by T. W. Embry
“Silence,” the Queen’s emotion scents flooded the entire chamber with the intensity of her rage. “You dare interrupt my meditation with nonsense? There can be no life other than what we know to be on this planet.” The Queen’s rage scent caused the aide to cower in submission. She could smell the aide’s fear and yet a hope that she might not dispatch him if she would but listen. “Approach me so I may touch you and know your mind,” said the Queen.
The Queen could feel his awe as the aide approached. To touch the Queen was a great honor and a death sentence at the same time. For no male may possess the knowledge of the female, much less the Queen. It was the way of the Ones. Slowly the aide approached trembling with conflicting emotions. My brothers will tell stories of my honor long after the Queen feasts on me thought the aide.
The Queen stretched her sensing antennae outward and waited until the aide made contact. Instantly she knew all he knew about this strange being from the sky. So the legends and their memories were true. Still I must know more, thought the Queen. The memories demanded that we, the Ones, feast on this being’s life force at once to gain a complete knowing of it. Yet I think we may learn more by studying it.
It would seem that this is what this being is doing to us, thought the Queen. He has caused no harm to any of my children. The fact that he consumed only the body of animals and not the life energy would mean that he might also impart and gain knowledge differently than we do.
“Bring me the male who discovered this creature immediately. If you wish to remain alive you will do this personally, touch no one and tell no one. Go nowhere else and make sure that he touches no one. If he has touched anyone bring them to me as well. Now leave me, I must meditate on this,” commanded the Queen.
The disbelief that he would be allowed to live flooded the space between them and in an instant, the aide was gone. Fleeing for his life, should the Queen change her mind.
Could this be a sign of destiny? The Queen wondered. Experiences with other life forms in the distant past had brought her people the ability to work together and communicate. The engineering skill used to build their underground cities was but one of many things the Ones had learned from strangers.
Because of the others, we were no longer at the mercy of this planet’s whims and its change of seasons. Yet this creature is much different. I wonder what changes he will bring to our world with the knowledge he possesses? the Queen thought, as she sank into a deep meditation, trying to understand the circumstances that had been thrust upon her and her people.
Once again, the Queen felt her aide waiting for her to return to consciousness. He was not alone. Her pulse quickened with the anticipation of learning more about the strange being from the sky and she stirred quickly to full wakefulness.
As she opened her eyes, she saw only her aide and one other male. Fixing her stare on the newcomer, she asked, “You shared this with no one else?”
“No, my Queen,” the worker answered, bowing in submission, his chest plate scraping the ground.
“Why not?” demanded the Queen.
“I was curious, my Queen. I was also afraid of what would happen if I shared this knowledge with anyone besides my senior nest mate. Now I am here and my fears are realized.”
“Boldness and reasonable thought from a male, how unusual a trait,” remarked the Queen. She stretched out her sensing antennae, “Approach me, I must share your mind.” The smell of dread and fear preceded George as he touched her with his antennae. In that instant of knowing, the Queen knew her feelings had been right. This life form did not share its knowledge in the way the Ones did. It took a lifetime of communication to transfer knowledge from one being to another. Yet they had traveled from another place to our world. I must know how.
“I want him under constant observation. The two of you, and perhaps two more,” said the Queen as she turned to her aide. “Bring two of your closest brothers to me. Tell them nothing until they are before me and only then will you share with them why they are here. The four of you will provide food and water for this being at my chamber at the summit of the temple of the Sun. Allow him to observe but not enter the city until it is time to bring him before me. Go straight there and do not return unless called for. When I am ready I will summon you. When I call for you, bring him before me in the throne room of the temple of the Sun.”
~
Today George approached me with his antennae extended. I have come to understand this gesture as a request to communicate with me. I reached out my hands and touched his sensing antennae. I could feel him say “Brother, it is time to come before the Queen. I have told her about you and she has commanded me to bring you before her. I dare not disobey at the risk of my nest mates.”
A shot of adrenalin made my knees weak. I had dealt with many different intelligent species in the course of my chosen profession. Yet none quite like this and certainly not the leader of an intelligent insect race. I have absolutely no idea of what to expect.
“Fear not, brother,” George thought to me. “She is curious about you and where you come from. You are in no danger.”
“I am not afraid, just nervous,” I thought back. “Will I touch her?”
“I am but a male and cannot speak about what the Queen will do. However, as that is the only way we can communicate with you, I think you will have that great honor,” George thought back.
“Then let’s not keep the Queen waiting, shall we?” I said.
To my surprise George simply moved to the back of the small cave I had been staying in. He opened a hidden door, revealing a downward-sloped pathway. I had to bend down to get through, as George’s people traveled frequently and just as easily on all six legs. After I crawled through the door, it opened up into a huge room with high ceilings and filtered light.
At the far end of the room, I could see what must be the Queen. She was much larger than George and his friends, who had filed in behind me. She was perched on a large carved stone throne, studded with enormous gemstones.
In the center of the domed roof was the largest sapphire I had seen or even heard about. It was several times the size of the largest one in the galaxy in the museum of gems and minerals. The sun shone directly on it making it glow, reflecting off the many other gemstones in the walls and the Queen’s throne.
As we approached, George and the others suddenly stopped and scraped their abdomens on the ground, in some sort of greeting. The queen motioned to me with one pair of her arms and extended her antennae toward me.
I knew this to be a request for a touch in order to communicate, from my dealings with George and his friends. Taking a deep breath, I reached out and gently touched her antennae. I was instantly swept up in a whirlwind of images of the Ones and their history. Slowly order returned to my mind and I was able to sense the Queen herself.
“Welcome, Benji King,” she whispered in galactic standard after I had recovered from her touch. “I am what you would call the Queen of our race, the Ones. We now know what you know and you know what we know.” I could feel her sadness at what must happen. I understood that this was not what she wanted but it must be done to protect her people, the Ones. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the fang begin to descend toward my neck, felt a sharp pain, paralyzing numbness, and then blackness.
Later, I have no idea how long, I regained my senses, squinting from the bright light, feeling the heat of this planet’s star on my bare skin. I was outside and confined at my hands and ankles. I was lying prone on what I had been using as a bed in the cave on top of the hilltop I had been living on. As I lay there I realized this was no bed: it was a sacrificial altar.
~
As my senses slowly sharpened, I notice a huge number of George’s people in the shallow valley that surrounded the hilltop. They were all quietly facing the hilltop in what seemed to be anticipation of something, like expectant children.
As I watched, the Queen emerged and a buzzing sound erupted from the crowd. They furiously scraped their abdom
ens on the ground, in reverence to their Queen. As I turned my head, I could see George and his friends lined up behind her, corralled by two huge males.
As the Queen waved her arms at the crowd to be silent, she spoke in a frenzied motion of mandibles and high-pitched screeches. “My children, today we celebrate the beginning of the season of the Sun. And I have a special surprise for you. As you know we have in the past been visited by and learned from strangers to our land.”
“Today I will share with you another visitor. Not just from a far place but from another planet. I have learned a great many things from this being. This Season of the Sun will mark a period of great change for our people. We now have the knowledge of how to travel to other stars ourselves. We must spread the way of the Ones. But first I must tell you that these four males have dared learn the knowledge of the Sisters. I invite you to share in their essence with me,” chanted the Queen, swaying in time to the sound of the buzzing.
As I watched, the Queen lifted George up and out came the fang. She impaled him with it and flung him down to the crowds below. I could not see what happened to him from the angle I was being held in but I knew it was not good. That meant the same or worse for me, I feared.
One by one, the Queen dispatched George’s companions, as they passively waited, expectant, scraping their chest plates on the ground, just like the now frenzied crowd below. I was filled with a sense of finality as the Queen motioned for me to be brought before her. As she towered over me she said in her whispery Galactic Standard, “I am sorry I must end your life, Benji King, but I must protect my people from the dangers you bring with you.” I closed my eyes and I imagined seeing the fang headed straight toward me preparing for its strike. Where was my brother?
PART FOUR
“Greed and honor are opposites on a two edged dagger”
As I, Thomi King, floated in complete serenity, I suddenly felt waves of urgency tugging at my mind. Who would dare interrupt my session? I thought, I have paid for a full session and these meditation rooms are expensive.
“A message for you sir.” The metallic Galactic Standard greeting from the message drone broke into my mind. Slowly I floated back to full consciousness. Who could be sending me a message by drone? Aside from being expensive, they were only used on the most sensitive matters of family business. “Lights on,” I spoke when my mind had fully reconnected with my body.
Sensing my movement, the drone croaked in its metallic version of a Galactic Standard, “Are you Thomi King ruler of all the known universe?” Now that was a coded message, only known to the family. The use of that particular family joke indicated the message was very sensitive indeed and from my brother Benji.
A light on the front of the drone began to blink faster and faster. This drone was programmed to timed self-destruct, killing everyone in close proximity unless it received the proper answer to its query. Whatever this drone carried was important. “I am and I direct you to board my ship in docking bay 94. Allow no interception or detection and await my arrival.”
As instructed, the drone turned and silently disappeared in the direction of the docking bays of space station Omega, where my ship is docked.
Strange and dangerous, this business, I thought. After lingering in the meditation lounge long enough to not raise any further suspicions, I made my way back to docking bay 94.
I checked the exterior of the ship for any sign of tampering as I returned. It was just one of the many habits that had kept me alive this long. All my sensors and booby traps were intact. There was also a mention in the security log of the admission to the ship of the message drone, per my order. And that was all. Now I could relax and see just what this was all about in safety and privacy.
I made my way forward from the airlock to the control room with the drone in silent tow. “OK my little friend, what kind of a message do you have for me?” I asked as I placed my face close to the now projected retinal scanner to verify my identification, again the blinking light. With that done, a small object slowly ejected from the storage compartment of the drone.
Humm, a holo-cube, that is interesting. Turning to the console I placed the cube into the cockpit’s holo-reader. The image of my brother and sometime arch-rival Benji King came into view.
“Thomi, I have suffered severe damage to my faster than light drive and my ship’s main engine’s plasma is almost completely drained. I will attempt to land, maybe even crash land on the third planet from the binary star of this system. I have found a life planet and it is unclaimed and unpopulated. I am giving you the coordinates in order to arrange for a rescue and return to civilization. This drone will take your verbal contract and file it with the nearest Galactic Government clerk of wherever you are, for safe keeping. Once that is done it will release the second cube’s information for your navi-computer.”
With a large exhale of air, I sank back into the pilot’s seat. An unclaimed, uninhabited life planet you say! That would be worth an enormous fortune to whoever was able to legally claim and prove they found it first.
Many races in the galaxy were beyond desperate for natural resources and food, existing by predation on weaker species. A properly cultivated life planet could supply food for an entire species for generations. Many wars had been fought over the few known unclaimed life planets of the galaxy.
The question of the hour was, do I file the verbal contract, therefore obligating me to rescue my brother, or not. Wealth beyond imagination is a powerful aphrodisiac. Yet honor demanded that I rescue my brother. Now if I got rich doing it then all the better for me. I was taking a big risk. What if what Ben said was a deception, he might still be mad about that business on Alpha station last year. Oh what the hell, he is my brother after all.
“I, Thomi King do affirm that I will rescue and return to civilization one Benji King, provided his information is accurate,” I told the drone. With a beep, the drone released the second cube, having electronically filed my verbal contract with the space station’s central computer.
As I dropped out of folded time space and into true time space at the coordinates I had been given, I was awed by the sight of not only a life planet, but a water world as well.
While many technologies exist in the known galaxy that produce water, only a handful of planets in the entire known galaxy are natural producers of it. In addition, here was one that was unclaimed, and unpopulated according to my sensors.
If news of this planet gets out to the wrong people too soon, and it will, there will be a war, maybe even several at the same time. That is how much wealth is at stake. Even worse, the King family had been unwittingly dragged right into the middle of the whole mess.
Thanks a lot Benji. Well I guess I got myself into this one; I just hope I live through it. I locked onto Benji's distress beacon and prepared to land as close to it as possible.
As I began my final descent, I saw the beginnings of a debris field. Damn, Benji, I guess crash land is what you did. I just hope you are still alive so we can buy neighboring planets and retire, forever.
After a smooth landing, as the repulser lifts spun down I armed the defensive weapons and made my way to the airlock. Heading toward the crash site, I feared what I might find. As I neared the wreckage of Benji's ship, I could see signs of a makeshift camp. Benji had survived the landing after all, I realized with a wave of relief.
As I poked around, I deduced that a second accident had befallen Benji after he crashed. It looks like he was trying to energize his fuel cells with the natural electric discharges that this atmosphere generated. It was obvious this camp was built after the accident and then deserted some time ago. Where are you Benji?
I found a holo cube in the makeshift shelter, its power source exhausted. I will return to my ship and see if I can retrieve any data from this cube that might shed some light on where Benji might be. Well, at least he survived the crash, now I just have to find him.
Exhausted by the time I returned my ship, I decided to eat, hit the fresher
and grab some sleep before I tackled trying to get anything off the holo cube.
With a shrill beep, the perimeter alarm went off, interrupting my fresher routine. Grabbing my hand-held blaster I clawed my way into the cockpit to read the sensors’ analysis of the intruder and checking the status of the defensive weapons arrays simultaneously. Nothing to get excited about, just some sort of indigenous, insectoid life form crawling on the ship’s hull. Well, I am awake now, might as well get to work on finding Benji.
As I powered up the holo cube and scanned through what was obviously Ben's daily personal log, I realized that he had been studying those things that were crawling around on my ship. As I scanned forward, I found out that these creatures feed on energy and they like main engine power cells best of all.
Looking up I punched up the power reserve readings, just as a precaution. Damn, they are down 30%. Those creatures must be feeding on the ship’s engine plasma, using the main power cables that connected all the electrical systems together, probably at the junction by the main engine.
Strapping on my blaster I headed for the airlock. If I acted quickly, I would still have enough power to get back into space and to the nearest repair facility
There's one, with a quick snap aim I fired my hand held blaster, watching as the strange creature disappeared in a puff of smoke. My stomach churned at the required violence, such brutish things these blasters. Why couldn't they just disintegrate whatever they hit? Was the smoke and smell really necessary? Savage!! I hope that is the only one. No, there is another and another.
Twice more I fired, and then I got physically ill. As I heaved the contents of my stomach out while on my knees, I could see more of the bigger creatures approaching closer, closer, then blackness.
“My Queen, the aliens have returned. And they have killed 3 of my brothers. Another ship has landed near the wreckage of the first one.” Antennae quivering nervously, the messenger awaited the Queen’s answer.