Chapter 18 #3
“No,” I say with emphasis. “That was a test, and you failed. You knew perfectly well that you were acting against orders. You are not to even vaguely suggest a military officer kill herself. Nor are you to lead her into potential lethal danger like you did in that furnace. You have an infrared sensor, and you must have seen that there was an intense heat source ahead. Now, you are to completely remove that part of your processes as permanently as you can. If you can’t fully purge it, tell me and I will ask Krix’vorr to destroy you completely.
Because right now, you’re more dangerous to me than the locusts are. ”
I have the pleasure of seeing a drone lose its ability to speak, at least for a second.
“Yes, Captain,” he finally says. “I can treat that logic tree as a virus and isolate it. Stand by. Done.”
“How will I know if that worked?” I ask, finding myself not trusting him.
“If I ever again express myself defeatist, you will know.”
I sigh. That might be too late. “All right. Now go spy on them instead of me.”
“Yes, Captain. I’m sorry.” He buzzes off.
I let out a breath. I do want Lucius around. But he can't keep putting the mission above my life.
- - -
Helped by the translation flower, I catch up with the activity around me. Reports begin circling around the same problem: The Gzet.
A crew member kneels and offers another tablet. "The surviving enemy Harrower's records have been examined, Chief Harrower. There are references to the prey vessel and to Gzet activity in the region."
Krix'vorr scans the writing. His eyes move rapidly across the symbols before he hands the tablet back. "And their location?"
The crewer lowers his gaze. "There is no location attached to the records."
More tablets arrive. More fragments of information emerge from the defeated vessel's archives. Every report seems to confirm the same sequence of events: The Gzet found the wreck. The Gzet removed something from the wreck. Then they disappeared. Nobody knows where they went.
I feel my frustration growing with every report. "They just vanished?" I ask.
Several crewmembers glance toward me before quickly returning their attention to Krix'vorr. "The Gzet specialize in disappearing," he says.
Lucius zooms over. "That suggests a civilization with extensive trade routes, hidden infrastructure, distributed settlements, or all three."
"Exactly." Krix'vorr doesn't even look up from the tablet he's studying. Somehow that makes the agreement feel more definitive.
My brief surge of hope begins fading. Sophia survived the crash. At least I think she did. The Gzet probably took her. Now she's somewhere in a galaxy that suddenly feels impossibly large.
I cross my arms and stare at one of the lenses showing the drifting wreckage field. The answer has to exist somewhere. Entire civilizations don't simply disappear. "There has to be something we're missing."
Krix'vorr hands a tablet back to an underling before answering. "Really?"
"Every creature leaves traces," I state with more certainty than I feel. “Surely someone must know where the Gzet live?”
“That’s just it,” Krix’vorr rumbles. “They really are experts at vanishing. My Brood has searched for their base for a long time, but it hasn’t yet been found. We don't even have a clue. Not one.”
Before I can ask where they’ve looked, a pulse moves through the entire chamber.
The change is immediate. Conversations stop and crewmembers freeze in place. Several antennae flatten against skulls.
The sudden silence takes me a moment to understand. Nothing visible has happened, yet every locust in the room reacts as though something enormous just entered the chamber.
A crewmember drops to both knees and raises a tablet above his head. "Chief Harrower!" His voice carries an edge of tension I haven't heard before. "A Royal communication has arrived!"
The atmosphere changes again. I don't know much about locust society, but I've spent enough time among them to recognize fear. The crew aren't afraid of Krix'vorr. They're afraid of whoever outranks him.
Krix'vorr takes the tablet from the kneeling crewmember. For the first time since I've known him, his expression becomes completely unreadable.
He touches the device to his antennae and begins reading. Nobody speaks. The crew remain motionless. Even Lucius seems to sense that interrupting would be a mistake.
Krix'vorr reads the message once. Then again.
The silence stretches long enough that my imagination begins supplying possibilities. Maybe they've discovered Earth. Maybe the Queen wants information about me. Maybe she's already decided what to do with me.
Finally I step closer. "What is it?"
His gaze lifts from the tablet and settles on me. "It's from the Queen."
The words send a ripple through the room. Several crewmembers drop to their knees and the others lower their heads even further.
I look around the chamber before returning my attention to him. "That's clearly important."
"She wants me at the Nest immediately," Krix’vorr says.
I feel my stomach tighten. "And?"
"And I will bring you with me."
The words hang between us. Around the chamber, nobody moves. Nobody speaks.
For the first time since finding Sophia's wreckage, I find myself thinking about something else entirely. The Queen.
And whatever kind of creature could make an entire room full of giant alien warriors look nervous.