As far as being forced to do something went, Crossed Antennae didn’t find her situation that bad. Several days had passed during which she hadn’t been able to do anything useful, and she’d been forced to speed up the time with some rest cycles.
She had thought that these four ants that were supposed to be her loyal subordinates would have capitulated by now, but her aquatic assaults had done nothing to deter their actions. Indeed, they had launched undignified counterattacks instead of being properly chastised.
And now here she was, having wasted an incredible amount of time just sitting on an island and eating when she could have been doing something productive. Honestly, if the Great Queen had subordinates who were so rebellious she would have… done something. Probably. No, the Great Queen wouldn’t have any rebellious subordinates, right? But since Crossed Antennae was having these troubles, did that mean this was her fault?
Ugh, nothing made any sense. She didn’t want to think about any of that, she wanted to get back to work. She expressed her continuing displeasure by forming a small ball of mud and tossing it at Snips. The ball of mud cut apart into two small piles, landing on either side of the small ant.
Something about her actions reminded Crossed Antennae of her memories, specifically ones of before. The memories carried with them a now unfamiliar emotion. What was it? Something about Fearsome Mandibles. Annoyance? No, something else. Perhaps… fun?
But nothing made sense about that, and those memories didn’t matter anyway. Crossed Antennae had spent more time without her sister than with her now, and she didn’t need her. Right?
Right. She was totally fine as she was. She just needed to return to work here. It had been too long. She needed to keep going or they would never finish anything.
-----
“You fiends!” Crossed Antennae aggressively addressed the two known as Bullet and Fire. “When are you going to give up on your foul deeds keeping me here?” she signed wildly and directed angry pheromones towards them.
Bullet answered swiftly. “My queen, the numbing agent has worn off some time ago. But you seemed as if you still needed the break.” The last word was one of those words meant for interacting with humans, not something the void ants tended to use natively.
Crossed Antenna tentatively flicked her wings, finding that they responded to her. How could she have not noticed? How long had it been?
How much did she need rest? Sure, she’d focused on her duties and sometimes missed a couple rest cycles throughout the day. Rarely more than half of them. Almost never more than eighty percent of them, if you counted the half rest cycles she sometimes picked up.
Crossed Antennae took stock of her internal condition. She was constantly in the process of making the next queen… but if they were to run colonies, didn’t she need them to be the best they could be instead of simply the next one? She hoped that she hadn’t done too much damage in her haste.
Perhaps her subordinates had a point, doing this. But still, they deserved punishment. She tested her wings. A duration of inactivity didn’t seem to have hindered them too much.
She leaned forward, scooping up as much water as she could, then launched herself into the air. Just because it was for her own benefit didn’t mean that there would be no consequences. She launched the huge glob of water downward once she reached a sufficient height, watching it splash over Fire, her chosen target.
Ah, that was fun. Maybe she should do things like that more often. It wasn’t like it took long.
-----
Since they had to spend some time for the engineers to make calculations regarding the ship’s barriers, Devon sent a message back to ask for advice. It wasn’t as if the system was suddenly going to go away if he didn’t go back immediately, and the one thing he was quite certain cultivators could not do was take back past mistakes.
Devon was already aware that his actions could cause a war. The Lower Realms Alliance didn’t want to go from war to war, and Devon received numerous cautions. Anton’s message was short but straightforward. “The situation you described, if anything close to what you observed, seems impossible to justify. Verify what you saw, then act as you must. I have stars ready for you should you need them.”
Not everyone expressed caution, either. Naamah of the Hardened Crown Sect suggested battering them into submission. That was something he had to strongly consider, and not just because Devon wanted to. Instead, it was because that was a typically well understood method for cultivators. Regardless of affiliation, that tended to be the case- and for those who attacked without warning it wasn’t unreasonable that they would actually respond well to that.
Devon also went over the pros and cons of various approaches with his crew, including the potential to return to the system from a different angle. If there were more ships of a similar caliber there were some risks to the safety of ship and crew. However, ultimately trying to sneak past might leave a worse impression. Returning along the same route even if reinforced would be the best option. Taking too long to return might reduce their impression.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Thus, they found themselves returning after the adjustments to the barrier were complete. According to Maryamu they weren’t at maximum efficiency just yet, but they would be better than before. Though Devon hoped it wasn’t necessary, as he would be going in with his energy raised, given the previous response.
Knowing what he was looking for, Devon sensed the ships ahead of time more easily. Their energy signatures were clearly intentionally dampened, which was why they had been successful before.
It was easy to tell the ships were exactly the same pair from before. The arrangement of their odd sections was the same, and more importantly he could still see some traces of the damage he’d caused. There had clearly been some repairs, but he couldn’t call them complete yet.
He stretched his energy towards them, projecting his voice. “I come to speak and will not be disrespected.” Devon didn’t have time to say much else, as they swiftly reacted. Perhaps they didn’t understand him- though he had the feeling they did. They might not have a choice, simply following orders. Finally, they might have taken his previous retreat for weakness. He intended to show them this time that they were incorrect about the latter.
He once again caught their beams, but as he tried to turn them upon them he found something was different. He still managed to block and disperse the beams, but properly redirecting them was much more difficult.
That was fine. He redirected more of his energy towards one of the two ships, his chains stabbing forward with the full force he could produce at Enrichment. The ship’s barriers resisted him, but he still tore through the outside and stabbed them like spears into the captain of the ship, or whatever they were called. The strongest cultivator who controlled the energy of the many others on board- in this case a woman.
With his chains inside the barrier he could properly feel the lesser cultivators, and he determined they were listless… chained to the ship like batteries rather than soldiers.
“Surrender!” Devon growled as he pulled the captain away from her connection to the ship.
The result was quite unexpected. A pulse of energy came not from the man but the ship itself, spreading towards all of the lesser cultivators in an instant. Before Devon could shield the man, the ship and cultivators detonated in rapid sequence, leaving nothing but dangling chains and scrap.
All that from disconnecting the controller? Devon bit his lip. He hadn’t thought all of the captives would perish so easily. Obviously he was going to have to be more careful.
The second ship at least had a more sensible captain. Seeing the other ship instantly defeated, it turned to retreat. If it had been a simple clash Devon might have let them go, but there were too many questions that needed answering… and too many chained prisoners.
There were legitimate reasons to keep people in chains, but using them as weapons seemed to be without excuse. Then again, if they had one Devon was quite happy to hear it. His chains lashed around the ship, then more spearlike ones tore towards the captain. Another woman, and both clearly unrestrained and in control.
Devon twisted chains around the woman in her seat, dampening her energy but not entirely cutting her off from the ship. He carefully monitored the response of the ship’s systems and the flow of energy. The captain tried to desperately boost the ship away, but the response was weakened- not that it would have mattered with Devon already attached.
A few moments later, Devon personally stepped aboard the ship, and since the proper entrance was sealed tightly he simply widened the hole he had made for himself.
He had a million questions, but as he stood in front of the captain he started with a simple one. “Why did you attack me?” Devon asked. The woman glared at him, but he was quite certain he understood. “Not interested in speaking? Well, I’m sure I can convince you later.”
With that, he left her behind. It wasn’t that he was truly uninterested in the response, but she also wasn’t that important compared to the others. He found his way to the closest module, which contained no fewer than fifty restrained individuals. They seemed to be in a daze, but as he approached their eyes vaguely focused on him.
Devon approached carefully, aware of the catastrophic consequences of failure. Ships did not explode so completely by accident, but who were these people afraid of getting their hands on things? Outsiders like himself… or the very people they were using?
“Can you speak?” Devon asked, addressing a random individual.
A few moments of silence. “Who… are you?”
“A rescuer, most likely.” Devon saw the restraints in front of him, and could barely hold himself back from ripping them all apart. “Why are you here?” It was not a fair question to ask to someone held so inhumanely, but necessary nonetheless.
“Not strong enough,” the prisoner answered listlessly.
Devon nodded. He could feel the sincerity within that response. It might not be a complete response, but he could hardly expect much difference from someone barely in control of their faculties.
“Do the rest of you speak?” Devon asked generally. He got a few murmurings at most. He asked the question directly to another.
“Yes.” A simple response, lacking in initiative… but he could understand why they would be hesitant. Most likely, stronger cultivators had particular desires regarding how they were treated.
“Can I safely get you out of these restraints?”
“Please,” the voice was desperate, but Devon sensed something. “Do it.”
“You’ll die,” Devon declared.
“Like all of those on the other ship. Why won’t you? Don’t torment us.”
“Wouldn’t you rather live and be free?” Devon asked.
There was no response to that, as if they couldn’t even comprehend it.
Well, that made things easier. Though before he went too hard interrogating the captain, he needed to determine who was ultimately responsible. She could be just another pawn. Then again, interrogations of any sort weren’t his specialty, so it would be easier to get the ship somewhere convenient first. Though he didn’t know if it had some form of subspace capabilities.
Devon sighed deeply. He’d made a mistake with the first ship, but it seemed that perhaps its inhabitants were still better off. He’d still have preferred proper freedom for them, however.
Time to drag this ship out of the system before any trouble showed up. He contacted the team with him and had them go ahead. In the worst case scenario, he could always escape alone- he wasn’t going to assume that he was invincible, even as an Enrichment cultivator. The power displayed here already was hard to quantify and he would find it difficult to properly counterattack knowing what he did now.