When Stacy approached Jennifer, Maddy decided the stranger was too close to her queen for comfort. The good little worker bee leapt up between them, bracing her hands and feet against the walls and bringing her insectoid abdomen up between her legs to brandish her stinger. She hissed in warning.
Several things happened at once. Stacy jumped back in surprise. Ramirez grabbed her rifle and took aim. And Jennifer yelled, "Maddy no! Down girl!" before bringing her arms up in front of her face protectively.
The moment she heard the order, Madeline dropped to the ground, losing all aggression. After a few tense moments everyone relaxed, with Ramirez lowering her rifle but not putting it down.
"S- sorry about that," Jennifer began, stepping forward. "You'll have to forgive Madeline, the change has affected her mind a bit more than mine. We're both still ourselves but, well... it seems I've become the 'queen', while Maddy here is my loyal little worker bee. She's developed some pretty strong protective instincts." She turned to Madeline. "Maddy, apologize."
The submissive bee girl blushed, looking down in embarrassment. "Sorry Doctor Johnson," she mumbled out before standing back up, now behind Jennifer.
"Of course we'll come with you." This time Jennifer stepped forward, offering her hand for Stacy to shake. "We'll need some stuff if you want us to be of any use as researchers."
Stacy took her hand happily, shaking it. "Of course! What can I do for ya?"
"Well obviously we'll need everything from our lab, a new lab to research in, and some form of living quarters..." Jennifer started thinking through everything they'd need. "More test subjects - bees obviously, but probably also hornets, wasps, and maybe even ants. A greenhouse with a good variety of flowers and probably some myrmecophytes. Probably some myrmecophilic mites, caterpillars, hermipterans, rove beetles, crickets, spiders, and fungi, too." Jennifer paused briefly before continuing, "I think that's it for research needs, but there's some other stuff... We'll need some milking equipment that can handle honey, a way to store honey, and some means of disposing of excess honey - it's mutagenic. We'll also need easy access to lots of sugary sweets to stay focused. In fact, you'll probably want to make sure there aren't any sweets anywhere nearby or that we could possibly smell which we don't have easy access to. It'd be best to have an air lock on our little area in case anyone forgets a candy bar in their pocket or something - that should also prevent any possible viral vectors from escaping - but please try to keep anywhere we're allowed to be free of inaccessible treats, it can be very distracting..." Jennifer trailed off and gestured to her twitching antennae.
Stacy smiled. "I'll see what I can do. Is there anything else ya need?"
Jennifer looked to Madeline for an answer. The worker offered, "Just normal amenities I think. Food, entertainment, comfort. That kind of stuff."
"Of course. Ya don't have to ask for basic human dignity." Stacy chuckled. "So, we'll have some folks get your stuff together. Do ya want to go to your homes to get stuff or could ya wait for those folks to gather everything and deliver it?"
"I think we'll be fine waiting..." Jennifer looked to Madeline, who nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we'll be fine. So where to now?"
"The truck, so we can get goin back to the facility. I'll call ahead and sew if we can't getcha some acceptable quarters prepared." Stacy led the way out of the trashed lab. There was a whole tunnel of that latex stuff set up, presumably to contain any potential biohazards, but it also provided some welcome privacy from any prying eyes of their former colleagues. They passed several guards wearing similar outfits to Ramirez, and soon arrived at the back of an eighteen wheeler.
There were seats along each side of the trailer with the backs to the walls, and it was clearly meant to transport people. Jennifer and Madeline took seats at the front, with their backs to the cab, while Ramirez sat near the back. Stacy excused herself to go talk with someone about arrangements and exited the tunnel through a flap.
The seats were comfortable, with arm rests and even cup holders. It didn't seem military at all, which was a relief to Jennifer. They were still being treated like people.
While they waited for Stacy, Ramirez finally spoke up. "Hey Docs, you want some snacks?" Ramirez gestured to a console in front of the pair. Jennifer opened it, revealing a stash of snackfoods.
"Oh wow! Thank you Sergeant Ramirez," Madeline said.
"Mel."
"Huh?"
"You can call me Mel," Ramirez clarified.
"Oh, okay!"
Jennifer and Madeline grabbed some snacks and started snacking. Ramirez grabbed a single package of mini-doughnuts and began to eat more deliberately.
A few minutes later Stacy returned, entering the back alongside another soldier. Stacy sat next to Jennifer, grabbing some snacks of her own while the soldier, who appeared to be male, closed the loading bay door and sat opposite Ramirez.
"Alright," Stacy began, "everything should be taken care of, so let's get moving." She tapped thrice on the cab's back wall and with a whoosh from releasing pneumatics the truck began moving.