Scotty just stared at them all, Kirk stood up. "Why did you lie about your journals?" He asked calmly, Kirk was slightly annoyed at the fact Scotty had deliberately lied to him, but Kirk knew there must be a reason. "I never intended to Captain, but I can ensure you that there is nothing of use written in them." McCoy folded his arms and rolled his eyes. "Oh but we think there is, in one of them you wrote about something crawling around the outpost at night. To what 'something' are you talking about?" Scotty stood like a deer in the headlights, it took him a few seconds to respond. "I don't know what it was, I only ever saw its shadow, I swear. The only thing I can tell you is that it's not meant to be here ." Kirk was determent to get more information, "You never mentioned this to Star Fleet?" Scotty slowly shook his head. "Why not?" "Because they wouldn't have listened! They sent me here so they wouldn't have to deal with me, not after the trans warp accident. I tried so many times to get them to send replacements for equipment but they don't care about this outpost, they only station people here so they can claim it as their own."

Scotty snapped, almost instantly he realised what he had done. "I'm sorry Captain, that was un-called for. If you'll excuse me…" Before anyone could say anything, Scotty quickly walked away. "Don't be mad at him Jim, he's not angry at…" McCoy was cut off by Kirk, "I'm not Bones, he just needs time to cool off." The CMO was glad to hear that, it was then he realised that Lexie was still reading. "You enjoying that journal kid?" He asked with a snigger, but Lexie didn't reply or even look up. "Lexie?" Kirk called but once again she didn't answer, Chekov then tapped her on the shoulder. "Lex?" She instantly looked up, to see them all staring at her. "Everything OK Lexie?" McCoy asked, she sighed loudly. "He was lying again." "What?" Lexie stood up from the floor and handed the book to Kirk. "You can read for yourself Captain, I'm going to make sure Scotty's alright." She walked away before anyone could stop her. "Are you really gonna let her go off on her own Jim?" McCoy asked quickly, "She'll be fine Bones, now let's see what's in this book."

Kirk flicked open the book to be greeted by a pencil drawing. "I didn't know Scotty could draw so well." McCoy said as he glanced over Kirk's shoulder, "Neither did I, could this be what the shadow Scotty saw belongs to?" Kirk questioned as he stared back at the drawing. Over the other side of the building Lexie had found Scotty, working away on a computer. She walked over to him quietly and tapped him on the shoulder, "Scotty?" The Engineer suddenly span round, wrench in hand ready to swing it at anything or anyone that came too close. "Scotty it's me!" Lexie cried, Scotty lowered his arm and dropped the wrench. "Don't scare me like that lass! I could have hurt you and you should know better than to sneak up on someone." Lexie wasn't expecting him to be so jumpy, clearly something had him spooked. "Sorry Scotty, didn't mean to sneak up on you." The Scotsman had turned his back on her and was working away once more, "What are you doing wandering around on ya own anyway, I told you it's dangerous to do that." "Is that because of what wandering around here?" Scotty stopped working, he didn't turn to face her. "I told you all I saw was a shadow, I've never seen what it belongs to."

But Lexie wasn't convinced, after reading through his journals she knew he was lying to her. "But you have seen it, haven't you? Or did you draw in one of your journals for fun?" Scotty seemed to quiver at Lexie's statement, which didn't go unnoticed by her. "Scotty, you have to tell me what you saw? It may help us to understand what's been happening here. Whatever it…" Suddenly the lights flickered off, plunging the whole room into darkness. "Hold on lass, I've got a flashlight." Scotty soon found it and turned it on, to find it was pointing directly in Lexie's face. "Ouch, too bright! Too bright!" She called, Scotty moved the light away so it was pointing towards the floor. "Sorry." Lexie was about to reply when the ground slightly shook, she looked up to see Scotty's face which was softly illuminated by the light was awash with fear. "What was that?" Lexie stuttered as she stepped closer to Scotty, who was shining the light around the room. "It can't still be here?" Just then something hissed loudly from a shadowy corner of the room, Scotty didn't have a chance to point his light over that way when something jumped at him from the darkness. "Lexie! Look out!" Scotty cried as he shoved the young officer out of the way, just as he was knocked over. After recovering from the forceful shove she had received, Lexie looked over to check on Scotty and couldn't believe what she was seeing, so she just stared.

Lexie was still trying to comprehend what she was looking at, it appeared to be a gigantic tarantula which must have been twenty times the size of a normal Earth one. Scotty was struggling to keep the arachnid's fangs from piercing into his chest, venom dripping from their tips onto Scotty's clothes, burning away the fabric. "Bloody hell that stings!" Scotty muttered under his breath, he glanced over to see Lexie still sitting on the floor. "Run Lexie!" He yelled, the fear in his voice was abundantly clear. Snapping herself back to reality, Lexie grabbed her phaser, thankful that she had brought it with her for some reason. "Get off him!" Lexie roared as she fired at the tarantula, which was thrown off Scotty and smashed into the wall. She hurried over to her friend, phaser still in hand. "Scotty, let's get out of here!" Lexie yanked the Scotsman to his feet and the pair of them took off running, Lexie only turned around to fire her phaser to hopefully stop the tarantula from following them. "What the hell was that thing?!" Lexie cried, Scotty was too out of breath to answer.

Suddenly he felt something wrap around his ankle, looking down he saw it was a web. He was them pulled sharply causing him to fall to the ground. Lexie span round when she felt Scotty's arm slip from her hand, "Lexie! Help!" Lexie lunched and grabbed a hold of the CEO hand once again. "Hold on!" She went to fire her phaser, only to discover she had dropped it. Lexie didn't have any other ideas, she was still trying to get over the fact that they had been attacked by a giant spider. Just then she heard a voice call out their names, she turned to see Kirk, McCoy, and Chekov come racing around the corner. "What the?" McCoy muttered, "Shoot now! Questions later!" Lexie snapped as she felt herself slide across the floor as Scotty was being dragged ever closer to the creature. Kirk didn't need to be told twice, he pulled out his phaser and fired. First at the tarantula, then at the web which was wrapped around the Scotsman's ankle. Scotty scrambled to his feet along with Lexie. They ran back over to where Delta and Keenser were waiting, Lexie grabbed her robotic friend and held him tightly in her arms. "Follow me!" Scotty cried as he took off running once again, the others followed him into a large room. Once they were all inside he slammed the heavy metal door shut, locking it.

Everyone was trying to catch their breath, while Keenser managed to get some lights working. How he had managed that was a mystery, but no one was complaining. "What the hell was that thing?" Questioned McCoy. "It looked like a huge spider." Chekov stated, Lexie glanced over at him. "That's exactly what it was Pavel, a gigantic tarantula." Delta looked up at Lexie in confusion, he hadn't seen it for himself so he didn't really know what they were all going on about. Kirk was about to speak when his communicator bleeped, he quickly grabbed it from his belt and flicked it open. "Kirk here." "Captain, I have reviewed the video files that Delta transferred to me and I believe I have discovered the reasons for the reports." Kirk sighed quietly, "Would that be an oversize tarantula Spock?" There was a short pause before Spock spoke again. "Yes Captain, but how did you know?" "It just attacked us, I want you to beam us back up to the ship, immediately. I agreed to conduct an investigation, not to be hunted by a giant arachnid." McCoy couldn't argue with Kirk's reasoning, now they had found the reason they could leave Star Fleet to deal with it. "We can't beam you back Sir. There's too much interference being caused by an abnormal snow storm on the planet's surface."

Kirk grunted something under his breath at the Vulcan's response, that's not what he wanted to hear. "OK Spock, keep me informed. Kirk out." He replied, snapping his communicator shut before placing it back onto his belt. "So we're stuck here!" McCoy called angrily, "Looks that way Bones." He then turned his attention to Lexie, who was stood leaning against the wall still holding Delta. "Looks like you found what made them officers want to leave." Lexie smiled slightly, "It would appear so Captain." She then felt something tugging at her shirt, glancing down she saw it was Keenser who was trying to get her attention. He then pointed over at Scotty, who was slumped against the wall, Lexie quickly handed Delta to Chekov and hurried over to him. "Are you alright?" She asked softly, Scotty nodded slowly. "Aye lass, just a little shaken up that's all." But Lexie could tell he was more than a little shook up, he seemed purely terrified. McCoy had also wandered over by this point, he immediately noticed the burns on the Engineers clothes. "How the hell did this happen?" He asked while pointing at them, "That spider's venom burns like acid." As he spoke he shivered. "Scotty, you got something to tell us about that monster?" Kirk asked, "Aye Captain, but first I need to admit something… I have… I have Arachnophobia."

"You what?" Questioned McCoy, so Scotty repeated himself. "You're scared of spiders?" Lexie asked. Scotty just nodded, it wasn't that difficult to understand. "You never mentioned that you had Arachnophobia." Kirk said as he wandered over to him. "There was never any need to, you don't come across them often in the vastness of space." Kirk knew he had a point, but he still wished he had known. "As for the monster, it suddenly appeared one day while I was posted here. At first, it never came near me but as time when on it started to attack me every so often. I always debated telling Star Fleet, but I knew they wouldn't believe that there was a gigantic tarantula living within the outpost." The fact that Scotty has said 'me' and not 'us' confused them, by the look on Keenser's face he had no idea that there was an arachnid living with them in the outpost. "You mean, you didn't even tell Keenser?" Questioned Chekov, but Scotty didn't reply. "We've got to find a way of getting rid of that thing. Either by capturing it or killing it." Stated Kirk, Scotty quickly turned to face him. "You can't catch that thing, didn't you hear me when I said it's venom burns like acid, it can eat through anything. That's not just a jumbo size Earth tarantula, it's from another world."

McCoy pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly. "So let me get this straight, we're currently trapped inside a room. Within an outpost. On a planet we can't leave. And there's a huge, acid secreting spider outside." Kirk rubbed the back of his neck, "Pretty much, just a normal day, right?" Once again McCoy sighed. Lexie had been thinking of a plan, but she just couldn't think of one. "We've got our phasers, so at least we ain't completely defenceless." Chekov said as he placed his hand on his phaser, as if to check it was still there. "I fired at it about, five times and it didn't seem to effect it." Kirk was starting to hate this place, just as much as Scotty. "Maybe we can reconfigure them to effect it, but that may take a while." Chekov said as he removed his phaser from his belt, Delta smiled. "I can help with that, I may not be a fully-fledged computer but I can still help." Kirk told the two of them to set to work, while Lexie sat with Scotty who hadn't said anything else, but that didn't stop her from talking to him. She told him that he didn't need to be afraid and then she quoted something her mother once said to her, "There's nothing to fear but fear itself." McCoy came and stood next to Kirk and just glared at him, "You just had to say 'What could possibly go wrong' didn't ya Jim, now look what mess we're in." Kirk gave a nervous laugh. "I should really stop saying that." Kirk said to himself.