Captain Ji-Jua was standing at the royal’s side. He was a serious-looking offi?cer with a reputation for probity. “The humans are fi?ring at us, Majesty,” the naval offi?cer replied gravely. “They have a quantity of shoulder-launched missiles looted from human military bases—and it may have been a lucky shot from such a weapon that brought the transport down.”
“I fi?nd it strange that when we manage to destroy an enemy ship it’s always ascribed to skill—but when they do it we refer to it as ‘luck,’ ” the Queen observed tartly. “And where is the transport? I expected to see it by now.”
“It’s diffi?cult to see because of the rain,” Ji-Jua replied tactfully. “The stern is half-submerged in that lake—but the bow is resting on dry land.”
The Reaper shuddered gently as a surface-to-air missile exploded against her screens. The ship’s combat computer ran a lightning-fast series of calculations and fi?red an energy cannon in response. The blue bolt slagged everything within twenty feet of the point from which the rocket had been launched.
But the royal was oblivious to such details as the crash site came into full view. There were hills to the left and right as the task force slowed and hovered above the wreck. The Queen knew, as did everyone else, that roughly half of the three hundred troops traveling on board the transport had been killed on impact. The survivors were not only alive, but still fi?ghting, as wave after wave of murderous humans attacked them. And, as smaller ships spread out to suppress enemy fi?re, a task force led by the Queen herself was about to rescue the beleaguered troopers. Video of that was sure to raise morale throughout the empire. Pictures that would look even better if taken on the ground rather than inside a warship. The Queen stood. “I will lead the rescue party myself,” she announced. “I’ll need my armor and a rifl?e.”
Captain Ji-Jua reacted to the statement with undisguised alarm. “Majesty!” the offi?cer said. “Please reconsider! The situation on the ground is extremely unstable. . . . I could never allow you to risk your life in such a manner!”
“You not only can, you will,” the royal responded sternly.
“Or I can replace you here and now. . . . Which will it be?”
Ji-Jua wanted to resist what he believed to be an extremely poor decision, but the force of the monarch’s personality combined with a sudden fl?ood of pheromones, was more than the offi?cer could overcome. “I’m sorry, Majesty,” he said contritely. “It shall be as you say.”
Thirty minutes later the Queen was aboard an assault boat headed for the surface. The plan was to secure a landing zone, hold it long enough to load the beleaguered soldiers, and take off as soon as possible. Which, given total command of the air, should be relatively easy to do. Thanks to the monarch’s reassuring presence, plus their natural feelings of superiority, morale was high as the boat put down three hundred feet west of the wreck. The stern ramp made a loud thud as it hit the ground. A trio of fl?ying vid cams went off fi?rst, followed by the Queen and four members of the Imperial Guard. As the Ramanthians shuffl?ed out into a cold rain, the lake was only twenty-fi?ve feet to their left, which should have been a good thing. Except that sixteen SCUBA-equipped freedom fi?ghters chose that moment to surface and open fi?re! Half of the humans had never fi?red a weapon in anger, and their bullets kicked up spurts of dirt and rainwater, as they held their triggers down. The original plan had been to attack the downed transport from the water side, but with a group of Ramanthian soldiers directly in front of them, the humans had no choice but to attack or be attacked. The Queen was wearing body armor, but one of the fi?rst bullets the animals fi?red found the seam between the stiff collar that protected her neck, and the material that cloaked the rest of her elongated body. The projectile punched a hole through the royal’s chitin and nicked her posterior nerve bundle before exiting through the other side of her body, where it slammed into her armor. The whole thing came as a complete surprise to the Queen, who being all-powerful in every other respect, believed herself to be invulnerable on the battlefi?eld as well. There was no pain, just a sense of disbelief, as she collapsed and lay helpless in a large puddle of muddy water. There was a great deal of shouting, pincer clacking, and confusion as the royal’s bodyguards grabbed what they feared was a dead body, and attempted to carry the limp burden toward the assault boat. But they were under fi?re the entire time, and two of them fell, thereby dumping the alreadywounded monarch onto hard ground. So two of the rank-andfi?le soldiers stepped in to help, got hold of the inert body, and helped drag it up the ramp.
Once the royal was on board, the pilot lifted, thereby leaving the rest of the fi?le to be slaughtered, as those on the Reaper subjected the aviator to a nonstop fl?ow of frantic orders. Ten minutes later the assault boat and its special cargo were safe inside the warship’s launch bay, where a team of medical personnel was waiting. They rushed on board and, having made an initial assessment, delivered the good news:
“The Queen lives!”
That was true, but it quickly became apparent that while conscious, the royal was paralyzed from the neck down. The effort to rescue those trapped on the surface continued as a despondent Captain Ji-Jua took the actions necessary to transfer the royal to the battleship Regulus, where a team of medical specialists would be waiting to receive her. Chancellor Ubatha was present as the Queen was brought aboard the battleship some three hours after the injury. He shuffl?ed alongside the high-tech gurney as the monarch was wheeled into a waiting operating room. A consensus had emerged by then. All of the doctors agreed that initial efforts should focus on stabilizing the monarch, so they could evacuate her to Hive, where the empire’s foremost surgeons would be brought in to evaluate her condition. For that reason, the initial operation was mostly exploratory in nature and didn’t last long. It took the Queen half an hour to recover from the effects of the general anesthetic, but once she did, Ubatha was summoned to her side. Although the royal lacked the ability to move her body, she could talk, albeit with some diffi?culty.
Ubatha felt a genuine sense of affection for the warrior queen, and that, plus the chemical cocktail that permeated the air around her, caused a genuine upwelling of sympathetic emotions as the offi?cial looked down on her. “I’m sorry,” the Queen croaked. “But it looks like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But even that can serve our purposes. . . . Make sure video of what took place is seen throughout the empire. Along with assurances that I’m still alive. I think I can assure you that the Ramanthian people will fi?ght even harder after what happened to their Queen!”
“Yes, Majesty,” Ubatha said gently. “The people love you. . . . And your sacrifi?ce will show them the way.”
“And that brings us to you,” the monarch put in.
“Me, Majesty? How so?”
“Until such time as I regain the full use of my body, you will serve as my surrogate. That will be diffi?cult for both of us—but we have no other choice.”
“Yes, Majesty,” Ubatha said obediently.
“We can discuss all of the procedural diffi?culties during the trip to Hive,” the Queen added. “But, fi?rst I want you to fi?nd Captain Ji-Jua, and check on his mental state. He attempted to dissuade me from participating in the rescue, but I overrode him, and I’m afraid he will blame himself.”
“Yes, Majesty. Right away, Majesty,” Ubatha said, as he backed away. “I’ll take care of it.”