Scorpion Transport

"Are you sure you don't want to just torch these nasty things and let them die in their sleep?"

Jesse harrumphed. "Are you sure you want to start a huge fight with those two insectoid starships out there on the horizon?"

"How do you know they're not going to start something with us anyway, once they get their babies back?"

Jesse sighed.

"We have to take the first step towards peace, Alekai. If not now, when, and if not here, where?"

"But it's dangerous right now and it's dangerous right here. I would rather you not be involved in something this dangerous."

"It's too late for that. We're here. We planned the flight. Let's just fly the plan." She mumbled even as she navigated the Gear past all the dead hacked pieces of frozen Scorpion.

"If they were going to start something, we would still have to deal with it no matter what. At least, if we hand over their babies, there's a chance they will just leave and we've averted a crisis."

Her fingers danced across her panels as she positioned the Elite Gear into the opening that Alekai had just opened up.

"I sincerely hope you and that Captain establish some sort of rapport and we're not going to get shafted." Alekai gunned his bike handles, shooting magnets at the closest of the scorpion chitin bodies.

She activated the tractor beams and began pulling. The four scorpions that had been captured shifted from their place and began moved in unison.

"I'm in communication with the Captain right now. I told her we will haul all the scorpions who are still alive out to them."

"Jeremy, we're coming out with first payload."

"Affirmative."

With Jesse's deft navigation, they began hauling the scorpions out to a safe area beyond the Anastasia. As they left the hatch, Jeremy's Elite Gear entered.

When he emerged, he was towing behind him four baby scorpions.

"There's gotta be a faster way than taking four at a time." Robby grumbled.

"We can't Robby." Jesse's voice came through the waves. "They're not nicely stacked in their own cubes and ready to be transported like the Gear were."

"She's right," Jeremy waved to Jesse as the two Elite Gears passed each other. "The scorpions are piled up in mounds everywhere, and in some cases, their claws and tail stingers are all tangled up together."

"You pull too hard on them and you can break their bodies. Gotta work it gently." Alekai threw in.

"Whose fucked up idea was it to go pull out frozen scorpions and haul them over to the enemy ships in the distance?" Robbie grumbled.

"Mine." Jesse responded with the kind of calm that Alekai recognized as her brazen don't care attitude.

"If you have a problem with it, you're free to leave." she tossed back as she concentrated on her navigational instruments. She didn't have time to deal with this nastiness.

"You damn straight I'm free to leave!" He shouted back, his face turning red on the visual feed. "This work is shit!"

"Alekai!" Robbie turned to Alekai with fierce eyes. "Reign the girl in or I will do it for you."

Alekai did not even bother to look at Robbie. He was in the middle of untangling two stuck scorpions with the dexterous manipulation of the Gear's grippers.

"Shut the fuck up Robbie. We don't have time for this."

He finished setting the magnetics on the separated scorpions and gave a signal for Jesse to start pulling. Then he turned towards Robbie's visual feed.

"I'm a little busy at the moment so I can't respond properly but once I'm done here, I'll be sure to find you and rearrange your face. An ass has to look the part."

Robby stuttered with indignant spasms as his visual feed went black.

"Sorry about that, Team Vartis." Jeremy sighed with resignation.

"I have no idea what crawled up his butt and died but I'm going to leave his visual feed dark for awhile so he can stew in his own juices and not contaminate us with his stink."

Jesse gave Jeremy a grateful smile.

"We're coming out now. Please pass the message onto Robbie so he can navigate in."

"Will do."

Alekai heaved a sigh. From the very start, Robbie had acted hostile towards Jesse for some unknown reason. He needed to clear this up with Robbie when they got back to base.

Insulting Jesse was not something he tolerated, but out here in the middle of a dangerous job, he could wait until he was able to confront Robbie properly.

Back and forth, back and forth the two Scout Teams went, hauling load after load of scorpions.

They continued for hours until the count was 160 scorpions floating silently in their designated space, frozen and ready for transport.

They were going for their final pickup when Tom came online.

"You kids need to hurry it up. You have only a half an hour before the auto fires come on and blast everything out."

"Why is it set on auto? What if someone is in here?"

"Nobody is in there who's still alive. It was set on auto so it will go off by itself. You kids clear out now."

"Okay Tom. We'll do one last check and run out."

Tom nodded and signed off.

Jesse maneuvered the Gear around and did a final check through.

"Looks like we took out all the ones that looked to be in one piece. We're done here, Alekai."

"Hold it a moment, Jesse." Alekai shot a pulse at one of the storage doors. It swung open into another cargo bay.

"Oh my God, Alekai. There are at least a dozen more here."

"We don't have any more time."

"Can we extract at least 4 more?"

Alekai pursed his lips.

"Let me tell Jeremy."

He connected to Jeremy and explained the situation.

"Oh man. You're not gonna be able to get a dozen out by yourself in that amount of time. I'll come in with you."

"There's no more time. Just stay out there and keep an eye on the scorpions. I'll do what I can here. We only have half an hour left."

He turned to Jesse. "I'm going to try and tractor all twelve of them. You think we can get them all out before time runs out?"

Jesse's eyes were bright.

"Let's try!"