Katie was having a panic attack in the walls of a foreign space ship. She was screwed.
She had been looking for a new vessel, yes. Her mentors, the older humans who had taken her in to show her what it was really like living the roaming lifestyle of a Ship rat, or Gremlin, or Brownie, or whatever nickname was popping up now, had been amazing. but now that she knew the ropes- or cables, she supposed, to managing alien ships and crews, she had been dropped off in a galactic station to find her own place. It had been going great! she got supplies, did some odd jobs for the local human village under the pet shop, and had been scoping out the ships coming and going from port. She was solo, right now, though she had hoped to befriend a few other's in the pubs of the village and put together her own crew. Still, it wouldn't be many, so she was looking for a small ship.
Then the sirens went off, beeping the signal for "EVACUATE" with soul-shattering volume. Chaos erupted immediately. That siren only ever went off if there was a catastrophic meltdown being threatened, or something of equally devastating affect.
Now, most of the humans who lived in the village full time had evac strategies. Most families were friends with shopkeeps and had deals to hitch a ride in case of evacuation. Those who were passing through had ships to return to or ships already scouted to hop onto. So the evacuation was chaotic, but everyone was going to their main destinations. Except Katie.
Katie had leapt into action, doing her best to help the evacuation. that was the life of a brownie, be helpful to a fault. She ran against the crowd to the village and began helping carry luggage for the elderly, ensure families stayed together, and did her best to keep an eye out for anything incoming. The ground shook as massive aliens pounded overhead, running and not watching their steps at all. if any humans ventured out of the walls or the space between the flooring and the hull they would be dead in seconds. Boarding the ships was going to be a nightmare. But Katie didn't worry about that until she was escorting the last group to their ship. This required dashing up from the floor to the ships landing gear, which would be climbed access panels would be used to enter the ship. Katie was standing guard, watching for the vessel's captain- the leader of this group had sent her arm monitor the description and she had been flicking through the list of crewmembers. There were only two crewmates not confirmed to be onboard, one of them being the Captain.
She was pulled from her thoughts as someone shouted behind her. Katie whirled around and saw that the last person was climbing up and beckoning her. She started to dash forwards when the world lurched. Katie screamed as she was flung through the air.
Something had hit the space station. Something had HIT the space station! Aliens had fallen to the ground with the feeling of the impact, untethered containers slid across the floor, and Katie was flying through the air. She would be smashed to the ground in seconds, and then probably trampled or squashed. That is, if she hit the ground.
Twisting sharply in the air, Katie pointed her arm at something that was hovering off the ground, and completely stable. She fired a grapple and it latched on. She nearly threw up as her trajectory quickly changed for the second time in less than a minute and she was yanked towards the hovering object. She slammed into it ungracefully and hung there for a moment, completely winded.
When she got her bearings she realized what the object she was attached to was. It was a hoverchair of sorts, and she managed to climb down onto the anti-grav platform that was under the main seat. she see legs hanging down, but wasn't sure what species they belonged to yet. The chair was moving towards a ship, at least. Katie crouched and waited. Good brownies aren't seen until they want to be.
Once onboard the new spacecraft, Katie waited for the hoverchair to go close enough to the floor for her to jump or repel down. sadly, her chauffer was a fidgety fellow, and didn't seem fond of parking in place for long. She was able to launch the drone from it's port on her shoulder to get a better view of him, however. Human drones were about the size of Earth birds. which meant that they were usually less noticeable than flies, and pretty safe ways to survey the world. Turns out the owner of the chair was a Vax'allif with a couple deformities. He was missing his third leg; and both of his wings seemed mangled, Thus the awesome hoverchair. He quickly joined the ranks of a bunch of others, a Avatroxi, a Triglocerin, a Fremba, Katie had never seen such a diverse crew before. there didn't seem to be more than two or three of the same species aboard, which she frankly didn't realize could happen.
Eventually she got the opportunity to repel down and drop into a drainage grate into the subflooring, and from there into the walls of the ship. She maneuvered expertly through the wiring and got to know the layout, noting the water systems and places she would be able to tap for fresh water or attach a waste disposal unit. Basic housekeeping.
when she found a bunch of damaged wiring her heart sank. The ship was infested by VoidWasps. the damn things were twice her size and would feed off any energy source they could access. they also had pincers that could bite a newfoundland in half and their colonies took either alien exterminators or an experienced team of Brownies to take down. She'd helped with a Voidwasp extermination before, of course, but right now she was Alone. Probably. there was no sign of humans anywhere on this ship so far, but the more she explored the more she realized how truly massive this ship was. It seemed to be a deep space research vessel, which meant that if it had fully fueled up then it might not stop at another station for half a cycle at least. These things were meant for deep space exploration, and housed their own communities. Usually including at least one human village. Katie pushed that thought aside.
Hours passed and eventually Katie mapped out a few nest locations, a way into the kitchen stores, and places to get personal supplies. she also had repaired a ton of wiring and sprayed everything she touched liberally with Human-Grade Insect repellent. The repellent was built into human adhesives as well, and pretty much anything that had to do with wiring or engineering had a few bug-proofing precautions. She had also come face to face with about four wasps, which she had managed to shoot so full of plasma that they fried inside their carapaces. She really did not like bugs. Voidwasps especially. the damn things were invasive!
She had also finally pinged the ship, scanning human stations for any signal. She scanned again. and again. There was nothing. She was the only human aboard. Katie had been going through well rehearsed motions until now, but this was a problem. To tackle a vessel this size you would usually want like. thirty humans at minimum. and she was alone. A research vessel like this usually attracted thrill-seekers. Humans loved to adventure through space, research vessels were basically gremlin bait. This ship wasn't new, she could tell by the wiring. some of these parts had years of rust built up, and from the damage she was seeing the voidwasp infestation was massive, the colony probably numbering in the thousands. That stuff doesn't happen overnight. This ship was perfect Gremlin bait, yet no human had stepped aboard. That meant she was probably missing something. Usually she would've staked out the ship for a while before getting on. maybe there was some kind of red flag about it that would stop any humans from boarding? Maybe the wasps were worse than she thought and no human would go near such a large nest, even with numbers on their side?
Katie was having a panic attack in a foreign ship. She almost didn't hear the buzzing clicks behind her as a wasp closed in.
