<USS Avalon> "The Spider Cometh: The Arrival" (Hope I got everyone's names if not I'm sorry)

"The Spider Cometh: The Arrival"
Fleet Cpt. Ketchum, Captain  Skyler, Lt's Garrity, Davis, Vilya, McEntire, 
Ensign's O'Donnell, Garrity &  Jericho, & Mir'ast'hera
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Captain Ketchum, we have brought the alien vessel aboard and it is  currently 
in the shuttle bay." 
 
Boy that woman gets around, "Understood, Commander, enjoy first  contact."
 
Gee thanks! I swear that man is never around and he should be leading this  
first contact, after all he is the Captain. Oh well, sighed Skyler. She 
returned  to Mir'ast'hera's quarter's and rang the chime. Ensign O'Donnell was 
next 
to  her, hopefully more relaxed than she had been previously.
 
"Mir'ast'hera it is Commander Skyler, I thought you would like that tour of  
the ship now. We can start in Engineering first if you like?" Skyler patiently 
 waited for an answer.

The arachnid had spent most of the time marveling at the replicator.  "Very 
well Commander, as long as it doesn't disrupt the running of your  vessel."
 
"Don't worry it won't. Whenever you are ready we can leave." Damn I hate  
these magnetic boots.
 
Georgia was heading toward Skyler's quarter's to see how things were with  
her when she had heard the announcement to clear the halls. She wondered what  
that was all about. She ducked into a passageway off the main corridor's and  
waited to see what transpired. She had heard about the large ship that had been 
 brought on board and was curious as to what it's occupant looked like.
 
To make sure there were no problems Skyler decided that perhaps additional  
security might be required. She had plenty of faith in Ensign O'Donnell but 
what  could one more hurt. Tapping her comm badge she called security. "Ensign  
Davis please report to the guest quarter's immediately."

Vevay frowned as she tapped her comm.  "Sure..."  Taking one  last check of 
her pips just to make sure, she shook her head slightly and headed  out.
 
Skyler tapped her badge one more time, this time it was to warn engineering  
that they were on their way. "Engineering, this is Cmdr. Skyler, I will be  
arriving with Mir'ast'hera, whose ship we just brought aboard and is currently  
in the shuttle bay. Everyone will need to wear magnetic boots and just to warn 
 you she is a rather large spider like creature with three eyes. If possible 
I  would like her to be given a tour of engineering and someone to check out 
her  ship. We shall be arriving shortly."
 
Taking a deep breath Skyler tapped her badge one more time. "Captain  
Ketchum, this is Cmdr Skyler, we are on our way to engineering if you would 
care  to 
join us?" Skyler knew he would end up sitting on the bridge and leave this to  
her much to her dismay. She looked at Ensign O'Donnell and asked, "Are you 
ready  Ensign?"
 
Magnetic boots, Vilya, grumbled.  I hate those things.  Spiders I  can deal 
with, she thought as she went to the equipment locker.  The boots,  though....
 
"Ready as I'll ever be Ma'am." The copper-haired Ensign breathed as the  huge 
spider emerged. Graceful despite it's size!
 
Mir'a looked down at the two humans and preened her eye-stalks. "Lead on  
Commander......."
 
Skyler started walking in her clunky boots hating every minute of it. "So,  
Mir'a is this your first warp flight? I can honestly say that I haven't seen  
anyone quite as large as you in a spacecraft. How long did it take you to 
design  it?"
 
As they were walking down the hall Skyler could sense people opening their  
doors to get a look at their guest. She just hoped that they were smart enough  
to remain where they were and not jump out into the hallway unannounced. "I  
don't mean to be nosey Mir'a, but what exactly is that substance on your  
legs?"


"It helps to clean particulates off my legs and body."
 
"You heard her," Josh sighed to the engineers, nodding that the should all  
follow Vilya to the equipment locker. 
 
"Best behavior, kiddies, companies coming." Mac sang out with a laugh as he  
donned the magnetic monstrosities.
 
Coming to the end of the hall they reached the turbolift and stopped. How  
the hell are we going to get her in there?  "I think instead of taking the  
lift 
that we would be better off if we did a site to site transport. As soon  as 
Lt. Davis joins us we will beam down to engineering. Lt. Garrity, we  will be 
beaming to your department in just a moment. Please make a space of  
approximately 10 feet available clearance for us to beam in to. Let me know as  
soon as 
you are ready."

 
Mary stood there eyeing the spider until she realized it was doing the same  
to her.
 
Josh nodded in response, as if she could see him, and directed the space be  
cleared quickly before tapping his com and answering softly. "The room is 
clear.  Beam in when ready."
 
 
Vevay turned the corner and smiled at everyone.  "Hello, you  called?"
 
Turning at the sound of the voice Skyler spoke, "Welcome, glad you could  
make it. Ensign Davis this is Mir'ast'hera or Mir'a for short. We will be  
escorting her to engineering for a tour. Now, if everyone is ready, Computer  
site 
to site transport to engineering." Within a few short seconds everyone  
appeared in engineering. Skyler looked at Mir'a to make sure she was okay.
 
Josh and his team stood at attention as the visitor was beamed in. Once  they 
were solidified, he approached Skyler nervously. "Ma'am." He greeted her in  
a voice only just audible.

"Hi," Vevay said cheerfully.  "I'm Lieutenant Davis."  She tapped  her pips 
cheerfully.  "Got promoted."
 
Mary looked at her direct superior and rolled her jade green eyes.





"Congratulations  Lt. Davis. Lt. Garrity if you would be so kind could you 
please introduce your  team to Mir'a. Mir'a this is the engineering crew of the 
Avalon. They are the  best around and will be able to tell you more about this 
ship and it's workings  then I can. If you have any questions don't hesitate 
to ask."  Skyler stood  off to the side to watch the interaction.  

Josh's eyes widened at the direction and he wondered for a moment if he  
could get away with just introducing Mac and then letting him do the talking.  
That fantasy went on only as long as it took for Skyler to make it obvious she  
was watching. Sighing in resignation he began in his typically quiet tones  
despite his best efforts to be louder. "Welcome aboard, ma'am. I'm Lieutenant  
Garrity. This is Lieutenant McEntire, Lieutenant Li, Ensign Garrity, and Ensign 
 
Jericho."
 
Annabelle clopped out of the back room with the damn boots on and nearly  
screamed at the sight of the large spider. Good lord do we have a newspaper big 
 
enough to smash that.
 
"Sick bay to Lt. Davis, please report to sick bay right away." 
 
O'Donnell looked at the Lieutenant with almost pleading eyes.
 
Mir'ast'hera took in the large room. "Lieutenant Garrity, is your entire  
staff male?"
 
Josh looked confused a moment before shaking his head. "No, ma'am.  
Lieutenant Li and Ensign Garrity are both females of their species."
 
Annabelle looked down at her breasts and then up at the spider and  blinked.
 

Skyler looked at Lt. Davis for a moment. "Lt. you are dismissed to report  to 
sickbay. If this call is in regard to my sister could you please let me  
know." 
 
 
 
Turning to look at Mir'a Skyler spoke, "Actually there are quite a few  
members of our crew that are male. Is that a problem for you Mir'a?"
 
"No, not a problem. Just unusual, and it is difficult for me to ascertain  
which are male and female unless you speak to me."
 
"Lt. Garrity, Mir'a's ship is in shuttle bay one. It sustained some damage  
and I was hoping you would be able to check it out for her. I'm sure one of 
your  other staff members could conduct the tour."
 
Joshua nodded, grateful for the chance to get away from the crowd. "Ensign  
Garrity will show you around, if that's acceptable," he told the spider  
creature, then excused himself quickly and headed toward shuttle bay one.
 
Annabelle blinked as she watched her husband slip out the door. But I hate  
spiders! "Actually, Lts. Li and McEntire are the Sr. officers."
 
"Yes, Ensign, which would be why we are needed to supervise the operation  of 
the department while Lieutenant Garrity is seeing to out guest's shuttle,"  
Vilya said deadpan.  She hated tours and she hated magnetic boots, too. In  
this case, she was going to go by the old Starfleet acronym:RHIP.  She did,  
though, offer the arachnoid a slight nod and smile.  "Ma'am, in most  
Humanoids, 
the females develop breasts at puberty and keep them."  She  narrowed blue eyes 
at Mac mentally telling him 'Shut up, McEntire.'
 
Mac almost choked at Li's statement, and the look didn't help. "And on that  
cue," he said, trying hard not to laugh. "We'll get back to it. Enjoy your  
tour..." Looking at Jericho didn't help, as the poor man appeared to be having  
the having the same problem. Both men hurried back to work as quickly as they  
could move in the magnetic monstrosities on their feet.

"So Ensign  Garrity," Mir'ast'hera said formally, "how do you power a ship 
this big?"
 
Annabelle was going to harm each one of them physically, slowly, and  
painfully for this. "Well, Ma'am," She began as she waved towards the warp core 
 and 
then walked that way. "This Avalon is a modified Intrepid class vessel. We  
travel at warp and impulse. Our warp drive is a First-Run  Advanced Propulsion 
Drive, APD-01, designed by the ASDB and developed by  Mercurion Inova Inc. This 
lighter, high-power core utilizes swirl technology  instead of a reaction 
chamber. Additional improvements to Plasma  Transfer Conduit technology makes 
the 
drive system energy efficient and allows  for the variable warp geometry 
evinced by its maneuverable nacelles. Improved  verterion coil manufacture 
allows 
for smaller nacelles producing superior warp  fields." Annabelle pointed up at 
the warp core, Josh's baby for now. "The  impulse engines are outfitted with 
twin fusion-powered  Krayne-19 impulse drives mounted on the aft section of 
the nacelle pylons. Built  by Krayne Industries, the K-19 drives were specially 
designed for the Intrepid  class with tolerances built-in for the mobile 
nature of their mounts, as well as  variable ethereal vanes for direction of 
hydrogen flow. The impulse engine can propel an  Intrepid class Starship at 
speeds 
just under .25c, at Full Impulse and an upper  ceiling of .80c at three 
quarters the speed of light. Generally, Starfleet  Vessels are restricted to 
.25c 
speeds to avoid the more dramatic time dilation  effects of higher relativistic 
speeds. However, such restrictions can be  overridden at the behest of the 
ship's captain." Turning to look at the spider  she once again tried not to 
shudder.
 
The  language was very technical and but Mir'ast'hera gathered most of it. 
"And power  storage to run all your displays and machines?" She motioned with 
her  forelegs.
 
"We have  two AC-15 computer cores which are powered by bio-neural gel 
packs." Annabelle  answered
 
"Bio-neural gel?" The Aarchnid clicked her mandibles and  forelegs together.


 

Annabelle walked over and picked up a spare pack and held it up. "BNGs  are 
mounted at strategic locations along the ODN pathways, each  BNG consists of an 
artificial bio-fluid that allows transmission of neural  signals. The heart 
of the BNG is a packet of neural clusters, grown copies of  strands similar to 
those found in the brains of sentient beings. These clusters  give the ship's 
computer instinctive data processing and routing ability as well  as allowing 
the ship's computer to utilize fuzzy logic to speed up probability  
calculations much as a living, breathing entity would."
 
Preening  herself again and realizing it probably had something to do with 
the oxygen  richness of the atmosphere, Mir'ast'hera looked closely at the 
substance. "A  synthetic-organic brain. Fascinating!"



"They work great to until they contract  a contagion and then the damn ship 
ends up with a cold." Annabelle  smirked.
 
The spider bobbed her eye-stalks, "And this has happened  before? Is there 
any prevention?"
 
"It's rare. We run daily diagnostics, and change the packs  on at regular 
intervals." She answered.
 
"And it must be a never-ending task."
 
Annabelle nodded. "Which is why we have a whole department  just for taking 
care of the ship."
 
"And how many bipeds does it take to operate this wonderful  vessel of yours?"
 
"We have a crew in total of 140, give or take." Annabelle  answered.


"That many? I don't think my people would  be able to construct a vessel big 
enough to house so many!" She clicked  mandibles. "I am one of the smaller of 
my race!"
 
"We're one of the smaller ships. We have some that  carry over 1,000 people." 
I'm going to have nightmares for a month... They  come BIGGER? 
 
"One thousand?" The arachnid lowered her forelegs to get closer to  the biped 
and focused on her with all three eyes. "That is really  astounding."
 
Annabelle stepped back. "Yeah it  is."

 
Mary, seeing Ensign Garrity's discomfort, decided to show some solidarity  
and moved up beside her. 
 
Standing  off to the side Skyler was impressed with Ensign Garrity's 
knowledge of the ship  and how it's engines worked. She would have to speak to 
the 
Captain about a  possible promotion. She could see that Mir'a was quite 
interested in everything  around her. 

 
"So Mir'a what do you think of our ship thus  far?"
 
"It is most impressive, as are your people. Do you think it would be  
possible to meet your Captain?"

 
"I will put a call into him and inform him that you would like to meet  him." 
Skyler tapped her comm badge, "Captain, our guest would like to meet you.  
Could you meet us in engineering please. Skyler out." Now if he would just  
respond and make an appearance.

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