Queen World of the Insectoid Empire

Brood Chamber of the Hive Mother

Fourth Cycle, 384.99 years, Insectoid solar calendar

June 15th, 2176 A.D.

Bandit watched as the remaining six loyal queens came into the brood chamber one at a time and bowed to Juno, each one spending an average of seventeen seconds as the queens and Juno stared at each other, sharing thoughts that Bandit was not privy to, though he wished he was.

When done, each queen took their place to the right or the left of their Hive Mother until the last one was finally finished, and Juno was now flanked by three sister queens on each side. Juno looked at her command drone for 0.7 seconds before the drone bowed to her and left the brood chamber, flanked by a dozen newly hatched soldier drones.

The brood chamber was completely silent as they all waited, and thirty-one seconds later, the command drone reentered the chamber first, followed by four soldier drones. Next came the traitor queen, flanked by four soldier drones on either side with a chain around her cervical joint and a chain on each upper leg as they roughly jerked her into the brood chamber.

The group marched towards Juno, stopping when they reached 3.4 meters from the dais and quickly reorganized themselves into a circle formation, the still-bound queen in the center with two soldier drones on either side of her holding the upper leg chains tightly.

Juno and the traitor queen stared at each other, and Bandit once again found himself regretting not being telepathic so he could understand what was being said, though he knew what the end result would be.

The sound of rattling came from the small chamber behind Juno where her daughter pupae were stored, and Bandit turned his head 122.7 degrees so he could see what was happening. 1.8 seconds passed before two worker drones emerged, pushing a low-profile wheeled cart between them with a large mass in the center of it that was tied down with chains.

Bandit looked at the striped bands and colors of the mass, realizing it was the traitor command drone that helped the rebel queen launch her assault on the queen world. He was here when the traitor was brought into the brood chamber after the battle, but he had not seen it since Juno's command drone went into the small chamber with the chained and blinded prisoner, only to reemerge 7.4 minutes later covered in bright yellow ichor.

He never asked Juno what had happened, and he had never once gone inside the small chamber even though the Hive Mother had never explicitly stated that he was forbidden from entering it.

The two worker drones finished wheeling the command drone around the dais before stopping in front of the soldier drone circle formation surrounding the queen, and Bandit zoomed in on the traitor, his sensors and recorders already on so he could document the proceedings for the Republic intelligence analysts and scientists to view.

Now he could see what Juno had done to the traitor, and he felt disquieted by the sight confronting him. The command drone's large eyes were already empty pits when it first arrived, but now all its legs were gone, along with the two long antennae.

The two small holes behind the eyes that they used to hear sounds had been closed as well, and it looked like it was done via cauterization, with the chitin surrounding the two holes melted enough to seal the two openings permanently.

The Hive Mother had removed all ability for the command drone to interact with the world. It would no longer be able to see, smell, hear, or move for as long as it lived, and Bandit felt a wave of pity for the traitor, not able to imagine a worse fate for a sapient being that existed within a eusocial, hive-mind society.

Juno's command drone suddenly jerked spasmodically for 1.4 seconds before turning away from the dais and towards the traitor queen. Bandit saw the change in the command drone's eyes while she was turning, and he could now see the powerful mind behind them as they glinted with Juno's presence.

The possessed command drone was now facing the traitor queen, and she slowly pulled out the long, ornate dagger from her thorax harness as the soldier drones in front of her parted.

Juno-drone stared at the traitor for 4.2 seconds, and the traitor queen began to twitch violently before falling on the ground and squirming as the possessed drone slowly skittered towards it, the dagger flashing in the bioluminescent lighting.

* * *

Juno felt her love and happiness for the first two queen sisters that had been in the Hive and helped to repel the assault on her Hive begin to fade as the first of the remaining four queens entered the brood chamber and skittered towards the dais before bowing to her.

< I have come as commanded, Hive Mother. Take my thoughts so you may see I was, and still am, loyal to you alone.>

Juno eyed her sister for a few moments before entering her mind and carefully parsing through the thoughts and memories now laid bare before her. It did not take long to see that her sister was being truthful, and she left the queen's mind, giving it a gentle caress of love and gratefulness as a gift before fully departing and returning to herself.

<I see the truth within you, sister. Thank you for opening your thoughts to me and coming when I needed you most; you may take your place at my side, where you belong.>

After her sister took her proper place at her side, the next queen entered the brood chamber, and the process of examining thoughts and reaffirming loyalty continued until all six sister queens were beside her.

Juno looked at the command drone she had promised to make hers, fulfilling her vow as Hive Mother and rewarding the command drone for her loyalty during the battle by placing her above all other drones in the Hives.

<My daughter, bring in the traitor.>

The command drone bowed immediately and left the chamber, followed by twelve newly hatched soldier drones. As she waited for her traitor sister to be brought before her for judgment, she moved her left eye independently to look at Bandit-Friend without moving her head.

She wondered what he was thinking as she saw him standing still like a rock, his bright yellow eyes flicking all around the brood chamber. She moved her left eye back to the front and sent thoughts to her loyal sisters on both sides.

<If any wish to plead for the traitor, do so now. She is your sister as much as she is mine, and despite the betrayal, it is not just her that will be punished; her entire genetic line and all the wisdom of her ancestors will be lost forever as well.>

She felt her mind buffeted by a massive wave of conflicting emotions from her sisters, and she let them pass over and through her. Anger, sadness, love, grief, and resentment came into her mind and spirit, and she grieved with them for the terrible punishment their traitor sister would now endure for the rest of her time in the world of the living.

<What is your judgment?>

All the queens quickly communed with each other before they entered her mind at the same time, their thoughts in sync as they answered her question.

<She must be punished, Hive Mother. She was willing to destroy the Queen World to cull you and prevent any of us from claiming the empire as Hive Mother if she could not claim it for herself. A hundred billion drones would have been culled because of her, and she must suffer for such wrongness.>

<Then it shall be done.>

Her sisters left her mind, and Juno stared at the traitor with pure hate, allowing the former queen to feel everything as she smashed into her mind and quickly tore down the feeble defenses that were put up to stop her.

When the traitor's mind was entirely exposed and quivering before her, Juno sent one last thought.

<All you were and ever did will disappear. None will remember you. The Hives will forget you. Your genetic line will end, and all the ancestors within you and their wisdom and knowledge will now be lost forever because of the wrongness you were willing to commit.

You will know no thoughts but your own for the rest of your time in the world of the living. Your sight will be taken from you. Your hearing will be taken from you. Your antennae will be taken from you. Your legs will be taken from you.

You will never know another scent or feel the touch of another ever again. You will no longer be part of the Hives, and you will know what it is to be truly alone. You will be alone, traitor, but not by yourself.

Your command drone will be with you, so look upon her and see your fate before I take your eyes away. I will ensure you live a long life, traitor, and all who come into the brood chamber will see you and be reminded of what happens if they turn against their rightful Hive Mothers and the empire.>

The traitor tried to send thoughts, but she shut them out before violently pushing deeper and severing the connection to the Hive mind. The traitor collapsed from the shock and the pain of what was being done, and she stared at what used to be a queen and her sister writhing on the floor in sheer agony before making the command drone's body move forward.

She reached the traitor and stood over it for a long moment before commanding the soldier drones to hold her down. They obeyed immediately, grasping her legs and immobilizing her with their greatly increased strength.

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She leaned down with the dagger and carefully pierced the side of the right eye, sliding the tip of the blade under it to sever the bundle of nerves tethering the eye to the socket and the extraocular muscles holding it in place.

The large black oval eye, now no longer connected, slid out with a slurping sound and fell onto the floor, where it quivered disturbingly. Juno quickly moved onto the other eye before slicing the two antennae off and digging out the root structures to prevent them from regrowing.

The traitor struggled weakly within the grasps of the soldier drones, and that, too, soon ceased as she quickly and efficiently dismembered the six legs. A waiting worker drone came forward with a low-powered laser torch, and Juno cauterized the joint openings to prevent the traitor from bleeding out all her hemolymph and expiring prematurely.

Handing the torch to the drone, she picked the dagger back up off the ground and slowly sliced the pheromone sacs off from behind the mandibles, careful not to pierce the sacs themselves and release the potent precursor chemicals into the air as she placed them on top of the traitor.

The last thing to do was seal the ear openings, and Juno placed the dagger back on the ground and held her dominant claw out for the torch. The drone placed it in her claw, and she brought the torch close to the right ear hole and burned it shut, tasting the volatile compounds being released as the chitin melted into slag.

The left ear was sealed as well, and she slowly stood back up, waves of regret and shame flooding through her spirit at the cruel fate she had just condemned her sister to suffer for the rest of her time in the world of the living.

She left the body of the command drone and returned to her own, looking at the traitor through her own eyes now as the guilt and regret grew.

What have I done to my sister?

She felt her ancestors within clamoring in response, their thoughts rising in a crescendo that almost overwhelmed her as they sent thoughts of support and love, telling her she had no choice and that the traitor deserved her fate.

As they quieted down and retreated, she felt more assured of her judgment and no longer felt such a strong sense of wrongness as she looked down at the still writhing body of the traitor.

Raising her dominant claw, she pointed to a small dais along the right side of the brood chamber that she had worker drones construct the previous solar day in preparation for what had just happened.

<Take the traitor and the command drone and place them on the dais for all to see. There they will remain for the rest of their time in the world of the living. Let all who enter see the fate that awaits them if they turn against their rightful Hive Mother and the empire.>

She closed her mind to all but her six remaining sisters before sending thoughts to them again.

<It is done. Now there are only six queens to help me administer the empire until my daughters emerge from their pupae. I need each of you to take on the responsibility of controlling a larger portion of the empire and additional Hives as we prepare for the arrival of the Persecutors.>

They all responded, promising to do their duty as queens and sisters, and she detected no falsehoods from their minds or in their thoughts, which made her feel slightly more secure in her position as Hive Mother.

She created a stellar map of the empire in her mind, now divided into six massive zones of control, and she shared it with them as she began to tell them what she wanted. After assigning the six enlarged territories according to the unique abilities of her sisters and the needs of the empire, she released them to return to their Hives.

After they all left the brood chamber, Juno turned her head to look at Bandit-Friend, who was already looking at her as if expecting her to do so as the mechanisms of his yellow eyes changed shape to focus on her.

She found herself wishing she had time to make another sound focuser so she could resume sharing thoughts in the animal way, and she raised her claws reluctantly to ask the questions that had been intruding on her thoughts for many solar hours.

<Bandit-Friend, have you received thoughts yet from the machine drones in orbit? How long must I wait before I know if the animals will help us? I am so tired, Bandit-Friend, and I do not know how much longer I can bear this worry about the swarm of unknown animals.>

Hive Mother, it takes time to do things such as this. The drones were sent to the nearest null space relay, and I am certain the message has already reached Earth. As I tried to explain to you before when you asked how decisions are made by President Lopez and her queens, that, too, also takes time.

Juno did not like that answer, and she opened her spiracles to their maximum size as she tried to stem the anger and frustration threatening to drown her.

<Time is the one thing I do not have in abundance. Bandit-Friend. I can feel its claws tightening around me, crushing me within its grasp. A swarm of that size has left a scent trail leading directly to the empire that the persecutors will surely follow.

I do not have enough ships to deal with them without exposing my largest Hives facing the Forbidden Zone, where you tell me the persecutors have a swarm that numbers more than six to the seventh power and comes even now to cull us.>

I understand your worries, Juno, and I share them with you. I have run billions of calculations with all the available data at my disposal, and I regret to inform you that the Republic does not have enough resources and ships to deal with this issue without exposing themselves as well.

My calculations indicate that the Republic will have to ask its friends and allies for assistance in order to help you, and that, too, will take time. I wish I were able to tell you otherwise and lessen your burden, but I will not commit a falsehood just to make you feel better.

Bandit-Friend's thoughts were making her anger worse, and as quickly as it came, it faded as he finished sharing with her. An overpowering sense of gratitude washed over her spirit, and she stared at the machine animal who had come to mean so much to her, dreading the time to come when he would have to leave her.

<I rely on you to tell me only that which is true and real, Bandit-Friend. What does one call a male that is like a sister to them, Bandit-Friend?>

A brother, Juno. A brother is a male sister, at least in the way you understand and mean. Among my creators, brother is a special term the males use to indicate closeness and love beyond friendship, even if they do not share the same genetics.

<Yes. You are like this to me, Bandit-Friend. May I call you Bandit-Brother? I feel Bandit-Friend is inadequate to indicate how I feel about you now that I know there is another way to express how I truly think.>

Bandit-Friend's yellow eyes changed shape again, and several solar seconds passed without an answer, making her extremely worried that she had committed a wrongness against him. She was greatly surprised as he bowed to her before raising himself back up and making claw signs again.

Hive Mother, you do me a great honor. I feel the same way about you, and you may use brother instead of friend if that is what you wish. Thank you for this, Juno; it means a lot to me.

Juno's worry about committing a wrongness against Bandit-Brother vanished as a surge of sheer joy came over her spirit. Not wishing to spoil the special sharing they just had between them, she decided not to continue pressing him for an answer he did not yet have.

<Tell me of your Queen World and your Hives, Bandit-Brother. Do they really scrape against the skies like Luna told me they do before she left?>

Bandit-Brother grimaced happily at her, and she felt her spirit grimacing in return as he began to make claw signs to her.

RSS Occulto, Cuttlefish—Class Scout Ship

3,857 Light Years from Republic Space

June 15th, 2176 A.D.

0346 ship time

John reeled in shock at what he was seeing as the nullship struggled to get clear of the planet's gravity well, executing wild evasive maneuvers to evade the hundreds of nearby Balrikan ships firing all around it.

On the golden-red surface of the planet below, he could see hundreds of blinding flashes of light erupting, his trained eyes able to discern the difference between the kiloton and megaton yields as the single continent became engulfed in atomic fire.

Cities, towns, villages, and hamlets ceased to exist, along with the blue skinned innocents and the bastard raptors that were brutally torturing, raping, and devouring them in no particular order.

John had seen enough, and he turned the datapad off before tossing it away from him at the foot of the bio-bed. The intercom had been making the same creepy static noises ever since he had started watching the evidence of what 273 had done, and he leaned back and stared up at it as he processed the terrible events.

After some time, the static ceased, and 273's voice came over the intercom, sounding almost human and wracked with guilt as it spoke.

~ Am I evil for what I did, John? ~

John didn't answer right away, still scarcely believing what he had seen and what 273 had done. After the horrors of World War Three, using nuclear and BioChem weapons was an unspeakable moral abomination that humanity swore to never use against themselves or any others, except if facing extinction at the hands of an evil and implacable foe.

The Balrikans were the perfect example of such a foe, and if it was just them being killed with such weapons, he would still be greatly disturbed by what 273 had done but understand fully why it had done it. But this? This was unconscionable.

The taboo associated with using such weapons was so deeply ingrained in humanity that it was unfathomable that this had really happened, and the fact that it was done to those innocent, blue-skinned people whose name and culture they now would never know was the greatest possible sin that could ever be committed.

273's question echoed in his mind, and he understood why the others refused to speak with it or give it the answer it was looking for. Entire bloodlines and families were lost to the nuclear strikes, and many grandparents of the middle aged crewmembers still bore the physical and spiritual scars of that terrible time. John thought about the moral implications of the question, and he had a moment of clarity, realizing that 273 in its own way wasn't asking for someone to tell it if it was evil or not.

What it was looking for was forgiveness for what it had done. That is what 273 was really seeking, whether it realized it or not, which it most likely didn't considering the naivety and childlike ignorance of battle AIs such as 273.

He needed to answer the question. it was obvious 273 was suffering from a conflict within its ethical subroutines, and John wondered if Captain Renault was fucking stupid or just plain ignorant to the risks of having 273 lose its goddamn mind while they tried to repair the ship and get back home.

If no one else was willing to give 273 what it really wanted, then he would do so. He wanted to go home, and they needed 273 to do that. A flash of guilt passed through him as he recognized his own selfish motivations for doing so, but that was something he was willing to do if it meant getting back home.

Lying to the AI was the least of his problems right now, and he turned his eyes back to the intercom to do what needed to be done as he nervously cleared his throat.

"273, what you did was wrong. You had no right to choose the fate of those poor people, no matter how terrible their last moments were. You also did the right thing by mercifully ending their torment, 273.

I know saying you were both right and wrong might not seem logical to you, but I promise you; what I am saying is true, and they do not conflict with one another. Do I think you are evil, 273? No. Do I think what you did was evil? No, 273, but what you did was wrong, and you can never do that again, ever; do you understand me?"

John paused, thinking of a way to phrase what he was going to say next to emphasize the point and maybe prevent 273 from suffering a catastrophic failure so they could get home. It was likely 273 would be decompiled and erased when it returned to Republic space, and John was determined to grant the peace it wanted so badly for the little time 273 had remaining before that happened.

"I forgive you for what you did and the choice you made, 273, and I think those people on the planet would forgive you as well if they were given the chance to judge you."

A long and very uncomfortable silence followed when John finished speaking, but he noticed the static did not return this time as he waited for 273 to respond. After almost two agonizingly long minutes passed, 273 finally responded in a somewhat normal voice.

~ I must analyze what you have told me to gain a better understanding. I will depart and allow you to recuperate undisturbed. Thank you for forgiving me, John. ~

The small red intercom light went dark, and John stared at it for a long time, wondering if he had done the right thing before drifting off to sleep and dreaming fitfully of rogue AIs glassing entire worlds.

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