[snip]

As he looked off to the side he saw said ball just laying 5 inches away from Nessa, her attention though was on the nearby life support grate. Once Nessa heard Rick was near she looked back whined then barked again at the grate. It seems something was getting her attention and she felt was worth noting of being a threat or something.

GM CockRoach

“Good girl, Sergeant,” Rick said, hoping that was the right thing to say in this circumstance. He was plainly confused. Dogs had good noses. He got down onto hands and knees and peered at the grate, listening. He knew that at this angle he couldn’t see anything. But he was a small town boy, raised in the midst of the flowing prairies of Canada. He knew that ‘critters’ could get into places - but here? This was a ship essentially built in space. You didn’t have critters out here. Or was there? He turned his head to Nessa’s furry snout not far away. “What do you think?”

Nessa looked at Rick then at the crate, she gave a whine of some sort in reply, but seemed otherwise unsure how to proceed evidently letting him choose. Listening at the crate he could just faintly hear something scratching at the metal inside the duct work. It was faint to his hearing but there for sure. As he had thought the idea of a critter like a Earth based rat, or something getting onto the ship without notice was pretty rare. But then again Nessa got on here by some mess up maybe an inspector for foreign elements like a rat or something also messed up?

This was a storage bay. Surely he could find a light and a tool kit to take that grate off. “Guard,” he said to her as he got up to find those very things. The thought that there was something ‘dangerous’ in a ventilation duct didn’t occur to him. Maybe he should call Ensign Gagarin over and see what his paranoid mind thought of it. In time he did conjure up what he was looking for. With those in hand he returned to where Nessa was. “Shall we have a look, Sergeant?” he asked, turning on the light to try again to peer through the grate.

• Rick

Nessa crouched closer and slightly ahead of Rick on the floor by the grate, evidently ready to spring into action if something emerged to attack. Peering the light into the duct he caught a brief glance of something low to the metal plate scrabble out of sight deeper into the duct that went port-starboard on this area of the deck. From the brief glance he could be pretty sure it wasnt a rat/mouse it was too slim bodied. He could also be pretty sure the invader had six legs not four. The coloring on the body seemed darker toned too and he was pretty sure it wasn’t fur unless it was very short haired.

After the critter had departed beyond his range of sight and hearing he could just make out too inside the duct four feet in where it split to port-starboard what seemed a bit of tiny bones, what kind was impossible to say.

GM CockRoach