Posted by Commander Heather Grace (Executive Officer/Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - E Deck - Cargo Bay 1 Bug Hunt

Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - E Deck - Cargo Bay 1 Bug Hunt
[snip]

OOC: Finally retitling this thread :P

“Sometimes, but thankfully I’ve been able to make pretty frequent trips back home. But I think it helps that I joined Starfleet specifically to get out and explore, it’s one of the reasons that drove me to be a scientist. So I honestly still get excited every time I leave for another assignment. You never know what we will find!”

Once they reached the cargo bay, Eric popped up the scanner and started looking around. “So where did you see this creature?”

Lt Eric -Sci

The lights had auto dimmed when it detected no movement and slowly the rose in illumination as they entered. Rick paused to let his eyes adjust and reorient himself. “Toward the back,” he said, pointing. “Behind that line of crates is a ventilation duct. I left Nessa there to keep watch.” He slowly threaded his way through the Bay that felt more like his father’s garage than a storage bay. Or was that the other way around? “Just back here,” he said, leading. “Nessa?” he called.

At Nessa’s call the dog gave a crisp bark from behind one crate they were coming towards then came around. After a second the dog sat on its haunches giving a tilt of its head to the man, her tail slightly wagging back and forth.

GM CockRoach

Rick knelt down and with both hands gave her a scratch to both sides of Nessa’s head and saying, “Good girl.” in the form that he had seen Barb’s parents use with their dogs. He really wasn’t sure if he did it right but it seemed a fair impersonation of it. “Let’s go and see what there is,” he added before standing up. “It’s just around here, Lt,” he said to Eric. Leading the way he knelt down at the grill. Fishing out a small flashlight from his kit he flicked it on and made room for Eric to look. Inwardly he was quietly praying that what he had seen before in the way of the bones were still there and that he’d not be put down to some kind of crazy person making things up. Flashing the light in Rick took another look. He hadn’t thought of doing this earlier. Truth to tell he was shocked and just a little freaked out. If there was nothing there he’d be even more freaked out! But Nessa had alerted him to it. “Nessa found it first,” he said as though the canine could be a valid witness to collaborate his testimony.

• Rick

Nessa seemed pleased with the head scratch and petting. Seeing then the group was doing something worked based she moved off to the side staying about 10ft to the right of their work and investigation.

As Rick leaned down to shine the light in he thankfully did see the bones and bit of grissle remains just inside the vent. It was a bit further back but he might be able to reach his one arm in and with a bit of effort reach it to pull it out by hand. Of course that would put his fingers and hand being exposed to the dark grey unknown to left and right of the vent. Something which might use that to nibble or shred his fingers or hand!

“I think we can just reach it when I get the grating cover off,” he said as his other hand fished for the multi-driver in his bag. He did not relish sticking his arm in there. A hundred different dangers centering around that six legged creature moved about in his mind like shadowy fingers. Those thoughts warred with the image of a resolute and fearless cocker spaniel who wanted to go a round with it and he felt rather ashamed by his own trepidation.

Eric nodded as he walked towards the grill. He scratched Nessa behind the ear as he passed, before pulling a flashlight out of his own pocket. He pointed the scanner towards the grill as he shined his flashlight in.

“Where did you see the bones?” He was slowly scanning his flashlight around the interior trying to home in on them.

Lt Eric - Sci

“Right there, sir, yes, just to your left,” Rick said squinting and shifting for a better position.

Eric could also see what was mentioned above, and could do the same to reach in for it. Scanner results showed they were indeed bones and organic bits of some kind, but since the scanner was not of a medical type it could not say much more then that. It could though confirm that no other living organism seemed to be nearby in the vent currently so their hand and fingers should be safe right?

GM CockRoach

“Ah there they are,” Eric said as the light settled on the bones. He took a look down at his scanner, nothing conclusive yet, they were definitely going to need to take a sample back for further analysis. It might be even better to take it over to sickbay as use their imaging bay. Maybe the doc would have some ideas on what it was.

Opening the pocket on his leg, Eric slid the scanner in and brought out a pair of latex gloves and a sample bag he kept in there. He passed his own light over to Rick before sliding on the gloves. They still didn’t know exactly what it was, so it was better to be cautious in this situation.

Rick put his light down and worked the screws holding the grating in place. Big enough for small things to pass through it needed to get off before anything much bigger passed through it like an arm. “One moment, sir,” Rick said, easily taking out the screws one by one, the operation made easier by the fact that the ship was in essence new and it hadn’t had a chance to get old and ornery. Setting the grill to one side he took the Lt’s light and shone it back into the duct, first broadly to get a look and then focused on the remains of whatever that was that was there. “That almost looks like a rat,” he said. “Small enough for it. We had those back home. Usually saw those with their skin on though.”

“Hold the light there while I try to grab a sample to take down to sickbay. I’m hoping the doc might be able to give us some more info.”

He slowly reached his hand in to the vent to try and grab the remains and pull them out.

Lt Eric - Sci

Rick, CPO Engineer