Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - B Deck - Sickbay
[snip]

Just then Nessa nearby stood up from her position she had been sitting at by the door. Her nose tilted up and sniffed then her eyes looked near to one of the ceiling vents. She gave a low growl and bark to get everyone’s attention before growling again. At first no one would hear anything, then a slight skitter sound was heard moving away from the vent duct and away from the medical bay. Given the fading pattern of the sound after a second it sounded like it was rising to go further aft down B deck, or perhaps up to A deck.

GM CockRoach

“What is it, girl?” Rick asked, then listened. He was just about to ask again when he heard it. His eyes widened as his senses tried to follow it. He cheated. His ears weren’t doing so good a job in following what seemed to him to be coming from all over and nowhere so he peeked at Nessa and turned his gaze to where she was looking. The vent yes but her gaze too was moving so he did the same. His mind tried to bring up the mechanical ductwork and where that was going to. The trouble was that ducts branched like veins in a body. “If that keeps going,” he said, “it might carry on aft. If it can climb it could go to A deck.” If. It had evidently climbed from the cargo bay. Unless there was more of them.

Rachel turned her attention to the dog and then looked in the direction of the sound “Interesting” She produced a scanner from her pocket and did a wide scan hoping to catch something of the fading creature “Have you tried using any of the internal sensors?” She asked the other two officers.

Dr. Grey - CMO

Rick shook his head. They’d just took a sample and frankly he was the only one who had seen it. Well, Nessa did too. Could the internal sensors even pick this up? Sensors tended to look out - or they looked for mechanical faults on a micro level. He scratched his nose and let the Lt answer that.

“Nope. Though I didn’t really quite know what to expect when I was told they had found something in the ducts.”

Eric looked over at Franks, “Were you able to get any genetic material out of the bite that we could use to scan the ship with?”

Lt Eric - Sci

Shaking his head, “..Not enough genetic material that isn’t the rats left, what little I do got is barely enough for a rough search database query, not enough to refine for the internal scanners to filter out everything else on the ship. Our scanners just aren’t up to that fine a resolution. We would need a bigger sample size of the creature in question. Only thing I could suggest is taking some hand scanners and huffing it out on foot, since it seems the doggo there can smell it maybe try that? Seem what happens..” he said.

Eric nodded, he hopped that they would have to be able to use the ship sensors, but he had sort of expected that it would be down to them hunting through the ship. “So, do you think Nessa is up for a bit of a bug hunt?” He said looking over at Rick.

Lt Eric - Sci

Rick glanced down at Nessa who looked far more eager than they to tackle what must have seemed to be an invasion into her patch. “I think so, Lt,” he said, hoping that was so, then directed his attention to Nessa. He didn’t see an evident command in the list that he had previously scanned that would fit this moment so he improvised. “Nessa. Seek. Find.”

As a way of getting ahead of a possible chase Rick went to the doors of the med bay and opened them.

-PO Rick Walters, Eng

Nessa gave a quick bark at the command, and soon as the doors opened sniffed then dashed down the corridor aft. The dog paused at a junction, sniffing, then glanced back to make sure folks were keeping up. Giving another bark, the dog continued aft, then stopping at the door to the decon chamber tech room, they could hear something like a muffled scream from inside. The brief scream was accompanied by what sounded like a physical fight inside the tech room. A light in the corridor showed the returning pod team was likely in the decon chamber further in....

Nessa rushed past Rick who paused at some astonishment at how fast she could be then, remembering that he was supposed to follow, moved quickly after her only to catch her ‘glance’ that was evidently judging him for being so slow and to maybe try being on all fours next time for some real speed. He followed behind wondering if it was a wise thing to do and then wondering why a small dog was seemingly more brave than he was. He skidded to a stop at the decon door where Nessa had halted by. “What is going on in there?!” he said, sure that his voice was an octave higher than it should be and his eyes a touch wider than normal. The party had returned. Had they brought something with them? Something that was going to eat him? Er, them?

Barking Nessa gave urgent barks and growls, she seemed to want to get into the room, but she couldn’t reach it. Instead she stood back a few feet growling threateningly ready to proceed as ordered.

GM CockRoach

He was called back to attention by Nessa who looked ready to scrap. Rick thought that he was ready too to do something that too started with an ‘s’ but steeled himself. Someone was in there. Ensign Serinde was on that party. Maybe she was being eaten by something. Maybe the mother of whatever they were following .. he took two quick breaths and reached for the door when suddenly to his surprise it opened. Was it coming through!?
PO Rick, Eng