She nodded and Commander HegoC2670 gave one last look at the body. “I’ll issue an order for a small company to be formed to take her remains to the Gorge.”
Xe trembled while the red mass around him began to part.
A few moments later the body was taken away and the blaster practice for Gatherer Starters commenced again, simply resuming from the point where it had been interrupted. But Xe was unable to continue. Hit with dizziness and weakness, he had to excuse himself and dragged back into the Hive.
Sitting on the floor in a tiny peaceful corner lost amidst the countless corridors, he couldn’t stop thinking about the accident. Was it preventable? If only Starters had been monitored more carefully. If only he had been there at that precise moment… his thoughts tortured him. Struck with guilt, he was twisting his fingers in dismay.
The brooding young Scout sat there in solitude until that evening when Pa 2 ran into him.
“Hail, Trooper Xe!” he cried half-kidding and half-serious, emphasizing the word ‘Trooper’. The whole unit 33 was doing that, finding it remarkably amusing. “How is your leg?”
Xe forced himself to smile. “Hail, Starter. My leg is fine as that wound wasn’t more than a graze and it’s already healed.”
“There aren’t many Eeols who can say them faced a Dragonfly and lived to talk about it.”
“I was only lucky. How are you feeling?”
“Excellent and ready to go.” Indeed, the youngster has recovered. The broken battery reduced the capacity of his energy storage, but only slightly as he had eleven batteries left. “That is, if we had some pastures to go to. Speaking of which, I’m just rushing to dinner. Come with me.”
Xe really had no appetite, but he indulged a friend.
After taking the Main Tunnels to the underground, two Scouts arrived at the sizeable rectangular room where a wall in the back was a large honeycomb sheet. It was actually just a tiny segment of the entire piece as Eeols built honeycombs in a shape of immense plates opening into many separate chambers. Entire rows of cells at the bottom gapped dauntingly empty, revealing that stock was shrinking daily. Still, the multitude of Starters creeping upon the upper honey-filled cells didn’t muse over it, but babbled and laughed merrily while feeding.
Xe ate very little, and that made Pa 2 shake his head. “You seem awfully quiet tonight. Is something troubling you?”
The Scout sighed and reluctantly told his friend what happened during target practice. “I turned my back for only a moment, and now one young Eeoless is dead. I can’t stop thinking it was in my power to prevent it.”
“It doesn’t sound so,” said Pa 2 thoughtfully. “There was no way you could know… but if it bothers you a lot, perhaps you should go talk with Commander Ce. I’m sure he’ll give you some advice that will help you.”
Xe reflected on it briefly and concluded it was not a bad idea.
He had to wait until dinner was over to talk with his Scoutmaster. The dining chambers in the Hive were strictly separated by ranks; Troopers ate with Troopers, Commanders with Commanders, and the same went for Internals, Starters and Queen’s Servants. Xe was breaching Swarm regulations by hanging in Starters’ dining place, but Superiors were willing to excuse that as they knew he lingered there temporarily until his friends earned their promotion to Troopers.
“Come with me” said Commander Ce when the young Scout had hailed him in the corridor. “We’ll talk on the Promenade.”
The Mature Eeols wishing to get some fresh air before going to sleep were permitted to fly out on the top of the Hive dome called the Promenade. It was basically a wide and spacious platform offering a spectacular view of the plains. Following a whole day of insolation, the Promenade was pleasantly warm, and hundreds of Eeols milled around its waxy foundation.
“I see,” said Commander Ce after hearing Xe’s story. “It’s not the first time this has happened during blaster practice. It wasn’t your fault so don’t torment yourself. It happens.”
But the Scoutmaster’s words distressed Xe instead of consoling him. “Why everybody says that? Whenever we suffer something terrible, you Superiors just state ‘it happens’!”
“Because it does,” replied Commander Ce with resignation.
“I can’t accept that. I care about every single Eeol!”
“No need to get excited, Trooper Xe. Sure that you care, and you are supposed to. We all do and take every precaution to prevent tragedies, but that’s not always possible. Often it’s not possible.” He pulled up his visor as daylight was fading away. The dusk was nearing and the last rays of the setting sun were tingeing the scenery with reddish tones. “There are things in life you can’t change, young Scout, and therefore you simply have to embrace them.”
Xe didn’t answer. He remained silent for a while, pondering.
Then some strange orange-red glint in the distance drew his attention. At first glance he considered it to be nothing more than the dying light of sun. But something was amiss as it was in the southern sky and not the western where the golden orb has already set beyond a dark horizon.
“Look, Sir.” He pointed to the southern skyline. “What is that?”
His Superior turned and his eyebrows rose. “Trouble,” he said shortly.
That trouble was a wildfire.
Rampant flames came into view, spreading through the plains in a rage, and the faint scent of smoke fell upon the Promenade, creating an outburst of commotion as Flyers enjoining the evening tranquility rushed back inside.
The danger wasn’t so great though. The scant vegetation didn’t allow development of true firestorms in the plains, and Eeol wax needed high temperatures to melt down. The transient fires usually couldn’t cause much damage to the Hives; compact external walls offered good protection and efficiently isolated interiors from the heat while the underground levels were practically out of reach. However, the thick toxic smoke was able to do a lot of harm. Eeols fought it by obstructing the Gate with wax rubble, but such tactics were not always successful.
Anxious masses of Eeols gathered in the Central Chamber, stirring recklessly and shouting, and the whole room was in turmoil.
“Order, Eeols of the Swarm!” cried Supreme BeraX7719, standing close to the edge of waxy prominence to stifle the boiling mass. “Order, I say!”
His authority calmed the crowd down and it went silent, listening closely.
“It seems we are upwind and therefore not in imminent danger. I’m dispatching one swarm immediately to go explore the situation, and when it returns the Supreme Command will decide what to do next. In the meantime, close the Gate and keep alert. Also, get all Starters to the underground levels.”
The emergency swarm was hurriedly assembled, made of fastest and most experienced Flyers. It was led by First Class Commander LegaP9308; normally a Swarm Leader for the gathering swarm number one, he was one of the finest and most esteemed Commanders the Swarm currently had.
By now the fire line stretched out further and the entire south horizon was in a blaze. Ravaging flames brightened the night, providing more than sufficient lighting for the emergency swarm to see their way, but due to the suffocating smoke enwrapping the plains and the never-ceasing threat of predators that was still an extremely dangerous mission.
Thanks to his Trooper statusm Xe was among the rare youngsters who were allowed to remain in the Central Chamber. Commander Ce wasn’t around, as all Commanders have been summoned to the Supreme Command quarters, and Xe chose to keep close to the other Scouts.
Luckily, the emergency swarm soon returned.
“We haven’t encountered any problems,” reported LegaP9308. “The fire is actually further away than it looks from here, and more importantly, the fire front isn’t moving in our direction. It’s my assessment that it is not going to threaten the Hive.”
“Excellent,” acknowledged Supreme BeraX7719. “In that case, no further actions are to be undertaken. We are to remain wary, though.”
Nobody slept that nigh
t. All of the Matures continued to keep vigil in the Central Chamber, and although not under orders to do so, Starters and Internals did the same in the underground.
Their fears proved to be unwarranted with the ravenous flame not changing its course and staying away. Just before dawn, the lighting flashed above the great plains; the sky opened and the rain came in torrents. It was lashing and lashing, refusing to stop for a long time.
After sleeping through much of the following day, the young Scouts of unit 33 spent the rest of it loitering under the Gate and listening to the murmur of the downpour from the outside. The sound of pouring rain has never seemed so sweet to their ears before.
The frequent showers continued over the next several days and metal vegetation rapidly snapped out of its drought-induced dormancy coating the flatlands back in brassy and green in a record period. Unfolding almost overnight, the fresh foliage bourgeoned from the straightening stalks and new sprouts were mushrooming wherever one could see. By the time scouting company three emerged on the scene again, the first flower buds were already bulging out all over the plains clearly marking the end of the long miserable period.
“This is only a preliminary scouting,” announced Mission Commander DeraB1044 to his Scouts. “We won’t be summoning any gathering swarms today as our task is merely to scan the large sections of land, determine the general condition of vegetation, and make evaluations of potential flower fields we can get along the way.”
Spirits were high and no-one could wait to commence with their usual duties. Diligence and assiduousness ran in the Eeols’ blood, and inactiveness simply wasn’t their thing. Scouts combed the vast tracks of land, flying all the way to Ridge and to the border of their territory without feeling any fatigue after what was to be a very successful journey. The metallic plants were literary reborn, promising to turn into rich and plentiful pastures in a matter of days.
Later that day, the scouting company took a rest at a lovely meadow overlooking the Ridge. Terrain here was flat and open, yet Scouts were cautious as ever, choosing one small clearing for better safety and setting up standard watches and patrols.
“We won’t be staying long,” Commander Ce informed his unit as he went with several other Scoutmasters to discuss their findings with the Mission Commander. “Be wary and don’t go far.”
But Xe disregarded his Superior’s orders.
Seeing the fresh vegetation again was too tempting, and young Scout couldn’t resist entering the meadow edges while making his patrol rounds. He ambled between sporadically growing stalks, admiring the renewed herbage colors and shooting branches swelled with sap, and in doing so the inexperienced Flyer parted from his patrol. Step by step, he was going deeper into the meadow all by himself, completely unaware of his dangerous actions.
Suddenly, Xe’s eyes caught movement in a large clump of brassy stalks. Something or somebody was coming toward him, and he belatedly realized how far he’d gone from the rest of his company. The terror made him stiffen, but just for a moment as he was filled with relief discerning that objects ahead were red figures of Eeols buzzing his way in a low speed.
There weren’t many of them so he assumed the party had to be a scouting company. Xe didn’t have a clue why a second company would come after them, but he didn’t bother with such questions. The young Scout light-headedly darted toward the party, ignoring a gut feeling that something wasn’t right.
He would regret it.
Facing the front of the party made Xe halt instantly, hovering in the air and totally baffled, and instead of the hailing his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth. The shade of red was wrong. Eeols before him were displaying an intensive red color with a slight touch of crimson, and besides the usual yellow markings their armors bore tiny specks of pure white.
These were not the Scouts from Xe’s Hive.
In the world of Eeols, it was a rule for members of different Swarms to avoid each other. There was no communication whatsoever taking place between the Hives and it was that way since anybody could remember. Yet while Eeols typically couldn’t be labeled as an aggressive species, bloody conflicts did occur sometimes, especially over good pastures, and with the current situation having to be classified as exceptional Xe was unable to predict the strangers’ intentions. Since food in their Hive had run critically low, they might grow desperate and violent; ready to open fire on unfamiliar Scouts…
But the armor-scarred Flyer which appeared to be a Mission Commander turned sideways toward his company. He made a gesture with his hand and the strangers took a turn to the right, slowly returning to their territory with a droning buzz.
Without hesitation, Xe left the scene and flew to his own company.
He found his Eeols in a small clearing gathering around Scoutmasters and preparing to depart. The young Trooper hurried to inform the Mission Commander of his puzzling encounter, getting only a cold response.
“It’s irrelevant.” DeraB1044 shrugged without any interest. “Nothing that should concern us.”
Xe was shaking his head in disbelief, but the Superiors had spoken and he had to accept their judgment as always.
The young Scout decided to make a few inquiries of his own over the next couple of days, just out of curiosity. It was anything but easy as Eeols didn’t like to talk about this subject; it wasn’t exactly forbidden, but it was considered to be of no importance and thus a waste of time.
There weren’t much to find out anyway. It turned out that nobody in Xe’s Swarm has ever communicated with strangers nor seen another Eeol Hive. But an old Gatherer Trooper Xe talked to in a desolate corner of some narrow corridor spoke of ruins of a dead Hive.
A long time ago, his swarm had been forced to take shelter in a secluded rocky area a bit out of their territory and discovered the empty wax hull lost among the sharp crags. The old Eeol claimed it had been a newly established community that chose a wrong place to build their home, erecting their Hive in a deep ravine where the snowdrifts piled so heavy during the winter that the Swarm had perished under it.
Xe got the creeps just listening to the tale.
9.
Born to be Kings
Supreme BeraX7719 started the Morning Rally by declaring the end of the crisis time.
“Eeols of the Swarm, we are back to normal,” he said with pleasure. “By the strength of unity, we weathered through this horrible drought. There would always be good days and bad days, but crisis comes and goes and our community persists.” He shifted his position. “The Queen sends her regards to everybody. She is very satisfied with the way you acted during the drought and proved yourselves to be worthy members of the Swarm. Just keep going like that!”
Easy for her to say, thought Xe, resting in her snug Chamber day after day while we do all the work. Especially these days when Flyers were pressured to speed up the food gathering to maximum levels in order to counter the negative effects of a drought on supplies. Right after one exhausting mission, the scouting companies had to go immediately on the next one, and Xe felt weary like never before. With great envy he would monitor the vague figures of Heps often visible on distant skylines, bolting around gleefully, having no duties whatsoever and enjoying their days to the fullest.
Making a brief pompous pause, BeraX7719 passed on the following issue of the Rally.
“Our Swarm is going to see an important change. It’s my honor to announce that the Supreme Command is about to get a new member.”
He went talking in the great length about First Class Commander MedaP7810 getting appointed a Supreme. It meant the Command had five members at the present, which was pretty much its maximum number.
The cited Eeol was then called to the promontory to address the auditory with several official lines suitable to the occasion. As expected, he declared his absolute loyalty to the Queen and pledged to serve the Swarm to the best of his abilities.
“My duty is my life,” he said at the end.
When the new Supreme retreated back to the rear of t
he promontory, BeraX7719 felt the urge to drop another of his long speeches on order and togetherness and alike.
He was going on and on, and unit 33 thought their Supreme would never stop talking. BeraX7719 did that quite frequently, but today the young Scouts didn’t have the patience for his endless monologues and couldn’t help as something much more interesting was to come next.
“And now, the latest list of promotions,” the Supreme said finally.
It was it, the moment the Starters were waiting for.
In a bored voice, BeraX7719 commenced to read the names with their attributed positions from waxy plates Pages were handling him one by one. Among the many receiving their advancements was Xe’s gang with the entire unit 33 getting upgraded to Trooper status; officially they were all Matures now.
The cheers rumbled through the Central Chamber. But nobody was happier than Xe, freed of his awkward position of being the single Trooper among his friends. Although he didn’t receive a promotion himself, the young Scout was absolutely overjoyed; to him even the surrounding wax seemed to glow lovelier than usual.
“Congratulations,” praised Commander Ce after the Rally had finished and the unit gathered in its favorite spot in the Central Chamber prior to their company departure. “It’s always a prize and a pleasure for a Commander to see his subordinates making progress.”
The new Troopers stood in a perfect array, raising their heads with pride. Their recent success made them confident; seeking skills of their unit were constantly improving, and just yesterday they had slain more foes. In the heat of the early afternoon, a pair of aggressive Green Grabbing Flies attempted to attack the unit, but found youngsters wary and alert and their blasters took them both down almost effortlessly.
But this mass promotion meant more changes. Superiors shifted the assignments for unit 33, and they were now serving in the scouting company one every other day and the rest of their time in company three. Unit 33 was undoubtedly flattered by this, considering it a fine reward for their hard work, but it did involve one new problem. They had having to serve alongside Wa 17.
The Call of the Swarm Page 8