Of course, at that moment, neither of the Scorpion Slayers were aware that they had turned into a meme, or that new music was being written about them.
As the psychedelic space-hooligan music began beaming across the galaxy, 'Reality Space-time' started hyping Jesse and Alekai up. The massive streaming visuals tied their faces with the space-hooligan music movement, turning them into overnight pop icons.
Alekai was still struggling with the tractor beams and Jesse was working the navigation system and trying not to jostle anything when Tom's voice broke through.
"You kids doing alright?"
"Hi Tom!" Jesse called out in her bright melodic voice. "We're doing our best but we can't really move quickly. Have you checked out Percy Lewis yet?"
"Yes. We scanned him for abnormalities as well as any possible scorpion hitchhikers to himself or his gear and he comes out negative." Tom sighed. "The reason why he was even able to escape at all was because he had been sleeping inside his Gear."
Jesse gasped. "Okay, I know it's fairly comfortable and all inside the Gear, but it's not superior to a bed in a comfortable room. What in heck could be making him sleep in his Gear instead of in his quarters?"
"You're never gonna believe it."
"Try us." Alekai said drily.
"His roommate was spending time with a lover and wanted the room to himself." Tom said with some hesitation.
Jesse cleared her throat. "I didn't think males and females were allowed to share the same rooms with each other unless they're…" her voice dropped to almost a whisper, "m—married."
Alekai felt his face heat up.
Due to the nature of the tickets that had been purchased by the Omswick couple, he and Jesse were still sharing a room together. He needed to figure out what to do about that situation with Tom once they returned to the Anastasia.
"They're not married." Tom responded to Jesse.
"Then how—"
"Jesse, forget it." Alekai interrupted. "It's none of our business."
"But I still don't understand how—"
"I said forget it." Alekai raised his voice. "Pay attention to your navigation. You're going faster than Robbie right now and the Gears are in danger of bumping into each other."
Jesse sniffed and went back to her work, navigating the Gear.
Tom laughed. "You two are worse than an old married couple."
Alekai turned back to Tom. "What of Captain Nir Ray?"
"They are preparing his body right now for deep space burial. It will happen tomorrow, so we all have a little time to prepare for it all."
"And what about the scorpion-infested starship Krystabella?"
Tom shook his head with regret. "Freezing the scorpions don't kill them. A lack of oxygen doesn't kill them either. The only thing that will kill them is fire. We're going to have to do a controlled burn. That will take care of all the cadavers that are inside the ship as well."
"Are you still going to be the Acting-Captain of Anastasia?"
"I hope not. I don't want to be responsible for this ship or its crew, and I certainly don't want to have to deal with those two insectoid ships out there staring at us."
Tom signed off a short while later to take care of his Captain duties and Alekai and Jesse were back to staring into the incessant darkness as they towed their spoils back to the Anastasia.
If what Tom said bore out to be true, the Gears would be the only things that they would be able to salvage from the ship. Nobody wanted to go into an infested starship full of scorpions and thousands of corpses to take out things which may or may not be useful.
The entire hauling operation took four hours. By the time Alekai and Jesse were able to return to their quarters, it was far past their scheduled sleeping times.
The engineers took to the recovered Gear with excitement and gusto. Given the difficulty of obtaining military grade weaponry, the twenty Elite Gear were of supreme importance and the remaining Scout Gear were perfect for spares and to add to the Scout Force.
With the lights dimmed, they snacked on finger foods from their in-room food station.
Jesse laid on the bed staring out the window at the two points of lights in the distance that were the motherships while Alekai spread out flat on his back on the floor next to her with his eyes barely open.
"You're back to staring at those two ships again?"
"Yeah. You know, there are two things I wonder." Jesse rested her chin on her hands as she continued to stare out into the dark void.
"And that is?"
"The first thing is how did they get so deep inside United Coalition Starspace territory? It had to have been really difficult to get past the space border patrols, but they did it without any issues."
Alekai shut is eyes. "I have an idea. It may not be correct, but it makes sense."
"I'm listening."
He opened his eyes and found that Jesse had turned back to fix her attention on him.
"We know they can coast through an area without any life supports because they don't die without air and heat, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well what if that's what happened?"
Jesse blinked. "I don't understand."
Alekai took a deep breath. "What if they are able to turn off all life supports and slide through the barrier? Our barrier nets only give alerts when powered ships sail through. Inert rocks and dead planetoids don't trip the system."
Jesse snapped her fingers. "And then once they're through, the ship automatically kicks back up again, they thaw out and are back to normal. That makes sense, but that brings me to the next question.
She popped her head over the edge of the bed and stared at him. "What really bothers me is why? Why would they invade our space? It's not as if they don't have enough space to explore and conquer."
Alekai shrugged, trying not to stare at her baby blue eyes too hard. "Maybe they want the entire galaxy. Perhaps they want to be our Overlords."
"Not with the level of weaponry they currently have. They can't defeat the United Coalition of Starspace or they would have done so long ago."
Alekai shook his head. "I don't know, Jesse. They are insectoids and we are reptilian life forms so their thought processes are alien to us. What makes sense to them may not make sense to us."
She retracted her body and turned back out to stare at the twin dots in the depths. "Why are they just sitting out there in the distance without doing or saying anything? Have we tried to contact them?"
Alekai closed his eyes. He had no idea why Jesse was so obsessed with those motherships. "We do have computerized translators, but they really suck at languages that are not part of the consortium of the United Coalition."
He sighed and rose from his supine position on the floor. "Let me call Tom and ask him if we've tried contacting them."
Jesse held out a hand.
"Wait. I got through! Let me respond to them real quick."