Girls Night Out XXV: Journey Through The Underworld

Posted on Mon May 28th, 2018 @ 8:28pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Fiona McCray & Commander Yuna Raza & Lieutenant Commander Selune
Edited on on Mon May 28th, 2018 @ 9:26pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Operation: Risa!
Location: Risa, Rome arcology, the seedy section
Timeline: 2265

Cloaca Maxima: From Fedepedia, the Federation encyclopedia

A combined sewer is a type of sewer system that collects sanitary sewage and stormwater runoff in a single pipe system. Combined sewers can cause serious water pollution problems due to combined sewer overflows, which are caused by large variations in flow between dry and wet weather. This type of sewer design is no longer used in building new communities, but many older cities continue to operate combined sewers. In ancient Rome, the Cloaca Maxima, considered a marvel of engineering, disgorged into the Tiber.



"So this hatch? We just pop this one and...?"

"And climb down into the... ah... system," Fi still wasn't telling the excitable Caitian that they were about to go spelunking in the Risan sewer system.

"No time to waste..." Char grunted against the lever. "Little... mechanical... advantage... would help..." she squeaked out as she exerted herself.

Fiona fished around in the purse that she had insisted that Yuna fetch for her and pulled out a small tool kit. She took a moment to oil the lever and do something to it with some sort of sonic device that made Char and Selune's ears hurt for a moment.

Winching, she gritted her teeth as the device drove lances of pain through her skull. Selune glared at the engineer muttering through the deafening ring, "You will be paying for my medical bills after tonight."

"Try it no,." Fiona instructed.

"What?" Char responded, mouth working like a goldfish to try to pop her pointed ears. Fiona pantomimed tugging in the lever and put her own strength into it as well, and the corrosion on the inside of the hinge burst free, unlocking the hatch. Grasping the handle and bracing herself, Char pulled... then Char and Fiona pulled, and it still didn't move. She signaled the other two and with all four heaving on the hatch it budged, then budged again.

The heavy hatchway lifted with a reluctant groan as it broke free, and the stench wafted up like a gentle wall of horror, a torment to all of their senses of smell that was both persistent and unyielding, continuing its unrelenting assault for every second of exposure. The scientist peered in. "Well, at least this part looks dry. We have any lights?"

Fiona pulled a small handful of chemical glow sticks out of her kit, leftovers from the club the night before. "I didna pack me main kit," she said a bit apologetically. At that the commander burst out laughing. "Then I look forward to one of these adventures someday with your main kit, Lieutenant! This is you UNprepared? Okay then..."

Fiona blew a curl out of her eyes and shrugged, "My Da was an Eagle Scout... we McCray's believe in bein' prepared!"

"Thank Judas for that..." The Vulcan cracked the lightstick and dropped it, and as it hit solid ground four meters below, she followed it, dropping straight down into the sewer. She landed quietly in a crouch, picked up the glowstick and scanned the immediate area, then gave the thumbs-up to her shipmates.

"Ohhhhh, who's idea was this?" Yuna muttered as she lowered herself into the sewer system, her nose already revolting against the ingrained stench. Bending her knees to absorb the impact she dropped into a low crouch at the bottom of the drop and hastily stood to ensure her dress was still mostly in one piece.

"Sorry Fi - I think it's a one night dress, she'll never be the same again," Celes apologized.

Fiona looked at her companions. "I'll bring oop tha rear," she said and gave the Caitian a gentle nudge.

Her nose still wrinkled as she took panting gasps of the overwhelming smell. Finally taking a final deep breath Selune nodded her acceptance shifting her surgical mask tighter against her face in the vain hope of thwarting some of the stench, "What a wonderful smell you've discovered," she sniped.

Char helped them down, then as Fiona stepped onto the ladder she asked, "Can we close and jam it? Buy us some extra time?" The engineer tugged the hatch closed as she descended. Gravity and its weight worked in her favor. She paused a moment digging in her kit then settled for a tube of super glue. "1001 uses... now, 1002." Running a bead around the seal, Fi hoped it had time to set before anyone tugged on it.

"Brilliant! Okay, we'll need some navigation... Fi, I hope you downloaded a schematic of the aqueduct system before we came down here, because somehow I doubt we'll get any signal down here. Failing that a compass and a direction will do, but we need to move. I think the hotel is that way..."

"Saved it tae memory," Fiona said as she dropped the last foot or two, then pointed the direction they needed to proceed with the glowstick. Then gagging, retching and complaining, the ladies of the Bonne Chance moved into the sewer systems of Rome.


"What is that?" Fiona pointed off to the right just slightly at a lump of something that might have been furry or scaly once. "Do I really want to kin what thet is?" she groused. "I think suimthings living duin here..." The yellow green glow did nothing to make their situation look better. The stones were slime coated and vile.

"I've got a baaad feeling about this," Selune groaned between short gasps for breath, "and no, you really don't want to know what I can see down here," she murmured as her eyes better adapted to the low light and she began to see exactly what it was the spunky engineer was missing, "I would love to just go back and get arrested.."

A vacation...Char thought to herself. Some shopping, some drinks, some good times, some flirting with strangers. Dancing, good food, breaking hearts, making memories, sharing stories. Somehow I doubt 'remember that sewer and how much fun we had in it' is going to make this trip much of a success. Although I suppose it will be better than 'remember that time we were captured by thugs in an alley and in running away from them through a freakish series of circumstances we all ended up going to prison for decades? Good vacation Char, thanks so much for that. I do feel like we've established a good bond of female camaraderie now in our adjoining cells...

It was then that something flapped out of the darkness and landed on the smelly seductress' lightstick, took a small chunk out of her hand, causing her to drop the lightstick and promptly flew away. "OW! Little vermin bit me! Ow, ow, ow that smarts and now I need shots..."

"This is beyond gross, way beyond gross..." Yuna commented, keeping her eyes on their destination and refusing to look at the globs of... stuff... stuck to the walls of the drain. "Beyond gross..."

Most of the time the engineer just squared her shoulders and soldiered on with a grim expression. She tried really hard not to breathe too deeply or think too hard about what they were trudging through. The light from her PDD helped augment the glow sticks somewhat and they were making pretty good progress until a particularly fat multilegged bug dropped down in front of the petite scott. The only way to describe what happened next was Fiona completely lost it and invented spontaneous teleporting. One second she was at the back of the group...the next there was a blood curdling shriek and she was standing in front of Char with the most enormous eyes the Vulcan had ever seen. "I doon't like boogs."

"Gee, you never would have guessed that," Yuna snorted, unable to stop the laughter that was brewing " By the way, it's still in your hair..."

That caused a full-out shrieking and flapping fit that all of them could not help but laugh at, save Fiona once she realized it had run off. "Coom on shoreleave. It'll be fun. We'll have a few laughs. I cuid be in me quarters readin' tech manuals right now, dry an comfy as houses..."

"Hey, don't blame me... we were having a great time til Sensitive Kitty there couldn't bear to just pack earplugs because she had no idea she'd be in a club tonight..."

"It's not my fault you wanted to deafen yourselves. I said I was fine," Selune retorted, "anyway, if Yuna hadn't of just let Noodles get beaten in the alley beforehand this would never have happened!"

"This is NOT my fault!" Yuna retorted. "I can't help it if YOU lot seem to attract trouble!" She glared at all of them, before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

"It's in my hair... oooooogh, there's a lot of it... AGH it got in my mouth." Charybdis gagged and tried to resist retching. "I really am going to need so very many immunization shots after this. Oh I can still taste it... bleurghhh!!!" There were graceful ways to vomit because raw sewage has fallen on your head. Hurling your face forward and having it slide down your face was not one of those ways. The crew lost a few minutes while the queasy commander was incapacitated by unrelenting dry heaves and mild weeping.

Fiona reached into her ruined purse and hauled out a tiny package of completely inadequate wet naps and silently handed them forward.

"Risa will be fun, they said. A girls night out, they said. It'll be a night you'll never forget they said..." Selune's monologue cut itself short as she admitted to herself that she did doubt this would be forgotten. The point emphasized as a floating piece of detritus she would love not to be able to see and smell drifted past them caused her to gag again, "Next time I'm stealing a shuttle and hiding somewhere secluded on the icecaps."

Fiona had been quiet for a long while, just slogging miserably along in their wake then she stopped and said very softly " Ah laird... I need tae pee." At that, the entire assemblage stopped and stared at her, looked around and stared silently.

"I... I canna," she wailed. "It's TOO dis-gustin!"

"When ya gotta go you gotta go," Yuna wrinkled her nose again. "At least you picked the right place to need to pee..."

"Ew... just... ew..." Fiona complained miserably.

So what's your brilliant plan from here, Lieutenant Commander? You've led the landing party into back alleys, into bondage, to freedom via grand theft and driving with reckless mayhem, discovered that you happen to be wearing a king's ransom in what you thought was costume jewelry and you're now leading an expedition through the sewers to try to emerge near the hotel so that you can evade the Risian security forces that are pursuing you. Your names and photos are liable to be on posters all over town, and your Starfleet careers may already be over.

The eyebrow raised and Charybdis smirked. Plan? We get back, get cleaned up, figure out what of Fiona's jewelry is real and what is not, then we contact the authorities... unless the doctor at the clinic identified us. He took medical scans, idiot... so they'll be able to identify all of you. Doesn't matter. Once we get out of here, back to the suite, get clean, get some food, brainstorm with the crew, get some information, make an informed plan. There's still hope... we got this far.


Slowly but surely a whistled tune started up at the back of the group. It took a moment but they identified it as the Colonel Bogey's march. Even those who did not know it figured it out after a few refrains, and soon they were all marching through the sewers of Rome in cadence, whistling merrily. It did, oddly enough, raise spirits and make the horrible situation somehow comically cheerful.

Fiona added some words after a while...
"Ad-miral Wheeler has only got one ball

Ad-mi-ral Wakeland's... they are so very small

Captain O'Conner is very similar

And Charybdis has no balls at alllll!

"Whut... I thought I'd add insubordination in there amongst me crimes,"

"I'll be sure to add that to the IG's list when we... IF we end up seeing him," Char corrected herself.

"Please do. Might as well be a thorough cockup, if I'm gonna be tha' first McCray court martialed."

"Meanwhile, it's been a while now, and a lot of pipes and passages. At the risk of sounding like this trip has been anything less than delightful, are we there yet? I'm hoping to come out somewhere outside the Empress, but near one of those big fountains they are so fond of putting everywhere in this arcology."

Fiona squinted at her PDD. " Aye... aboot twenty meters there shuid be a ladder marked E 215"

" If you're getting court martialed, we all are. One in, all in, remember?" Yuna reminded them.

"I'd say we're pretty much all in at this stage," Selune quipped, "do we even have a plan for when we get out of here?"

"For now nice and simple ladies... we get ourselves cleaned up and stroll back into the hotel lobby like we are just returning from a fantastic night of enjoying ourselves," the weary first officer explained with some degree of determination. "If the security forces are waiting for us there, then we surrender gracefully, but at least we won't smell like this for the next however many hours."

Fiona's giggles started small then built to a full fledged belly laugh. If there was a slightly hysterical edge to it no one would really blame her.

While she knew she should do something, Char was just too exhausted and too focused on the idea of getting out of the sewer and into some clean water. She climbed the surprisingly clean ladder labelled E 215 with practiced ease... all that time traveling by access ladder onboard the Bonne Chance paid off, she thought wistfully.

Popping the lock, she opened the hatch on the sewer, and peeked out.

 

RSS Feed