About to board the shuttle, Pher gestured for Troy and Byblos to go ahead, then turned to the Verbistul security chief. “Alex? I’ll still welcome you on this jaunt if you are so inclined, but I’m having second thoughts. If the explosions are as bad as Joe and Simmons are saying, there will soon be a bunch of life pods that will have to be tractored in. Some of them are likely to be full of armed bad guys, others full of injured. You might want to decide which pods should be brought in first, who gets disarmed, who gets locked up, and who gets copies of the Gold 7 files. Remember what Troy and Byblos did coming off the shuttle, and you might not want to let it happen again. “Joe wants me got get the Qob people off Capricorn. I’m intending to tell my people to hit the life pods, and tractor them to the Qob. After that, I hope to be at your service. I’d like to keep Troy and Byblos for a while. We might end up boarding Capricorn, but at the moment I’m hoping to avoid it. I'd rather put an end to this one life pod at a time.” Byblos spoke. "Pher, last time I flew this thing I nearly crashed it. I'm not a pilot, and I don't believe Troy here is either." He glanced at Troy. "Oh and the pilot seat is missing. But one can sit on the floorboard and pilot the shuttle, but I suggest yourself or Alex." Pher tried not to groan. She was damn good with a surfboard, sailboard, underwater jet rigs, and all sorts of small water craft. Shuttles were not the same. Still, she'd be OK if there was no need for anything fast or fancy, and if she could convince her hands that vacuum gave a lot less resistance than salt water. Alex looked almost frantic as she glanced between Byblos, Troy and Pher. "Wait, wait. Va! I'm gettin' jykin' benched again?" she directed at Pher. She didn't give Pher the chance to answer; no doubt Pher wouldn't understand what she'd meant by again. The one consolation was Byblos's suggestion that she pilot the shuttle. But her anger had her blinded, convinced that Pher was intentionally acting against her and there was no way around Pher's 'second thoughts'. "Fine," she growled and then whipped around on her heel. She threw up her hands, muttering a linguistically rich string of curses as she left the shuttle bay. Pher didn't quite laugh. "Not benching her," she muttered for Troy and Byblos's consumption, while heading up towards the pilot's seat, or lack thereof. "She's playing goaltender, and I'm about to send as much trouble as possible right at her. Hope she figures this out. We're running out of starships." "And people," Byblos observed as Alex left the shuttle. "I think we could of used her gun on Capricorn sir. But I've got your back. Only wish I had a blade or another rifle to make up for our numbers." Byblos looked at Troy then back to Pher placing his phaser rifle on stun. "Ready." "Good nuff," responded Pher, "but if I had another blade or rifle, I'd keep it for myself. Right now I've got no weapons but sweet talk, which is what I intend to use. If we have to board Capricorn, I intend to visit Qob first and grab the girlie gun and a spare pain stick, and get you a blade. Still, Plan A is to get folks into life pods and control the movement of life pods. I want this shuttle to wield the decisive puny little tractor beam that decides this mess. The three of us on Capricorn would be in an uphill fight. We'd just make more trouble on a ship that doesn't need more trouble just now. This ugliness has got to stop, and it won't stop if everyone's first thought is to draw weapons and charge, while their second thought is to blow up some vital part of one ship or another. Objective one is Qob people off Capricorn. Objective two is Capricorn people off Qob. Poor Alex is bored. I want to give her all the excitement I can, and hope she doesn't get our one intact starship too badly damaged." She glanced back at the others. "Are you two with me?"