The silence hung in the air between me and Octavia.

"Alright," I said. "So you don't trust Anne. Care to explain?"

"The ant queen seems…suspicious," said Octavia.

"So you're uncertain," I said. "I understand. It's creepy when someone you've just met with legions of minions beckons you deeper into their lair. But we knew that's what we were getting into. In a world full of hyenas, assassin bugs, and other openly hostile creatures, I thought you would be happier to meet a new person. Or 'sapient creature,' or whatever it is that we're calling ourselves."

"I was, at first," she said.

"What changed?" I asked. "Why so hostile?"

"Why so hostile indeed," said Octavia, as if that was an answer.

I let several moments pass before I finally broke the silence. "Would you care to elaborate?"

"What's there to elaborate on?" said Octavia. "I don't trust her."

"Why not?" I said. "She seems fully willing to cooperate. She gave us a task to do, which means that, at a minimum, she finds us useful. That might not be the same thing as friendship, but –"

Octavia stopped walking and turned to me. "Do you really not get it?" she said.

I blinked. "I guess I don't."

"The entire reason we went to meet with her is because of the fire ants," said Octavia.

"Yes," I said. "I mean, that's part of the reason, but yes, the fire ants have been a big problem for us in the past, and will probably continue to be a problem in the future if we don't do something about them."

Octavia hissed. "Anne is the one who created the fire ants!"

I sighed. "Yes, she did create them," I said. "But I feel obliged to point out that Anne's also very interested in destroying the fire ants, just as we are. She's certainly not happy about the fact that her fire ants went rogue. I think she wanted them to be just as peaceful and servile as the armored ants, or any of her other ant varieties, which I might note have not harmed us at all."

Octavia's voice took on a sarcastic tone I'd never heard from her before. "So, she's got a pretty good track record of creating lots of peaceful ant variants, and very occasionally creating unstoppable murder ants. Very comforting."

"She made one mistake," I said. "And she's working hard to –"

"That 'one mistake' killed all my friends and everyone I knew," said Octavia.

I didn't have a response for that.

"She didn't apologize," said Octavia. "She knows what the fire ants are, and she didn't apologize. I didn't hear an ounce of contrition in her voice when we spoke."

I chose my words carefully. "It's true that she never said that she was sorry," I said. "But think about what an apology is. An apology isn't just the words, 'I'm sorry.' An apology is an admission of wrongdoing, and a promise to do better. And by that measure, I think that Anne delivered what sounded pretty close to a clear apology. She considered the fire ants to be a mistake. She didn't want them to escape containment, and she thinks it's a big problem that the fire ants are doing things that she can't control. By all accounts, it seems like she's doing everything in her power to prevent them from spreading further." I pounded the ground for emphasis. "She wants to destroy the fire ants, Octavia. I understand it may not have been exactly what you wanted to hear, but that's close enough to an apology for me."

"You're wrong," said Octavia. "An apology isn't just about promising to fix past mistakes. It's about promising to avoid doing the same things in the future. That's what's implied by contrition. And I didn't hear any of that. In fact, if anything, I'd say she told us the opposite."

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Don't you remember her speech about 'experimenting?'" said Octavia. "The whole thing about how the nature of experiments is that sometimes they fail, and you have to keep on doing them, even though you know that sometimes there's a chance of failure? She didn't know for certain that something like this would happen, but she knew it was a possibility. And that wasn't enough to deter her. And after we clean up this mess, she's going to go back to her experiments. She told us that."

"Octavia," I said, "there's no way that she could have expected –"

"Exactly!" said Octavia. "She was intentionally doing things that would lead to unexpected consequences. She admitted it! She said that the purpose of her research was to – how did she put it? 'Fail in new and unexpected ways.' She didn't inadvertently stumble into the unexpected. She was barreling toward it."

"That's what science is," I said.

"Then maybe science is bad," said Octavia. "Because the way you describe it, it sounds like science killed all of my friends." She let that statement hang in the air for a moment before she continued. "You know, I once watched a movie about science gone wrong – about scientists who were so obsessed with whether they could do something that they didn't stop to think if they should do it. I thought that was just a narrative device that the story was using as an excuse for the existence of a group of monsters that were trying to kill everyone. I never thought I'd actually meet someone like that scientist in person."

"You're right," I said. "Science has the power to take lives. Some of the deadliest weapons in history have been the result of people exploring the frontier of science. But science also has the power to save lives."

"Funny that," said Octavia. "I've often heard that used as a justification for creating newer and deadlier types of weapons."

"When you're on the frontiers of the unknown, you can't always know what the consequences are going to be," I said. "Some will be good. Some might turn out to be catastrophically bad. But Anne seems well-intentioned."

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," said Octavia. "And even that might be giving her too much credit, because I'm not even sure she has good intentions. You're assuming that she's on the side of good because of her commitment to 'research,' as if that's automatically a good thing. But do you remember why she was doing that research?"

"She wanted more efficient ants," I said.

"Yes," said Octavia. "And she wanted more efficient ants so that…" She trailed off, leaving me to finish the sentence.

"So she could finish her goals," I said.

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"And those goals were…?"

"I assume she wants to become stronger," I said. "Just like me, and just like you. You and I both have moved in the direction of making ourselves stronger so that we can more easily survive."

"That's very charitable of you to assume," Octavia said. "But we don't have to assume her motivations. She told us. She didn't say anything about survival. She wanted to 'expand her domain' and 'aspire to grandeur.' At best, this is a vanity project for her. At worst, she sounds like a megalomaniacal villain trying to conquer as much territory as she can."

"She wants to expand her sphere of control," I said. "Does that automatically make her a villain? I mean, you tried to claim as much territory underground as you could, didn't you?"

"She and I are not the same," said Octavia.

"Octavia, I–" I stopped and took a breath. "I'm sorry if that came across as an attack on you."

"You compared me to her," said Octavia.

"I know. I–" I sighed. "I wasn't trying to say that you're both villains. I was trying to say the opposite. Her intentions might be as benign as yours."

"You keep using the word 'maybe,' talking as if Anne and her ant dominance is this big uncertainty," said Octavia. "But she's already shown us who she is. She created the fire ants. And then, she told us who she is. She created the fire ants in the pursuit of power, and now that her 'experiment' has gotten away from her, she wants us to help be the cleanup crew."

"Isn't that what we were expecting to do from the start?" I said. "Being cleanup crew for the ants, I mean. Think about what our goals were when we followed the armored ants into that lair. If I told you at the start of the day that we would meet someone who had a plan for how to wipe out the fire ants once and for all, and that they needed our help to do it, you'd think that person was our ally, right?"

Octavia was silent. At least it wasn't an objection. After a moment of hesitation, I decided to take her silence as an invitation to continue.

"Octavia, when we started crawling toward that ant tunnel, if I had asked you, best case scenario, what we were hoping for, I think it would have been something like this: we encounter a sapient creature – another person, who we can converse and reason with – and who shares our goal of wiping out the fire ants, and who has a plan for making that happen. The entire reason we went into Anne's lair was hoping to make that introduction, and to offer whatever assistance and cooperation was needed to make that happen. And all of that happened! We got the good outcome!"

Octavia stayed silent, but she glanced at me in a way that told me she was still listening.

"Anne's not perfect," I said. "Far from it. A long time ago, she did something that had very bad consequences. Disastrous consequences. Consequences that…hurt you a lot. Anne didn't intend for any of that to happen. I'm not sure if Anne even knows. In fact, I bet that if she knew just how much the fire ants had taken away from you, she'd have been way more apologetic. She never said she was sorry, but she didn't know about everything that she had to apologize for. Or, surely she can't have known the full extent of it."

"She knows that we've been fighting the fire ants," Octavia said. "That's why she offered us an invitation in the first place. She could have apologized for that much."

"It's probably been awhile since she's talked to another person," I said. "You had your spider friends to talk to, right? Anne learned how to talk specifically hoping it would let her communicate with her ants, and apparently they can't understand a word she says. Maybe we can forgive her for having bad manners, because she hasn't had a chance to practice them. She doesn't have anyone to talk to. Imagine how lonely she must be."

Octavia got quiet again. It was a full minute before she spoke again. "That doesn't change who she is, or what she's done," said Octavia. "I don't trust her."

I grimaced. "This is the first time I've seen you get upset."

She leaned forward. "What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying you want me to go back to being my 'usual self?' That acting like this way is inappropriate for me?"

"No," I said. "That's not what I mean at all. In fact, I think I mean the opposite. You don't take offense at small things. You're forgiving, and charitable. And that fact makes me think that if you're taking offense now, then this isn't some 'little thing' that you're getting upset over. It's a big deal, and you're right to be upset. And if you're worried about Anne, then maybe I should be too."

"I'm glad to hear you're still on my side," Octavia said.

"I think we might all be on the same side," I said. "I'm still not convinced Anne should be treated like an enemy. At the moment, she might be the best ally that we have against the fire ants. But I understand your concerns. They're all valid. I think Anne means well…but she's proven that she can be dangerous, even without meaning to."

"I'm glad we agree on that point," said Octavia.

"I think you're right to treat this situation with caution," I said. "But I don't think we gain anything by being hostile. For the time being, I think our best option is to play nice, but remain cautious. Does that sound alright to you?"

Octavia thought for a moment. "Yes," she said, "I guess you are right about Anne being our best option for dealing with the fire ants. I don't trust her on a lot of things, but I do believe her when she says that she wants to wipe them out as much as we do. So, for now…we can stay allies with her. But I'm not about to start treating her like a friend."

"Friends make life easier, but I understand if you don't want her as a friend," I said.

Octavia's voice took on a lighter tone. "Having her as an ally is good enough for now. Besides, I already have a friend," she said, tapping me on the snout. "Now, how about we go back and see that room Anne was about to show us?"

"Sounds like a plan," I said.

"Just one thing," she said. "I think that if either of us starts getting unsettling feelings about Anne, we should have a way to voice that without her knowing."

"You mean like some kind of coded language?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "How about temperature? Hotter for positive, colder for negative."

"Sure," I said. "If I ask you how you're feeling, then you could respond with your general feeling about the situation."

"Yes," she said. "Cool for slightly on edge, chilly for suspicious, and frigid if I think things are about to turn sour."

"And," I said, "if you're feeling good about her, then you could describe yourself as feeling warm."

Octavia paused. "I suppose I could, if that was how I felt. What about when we need to discuss actual temperatures? That might become relevant as part of the embercore search."

"True," I said. "If you need to refer to actual temperature, then I guess we can just use the word 'temperature' in the sentence to qualify that."

"Okay," said Octavia. "And two more words to add to our vocabulary: 'Rabbit' means get ready to run, and 'hyena' gets ready to fight. And once I've said that word, 'go' means to actually run or fight."

"Alright," I said. "And same rule, in the unlikely event that you actually need to talk about rabbits or hyenas, say the word 'animal' as part of the sentence to indicate that you're talking about the actual animal."

"Fine," said Octavia. "Can I quiz you on all this, just to make sure we both remember everything properly? First: our temperature scale…"

* * *

Several minutes later, we were back at Anne's audience chamber. "Hello?" I called out.

"Ah, you've arrived," said Anne, emerging from one of the side tunnels. "Perfect timing. I've just finished preparing the map room for you two. Shall we?"

"Of course," I said, following as Anne and her ant retinue led the way to her map room.

"Oh," came Anne's voice from the tunnel ahead of us. "Just one thing. When you enter, don't touch anything. Understood?

"Yes," I said.

Octavia cocked her head to one side, as if expressing hesitation, before replying. "Understood. We won't touch any of your things."

"Very good," said Anne. "I would hate for anyone to get hurt."

Anne's receding form was now barely visible, and I called to her. "Wait, what's this about getting hurt? Is this place dangerous? I thought you said we were going to the map room."

"Do not worry." Anne's soothing voice carried a note of reassurance. "There is no need for concern. As long as you do not touch any of my things, there will not be any problems."

Octavia and I exchanged a glance.

As we entered the tunnel, the ants behind us started moving. I glanced behind us, looking at the row of smaller ants that now separated us from the audience chamber where we'd first met Anne.

"What's the matter, Drew?" Octavia asked. "Are you feeling a bit of a draft?"

I grimaced. "I am feeling a bit cool," I said. "But it's probably nothing to be worried about."

Octavia nodded "Me too. Hopefully it will be warmer inside."

I nodded. "Hopefully."