NOVEL NEXT They Held The Line-Chapter Twelve-Hive mother
Kepler-51 System
2,556 light years from Earth, 2175 A.D.
The Hive mother entered the command drone, leading the smaller force that had flashed out of null space 425,000,000 kilometers from the primary and ordering the ten Hive ships and seven hundred cruisers to burn towards the second planet immediately.
The larger force, with twenty Hive ships and the remaining eight hundred cruisers, had flashed out at the normal range of 820,000,000 kilometers from the primary over eighty hours prior and assembled into two smaller formations.
Her sister took the bait and had her larger fleet of twenty-seven Hive ships and twelve hundred cruisers charge to the outer system to give battle.
The Hive mother took personal command of the outer system fleet, jumping between the two command drones as she launched dozens of hit-and-run attacks and denied her sister a full-on battle.
She hated having to lose Hive ships and cruisers as she sacrificed them in the outer system battle, but she had no choice in the matter. She did her best to minimize her losses, fighting with exceptional skill that her sister couldn't counter.
She had used several animal tactics that she had learned from the memories of the previous battles, and she was able to inflict serious losses on the larger fleet controlled by her traitor sister.
When the outer system fleet she was leading lost half their Hive ships and hundreds of cruisers, she had the surviving Hive ships and over four hundred cruisers retreat.
She had the fleet flee on sub-light engines, making her sister chase her fleet almost to the boundary of the system heliosphere before finally flashing out, losing another three Hive ships and over one hundred cruisers as her sister chased after her.
Now, her sister’s fleet was too far out to do anything when her second, smaller fleet flashed into the inner system and dashed towards the primary builder world, a large moon orbiting the second gas giant.
What remained of her sister’s fleet would take over one hundred solar hours to reach the primary builder world by sub-light, or more than eighty solar hours if she entered null space and flashed back out beyond 800,000,000 kilometers before heading to the primary builder world.
It did not matter what she did. The Hive mother’s feint had worked, and now there was nothing her sister could do to stop her from reclaiming what was rightfully hers.
Her traitor sister was so assured of her victory and angered by the Hive mother’s taunting that she charged for the outer system in a rage that blinded her and made her fall for the ruse.
The traitor did not leave even a single Hive ship to defend the builder world, and now the Hive mother resumed control of the smaller fleet as it neared the builder world.
In less than thirty solar minutes, they will reach orbit, and she will have the army of soldier drones on the ten Hive ships land on the planet and take over her sister’s Hive on the surface.
Feeling exhausted from the battle of the outer system, the Hive mother returned to her body on the Queen World and entered a resting state to refresh herself for the coming invasion. Her command drones will wake her when the time comes.
One and a half solar hours later, the command drone leading her armies woke her, and she entered the command drone, taking over its mind. She was now outside her sister’s Hive, and her army was in the last stages of finishing off the Hive defenders that had swarmed out to meet them.
Following thousands of soldier drones, she entered the Hive and headed towards the Nexus as the soldier drones continued to kill any drones that attempted to bar her passage.
She explicitly ordered the soldiers to minimize worker drone deaths and to merely stun them with the low-power setting of their hand weapons. She had a need for them after she captured her traitor sister.
Finally reaching the Nexus, she made the command drone she was controlling enter the queen chamber. The traitor was there, waiting for her.
The Hive mother felt grudging respect for her sister's refusal to flee, and she almost considered granting her mercy. The Hive mother within asked to share her thoughts, and she opened her mind.
The Hive mother within did not answer. She already shared her thoughts on the matter, and she had nothing to add.
Her traitor sister was sending thoughts to her, and she ignored them as she made the command drone approach her, pulling out the ceremonial dagger hanging off the harness around its thorax.
The traitor made no move and stood there, eyeing the command drone with contempt as it got closer to her.
She detected more thoughts from the traitor and let them into her mind. The least she could do was acknowledge the last thoughts of her sister before killing her.
The Hive mother heard her thoughts, and she gathered the courage necessary to perform the distasteful act she had to carry out. She sent her thoughts to her sister as she readied the dagger.
As soon as her thoughts were sent, she drove the ceremonial dagger in between her sister’s large black eyes, penetrating her brain pan as deep as it would go. She was ready, and she caught her sister’s body as it went limp.
She lowered the body and cradled her sister’s head with her thorax arms, feeling an overwhelming wave of guilt as she saw the dagger sticking out of the skull of her sister, who was still alive a moment ago.
Such a waste, my sister. Why didn’t you submit? I would have been a good Hive mother to you, and you would have spared me from the anguish of having to kill you. The queen thought to her dead sister, lamenting the loss of her precious genetic line and the wisdom of her ancestors within.
After holding her sister’s body for many minutes, she made the command drone get up and drag the body towards the Hive graveyard, where her sister would be unceremoniously dumped with the other corpses.
The burial rites reserved only for the queens were now forbidden to her disloyal corpse, and she will suffer the ignominious fate of being recycled into compost along with the other Hive dead.
She disposed of the body and went to the Nexus, where her soldiers were waiting for her. She went to the raised dais and sat in it, ordering the Hive ventilation system to purge the air within it to expel the last vestiges of her dead sister’s pheromones.
A few minutes later, she heard the clanging of the massive air handlers finally stop as they powered down after completely venting the massive Hive and replacing the atmosphere with fresh air.
She activated the pheromone glands of the command drone and concentrated as she started creating a specific blend of pheromones known only to the queens to regain the loyalty of the drones in the Hive.
A momentary sadness filled the command drone’s body, and the Hive mother felt it. The command drone knew she would be culled after the Hive mother left her; it would not be possible for the command drone to be allowed to live after the secret pheromone blend had been revealed to the drone.
The Hive mother felt guilty about it, wishing there was some way she could save the command drone’s life, but it just was not possible.
This was the way of the Hive. Pushing the inevitable outcome to the side, the Hive mother continued to release the pheromones into the circulation system and started ordering her dead sister’s command drones, the ones still alive in the Hive, to return to their functions.
There were ships to be built and another sister to be brought under her control or killed. As the other command drones went about restoring order to the Hive, she left the command drone’s mind she had taken over and entered a nearby soldier drone.
Through the soldier drone’s eyes, she could see the command drone try to recover from her possession as she leaned on a nearby column with unsteady legs. She made the soldier drone go behind the command drone and quietly sneak up behind her as she set the hand weapon to full power.
As she crept closer, she could see the back of the command drone’s head swivel around as it looked for the death it knew was coming.
Another flash of guilt passed through the Hive mother as she pointed the beam weapon at the back of the command drone’s skull and depressed the trigger, feeling the warm ichor splash against the soldier’s armored chitin as the invisible beam exploded the skull in front of it.
Dozens of nearby worker drones stopped what they were doing and stared at the soldier drone and the headless corpse of the command drone now lying on the floor for a few seconds before turning back around and resuming their tasks.
Two nearby undertaker drones headed over to the command drone corpse and picked it up, carrying the body between them as they brought it to a cart and dumped the body on top of the corpses already in it.
The Hive mother watched them move on, pushing the full corpse cart as they headed towards the Hive graveyard to empty it. She waited until they entered a tunnel and passed out of her view before leaving the soldier drone’s mind and returning to her body on the Queen World.
She had another rebellious sister to deal with. Hopefully she will see the wisdom of her dead sister’s thoughts and submit to the Hive mother.