Along for the Ride

Posted on Mon Jun 6th, 2022 @ 5:31am by Leiddem Kea (*) & Laurier Cami & Leyar Zera

Mission: Mission 15: Adrift
Timeline: MD-03??? 0900???
2050 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Leiddem and some of the others from his small group were all set up to go somewhere. From a short ways away, Cami, having noticed that he seemed to be getting ready for something, bounded over to his side like an excited puppy.

"Hey Lei!" she grinned. "What're you up to? Going anywhere fun?" she didn't wait for him to answer. "Can I come along? Jea's off doing something and I'm kinda bored." As if to emphasise that point she prodded him on the arm a couple of times with her finger.

The man turned to look at her and then his companion whom he was doing to be doing a walk of the security perimeter with and shrugged. "Can come alone if Leyar does not mind." He offered and slipped on gloves and a hat. "Might want warmer clothes though."

"Is it cold?" she wondered, frowning. The temperature in the bay had been fairly normal, and nobody had flagged any issues. Perhaps he meant elsewhere. She glanced around, not seeing any spares, so she snatched the hat off Leyar's head and put it on her own. "There we go. All ready and able, sir!" she mock-saluted, knowing that it wound up the former marine to pretend.

"It's Zera," the Bajoran corrected, sliding gloves over his own hands, "and as long as you're not in the way." It seemed no matter how he put his name in the manifest, people always assumed Leyar was his family name for some reason, and while it was tiresome to correct people, he more-or-less was used to it. He narrowed his eyes when the young Bajoran took his hat, then visibly rolled them when she did her little mock-salute.

"So, where are we going then? And why have you been avoiding me the last few days, hmm?" she pressed, carrying on along next to Leiddem.

The Betazoid in question frowned at the mock salute. He hated that type of action towards authority as knew full well, Cami knew perfectly well how to wind him up. He was pretty sure that every woman on board was trying to test his patience recently. "We are just doing a patrol of the area we have to use," The man revealed before looking down at her. "I have not been avoiding you or anything." He assured glancing back at his colleague.

"You've totally been avoiding me. Otherwise why am I so chipper? Haven't had you to bring my mood down," she teased. She glanced at the man with him. "Zera. You must be new, otherwise you wouldn't have volunteered to patrol with this one."

Zera eyed the younger Bajoran, unsure of what to think about her. She reminded him somewhat of Halan, a Bajoran engineer he met while in Starfleet. Energetic, and with an apparent desire to annoy the hell out of coworkers. Internally, he shuddered. Halan spent way too much time trying to get Zera to loosen up, despite his protests, and she was a small part of why he took off the uniform. "I transferred several weeks ago," he answered. He silently admitted, he didn't know anything about Leiddem yet, but at least Zera indirectly worked with him. He concluded that their third wheel was of another department, mostly because he hadn't seen her in the security offices before. "And at least he and I are the same department," he shrugged.

Cami gave the newbie a double-take. "Wow. For a second there I thought I was talking to Liha," she snarked. "Prophets, Lei. Now I know why they buddied you up with him..." She grasped Leiddem's arm a little possessively, just to annoy the other Bajoran even more. "Shall we?"

Leiddem rolled his eyes. He was used to Cami after all this time even if others were less in the known. “Very much so. And I have no been ignoring or avoiding. I have had a lot going on.” He admitted from his feelings with Delaney, Robertson dying, the ship breaking and Gregnol going off who knows where he had not had much time to relax or catch up with anyone.

The older Bajoran blinked when he saw the younger one latch onto Leiddem and chose to brush it off, or tried to. Yeah, she was definitely this ship's Halan, and he could tell she was trying to egg him on or something. Prophets, not another one like her, Zera thought, internally groaning. Taking the lead, Zera walked a couple paces ahead of Leiddem and the Halan-clone, letting them continue whatever conversation they were having. Maybe if he can establish early that he's not interested in her games, he could spare himself the stress.

"Lots and lots," Cami nodded, agreeing enthusiastically with Leiddem. "Little birds tell me you've been holding out on me, Lei. I hear you've had a 'lot going on' with a certain redhead." She gave him a wink, watching his face for clues.

The man just stared down at the woman and frowned. “And if I did that would be my business.” He said simply. Man how quickly did rumours fly around this place? Not that he was keeping anything a secret but it was just not something to bring up there and then. “What about you and… I am sure they’re is someone. Little flirt.” He rubbed her hair affectionately.

"Nope. Just little me. What is it the humans say: 'always the bridesmaid, never the bride'." She made a big dramatic show of 'woe is me' before poking him. "Don't try to change the subject. We were talking about you. C'mon, spill! You know I'll just find out anyway..."

“I do not know the expression.” The Betazoid said instantly. “None of us are human.” He added as an after thought as he shook his head. Everything about this conversation was draining. “Nothing is going on Cam… I…” he held his finger up in a shh gesture as he heard a tapping from the other end of the corridor that was the entrance of the area they were using.

The sudden silence behind him caught Zera's attention, and he turned his head enough to see Leiddem with a finger to his lips. In doing so, he also heard the tapping noise and slowed his pace. An advantage of avoiding Cardassians as a child was his ability to sneak. The Bajoran silently moved closer to the wall and looked at Leiddem to see how he wanted to proceed. The Betazoid had surely been on the ship longer than Zera had, and if it were up to him he'd just go check it out himself, but this was still new territory to him and didn't mind following the other man's lead.

"What..." Cami paused and lowered her voice. "What is it?" she hissed, peeking around Lieddem's bigger form.

“Go and find out.” Leiddem encouraged joking with her before he started moving forward. He was pretty sure he knew why it was as he raised his phaser. Delaney had mentioned spiders onboard. “You both know Stan right?” He questioned quickly.

"Stan? You mean Eden's old spider? I thought she gave it to Jinx back on Freecloud?" Cami hissed.

When Leiddem raised his phaser, Zera followed suit, then the Bajoran raised an eyebrow at the question. "Stan is... a spider?" he asked, clearly surprised. When it dawned on him that he had his phaser ready to shoot at a spider, he realized how silly the situation was and lowered the weapon slightly. "Don't tell me you got spooked by a spider," Zera scoffed.

Leiddem laughed awkwardly as the man scoffed and glanced at Cami. “He doesn’t realise just how big the thing is does he?” The man questioned as the tapping got closer and closer.

"Spider...more like a targ," Cami agreed, still cautiously using Leiddem as a shield. "Don't tell me we're hunting Stan now?"

Now that Zera thought about it, a small creature wouldn't make a tapping noise as a loud as what they were hearing. Realizing that Leiddem may be serious, the Bajoran adjusted his grip on the phaser as the tapping sounded like it would come around the corner at any moment.

The first sign of the spider was a leg that was far bigger than Leiddem expected and he instantly regretted the expletive that came out his mouth as the spider appeared around the corner and just stop and stared at them. Leiddem had kicked Eden for Stan but this thing was four times the size and the Betazoid wondered where it had been hiding all this time.

Maybe it’s Stan’s girlfriend and doesn’t mind us?” Leiddem said hopefully.

"If it's Stan's girlfriend I really really hope they didn't consummate that relationship!" Cami squealed. "Aren't you going to shoot it or something?"

“It is not doing anything yet.” The man replied quickly but that soon changed as the large spider jumped towards the wall and then scuttled up it. “Fuck!” Leiddem commented, firing a shot but it jumped back.

"Your aim sucks, Lei," Cami complained. "You - Zera. Squash it...or something!"

"How the hell am I supposed to squash it??" Zera asked, staring at the large and fuzzy creature in front of him. Taking aim, he watched the movement of the spider up the wall before firing. He intentionally aimed for the legs to get the thing to move, then aimed at its body. "Evasive," the Bajoran commented as the spider scuttled around. Glancing at Leiddem, he said, "if one of us distracts it, the other can get a better shot."

"My aim does not suck," Leiddem commented back looking at the woman. "I'll distract. You shoot." Leiddem said volunteering as practically a tribute to this venture.

"Prophets, are you guys serious? Just squish it!" Cami urged, surprised that they were taking so long over a simple task.

Zera drew his attention briefly from the chaos to glare at the other Bajoran. "Do you not see how big this thing is? Find me a boot big enough to squish it, then we'll talk." He turned his attention back toward Leiddem, then looked around quickly when he lost sight of the dog-sized creature. "Leiddem..." he said carefully, "... where did it go?"

Leiddem had turned at the urge from Cami distracted and jumped as he turned back to find it gone. It did not take a genius to work out how smart the thing was not where it had gone. He looked up just in time to raise his rifle as the spider jumped down at him and fire off a few shots before the spider got him. It fell lifeless to the floor.

Cami fled. Not just a couple of feet, either, but halfway back down the hallway. "Seriously...if you didn't want me to come along you didn't need to go to all this trouble!" she protested, scoping up a discarded piece of piping as she went for self-defence.

“Think it’s dead.” Leiddem glanced at the rifle he was not set to stun. He was not the type to normally shoot to kill but the creature had no place being there and attacking them.

Zera managed to hit the spider as well, then cautiously approached as some of the legs twitched. If there weren't dealing with a possibly undead spider big enough to eat them, the Bajoran might have laughed at the way their third ran off. He nudged a leg with the tip of the rifle, "it better be."

“You can come back now Cam.” Leiddem said brightly returning to his former lightness after the threatening moment. He hated spiders and this confirmed that they were really better off without Stan onboard.

"Good. Because I'm whacking you with this if I see anything else with more than two legs," she replied, waving the pipe like a baton. "Got it?"

"Completely," Leiddem mumbled quickly raising his hand quickly in defeat. "You both go back. I will move this." He said knowing neither of them would be happy about doing it themselves and he could not just leave it there for someone to come across.

"Oh, now you're the brave one..." Cami snorted. "Have you even finished your patrol thing yet?"

“You have.” Leiddem said simply.