Well, if for the second trip I get to put an android at the controls and there are no passengers inside the vehicle… my money is on trip two being significantly faster.
As I have noted in previous threads, it makes sense for the support ship to be in a position where it can actually support the team. Otherwise it’s “Sorry Ripley, we can’t send down reinforcements because the ship drifted to the other side of the planet while we were down here.”
They do. Bishop is the only one in any of the movies to be attacked by one.
Bishop may have been sent independently of Burke’s mission, which is to say that while Burke may have been playing his own game, the company was a step ahead of him the whole time.