"Yes sir." Jesse's voice came through loud and clear. She was used to simply following officers' orders. In war times when life and death hung in the balance, one does not question orders. One simply does what one is told.
She had already moved Bessie out towards the hanger and they were now waiting for the hangar door to open.
As the inner chambers sealed, the faint beeping sound began its count down, warning them that the external door was about to open.
"I'll put the Gear on autopilot so Bessie can drive it around." Jesse's voice came through his sound system.
The hatch opened and Bessie took them through. Within a short time, they were making their slow patrol around the starship, looking at the Anastasia from the outside.
"Oh jeez! The entire ship is painted a purplish pink." Alekai whistled. "I thought it was just the logo."
"Yeah, it's super gauche but all the women love it because they want to glam-voyage. Most starships are dull grey and super boring, not just on the outside but also on the inside."
"But it's just a mode of transport, and if you're in torpor, what difference does the color of the starship make?"
From the speakers, he could hear Jesse laugh that bright silvery tinkling laugh. "Women have plenty of money to travel, and they want to do it their way, as opposed to men's way of traveling. The Anastasia was modeled on what a woman wants when she travels."
"So the Anastasia is different?"
"Oh yeah! We didn't get a chance to go look around, but it is quite nice on the inside. Warm feminine colors and soft lush fabrics are everywhere. It even has a large chamber for ballroom dancing, as well as a fancy night club bar."
Alekai took a deep breath as the Gear took them out past the immediate docking area of the Anastasia.
He was still trying to digest the fact that his boring life had turned into one where he was suddenly part of a space patrol unit for a large starship. It didn't matter to him about the color of the ship.
"It's going to be a rather boring two hours so you can go to sleep if you wish. I'll keep an eye out and wake you up if something strange happens."
Alekai grunted. He was too lazy to even respond to Jesse, preferring to listen to her melodic voice, rather than taint the airwaves with his own gruff articulations.
"You sound bored. Want to sing with me?"
Alekai sighed. "I can't sing."
"What? Everyone can sing."
"Except me." He rubbed his head, hoping she wouldn't force the issue.
He truly had a terrible singing voice, brought on partially by the sudden development of the stupid snake glottis that quite often made him hiss inadvertently when he was stressed or upset.
"I find that hard to believe." Jesse chuckled.
"You sing. I'll listen." Alekai suggested, hoping she would take the suggestion.
He heard Jesse gently laugh. She took a deep breath and began singing.
"Down in the valley, the valley so low.
Hang your head over, hear the wind blow.
Hear the wind blow dear, hear the wind blow.
Hang your head over, hear the wind blow."*
As she sang, Alekai's eyes misted. She truly had a melodious voice which made his heart thud.
She was on the second verse when Bessie sounded the alarms.
WARNING. UNKNOWN ENTITY APPROACHING. WARNING. UNKNOWN ENTITY APPROACHING.
Alekai glanced at his 'bike's rear view mirror'. If he hadn't seen it before, he would not have known what he was looking at. It was very clear, however, that two apoidean scout ships had suddenly appeared in the distance. They were far enough that he could safely get their Gear back to base.
He glanced back at the four starships still in the queue of the space station, waiting their turn to fuel up. There were plenty of patrol Gear meandering about the station itself, not to mention all the Gear that belonged to the four ships still docked at the station.
The fact that the apoidean ships were appearing so close to these trans-galactic ships spoke volumes of their intent. If there were two of them in this quadrant, it meant that the mothership was nearby and they were spoiling for a fight.
The engineer's voice came online.
"Team Vartis! Return to base. Team Vartis! Return to base!"
Alekai slapped his Triumph handlebars and took over the driving.
"What are you doing? Did you just override me again?"
"Yeah. I'm taking us back to the hangar, pronto. You watch our back!"
"Argh!!! Alekai!" Jesse fumed and snarled, but Alekai had already tucked the Gear's limbs into flight formation and sped it towards the Anastasia's hangar.
Jesse turned her attention back on the shields. Her virtual monitors showed his controls and what he was gearing up to do, so she fed extra energy into his pertinent controls to assist Alekai in his daredevil driving.
They were on the far side of the ship's hangar when they got the message to return. Even at the neck break speed at which Alekai was gunning the Gear, it still took time.
Before they got a chance to even make it half-way to the hangar hatch, two scout ships materialized before their eyes.
They were not apoidean wasp scout ships. They were something else entirely. Something alien and evil that he had seen somewhere before, but couldn't quite grasp where.
These ships' bodies were glistening black shells that were segmented into a central body with a long spiked weapon projected over the top. Attached to either side of the body were two large black claws reaching out at them!
Alekai swooped down hard to avoid colliding into the foreign ships. He cranked the handle bars to the right and pushed down, swooping under one of the black ships, narrowly avoiding the claws.
"Scorpion scout ships! Evade! Evade!" Jesse screamed into the speakers.
Scorpion, eh?
"Tch." Alekai clicked his tongue.
Didn't they know snakes eat scorpions as snacks?