The greenish hue that reflected from the glistening exterior of Gylmus One did not travel into the cave. The darkness within enveloped Jadis, seeming to absorb any sign of light. Blinking, a thin set of lids covered his eyes and he could make out the outlines of the wall face, following a path that led down and narrowed as he went.
The gills at both sides of his neck were pulsing. He could feel the influx of oxygen even as they began to freeze in the chill. Moving as quickly as his furred legs would carry, Jadis descended, following the path, crouching, and eventually crawling through an opening. Then he was falling.
In the slight gravity, his touchdown was more surprising than it was painful. Standing, he could now hear the chittering and gnawing of the Antogin in the distance. The cave walls were farther apart here and he could see the edges were smoother, the rock flat and unblemished. His forked tongue tasted oxygen, though it was thin and he took a slow breath, allowing his gills to calm.
Jadis moved along the narrowing walls and toward a dim light in the distance. His breaths came in short wheezing gasps and his steps, though hurried, began to slow. A numbness had started to set into his limbs and shivers ran down his spine. Grasping the applicator in his coat, he injected another dose of the stimulant into his veins and straightened his back.
Widening his stride, easing his breathing, Jadis sprinted down the passageway and into an Antogin nest.
Chapter Fourteen
Betta & Jadis
It was Sera Rankor that pulled her from the stasis box. His translator was in place, a small oblong dot that spoke from the soft area beneath his mandibles. “You have my apologies, Miss Reganta. I had hoped to paint you, rather than assault you.”
Betta lay limply in his arms, her body unable to pull her into a dignified pose of any sort. After several attempts, she gave in to her paralysis and merely studied the glimpses of hundreds of Antogin that moved past them, brushing against them, crawling the smooth walls and the narrow passageways that led to other hints of light.
Sera Rankor carried her down a tunnel and into a place where her vision strained to see hints of figures that worked in the background, quietly skittering around them. He paused in the center of that dark place and set her on the ground.
“There are truths,” he said, “that are not known to you. We are not violent creatures. There is a great suffering that has changed our queen. She is not as we knew her. This suffering must be resolved or we cannot move forward.”
She wanted to ask about the dead federal agents, the attempts on Jadis’s life. Instead, a soft whimper exited her lips and nothing more.
Sera Rankor stepped into the darkness further and she lost any sight of him. “He comes now.”
Out of the darkness came an immense figure, a massive Antogin with mandibles five times the size of Sera Rankor. A bulbous body shifted loudly against the smooth rock. Droplets of saliva dripped from these protrusions and the exoskeleton of the creature was scarred and ragged. There was no voice to the words of the Queen of Five as there had been when she spoke in holographic communication. There was simply the pressure in Betta’s head that sent her eyes rolling to the back of her skull. “Betta of Arys!”
Betta shuddered under the power of those words. Her mind and body recoiled at the way it rippled through her bones, echoing into a place in her being that she didn’t know existed. Another whimper released and her spine curled, her chest rising to contort her body.
Understanding came in increasing waves of pressure that caused her to lose all of her senses. In seconds, she was riding a wave of emotions that were all tinged with loss, longing, confusion, and constant agony.
The Queen of Five was not the last queen, or a significant one at that. Queens tended to live isolated lives, their fates decided by their purpose and gender. Every few minutes she gave birth to new Antogin, her body feeding and producing, despite her desire to rest or pause. After the first few cycles, it became secondary to her nature. Primary were the minds that were birthed and connected, forming a bond that was broken only at great distance, a love that was inconceivable to any other.
Each one was given a name, by her, and they were, each and every one, a part of her that left an empty space when they passed. The lifespan of the Queen of Five was difficult to know from her perspective, but Betta knew she’d been alive for centuries. Her children did not live such long spans of time and she had said her goodbyes to several generations, but where there was once a natural transition in loss, there was one that did not go easily into the darkness. There was one that still cried out to her, and whose call could not be silenced.
The name she gave him was Res Dai. There were other Res Dais over the generations. Each one was resilient, petulant, and, for an Antogin, rebellious, yet brave and loyal. When she saw a Res Dai, the Queen of Five, was certain to pay special attention because they made waves in Antogin advancement.
Betta knew the rest without the impressions the Queen of Five forced on her mind. She could conclude where they were headed after her conversation with Tylen. The impressions came regardless.
Taken prisoner by Pilo, Res Dai was tortured and experimented upon. Betta lived and died several times under the memories of the hive mind. These memories and impressions came in loops that threatened to destroy her sense of self. At some point, Betta truly believed that she was Res Dai, and she begged her Pilo captors to kill her and end their torture.
Drones were sent to save Res Dai, or kill him, should the opportunity arise, but all were lost. Thousands were sent and finally the Queen of Five simply sat listening until there was the reprieve of complete silence.
The silence lasted two cycles. During that time, the Queen of Five burrowed and birthed the new generation. The confusion came then because Res Dai reappeared in her mind, yet his mind was alien. Then, he cried anew, his mind familiar and despairing.
Betta’s tongue worked, swallowing dryness. She tried to speak. There was nothing.
Res Dai was trapped, lost within Jadis Ter, and unable to escape, unable to speak to the new being that Pilo experimentation created. All he could do was cry out to the hive mind, begging for an end.
The pressure halted there and Betta was grateful, her eyes falling back to their original position, her back relaxing, and her chest lowering. There was no further communication and the Queen of Five backed into the darkness. There was an understanding, a request, not an order, but a request from the queen, and, despite how Betta felt about Jadis, she had agreed.
Most of her body was numb, yet she pulled herself into a fetal position, drawing her knees close to her chest.
Sera Rankor was in view now and it was he that handed her the applicator along with the drug within it into her unfeeling hands. “Will you follow the queen’s wishes?”
“I said I would. I will.” Betta was relieved she could finally speak.
Sera Rankor’s head bobbed in reverence. “You have saved us twice, Betta of Arys.”
“I’m doing this for Jadis. Make certain she remembers the agreement. If she doesn’t stand by her word I will make certain that none of The Five live.” The threat, Betta felt, wasn’t a hollow one. If she lost Jadis to this, she vowed to destroy any and all Antogin associated with The Five, no matter the cost.