Chapter 4 - Lost in the Void

Graham patiently tries to contact the Vagabond, but to no avail, his calls remain unanswered. Also the scans yield no new information. The Vagabond is not leaking radiation or heat and definitely isn't actively scanning itself, as far as he can tell with the, frankly rather crude, scanners and sensors on the Undertow.

Rena steps towards what could be interpreted as up on the ship, even though that is certainly a very subjective interpretation in zero G. there are only very few actual portholes on this ship. The closest is a little to the side of the ship and on the upper half. It takes Rena a bit to climb up, but eventually she makes it. Inside she can see what seems to be a galley. The room is dimly lit by orange/red emergency lighting and completely deserted. It is very hard to make out details. It seems like it is not very tidy on the galley but whether that is due to lack of discipline on sides of the crew, or whether some activity caused the scene Rena cannot tell.

Taelor and Lola carefully round the airlock. It is a large airlock, obviously used not only for people but cargo as well. The heavy door is half open and dim emergency light shines outside. As Taelor peeks inside she can see the large airlock to be properly sealed towards the inside of the ship. Everything inside the airlock is properly secured and in place. Taelors best expert guess is that someone cycled the airlock properly, but stopped it three quarters through the process. But to know for sure, she knows she'd need to enter the airlock itself. It

Taelor looks up at Lola. "Technically, since it's open, the inside of the airlock is part of the exterior, right?" She asks with a grin. "Cover me," she says before pulling herself into the airlock's chamber. She looks around for the controls, then heads over to figure out what's going on with them.

Gracefully Taelor pushes herself into the airlock. It is a fairly plain 'room' with only a few things inside. A set of four security tethers are properly rolled up and ready to use on the side of the airlock. An emergency toolkit is safely strapped to the wall. The controls seem to be functional, in fact there is no sign of damage, forced entry or exit or anything amiss. Only the display of the controls plainly states "Cycle incomplete, manual override triggered."
But it seems Taelor could cycle the airlock back and enter the ship. However that would like be hard to be justified as "exterior".

Elan watches over Graham's shoulder. He's interested in this whole piloting thing. Seems like a skill that might prolong your life. Long ago Elan decided to live forever or to die in the attempt.

"What's this button do?" he asks Graham, pointing at the console. "Are those the thrusters?

"What about this one? Is that the button the boosts our ownership of STEGO from 50% to 67%? You can fly this thing, right?"

Graham is reasonably sure that Elan is joking. Probably. Mostly likely.

Tecumseh wrote:

"What's this button do?" he asks Graham, pointing at the console. "Are those the thrusters?

"What about this one? Is that the button the boosts our ownership of STEGO from 50% to 67%? You can fly this thing, right?"

Graham gives Elan a sidelong glance, and a slightly nervous laugh. "Really? Now you're asking? With three crew dangling by a thread
on a spacewalk?" He presses the left side of his mustache. "Hey, those three didn't put the cat in a vac suit and take it with
them, did they?"

Graham ponders for a moment. "You know, if we need to bug out in a hurry, we might have to pull the girls in right quick. Could you hop into a vac suit in case
somebody needs to step into the airlock and haul on the tether? It beats trying to scramble into a vac suit during an emergency, I suppose, and I'd feel
better if you were suited up as their anchor man."

Graham gets on the ship comm. "Nazir, get yourself into a vac suit, if you don't mind, and bring another one up to the bridge."

It's not exactly a sense of foreboding, just a feeling of a lack of preparation that hits Graham's sensibilities. "A bit too cavalier",
he thinks, pushing the thoughts into action.

"Emergency lightning, and a dining area messier than ours the morning after Lola's welcome party." She thinks for beat, then adds. "Almost. Other than that, all quiet."

The good doctor makes her way back to the others by the airlock and nods. "Only one way to find out for sure, I'm afraid."

Faanku wrote:

[color=#ffcc00]"Only one way to find out for sure, I'm afraid."

"Copy that. We're prepping here, in case we need to pull you back in a hurry with the tether. Everybody armed? We can get
you a weapon now pretty easily, but not once things get hot. Not expecting anything like that, but we don't want to be caught with our
proverbial spacepants down."

Graham's focus goes back to his instruments, hoping scans may get more details when Vagabond's inner hatch opens.

"Nazir, where are those suits?"

It never changed. That feeling that a hook had caught hold of your ribs and was trying to pull them out through your mouth. That split second of revulsion, where her body rebelled against this deeply alien environment, its lack of pressure or force, and its perspective disappearing into nothingness. And then too within seconds, her body recalled how it operated here. And after the first push off, she would wonder at her feelings only seconds before. This always happened when she ventured out into the void. She generally found it was better not to think about it and just to trust in her body. Really question what they were doing out here and she might not want to return.

She moved gracefully with strong fluid movements through the void out to the massive structure, her las rifle strapped to her left leg. Next to the airlock she'd paused for a long moment, perfectly still as she considered it. Something was not right here. Her heart started to beat a little quicker, supplying additional oxygen to her muscles.

Despite the growing feeling of tension she'd started to feel, she couldn't help herself from smiling back at Taelor. There was much to appreciate in the other woman. There was no way she'd have wanted to call off their investigation just yet.
"I'd have been disappointed if you didn't. I have your back."
Drawing her weapon, she kept it pointed down, but ready to aim if any there was any foreign movement.

As Rena came to join her, she tilted her head in the direction of the other woman, an eyebrow raised.
"If it has quite the same number of half naked crew singing, I can see why they mightn't have heard us."

Moving inside she joined Taelor.
"Shall we tag out for the inside? You cover me while I take the first step?"

Captain_Hoyt wrote:

"Everybody armed? We can get you a weapon now pretty easily, but not once things get hot. Not expecting anything like that, but we don't want to be caught with our proverbial spacepants down."

"We're all locked and loaded, but thanks. Unless you've got a mech stashed away in here. I sure as shit wouldn't turn that down."

Nitafrong wrote:

"Shall we tag out for the inside? You cover me while I take the first step?"

"Yeah, that makes sense." She grins as she pulls out her pistol. "Besides, if we do it any other way, Graham's liable to twirl his mustache disapprovingly at us for being careless."

She waits for Rena to get inside the airlock and for everyone to get into position. When everyone is ready, she nods at the other women, a twinkle in her eyes and butterflies in her stomach. "Let's see what's in there." She pushes a few buttons on the control panel and starts the airlock's reverse cycling.

Graham listens intently to the exchange on the open comm.

moarhair wrote:

"Besides, if we do it any other way, Graham's liable to twirl his mustache disapprovingly at us for being careless."

"I heard that...", the smile in his voice evident over the comm. "Mustache currently being twirled. Both ends."

"Please keep us apprised of what you see as you go. Keep each other safe -- no silly risks, if you can help it. Middleton out."

The three girls regroup in the airlock. They unhook their tethers and magnetically attach them to the outside of the hull. For later, hopefully... Inside the airlock Taelor guides herself to the controls, while Lola and Rena watch the door. It only takes a few taps for Taelor to begin the cycling of the lock. Slowly the massive outside door slides shut and once it is still, a faint hissing fades in and gradually becomes louder. The airlock is being filled with air and with the air comes back the sound. The controls of the airlock show the progress and quickly the pressure rises from zero to one atmosphere. Then the panel flashes green and the inside door slowly opens with a low rumble. Behind it a large cargo bay becomes visible.
After the door stops its movement with a loud clank complete silence falls over the scene. The light is the same dim orange of the emergency lighting as has been seen in the galley and the airlock.
Carefully the group advances into the cargo bay, securing in all directions.
In a niche to the right of the airlock is a cargo loader and distributed throughout the bay are crates, barrels and other containers with cargo. Towards the left a staircase leads upwards. On the entrance of the airlock are the inside controls of the lock.
The whole room is very functional. No  wall cladding or other decorations are installed. The floor is not dirty, but worn in places, underlining the impression the crew had from the outside, that the ship is not on its maiden voyage.

Taelor inches forward into the cargo bay, her eyes scanning the room and her pistol at the ready. "Rena? What's your bioscanner picking up? Any airborne contaminants or... pathogens or whatever?"

Many a miner back home had been lost to gas leaks. Maybe that was what had happened to the Vaganbond's crew. If not, then at least they'd be able to remove their vacc suits. If they got damaged in a fight later, it could mean a difficult trip back to the Undertow.

Taelor glances at the cargo looking for labels, wondering what the ship is carrying. Could be the source of their troubles or perhaps some good salvage.

Elan does as Graham asks without complaint. He has mixed feelings about watching the women float away. On one hand, he's pleased to remain the comparative safety of the Undertow. On the other hand, he has great confidence in his powers of perception, which are not necessarily being put to use on the Undertow. If there's a room in the Vagabond where dead bodies are stacked like cordwood, Elan would definitely notice it.

Elan sits in the uncomfortable vacc suit, waiting near the airlock. He's practically swimming in the suit, it's so large, which makes it strange that it simultaneously feels so confining. He sighs, thinking of the telekinetics who can form protective bubbles around their bodies that mimic vacc suits. That would be nice right now, he muses. Or those telekinetics who can walk on walls and ceilings. Seems like a useful trick for a ship that may or may not have any gravity.

"Can we get some comm chatter?" he radios the ladies. "Play-by-play plus some color commentary."

Rena lifts the bio scanner and on an outstretched arm she walks around a few steps turning randomly. The device stays calm and has no reading outside of the ordinary. She lowers her arm and turns around facing the others and the airlock when the device produces a faint bleep. Rena jerks up the scanner and points it ahead and the signal gets stronger towards the side of the airlock. Walking towards the spot, Rena manages to narrow down the area to a spot on the wall of the airlock a bit above the inside controls of the airlock. The scanner gives ambivalent readouts, it's something it does know. The affected area is small, maybe 30cm in diameter. All the scanner can determine is that the substance is biological and it contains some agents that make it likely toxic, albeit not deadly.
The substance is see-through, but visible due to its slightly slimy consistency. But given those qualities, it is hard to spot if you don't know it is there. It does not look like it was carefully applied, but rather hurled or shot at the wall, as it makes a splash pattern.

Taelor can understand Elan's request. If she was the one stuck on the Undertow, away from all the excitement, she too would like to be kept abreast of what was happening. "We're in their cargo bay," Taelor says over the comms. "It's deserted, emergency lighting only. Rena's found some... substance near the airlock controls. It's clear, slimy, and her bioscanner says it's toxic, so we'll be keeping our suits on. We might need some sort of decon procedure when we come back."

While Rena examines the substance and Lola provides overwatch, Taelor walks around the cargo bay. She looks for labels on the crates and barrels, trying to figure out what the Vagabond is transporting and if it could explain the strange substance. Towards the back of the bay, she spots a large metal door. "There are stairs to the left and a large metal door towards the back. Cover me, I'll see if I can get the door open."

Taelor moves to the door and looks for controls.

moarhair wrote:

"We're in their cargo bay," Taelor says over the comms. "It's deserted, emergency lighting only. Rena's found some... substance near the airlock controls. It's clear, slimy, and her bioscanner says it's toxic, so we'll be keeping our suits on. We might need some sort of decon procedure when we come back."

"Foreign substance near the airlock controls, and a partially open airlock? Sounds like they were trying to flush something out of the airlock. Rena, send over your scanner data, let's see if we can find out more about it. And let's get a visual on Vagabond's surface. Maybe we can look for more of this slime, or whatever might have left it there."

The development puts Graham ill-at-ease. Whatever affected Vagabond could affect Undertow, and..."We've created a conduit to our ship."

"Elan, let's get a visual on our tether to Vagabond, and make sure that there's nothing crawling along the tether. Stay sharp. Everyone, let's make sure that you have visual contact with at least one other crewmember, yeah? Nazir, maintain visual with Elan at the airlock."

He settles back, waiting for Rena's scan data to arrive.

"Alright," Elan comms back.

Graham is bossy, but he does have a reasonable theory about the substance and why the airlock was partially open. But that still doesn't explain why the distress beacon would have no message, no location. Even if you want to conceal the source of your distress - lest people avoid you rather than come to help - why wouldn't you at least provide your location? And why would the reactor be off?

Per the instructions, Elan eyes the tether to see if any slime is crawling along it. He doubts it, as the vacuum of interstellar space would presumably freeze-dry any ooze instantaneously, but perhaps a psychoactive slime could make little pressure fields around itself like telekinetics could. Is that possible? Elan doesn't really understand Metadimensional Extroversion Syndrome. Maybe he could ask the slime if it comes over.

"The impact splatter suggests that this hit the wall at high speed, like it was thrown, or spat, perhaps?"
Rena keeps the scanner over the goo, trying to find out if it poses a risk to an unsuited individual. "There's no shards or debris from a container that would have shattered from the collision..."

The good doctor keeps her scanning data public. Hopefully the ship's databanks might have some luck identifying the mysterious substance.

Faanku wrote:

"The impact splatter suggests that this hit the wall at high speed, like it was thrown, or spat, perhaps? There's no shards or debris from a container that would have shattered from the collision..."

"Thanks, Rena, I'll see what we can find from the data. It seems likely that some kind of creature is responsible, so let's steer clear of the containers in the cargo hold in case something's hiding in or around them. There will be a time to look, but let's do that when you have armed backup right there with you."

Graham pauses for a moment. "What do you think -- head to the bridge, assist crew if possible, and access some video/audio logs?"

Graham goes to work on the data, trying to see if there's anything in a local database that provides that information, though data requests may take some time.

He off-handedly wonders if he can reconfigure ship scanners to pick up what Rena's scanner had recorded.

Rena gets the scanner closer to the mysterious substance to get a better sample. It's certainly not radiating anything or evaporating, so unless a careless subject should touch the slime it shouldn't affect anybody. Rena can also see that it is dried around the very corners, indicating that it hasn't been applied very recently. How long it's been there is however impossible to tell.

Lola is routinely scanning the room with her eyes, paying special attention to the stairs and the door. Everything stays calm.

Taelor slowly works her way through the cargo bay, checking the cargo on her way to the door. From what she can tell, the crates, palettes and barrels contain or used to contain mundane items. Spare parts, rations, fresh water, clothing.

The door is heavy, but opens easily. Behind it, the ships engine room appears. Directly in front of Taelor rises the massive fusion bottle. To either side of her are ladders that lead up to a catwalk above her.
The engine room is in tone with the cargo bay - heavily used but in decent shape. Paint chips of here or there and there are obvious patches, but everything important is well maintained.

"Found the engine room," Taelor says happily. She makes her way inside and starts examining the reactor. Their scans had shown it was offline and she wants to know if it was shut off or damaged. Seh's not looking to start it up just yet, just to assess it's state.

She wonders where the crew had gone. Maybe they were on the upper level. Or had abandoned ship. She shakes her head and focuses back on her work. "I'm going to try and figure out what's wrong with the reactor."

moarhair wrote:

"Found the engine room, I'm going to try and figure out what's wrong with the reactor."

"Good, how does it look in there?" He hesitates for a moment. "Before we get too involved in anything, let's make sure we're providing cover for our crew. Is anyone there watching your back, Taelor? If the reactor isn't in a critical state, let's find out about the crew and what happened there. Rena will probably need you to cover her while she looks them over -- assuming there's anyone to look over."

"Lola, who's in your line of sight?"

Graham knows how easy it is to get distracted in a new environment. Three crewmembers are relying on each other on a compromised ship, with a potential biohazard running around. And those three have no backup except for themselves. He hopes that common sense will prevail, and that the question to Lola will resonate with her training. Someone with visual needs to direct them on the ground, and Graham knows he can't do it blind.

Elan snaps and opens a private channel to Graham. "Graham, knock it off. We're over here; they're over there. They're competent adults. Rena is literally the smartest person I've ever met in my life. They don't need a mother hen clucking in their ear. Or, worse, a back-cockpit driver.

"I know you mean well but if you have to have your say then frame it as a suggestion." He snaps the channel shut.

Tecumseh wrote:

Elan snaps and opens a private channel to Graham. "Graham, knock it off. We're over here; they're over there. They're competent adults. Rena is literally the smartest person I've ever met in my life. They don't need a mother hen clucking in their ear. Or, worse, a back-cockpit driver.

"I know you mean well but if you have to have your say then frame it as a suggestion."

Graham waits a moment, then re-opens the channel to Elan. His tone is slow and measured

"They are perfectly competent, I have no doubt, but they haven't learned to work together yet. Better to be a dick now and bring them back as a squad, than play nice and have to recover three bodies. Or worse, abandon them on a hostile ship with some bio-terror on board. Vagabond appears to have met a sudden end, even with a full crew to defend her. The same fate awaits our three friends if we're complacent. With that in mind, welcome to space, Mr. Tokala. There are plenty of places in the galaxy where we can take our safety for granted and get away with it, but empty space isn't one of them. There's a dead ship 20 meters off our stern that attests to that."

The channel claps off, Graham in no way interested in discussing it further. Elan isn't wrong, Graham knows he could choose his words better. But this is no field trip to the museum, they're in deep space. Right or wrong, Graham expects that the military types would recognize the need to provide cover for each other. "Let them complain, but at least they will be alive."

Taelor barely took a few steps around the bottle when something weird catches her eyes. A weird white film covers part of the floor and wall. Once Taelor is a step closer she can see it is in fact not a film, but some very fine webbing that covers most of the back of the area behind the bottle of the fusion reactor. She can barely inspect when a shout for attention from Lola pulls back her focus towards the cargo bay.

Lola had followed Taelor into the cargo bay, in order to keep her and Rena equally well in sight. Her soldiers instincts let her always seek the spot of best cover with ideal view of her team. Shortly after Taelor disappeared into the engine room, shouting back what she sees, a large... something creeps into view, coming down from the catwalk and therefore positioning itself between Taelor and the rest of the team.

Taelor turns around and with a gasp steps back a step. Before her a large, almost cowsized beast has lowered itself from the catwalk to the floor of the engine room. It has several legs, almost spiderlike, but it is not furry but has a smooth semi-opaque skin. Its color is dark blueish and the whole body seems to inherently wobble, as if it is struggling to keep its shape. It moves slowly and precisely, its head towards Taelor.

Lola had been stiff and tense as she followed Taelor into the cargo bay, her body angled horizontally, so she could easily twist her head back to check up on Rena. She'd just looked back towards Taelor when she suddenly saw the movement.

Time seemed to slow and she immediately focused all her mind on the thing before her. Hardly a breath had passed before she judged it a threat and an enemy, and her gun was pointed at it. No longer tense, she relaxed into the combat. Taking a deep breath, she lined up the sight of her gun on the creature and fired.

Lolas shot comes in fast and precise. The laser bolt burns itself into the rear of the beast, a small column of smoke rises from it. The hit animal rears up and flings two arms forward at Taelor.
Taelor reacts quickly and manages to evade one of the arms, but the other one hits her in the side with unsuspected force.

The force of the blow knocks the air from Taelor's lungs. She stumbles, her mind barely comprehending the... thing she's facing. Her body reacts seemingly on its own, spinning with the blow to lessen the impact and bringing up her pistol.

She squeezes the trigger, the engine room lighting up for a moment with the laser fire, throwing monstrous shadows up on the walls. At close range, a thing this big is hard to miss and Taelor sees with some satisfaction a burn spreading across the beast's... skin?

She scrambles to put some of the engine between her and the creature. "Found the slimer," she says into the comms, panting.

Rena hears the commotion and instinctively draws her old laser pistol, dropping the bioscanner back into its beltpouch and wheeling towards the cargo bay. Her mouth hangs open for a few seconds at what she sees, until Lola and Taelor's assault snaps her into action. She quickly decides that 'far away' is the best place to be in relation to whatever this thing is, and so moves swiftly in that direction, letting of a few snaps shots in the creature's general direction as she does so. "Don't let it touch you, we don't know what that slime does to the suits!"

Three hits had struck the creature and had clearly damaged it, but it was hard to tell just how much. It was hard to tell with this thing just how bloodied it might be. Was it on its last legs, or scratched? At this point all she could do would be to keep shooting. If it showed no change though after another round or two they would need t retreat out of here before someone was badly hurt.

"Big beast, slime light with many legs. No injuries yet. Wait online."

Moving quickly in a diagonal away from Taelor, but keeping the beast as close, she fired off another quick shot. She needed to keep it from concentrating on her companion.
Yelling out as loud as she could she shouted.
"Hey big ugly. How about turning those legs this direction!?"

The sounds of laser blasts crackle across the comm line. Without any visuals, Graham suppresses the rising fear, but lack of information didn't help. Lola's brief comment was reassuring, but the danger was clear. In that moment, he was glad they'd brought Lola on board.

"Don't add to the chaos, keep it short", thought Graham. "Only give them what they need."

"Open the airlock to suffocate it, if needed", he offered. "Vagabond's crew be damned", he added in his head. In the heat of the moment, only Undertow's crew mattered, and Undertow's crew had vac suits.

"Elan, be ready to pull our crew home, or shoot a monster in their airlock." Graham knows Elan doesn't want to hear instructions right now, but the team on Vagabond needs to hear what options are available to them.

"Aye," Elan confirms. He raises his telekinetic weapons and armor, ready to snipe.

In truth, despite the gunfire, he's not that worried. Lola is a trained soldier, one of those Silent Legion types that Freyer trained to be professional badasses. Taelor is a good shot, good enough that Elan is comfortable with her watching his back. Rena is clever, terribly clever. If brute force doesn't work then Rena will apply brain power until the problem goes away.

The next laser bolt hits the beast and it twitches under the constant fire. It spits out a splash of goo towards Taelor and as quickly as it showed up, it crawls up onto the catwalk and is gone the next second.

Taelor tries to duck out of the way of the slime spray, but her foot catches on a part of the engine and she abruptly comes to a stop. The creature's toxic goo splashes onto her suit. She raises her pistol to fire, but the creature is gone. She looks up as she hears it skittering away on the catwalk, but she doesn't catch sight of it. "What the fuck was that thing?" she mutters.

She looks down at the slime on her suit, making sure it's not eating through it, but it looks stable. "Uh... Rena? How toxic is this fucking goo? The... slimer got some of it on my suit before running. Doesn't seem like it's seeping in, but you're the science girl."

Rena warily approaches Taelor, apprehensive about moving towards the monster's last known location, before looking over the slime with her scanner.
"I believe you'll be fine. I'm assuming the mucin glycoproteins need a porous surface for the toxin to take effect, so just keep it away from your skin and you'll be OK. Probably."

She puts her helmet on and confirms the vaccsuit's seal before answering Taelor's earlier question. "It's certainly a lifeform I've never read about. I can only assume that it's sufficiently injured that it fled, and is not in fact attempting to lull us into a false sense of security... Do you have any idea how valuable this creature could be? Even its remains could be priceless to the bioscientific community. If we could capture it alive..."

Rena's science-y talk goes well over Taelor's head, but you'll be okay. Probably. doesn't do much to reassure her. She smiles weakly, trying to put on a brave face. She nods at the doc, then turns around to look around for a rag or something to clean the slime off her suit. "Whether we kill it or capture it, we have to do something. We can't have this thing crawling around the ship."

"Lola, are you any good at tracking? Can't say it's in my wheelhouse."

"Nice job. Everybody all right?", Graham chimes in on the open channel.
"If it's all the same to you, I'd vote to put an end to this thing. We don't know if there are others on board, and we don't know if it's laid any eggs, or whatever it does to make baby slime balls. If everybody is healthy enough to go after it, let's get rid of that immediate threat. Once that's done, we can get a better look on board, and hopefully save some of the crew."

Lola had kept her gun raised and ready, pointed towards where the creature had disappeared. She had turned to look with concern towards Taelor as the goo dripped down from her. She waited until Rena had confirmed that the woman was ok before relaxing somewhat and focusing her attention back towards where the creature had escaped. If Taelors suit had started to be breached things would have had to move very quickly
"Glad to hear you are ok Taelor. I've never seen anything quite like that thing before, though my experience would say as its not actually bleeding, we are unlikely to have hurt it too bad. A slapped boar will run but charge when cornered."

Moving forward slowly she bent down to examine where the creature had been, looking to see if she could track its movement.
"I used to do quite a bit of tracking back in the Legion. Lets see just how rusty I've got."
In reply to Graham, she continued.
"Confirmed, we will see if we can track this thing. I suggest though a fifteen minute time limit. Might be this thing is good at hiding and we don't want to waste too much time."

While Taelor and Rena cover her from below as good as possible, Lola climbs the ladder to the catwalk. She knows this is the most dangerous moment for her. She cannot train her gun forward hanging on the ladder and she does not know what's ahead.
Sweat drips down her forehead from concentration. Her boots clank loudly on the steel bars of the ladder. Another ten bars until the top... Five... Three...
When Lola reaches the top she rolls onto the catwalk unslinging her rifle in the motion and landing on one knee, rifle unlocked trained forward securing her surroundings.
The spider beast is nowhere to be seen, but the door ahead is open and shows traces of the slime. The hallway behind is illuminated by the same gloomy emergency light as the cargo bay, it is hard to make out details further down. It appears to be empty.

When Taelor and Rena see Lola reach the top unharmed, they relax a little bit and each head for the ladder in order to follow. When walking around the reactor again towards the ladder Taelor trips. First she does not make much of it, but when she glances at what it was she tripped over, she realises it is a boot barely sticking out of the webbing.

Don't scream. Don't scream. Don't scream. Taelor screams. It's a brief squeal that escapes her lips as she scrambles back, but surely everyone has heard it. Fuck. Elan's going to have a field day. She gestures to Rena and Lola to show that she's okay. She leans against the wall, settling her breathing and waiting the the blood to stop pounding in her ears.

She lets out a long, slow exhale. "I, uh... I think I found one of the crewmembers. Their boot is sticking out of the creature's web. Under the engine," she says as calmly as she can. "Tripped on it, literally. Really startled me." She chuckles, but it sounds a bit frayed. She kicks the boot, making sure it's full and that what's in it is dead. Couldn't have tucked your foot in, asshole?

Rena yelps out a short scream in response to Taelor's own, then takes a deep breath in a failed attempt to calm herself.
"Is there any sign of... it? Or just cocooned cadavers?"

Taelor chuckles nervously at Rena's yelp, thankful for the involuntary solidarity. "Just a cocooned body, as far as I can tell." She takes a deep breath. "Let's find this fucking thing and end it, before we end up like him." She gestures to the ladder, inviting Rena to go first. Lola at point and Taelor bringing up the rear would keep the doc in the safest position.

Lola had moved immediately on instinct as soon as she heard Taelor cry out, turning back to train her gun back down towards the others. Split wheel, but this wasn't going to be an ambush was it. While her eyes scanned down looking for danger, her ears were listening hard for any movement up on this level. For a long moment she was hard and rigid, like a steel pipe, before finally relaxing a little as the other woman spoke
"Once we kill the creature, we might check on the body just to be sure it's dead."
Looking back towards the hallway, she spoke again.
"We are climbing up to the catwalk, there are signs that the creature has been along this way. No injuries. We will keep in contact."

The present situation sorted and with herself covering the hallway, she had a moment to consider the two other crew. She wasn't quite sure of their backgrounds, but even those in the military didn't enjoy finding dead bodies. Especially when they'd been killed by a creature, rather than a human. Something about that tapped into an older basic fear. Of monsters.
As she waited for the other two to climb, she considered what would be best to calm them. Lying about how injured the creature might be, or how it was likely to be alone, were short term fixes that could make things worse. Best was to show how relaxed and confident she was. Despite the fact, that she could still feel the sweat pooling down at the small of her back.

"That thing is going to deeply regret running into us. Rena are you going to be interested in its body chemistry or stuff like that? Just wondering if you'd like me to preserve the body at all when I kill it? This shouldn't really take too long, once done we can get back to giving this ship a little look around and then move on."

Twisting his mustache with a little more fervor than usual, Graham waits for word from the crew. With no video feed, he relies wholly on information from the crew. He nearly pounces as Lola's voice comes through the comms, but he calms himself with some effort.

Nitafrong wrote:

"We are climbing up to the catwalk, there are signs that the creature has been along this way. No injuries. We will keep in contact."

"Understood."

Glad for Lola's quick and concise report, one word was all he needed. And all she needed. Anything more would be a distraction. Anything less would create doubt. One word, no more. He wants to check in with Rena, this situation seems out of her depth, and she might need encouragement. He thinks better of it. "Checking in sends the wrong message. She's smart, she'll just resent it, and it's just a distraction."

Graham keeps his mouth shut. The three have dangerous work ahead.

Elan is privately impresses that Graham managed to stay so concise. When the comm channel opened, he fully expected a litany of advice. But instead Graham butted out, kept himself from becoming a distraction. Elan's irritation diminishes a notch.

Elan waits patiently. He wishes he had a rocking chair for the wait and mentally muses about what it would take to carve one. Could I do it with my telekinetics? Would that make it mind-made instead of handmade? Probably not, but it was interesting to think about.

Elan is calm. He's used to waiting. He's used to high-stress situations. It's one of the things that makes him good at his job, where the majority of time is spent behind enemy lines. He's not an adrenaline junkie; he just knows how to manage his pulse and to keep his thinking clear when others go foggy.

I'd make a good gambler, he thinks to himself. Reading all the tells, staying calm. The one thing he doesn't have (yet) is a disconnect from the value of money that allow gamblers to move on after big losses. He once read that the best gamblers have such an easy-come, easy-go attitude about money that they'll carry 20,000 credits with them on a trip to the grocery store. Just in case, you know, they have to buy a gravcar along the way. Elan hopes to meet such a gambler one day, if only so he can pickpocket them.

Musings aside, Elan maintains his watch on the airlock, in case he needs to start skeet shooting space spiders on short notice.

Taelor can't help but be drawn in by Lola's confidence. This was what the former soldier had done for most of her life and she didn't seem worried at all. Maybe she was right. Whatever that thing is, it killed part of, if not all, the Vagabond's crew and would do the same to them if it could, but they'd gotten it on the run with only some bruised ribs on Taelor's part. The creature had made a mistake. It had messed with humans with guns. "Fuck, yeah! Let's fuck this thing up!"

Rena, caught between abject terror and intense fascination at this mysterious new life-form just nods slowly at Lola's question. "Preserved, alive if possible, but safe. Hmmm. Perhaps just preserved shall do."

Waiting until the other two had joined her up on top of the catwalk, Lola glanced towards the other two momentarily and gave a nod and grin.
"Let's go end this creatures sorry existence then and then Rena can get to work. Give me about nine or ten paces lead and then follow. We'll aim to maintain visual contact the whole time."

Giving one last nod, Lola tightened her grip on her weapon and started to move forward, all of her senses straining out. Just as well they cant see your face right now, she thought to herself. Having spent the majority of her military career as a sniper, leading the line wasn't her favourite role, but she did have some experience. Occasionally she had been sent along with a spotter behind enemy lines. Sneaking up to that perfect foxhole and hoping to find no bears was a little similar to what she was doing now. Moving through the doorway, she continues her hunt for the beast.

Lola slowly walks down the hallway in front of her. Left and right are doors, most of them open. Working her way forward, Lola checks room for room, back against the opposite wall, gun trained through the door.
The first room seems to be some kind of conference room. A large table at the center of the room is empty, chairs secured around it. On each side of the room there is a large screen on the wall and cameras at the center of the table.
The next room are quarters of a crew member. The pulse ball posters on the wall are mostly ripped down, the bed covers are on the floor and other personal items are sprawled out on the floor. Lola is almost ready to move on when she sees the ceiling of the room. She shudders in disgust and discomfort. A cocoon of the fine webbing Taelor already saw in the engine room is dangling in the corner from the ceiling. Whether there is anything in it is impossible to tell without inspecting it from closer.
Before Lola can decide where to head next, a hissing sound comes from down the hall and the spider appears in the hallway, charging at Lola.