex love to sing," she confirmed.
The clock on her visor was flashing zeros right before all of the displays winked completely out, but Calliope hardly needed the counter as the biting cold began to overcome the suit.
"Okay, that's really it." Patting her pockets, Calliope began to run for the exit with the Drellex quickly out pacing her to the airlock.
Something broke out of the mist, a limb— long and pointed, then a second, a third, a fourth and fifth and more! Above the limbs came something else, rounded, dark, with eyes, too many eyes and fangs!
HaiRoa's mouth dropped open. There was a huge spider coming out of the Airlock!
New Zealand had some large spiders, some of the Fishing ones were bigger than your hand, but this...
He pulled the trigger!
The bolt shot down the corridor, but aiming from his hip, it went wide and slammed into the frame of the Airlock, sparks flew and the metal glowed red.
The spider froze for a moment, then saw him and scuttled forward. It clattered down the corridor, all eight legs propelling it fast, too damn fast!
It lunged forward then ducked right into an open cargo bay door.
But in the mist there was more movement behind it, another one?
A darkly outlined suited form appeared like a shadow at first. It raised it's hands over head, then unlatched the helmet with one hand, yanking it back and letting it drop out of her hands.
The face was Humanoid and green!
"Damn it Bosun!" She twisted and yanked off one of the gloves, throwing it to the floor. "You scared her!"
HaiRoa was momentarily stumped, then spluttered "I scared her?!
"I promised her protection. But now if she doesn't come back, I can't hide her!"
"You're protecting the giant... thing.... with all the legs and.... whatever the hell that was?!" HaiRoa was baffled
"A Drellex!" Calliope chucked the other glove down the corridor and started ripping off the suit, eager for the added freedom of movement. The Breen would know she'd been on their ship and this was going to become a hot spot. Hastily she poured the contents of her EVA suit's pockets out on the deck and snatched them back up— first the knife which she clipped back on her belt, then handfuls of computer chips into her service jacket. "You got the heat back on at least. Malmrose and Rowle?"
"We're here" Malmrose stuck his head around the elevator door, his arm supporting Rowle. "They beat Rowle up pretty good, he can't walk."
Calliope dropped the last handful of chips and struggled to get each one back off the deck, her fingers feeling stiff, fiery hot, and inarticulate. She was involuntarily shaking all of a sudden too, surging with relief that they were all still alive. "It's good to hear your voice, Jack!" She called back, then said, "Good work, HaiRoa. Good work."
HaiRoa slung the rifle over his shoulder and walked down to her, keeping one eye on the doorway the creature had scuttled into.
"You've been busy, they ain't going anywhere without those!" he looked over the chips and gave her a quick update on events, Two Breen down in the cargo bay, two on the Command Deck and some more trapped in the elevator.
"We can get down to Nine, seal it off and hold out until the Scorpion returns," He concluded. "What about your.... friend?" He nodded his head at the Drellex's cargo bay.
"We don't have time to chase her, and I can't leave her alone for Jor to hurt... But I have an idea." Calliope was out of room in her pockets and stuffed the last of them into her shirt collar. Finally she kicked the EVA suit aside and ran down the hall to the cargo bay the Drellex had ducked into.
She started calling out with her hands cupped around her mouth. "Friend Tane is sorry he shot at you! He didn't know who you were." She called into the dark. "Tell her you're sorry, Tane."
"I'm what?!" He caught her look and rolled his eyes, sighing he added "Yeah, I'm er..sorry..."
There was no answer at first, but Calliope thought she saw the yellow glow of the obedience collar in the distance, on the ceiling.
Calliope began singing, her voice echoing around off the dark walls of the auditorium sized bay. "The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out—" She motioned for HaiRoa to help her sing.
HaiRoa shook his head. "I don't.... " but got the look again.
"—Out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again."
He managed to join in the last line "... the spout again"
The yellow glow dropped to the floor with the sound of eight claws on decking. Then as a tapping sound was approaching, an eerie imitation of the nursery rhyme was repeated back, as if it were played on a very out of tune violin with accompaniment by glass etching glass.
"The Drellex love to sing," Calliope explained, her teeth grit.
"That's singing? And I thought I was bad" HaiRoa shook his head.
The giant spider came into the light and paused, it's mandibles moving and head tilted in curiosity. "Friend Calliope has molted!"
"Uh, yeah. I molted. C'mon, we have to get to the safe place before Jor comes back."
"What is this thi... is she? Some sort of Breen pet?" HaiRoa asked, looking up at the huge arachnid.
"Long story short, She's been captured by Jor and used like a junkyard dog with an obedience collar that can't be removed without a dose of poison." Calliope summarized. "I managed to fend her off long enough for us to try talking and she decided to help when I offered to protect her."
Once he found out the creature had been enslaved to Jor his demeanor changed. "Oh right, we won't be letting them take you again!" he affirmed and led the way back to the elevator.
"Slight problem, she's not going to fit in the elevator..." HaiRoa pointed out, then motioned to the open shaft next door. "Think you can climb down there? We're going all the way to the bottom deck."
The Drellex yanked off the hatch like a bottle cap, then grabbed the sides of the opening and folded up to disappear within. She could be heard singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider and walking on the walls bellow.
Calliope got into the lift quickly and looked around, noticing right away that he Lift was huge. Big enough for a few Drellex. It was a cargo elevator after all. HaiRoa might have wanted to help the Drellex, Calliope decided to herself, but that didn't mean he trusted her. She looked him in the face as he followed in behind her and she thought about how the heavy face tattoos spidered out like long legs over his brows.
"...Not enough room?" she echoed while HaiRoa closed off the lift gates.
"You sure we can trust Itsy-Bitsy there?" HaiRoa responded quickly, tapping the down button. "It might be enslaved by the Breen, but as long as it's got that collar on its likely to do what they want!"
Calliope frowned, but she knew better than to argue his point.
As the lift descended, she knelt by Rowle and winced, looking him over. The swelling in his face was bad, and the way he was crumpled in pain made her sure he had to have broken ribs or something. She tried to find a place on his arm to touch and reassure him by. "We're getting to safety," she started to say, but it was like he could barely hear her through the pain. She thought she saw him nod faithfully.
She looked back up to watch the lift count the decks down to 9. Partly because it was painful to look at Rowle, and partly because she was trying to figure out how not to let frustration over take her. She had to think positively. Their distraction had worked. HaiRoa had recovered Jack and Rowle. The Breen weren't going to be able to leave with all of the damage she and the Drellex had caused. Which meant that they now had to prepare to hold out against them.
There was a slow rumble through the quiet lift and Calliope considered that there were much longer pauses between the buffets of the ion storm now. "I think the storm is letting up," she said.
HaiRoa nodded, he leaned against the side of the elevator, trying to massage some feeling back into his right arm. So far it was still completely numb and useless. "I guess it won't matter if they get their sensors back, they are going to work out where we are soon enough. How long until the Skorpion's due, eight, nine hours?"
Calliope shook her head. "Still maybe twenty plus, until the planned pick up. But if we can get off a distress signal, nine hours might be as long as it should take them to make it here with a security team on a couple of shuttles. What's wrong with your arm?"
"Breen stun beam" HaiRoa replied "I thought she was going to put my lights out, but just clipped me with the edge of the beam. Damn thing's numb from the shoulder down, can't feel a thing!" He was hoping it would wear off soon, before he really needed to use it.
"I'm glad you're okay. That was close," Calliope acknowledged, trying not to panic over thinking how this situation might stand if the Breen aimed slightly more center. "That was too close."
The elevator came to a halt and opened. "Let's get Rowle off and settled. Can you disable the elevator eL-Tee?" HaiRoa asked Zhan.
"I can cut the power to it." She affirmed, using her numb fingers to pry off the maintenance panel. Her fingertips were swollen and dark, but she did her best to manipulate the circuit switchers. When the rest of the team were out of view, she took a moment to flex and baby her fingers. They really continued to hurt and she was suspecting maybe she'd gotten the start of some frost bite. "Stupid." She murmured to herself. Rowle was pulped, Jack lamed, and HaiRoa had been partly paralyzed and here she was babying some sore fingers. She reached back into the panel to finish cutting the circuit.
HaiRoa helped Malmrose lift Rowle and they walked him out. The increased heat on this deck was instantly welcome. "There's a store room next to the reactor." HaiRoa recalled it from when they had first arrived "Let's set up in there."
The Drellex was poking around in the corridor, now it seemed to be humming to itself, or at least what passed for humming in Drellex. As long as it stayed out there. HaiRoa did not want it anywhere near the reactor. If they lost that they would die from cold and lack of life support long before the ship returned.
A couple of moments later HaiRoa and Malmrose reported back to Zahn. "There's six ladder shafts we need to block off, then we just need to worry about these elevator shafts"
Calliope took a deep breath and walked out of the darkened lift car. Having left her coat behind, she was grateful for the warmth on the engineering deck. "Okay. Let me just show the Drellex where to keep to, so Jor can't signal her collar behind the computer core shielding. Jack, get us some welding torches. And some SIF enhancer modules if you can find them."
"On it, Lieutenant." Malmrose limped off at a clip, and had some ideas where to start looking.
"Jor?" She heard her name being called and struggled to become conscious. Her vision cleared and she saw Djutn's helmet leaning over her visor.
She pushed him away. "Let me up!" she snarled and sat up, her head span from the stun she had taken but she would not show weakness in front of her crew. She shook her head to clear it and looked around. They were all there, Gatch and two of the others were also sat on the floor.
"They bested all of us?!" She snapped and clambered to her feet, waving away a helping hand. "How?"
"They set up an ambush on Deck Seven.." Djutn explained events, how they had failed to capture the remaining two Federation crew, had two incapacitated and had then been trapped in the cargo elevator, until they could climb out on the next deck.
"The prisoners?" She demanded, already knowing the answer
"Gone" Gatah said groggily
Jor cursed, then noticed the readouts in her visor, her suit was working hard to keep her cool "They are warming the station?"
"Yes, Ak'ched, they disabled the controls here. We are unable to change the environmental systems, or shut down the reactor"
Jor staggered over and slumped in one of the control room seats, looking over the smashed panels.
"Ak'ched, there is something else..." Djutn said quietly
"What?!" She demanded, not liking his tone
He pointed to the transceiver on her belt, it was flashing an alert code. "They were on the ship"
"On my ship!" Jor exploded "How dare they!" She paused "But then my little pet will have been waiting for them..."
Behind her helmet she smiled and got to her feet, feeling reinvigorated already.
"Get up!" she urged the others, giving one a kick for motivation. "Down to the ship!"
