The Calling of the Spider by Fleet Captain Keith Ketchum, Captain Skyler, Lt. K'etrall, Ensign Mary O'Donnell, Ming Vilya and Mir'ast'hera (and whomever joins in) "Captain, our guest would like to meet you. Could you meet us in engineering please. Skyler out." He sighed and then replied, "Very well, I will be down shortly." Standing and looking around, "I will be back up shortly, stay en route to the first planet, inform me when we arrive." "Aye Sir," the crew on the bridge advised. Entering the lift, "Main Engineering." The lift ride seemed to take longer than normal as he rode to the control center of the ship. Finally the lift opened, and he stepped out, tripping on the deck, because the lift hadn't stopped correctly, and was about four inches below the deck itself. As he stood back up, brushing himself off, he made a mental note that he would have to let someone in Engineering know about that. And since he was headed that way. Walking into the Engine room, he saw it, the spider was huge. Walking over to the assembled crew, "Mr. Garrity, the lift did not stop properly when I came down, would you have someone look into that." He didn't wait for an answer, as he turned to the spider. "Greetings, I am Fleet Captain Keith Ketchum, commanding officer of the Avalon. It is our pleasure to assist you and your ship to get back home." The new biped intrigued Mir'ast'hera, he didn't seem any different to the others. Wonder how he became Captain? She looked at him curiously, "And I am Mir'ast'hera of the R'ish'tk Science Nest. Your Ensign Garrity has been most informative. I believe her mate is looking after my vessel?" Mac snickered, wondering if the potential problem with that would occur to anyone but him and Vilya. Josh didn't just "look after" anything. It'd eat at him too much to leave it in what he'd consider "substandard" condition. Hell, he thought, that bug'll be lucky if she recognizes it at all by the time he's done 'looking after' it. Looking at the Captain Skyler just sorta smirked. She knew how he hated First Contacts and this was a doozy. "Well, Captain since you are now here, I believe I will leave you to tend to our guest. Enjoy yourself." Having said that Skyler turned and made her way back to the bridge where she could think in private. The arachnid looked at the departing woman and bobbed her eye-stalks. "Thank you." From her position beside Annabelle, Mary allowed herself a slight shudder. The size of the thing still slightly freaked her, and here she was again in an agitated state, holding a phaser rifle with the Captain present. She gave her commander a sidelong look and took a deep breath. Skyler turned and looked at Mir'ast'hera. For some reason she felt a kind of friendship with her. "If you need anything don't hesitate to call. I am sure you are in good hands." "He is your Captain, so I would hope so!" She clicked her mandibles and forelegs together and the translator let out a simulated laugh. Skyler looked at Mir'ast'hera and chuckled, "As I said if you need anything just let me know. Have fun." With that Skyler made her way out of engineering. Keith nodded, "We have narrowed down the possible planets that you came from to three in this region, and are currently en route to one of them to check it out." "Fun?" Mary muttered, "A spider the size of a bloody bus in main engineering and she says have fun?" K'etrall came out from behind the warp core where she had been checking the coils only to find a crowd of people and one very, very large spider. She immediately pulled out her d'tkang and was going to plunge it into the spider until she noticed that it appeared to be talking to everyone. The Klingon decided she would go back to her hidey hole and let them deal with the spider. Alright so he had a comm badge but Ming hated using the things. He preferred talking to his wife in person. He was actually looking for Josh, too, so visiting Engineering would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. He didn't see her immediately when he walked in but that was nothing unusual. He nodded to a few of the people he passed as he headed further in, vaguely wonder ing why they all seemed so...stunned. Not like I've never been here before, he thought. And they've seen me dressed like this so...stunned. Ta ma de! It was the biggest spider he'd ever seen. Without a word, he turned sharply on his foot and walked straight back out. Turning to the Captain, Mir'ast'hera lowered her thorax to look at him more closely. "Three worlds like mine? We dreamed of one day settling other worlds. To know there are two similar to our own nearby is wonderful news!" K'etrall had been lurking in the background and was listening in both with her ears and her senses. "Good God, three more worlds similar to hers. Three worlds with giant spiders. I wonder if they are all the same or if they come in different shapes and sizes." Not one to show fear, K'etrall felt her body tremble just slightly. She returned back to what she was doing, running boring diagnostics. "I'm sure that we can get you back to some other surroundings in the ship, and get to the first planet to check it out. Ms. O'Donnell, when you get a moment and she is ready to move on, will you take care of it? Good," not waiting for an answer, "I will be on the bridge if anyone needs me," to no one in particular, as he nodded to the spider and headed to the door. Hearing that Mary bit back venomous comment and her eyes narrowed at the Captain's retreating back. Shoulda zapped him when I had the chance, now I'm baby sitting the bloody thing!