trans_9 | Rooting around in Stacy's innards (closed to Ian Chesterton and John Crichton)

One small step for man...

Somehow it didn't sound so impressive when you were hoping your helmet didn't fog up and you were peering into what looked like a snot chute. They both made a poor man's Armstrong and Aldrin, John thought with a snort.

He glanced over when Ian asked about his suit. Oh yeah, the guy wasn't exactly trained for this kind of thing. He'd almost forgotten with Ian's kind of quiet gungho go-get-'em attitude.

"Should be. It beats going in there without anything," John said. He couldn't bring Winona until he'd found something to refill her Chakan oil cartridge with and for now he was settling with a small rifle nestled in the crook of his arm. "C'mon."

John wormed his way into the hole, trying to ignore that feeling of the slight fleshy give the walls of it had when he brushed his feet and knees against it, telling himself that worrying about it constricting was a perfectly normal human reaction 'cause, well, look where they were.

"True." But this felt a little like going in there with nothing. But at least they'd be descending slowly - they'd be able to tell if the oxygen was getting low and the suits weren't working the way they were supposed to.

He briefly wondered whether the tentacles holding them could just bring them down to the bottom, or back up, but being pushed around by tentacles once was enough. He preferred the hard way.

There was a conduit not far from the ladder and Ian reached out to touch it. Not that it told him anything. "Imagine if you could walk around inside humans," he said. "It would make it so much easier to understand how the human body works."

"What, like Fantastic Voyage?" John's voice sounded tinny to him. They always did in the helmets. It was pretty dark in the chute, aside from a few glowing green chevrons running down into infinity - or at least what his monkey brain kept jabbering was pretty damn close to infinity, John deciding he wasn't against the weird tentacle tethers anymore. "Probably need to find some willing subjects for that - I can't imagine anyone being cool with people scooting around their insides."

He felt about for the next foothold. Ian was a pretty reliable guy from what he'd seen and if there was someone he wanted to watch his back going into some ship's guts, Ian Chesterton had to be pretty high up on his list.

Basically he was like the polar opposite of Rygel. In just about every aspect.

"Ever gone spelunking?" John couldn't help but talk. It distracted him from thinking about how impossible Stacy's tech should be if you were looking at this from Earth's perspective.

"And the human body tends to dislike things entering it from outside." It would be no use going inside, just to end up making them ill. Still, if he could teach biology that way the students would probably be more likely to listen. Maybe he should ask Vicki, if he ever saw her again, if she was taught that way.

"I went once," he said, to John question. "Not officially though. Me and my brother came across some caves once and went down them. By the time we came out at the other end it was dark - a blackout - and we had to walk for miles to get home." But he smiled at the memory - it had been a adventure and he hadn't really regretted it, despite the scolding they'd had when they got home.

He leaned out from the ladder to look down and up. "We're over halfway there," he guessed. "I can see why not many people would want to come down here."

John guessed Ian was a better judge of distance in here than he was.

“Just a hunch you got, huh?” He grinned, his breath fogging up the helmet. So far the Daligig and their muscle didn’t seem to notice – or care – about a few lowsy humans scurrying about, which worked for John. He’d take unnoticed over getting heroically shot at. ‘Course sometimes you were gonna get shot at no matter what, but that didn’t mean you had to go looking for it until then. “Think we’ll run into anything here?”

John wasn’t sure, but he was banking on pretty decent odds they might run into something lurking around Stacy’s guts. It was like a sci-fi must. And anyway, it made sense. Stacy was a full-on living ship. Moya was too, but she was rocking that biomechanical thing and Stacy seemed to be more bio than mechanical. John continued to work his way down the shaft, having to awkwardly shimmy his way since the gun he insisted on bringing kept getting in the way.

Ian grinned too. "I'd be surprised if we didn't. A group of us went up into the tunnels to find out where that slop in the mess hall came from. We were moved around and thrown out by tentacles. I think there might be tentacles everywhere." He just hoped that any down here wouldn't throw them back up the hole. He'd had more than enough tentacles for one lifetime.

"Stacy's very self-aware of what goes on inside her." The idea of that was still odd.

He was starting to ache from the continued motions on the ladder, but it wasn't far now and he'd be able to stretch his arms and legs a bit when they reached the bottom. He was glad now the spacesuits weren't the same as he'd seen back home - he'd have fallen off this ladder if he'd been wearing one of those.

"Just what I needed to hear when I'm dangling at least fifty feet from whatever passes as ground here," John said with a snort. Ian had a kind of sly humor about him, he was starting to realize, and he had to say, it beat trying to go at this solo.

John was the first to reach their destination - he didn't want to call it a floor. Not exactly. Looked like a big length of green, squishy ridges, like a blue whale had beached itself somehow and they were walking along the backbone. John made sure to test its stability, bouncing his weight on it before he motioned that it was safe for Ian to join him. John adjusted his grip on the gun as he stooped to examine what was some kind of fleshy protrusion from the wall.

Diagnostics panel? It was that or space ship cyst, but he was personally hoping for diagnostics.

"She was very gentle. She didn't actually kill anyone." He grinned as he skipped the last couple of rungs and dropped to the ground.

He was more interested in the reactor. "I suppose this must be the equivalent of her heart." Although he wondered if it stopped she just stopped moving or if she died too. He walked around it, examining the conduits going into and out of it. He tried squeezing one to see what happened. It was too big and thick to do much but he was sure the noise down here changed slightly for a second.

Oh, sure, that was a weight off his mind: he’d get (gently) man-handled by a giant tentacle. Great.

John nodded. Could be more like a heart, he guessed. He hadn’t exactly been focused in biology back in high school or college, but somehow he doubted all the doctorates in the world could’ve prepared anyone for this stuff. John waved Ian over at one of the farther conduits. It looked slightly withered, the throbbing glow not as strong, and when he got close, it dimmed even more. The noise that Ian had already noticed took on a different tone, something vibrating along the plates they were standing on.

Almost as if a signal was being sent out…?

“Take a look at this,” John didn’t seem to notice that, busy checking out the conduit. Rot? Infection? Sabotage? He couldn’t picture the Daligig’s muscle making it down here with that kind of squeeze.

"That's interesting." Once he was by the conduit Ian looked at it, listened to it and poked it. "I hope that doesn't mean something's wrong with Stacy." Unless it was taking by-products away from the reactor. In which case he wanted to know where it was going. "Let's follow it and see where it goes."

He started off down the tunnel, which got narrower as he went and the noise definitely changed - Ian was sure the floor was vibrating. He stopped and bent down to put a hand against it, although he couldn't decide if it was something to worry about. "I wonder if we can get a sample of this." Just in case, he'd brought some equipment, tucked in a pocket and when he poked hard enough, a little of the liquid the conduit was carrying oozed out and Ian caught it in a sample tube.

If there was something wrong with Stacy, they probably weren't equipped to handle it. And this time there wasn't a Pilot to walk them through anything either. John followed Ian deeper into the tunnel, waiting for Ian to get his science geek on (hell yeah, he even brought a sample tube - good man) and trying to listen above the sound of his breathing echoing in the helmet. It sounded like...something. He couldn't place his finger on it, John tilting his head even though that wasn't gonna make a difference.

He turned and - okay, that was weird. The way back was blocked with what looked like a membrane, slick and slimy.

"Uh, hey Ian. Take a look at this." John didn't trust trying to shoot their way out. Something told him Stacy wouldn't take too kindly to getting shot in her guts.

"Where did that come from?" Ian tucked the sample tube away and went closer to the membrane. He wasn't sure that poking it would be a good idea. "Maybe there is something wrong and Stacy's blocking it off." Which would be fine if they weren't on the wrong side of it. He looked back over his shoulder, but there weren't any tentacles ready to throw Ian and John around.

All of a sudden the ever-present noise and vibration stopped. Ian's breathing suddenly sounded so much louder in his helmet. Not least because it was also faster. "Do you think..." he began, but stopped when the noise started up again. But this time it was a different tone altogether - one that felt like it went right through him.

John could make a guess as to what that something wrong was.

"We get stuck here, we'll be pinned," John said. He couldn't say he was an expert at tactical assessment like, say, Aeryn, but he thought he knew a bad situation when he saw one and this was the dictionary definition. John picked one of the branches that split off from the tunnel, the one that he thought was least likely to have that sound coming from it.

"Let's not get stuck here." He wasn't sure how long the suits' oxygen supply would last, but they hadn't brought anything to eat or drink with them. And it would be typical if the omnicomms didn't work down here.

He followed John down the tunnel and the sound did fade a little, so they were heading the right way at least. But this tunnel was definitely pulsing, more so the deeper into it they got. Ian stopped and put a hand on the wall. "It feels regular, like a heartbeat." Which he hoped meant that it was supposed to do that.

"Could be we went too far. Didn't you say it sounds like no one's ever been down here?" John glanced behind him. "Maybe we're pinging as threats. Y'know, like foreign bacteria."

He didn't want to see what happened when Stacy decided she was sick and tired of some humans kicking about her if that was the case. The membrane back there kept bothering him, almost like it was meant to block off a potential escape route. John glanced down the way they came, trying to ignore that throbbing pulse he could feel through his feet and the floor.

"Think I'd feel a whole lot better if we could secure a fire exit just in case." AKA that was John's totally great plan. He was still down with exploring and trying to figure out a way to Stacy's core that the Daligig didn't seem to know about, but he also happened to want to get out of here alive, too.

"As far as I know no one's been down here." The idea that they might be foreign bacteria in Stacy is worryingly plausible. But if all that meant was they were thrown back to Engineering by tentacles that wouldn't be too bad. He just couldn't see how Stacy would manage it from here.

He stopped and looked around the tunnel they were walking down. "We can't go back because one end of that tunnel is blocked and the other narrows." Admittedly there were other tunnels branching off it, but there was no guarantee they would be better than this one. "Let's keep going and see where we come to." He started walking again.

The tunnel curved around and then abruptly split into two. Ian sighed. "This feels like a maze."

"So basically we're Aldrin and Armstrong." John said, half to himself. (By the way, he totally got dibs on being Armstrong). "Makes you wonder where it wants us to go then. Think we're being herded?"

Creepy thought. John found himself cradling that rifle even more now and he probably would've been white-knuckling it if he wasn't wearing the space suit. They'd probably made it a hundred feet down that tunnel when he saw something moving up in the distance, in that murky green gloom that had only deepened the further in they got. The chevrons lighting the way only bounced off the stuff like a fog rolling in from the beach.

John clapped a warning hand on Ian's shoulder, nodding at the shaping moving toward them. It didn't look human, not with the way it was missing the standard head plus four limbs arrangement, which made him inclined to consider it a possible threat.

"Perhaps." It was just as well John didn't need a reply because Ian wasn't sure who Aldrin and Armstrong were.

At John's hand Ian looked over at the shape coming toward them. "Maybe it just happens to be coming this way and can't see us," he suggested. It wasn't as if there was a very clear view. To humans eyes anyway.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to risk it though. "Perhaps we should try another tunnel." He turned round and started walking back the way they'd come. If the shape sped up or followed them into another tunnel, then they'd know it was a threat.

Remind John to catch Ian up to speed on the whole moon race thing.

John shot Ian a look. He thought the guy was pretty damn smart, but that wasn't one of his most awe-inspiring observations, in John's opinion. He'd gotten so used to the idea of humans getting shafted on just about every sense from sight to sound that hearing Ian saying (not even sarcastically) that the alien might be more blind than they were was downright jarring. John shook his head. He'd rather assume it knew they were there than hope it didn't see them.

At least Ian was showing the same common sense he'd expected of the man since he got to know him. That was a good idea.

John followed Ian, bringing up the rear. After a minute, he turned around and...there it was again. Closer. It was speeding up too.

"You got anything you don't mind losing?" John turned to Ian. He'd rather not shoot at it or get close enough to see what it did without having a test run.

"I have more sample tubes." Of course it was getting closer to them. It would have been too much to ask that it was benign. He pulled a sample tube out and threw it in the shape's path. It didn't hit the shape - Ian didn't want to annoy it. But it at least gave the shape pause - it stopped when it was directly over the sample tube.

"At least we know how to slow it down." It was hard to tell in the gloom, but he couldn't see the sample tube after the shape had finished with it. "I just wish I'd brought more sample tubes with me."

That wasn’t exactly comforting how the shape just…absorbed it. John didn’t want to see what happened if it tried that on a human. “Well, see what you can do, but I think we probably are gonna have to book it or try shooting it and hoping we don’t piss off Stacy.”

John didn’t think he needed to say outloud that they were going to be having a really big problem if they went with option two and that didn’t do anything. The shape continued to advance, like some creepy thing you pictured coming at you from out of the closet.

If Stacy took exception to them shooting it, then it would be best to leave that option until last. "Let's try and lose it first." He wasn't sure what senses this thing used, but staying still wasn't the best one to test and sight would be easiest. So he ran back down the tunnel, left a sample tube on the ground and then chose another tunnel that branched off that one.

Great idea. John took off after Ian, making sure not to slip on the sample tube Ian left as bait, and ducked into that other tunnel after him. It was a tight squeeze, and John couldn't take the feeling of being inside a giant blood vessel that could constrict at any moment. It took less than a minute for the shape to slurp over, investigate the tube, and then bend and ooze toward their tunnel.

Looked like it had their scent.

All they could do was run down this tunnel, although it was so narrow that they had to go single file. And halfway down it suddenly narrowed even more. Ian turned sideways and held his breath, waiting to see if it would pass. They couldn't go backwards, where the shape was and who knew what was ahead of them. But after a minute the tunnel widened again and Ian breathed. When he looked back he saw the narrowing was going along the tunnel and when it reached the shape it seemed to absorb it. Although he wasn't sure they'd seen the last of it.

"Let's get out of his tunnel before it does that again."

John would like to say he could finally relax, but this was just reminding him all over that they were surrounded entirely by Stacy - that thing could come out any where, any time. Maybe full on go IT on them. John's breath was fogging up the visor of his helmet as he swiveled, trying to listen or look for any signs of the walls bulging. It was so narrow that he had a hard time moving here. Not exactly a place he wanted to get ambushed in.

"I'm with you all the way on that." John blew out his breath in a sigh. "Let's book it."

He squeezed his way out of the tunnel after Ian. They were in a larger area, like a spider-web of hard material (cartilage?) and more membranes pulsing above their heads.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject