38 – The Scanning Process

My friends and I stood far from the giant 'egg' while several colony apartment members checked on it.

"This is a really nice bike." Ben came up to us wearing E.E.S. but no helmet. He had a bushy beard and looked to be in his late thirties. "Hey, is that a thruster in your back, Bonnie? Holy shit. I've only ever seen such a thing in blueprints."

There's no point in hiding any of this anymore. We will fight together, after all.

"Yeah," Bonnie answered. "Liz fitted this thing to my E.E.S. Well, you can order something like this from us, but you'll have to find your own thruster and pay her the right item."

"I never…." Liz didn't have time to finish because Bonnie covered her mouth.

Now, you are our saleswoman, Bonnie?

"Damn." That man shook his head. "Where can I find a working thruster? I've always wanted to use E.E.S. with that shit. It's very cool, but the government never approved it."

"Anything else you'd like to say, Ben?" I'm hovering off the ground. "There's no way you came here just to talk about that, right?"

Ben chuckled, looking at a young man from a distance who occasionally glanced at us.

No. He glanced at one individual.

"He's Hans, my friend." Ben continued. "He wanted to talk to Ciara, but was too embarrassed to come here, so I took the initiative to…."

"No." Ciara, now wearing the special forces outfit instead of her bodysuit, interrupted with a smile.

Ben raised an eyebrow. "Well, you don't need to talk in front of him. You can use my communication device…."

"Sorry, but my answer is still no." Ciara widened her smile. "I want to focus on this mission." When Ben was about to speak again, the super soldier resumed. "In the future also. I want to focus on doing other things. Like building our house, for example."

"Damn." Bonnie folded her arms over her chest. "So cold. I can feel a chill down my spine."

"Is this about the invitation to make love?" Liz joined in.

Bonnie looked at the mechanic and paused for a moment before speaking again. "I'll explain that later. Right now, we should focus on the mission."

I doubt she will explain it in the end.

"You really don't hold your punch, huh, Ciara?" Ben laughed and slapped his forehead. "Maybe it's me who will fall to you."

"Please, don't. Or you will be disappointed." Ciara widened her smile again to an abnormal extent. "And gifts won't help either."

I like this side of you, Ciara.

"Ah, I must return." Ben pressed the communication device to his ear. "Thank you for this lovely chat. Hopefully, we can chat again later."

Once that man had gotten far enough, Bonnie muttered. "Why are they avoiding us? They used to accept human after human until they got that big, right?"

Yes, the women and men from the apartment did keep their distance. Numbering about 20 people, they were checking their weapons, chatting with each other, or just standing still. They rarely make eye contact with us.

"Greg said it wasn't his order for them to turn out like that," I explained. "They were traumatized when they accepted a new person last time. Even though they were getting help, that person made a bad mess instead. So, now they are careful of strangers…."

I stopped what I was saying when Greg contacted me.

"Here are the scan result." Right after Greg spoke, an image of the giant egg's interior appeared before me. "My friends say it's pretty unnerving."

Apparently, there were smaller eggs under that thing's 'shell.' Then, there was a giant spider upside down under those eggs.

I feel uncomfortable looking at that picture.

"From that, we can tell they're not fully grown. They don't look like fully grown spiders." Greg resumed. "You made the right decision by summoning us. It will be dangerous if they reach their full potential and attack us."

"So, we're on the same page, I believe?" I replied. "We're going to blow that thing up?"

The robot was silent for a moment. "Will that work?"

"If the explosion doesn't destroy that thing completely, we'll just end up fighting monsters that aren't as strong as they should be," I speak according to my experience in Project Axiom. "That would be so much better than them growing up."

"I see." Greg let out a sound like someone taking a deep breath. "We've placed explosives around the egg. It's incredibly powerful and should be able to destroy objects of that density. We don't know if that's true unless we do it ourselves."

I looked at the black boxes attached to several parts of that egg. "I hope that's true. We can start any time."

"I'm going to count to three!!! Get ready!!!" Greg shouted to get the attention of his comrades while holding the bomb switch. "1….2…."