SIM:Monsters & Fire

StarDate: 239109.26
USS Victory

((Main Engineering - Upper Level))

Michael braced himself, clutching the nearby railing as the ground beneath him shuddered violently. He was not alone of the upper deck Crewman Kelly was with him weidling the damaged panals back into plance. One of the torpeodos that impacted on the Victory had blown out several small panels on the upper level of main engineering and caused a small fire. He and Crewman Kelly and gone up the ladder with a fire extinguisher and a wielding touch. The fire had been put out quickly and with nothing else to do Crewmen Kelly had begun wielding a few of the smashed panels back into place.::

Kelly stumbled towards Michael as the ground shock, his wielding touch waving wildly in the air and for a horrific moment Michael thought he was going to be on the receiving end of the touch. Luckily the crewmen dropped the wielding touch, which instantly switched it off, and clutch the railing too. A fall from the upper level of main engineering was likely survivable, but you would definitely qualify as having a bad day. But being on the receiving end a wielding touch would also qualify you for having a bad day. Fortunately the touch went out as soon as the crewman dropped it thanks to a nice built in safety feature.::

Kelly: Almost. ::Kelly said grinning sheepishly.::

Michael wanted to hit the young man but instead took a deep breath and thought back to violent shudder.::

Jellico: What the hell was that? ::He said changing the subject.::

Kelly shook his head and picked up his touch to get back to work. Michael stared at him for a moment and then frowned. He had been in combat before, not often but often enough to realise that the last shake didn’t come from weapons impact. For something to shake the ship that violently, something much worse than torpedoes had impacted on the ship. Michael moved to the wall mounted readout, the impulse engines were still at full power but the ship was hardly moving.::

Jellico: Another gravitational field? ::Michael asked out aloud remembering the report he had read from the Victory’s last mission.::

Michael darted over to another consol, carefully moving around behind Kelly, who was now totally engrossed in his work. Michael reached it un-burnt but before he could he could prove his assumption he heard a blood curdling growl. Slowly he turned his head and his eyes widened as he looked past Kelly. Only meters from the young man was what looked like a creature out of a holodeck horror novel. It might have been someones sick idea of a spider, although it was huge for being almost the size of a small dog. Michael took a step backwards and shouted a warning to his fellow engineer, but it was no good. The creature pounced on Kelly covering the distance in a flash. Kelly went down from the unexpected weight, he landed flat on his back and the creature began mauling him and injecting him with some kind of venom.::

Michael was unarmed, he turned around to run but the screams from Kelly stopped him, he turned back around and ran towards them. The crewman had managed to roll onto his stomach with the creature on his back ripping at his neck and shoulders, Michael soccer kicked the creature mid stride sending it hurtling a few meters down the walkway. He quickly checked to see if the still screaming crewman Kelly was armed, but he wasn’t. Michael turned back towards the creature as he heard another ungodly growl, he had turned just in time to see the creature flying mid air fangs, towards his face. In an instinctive moment he managed to raise his left arm to protect his face. The creature clamped onto his arm and with the surprising weight and incredible pain Michael fell backwards as it started to rip at his arm.::

He landed on his back next to the unmoving Kelly and reached out with his free hand desperate to find anything to use as a weapon, his frantic searching hand found the wielding touch. He flicked it on with his thumb and pointed into the side of the beasts head and pulled the ignition trigger with his index finger. The creature erupted into flame with what Michael hoped was a scream of pain. It released his arm and tried to run, but it was no longer very fast and Michael managed to stumble to his feet and slam his boot his boot onto the little monster. He learned down and focus the flame on it once more, after three more seconds the creature was no more than a burnt crisp.::

Michael dropped to his knees and crawled over to Kelly.::

Jellico: You’re going to be....

Michael reached out and patted the man on his back but froze as his hand impacted on Kelly’s back. There was no resistance from his body, his entire back felt like jelly. Michael could feel the blood run from his face and slowly turned his attention to his own mangled left hand. It had at least four puncture wounds but that was not nearly as troubling as the fact that it was turning a horrid black. He could no longer move it and he could fell the execrating pain slowly moving up his arm.::

He could back at the crewman who no longer had a recognisably human shape.::

Jellico: Dissolving.... like snake venom.

Michael’s temperature was sky rocketing, he was dizzy and his legs felt weak but he had enough left to clearly make up his mind.::

With his one good hand he took off his belt, wrapped it around his left bicep and tied it off with his right hand and his teeth. He then reach into his boot and pulled out a completely illegal flask of Romulan Ale, he unscrewed the cap and upended the flask into his mouth. The pain instantly eased and he felt a little more courage as the liquid burned its way down his chest. He reach down, picked up the wielding touch, pressed it against his arm below the belt and just above the tainted skin and squeezed....

....his screams filled both levels of engineering.::

When it was over Michael collapsed and drifted into blissful unconsciousness.::

End

Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Jellico
Engineer’s Mate 3rd Class
USS Victory