Angels and Ministers of Grace

by Michelle O'Leary

Anya struggled helplessly, keening in terror as she was whisked away by the insectoids. Jostled by their hard, black bodies, she could see flashes of corridor and could feel gravity pull her in different ways as her captors used walls and ceiling as well as floor to scuttle through the station, making her dizzy and sick to her stomach. For all the strength of their grip on her, she felt no real pain, but this didn't alleviate her fear. Who knew what they would do with her once they got to where they were going?

  After a short time, the light dimmed, and she could see the walls of the Hive past their shifting forms. Moaning in despair, she struggled harder, but to no avail. The acrid scent of the Hive filled her nostrils, and she gasped and coughed, feeling tears spring to her eyes. It was no surprise to her when she was finally released at the feet of the Queen.

  "What do you want from me!" she screeched at the massive, looming form as she huddled in an abject heap, tears spilling down her cheeks. She had nightmares in her mind of what would happen to her, what the Queen had in mind for her. But she did not expect a question.

  "Why are you here?" the Queen asked, the mechanical voice of her translator sounding curious.

  "Wh-what? What do you mean, why am I here? You had them bring me!"

  "I did not. This is strange." The mammoth head weaved back and forth over Anya in a way that made her want to gibber and shriek with madness. The Queen's large feelers stretched out over Anya's form and touched on her three captors, drifting across their now docile bodies. Then the Queen reared back, her pincers clacking together resoundingly. "This has never occurred before. They brought you without direction from me."

  "W-why?" Anya asked, her voice a forlorn wisp in the vast chamber.

  "I named you queen. They believe you to be one of our own. Queens must be protected."

  Anya gawked at her for a full minute before she could respond. "Wait," she rasped. "You mean they brought me here because they wanted to…protect me?"

  "It is so. There was a threat. All Queens must be protected."

  Anya stared up at her numbly. "I'm not a queen," she said in a hoarse voice.

  "I named you. They know what must be done."

  Anya wiped the tears from her face with shaking fingers, hysterical laughter bubbling up in her throat. She swallowed it savagely. "Well, that's a hell of a misunderstanding," she muttered, but the Queen remained a silent, impassive shadow over her. Dropping her face into her hands, she took several deep breaths and tried to remember what sanity felt like. After a few moments, she cleared her throat and whispered, "I saw—I saw a swarm come from the moon. What happened?"

  "There was a threat from one of the human artifacts. This cannot be tolerated."

  "So…what happened? I was taken before I could see. What did you do?"

  "My soldiers have gone to eliminate the threat."

  "D-did they?" Anya squeaked, appalled by that matter-of-fact statement.

  "They have not returned. The event requires time."

  "Event? God," Anya muttered, climbing shakily to her feet and turning towards the exit. "I have to go…"

  But her three captors became animated, blocking her path and making clicking noises. She tried to shift around them, but they moved with her, preventing her escape. With a hiss of aggravation, Anya glanced back over her shoulder at the Queen.

  "Could you tell The Three Stooges to step off, please? I need to get back to Control."

  "I cannot. They will not respond. The need to protect the Queen is above all commands and there was a threat."

  Anya stared up at her. "Tell them I'm not a damned queen!"

  "It is too late. You have been named."

  "Oh for…" she snarled under her breath and turned away from the exit, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the mammoth figure above her. "Do you mean to tell me that you can't control your own people?"

  "The need to protect the Queen—"

  "Yeah, yeah!" Anya snapped, waving one hand in an abrupt gesture. "Okay, fine. You've got some way to communicate with Control, right? Could you let me talk to the captain and tell her I'm okay?"

  "No."

  "Why the hell not?" Anya asked in an aggrieved tone.

  "Until the threat is eliminated, there will be no contact. The Hive must be protected."

  "I don't understand. Isn't the captain your ally? How can not talking to your ally protect you?"

  "There was a threat."

  "But not from the captain! So why not talk to her? Why not find out what's going on from her?" Anya realized her voice had increased in volume. She was almost shouting at the Queen, but she couldn't help it. This whole situation was ridiculous, with all the frustrating unreality of a nightmare.

  "I am Queen. I am the Hive. The Hive must be protected."

  "You're driving me insane!" Anya snarled and sat down abruptly, clutching her head between her hands in helpless frustration. She was aware of movement, but she didn't look up until her skin tickled from the brush of several feelers. She raised her head to see The Three Stooges surrounding her, each dusting her with their feelers in what she would swear was anxiety. Waving an impatient hand, she grumbled, "Get off, you guys."

  "Are you damaged?" the Queen asked.

  "No, I'm not damaged," Anya gritted through clenched teeth, making shooing motions with her hands when the three Shrieks didn't back away. They reared their heads, but when she lowered her hands they continued their inspection. "Get off, I said!" she shouted and stood again, stomping a foot.

  The three scuttled back, settling into immobility once again between her and the exit. Anya suddenly realized that somewhere along the line she'd lost her fear of them. Being treated like a queen will do that to you, she thought acidly. Their mother was a different story, but her terror of the enormous creature had subsided to a respectful wariness.

  Bracing her hands on her hips, she cocked her head to one side and considered the three. "So you won't let me leave, which means I'm stuck here until your brothers get back. What do we do until then?"

  "We wait," the Queen intoned.

  Anya shot her a disgusted look. "No kidding. Got a deck of cards?"

  "No."

  Anya rolled her eyes. "That was sarcasm. I don't suppose you could tell Larry, Curly, and Moe to go check out what's happening."

  "No."

  "Of course not," she sighed, and settled into a seated position again.

  Wrapping her arms around her knees, she looked around with idle interest. There wasn't much to see. The chamber's walls were gray, and the ceiling dimmed into darkness above her. There were many entrances to the chamber, but the largest was directly behind the Queen. Anya wondered if she ever left this room or if she was even capable of moving her large form. "Nice place you've got here," she muttered. "A little stark maybe. You know, a holoscreen might brighten the place up a little."

  "The Hive does not require artifacts. It is how it should be."

  "Right," Anya sighed, rubbing the back of her neck wearily. "How long do you suppose it'll be before—" she started, but a sudden influx of Shrieks interrupted her.

  They gathered around their Queen, and she ran her feelers over them, hissing in an alarming way.

  "There is a male of your species trying to gain entrance to the Hive."

  "Jason!" Anya exclaimed, but then shook her head. He couldn't—he was on the destroyer at the forefront of the station's protection. The captain had probably sent someone after her. "Well, let him in!"

  "The Hive must be protected. I cannot allow—"

  Anya gave an aggravated cry and surged to her feet again. "Listen to me! Think about this logically for a second. He's human, right? As long as he's not carrying any weapons, how could he possibly harm any one of you? We're soft; we're squishy and breakable. You'd peel him like an onion if he tried anything, which he wouldn't, because he's on your side. So let him in, you great big stubborn monstrosity!"

  Anya had a fleeting regret for shouting insults at the Queen, but her anger and frustration needed an o
utlet. There was a ringing silence after the echoes of her yelling dispersed. The Queen and her minions were perfectly still for a long moment, like a too graphic tableau in a child's scary storybook.

  Then the Queen folded her front legs against her thoracic plating and said, "Very well."

  Anya let out the breath she'd been holding in a gust and folded her arms tightly. Several of the Shrieks scurried away, but she noticed that her three protectors remained, inconveniently between her and the exit. "Don't you boys have anything better to do?" she muttered under her breath. She wasn't surprised when they didn't answer.

  A few long minutes after, there was movement in one of the entrances. Several black bodies scuttled into view. In their midst was a familiar form.

  "Frank!"

  "Anya! Are you o—oh my god," he finished in a low, strangled voice as he caught sight of the Queen. That great show off didn't help matters by throwing back her head and clacking her pincers together. Anya saw Frank's face turn a ghastly white, and he started to struggle against the forward motion of the insectoids around him.

  "It's okay, Frank! She won't hurt you."

  "P-promise?" he wheezed, blue eyes round and fixed as he stared at the huge form weaving above them.

  "Yeah. She's just trying to intimidate you. Queen's prerogative, I suppose."

  "Well, it's working," he mumbled, keeping his eyes trained on the black figure even as he arrived at Anya's side.

  "I'm sure she's pleased to hear it," Anya said dryly. "What's happening out there?"

  "I didn't get to see much—ahhh," he broke off with a soft cry, as the Queen lowered her massive head and touched him with her feelers. He was shaking visibly.

  With an impatient growl, Anya reached up and pushed at her enormous head, a little repulsed at the gritty feel of her black armor. "Would you cut it out? You're terrifying him!"

  "It is just. He is fragile."

  "How diplomatic of you," she muttered, glaring as the Queen sat back again.

  "How'd you do that?" Frank whispered, his eyes wide with amazement.

  "We've got an understanding. They think I'm a queen. That's why they stole me and brought me here. They were trying to protect me. Also, they don't seem to want to let me go, for the same reasons."

  Frank just stared at her, his mouth open.

  "Yeah, that was my take on it, too. What's going on out there, Frank? Is Jason okay?"

  He shifted, darting the Queen a leery glance before gazing down at Anya again. "You don't have to worry about him. He sent me here to get you back."

  "Apparently that's not on the agenda for today," Anya said in her driest voice, glancing at her three captors who had sidled nearer while they spoke. "The swarm? What did they do?"

  "I didn't get to see much. I'd headed back to the station before they got far, but I could see they were going for that ship that fired." He shook his head. "Stupid, that was. I thought Fleet had 'em better disciplined than to shoot wild. Once I docked, I came straight here." He shrugged. "You know the rest."

  Anya shot the Queen a furtive glance before saying as casually as she could, "I don't suppose you've got a communicator on you."

  "Yeah, but now's probably not a good time to get hold of anybody. I wouldn't want to distract 'em. Now that I know you're safe, I can just go—"

  There was a rustle from her three protectors, and they closed around the two of them in an unbreakable ring. Anya sighed. "Welcome to the party, Frank. I don't suppose you've got a deck of cards?"

  "Not on me," he mumbled, looking around at the Shrieks with nervous flicks of his eyes.

  "Figures," Anya drawled and folded down into a sitting position again. Patting the hard surface next to her, she smiled wryly up at him. "Have a seat, Frank. I've got a funny feeling we're going to be here a while."

  He didn't sit, still eyeing her protectors. "You sure these critters don't mean us any harm?"

  "Positive. Bugger off, boys. You're freaking out my friend." She waved her arms in a shooing gesture. "Go back to skulking, why don't you?"

  They went, and Frank watched them go with a blank look of astonishment. "How'd you do that?" he asked again, and Anya sighed.

  "They're fast learners. Next I plan on teaching them how to fetch." His expression was comical, and Anya couldn't help a weary chuckle. Reaching up, she grabbed his sleeve and tugged on him until he sat next to her. "Relax, Frank. They're our allies, remember?"

  He made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, and Anya couldn't really blame him. After seeing that swarm, she was inclined to wonder how solid that alliance really was. So she questioned him on what he knew about the gathering of alien ships outside. His answers really didn't surprise her. It turned out that the Thlassnians had been a large part of the captain's diplomatic relations with other sentient races. It was they who'd convinced this Queen on the captain's behalf to swarm to the station. As much respect as Anya had for the captain, she had to wonder how much she'd been manipulated by the Thlassnians into her actions, considering what Rie had told her about their quest for Harmony.

  After a while, Frank fell silent, and Anya didn't bother to ask him anything else, leaning with weary gratitude against his shoulder. Her broken night's sleep and the strain of recent events were taking their toll. He wrapped a companionable arm around her, and they sat in silence for a bit.

  Just when Anya was starting to nod off, there was a commotion at one of the entrances and she looked up, gasping when she saw what entered. They were huge, these soldiers of the Queen. They were three times the size of her regular offspring, though they didn't come anywhere near the size of their Queen Mother. But their pincers were almost the size of hers, and their armor seemed to gleam with strange reflections. Anya frowned at them, her eyes confused by the waver that seemed to float around them like heat haze. Then she glanced down at her arms, startled to find that her hair was lifting off of her skin as though an electric charge was running through her. Glancing over at Frank, she nearly laughed to see what remained of his red hair sticking straight out from his head.

  "Well, that's interesting," she murmured, watching the Queen consult with her minions. When the Queen raised her head again, Anya asked, "So how'd it go?"

  "Satisfactory."

  Anya grimaced, suppressing a shiver. What the Queen meant of course was that the threat had been eliminated, the ship destroyed. Anya fervently hoped that didn't mean the crew had been destroyed as well.

  "Great," she muttered with a decided lack of enthusiasm. "Can we go now?"

  "No."

  "Why the hell not?" she snapped and had a moment of déjà vu.

  "When the enemies have gone, you may leave the Hive."

  "Aw crap," she groaned and dropped her head onto her knees.

  "She won't let us go 'til the Admiral's ships are gone?" Frank asked her in a soft voice.

  Anya nodded and called the Queen something unflattering under her breath. With a sigh, she raised her head to stare up at the massive figure grimly. "Tell me you can contact the captain now."

  "She is occupied," the Queen answered with total disregard for Anya's temper. "But I can connect to Control."

  Suddenly voices filled the chamber, echoing off of the walls. Anya tensed, recognizing the captain's and the admiral's voices. She exchanged a glace with Frank and then listened raptly as Marta made her speech and the admiral acquiesced. Anya pressed her lips together when the telepath spoke, ambiguous feelings gathering in a volatile combination in her chest. She sympathized with the telepaths' plight, but her experiences with them had been less than civil. The negotiations for the return of the destroyer's bridge crew and the Guild Member were quick. When they were finished, Anya nodded to Frank.

  "Captain, Cooper here," he announced.

  "Lieutenant, report," came her crisp response.

  "Ma'am, I'm in the Hive with Anya. We're both okay. Seems the Shrieks were just trying to keep her safe when they took her."

  There was a ragged cheer in the backg
round that made Anya blush and grin foolishly, both flattered and amazed. Frank winked at her, his blue eyes twinkling.

  "The commander is already on his way," the captain responded. "I suspect that it would be better if you were both outside of the Hive when he arrives, Lieutenant." Her tone held a gentle irony that made Frank snort. Anya took a deep, uneven breath to hear that Jason was apparently okay.

  "Yes, ma'am, we'll try. But the Shrieks haven't wanted to let us leave yet."

  "Has the Queen said why?"

  "She's waiting until the danger has passed, until the squadron is out of the system."

  "She won't have long to wait."

  "Good news. I'll make a full report when we're out, Captain."

  "Very good, Lieutenant."

  Frank met Anya's gaze and shrugged. "I figure you'll prob'ly have to do the honors. The Queen seems to listen to you."

  With a little grimace, she craned her neck up to find the mammoth head above them. "Much as I love your stimulating company, my Queen, I would really like to go now."

  "No."

  "Dammit, what's the matter now?"

  "The human artifacts are still close enough to be a threat."

  Anya rubbed her face wearily. "Let's think this through, shall we? They're headed away from the station. There's enough firepower ranged at their rear ends to keep them heading that way. Just by yourself you've destroyed one of their ships. Do you honestly think they'll turn around at this point?"

  There was a small hesitation. "No."

  "Then let us go."

  The Queen hesitated longer. "Very well."

  "Thank you," Anya breathed in heartfelt gratitude, scrambling to her feet with Frank right beside her.

  "I knew you could do it," he muttered, but strangled on a curse when they turned towards the exit only to see that it was still blocked by The Three Stooges.

  "Boys, if you don't move, I'm gonna kick you in every leg joint until you fall down!" Anya snarled and stomped directly at them, resolving not to stop until she ran into one. They skittered out of the way, and Anya shot Frank a look of exhilarated relief before heading towards the exit tunnel. They didn't get very far before she remembered that she had no clue as to how to get out of the Hive. "Um…Frank, do you have any idea where the front door is?"