Carnage left behind after a recent battle. Likely caused by the recent revelation that the green queen has defied the will of their creator.
Dr. Bryant knew as much due to a wave of psionic fury he had felt directed at him days ago.
Selene represented an unprecedented occurrence, yet again. Likely brought about by the true nature of her abilities. Byrant was sure this entire farce was brought about by the Zykra's most ancient enemy. It was no coincidence that the very first Zykra she had created turned out to be aberrant.
None of it was mere coincidence. The odds were too astronomical.
Whatever had occurred, she currently possessed the means to separate the Zykra from their creator.
It was heresy of the purest form, and even now Dr. Bryant could feel the unbridled fury emanating towards him from Ku'senai.
She was currently positioned on the most solid chunk of caasiok remaining; she was alone in a field of dead Zykra miles in diameter.
The Sequester drifted in front of her, and he peered at her nervously through the window.
"M-my queen, I-I'm sorry. I failed you... my species. If you should turn your wrath upon anyone, it should be me. Not your brood; they are not at fault."
For a moment she only glared at him, as if waiting for him to decide if he had anything more to say.
Then suddenly his mind was overrun with wild visions and other eldritch sensations encephalons inflicted on those they 'spoke' with.
Most of the visions flashed quickly, displaying planets overgrown with Zykra flesh. Battles between the Zykra and other species, others far more advanced than humanity was.
Even species that also possessed the means to traverse space without technology.
Millions of years of endless Zykra expansion played out before his eyes.
These visions made her meaning clear to him, as words appeared in his mind.
Kill her.
"B-but, forgive me, your majesty... How? I am but one man."
Evolve.
He heard a dripping sound and looked to the smooth metallic floor below him. Red drops splattered again, and he brought a hand up to his nose. It came back bloodied.
She had infested him? When? Since the beginning? Is that why he could interface with her despite not being a telepath?
His arm jerked to the side and snapped in the wrong direction. It was clear that this would not be a clean transition like Selene's transformation was. There was no point in allowing him the ability to transform—he wouldn't be concealing himself within humanity's population.
Many tiny hairs began to grow up out of his now exposed flesh. It should hurt, but it didn't. He only felt the motion of it.
He started laughing madly; finally, he would experience his long-awaited ascension.
The scientist's maniacal cackling was interrupted when his lower jaw slowly distended from his face, then popped as it detached, falling to the floor. It was pushed away by something growing beneath.
The laugh became gurgled and low. Beastly, as his spine grew longer, ripping his lab coat in the process. Silver spurs began to rise out of his back in great numbers.
He was surpassing his limitations... He could feel it. The bandwidth of his mind and the potency of his analytical prowess increased by an immeasurable amount. And that was far less in comparison to his physical attributes.
This was the true gift of the Zykr—a shortcut that defied the god. If his failure was rewarded as such, then was it truly failure?
No... There was something else at work here. There must be a reason Ku'senai empowered him so. Is she, perhaps, preoccupied? It would explain it; the queen was not able to attack the humans directly yet.
Confirming his suspicions, other Zykra began to appear, reinforcing Ku'senai's position. Caasiok appeared in number around their position, exiting warp speed, sending purplish ripples across the space around each of them.
A rift opened up near the queen, and a familiar praetorian appeared out of it. A wasp standing upright essentially, but muscular. And instead of segmented eyes, it was as if he wore a knight helmet made of chitin. Tiny barbs lined the edges of it, and two slits existed in place of his eyes. Lightless.
Bryant could hear him now in the language that surpassed the meaning of words.
"My queen, the blue queen's brood approaches. We must leave."
No... Would they truly? Were they all so eager to please their creator as to fight each other for the glory of claiming humanity? What other cause could there be to have territorial disputes—now of all times?
Fury rose inside him, which seemed to gain Ku'senai's attention. She was pleased with his eager desire to serve and his understanding of his objective.
Go.
She ordered.
His lab coat was in tatters around his hulking form; his conversion was far from complete. But he made his way to the console, and with one of his few remaining fingers, he entered the coordinates to the cloning facility he believed Selene would be visiting next.
Only so many such facilities possessed the means to produce full-body clones after all.
His fingers exploded over the console, leaving behind a red pulp with fragments of bone mixed in.
The ship turned about and went into warp speed just as the blue queen's forces arrived.
When Jade came-to, it was like waking after a long dream. She remembered a bit, but it felt like remembering a night out drinking. It came in patches and sort of felt like it was someone else. Which it was.
She felt strong emotions again. Anxiety first and foremost. Then fear, regret, and a sickening acknowledgement of her circumstances. That she was a hybrid alien assimilated against her will, and her homeworld had been wiped out.
"Leave." The evolutionist demanded, his low voice causing her to flinch and look up at him from the table she lay on.
"What?" She asked, raising a hand into the light that shone from the psyphera on the ceiling.
Her hand was soft and human again. And green. Or at least, a faded shade of green that existed on top of her usual skin tone. With black fingernails.
"The fuck—?"
She turned over her hand, examining her body. Jade realized that she was naked as well—her exoskeleton was gone. Which was a small relief.
"Jade?" Hensley asked. Her tall, bald 'friend' was there. Though now she felt a tinge of fear and revulsion towards him. He was massive and still had his exoskeleton. "How do you feel?"
She wore a deadpan expression then; a bit of her cutting personality returned reactively.
"I'm naked. Get the fuck out."
"Both leave. I require space." Evo agreed.
She sat up. "Where are my clothes?"
Selene said they would have clothes when they woke up.
Hensley pointed to a few racks and shelves near the door. Green slacks and jackets with gold trim as well as black boots of varying sizes were available.
"Hurry. Many remain."
She staggered a step off the table, and Hensley held out his hand for her to hold. Jade glared at him for a second but then sighed and took his hand. Then they moved towards the collection of clothing, and she got dressed. She was getting used to this weaker body still.
She began to take the clothes off the racks.
It was odd seeing man-made stuff on a ship made of bug guts.
As soon as she stepped out, she distantly heard crying and different arguments playing out. The room outside was much larger, like a fleshy hangar, and at least a hundred people were standing around in a similar outfit. Sunlight shone in from a large opening ahead; the caasiok's mouth was open, but some unseen force was keeping the void of space out.
Hensley had remained behind to help process others infested, but she saw two familiar people.
Jae-sung and Penelope. The Christian woman who used to obsess over her cross necklace all the time. It was odd to see them without their bulky exoskeletons. Though they were all green, the exact shade was different due to differences in their natural skin tone.
Penelope saw her approaching, and her eyes lit up.
"Jade!" Her blonde curls bounced as she ran over and hugged her. "Thanks for saving me... I would've died if you didn't look out for me."
She was way more talkative now than before... And sounded choked up. Jade held her arms away from the hug as if Penelope were dirty, then reluctantly patted her shoulders.
"Yeah-yeah, good to see you too... Honestly, I was just thinking of what was most efficient for my own survival at the time."
Jae-sung had walked over, his expression concerned but surprisingly stoic. Especially compared to Penelope's.
"That's how all of us were, it seems. The queen warned us we'd feel like fish out of water for a while..." He looked across the crowd of people gathered across the caasiok hangar. "A lot of people are still dealing with the loss of their families. Now that we can process what happened."
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Many people were just sitting around. Weeping. A couple of people arguing—brothers, it looked like. A fight broke out somewhere else, and one person was trying to jump off the edge of the hangar but was held back by others. It was a chaotic mess.
"Damn..." Jade said slowly, looking at the chaos around them.
It was about 15 minutes later when Hensley joined them; it seems that the evolutionist found another assistant. Even the largest set of clothes was stretched across his bulky body. Every muscular edge was well defined.
"You look good too." He said as he approached them, likely noticing their stares.
She 'harrumphed' and crossed her arms.
"How are you feeling?" Jade asked him.
Hensley was basking in the sun now. "Was that sarcasm? Well, I feel one part horrified and two parts glad to be alive still." He took a deep breath before speaking again. "That being said—I definitely don't feel good. We lost a lot of people. I expect just about everyone I knew is dead now. Not that I had many people in my life before."
He acknowledged the elephant in the room. That was something they all felt. Jae-sung nodded.
"We can't afford to wallow in it; we should help the others acclimate. Not everyone is handling it as well as we are," he said.
Jade scoffed. "You guys can. I'm just going to wait to hear what Selene has to say."
Penelope swallowed uneasily. Then nodded.
"I was useless before, but I feel like I can help. This is the exact kind of situation his light is needed most of all..."
She moved towards the center of the crowd. Jade went to stop her, but Hensley put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Jade looked back towards the mousy girl with dirty-blonde curls taking her place in the center of the crowd.
"Hello?" She asked meekly, addressing the crowd. One or two looked, but most ignored her. "Please, listen. I have something to say!"
Hensley moved to her side.
"Listen up, bugbrains!" His booming voice echoed across the fleshy hangar. A solid chunk of the crowd looked then. "The lady has something to say." He pointed a thumb in her direction.
Penelope nodded and stepped forward.
"My name is Penelope... I used to work at the church on my colony, and we often had people visit who were going through difficult times..."
"Oh god." Someone nearby said and rolled their eyes.
"If there are some here who feel frightened, please listen. These aren't my words; they're his. From the book of Joel..." She cleared her throat, and her words became more confident. "Fear not. O land, for the Lord will do great things."
Her eyes searched the crowd as she remembered the rest of the verse. Lingering her gaze on those who were more reciprocative.
"Be not afraid, beasts of the wood: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, and the fit tree and vine do yield their strength."
"You're just saying random shit!" Someone in the crowd shouted.
"I'm not! He's saying to have hope in dire times because it won't be like that forever! In ancient times on Earth, locust swarms would eat up all the crops! And the book of Joel says that, like all things, it will come to pass!"
Jade tilted her head to the side; religious cooks never made sense to her. Random poetic words didn't hold much meaning in reality. But some people in the crowd were actually buying into it.
Maybe Penelope's hope was infectious, even if it amounted to little more than wishful thinking.
Though a decent amount of people went back to ignoring her sermon and bickering amongst themselves.
"Joel 2:23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately. And he will cause to come down for you the rain. The former rain and the latter rain of the first month."
"My family is fucking dead; I'm done listening to this dribble." Someone said it and walked off.
"And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. The lord is saying that abundance will be in our future if we persevere!"
Jade sighed. "Penelope..." She tried to grab her arm, but she tore it away.
"And I will restore to you the years the locust hath eaten! My great army, which I sent among you! You shall be satisfied and praise the name of your lord that hath dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be ashamed!"
She sniffled; all but a handful of people had dispersed at this point. "And... you will know that I am the lord and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed... Amen," she said quietly.
Jae-sung, Hensley, and Jade gave her sympathetic looks. It was clear how much all of this had challenged her faith.
"Well said, sister. "A man said, stepping towards her. He put a hand on her shoulder. "I admire your strength of spirit. It might not seem like it now, but I think your words had a positive effect on these people."
She nodded. "Thank you..."
He smiled and nodded back, then moved into the crowd. Penelope's eyes nervously shifted to them then. Jade gave her a polite smile.
"Yeah, I'm not religious, but I liked that part about the army of locusts... It's kind of ironic—"
Just then a familiar presence washed over Jade.
"Hey again."
It said.
Jade flinched and looked over her shoulder—but no one was there. But then she recognized the sound of the voice.
"Oh, it's you."
Her friends looked at her confused.
"It's the queen. She wants me to speak for her," Jade explained. They all exchanged looks at that. The voice reappeared in her head.
"Mind if I—?"
"What do I get?" Jade asked.
The voice was silent for a time after that. As if pondering her question.
"...What do you want?"
"Well, Penelope's guy promised her wheat, wine, and... oil?" She cast an inquisitive glance at Penelope.
"Haha, very funny." She mock laughed. "I heard the sermon; it was a nice distraction for everyone. But seriously, I'm not against paying you for representing me today. Should be the last time I need to do this, though."
Jade thought about it for a second.
"Can you make me less green?" She asked. "Or get rid of these." She gestured to the antennae on her head.
"I don't see the big deal; they look fine to me... But I'll talk about the way everyone looks when I address them. How about I just owe you one for now?"
Jade nodded. It was kind of hard to think of something on the spot, with how upended everything was.
"Good. This should only take a minute."
She felt a warm sensation as Selene took over her body; her stray thoughts and feelings floated at the periphery of her mind. And she felt sleepy.
Her friends saw Jade adjust the narrow green collar on her uniform. The glint in her eyes had changed, and the way her face rested; it was clear it wasn't Jade anymore. It was like she became ten years younger in the way she carried herself.
"I guess I better get their attention." They heard her say as she jogged over to the edge of the hangar. A valve-like orifice flipped open there, revealing a large hallway interior. And people began to look nervously over as a hulking beast began to walk out.
"W-what the fuck is that?" They heard someone say. There were a few concerned gasps as the infested noticed the alien.
It was like the bug version of a rhino four times its usual size. Plated in barbed carapace. Jade climbed onto its back and stood on it as it continued to walk forward. Stopping in front of the crowd of people who seemed to be on the verge of running away.
"I'm Selene Carrington, the queen of the Zykra, like the one you see here." She gestured to the slaad she stood on. It was an expensive variant, but good for drawing enemy fire. "I was just a normal girl, raised on a farming colony in the outer rim. My body was destroyed, but I have plans to fix that. For now I live on in spirit, I guess. I'm borrowing Jade here to speak with you all. Any questions?"
The crowd started murmuring amongst themselves. Then someone shouted out.
"What happened to our homeworlds!?"
Jade/Selene's expression didn't change at that. She expected the question. Their hurt, frightened vibes filled the Caasiok hangar. She swallowed.
"I wiped them out."
Gasps spread out throughout the crowd once more, and some began to cry again. Falling to their knees. Many people began to shout then.
"You fucking murderer!" "What's going to happen to us?"
"Psycho bitch!" "What are these growing out of my head!?"
"I-it wasn't a dream..."
Selene just took it all in and breathed deeply. Then raised a hand. The Slaad raised its head slightly too, showing its long horned mandibles. The crowd quieted.
"Nothing I say can bring back your families... your homes—your lives from before. When I used my army to attack your worlds... I wasn't myself. You're right, I was a monster. I tried too hard to push the Zykra away, and one day the Zykra pushed back. It was too strong for me to handle. That's not the case anymore, and it will never be again."
The murmurs grew, and someone shouted.
"How can we be sure!?"
"—You can't. I plan to earn your trust a bit at a time, which started with restoring your emotions. All of you feel what you do—because I wanted to do something, anything—to make amends. We'll all have to live with what's happened, but I have the ability to help you all live a better life going forward."
A man pushed through the crowd and glared up at her.
"How!? How could you possibly pay us back for all the damage you caused? Your monsters tore my life apart, and now what? You want us to live with them like nothing happened?!"
"No. I... am going to create a country. We'll build you new homes and new lives. It's all I have to offer... It has to be good enough. Because what other choice do we have—do any of us have? I'm in the same boat as all of you! I—"
She stopped herself and tried to calm down. She adjusted the hem of her uniform again. Aboleth designed these things to be too tight.
"I lost my life too. My home was taken by the Zykra, same as yours. Even my own body was destroyed. We all make mistakes; we suffer setbacks. Some worse than others... And who knows? Maybe things will get better down the road; they definitely have before."
The crowd was silently watching her now. She expected to be hounded with another wave of questions, but it seems like they were waiting for her to say more.
"In a few hours we'll touch down on a world called Endelon 2. It'll be a nice change of scenery for you, I think. We'll probably have to live in the half-finished colony there, but it'll be better than this." She gestured to the fleshy hangar around them. "I have someone coming to help us rebuild it. They can contact people for you and get you things. They'll also interview you and find out how each of you can contribute. We'll put a society together in the next few weeks, so be ready."
A woman who was crying spoke next, in between broken gasps. It took a lot just for Selene to keep a straight face through it.
"We don't deserve this; this is tyranny! What about our voice and what we want!? We just have to go along with everything you say!?"
"Good point, but I can't really talk to you all at once. Choose 10 people to represent you. We'll meet every so often, and they can bring up stuff they want to talk about, like a town hall. We'll figure it all out as we go, trust me."
They all seemed skeptical about the last line.
She probably just butchered her first opening address to her people.
Her people.
More like prisoners. But she knew it would be tough. Selene just had to be strong for a few weeks until they adapted to their new lives like she did.
"You're right to hate me for what I did. If it helps you cope... I'm not one of those queens who beheads people for talking crap about me. Just don't do anything crazy. The Zykra won't hurt you; as far as they know, you're one of them. Those antennae you have are for communicating with them; try not to antagonize them. They'll listen to you, but they're thinking, feeling creatures, same as us. You won't age, so at least there's that. And as far as I know, everything works like it did when you were human... Maybe I'll have a pamphlet made up to explain all this."
The murmurs picked up again, and people started shouting out questions, but Selene ignored them.
"Okay, that's all for now! Also, leave Jade alone! She is just a mouthpiece I'm borrowing, not your queen!"
Jade felt Selene's presence fade away from her and saw all the pleading faces looking up at her on top of the Slaad's back. She started looking for a spot to jump off.
"...So I just hop off?" The slaad started to move. "Whoa! Easy there, big guy."
They were all talking among themselves now. Asking each other questions. Some are petitioning to be representatives.
"Where do we go to the bathroom?" Someone asked. "Do you remember going to the bathroom when we were full-on Zykra, you idiot?"
"How am I supposed to know!? I never felt tired when I was like that either, and now I feel like taking a nap! Who knows what's changed..."
A man started shouting over the crowd.
"Vote for Greg Rothschild! A vote for Rothschild is a vote for a better future!"
Selene's plan was going as well as it could have, it seemed... Jade moved back over to her friends. Penelope was talking to the man from before, who complimented her on her sermon. He had some others with them.
"Young lady, I was wondering if you would like to represent us? Your passion earlier was very moving..."
Hensley nodded as Jade approached him; they ignored Penelope's conversation for now. She could decide for herself if she wanted to be a representative.
"Well, that was something," he said.
"It was... I wonder what Selene thinks we'll all be doing. Are we still soldiers or civilians?"
Jae-sung gave a half-smirk. "It seems that she expects us to figure that out for ourselves... I do respect her faith in people—but a lot of us are going to resent her for what happened to our colonies regardless of how good of a life she gives us now."
Jade gave him a skeptical glance.
"What can they do? She's a queen with godlike powers. Didn't you hear? Her body was fucking destroyed, and she came back anyways."
"It seems like death is a suggestion for Zykra," Hensley said. "Wonder how long we'll live now."
Jade stretched, weaving her fingers together and moving her arms above her head. "Save questions like those for the end of the week, shit. Representatives. Who needs to vote? I say just pick 10 of us at random."
"Gives us some semblance of autonomy, I suppose," Jae-sung said.
Penelope moved next to them. It seems her conversation with the other Christians concluded. She looked to each of them insecurely.
"I guess I'm one of the representatives..." she said.
"You didn't have to agree to it, you know," Jade told her.
"But I want to help?"
She had Jade's sympathy for that. Wanting to help people was a horrible condition to have to live with. She preferred selfishness, personally. Even now she was thinking about how she could turn this entire situation to benefit her.
Her life before wasn't fantastic as it was; if anything, this was an opportunity for her. And she wasn't alone in that feeling. They made up most of the people vying to be representatives.
While most people were still mourning their lost colonies, the air had shifted that way. There was purpose in them now. Hope. Not like there was any choice; it was either wallow in depression or try to make moves towards the future. In the absence of nothing, all you could do was hope.
Jade saw the planet come into view then. The caasiok had gradually drifted around the nearby sun and approached one of the planets in the solar system.
Many people gathered at the edge of the hangar's open maw to see it.
Clouds swirled around in the atmosphere, with large green landmasses and bodies of water. It was an ideal world, it seemed. They at least had that much going for them.
Behind the Chapter...
universal confederacy after all. I'm juggling a lot here, but I'm finally getting comfortable juggling it all. Kingdom building, family, space battles.
<<<>>> SHOUTOUT SECTION <<<>>>
Sci-fi ? Telepathy ? Psychics
The technocracy will fall. And my powers started it all. Oops.
- Straight & queer romances. (No harem.)
- Seven-book interconnected series.
- Comedy Space Operas: .
- WLW Psychological Thrillers: .