A Fear Faced... Is still Fear

Number six was the smallest and quietest of the shuttle-bays and when the news got round that the Arachnid ship was coming in there, it rapidly became even quieter as everyone who could find an excuse or a reason to be elsewhere, got out of the way.

 

The alarm sounded, warning all present that the great shuttle bay doors were opening, only the immensely powerful force-field protecting the starbase from explosive decompression.  In less than a minute, the doors were fully open, framing the vast blackness of space and in the distance, like a living jewel, Frontera.  The view was beautiful and at any other time, it was one that Kehlan found breathtaking.  Now though, she could focus on nothing more than the approaching ship.

 

Arachnid vessels were like nothing the Federation had ever designed.  Of course, Kehlan thought, when the designers had eight legs and could walk on the ceiling, it was inevitable that they would have different priorities when it came to ship building.  Roughly triangular in shape with slender wing-like appendages on either side, eight of them in total, it reminded Kehlan of a mechanical, yet oddly graceful spider.

 

The doors of the Arachnid ship slid open with a faint, barely audible hissing sound. For several long moments there was no further movement from the ship and Kehlan let out the breath than she hadn’t even realised she was holding.  Then she felt it.  The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, her skin crawling as it always did when she was anywhere near a spider.  It was coming.

 

A leg was the first thing to become visible in the open doorway.  Long, slender, segmented, with a thick coating of fine black hairs.  Then a second leg came into view. It seemed to pause for a moment and then with shocking suddenness it was visible in its entirety.

 

It was small for one of its race, Kehlan noted, a very young member of its species, its body standing maybe three feet off the ground.  Thick black fur covered its body, with dark chestnut brown patterning across its hide.  Like the rest of its kind, it wore what could only be described as a harness.  Made from spider silk, it shimmered with the crystals woven into it, the pattern denoting status and high rank.

 

Kehlan noted also that the Arachnid was male, the sex evident from the shape of the palps on either side of its fanged mouth.  Suddenly, with a sense of impending doom, she knew not only who it was, but why it was here looking for her.

 

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It had happened a year ago.  Her ship had got into trouble, serious trouble. If the Arachnid female hadn’t sacrificed herself, then Endeavour and every one of the seven hundred and fifty two people on board her would have been killed.  And who knew how many other innocent souls might have been killed by the pirates if they had been allowed to escape and continue their depredations?

 

Kehlan remembered how the Arachnid had brought her little ship into the hangar bay. No-one had wanted to go near it.  To tell the truth, neither had Kehlan, but she couldn’t afford to lose the respect of her crew by letting them see her fear.  So she’d gone in and she’d spoken with the Arachnid.  And then…. She shuddered as she remembered…

 

It was all Kehlan could do to hold her ground as the massive Arachnid female approached her and held out the object to her.  Very slowly, almost against her will, Kehlan reached out and took it.  Even in her fear, she noted with appreciation that the Arachnid was careful not to touch her as she placed whatever it was she was carrying in Kehlan’s outstretched arms.

 

Carefully, cautiously, Kehlan unwrapped the object, peeling back the layers of silken fabric to reveal… well, she was not actually sure what it was.  Round and a little smaller than a Terran football, it glistened with an opalescent sheen.  It was warm and slightly soft, its texture that of rubber and as Kehlan’s fingers brushed across it, it seemed to pulse in recognition of her touch.

 

“What is it?”  Kehlan had to ask the question, although the truth was that she as not sure she wanted to hear the answer.

The Arachnid made a soft chittering sound and Kehlan realised it - no, she corrected herself - she, was laughing at her. “It is my child.”

 

Kehlan froze.  She couldn’t help it. An egg? She was holding in her hands, actually touching, a very large spider’s egg!  Every instinct she possessed was screaming at her to drop it and run.  She looked again at the egg and then at its mother, for the first time noticing that despite the laughter, the Arachnid’s voice was tinged with sadness.

 

“Take it to my homeworld” the female Arachnid said, “Give it to the Great Mother.  Will you do this for me?”

 

Kehlan shuddered.  Go to Arachnia?  Never in her worst nightmares had she ever thought she would have to visit that world.  And to not only go there but to have to face the Great Mother?  Oh yes, Kehlan knew that term – it referred to the ruling female, the largest, oldest and most powerful of all the Arachnids.  She couldn’t do it!  She knew she couldn’t do it!  She also knew that she had no choice.  This was a mother, entrusting Kehlan with her only offspring.  She took a deep breath and committed herself.  “I will do it.”

 

The female Arachnid seemed to relax as Kehlan made her promise.  She knew what this had cost the Klingon female.  Arachnia was generally off limits to Federation personnel and for good reason.  Not all the inhabitants of that world were intelligent and those that were not, were dangerous.  Quite apart from that, her kind inspired too much fear in the bipedal humanoid races.  Maybe one day the humanoids would learn to see past the physical differences and there would be true friendship between their races.  She herself would not live to see it, but the bond that she knew would form between this Klingon and her child, would be the beginning of it.

 

Moving slowly and carefully, so that she would not frighten Kehlan, the arachnid turned to re-enter her shuttle, each of her eight legs working together to bear her immense weight.

 

“You don’t need to do this, you know” Kehlan said suddenly, “There’s got to be an alternative, some other way.  We could rig up a remote control, automate the shuttle.  You don’t need to sacrifice yourself.”

 

The Arachnid paused, turning her gaze on Kehlan, her multi-faceted eyes shining like black diamonds as she focused on the Klingon captain.  “Arachnid vessels cannot be automated in the way that you suggest.  I will do my duty”   There was a finality to her words that forbade further discussion.  Raising one segmented foreleg, she gestured towards the precious burden in Kehlan’s arms.  “As I expect you to do yours!”

 

With that, no longer concerned about the fear she knew she inspired, the massive Arachnid turned and with the lightening speed that was characteristic of her kind, she crossed the floor of the hangar bay and re-entered her craft.