A thought with her chip had the scene yet again change, this time to the interior of the Dorgenox bridge where her father and lover sat side by side with two Creelin scientists and were going over the millions of readings. She decided she had watched enough when she tapped the soft flesh behind her right ear. “Call Papa.” A few beeps passed and she watched onscreen as Pirate King Jake Dorgen touched the same spot.
“What can papa do for his little lass?” said the giant Scotsman in usual brogue.
“How are things going over there, Papa. My moron behaving himself?”
“Aye.” The man chuckled as Oliver looked at him from the corner of his eye. “So far he’s been telling me the gateway is in excellent working order and will be ready for use this time next week once the gateway cools a few thousand Celsius and settles down for the device he’ll make to generate the portal to open a window to a new dimension. I’m enjoying meself too much too. Haven’t been this excited in a decade. First I see meself helping to hold back an exploding star yesterday and then prepare to meet me makers. What else can a man in my line of work complain about?”
“Well you always tell me never meet my heroes. They’ll ruin the image. Just don’t set yourself up for failure, Papa.”
“I’m no stranger to failure, Lass. Ye just worry about yerself. Anything else?”
“Yes, tell Olly once he takes a break to get his ass back here in six hours. Something big has come up that I want him to hear and get his opinion on. I don’t want to distract him while he’s busy.”
“Will do.” He tapped his ear, ending the conversation.
Seven hours later a timid looking woman with blonde hair entered a massive room of dancing fire. Ahead were about fifty large, curvy women that shared familial traits and enormous men. Enormous being an understatement. These men made Hunters she remembered seem absolutely puny in comparison. Yet nothing prepared her for the massive muscular man with misting orcher eyes sitting beside a redhead with a circlet over her brow. And yet there were gigantic black and white cats watching her every move. The power in this room was intense as she shakily approached after being dropped off outside a pyramid of all things.
“Please sit.” Said the regal woman on the throne radiating power the blonde couldn’t begin to fathom. A chair grew out from the floor made of metal just for her. More chairs rose from the ground and the rest of the men and women used it. The woman noticed similar circlets on the brows of four other redheaded women. Beside the throne the woman gulped as a green Drake’s head arched as he laid close. “State your name for the record.
“I’m uh… I’m Melanie Barbra Hannison from Earth, Ma’am. Who…”
“As you’ve no doubt noticed the Empire’s gone through a few changes. I’m Queen Renee Void of Fire. This is my eldest daughter, Queen Isabella Took of Terra. All of the women in this room with strong glowing or misting eyes are my daughters and granddaughters to make things easier. This is Queen Vikki Void of Ice, Soifon Void of Wind and Angie Void of Water. The five of us run the Empire in the Andromeda galaxy. The remainder are my grandchildren who could come to hear your tale.” Renee opted for a soothing smile. “As a researcher you will likely fall under my domain after I figure out what the hell you’ve been up to for more than two centuries. And know that Emperor Markeese Coleson is watching this interview.”
“Um… may I ask what happened to my protector escorts? No one will talk to me after I woke up.”
“If you are asking about the Keptl then know I had them all killed soon as we could scan your ship.” Renee deadpanned. She was as blunt as ever. But didn’t speak in malice. It was told as a simple fact.
Melanie began to tear up and had to slap her own cheeks several times while fighting the urge to sob. “You didn’t even give them a chance did you?”
“They’ve never given us one before.” Isabella leaned forward, elbows on knees and chin on her interlocked fingers. “Are you suggesting those in the ship were different?”
“Yes. They were my friends.” Melanie choked out, but apparently the large group watching knew this due to a lack of reaction. Not one individual shared a confused look. “I wish you hadn’t, but I forget there are so many bad Keptl you’ve never met a good one. Damn Feral ruin everything.”
“Good Keptl?” Renee arched an eyebrow and the woman didn’t even know Renee was carefully manipulating the small and thin woman’s mind to speak only truth without being discovered. The Fire Queen had a knack for subtle telepathy. “Perhaps you best start at the beginning.”
“It would certainly help that you don’t think I’m crazy.” Melanie took a deep breath to steady her nerves as she gave her report.
“On Earth I was commissioned by the University of Tennessee among others to specifically research Keptl behavior, breeding patterns and how they use themselves to cross space without any use of technology as we know it. Like Beasts kicked into space by the overgrown grasshoppers. I was born and raised on an orbiting space station and was considered a xenobiology prodigy. We wanted to find the enemy home world as our ultimate goal and try to find any possible variations between those in the Milky Way and those wherever they come from. We were given with the fastest and most versatile ship Galicom produced for our long-term mission. Whatever we needed, it was installed. Weapons, shields, food… name it, we had it.
“The mission was straightforward for many years. Boring, tedious and yet oddly gratifying. We used powerful passive telescopes that wouldn’t rouse the hornets’ nest if you will. We stayed just outside enemy influence. We were for all purposes spies.” She swallowed and the mountain of a man beside the imposing queen on the gemstone throne made a gesture and one of the women got up and brought her a glass of something to drink. “Thank you.” She sipped and her eyes opened. “Alcohol?”
“To lessen your nervousness.” Said the baritone man with deep, calculating yellow eyes. “You cannot threaten us and we are curious of your situation. Had you been a traitor when my grandson Read you, you would be in a different circumstance under my daughter Vikki’s judgment. And had your mind been altered, Renee would know and correct whatever was done. It is why you aren’t detained and speaking before me and my family.” He gestured and Melanie looked at the straight-backed redhead off to the side with such a cold, azure stare it showed this woman had almost no remorse. Melanie decided she needed more than a sip and threw the entire drink down her throat. The warmth did help. “Please continue your accounts for the record.” A thought passed her mind as she took in his physique and gentle tone.
“Hey, he’s mine.” Renee practically growled. “Back to the story.”
It was then Melanie knew the green eyed queen on the throne was inside her head and wished she was given more liquid courage, but nodded. “Where was I? Oh right, observing.
“Our ship’s long range scanners and my team’s collective minds spent years going from solar system to another. We got by a few scrapes that were really scary and from time to time we’d replenish recourses from comets and asteroids. We didn’t want to use any electrical based systems to rouse the Keptl controlled planets. Our mission was data collection.
“From time to time we’d use stasis during FTL between long rides to save power and let the hydroponics grow so we didn’t use our finite resources too heavily.
“After close to a century and five galaxies later we exited FTL in the middle of a war between two rival hives. Our FTL exit was too bright and close to the action to hide our stealth capabilities. Hunter Garrak immediately put the ship into evasive maneuvers, but the sudden power spike from our thrusters to get away damaged three out of the five propulsion engines on our ship. Blowing the coils and effectively reducing our capabilities beyond normal levels.
“A Goliath that saw our exit into normal space shot a spine which detonated too closely. It ripped the entire rear of the ship apart, but luckily the engine and power supply are located in cargo. Garrak didn’t give up and used the correcting thrusters to try and keep us out of da
nger when the ship warned another Goliath was coming up our ass from behind the planet’s moon we were trying to use as cover from the overgrown crab bastard following us… playing with us really.
“We thought our luck ran out and gave up hope, but then as we watched the already shot spines coming from the second one, the shots came close, but didn’t go off anywhere near us. Instead the spines continued till it reached the first Goliath and caused serious explosive damage.
“Then ensued a battle between the two crabs and the surprise attack let the one hiding behind the moon get its claws on the other and ripped it apart for an hour. Me and my team didn’t know what the hell was going on, but we didn’t decide to stick around as the system was in chaos. Garrak used what he could to get away, but we barely managed an hour of distance before the Goliath from before came up on us far faster than we could avoid. We tried to attack, but the damage was too extensive to do any sort of repair in deep space. The first one’s attacks as it played with us were too devastating. At that time all we had were shields and maneuvering thrusters. We were practically dead in the water. Even our solar sails were shredded after being deployed.
“I won’t lie, I prayed when we saw it’s claw reach out and hoped that we’d die quick even though we all were in our suits if our shields collapsed. But then with a gentleness no one ever expected, the claw tenderly closed around us and brought us towards its mouth. Then we screamed we were going to be eaten to again be amazed when just below its feeing mouth a cavity opened up and looked a lot like a vagina. It pushed us inside and cradled us. We sat there for ten frightening hours trying to affect repairs.
“Suddenly we were spat out into a freshwater ocean and the floating Goliath pushed us carefully to shore. On the shore though it was writhing with every kind of Keptl you can imagine from the doglike Trackers to the gigantic Behemoths with arms like five story long swords. We readied to fight for our lives, but instead of being felled upon as soon as we were beached we were just stared at. They made no noise. It was beyond the most terrifying experience to that point. Keptl didn’t behave that way. Just watching. It proved something out there was controlling them. Yet we didn’t see anything except a hive largest we ever recorded. It was more than seven kilometers tall and four times as wide.
“But as we waited for our death again…” She paused, trying to find the most articulate way to say it. “well the best way I can express myself would be to call it an alien mind. Alien in every sense, but immeasurably powerful. Beyond the power of a Class Twelve I used to mate with back home. Beyond even the famous Jake Dorgen’s levels.” Wry smiles led to chuckling. “What?”
“Jake Dorgen is my papa. Continue.” Renee smirked.
“Your father.” Melanie gulped. Then shook her head. Judging by the redhead’s expression, she needed to finish the story. “Uh, the mind. Right… the strange mind didn’t try to dominate me and I realized as I looked around the bridge, everyone was experiencing a similar mind in theirs. I tried blocking it, but it brushed me aside like a freshly sharpened scythe to wheat. I couldn’t help feeling the mind was merely curious till it focused on all our memories associated to language. It knew we were terrified and used our memories to figure out why.
“When it seemed to make a decision we were flabbergasted when the Keptl turned around and disappeared into a thick forest. All of them. Even the Goliath that brought us to the planet swam away and sank deep beneath the ocean’s surface.
“We waited for a few minutes as the mind pulled back too. Then a single Tracker came out with a crudely cut piece of wood in its teeth and came right up to the bridge’s front, hopped on top and put it on the glass. On the piece of wood was a scratched sentence. I’ll never forget what was said.
“It said ‘No danger will harm you here, Terrans. Your timely aid helped me win with less damage. I come to meet you and ask you not harm me.” Then at the bottom was another section with my name on it. It said ‘Melanie leader, I merely wish to speak.’
“Oh I forgot to mention that the crew left me in charge.” She blushed a little. She hated leaving out details. The Queen of Fire rolled her wrist so Melanie could continue the narrative. “We were understandably confused by such a turn of events.
“Roughly twenty minutes later a crewmate pointed in the distance where a flying figure surrounded by flying Dragoon serpents came from the hive. It was a Keptl we never saw before. It was pale white, five meters tall and dangerous to even look at. It had glowing eyes like a Creelin, but far more powerful. Power so great our instruments couldn’t accurately measure it.
“It landed on the beach with the Dragoons and held up another piece of wood between clawed fingers. It also said ‘I arrive, Do not attack.’ And then all the Dragoons flew back to the hive. Leaving it alone. You should have seen it, we discovered the swarm’s mastermind.
“Apparently it had limitless patience as when we didn’t exit right away it folded it’s six legs and merely sat on the beach, watching us. Waiting for us to take the next step. The most frightening thing I remember on that day were its teeth.
“Not fearing another fight or frightening encounter I ordered my crew to start immediate repairs. Mainly on the weapons since we were incapable of repairing the primary thrusters after they were blown clean off. I meanwhile studied the creature and was about to send a data packet to find out our long range subspace coms were gone too. We had no means left to us.
“The next day it sat there in a cold rainstorm, but didn’t seem to mind at all. We worked tirelessly and tried figuring ways to leave the planet gravity just heavy enough I could walk on. Despite its size, the plant’s mass wasn’t enough to hurt me. Like walking on Earth’s moon really, but a fraction heavier.
“This went on for five days till we couldn’t fix anything else from the inside. All that was left were the outside. She just sat there and only moved to relieve herself in the woods. We couldn’t hide forever so I suited up and sucked up my courage to open the airlock. I jumped onto the beach with water up to my knees. At this time the creature didn’t move more than its silver glowing eyes. I approached slowly while my crew carefully saw just how crippled the ship was. We wouldn’t have lived long if we were brought to the surface when we were.
“My fear was extreme as I approached and the Keptl merely blinked, trying to not appear as frightening. So I asked it ‘Do you understand me?’
It opened its mouth and wonder of wonders it said “I learned after feeling your minds.” The voice was frightening. Like a roaring Drake getting a prostate exam.”
Suddenly Renee burst out laughing as Sparky hissed at the imagery.
The story eventually resumed after the hilarity an its course. “It spoke clearly despite row upon rows of serrated teeth like a shark. Then it asked ‘Is anyone injured?’ to which I find the creature has compassion rather than be blood thirsty crazy. So I told her ‘no.’ and she nods with a strong neck despite the bony structure weighing down her head. I wondered why it saved us and she knocked my socks off.
“She told me that the Keptl we know today are nothing like she is. I figured she was the hive Queen as Keptl behavior works much like insects on Earth do. She is one of the last remaining true Queens in the entire universe, descended from the very first Queen. I learned that Keptl we know and fear aren’t like She. The Keptl loosed upon the universe were among those who lost contact with the original influence of a Queen to become feral. We call them the Feral. And they are easy to distinguish because they are black.
“Over time these Feral Keptl evolved their own Queens. These Queens are ruthless and devour all in their wake. Oh, and just so you know, just because we named them Queens doesn’t mean they are female. They have neither gender unlike us. Completely asexual. But since all Keptl have the DNA of its parent, in time even a Tracker can become a Queen if left alone.” This raised eyebrows. That was staggering news indeed. “But true, natural Queens are not only more powerful, they evolve without needing to evolve offspring. A true Queen mer
ely needs to eat something and they can select an attribute to bring out in themselves, and they are more docile and far more intelligent.
“I didn’t believe it till before my very eyes her fearsome visage smoothed out and was actually sensual. Even the teeth she had that frightened me were far less intimidating. She only becomes dangerous when threatened by the Feral Queens.
“Since we opened a dialogue I wanted to name her and yet another surprise is she already had a name. In our tongue it would be something like White Blossom.
“White Blossom did inform me she eats the Feral and sometimes her own young she tasks to eat and fight to keep herself strong. To evolve. To not be left behind in the rapid Keptl evolutionary race. It is why she is so much bigger and Psionically stronger than Feral Queens she once captured and brought for us to see the difference.
“While on the beach, Garrak, our lead Hunter asked if we were prisoners and White Blossom shook her smooth head. She merely wanted to save us after reading our minds to learn. She had only heard of Terrans from other battles and the Feral. We made her curious. Curious enough to reach out an olive branch first.”
“How many of these non-feral Queens are there?” Isabella inquired. As a military genius, she had to know all facts of potential enemies and allies.
“White Blossom and four other still live, but she never told us where. To keep them safe. She was protecting them since they were her actual daughters. And if you ask how old she is, she’s a few years from a billion. We have to take her word since as we know, Keptl cells are impossible to measure age… unless that has changed.” Head’s shook. “I can’t blame White Blossom for wanting to keep them safe.
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