Utopian System

Zalvek backed away, his mind refusing to process what he was seeing.

How long had she been like this? Months? Years?

His eyes drifted to the window, to the outside world his queen had been observing in her final moments. What had she seen? How had she managed to leave the stasis chamber? And most importantly, who had...

A voice from behind startled him.

"So they arrived sooner than expected..."

A soft sound made Zalvek turn abruptly.

The shock paralyzed him.

Where he expected to find another artromus, he encountered something his mind refused to process. A female figure, almost completely human, stood in the shadows.

Her long hair floated softly as if suspended in water, framing a face that showed only the subtlest artromus features, much less pronounced even than those he had seen on the transformed human during battle.

Her eyes... her eyes were the most disconcerting. Not completely human, but not multifaceted like those of his species either. Something in between, something that shouldn't exist.

Zalvek instinctively backed away, his gaze alternating between the figure and his queen's shattered body.

The pieces began to fit in his mind, forming an image he refused to accept.

Instinct hit Zalvek like an electric current.

His transformed claws extended automatically at the sight of the abomination, a perfect imitation of the parasites they so despised, but with subtle features that made her even more disturbing.

"Finally someone returned," the voice was soft, almost melodious, but charged with a natural authority that made his antennae bristle. "I was beginning to think I would die of boredom locked up here."

The casualness with which she spoke, as if her mere existence wasn't a blasphemy against everything the artromus considered sacred, made bile rise in Zalvek's throat.

His claws trembled with the impulse to eliminate this perversion of nature, but something held him back.

Perhaps it was the way she moved, with a grace that disturbingly reminded him of his queen, or maybe the way her eyes, those horrifying almost-human eyes, seemed to pierce through him with the same intensity his sovereign would.

Like a mere subject.

"What... what are you?" The words came out strangled, mixed with an instinctive growl of repulsion.

The figure moved, each gesture a contradictory mix of artromus elegance and human fluidity that made Zalvek's eyes hurt trying to process it. She approached the queen's body and touched it with a familiarity that made his blood boil.

"That," she said, pointing at the corpse with a casual gesture of her hand, "is a complicated question. But it's not the important one now, is it?"

She turned to him completely, and Zalvek had to resist the urge to back away again. There was something in her presence, something that made every fiber of his being scream in confusion and alarm.

"The important question is: what are we going to do about the humans who are claiming the rings?"

Zalvek found himself caught between the impulse to attack and an inexplicable compulsion to listen, his mind a whirlwind of horror and fascination.

"From what I read in your mind, the humans have taken the first ring very soon," the creature continued as if discussing the weather, completely ignoring Zalvek's aggressive posture. "Fascinating, don't you think?"

"Who are you?" Zalvek growled, his claws trembling with contained tension. "What did you do to our queen?"

She simply turned to the window, her hair undulating as if it had a life of its own. "So many boring questions," she sighed, observing the exterior landscape. "No interesting answers."

"Answer me!" Zalvek's voice resonated through the chamber. "How dare you profane this sacred place with your presence?"

An amused smile crossed the creature's face. "Profane? This place is as much mine as yours. More mine, probably."

Fury finally overcame horror.

Zalvek launched himself forward, his transformed claws aimed directly at the abomination's throat.

"Down."

A single word, pronounced almost with boredom.

Zalvek's body stopped dead.

His muscles trembled, fighting against an invisible force that compelled him to descend. His knee hit the ground with a dull thud while a growl of frustration escaped his throat.

He had prostrated himself instantly.

'Impossible,' he thought frantically. 'Not even the queen had such instant control over us... Without having my respect, she...'

The laughter that followed was light, almost musical. "Surprised?"

She approached him with soft steps.

"You know, I was once like you. Well, technically I still am, I just chose to activate the divine metamorphosis from the start. It's much more practical you see, less surface to keep clean, smaller target in combat."

It should be impossible, only the Queen could use divine metamorphosis. Zalvek struggled to speak through the invisible pressure. "What... what are you?"

"Well well, how persistent... I suppose you could call me the queen's daughter, seems I'm always the daughter after all," she responded casually, waving a hand toward the lifeless body. "Although technically, the relationship is more complicated than that."

Zalvek's eyes widened with horrified understanding. "You... you came out..."

"From inside her? Yes. Waiting in there would have been even more boring." She shrugged, a too-human gesture that made Zalvek shudder.

"But don't expect me to take her place. I have no interest in egg-laying or mating with anyone." Her nose wrinkled with disgust at the idea. "Frankly, I prefer to keep my body to myself."

"But... our species... we need..."

"Oh, stop babbling," she interrupted. "We have most of the 1000 years to choose another egg-layer from among the millions that will come after... Meanwhile, you can call me Zahyla. And no, don't call me 'my queen' or any of that nonsense. I'm not your queen, I don't want to be, and frankly, you have more urgent problems than the line of succession."

She crouched before him, her eyes, those disturbing almost-human eyes, studying him with curiosity. "Now, can we have a civilized conversation about the humans and their fascinating progress, or do you need more time to process all this?"

Zalvek, still prostrated and trembling under the invisible power that kept him subdued, found himself wondering if this was good or bad for his species.