Forty-six planetary diameters from the Queen World
The sixteen cruisers activated their capacitors and flashed into null space, seven of them failing to make the transition as their hulls were torn apart by the gravity well of both the primary and the nearby planet before making it through the aperture.
Of the nine surviving cruisers, three had been so heavily damaged by the violent transition that they simply broke apart under the tremendous hull stresses inflicted on the ships and disintegrated.
One of the remaining command drones reached out with her mind, trying to organize her surviving sisters and bolster their resolve for the final task they had been given by their Hive Mother.
She had been with the queen for many cycles and was the first to accept her new pheromones and call her Hive Mother. Now, she would ensure the task would be completed as a good, loyal command drone does.
Feeling one of the minds suddenly close itself to her thoughts, she barely had time to turn her attention to it when she felt a wave of betrayal and fear from another sister’s mind before her thoughts were no more.
She tried to force her way into the mind that closed itself to her and was rebuffed before her ship suddenly rocked under the onslaught of particle beam fire. Turning to the command drone standing next to her, she sent a thought command for her to fire back as she dealt with the traitor among them.
The sister command drone acknowledged her thought command, and she refocused on forcing her way back into the traitor’s mind. Her Hive Mother had trained her for this, showing her new secrets known only to queens, and she tried to use them, only to find the mind blocked off to her again.
A surge of fear came over her, and she tried to force her way into the resistant mind again, only to realize that another two sisters had closed their minds to her. Again, her ship rocked, much more violently this time, as another ship joined in on the attack.
She saw a flash of the bioluminescent lighting as it glinted on metal next to her, and she instinctively skittered to the side, just barely avoiding having the top of her brainpan pierced with a dagger as her sister command drone stabbed her deeply in the shoulder joint.
A terrible pain shot through her, and she kicked out with one of her lower legs, connecting with the traitor’s junction between the thorax and abdomen. She felt the sickening crunch of her powerful kick, quickly realizing her mistake as her foot claw got stuck inside the traitor command drone. The traitorous sister barely reacted to the devastating blow as she brought down the sharply honed dagger in another flash of light and severed her leg in half.
Now suddenly free of her stuck claw, she fell backward some distance before landing on the floor, wracked with pain as the precious ichor spilled out of her wounds. The traitor command drone advanced on her slowly as yellow fluid dripped from her junction wound and mingled with the droplets falling off the dagger.
She looked into her large black eyes, seeing the powerful intelligence of a Hive Mother within them. They looked at her with malevolence, and she felt a fear she had never felt before as she wilted under the stare.
As she sent the panicked thought command to the worker drones in the command chamber, she suddenly detected the presence of new pheromones as her antennae hairs absorbed them from the air.
She looked at the pheromone glands of the traitor sister still slowly moving towards her and saw the glands pulsing as they continued to release the biochemical formula into the air. She could see the air around them slightly shimmering as the oily particulate matter interacted with the currents of the air recyclers and circulated around the chamber.
They were Hive Mother pheromones, and she looked at the nearby worker drones, seeing them all remain where they were as their antennae slowly moved through the circulating air currents and absorbed the new chemical scent.
As one, they all turned back to their stations, their minds no longer accepting her thought commands. The possessed command drone was now looming over her, and she felt the power of a true Hive mother within her mind for the first time in her life.
She barely managed to resist the thought command, relying on her total loyalty to her Hive Mother for the strength to remain silent. A nearby worker drone left its station and stood next to the command drone, staring down at her with a dagger in its claw.
She felt a wave of terror as she looked into its eyes and saw another powerful intelligence within them, but not of the same one in the command drone. This one did not look at her with malevolence but with a deep disappointment that made her essence shrivel into nothingness. She could not stand the judgment within the worker drone’s eyes, and she looked away, finally realizing what she truly was and what she was just about to do.
I am a traitor. I have betrayed the Hives and my sisters. I have betrayed the true Hive Mother. I would have destroyed our Queen World and dishonored the sacrifices of my sisters in the Guardian fleets who died to save it.
Anguish and shame overwhelmed her, and the lingering hold of the queen finally broke as real Hive Mother pheromones displaced the ones that made her a traitor and led her astray. This time, the powerful thoughts of two Hive Mothers intruded on her thoughts, breaking her will to resist. They tore her mind to pieces, inflicting an indescribable agony upon her essence as her mind quivered under their combined assault.
I will keep you in my brood chamber as a warning to all who dare to strike against me and my loyal sisters. For the rest of your time in the world of the living, you will not see. You will not hear. You will not sense. You will not move. You will not know any thoughts but your own. You will never know the scents, thoughts, or the touch of another sister ever again. You will be cut off from the Hives and from all that makes life worth living. But you will not be alone in this, traitor. I will allow you the small mercy of knowing that your false Hive Mother will be like you and with you by your side, two lonely traitors who will not be able to comfort each other or share thoughts ever again. You and she will suffer together, as is proper for the terrible wrongness you were about to perpetrate on billions of your sisters. I shall see to it that you will live for a long time in this state, false daughter of mine. I look forward to the many cycles we will share together.> She felt the other Hive Mother, who was still rampaging through her thoughts, suddenly enter the part that allowed her to connect with the Hive mind. There was an agonizing pain that lasted for a few moments, and then she suddenly was alone. There were no more familiar background thoughts that had always been with her, only her own echoing in her now terrifyingly empty mind. The last thing she saw as she quailed in terror was the two daggers flashing towards her as both the command drone and the worker drone began to take her eyes from her, just as was promised. *** Bandit activated the connection to the spy drone in orbit, sending a wideband message after the Hive Mother told him that Aurora had finally come and that they were both going to try to take over the ships that had just flashed into null space. There was only one reason for them to have done so, and Bandit felt dread as his calculations repeatedly confirmed a 98.7% probability of their intentions being to flash out within the atmosphere of the Queen World and destroy it. “This is Bandit, authentication code PI-Zero-One-Gamma-Three. To the commanding officer of the warship that just flashed in, do not fire on the small swarm heading from the planet. They are allied forces. I repeat: they are allied forces and were going to render assistance to the 3rd Fleet. Please respond.” Bandit set it on a repeating broadcast, eyeing the video feed as the spy drone showed the massive vessel still maneuvering to face the oncoming loyal sphere formation. They were initiating emergency deceleration burns and disarming their weapons as commanded by the Hive mother, but their momentum would bring them into weapons range of the dangerous vessel before they were able to fully stop. He had never seen such a ship before, but the transponder was sending out a Republic signal, indicating it was being crewed and controlled by Republic forces, and their actions thus far confirmed his hypothesis. The menacing warship was larger than even the Independence-Class carriers, and the sheer number of weapons hardpoints on its hull stood out in stark contrast to the beautiful, gracefully curved lines of the predatory vessel. Receiving confirmation of a channel being opened with the spy drone, he accessed the comm and listened as a male voice began to speak over the channel. “This is Senior Captain Robert James. Your code has been authenticated, Bandit, and the Warspite is standing down. Please order the…. friendly Insectoid ships to veer off from their current trajectory towards the 3rd Fleet and return to their prior position at the L1 Lagrange point. Confirm receipt of this message.” Bandit responded immediately, feeling his neural pathways calming as confirmation of the massive warship standing down their weapons was factored into his calculations and a new decision tree of possible outcomes emerged. “I thank you for responding, and I confirm receipt of your message, Senior Captain James. I will have the Hive mother order her ships to change course. Have you been able to make contact with the Mei Zhou? I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to do so thus far.” The captain replied, his voice tinged with worry that was easily detected by Bandit’s behavioral algorithms. “We have not, Bandit. I am sending boarding parties with medical and engineering staff over to them now. Keep this channel open, Bandit. I am currently in contact with the surviving senior officers of the 3rd Fleet and coordinating search and rescue efforts with them. Warspite, out.” Bandit immediately turned to face the Hive mother and the attendant drone that was taken by Aurora and began to quickly sign to them, telling them to divert the loyal swarm away from its current course. They both seemed preoccupied, barely acknowledging him until Aurora/drone finally turned to face him. She began to sign frantically, asking him to tell the new warship to flash out and take the Hive ship hiding behind the gas giant hostage. Bandit informed her of their intentions to begin rescue operations, and she surprisingly cut him off, something she had never done before, as she continued to sign so fast that he had to discern her true message despite the many grammatical errors she was making. Bandit nodded to Aurora/drone and reconnected to the still open comm channel with Warspite. “Bandit to Warspite. Aurora has requested you capture the Hive ship currently positioned behind the gas giant in the outer system. It is critical the queen does not escape, or she will continue to tear apart the empire with civil war.” Several seconds passed before the captain’s voice came back over the comms, sounding distracted and as if he did not care one iota about what Bandit had just told him. “Bandit, that’s a negative. Republic personnel take priority, as you should well know considering your programming. We will remain on station and continue SAR efforts. Warspite, out.” Feeling his neural network surging as anger flooded them, Bandit felt several conflicts raging across his pathways as his decision tree offered several opposing options. The failure to resolve the contradictions threatened to seize up his heuristic algorithms and trap him in an infinite loop as he buckled under the emotions roiling him. Right before the deadlock seized him, Diego’s face appeared, and billions of lines of code streamed past as the question came into his pathways. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. What would Diego do? A new decision tree came into existence, the answer appearing as it blinked amidst the chaos threatening to shut down Bandit’s neural network. He had his answer, and the raging conflicts disappeared as order was restored within the pathways. Bandit looked at Aurora/drone, realizing that his priorities had changed greatly in the last two years as he heard Diego’s voice. It was him asking Bandit to always make sure they did what was right before every mission they had together. He will again do as Diego would do if he were here. He will do what is right. “Senior Captain James, I am an official envoy of the Republic, sent here by President Lopez herself. Aurora is Hive Mother and the leader of the Allied Hive world. This is an urgent request from the same Aurora who was largely responsible for the rescue of the surviving crew of the John Cabot. I have not forgotten my programming, but you have reminded me of the responsibilities and powers endowed upon me as an envoy. As the ranking representative of the Republic government in the system, I respectfully ask that you capture that Hive ship immediately and fulfill the request of Aurora, a true friend to the Republic and the one who saved our people. Failure to capture the rebel queen will have drastic repercussions for the empire, the Republic, and the peace treaty I came here to make with them. I do not foresee your denial of this request sitting well with President Lopez and Fleet Admiral Thompson, who both view Aurora as a respected ally and friend.” There was a long silence that lasted for 14.735 seconds before the voice finally came back over the comms, sounding pissed off. “Bandit, I will honor the request of our ally. Once the SAR shuttles have left the bays, I will intercept and disable the Hive ship. Please ask Aurora for the quickest way to do so and forward the intel to me; we will flash out in eighty seconds. Warspite, out.” Bandit signed to Aurora/drone, asking for the best way to achieve their objective. Forty-seven seconds later, he sent a data packet to the spy drone containing the targeting information on how to quickly disable the Hive ship engines, as well as instructions on which power conduits to sever to prevent the ship from self-destructing. Aurora/drone thanked him repeatedly before explaining what was happening with the rebel ships that had flashed into null space. They were no longer in danger, as both she and the Hive mother had retaken control of the ships and were currently in the process of having worker drones fabricate a neurotoxin to dispense through the air recyclers. Soon they would all be dead, and the Hive mother had hopes of salvaging the ships with the assistance of her new animal friends if they could somehow manage to extract the cruisers from null space despite being so close to the gravity well of both the primary and the planet. An alert sounded, and he looked at the video feed from the spy drone as it detected the signs of an impending flash out from the Warspite. Twelve shuttles had left the bays and were currently on their way to the 3rd fleet, and four seconds later, the Warspite flashed out into null space. *** The queen waited impatiently, wondering if all the cruisers that had flashed into null space had been destroyed during the transition. Some of them should have survived, though none of them would when they flashed back out within the atmosphere and destroyed the Queen World. It had been too long already, and she continued to monitor the viewer as she waited with growing agitation for the light of the planet’s destruction to finally reach her position. She had the ship move into the magnetic flux below the south pole to help hide them from detection, and the remains of her mostly destroyed swarms that had fled from the animal ship were now almost at the minimum safe distance required for them to flash out and return to her Hive in a nearby system. The Hive ship bucked suddenly, almost throwing her off her sitting bench as it continued to violently shake. Grasping the edge with four claws, she was barely able to prevent herself from being knocked off when there was a loud whine followed by the loss of power. The ship rocked violently again, and she barely had time to grab onto the bench again as the gravity generators went out, and she almost lifted off into the air from the sudden loss of gravity in the command chamber. Realizing that the powerful animal ship that destroyed all her efforts must have found her, she carefully reoriented herself and grasped the panel next to her with her four lower legs. Using her two top claws, she input a series of commands and activated the emergency power bank of the command chamber. The blank viewer flickered before coming back to life as the biochemical batteries fed it power, and what she saw filled her with confusion. There were dozens of small black objects exiting from the dangerous ship, and she zoomed in on them. They were too small to hold any animals, and she did not see any indications that they were an animal missile or weapon. Her confusion was replaced with dread as she recognized what they were. She had seen them before in one of the dead animal worlds she had built her new Hive on before having to abandon it when the animals came to take back what was rightfully hers. They were machine animals, the same ones that culled tens of thousands of her daughters and soldier drones that had followed her orders to defend the Hive. She felt the same thing now as she felt then: that her time in the world of the living would be at an end if she did not flee from them. If they were coming to the Hive ship, then they intended to take her hostage and make her suffer. She had no weapons with which to fire and cull them with; she did not have the power to arm them, and it would take too long for her drone missiles to fire and intercept them. Another option came to her as the animal vessel ensnared them with a large energy discharge that arrested the momentum of the powerless Hive ship and pulled it closer. Turning back to the panel, she began to input a series of commands that would set off the self-destruct charges and cause the massive fusion reactors to go critical. She would not allow herself to be captured by the animals she hated, and the explosion of the fusion cores would destroy the animal ship, a thought that gave her great pleasure. She entered the last of the command prompts, and her mind froze momentarily as the biological control interface failed to trigger the self-destruct. She tried again, entering the series of inputs necessary to trigger the self-destruct, only to be met with failure again. The ship rocked violently again, and she turned her thorax to look at the viewer, seeing that the deadly machine animals had made a large hull breach near the command chamber and were now swarming inside the opening they had made. A moment later, she heard animal weapons fire just like she once did on the dead animal world, and the feeling of her time in the world of the living coming to an end returned to her. Ordering all the drones to fight the invaders to the death, she pushed herself off the panel and drifted through the air to a small tunnel on the side, pulling herself along the organic walls as she retreated to her queen chamber. The animal weapons now sounded like they were right behind her, and she yanked down on the door actuator, the heavily armored door slamming shut and sealing her in. Floating to a control interface, she activated the small backup fusion reactor that supplied power to the queen chamber and began to input the commands to eject it from the Hive ship. It had a single charge within the small null space capacitor, something they copied from the animal ships they dissected many cycles ago after a battle. It would be just enough to return her to the Hive she controlled, and she would have all her loyal ships come back to her so they could flee and make a new empire far away. She pressed on the soft, fleshy protuberance to activate the ejection system, only to be met with a terrible grating sound. She pressed on it again, much harder this time, only to be met with silence. The queen chamber did not eject, nor did the null space capacitor activate. There was only one thing left for her to do, and she gently pushed herself off the panel and floated to the side of the chamber. Using two lower legs to grip onto the wall, she reached down and opened the small storage container under her. She gently picked up the ornately carved dagger within it, seeing the bioluminescent lighting as it played along the sharply honed alloy. The animals were now outside the queen chamber, and she ignored the sounds of them cutting through the heavily armored door as she placed her four lower legs under the storage container to brace herself. She held the dagger in her two outstretched upper legs, mentally preparing herself to drive the dagger into her own brainpan and deny the hated animals their prize when she realized a difference within the queen chamber. There was a new scent of unknown chemicals in the air currents, and her antennae quivered with excitement as they tasted the uniqueness with the tiny hairs covering them. She looked at the air recyclers and saw a smoky substance emanating from them, mesmerized by the strange color of it as the oily smoke pervaded the chamber and wrapped around her. She had already breathed the strange chemicals into her spiracles several times before a panicked thought entered her mind. What if it was a terrible poison that would make her suffer in terrible agony? She closed her spiracles, already knowing it was too late as her thoughts turned sluggish. She tried to fight against the sudden exhaustion consuming her, the dagger floating free from her now limp claws as the darkness took her away. *** "Captain, Staff Sergeant Graeme wishes to speak with you." Looking over at the comm station, James nodded for the channel to be opened. Two seconds later, the gravelly voice of the ATS contingent leader came over the intercom. "Captain, the target has been secured. The gas worked flawlessly, and all the drones on the ship are currently down for the count. We have three moderately damaged Bio-Synths, 473 confirmed Insectoid kills. The gas is supposed to keep them knocked out for at least six hours, but I would like to know what our intentions are with them, sir." He understood exactly what Graeme was asking him, and his mind raced furiously as the pressure of deciding the fate of the knocked out drones weighed heavily upon his soul. Republic rules of warfare were very explicit regarding the treatment of enemy combatants that were no longer an immediate threat. Closing his eyes, he responded to Graeme. "How many Insectoids are on that ship, Staff Sergeant?" There was a discernable pause before the Bio-Synth answered him. "Life sign detectors are estimating between thirty to thirty three thousand, sir." "Goddammit." Goldsmith muttered under his breath, causing him to look over in surprise. Returning his stare, Goldsmith looked at the captain with a neutral face, surprising him even more considering the unabashed hatred he held for the Insectoids after they killed three of his cousins in the Battle of the Eleani system, and his only brother in the Battle of the Jaleeni system. "Hold one, Staff Sergeant." He said before making a throat cutting gesture to the comm officer, indicating for the line to be muted on their end. Feeling utterly exhausted, he tapped on the small holo screen in front of the right arm, deactivating the forcefield harness still hugging his chest. The faintly glowing forcefield blinked out, taking with it the slight pressure he had grown accustomed to feeling since the battle started, and he slowly pushed himself out of his seat. Feeling gross as the sweat soaked back of his uniform rapidly cooled from the influx of fresh air it was now exposed to, he refrained from stretching out the kinks screaming for him to do so, knowing it would not be fair while the rest of the bridge crew was unable to. He looked at Goldsmith first and then did a slow circle as he looked at the rest of the bridge crew, feeling as if all the stoic faces that met his gaze were already secretly judging him for decision he had yet to make. He was about to ask for Warspite's recommendation just to buy himself a little more time but then decided against it, almost positively certain the AI would recommend sending over a nuke as the most tactically expedient option. He finally turned his eyes to the Ma'lit advisor, who was still mag locked to the deck three meters behind the captain's chair. He saw the multiple lenses moving and zooming in as they examined him, and his skin crawled under the scrutiny he was undergoing. Looking into one of the larger lenses, he asked the Ma'lit a question. "Honored elder, what would you do in this situation?" All the lenses shifted to look at his face, and Rilth'dir raised its right hand before answering him. "You are facing a dilemma that every good leader faces at one point whenever there is war, a quandary that has plagued the soul of every honorable being since before time itself existed: Do you do what is militarily advantageous but ethically wrong, or do you do what is morally right but tactically unsound? It gladdens my heart to see that you and your crew are such as this; it bodes well for your reascension as the rightful inheritors of the Great Ones. I cannot tell you what to do; but I can ask you two questions that will reveal what is the right thing for you to do. Do you believe in the Creator, son of the Magnati?" Feeling his face turning red at the extremely personal nature of the question. he studiously avoided looking away from the Ma'lit, not wanting to see the faces of any of his crew as he gave the slightest of nods. It was apparently enough of an affirmation for Rilth'dir, who then proceeded to ask him the second question. "What would the Creator want you to do, son of the Magnati?" As the question echoed inside of him, he felt the weight of the decision he must make lifting off of his soul. He had his answer, just as the Ma'lit promised he would. Putting his right hand over his heart, he spoke just barely above a whisper, knowing the Ma'lit would not have any trouble hearing him. "Thank you for helping me to see, Honored elder. I am grateful that you are here." Rilth'dir mirrored his gesture before putting the suited hand back down at its side. "Then you know what to do, my human child." "I do." He answered before turning his back on the Ma'lit and resuming his seat, involuntarily wincing as he felt the now cold, clammy wetness of his back pressing up against the chair. The forcefield harness reactivated, the slight pressure returning against his upper body as he made the signal for the channel to be unmuted. The comm officer signaled that it was back open a second later, and he spoke out in a strong, clear voice devoid of any doubt as what he was about to do. "Staff Sergeant, you are to ensure the life support systems will remain functional for the duration of time required until the effects of the gas wear off, and you will then exfil the ship with the target and return to the Warspite. As soon as you are all aboard, we will tow the Hive ship into a stable orbit and notify our new...friends of the situation. Confirm receipt of your new orders and come on home, we are opening the retrieval bay doors now." The gravelly voice responded immediately, and he could almost swear he heard relief within it as the veteran Bio-Synth confirmed receipt of the message before closing the line. He could feel the eyes of his XO drilling into the side of his head, and he forced himself to turn and face the one person who had every right to think he didn't make the right decision. Tommy's face was still coldly neutral, and he looked into his eyes, expecting to find anger and hatred smoldering inside of them. He did not find what he was looking for. What he saw instead was a combination of shame and relief, and he did not know how to respond as his XO nodded to him once, letting him know that he had done the right thing and supported his decision before turning away to face the holo screen. Following the XO's gaze, he could see the blue icons starting to populate the holo screen as they emerged from the Hive ship and began their journey back to the Warspite, a yellow icon nestled deep inside the defensive formation the ATS Bio-Synths had assumed. Looking around the bridge, he finally started returning the gazes of the bridge crew as they looked at their captain, every single one of them letting him know that they agreed with and supported his decision in their own unique ways. Rilth'dir's voice came into his head through the interface, speaking gently as he listened to what it had to say without showing any outward sign of what was happening. You should be proud of yourself, son of the Magnati. You have won a great victory in battle, and you have won an even greater victory for the morality of the soul within you. Righteous warriors such as you and your crew are what will win the war to come, not ships and weapons. Do not ever doubt yourself, for if you always do what is right, then you will never truly drink from the bitter cup of defeat. The Creator eagerly prepares a place at his feet for ones such as you; I am honored to serve with you and be your ally, my human child. Still staring at the holo screen, he felt the redness return as the warm blush crept up his neck and onto his face. The high praise he had just received from the Ma'lit elder embarrassed him greatly, being a very reserved and modest person who shied away from compliments. A small smile crept onto his lips, and he did have to admit to himself that it was nice to receive such recognition from an Honored elder. Perhaps the Ma'lit aren't as bad as he made them out to be in his mind; Rilth'dir most certainly wasn't. He felt his initial reservations about the alliance with the Ma'lit melting away as the blue icons reached the Warspite and began to reduce in number as they entered the retrieval bay. It was a good first battle for Warspite and the crew, and he fervently hoped it was a sign of good fortune in the war to come.