We all gathered in the main hall. The young ‘Mites and Queen were surrounded by the adults. Five more refugee ‘Mites had arrived since the battle, waiting outside until I allowed them entry. None of our Hive would mistake them for enemies, but the Queen’s safety depended on vigilance. No ‘Mite approached to receive her oil without my initial okay. And no other ‘Mites even considered questioning the authority I’d taken on in this task. Even our strongest Soldiers deferred to me when I stalked through the Hive to sniff out a stranger. Mo might be in charge of the human population, but I was in charge of the Hive.
To ease my muscles after the fight, I’d made a long dive into the underground river here and harvested a basket of waterbugs, which the ‘Mites were enjoying raw. I was famished, and ate three of my own. The other men wrinkled their noses.
“Those look disgusting. How can you eat that?” They munched on dry strips of seal.
I grinned. “It’s the best. How can you eat THAT?”
Mo sat down next to me, chewing on his meat strip, eyeing my raw waterbug. “Those have got to be so full of parasites . . . Is that what they fed you?”
The shell of the last waterbug cracked in my hands and I slurped it down. “These, and the other shellfish, and the algae from the ship, I guess. Whatever else the Gardeners could grow in the mushroom patches or gather from the land around.”
He shook his head at my slimy meal. “So what happened down there?”
“It’s . . . I don’t know how to describe it.” The ‘Mites had tried to tell me, but the clicking language didn’t have words for what they did. “It’s a thing for them. I saw it back at the old Hive, on that last day when the old Queen laid her eggs on me. They all did just what we did. Got that oil from their Queen.” I shivered in disgust. She was ancient. Sick. Her oil would be foul and putrid. “It’s a thing they do, apparently. All the Hive goes down to get the oil. It’s . . .“ I trailed off. How could I express the pure rapture that coursed through me when I received her blessing? Mo had tried and felt nothing.
“But it didn’t work for me,” he said. “I touched it and felt nothing. Still got nothing.”
“No. I don’t know why. Maybe because she shared my blood?”
He glanced at Gil, who was fawning over the Queen in the corner. All the ‘Mites had accepted him. His whole scent had changed. “But it worked on Gil, apparently. He touched that stuff and got . . . what, converted? Inducted?”
“She made him hers.” I sucked down the last waterbug and licked out the shell. “I don’t understand it. But her oil made him part of the Hive. We all are.” I gestured around the room. “It’s like . . . like all of us are just part of the same body, different parts of one big thing.” I wished I had words for what I wanted to express, but they didn’t exist.
“He didn’t share her blood, though,” Mo said. “She was never on him, was she?”
“No.”
“So why does it work on him and not on us?”
I had no answer.
Mo stood up and stretched. “Well, maybe Lexis can figure it out.” He looked around the room. “We need to let them all know what’s happened here. The attack, and the Queen. We need to get everyone together and sort out a plan.”
Exhaustion was tugging at my bones. The wounds I’d taken in the battle that morning felt hot, and every muscle ached.
“We should be safe for a couple of days at least,” I said. “The old Hive won’t expect their Soldiers back right away, and when they don’t return, they’ll have to sort out another patrol to send at us.”
The Queen in the corner folded her legs under her and lowered her head. All the young ones clustered around her, and the adults settled in, guarding the sleepy juveniles.
“But they’ll smell her for miles,” I continued. “We need to get our people out of there and get far away from here. They won’t stop. They can’t.”
Gil wandered over and plopped down next to me. “They’ll never stop until she’s dead,” he agreed. “I can’t explain it. I wasn’t even thinking, just had this impossible need to kill her. Until she accepted me as hers.”
Mo shook his head. “I don’t get it. And right now, I’m too tired to think.” He set up a night watch rotation among the humans, knowing the ‘Mites would set their own. “In the morning we’ll send a runner up the mountain. See what we can come up with. And now, I’m going to bed.”
He stalked away to his chamber.
I pulled my pile of hides out and snuggled up to sleep next to the Queen.
***
In the morning, we started harvesting what we could from our dead ‘Mites. The huge Digger claws that cut right through rock could be mounted onto a handle and swung like a sword. I’d proven that Builder mandibles were formidable. It felt wrong to be taking these parts from ‘Mites who had died to save our new little Hive, but I knew that if I had died and some part of me could be used to keep the Queen safe, I’d want the survivors to take it and use it.
And it was obvious that we would need weapons, and practice using them. Soldier ‘Mites were born to kill. We had a lot of catching up to do.
The men argued about where to go as we all harvested the sharp parts from the dead ‘Mites.
Carl thought we should take all the ‘Mites up to the cave where the rest of our people were currently hiding. “We can build enough fires and keep them inside close by. They’ll stay warm enough.”
“And what will they eat?” Mo crouched next to a dead Digger, using a mandible to saw the claw into two usable parts. “What will we eat? You know there’s nothing up there.”
“So what’s your plan?”
Mo’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t have one.” He looked over to where I was working on another unfortunate Builder. This one had been missing a leg when it showed up. It was missing more than that now. “I didn’t think they’d be able to find us here. Thought once we got her, we’d have time to raise her before we attacked the Hive to get our people back.”
I pulled at the strong jaw on the dead ‘Mite. “They’ll never leave us alone here. What’s the other way?” I pointed away from the coast where the sick Hive was, toward the long flatlands and low hills I’d never known existed.
“More ‘Mites,” Carl said. “A million smaller Hives, all stinking mad as soon as they see you.”
Mo nodded. “The Queen on the coast, the one that has our people, she’s lived a long time. Way too long. Should have been replaced by new Queens. But having our people to do all their work made her way too powerful. No other Hives anywhere around; she killed them all. But when you leave her territory, they’re everywhere, all battling among themselves. There’s nowhere safe.”
I sat back on the ground in the sunshine. The sky was grayer today than usual. Mo had told me the whole planet was surrounded by a cloud of tiny rocks flying in space. The sky didn’t look like rocks. Just like a high, gray cloud, some days thick and dark, others open to distant blue.
“Then what are we waiting for?”
They looked at me.
“They’re going to keep coming. We know that. We’re not going to be safe as long as she rules that Hive. So let’s figure out a way to get our people out of there and kill the Hive once and for all.”