ALL NOVEL They Answered The Call-Part Six/Queen Daughter
Uninhabited system, 3.5 parsecs from the Queen World
Earth Year 2173 A.D.
The queen watched the asteroid speed up slowly as dozens of small harvesters activated their thrusters and continued mining for fuel. The asteroid gained more acceleration as the harvesters continued to extract elements as their feeder arms added more ore for processing. Fed by a constant source of energy, the thrusters continued propelling the large mass of rock and metal towards its target, a lifeless planet.
A few hours later, the queen felt conflicting emotions and thoughts fighting a war inside her as the asteroid disappeared in the distance and continued its trajectory, now hurtling through space at over 300,000 kilometers an hour. I have always differed from the others, she thought to herself as she replayed her entire existence from when she first emerged from her cocoon up to where she is now.
She did not have the same thoughts as her sister and the Hive mother, and she was always ashamed of her weakness, hiding it from them. Perpetually afraid of being detected, she compartmentalized that part of her strangeness and buried it deep inside of her, trying to make it go away.
As she retreated into herself, she remembered the revulsion and shame she felt when she shared in her sister’s thoughts while she swarmed through the animal worlds and killed billions of innocent animals. Visions passed through her as she watched entire worlds glassed with nuclear bombardments and bodies of water flash boiled by thousands of particle beams as they stabbed at the planets from orbit.
She imagined the terror and pain the animals felt as they died, and her essence recoiled at the wanton death and destruction that it was being exposed to. You are just as guilty. She accused herself, as she was the only one out of all her sisters who developed the harvesters, following the Hive mother’s command to turn asteroids into weapons.
The internal conflict threatened to overwhelm her, and she left the command dais and retreated to her queen chambers. She tried to assert control over herself as she reeled from the guilt flooding her. The visions of death and agony now became a tidal wave that swept her away, and she stopped resisting, letting herself drown in it.
Time passed, and the queen drifted alone in a terrifying darkness that was devoid of meaning and life. As she felt the fear mount inside her, she suddenly saw herself through billions of fractals as she drifted on the surface of a black ocean and felt the eyes of others watching her.
As the realization that she was not alone came to her, she saw figures come out of the shadows as she drifted closer. A diffused lighting appeared within the black depths, turning into bright points of light as they emerged from the water and swirled above her before flying a short distance away and forming a line that stretched beyond her ability to see.
The lights turned to shapes, and she saw a long line of Hive mothers stretching away from her, all the way to the very beginnings of their race. Are these my genetic ancestors? She thought to herself, flinching when they all looked at her at the same time and assaulted her with their thoughts and feelings.
The torrent almost overwhelmed her, and then the black ocean solidified, turning into an endless plain of obsidian glass. She asserted control over herself, barely managing to maintain her identity as her ancestors continued to bombard her with their minds.
Suddenly, she was alone with her thoughts, and she heard an irresistible command within the recesses of her mind, as if thousands of them spoke as one.
She started walking down the line of her ancestors, looking at them one by one as she carefully kept her distance from them. As she stood in front of each one, she felt their thoughts awaken and reach out to her. She readied herself for the accusations of betrayal to come and curled into a protective ball, waiting.
None came. She uncurled slightly and peeked out, suspecting a trap. When nothing happened, she fully uncurled and stood up, screaming at her ancestors with her thoughts.
They looked at her sadly, and she felt their thoughts enter her mind carrying not judgement but pity and understanding. She wept as she felt them console her and remind her she was not alone, for she carried them within her.
They left her mind, leaving her alone with her thoughts before she saw one of her ancestors step away from the others and fly over to her. She was an ancient Hive mother, and she was majestic, a specimen of a time long ago when her ancestors were larger and still lived only on their birth world.
She then clasped her tarsal claws with the queen, and they flew off together, leaving the black void behind them. The queen found herself back in her chambers as she emerged from her vision, and she felt the new presence of all her genetic ancestors within her as they imbued her with feelings of support and love before receding.
She realized her command drone was outside her chambers and releasing pheromones, signaling the queen to come to the command chamber. The queen left her chambers and followed the command drone, resuming her place on the command dais as she tried to control the shaking of her tarsal claws.
The Hive ship had flashed to a stationary position 800,000 kilometers from the lifeless planet, and the queen saw the incoming asteroid on the projector screen as it hurtled towards the planet and passed the front of the Hive ship, too fast to see with her eyes. A few seconds later, it smashed into the planet and released an unimaginable amount of energy as it impacted.
There was a blinding light, and the shockwave traveled across the planet, igniting the atmosphere. Gigatons of soil ejected into space, and the crust heaved up and fractured for thousands of miles from the impact zone. The planet continued its fiery rotation as it suffered from the mortal blow, and the Queen imagined what it would be like to be on the planet as the devastation unfolded.
She felt the Hive mother within make her presence known and shared her thoughts. The Hive mother felt horror at the devastation she was witnessing and pleaded with the queen to never allow this to happen. The queen responded.
The Hive mother within shared her memories. She was now the ancient ancestor when she was still a young queen in a time long past gone. She entered a brooding chamber and was standing before a very old Hive mother that had collapsed and fallen into a coma.
She was overcome with anguish and grief, for she loved the Hive mother who was there when she emerged from her pupae. In her hands was an ornate dagger, and she kneeled down before gently lifting the frail head of her Hive mother and plunging the dagger in between her large, black eyes.
The queen recoiled in shock from the memories she was experiencing, finding herself back inside her own body in the command chamber. The Hive mother within pressed further into her mind.
The Hive mother within withdrew from her mind, leaving the queen alone with her own thoughts. As she looked back to the dying planet, she felt a new concept emerge in her mind as she battled between her instinct to obey the Hive mother and her desire to save her species from extinction.
She envisioned herself entering the brooding chamber and taking over the Hives. If she was Hive mother, she could try to stop the swarming and the senseless deaths. She would have to commit the most terrible sin, the only sin known to the Insectoids.
Matricide.