Arachna was an innocent creature, really, she was. Unlike most Krath, she was all alone without a Hive Mother to nurture her, to teach her, to raise her in a horde full of siblings.

She sensed something was missing. That there was supposed to be others. And yet she found some solace in her meal.

Arachna was a small creature, no bigger than a tenth of the size of the Yumen known as Engineer Carlsen. However, she sensed that her body was growing quickly—very quickly. She could already feel her bones stretching within her after her latest meal. Her still-soft carapace was widening out to encapsulate her growing mass.

Arachna had eight spindly legs and a seemingly oversized head. She had sharp and pointed beak-like pincers inside her mouth that remained hidden until she released them, allowing her to bite her victims unwittingly; however, there were also tiny razor-like teeth lining the inside of her extensible beak that dripped with deadly acid—acid that would kill most living things or corrode the strongest of metals.

Her head was arc-shaped and nearly bigger than her abdomen. At her rear was an organ known as a spinneret, which she sensed could be used to secrete long strands of sticky silk.

That would come in handy.

Lastly, on the ends of Arachna's six hind legs were tiny paws, each with two hook-like claws. These could be extended slightly to allow her to climb and maneuver more effectively. Her two front legs, however, were altogether different.

Something strange was growing out of her front pair of limbs. Something that she sensed was not entirely Krath. Instead of tiny pawlike feet she had two cocoon-like appendages. They looked like knobs that did nothing. And they ached. As her body grew, these appendages grew with them like deformed limbs. She couldn't walk on them properly and had to use her six hind legs to crawl along the metal floor.

Was she malformed? Arachna wasn't sure. Perhaps being hatched next to this enormous machine caused her genetic coding to go haywire. What would her Mother think of her if she saw her now? Alone. Broken. Disfigured.

Arachna scuttered up one of the walls of the engine room and peered out a large glass window. There were stars. Mlllions of them. She peered out into the blackness, sensing that she was far, far away from her Mother. Far away from any semblance of Krath civilization.

Arachna longed to meet her Mother. The Krath queen who conceived her would no doubt have given her comfort and guidance. But where was she now? Arachna was lost in the void on this strange metal construct.

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A ship.

That's what it was called. The word materialized in her mind. She was in a ship powered by that metal thing in the room—the engine.

A small tear welled up in the corner of her left-most eye. Krath were not hatched to be alone. They were not designed to be solitary creatures. They belonged in a horde—in a civilization larger than themselves. This she knew to be true. This she knew to be the way of the Krath.

And yet, she was alone. Floating out here in the blackness of the void without anyone. Where was she headed? What was this place?

The engine gently hummed. The cylindrical tubes of Xitherium filled the room with various shades of lavender and purple.

At least she was comforted here. In this room, she had a feeling of being at home. The strange familiarity she had with this thing she knew to be an engine, and the calming light of Xitherium.

But the ship must be bigger than just this room, right? Surely there was more to it than what she saw here.

Arachna decided that she would explore this place. Wherever she was, even this particular room was massive. By the Hive, it would be big enough to fit a Hive Mother were it not for the metal engine at its center.

Peering around the room, she noticed several levels of metal floors encircling the engine connected by ramps and stairs. There was space between the edges of each floorboard and the walls of the room. The floors weren't so much proper floors as loosely constructed panels of metal bolted together like a construction rig.

Arachna was perched atop the highest level, near one of the topmost balconies. Falling from this distance would no doubt kill a Yumen. Maybe a Krath too.

But not her.

She secreted a thin strand of silk and attached it to her metal plank. Then she methodically lowered herself down, passing by several metal floors encircling the metal engine at the center of the room.

They were utilitarian constructs, the floors. Long pipelike railings served as guardrails while crude bolts held together long metal planks. Why did the Yumens build this? Arachna wondered to herself.

Hmmm...Yumens didn't grow things the proper way, like Krath. These Yumens built things instead. So inefficient. Things broke so easily that way. That must be why Yumens needed to constantly monitor this engine. To make sure it didn't break. And to make changes to it. She sensed that Engineer Carlsen was very skilled at this while he was alive.

The Krath way was far superior.

It was better to simply grow living organisms that could monitor themselves and tell you if something went wrong. That was what a Manta Carrier did. The knowledge of a Manta Carrier flashed before her mind. Yes, one day, she'd be a Hive Mother herself. If she lived. Then she'd grow her own ships. And they wouldn't break so easily.

Krath organisms didn't break the way Yumen things did. She paused for a moment while sliding down her strand of silk. Well...maybe that wasn't true. She had no way of knowing it to be true except by instinctive memory. And yet, she herself was broken. Deformed.

She glanced at her foremost limbs—useless things.

Gritting the jaws of her beak, she lowered herself down. It didn't matter whether she was a perfect creature or not. Arachna would explore this place—wherever it was that she had been hatched into. This ship. It was now her home, whether she liked it or not.

And she would make herself comfortable in her new home.

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