Breaking a Sweat
Posted on Sun Nov 19th, 2023 @ 9:59am by Lt JG Ansel Lund
Edited on on Fri Jan 12th, 2024 @ 1:39am
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
The Sins of History
Location: Chief Engineer's Office - Deck 16 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD001 1300 hrd
Deck eleven down to deck sixteen via maintenance chutes and the jefferies tube network of hatchways and tubular tunneling gave Lieutenant Ansel Lund one hell of a workout. If this did not help burn off the slice of Delavian chocolate fudge cake that he had, little would in comparison. He had started in the laboratories on deck eleven and was able to find evidence in one of the chutes and along the way more evidence was mounting up. Of course it would be his luck that this would happen so early on in his assignment to the USS Artemis. When they said he would help track down criminals and apprehend fugitives, he always thought that would be a bipedal one albeit this particular fugitive had been his responsibility and somehow she had managed to escape. More troubling, she was fast and eluding him so far, but she was a sloppy escapee who left more than enough clues behind as to her whereabouts.
And that of course was why Lieutenant Lund was crawling about the jefferies tubes and was sweating his ass off along the way. Ventilation was not exactly the best when crawling around the tubes, chutes, and shafts. The closer he had gotten to engineering, the warmer if felt and he had completely gotten himself turned around and in a tizzy when all the chutes and shafts started looking eerily identical. Alpha junction 12...Gamma junction 21 he had not kept track of any of the alpha numeric markings.
When he finally found a hatch that seemed like it would empty out somewhere on deck sixteen he did not hesitate to pop the hatch that was already slightly ajar and slide on out. The problem was he was about to come out in the Chief Engineer's office of all places. Clearly he had missed a turn somewhere along the way, but evidence was taking him here? Fuuuuu- he thought as he exited. Had she managed to exit here too?
Ensign Cihl Theidi was sitting watch inside of the Main Engineering Room of the Artemis wondering just what he had gotten himself into with this assignment. When he graduated as Salutatorian at Starfleet Academy he was given the choice of any assignment within Starfleet and, in the end, he had chose the Artemis to be the site of his career's beginning. The Artemis was unique because of its involvement with Starfleet's Judge Advocate General Corps, but it had somewhat limited him in that he was not as involved as he had hoped he would be. Luna Class ships were known as galactic exploration craft - which had been part of the attraction for him - but the Artemis was more known for finding the bad guys and stopping them.
In the back of his mind he knew he was just having a bad day. That had to be it. Ever since he'd graduated from the Academy he'd been working on a project that he'd learned about investigating the theory of Coaxial Warp Drive. While the Theoretical Propulsion Group was busily involved with the research into the Drive, he'd decided to try out his own efforts to solve the challenges that were leading to failure. And that was just the result he was getting too. Failure. This whole process had been a failure.
Beside his desk he heard the familiar pop of the pressure door for the Jeffries Tube. He turned toward the open portal, surprised to see a person coming through.
"May I help you?"
Ansel came about to his feet and gave a quaint nod as he took in the sights. "Nice office," commented Ansel. He was unsure what exactly to say or how much to reveal, but chose to be fully transparent.
An ensign thought Ansel finding that tidbit interesting. "Depends..." The lieutenant proceeded a but nervously. "How do feel about arachnids? Like big ass arachnids" added Ansel. "Because I may have misplaced one."
Theidi sighed, holding back an effort to roll his eyes in the process with all his might. He walked over to the wall mounted workstation and started typing on the keyboard, "When you say that you misplaced it, where did you misplace it, and if it's a 'big ass arachnid' define 'big ass arachnid.'"
"It escaped containment to be more precise and it escaped several decks above in the labs" stated Ansel. "I tracked her down through the jefferies tubes. She's approximately half a meter in length and..." he gestured width with the span of his hands. "Talarian hook spider" added Ansel.
"Terrific," the Ventaxian said as he typed on the control interface. "Not exactly a common occurrence on a Federation ship, but easily scanned for if you know one's around. And here I was worried you'd have something difficult for me to deal with as you came in through the tunnels to my Engine Room." He indicated the Core humming in the background.
"Yeah, sorry about that" Ansel said apologetically. "I didn't mean you step into your domain uninvited. I'm an entomologist, Ensign. I generally study insects but I have a bit of a soft spot for arachnids. Your scanners are probably better than my tricorder, it was having difficulty getting a precise reading inside the jefferies tubes. It seems like she exited out here in your office, but I suspect she may be somewhere in your engine room."
Cihl glanced at the pressure door for the Jefferies Tube, "Nope, been sitting here for a while and you're the first to come through that door today." The Chief Engineer glanced at the schematic diagrams of the Engineering Decks, crossreferencing and overlaying sensor data as the ship's computer tried to process the location of the spider. He motioned to the Engine Room as he worked, "With how small the Engine Room of this ship is it'd be hard for me to have missed it."
An alert indicator appeared on the schematic, "Looks like your arachnid friend may be in the storage bay below. The core goes through there too."
"Splendid," quipped Ansel. "Hopefully it does not get into too much trouble whilst down there. I need to capture it or incapacitate it. Can't exactly have one of those roaming the ship freely."
"No we can't. With the way things have been going aboard the Artemis we really can't afford any slip ups," the Ventaxian agreed. "If you like I can assist you with your search, or you can proceed on your own." He really didn't want to go spider hunting, but would if necessary to help the Lieutenant.
Ansel appreciated the offer and though the assistance would have been beneficial, Ansel did not want to pull someone from their duties or personal time. "No, it's alright. I think I can handle this on my own. I made this mess and I need to get myself out of it" he said to the man with a pleasant and reassuring tone. "You've helped me enough, Ensign. Thank you." Now, Ansel would have to hunt down the creature.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Junior Grade Ansel Lund
Forensic Entomologist, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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