Insectoid Infestation

The closer they got to the Krystabella, the more nervous Alekai became.

It wasn't because he was afraid of dead people. They didn't have the power to hurt him. It was because of the living scorpions within the scorpion starship in the distance.

He had never had communications with these beings before so he had no idea how they would react or what they would do. All he could go on was Jesse's translated communication with the Captain of the Skrillz starship.

Since the four UCSS starships were huddled together around the tiny spaceport, the Scout Gears weren't technically outside their safe zones.

There were other Scout Gears out, roaming around keeping tabs on all the comings and goings.

Out in space, there was no such thing as day and night. There was only the 24-hour clock which broke down into two 12 hour waking-sleeping time. Some people took the first twelve hours to work and some took the second twelve hours to work.

It made for a long day for an Earthling like Alekai who was used to working an 8-hour shift and then slacking off the remaining hours.

The Scouts had their 'on' hours and their 'off' hours, but the media ships NEVER took time off. They were ALWAYS ON.

Even now, there was a squad of 'Reality Space-time' Scout ships taking visuals of everything that was happening around the space station.

The people's insatiable need for real-time entertainment had to be fed after all since there was no such thing as an 'off-time' when it came to an entire galaxy full of living people.

Once those media hounds got a hold of leaked information about Alekai and Jesse emerging from the Anastasia and going back to the Krystabella, there were two media ships that began tailing them.

Since they had legal news passes, nothing could be done but to allow them to continue flying along the same trajectory that Jesse and Robbie were plotting out.

Images of a blonde-haired blue-eyed Jesse wearing a cute little white nightgown, sitting within an Elite Gear's Navigation Deck began to circulate throughout the galaxy.

Wherever there was a UCSS settlement, there was a streaming visual of her exquisite pale face, working the controls.

At that moment, stores around the galaxy began seeing a frenzied madness as people linked into stores and ordered every single white sheath night gown they could get their hands on.

Above her was the dark-haired amber-eyed Striker in his black Metallica tee-shirt, hanging onto his motorcycle handlebars and looking like a member of a biker gang.

He was handsome yet serious looking, with that dangerous aura that caused a collective sigh of rapture among all the young females watching the streaming visual.

It was also at that moment that every black Metallica tee-shirt had been purchased by all the males wanting to live vicariously like this biker Elite Force.

"Take a look, all you faithful viewers." The host-announcer began prattling. "These four aren't even pretending to be scouts any longer. They are flying in Elite Gear which meant they are part of the 'supposedly defunct' Elite Force!"

He leaned into the cameras with leering knowing eyes. "Well, it looks as if that 'defunct' Elite Force has been 're-functed', Ladies and Gentlemen."

"Here we have, four members of the Elite Force, two of whom are out of uniform, flying missions of heroic bravery."

A cut scene of Alekai's fancy maneuver and subsequent target hit was again replayed.

"Who can forget the dynamic duo, Alekai and Jesse Vartis, the husband-and-wife team!" The voice of the announcer could be heard throughout the UCSS galaxy.

This time, the exploding scorpion ships remained on repeat loop as the chattering of the announcer continued unabated.

"Take a look at all this bravery, folks, as these two fought the scorpions and blasted their ships into fiery shrapnel!"

"We have not been given the details of their mission, but it looks like they are going back inside the dead starship Krystabella! Stay tuned to find out what exactly they are doing, going back inside this dead ghost ship!"

Of course, at that very moment, the four Scouts were completely unaware of the circus event this had turned out to be. They were discussing the various ways that they could haul the scorpions from their nest.

"If we haul a few at a time out, it would be much faster."

"We're definitely going to need to pull them out individually before we tractor them as a unit," Jeremy responded to Alekai.

"We could do it as a rotation." Alekai suggested.

"Good idea. While I go in you go out, and while you go in I go out. That way we don't get in each other's way and one of us is out keeping an eye on the scorpions." Jeremy agreed.

"We can go in first," Alekai suggested. I'll start hauling them out, two or three at a time and as soon as I clear the hatch, you can scoot in behind us."

"Let's do it." Jeremy gave the order.

As soon as Jesse piloted their Elite Gear to the opening of the hatch, the lights automatically came on. The Gear landed gently inside, feeling the light pull of artificial gravity still operational within the dead hulk.

"There are quite a few dead scorpions piled up on both sides of the path we took when we pulled the Gears out."

"Yeah, but those probably amount to no more than about thirty or forty scorpions. There are many more untouched scorpions behind that wall, I bet." Alekai muttered.

"Wall? What wall?" Jesse asked.

"Right—here." Alekai raised the Gear's right arm and aimed a thin red beam at the wall in front of them. Within minutes, he had cut a square hole into the panel that separated the Engineering Deck from the Engineering Lab.

The wall fell forward with a soundless BAAM!

Behind the cut panel, the bright light from their Elite Gear illuminated hundreds of shiny dark lumps lying on the no-longer pristine floor of the Engineering Lab.

It was an insectoid infestation of the worst magnitude they had ever seen.