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“So, you didn’t bring the tools you needed?” Erica asked as she walked with Scotty out of Engineering and back to where the shuttle was docked, she didn’t mind the trip out, but the idea of multiple back and forth trips wasn’t exciting. The outpost had been long abandoned above a non-spacefaring society. They needed to stabilize its orbit in the rocky ring around the planet.
“It’s specialized,” Scotty explained. “Parametric scanner, it's an older tool. But then again this whole outpost is old.”
“So you need the scanner.”
“Aye. It is the best thing for aligning the phase coils on these old engines.”
“And it’s on the Enterprise.” It wasn’t a long trip. Enterprise was stationary above their location, just a slow twenty minute shuttle trip through the rocky debris. “Fine, let’s go.”
The station itself was surprisingly clean. Its environmental systems had kept running for decades without intervention, but the engines themselves were finally failing. The corridor was lined with shops and offices. It was sparsely decorated, but left as if the inhabitants were planning on returning and yet never did.
As Erica walked along a narrow section she felt the cloth of her tunic catch something at her shoulder, pulling it off a ledge. Instinctually she turned to grab it. Then froze.
Scotty continued ahead a few steps before noticing she had fallen behind. “Lieutenant?” he asked as he turned back.
“Don’t move,” Erica said through clenched teeth.
“I’m not moving.”
“Good.”
“Are you?” Scotty asked.
“No.” Pain had flared immediately. Erica’s eyes slowly looked down at what she grabbed. The surface was covered in large and small spines which were now embedded in her hand.
Scotty followed her eyes down. “Oh.”
“Pull it out of my hands.”
“What!?” Scotty asked, shocked.
“The plant. It is stuck in my hands. Pull it out.”
“Right,” Scotty hurried over, carefully grabbing the pot where he could to avoid the spines. “Do ya want me to count down.”
Erica stared at him.
“Right, best to just do it.” Scotty grabbed the pot and firmly pulled, the skin of her hands resisting for a fraction of a second before the plant tore free. Erica tried to stifle a groan as the larger spines were pulled from her skin.
“Well that’s better,” Scotty said.
Erica’s eyes were still wide as she held up her hands closer to her face. They were covered in hundreds of tiny hair-like spines embedded in her skin.
“At least they’re small,” Scotty offered, moving closer to look at them.
“My hands are not frickin’ pincushions.” Erica pulled her hands in closer, careful not to actually touch them with anything.
“Look, there’s a medical center right ahead, probably we can find something to help,” Scotty suggested.
“Of course there is. Let’s put the spiky plants right near the medical center.
The center itself was sparse. Three beds and a handheld scanner. Erica leaned back against one of the beds as Scotty moved the scanner over her hands.
Foreign material detected.
“Yes, we already knew that,” Erica said, frustration in each word.
Unable to identify.
“Of course you can’t, it is just from the plant you guys put in the hallway for anyone to accidentally touch.”
Recommend removal of foreign material.
Consult with qualified medical personnel.
“Could they have even made the scanner more useless?” Scotty asked as he set it down. He opened up the unlocked drawers looking for anything that might help.
“It seems unlikely.”
“Here.” Scotty pulled out tweezers from a drawer. “Maybe they will be easy to remove.”
Erica nodded, moving one of her hands over to him. He carefully held it to keep it stable, avoiding the spines and gripped a small group of them out to pull out.
The moment they shifted Erica’s vision narrowed. The edges of the room went gray. Then her knees bucked.
“Erica!” Scotty dropped the tweezers and caught her by the arm, careful to avoid her hands.
“Let’s not do that,” Erica said quietly as she got her footing again. She turned to Scotty. “You’re flying.”
His eyes went wide at the suggestion. “No. I canna, I’ll…”
“Scotty!” She gestured forcefully with her hands up in the air showing the hundreds of spines in her hands.
“I’ve crashed seven shuttles.”
“I know.”
“Seven is a lot of shuttles.”
“And I wasn’t there then,” Erica said, looking him straight in the eyes. “I’ll make sure it isn’t eight.”
---
Erica stood behind Scotty as the shuttle detached from the outpost. It wasn’t the easiest trip, the outpost itself was in one of the more rocky rings around the planet.
The shuttle lurched to the side as Scotty quickly moved to avoid a rock.
Erica stumbled, instinctively reaching for the back of the pilot’s chair before stopping herself. She pulled her arms back closer to her and caught herself with her legs.
The shuttle screeched as an asteroid clipped the side. “Ach!” Scotty yelled in frustration.
“It’s fine, it happens.”
“It happens?”
“Felt cosmetic if anything,” Erica said. “Who hasn’t clipped an asteroid in a shuttle?”
“You,” Scotty suggested, hands gripped on the main controls tight enough his knuckles were turning white.
“I wish. I’ve clipped them with the ship itself even. But shields usually absorb most of the impact. If not, it gives you guys down in engineering something to do,” Erica said jokingly. She tried to stabilize her hands against the back of the chair. They had begun shaking slightly, she didn’t want Scotty to see.
“Steady,” Erica said as she stumbled again during a quick turn of the shuttle.
“I’m trying.”
“You're fighting it.”
“Well, I don’t want to crash another shuttle.”
“You’re not going to.”
“You canna know that,” Scotty argued.
“Look ahead,” Erica stated.
“I am lookin’ ahead.”
“Farther,” Erica explained, leaning forward to point to a spot on the window. “You need to adjust your course already for what’s 300 meters ahead, we are not going that fast, we are not in a hurry, you have time to make small adjustments now.”
“You’re making this sound very easy,” Scotty said with frustration.
“It is,” Erica said calmly. “That’s generally just how flying works.”
Scotty looked further ahead, trying to predict where the shuttle would be rather than where it was. A cluster of rocks drifted across their projected path. He gently adjusted the path early and the shuttle slipped between them without a jolt.
Another fragment was ahead. This time, Scotty was already adjusting. They soon cleared the remaining rocky space.
“There,” Erica stated.
“I’m flying.”
“You’re flying.” Erica finally dropped down into the neighboring seat, resting her hands palms up on her thighs. “Don’t get too excited.”
“Why?” Scotty asked, turning to her.
“You still need to land.”
“Ah.” The shuttle fell silent for a moment as they watched the Enterprise draw near. “How are your hands?” Scotty asked, glancing at them and seeing them tremble.
“Bad,” Erica admitted.
“How bad?”
“Well, they don’t hurt now.”
“That’s good, right?”
“They’ve gone numb,” Erica explained.
“Oh.” He looked at her hands again which were still trembling. “That’s not good.”
“Don’t think so.”
The hum of the engines changed as Scotty picked up the speed.
“Adjust course two degrees starboard,” Erica said without thinking, trying to focus on anything other than the trembling in her hands.
“Enterprise,” Scotty began, activating the comms, “Shuttle Currie coming in, maybe hard. We could use a medic, Lieutenant Ortegas tried to hold a cactus.”
Erica leaned over. “For the record, I succeeded in holding the cactus.”
The engines slowed to a crawl as they entered the shuttle bay.
“Try to just ease it…” Erica began before the shuttle hit with a thud.
Scotty glanced over to her. “Well, that coulda gone better,” he admitted.
“Sure, but you didn’t crash.”
The side hatch opened and M’Benga came in. He immediately walked over to Erica, scanning her hands where they rested on her thighs.
“How long ago did this happen?” he asked.
“About twenty minutes,” Scotty said when Erica remained quiet.
“Let’s get you to sickbay.”
“Yeah, so after my arms went numb my legs did as well,” Erica explained.
Scotty stared at her. “What! Ye didn’t say anything.”
“Yeah, didn’t feel helpful to mention at the time.”
“We’ll get the gurney,” M’Benga said, stepping off the shuttle.