Disclaimer: I sadly, only own Rosie. The only thing I get out of the story is the happiness knowing that people enjoy reading it.
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"What?" Jim didn't catch where her eyes were looking but Spock did.
"Captain…" the Vulcan's voice wasn't so confident any longer.
"What?" Jim asked again as he now followed Spock's gaze behind him. There was the creature, shuffling rapidly up the tunnel behind him.
It was low to the ground, maybe only coming up to Jim's knees, but long length-wise, and actually resembled rock more than anything. The creature scurried across the ground towards the trio, its craggy body emitting hissing sounds as it moved.
Jim roughly grabbed at Rosie's shoulder and shoved her behind him and Spock, doing whatever he could to get her as far away from it as possible. Before Jim could do anything else though, the blast from Spock's phaser was lighting up the tunnels. On impulse, Jim shot at the creature as well then, hitting in in the same place Spock had. It shrieked, shrinking back for a moment before turning course and heading back out the way it came. Jim and Spock stood motionless, staring after the creature's retreat.
"Is it gone?" Rosie asked after a moment, craning her neck to see over Jim's shoulder.
"Yeah," Jim managed, once he found his voice.
Spock cleared his throat with a cough before adding, "Astonishing that something of such large bulk could move so rapidly."
Rosie was the first to move. She nudged herself around Jim and crossed the room, crouching down to look into the tunnel that the creature had fled through. Reaching out, she held her hand towards the wall of the tunnel. "Rosie, don't touch that!" Jim yelped rushing over next to her.
"I'm not that stupid," she sighed, but didn't remove her hand. "The walls of this tunnel are hot." She pulled her hand back before turning to look at Spock.
The Vulcan moved over and knelt down next to her. He held out a hand in a similar fashion and after a moment, commented, "Indeed, they are hot. I would conclude that the tunnel was made…perhaps…within the past two minutes or so."
"But that means the creature cut this tunnel to get in here…" Rosie started but was cut off as two security officers from the Enterprise barged into the tunnel.
"You alright, Captain?" one of them asked.
"Did you get a look at it?" the other one chimed in.
"Yes, yes…" Jim dismissed the men's questions, never turning his attention away from the tunnel. "How far back does the tunnel go, Spock?"
"The sensors are indicating that there is a vast maze system of tunnels of the same magnitude in that general direction, Captain. I cannot get a reading on the individual tunnel because of it."
"Did you get a shot at it?" the first security officer butted in again.
Jim sighed internally at the interruption. "Yes, we took a good hunk out of it," he told the security personnel, gesturing towards the hunk that was lying on the ground a few feet away. Spock, seeming to just have realized it was there, moved over towards the piece of the creature's body.
"Jim?" Rosie said after a moment of silence as Spock and Jim stared at the piece, "I really need to talk to Vanderberg. I've been away from the reactor too long already."
"Right of course," Jim's attention was turned back to her almost immediately. "Like Spock said, he should be up on the top floor with the mine personnel. I'll escort you up there…"
"No!" Rosie tried not to shriek, but she wasn't sure how successful she was. She continued on, trying to sound under control, "You need to stay down here with Spock. I'll be fine. I'll comm Bones on my way up there and send him down here to you guys to look at that."
"But Rosie…the creature…"
"No, I'm going now. You stay here!" And with that, Rosie dashed out of the chamber before Jim could move.
"That was…weird…" Jim mumbled to himself as the security officers left grumbling about not being appreciated.
"Indeed, Captain," Spock agreed, but Jim knew he wasn't really listening to him. The Vulcan's eyes had never left the hunk of the creature as he spoke. Gingerly, Spock reached out and touched the piece, and when he wasn't incinerated on the spot, he picked it up. "It is most certainly not animal tissue," he said to Jim after a moment.
"Then what is it?"
Spock was silent for a moment while he gathered his thoughts before answering, "I suppose the closest comparison I could come up with is perhaps fibrous asbestos. It is more similar to a mineral than any known living creature."
"Then your guess was right? About it being silcon- based?"
"So it would seem."
"Bones is going to be so annoyed when he gets down here and sees this."
Spock made a sound of agreement, but Jim chose to interpret it as Spock's version of a snort of laughter. "Indeed, he will be. So in summation, we are dealing with a silicon creature of deep rock that is capable of moving through solid rock, by means of an extremely potent corrosive acid that is most likely excreted from its body."
"At least there's no time-travelling Romulans this time?"
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Rosie was almost to the upper level when she pulled her communicator off her belt and hailed Dr. McCoy. It took a minute for him to respond, but his gravelly voice eventually came out through the machine, "McCoy."
"Hi, Len."
"Hey, Rosie. What can I do for you?"
"I'm headed up to talk to Vanderberg right now, but Jim and Spock need you down on the twenty-third level."
"What'd they do now?" Even though Bones was just a disembodied voice at the moment, Rosie could imagine his face scrunching up in annoyance at Jim potentially being injured. Again.
"Nothing, nothing. They're fine," Rosie tried to assure the doctor. "It's just…they…the creature came after them."
"What?!"
"They're fine!" she shouted now as she walked down the hall. "They shot at it and managed to force it to retreat. They actually burned a piece off of it with their phasers. They want you down there to examine it."
"Goddamn it," Bones' voice cut out for a few moments, the sound of rummaging around the only thing coming through the communicator. Finally, he was back, "I'm on my way down there."
"Great. Thank you." And with that, Rosie cut off the comm before she reached her destination, not wanting to accidentally let Bones in on the plan. As she turned the corner and entered the room, hundreds of people came into view. She looked around for a moment, before tapping one of the men on the shoulder, "I'm looking for Chief Vanderberg?" She almost had to shout to be heard over the dull roar of tons of people talking at one.
The man gestured her towards another man, and she moved over towards him. "Chief Vanderberg?"
"Yeah?" the older man turned towards her, a snarl on his face. "And you are?"
"Lieutenant Commander Rosalyn Moure of the USS Enterprise." That seemed to catch him off guard, as the snarl turned into shock. Most people still guessed she was an ensign at first glance. "Are all of your miners here? All the personnel?"
"Yes," was all the man answered.
"Okay, good. We've decided and ordered a planet-wide evacuation for safety purposes, so in a few minutes, we're going to get started on transporting you and your personnel up to the Enterprise. Just a precautionary measure, no need to worry."
"Great…yeah…okay…great." Rosie had clearly caught the man off guard. She hadn't been expecting this to go so easily, but was glad for it.
"Okay, let me just comm up to the transporter room and see if we're ready."
"Chekov here," Pavel's voice once again rang out of the communicator as soon as Rosie pressed the button.
"Hey, Pavel. Are you guys ready up there?"
"Yez, we are ready whenever you are."
"Great. Everybody is in the room I'm currently in, so whenever you're ready."
"Aye, Rosie."
And with that, Rosie's plan was set in action.
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A/N: Oh goodness I'm so sorry I've been such a slacker. My fiancé came home for good (finally!) so we've been looking for an apartment, and on top of that, I had a scratched cornea for a few days and couldn't open my eye! So here's the next chapter of Rosie! Again, I'm so so so sorry for the wait!