Erica shook her head at Danny and Nathan's exchange. She glanced around for signs of Tsukiko. If she was nearby, then she would have met the beast and fought it. It was not like her to just leave and if there were multiple of them, then there would have been signs of her fighting. Her disappearance was almost suspicious. Erica clicked her tongue as words of warning surfaced in her mind.

"OYYYY, TSUKIKO! ANSWER IF YOU CAN HEAR ME!" Erica shouted, heedless of any danger that might attract. "OR MAKE A BIG NOISE!"
[hr]
"A mile, eh?" Aart said. He waved the makeshift gauntlet at the drone before continuing. "Shouldn't take long. Gimme a moment to get this one active then."

With the ship being closer than he ever thought, the dwarf could afford to have the emergency weapon only minimally functional. He would only need it to scare off anything that he ran into while he...well, ran towards his babies. Fixing the cobbled gauntlet to his hand, Aart turned to face the drone. 

"OK, lead the way, boy," he said.

The trip back to the ship was going silently, until the drone spoke up.

"What? What worked?" Aart asked, surprised and alarmed by the suddenness of the sentence.