Up and up, through tunnels I once knew only by sight. I breathed through my mouth, but it didn’t help. The yellow, rancid smell of death crept into the back of my burning throat.
Get the people. And get out.
A few ‘Mites skittered around the corners, but by scent alone I knew they were Diggers. They all tried to crowd me, feelers waving at my chest.
I must still carry a bit of her scent.
None of them tried to stop me, and I pushed through them, clicking “Come. New Queen.” I didn’t know if they would join us, but any who didn’t would be killed when the Hive collapsed next pollen time.
We wove up through the Hive, an ever-lengthening parade with me at the head. Together we became one of the thousand-legged bugs, flowing toward the Mothers’ Chambers.
At the entrance to those forbidden tunnels, I paused. I had never been down there before. The way was unfamiliar. In the distance, the dim light of glowstones shone from rooms along the hallway, but I didn’t need eyes to show me the way. The scent of closely packed humans was a beacon.
The two Diggers at the entrance touched me with their feelers and let me pass. They were never here to keep anyone out. Only in.
I could smell a large, open chamber straight ahead. As I passed smaller rooms on each side, people peered from the shadows. Women and babies.
“Come on,” I said to each little group. “We all need to be together now.”
They followed, carrying small crying bundles on their hips. Toddlers clustered around my legs and the parade of ‘Mites swelled with people.
At the end of the tunnel, a huge room stank of too many people too close together. It was brighter than the smaller chambers, with isolated shafts of light streaming in through air passages that led to the surface.
“Noah?”
I peered into the gloom. His scent was unfamiliar to me, but I knew his voice.
“Chen!” I forgot my carriage as ambassador for my Hive. Chen was here, alive.
He raced across the room and skidded to a halt in front of me.
I grinned and threw my arms around him. “I’ve come to save you!”
A look of wonder covered his features and his hand reached up to touch his chest where I had embraced him. He breathed in the faint scent of my Queen. All around me, the women and children sighed, crowding as close as they could to me.
I’d prepared a long speech. I had planned to tell them all about our ships from the stars, about the treachery of the Masters, about the chance for freedom with our people. A good sniff told me all that was unnecessary. The scent of blue hung faintly around the bowls left over from their breakfast.
My Queen had developed in a vat of algae. She lived there for days before I came to rescue her, imbuing it with the oils from her body. Every human in this Hive ate that algae.
They were already hers.
All I said was, “The Queen is outside. Come with me and join her.”
They followed with dreamy joy on their faces.
***
We emerged from the tunnel that led to the Mothers’ Chambers. On the way up toward the surface, groups of younger boys joined our many-legged walk. “Come to the new Hive,” I told them, and they trotted along with us.
In the large chamber near the entrance, we paused, gathering into a group. I looked around and realized there were a hundred people crowded in, surrounded by Diggers and Builders. The women were blinking, pale and squinting into the bright light. They clutched each other and their babies, fear warring with hope in their eyes.
“We’re going out, and we’re not coming back. There’s a new Queen. Young and healthy. There’s a new way to live. Fresh air and sunlight. We live with the Masters as equals, not as slaves.”
Their blank stares told me what I must have looked like when I was rescued and told the truth.
Chen was next to me. “They told me everything,” he said, nodding at the women. “We’re angels that fell from the stars, cast into the darkness for our wickedness. Only through service can we someday hope to return to the sky.”
What is he talking about?
“Um, not exactly,” I said. “We’re actually aliens from another planet, enslaved by a species that stole our history and made us believe we were inferior to them.” The original mothers would have known that. But over the years, the story must have changed. Now they looked at me as if I’d flown in on dragonfly wings to carry them straight into the sky. Kinni would have said: whatever works. I smiled at the people. “The new Queen is waiting for us.” That was good enough.
Noise from deep in the tunnel pricked my ears. I sniffed the dank air.
Soldiers. Time to go.
Not many. But it wouldn’t take many. These people weren’t fighters. Unarmed, they were shellfish waiting to be plucked from the sea. I peered among them, looking for two identical faces.
Kinni’s brothers weren’t there.
Chen wouldn’t know what happened. He’d been locked away in the Mothers’ Chambers. I searched the room for a boy who looked about the right age. “You there. I’m looking for two boys that look exactly the same. I don’t know their names, but I know they were here when I left. Where are they?”
The boy stared at me. “Matthew and Martin?”
“Sure. I guess so. About your age?”
He nodded. “They’re gone.”
My heart sank. I’d promised.
The boy continued. “They were messing around with stuff, started drawing with berry juice on the walls of our room. Making pictures.”
We weren’t allowed to do anything like that. When I’d lived here, I’d thought it was because the Masters wanted everything to look the same. Now I realized they didn’t want us developing a written language.
“When?” I demanded. “When did they take them away?” Please, please, please. I knew where they would have been sent.
“Yesterday.”
Hope flared in my heart. Yesterday. They would still be alive down there.
I turned to Chen.
“You have to lead them. Get them out of here.” I told him where to go, skirting the Forbidden Zone where the fighting would be happening right now. How long would our people keep the Hive’s Soldiers busy? How many had they killed? How many of ours had already died?
The Diggers and Builders wouldn’t fight for us here. They would follow me out, or stay here, but without the bond to a Queen they had never met, they would never defend us. I clicked for two of them to follow me.
I sniffed again. At least three Soldiers. Maybe four. Coming straight up the tunnel behind me.
“Go now,” I said, giving Chen a shove. “Get them out. Run for the mountains and I’ll catch up with you. Go!”
He opened his mouth to protest, then looked up at the bright sunlight streaming in through the doorway. “Eat well.” He dashed out the door, and the people followed him at my urging.
I turned into the dark tunnel and drew my machete.