McCoy had been growing more and more concerned with every minute that had passed by. Scotty hadn't spoken much since the others had left, so Delta had been the only one he really had to talk to. Which McCoy didn't mind, he liked having conversations with the little robot. He had been debating going out to try and find them, but he didn't really wish to leave Scotty and Delta alone. Suddenly, McCoy heard a scream, he knew who it was instantly. He quickly grabbed his phaser from his belt and turned to face Scotty, he also knew who had screamed but his fear was stopping him from doing anything. "Stay here, I'll go see." McCoy could tell by the look on Delta's face that he wanted to come, his creator was out there after all. "Best if you stay with Scotty little fella, you'll be safe here."
Delta wanted to go but knew McCoy wouldn't allow it, so he just nodded as he moved closer to Scotty. McCoy opened the door quietly and stepped into the unknown, he couldn't believe what he was doing, but knew he had no choice. Since Scotty was frozen in fear and Delta only being small, he was the only one who was able to go and investigate. "I'm gonna kill Jim when I find him!" McCoy muttered to himself as he walked around, thankful that the lights were on. His hand gripped the phaser tightly, he hated using them. "I'm a Doctor, not some arachnid hunter!" He continued to mutter to himself, that was until he was dragged out of his thoughts by someone calling his name. He span round to see Lexie crouched over Keenser, who was lying on his back. McCoy quickly ran over to them, instantly seeing that there was something seriously wrong.
"What happened?" McCoy asked, now wishing he had brought his tricorder with him. "He was attacked by the spider, it was going for me but he jumped in front of me." Lexie replied sadly, she felt like she was to blame. McCoy was examining the Engineer trying to figure out the extent of his injury's. "How you feeling Keenser?" The Ensign turned his head slowly to face the Doctor and grumbled something, but neither McCoy nor Lexie could understand. "Where the hell is Jim and Chekov?" McCoy questioned, Lexie gulped quietly. "I don't know. The Captain went to find Chekov after we heard him scream, but he didn't come back." McCoy's face turned slightly white, the fact that both Kirk and Chekov were missing didn't fill him with confidence. "We need to get Keenser back to our safe room, at least there I can see what's wrong with him." Lexie looked puzzled, "Don't you have your tricorder?"
McCoy shook his head quickly. "I kinda left in a hurry after hearing you cry out." Lexie was grateful that he had come to see, but kind of wished he had brought his medical equipment with him. She helped McCoy lift Keenser onto his shoulder since the Engineer was in no condition to be walking, until McCoy could treat him he wanted him to stay as still as possible, but also to allow him to reserve his energy since they were still unable to beam off the planet. Suddenly a loud hiss echoed around the room, Lexie didn't look up since she knew what would be waiting for her and she didn't particularly want to see it again, instead she looked over at McCoy and said one thing. "RUN!" Within a split second they took off running, good thing too since the tarantula dropped down from the ceiling right on the spot they had once stood.
They weren't exactly close to their safe room, so it was taking a while for them to get back there, even at full sprint, well more or less since McCoy was carrying Keenser over one of his shoulders. Lexie had been firing off her phaser to try and stop the tarantula from chasing them, which wasn't going the way she hoped since it was still chasing them. Lexie was trying to stay close to McCoy since he wasn't really able to use his phaser, just in case the spider chose to lung at him. "I'm a dam Doctor, not a bloody athlete!" McCoy yelled angrily, "You can make a formal complaint to Star Fleet when we're safely back aboard the Enterprise!" Lexie replied, she couldn't wait to be back on the ship herself, mainly so she could give Star Fleet a right ear full about this mission. Mainly about the fact that they sent the Enterprise to investigate the reports they got, instead of doing it themselves, but also because of the hell they were having to deal with, mainly Scotty who she knew was terrified about being back on this hell scape.
There were many things Lexie had experienced during her short time on the Enterprise, including almost drowning but she drew the line at huge, acidic venom spiders who were clearly trying to kill her. Lexie turned back just in time to see the tarantula fire a web from its mouth which wrapped around her legs, causing her to fall to the ground with a loud thud. "Lexie!" McCoy cried as he span around to run back to help her. "Just run McCoy, get Keenser to safety. I'll be fine." She yelled, McCoy was reluctant to leave her but he knew she was right. He had to get Keenser back to the room so he could treat him. He nodded sadly at her before taking off running once again, he could hear Lexie trying to fend off the spider. But suddenly all noise stopped, which made McCoy's heart almost stop.
Scotty had finally started to talk again, with help from Delta who had managed to get him to take his mind off the current situation. Scotty had been telling him about some of the good things that happened while he was stationed here, like the day he met Keenser or when the two of them celebrated New Year, well as much as Scotty could remember anyway. Delta had always been curious about what the Scotsman's time on Delta Vega had been like, since he knew the bad things he wanted to know the good ones, which the CEO was more than happy to tell him. Scotty was grateful that the little robot had gotten him talking again but he could tell something was bothering him, although he couldn't understand Delta as well as Lexie, Scotty had spent enough time with the AI to pick up on certain things. "Something on your mind lad?" He asked sweetly; Delta looked up to face him. "How could you tell?" "Call it a hunch, so what's troubling ya."
Delta sighed as he looked away, "I'm just worried about Lexie and the others." Delta said sadly, he then felt himself being picked up. "I'm sure they're all fine lad. Any minute they'll be coming through that door." He smiled down at Delta, who just smiled back since he couldn't find any words to reply with. Suddenly they heard someone cry out, Scotty gently placed Delta down on the floor and drew his phaser, even if his hand was shaking. He didn't want to go back out there, but knew he had too. "Whatever you do lad, don't leave this room. I'll go and see what that was." Scotty went to take a step when he felt something grab onto his leg, he looked down to see Delta clinging to his ankle. "Please Scotty, don't leave me here alone." Scotty smiled gently as he picked the robot up and placed him on his shoulder, like a robotic parrot. "Alright lad, we'll go together." Scotty then headed over to the door and slowly opened it, to be immediately greeted by the Doctor with Keenser slumped over his shoulder.
McCoy barged his way into the room and yelled for Scotty to close the door, which he did extremely quickly. He turned around to see the Doctor gently placing Keenser down on the floor, Scotty quickly ran over and knelt at the Engineers side. "What the hell happened to him?!" McCoy looked up and could clearly see how concerned Scotty was, "He was attacked by that dam spider, he was protecting Lexie." He replied when he looked Keenser over, out the corner of his eye McCoy saw Delta jumping down from Scotty's shoulder. How was he going to tell the little guy about his creator. "Where is Lexie?" McCoy didn't answer, it took until Scotty asked the same question for him to pluck up the courage to tell them. "She's… gone. The spider took her. She held it off to allow us to get away." Both Scotty and Delta looked on the verge of crying, they both were very close to her after all. But they had a more pressing matter to deal with, which was Keenser.
McCoy was using Chekov's scarf which the Navigator had left behind as a bandage to stop the cut on the Engineers chest from bleeding, since he didn't have anything else to use at this moment in time. "This is bad!" McCoy stated quickly as he scanned the Engineer over with his tricorder, Scotty looked up from his friend to face the Doctor. "What's wrong with him? Is that cut that bad?" McCoy looked up and stared at him, "The cuts not the problem Scotty, the spiders venom has gotten into Keenser's bloodstream." Scotty felt his heart begin to beat faster and the blood drain away from his face, "He's been poisoned?" McCoy slowly nodded. Scotty looked down at Keenser who was laying on the floor, he placed his hand on the Engineers arm. Just to let him know that he was there.