Dzor tumbles out from under the box as the strange being casually lets herself out from under it, holding it up with seeming ease and then letting the box fall with a loud and resounding thud in a hangar bay full of noise. Long hasn’t been noticed yet, but she also only took down the couple of soldiers that have noticed her. She unfolds the note Dr. Lopez gave her during the last meeting the young, strange doctor was at.
It’s a set of instructions, though cryptic is the only word for it. “So we can find it.”
The first step is to board the other grodrrn ship, which is on the opposite end of the hangar from her which is now filled with soldiers. However, as the Void Queens -distinguishable by their black armor and their size relative to the soldiers- spread out, there seems to be a small opening created by the conex boxes.
She remembers that day in training; when Hancock climbed on top to get the jump on Fisher pretending to be a grodrrn. He was able to stay relatively out of sight -at least of a shorter opponent- and what the huge enemy just did created a path across the incoming line of seemingly endless-soldiers.
As long as she can get there without getting spotted and jump the gap over the soldiers.
Long thinks about Vivi, and Chief Grey, and Mina, and Angelica, and Dzor, and Dzilika, and Hancock, and so, so many others as she looks at the path ahead of her. She KNOWS Lopez wanted Long to turn something on so that Hancock, Lopez, and Khla can find their way back to the fleet. But, if the rest of the fleet is being abandoned, as someone called out just before the door was cut open, then maybe they can use it, too.
Long grips her rifle briefly. She needs her hands, but it gives her a moment of courage. She slings her rifle on her back, running to the closest conex box. She scrambles up it quickly before any soldiers find her outside of the small hiding spot she was using when the massive alien pounced on Chief Grey and Fisher. If she wants to save anyone, she’ll need to keep them out of her mind for the moment. Their current whereabouts and wellbeing are different than their future whereabouts and wellbeing, and Long needs to get to THAT point. She keeps low, moving quickly as she darts across the boxes. She uses the crane access to climb up, flinching when a terrifying metal screech pierces out when Dzor or the massive enemy slams the other through somthing that should not be slammed through. She keeps climbing, crossing the hangar crane. She runs along the catwalk, refusing to look down. Gravity is lower on the ship than on Earth, but she knows the fall would likely be deadly. Especially because she would be falling into the enemy troops.
From above, the Zarakyssns kind of remind her of ants, moving quickly in lines as they spread methodically out to capture the extent of the hangar. The more of the hangar they capture, the further in the main column stays together before fanning out. The soldiers have no regard for their own lives, charging into battle and taking as many humans -if any- as they can. And, for every one human or grodrrn soldier that falls, ten more Zarakyssns seem to be marching in. The numbers aren’t looking great.
Long focuses on making it to the end of the crane, though. Here’s where it gets tricky. The crane is meant to be accessed from one place. Where she needs to get to in order to be directly above the ship she needs is the catwalk along the top of the hangar, which is about ten feet ahead of her.
She murmurs, “Lower gravity lower gravity lower gravity.” She pulls her rifle in front of her so it doesn’t flop, and she backs up, readying a running jump. She hears a noise, and she looks.
One of the Void Queens is exiting the ladder safety-cage at the other end of the crane, aware of her. The teen flinches, turning into a headlong sprint. She can hear the bolts zip by as she’s fired at, but she jumps without thinking. She swallows hard as she holds her head up, bracing for the landing. She shields her head with her arms, and she slams into the catwalk, tumbling across the ground. She cries out in pain, but she scrambles to her rifle, collecting it and firing up at the crane. The Void Queen dodges back, skillfully dancing backwards into cover. Long looks at the ship below her. It’s a much less painful drop, but she has to reach it. She hops over the railing without hesitation, doing her best to try to land so that she doesn’t slide right down to the hangar floor without any control. She flops on her back on top of the alien shuttle, but she is able to stay on top of it, and she squirms down, avoiding firing again for now. She needs to avoid attention, and she needs to hurry.
She slides on her backside until gravity takes her, and she does her best to land on her feet. The teen catches herself on her hands and knees, quickly scrambling around to the ramp of the ship. She ducks inside, following Lopez's instructions.
Tucked under the console of the ship in the cockpit, Long finds a small cubby, which she hopes Lopez meant by "Emergency hiding spot 12".
Sure enough, the teen crawls underneath, and she easily finds a small switch panel that looks out of place; human switches in a grodrrn shuttle.
Lopez's instructions say turn it on, so Long turns it on.
She doesn't hear anything happen, but knowing Lopez, nothing obvious would. The young spacer ponders remaining in the shuttle, but she decides against it. If they figure out what she did, she doomed Hancock and Lopez, as well as any hope of rescue.
And, her friends are still fighting desperately.
Long swallows her fear, gripping her rifle once more as she crawls out into the shuttle hold. She keeps low, sneaking through it with her finger on the trigger.
She just reaches the hatch when a terrifying roar pierces the hangar bay once again, causing her to fall low into a defensive crouch. The monstrous creature has Dzor by the back of his neck. The grodrrn is bleeding profusely, and he appears to be unconscious. The monster is not much better off, missing part of her jaw and bleeding from several wounds, including her right arm, which is nearly severed and dangling from the elbow like a shred of fabric. Regardless of the creature’s injuries, though, it looks ecstatic and proud, and the Void Queens and Zarak soldiers filling the hangar bay buzz together, as if cheering.
A sudden tiny voice shrieks, “LET UNCKIE GO!” A tiny figure seems to appear, and Long knows why; she came to find the teen, and instead witnessed something terrible. And now, the teen feels a terrifying pit as something horrifying is about to happen.
The small squid-like girl, eldest of the Cave Princesses, launches herself from the hangar deck up to Dzor’s shoulder, springing towards the monster. However, the invading champion drops Dzor in favor of snatching Vivi from the air, catching the tiny princess with little effort. Vivi can crack human bones with her surprising strength, but no matter how much she squirms, she can’t break the conqueror’s grip.
Long’s heart stops, and she nearly dies from the long moment of agony. She instantly feels immense feelings of anger and fear. They deadlock within her, holding her fast as she watches in horror.
The only thankful part is that the couple of seconds or so that Long is frozen -which feel like hours to her- pass by, and Vivi is still squirming as the alien attacker holds her and says something surprisingly calmly, only slightly wincing from its jaw.
Long finds her courage in an instant, and she snaps her rifle up, stepping closer. “Please don’t hurt her!”
The alien perks up and looks at her. Long can feel the gaze of a predator; a fearsome creature willing and able to kill at a moment’s notice. Not even grievous injury will slow it down.
Still, Long holds her aim on the creature, even as the rifle starts to shake. She orders sternly, “P-Please don’t hurt her. I-I know you can unders-stand me because you’re holding her. P-Please…”
The monster stares at Long. She can hear the Void Queens hissing and buzzing at her as they aim weapons at her and encircle her with soldiers. However, the monster holding Vivi seems to yip like a dog almost; a single huffed word in another language that halts and silences the Void Queens, causing them to relax a little. Still, Long holds her rifle on the creature she realizes is the mystery Queen ruling the Void Queens.
The strange, monstrous Queen looks at Vivi. She suddenly lifts the tiny squid princess towards her mouth, opening as wide as her wounded jaw will allow, and Long flinches, nearly firing her weapon.
Some combination of Long’s inward gasp, the shift in her weight, the Void Queens reacting to her, and the plan being to clearly taunt her causes the alien Queen to pause. If Long were a gambling woman, she’d wager the shift in the Queen’s mouth is the spitting image of a grodrrn smirk, particularly when her reptilian tongue licks her teeth.
It’s then that Long really sees the connection; the Queen has many features similar to a grodrrn in the way that a komodo dragon resembles a crocodile. Though not quite as close as that comparison, she sees the grodrrn in the Queen’s physique, in spite of the clearly insectoid features, such as a thorax, subtle antennae, and chitinous natural armor.
Long pleads again, “Please… Please don’t hurt her, and I’ll drop my weapon… Just, please let her go. A-And let me tend to him. Y-You didn’t kill him, s-so, please let me stop the bleeding.”
There’s a long tense pause, and it’s clear the Void Queens seem almost insulted that a lowly human is making requests.
However, after the long standoff, the Queen finally looks at Vivi. The little girl is panting, unable to muster even a little leverage against the Queen.
With a careless toss, the tiny squid is thrown through the air towards Long. Long desperately drops her rifle to catch Vivi, and the Cave Princess immediately sobs, “MEEMEE!” She scrambles up Long’s arm and hugs her neck, crying softly. Long hugs her gently, mindful of the invaders all around her. She’s thankful that the Queen spared Vivi for even a moment longer, though. Long looks cautiously at the Queen, who studies her a moment. It’s clear the ship is being conquered quickly, and the hangar is now virtually fully under the control of the Zarakyssns. But, the queen snorts a short syllable, and then walks towards the center as Zarak soldiers drag unconscious humans into the hangar and lay them out. New Void Queens, armed with tools Long recognizes as similar to the medical tools Syretia had with her approach and begin working on the wounded.
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She’s suddenly shoved in the shoulder, and she glances quickly, startled. It’s one of the combat Void Queens that had her surrounded, and the Queen buzzes something. She points Long towards the injured grodrrn. It hits her instantly, and she quickly nods, jogging towards Dzor.
Long is far from an expert, but it’s clear she may be the best Dzor is going to get. At least for the time being.
Though she’s scared, she’s thankful Vivi is okay. However, both Dzor being alive and the Queen sparing Vivi have raised a question in Long’s mind.
Why is she keeping us all alive?
***
When the human fleet faced the grodrrns for the first few times, the battles felt desperate, sometimes hopeless, and quite often like they were mice attempting to escape from within a lion’s jaws; narrowly avoiding teeth as it was, but never truly escaping.
Now, Admiral Angelica Marie Long knows the true meaning of hopelessly outmatched. By the time the Zarakyssn soldiers reached her, most of the ship was already captured and incapacitated. It was nothing like when Syretia found them or the four following Zarakyssn ships that reinforced her.
Long stood her ground between a slowly approaching tide of soldiers led by several Void Queens who simply approached her, even as the Admiral held a sidearm to them while Syretia stood behind her holding both the newborn Zarakyssn and the newly hatched Dzilika.
Zarakyssn larval Queens and grodrrn hatchlings are surprisingly quiet when they’re scared or upset, unlike human babies. She imagines Syretia can feel the baby’s fear with ease, and even as infants, grodrrns are tough.
Now, they’re being marched down the hall, the infants being carried by Void Queens as Syretia and Long walk as prisoners. Long could have emptied her magazine and prayed. She could pray that one or more of the Void Queens would fall. But, she knew and knows now thanks to Zeeannssii that Void Queen armor is tough enough to withstand some of the force of human hybrid weapons, meaning an entire magazine would be needed for probably a single Queen at range.
Syretia holds close to Long, clearly terrified. These strange Zarakyssns -strange to their standard military officers like Syretia- originally appeared to execute the deserter and bring her child back to the Horde. Likely, she will be made example of within the Horde, and the humans will learn what Unification really is.
Long follows the leading Void Queen as they are led towards the hangar. Humans of all ages and profession are being marched the same direction, if not dragged by soldiers where those who resisted were knocked unconscious.
People cry, grodrrns are carried by dozens of soldiers as they growl, mostly unconscious, and only a handful of weapons are being fired somewhere in the distance, shrinking into silence very quickly.
They never stood a chance.
Something stayed Long’s hand this time. Where she was prepared to do ALL that was necessary when Zeeannssii appeared, she held her fire this time. Why? Did she feel God’s hand on her shoulder? Was she afraid and too weak? Or does she hope that the mystery Queen leading the Void Queens is somehow different? Would dying in battle have been better?
She finds a swelling of nausea suddenly, which hits her out of the blue. She doubles over suddenly, expelling her stomach contents as she sinks to a kneel, and the Void Queens buzz a little in irritation. They buzz at Syretia, and she murmurs to Long, “Unhappy.”
Long replies softly, “Sorry… I-I just…” She catches her breath a moment, and surprisingly, doesn’t find any violence towards her. She rises to her feet, and she adds, “Sorry…”
The Void Queen at the lead simply turns back around, continuing towards the hangar.
Long still feels a little dizzy, but she’s able to keep her head up as she follows the Void Queen. She needs to face this Queen and try to gauge if there’s any hope for them.
The mystery Queen is not difficult to find. In any crowd on any part of the Polonia, the being would stand out. She is taller than all of the Void Queens, even seated as she is in the center of the hangar on a makeshift throne made of human crates and grodrrn oxygen cubes. She has all of the presence of a psychotic grodrrn; no regard for life, including her own, but cold and calculating. Her dangerous, predatory aura extends well beyond her physical appearance, and even wounded, she looks ready for battle. Though, presently, several Void Queens are attaching what appears to be a regenerator to the Queen as she holds what appears to be a goblet of some kind.
She is drenched in blood of all colors; Zarakyssn yellowish-orange as well as Grodrrn and human red. Her own blood seems to be mostly red, surprisingly, as the medical Void Queens tend to her wounds while the regenerator works. She is monstrous in appearance, and Syretia even falters, buzzing nervously. She whimpers to Long as she tugs the woman’s shirt, “I-It real… T-The M-Monster…”
Syretia has indicated that she had never heard of a Void Queen when Zeeannssii appeared, and she seemed to be telling the truth. However, Long suspects by this reaction, that although the Queen of Void Queens, whose leathery, reptilian skin has streaks of blue, with portions of her chitinous exoskeleton also possessing blue coloring, is a mythical creature within the Zarakyssn horde; the bogeyman to young insectoid queens who don’t have any reason to know her otherwise.
The creature looks directly at them, and Long can feel the piercing gaze of her eyes like a blade. The Queen seems to almost smile wickedly, and she growls something in Zarakyssn. Syretia nearly collapses, propped up by the Void Queens forcing her forward.
The Void Queen carrying Dzilika picks up the pace a little, taking the infant grodrrn before the blue Queen, and the strange-looking being turns her powerful gaze upon the infant, studying her a moment. The Queen pets the fearful child’s head for a brief moment, growling in grodrrn, a few of the words Long recognizes. Nyonnyss coughs from nearby, fully restrained as her egg is surprisingly carefully put into a Zarakyssn egg carrier. The grodrrn pilot grunts, “She say it was possible. Interesting.”
Long is brought before the Queen, and the Queen looks at her again, but gestures for Syretia’s daughter to be brought forward next as the one holding Dzilika steps back. Syretia’s daughter is brought before the Queen next, and she hums at the baby. She then growls at Nyonnyss, and the pilot flinches, but relaxes. The helmdraavv murmurs, “I am to translate her words exactly. All that follows will be hers.” The Queen speaks, and Nyonnyss translates as if the Queen is speaking through her. “You were going to protect my Sister, were you? Tell me, Admiral, why do you hesitate to fire?”
Long looks around briefly, and she replies softly. “I am surprised you recognized me so easily, your majesty. I know you only as the Queen of the Void Queens. Or at least, the Queen they serve.”
The blue Queen cocks her head curiously, drinking from her strange-looking and large goblet. Long adds, “I hesitated to fire because I knew we were outmatched, and I suspected if I wasn’t killed outright, I’d be brought before you.”
“You suspected correct.”
The Queen looks as the Cave Queen is brought into the hangar, being dragged unconscious. A human walks slowly alongside her, and the blue Queen grunts something. Nyonnyss hesitantly translates, “Put the human in a container.”
Long requests softly, “Please be gentle with her. She’s carrying-...” The queen growls something, and Nyonnyss quickly translates, “I know. The Nizzkurrezz was prepared to die to defend her.” She adds more coolly, “You have many brave warriors on this ship, prepared to die to defend. Strange that you are leader, you who would not die to deny capture.”
Long murmurs, though she is disappointed that she couldn’t fight more valiantly, “You’re right. And as leader, it would be my responsibility to be the last to die in captivity.”
“You are strangely calm. You humans stink more than I expect.”
“We get that a lot. The grodrrns are strangely direct.”
“I see. It makes sense then.” The queen relaxes in her makeshift throne, even as the medical Queens buzz at her. She seems to ignore them, allowing them to resume working on her accessible wounds. “The only creature here I had to capture is this new daughter. All others could have been killed. However, if she died in the process, it would only be a minor stain. After all, you could have killed her in your foolish flight from me.”
“I’m not sure of what you mean, your Majesty. There is no homeworld or colonies to go to war against. The fleet you had captured, though I realize you left our other ships behind; that was it. That’s the entirety of our force and the human race.”
“I am aware. You humans are clever in battle, that much is true. You are mightier than your fragility would imply, and more courageous. But, I sent you a message, and I intend to keep my word. Strangely, though, my Sister does not appear to be here.”
Long thinks for a moment. Does she say? Does she reveal Hancock had disobeyed orders. Or rather, he acted without orders, as no decision had been made yet? Or does she claim responsibility for the action?
However, the Queen adds strangely, “I suppose you will still have a chance to return her voluntarily after all. Thus, I must keep you alive. During that time, you may send any challengers to face me in one on one battle. If I am defeated, you all will go free.”
“What if… we return your sister?” asks Long hesitantly.
“The same will still hold true. Returning my sister means you will live. Defeating me in battle means you will go free.” The blue Queen rises to her feet. “The Admiral and I will speak alone on my ship. Syretia. You will join us.”
Syretia flinches, and the Queen adds, “You are not dead yet, Syretia. Keep that in mind.”
The much younger insectoid Queen hums nervously. Long and Syretia follow the Queen, and Nyonnyss urges softly as they pass her, “Do not challenge her, Admiral… She… defeated…”
Nyonnyss doesn’t have to finish. Long spots him, laying on the ground as Jessica holds his head. Strangely, medical Void Queens have taken over, and they are healing his wounds as well.
The blue Queen leads across the umbilicus connecting the two ships, and to a star deck of her own ship, which has pristine walls and grim looking trophies from different races of the galaxy, apparently. On the star deck, Long can see a world that was not in view minutes ago. Given the number of Zarak starships around the planet, it isn’t likely the Zarak homeworld, but quite possibly the place the blue Queen rules.
The blue Queen hums to Syretia, and Syretia replies briefly. The Queen seems to be a little more stern, and Syretia squeaks to Long, “She ask me translate. I sorry for bad human.”
Long nods, “It’s fine, Syretia. Do your best. She’ll know if I’m confused.”
Syretia translates hesitantly, but the Queen simply looks outside. “You are pregnant…” states Syretia’s voice following the Queen’s statement.
Long recoils in surprise. “Okay, I’m confused already…”
The Queen looks at her, and it’s clear Syretia is doing her best to translate. “Bear offspring… of male.”
Long stares at the Queen, and the blue reptilian glares at her. “I… That’s… impossible…”
“Is it?” asks the Queen. She snorts and looks back outside.
Long desperately states, “I respect your power, but please do not add in such cruelty. I… my only partner…”
The Queen buzzes, and Syretia hesitates. She states, “N-not human.”
Long turns pale and is silent. The Queen adds after a moment, “It make curious.”
Long asks quietly and distantly. “How…? That can’t be possible.”
When she looks into the Queen’s eyes, the apex predator is staring back intensely. She turns back to the window without a word. When she does speak, Syretia states, “Go with Void Queen.” She flinches, looking behind them. One of the Void Queens enters the room, undoubtedly summoned telepathically by the blue Queen. The Void Queen gestures for Long to follow her, and the human woman looks one last time at the blue Queen towering over her and Syretia.
The Queen growls something, and Syretia squeaks softly, “She say… Keep selves alive. She will demand… challenger… when orbiter reach top.”
Orbiter? thinks the Admiral. The moon? She nods, confirming the Queen’s time limit.
They have until the moon reaches its zenith, then. Long prays that’s a long time away.
***