An ant from geyser control went to Thoxel the drone. Now! Knocks on the ice walls passed the same message down to other rooms.

Thoxel woke. He and his command crew hyperventilated all the oxygen in his room. They took one large final breath into their bodies, then nibbled a small piece of medicine which helped them calm down and preserve oxygen. A door ant opened suddenly, and the remaining air hissed out. Hundreds of other ants poured out from dozens of other holes and a mass wave of ants climbed into a scaffolding. The structure, made of thin spines, outlined a rather long cone structure. Ants assembled themselves by climbing over each other and on the thin ladders. Each took their exact appropriate place. Thoxel and his entire command crew scurried over and up to their positions at the front.

His antenna tapped on his crew. Sighter-One, Sighter-Two, Signaler-Counter. He checked to make sure they were each in place. He and his command crew held on to each other and their precious payload, the holobiont egg. They sat perched on top of a long cone of ants, all positioned at a half slant up. His command signaler received information from another signaler down the chain of ants. On the sides of the tube, ants braced against the ice walls, and everyant settled into their position.

Ahead, Thoxel saw the black expanse of space at the end of the dark tube.

Good, his signaler-counter said to him.

Go. Thoxel confirmed.

Go. His signaler-counter replied to Geyser Control.

Ahead at the exit, he saw a signaler pose holding the number six.

Thoxel signaled ahead. Good. He looked back, and saw hundreds of black eyes look forward to him, the commander of his insane mass of ants. The tube’s exit signaler contorted its body into a five,

Then a four, three, two…

One!

Far below, dozens of big-headed ants moved their heads off the small holes where their bodies held back the pressure of the ice moon. Dozens of tubes all converged at the bottom of the ant structure. Large diameter pipes squeezed into smaller ones and the large hydraulic forces pushed the ants up the slope. The zero pressure of vacuum boiled the water into gas, creating even more expansion which further propelled the space ants up the slope.

Thoxel and his command crew held on with all six legs. The entire ship of ants tensioned as they were slowly shoved out the tube. Rumbles and sounds were loud but brief as the whole mass of ants went airborne and cleared the tunnel, their mass still driven by the geyser’s push.

Silence overtook them. The geyser’s shove stopped, and drone Thoxel felt weightless, as many of his past forefather drones had been long ago, jumping from rock to rock. He felt something like elation when he experienced the joy of soaring weightless through the infinite. It was in his instincts. He was sublime. Doubtless it was part of the medicine, which kept him in a clear-headed but calm state to preserve oxygen.

Thoxel physically felt only the tapping of the signalers and a squeeze as his sisters held tight. His command sighters fixed their gaze below and observed their location relative to the ground. The ants had worked with neighboring colonies to flash other geysers up whenever their colony saw the space ant spacecraft soar over their horizon.

He looked back. Silver Star! It had come over the horizon and was far above and behind them. Ignite! He gave the command.

His command signaler passed the order down to the stages.

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Most of the mass of this crazy contraption were the bullet ants. These were the latest adaptation of the heater ants. In their bulbous rears were two glands. One contained hydroquinone and the other hydrogen peroxide (ordinary precursors to other biological reactions). The two chemicals were hypergolic and ignited spontaneously on contact in a small chamber at their rears. Those reaction chambers were reinforced by thick exoskeletons. Originally used as transportation to slide through the long tunnels between colonies, bullet ants were repurposed for thrust. It had taken many generations exposed to viruses, fungi, and increasingly adapted to traverse vertical tunnels, for space ants to be ready for launch. A chemical which had once been a defensive irritant on their homeworld eons ago against predators, and turned into a heat source on the moon, was now used as a propellant.

The bottom layer of bullet ants began their reactions, and thrust pulsed out. It started rather slowly, but steadily built until the rocket clenched with every leg holding everyant. Two bullet ants on the outside vectored their thrust clockwise to introduce a spin. This balanced out errors which occurred due to the natural variation of ants and the biological nature of their rocket.

Thoxel looked behind him. There! Silver Star was still above and behind. He tapped on his command sighter. He could not get a fix on it, though his caste had once soared through the void. Their ant rocket ship rotated and his sighters scurried around to maintain tracking on the Silver Star. They estimated the trajectory, and tapped out commands to the signaler. One sighter brought out a tool of three spines. She placed them in a triangular formation. Two ants from the final stage held the spikes in their mandibles. The craft’s rotation complicated their measurements.

Faster! A sighter commanded the signaler.

The signaler relayed the order down the mass of ants. Then the first layer released their reactions at increased frequency. The expansion of the chemicals put pressures on their glands, which squeezed the glands shut for a moment, then as the pressure subsided, the outgoing gas suctioned more chemicals into the reaction chamber and the reaction pulsed stronger.

Drone Thoxel felt more force. He stayed in serene stillness and preserved his oxygen. Beneath him, the royal egg laid inert, nested in the center of the holobiont egg, along with many spheres of insect jelly. This was their payload, and he was the final stage guidance mechanism.

The first stage completely spent itself, and with one final exertion, those ants pushed themselves off.

Thoxel felt the weightlessness return. He looked above. Silver Star was now much larger, and not a star, but a small sphere. Their air in his carapace grew stale, but he took no action.

They zeroed out their rotation and the command crew conferred with each other. The sighter, using the simple instrument of the spine tripod, observed the silver sphere. At regular intervals, she would command the second stage to change the direction of thrust. With another tool, which had a long curved edge, they measured the angle of approach. The command crew calculated.

Faster! His sighter passed the command down.

Thoxel again held firm as the ants of the second stage fired. Force propelled them forward. They were really moving fast now! He felt a strong, uneven rumble from below. A bright flash reflected off the watery mists which had followed them into orbit. The sky spun. Instabilities with their center of mass and the unexpected thrust from that misfired second stage ant had flipped their rocket over.

His peace and passiveness evaporated like liquid in a vacuum.

Stop! He commanded. He saw his signaler held on with four legs, while two others floated freely as they spun over two axes. Thoxel tapped the emergency stop signal. He felt the thrust cease. His back four legs held onto four points of contact, while his forlegs grasped for his crewmate.

Zero out! He told his command crew. They all ran counterclockwise around the top of the structure. When the spin had been more or less eliminated, they were still tumbling end over end. Finally, the command crew took their bearings.

Thoxel held firmly with his claws. Silver Sphere?

Location? A sighter asked. Their antennas were all cool and calculating.

Bearing? The other signaler inquired, eager to restart the second stage.

Zero out tumble. Thoxel said.

The command signaler crawled back to the second stage. She instructed a single ant to fire and vector their thrust in the direction of their somersault. Their tumble slowed.

Thoxel ran around the craft counter to the last fraction of the spin. All axes were zeroed out. He resumed his position near the egg.

Bearing. And the sighter pointed a specific direction.

The signaler gave orders and the living craft altered position.

Faster! The sighter requested.

Thoxel ran again to re-introduce a spin, and held on.

The rest of the second stage reignited.