Chapter 31
- Krix’vorr -
I go back to the command chamber and spend a long time there, just studying the Gzet hub. I could admire it for days, just circling above it and seeing all that’s soon going to be ours. All this will belong to the Swarm, and we will Harvest it.
It will be the greatest Harvest of any Brood, ever.
We will all be legendary, worshipped for as long as we live, richer and greater than any Brood has ever been.
With resources like this, our Swarm can grow so big that we can start to Harvest other Broods, as well.
And soon there will only be one Brood left: mine.
“The immensity of this is hard to grasp,” Sris says, sitting on my shoulder. “Nobody has ever served his Queen better, Chief Harrower. The Gzet planets are the fattest prey the Swarm has had.”
“The Harvest should start right away,” I state, strangely uneasy despite the great success. “Perhaps Nora’s friend won’t sell at this first auction and she can still be rescued when we come here again, with the Swarm.”
“Perhaps,” Sris says. “And perhaps she will tell you the location of the Earth, so that you can present that, too, to the Queen. The next Queen, I mean. For a later Harvest. But of course you don’t strictly need this new female when you already have one in your ship. Indeed, in your cabin.”
“I will suggest the Queen not permit travel past the minefield,” I state. “We won’t need Nora’s homeworld now.”
“Not for this Harvest, no,” Sris agrees. “But what about the next one? Well, I won’t go on about it. Perhaps you will leave the discovery of Nora’s homeworld to some other Harrower. You certainly don’t need it.”
I straighten up. “That’s right, I don’t. And perhaps the Brood also doesn’t need it. I’ll be in my cabin.”
I walk out of the command chamber. All the talk about Earth makes me want to speak with Nora again.
I’m sure she’ll understand when I explain it properly.
She’s a pilot and knows not to take silly chances.
And attacking the Gzet now would be a brainless risk.
Rescuing a captive from the Gzet’s own hub would obviously take a whole fleet and many of my kind.
She’s remarkably bright. She will understand.
The membrane opens, but there’s no Nora in my cabin.
Perhaps she’s training again.
Just as I’m about to go back out, I spot the Kast flower on the resting platform.
A cold wave goes through me. That’s Nora’s translation flower that she’s worn since I gave it to her.
I go over and carefully pick it up. Is it broken?
“Krix’vorr, if you’re hearing this, it means I’ve left,” the flower says. In Nora’s voice, as usual, and in my language.
In surprise, I drop the flower back on the mattress.
“I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me,” it continues. “I know much of it was difficult for you and being with me gave you problems.”
I pick the Kast up again, slower this time, and hold it close.
"But you have your duty, and I have mine.
Sophia is my friend and a fellow officer.
I can't sit on that ship and watch you weigh her life against four planets, because I already know what common sense will tell you every time, and I can't hate you for that.
Your Brood needs you. Your Queen needs you. I understand it. I really do.
"I'm going to get her myself. Lucius is coming with me.
"You're probably going to be furious. Or worse, you're going to blame yourself, and I need you to not do that. This is my choice.
"Go home. Take your Nest, and your rewards, and do what you promised: keep the Swarm off Earth. That's the only thing I'll ever ask of you.
"I love you. I think I have since you got me out of that furnace.
"Don't come looking for me. Please. Just don't."
I stand with the Kast flower between my fingers, just hoping the message will continue and say it's not happening after all.
But the message is over. That was all.
I'm so stunned I can barely breathe.
Nora has left. To go and rescue Sophia herself.
I bring the flower to my nose and smell. Her scent is on it, as real as if she were here.
There are pieces of tape and slivers of her wrap on the floor.
But when I touch the mattress, it’s cold.
How? She can't leave the Beast. She can't survive in empty space. There was nothing left of her scout ship or her spacesuit.
The only way would be…
I run to the command chamber and look wildly around with the Beast's huge eyes.
And looking as deep into space as it can, to the limits of her remarkably sharp vision, I spot a small speck moving fast away from me, towards the space station that's almost certainly the center of the Gzet slave trade.
It's the calf. The Beast's calf that I let her grow. Now mature enough to travel in space on its own.
“Navigation!” I bark.
The navigation chief bows deeply. “How can I obey?”
“Set a course…” I begin, then stop myself. If we go any closer now, we risk being seen. And then the whole Harvest is in trouble.
“Belay that,” I grunt. “As you were.”
He bows again. “Sir.”
Every instinct in my body wants to countermand myself, to tell him to give chase, to put every eye of the Beast on that speck and not look away until I have her back in my arms.
I could do it. I could throw away the Harvest, the Queen's trust, everything Sris just finished admiring me for, and go get her instead.
I don't.
I stand very still, and I let her go. Something in me understands that she was right to leave. She told me she couldn't watch me weigh her friend's life against four planets.
I stare at the speck as it grows smaller and smaller and then vanishes among the lights of the Gzet planets.
She left. She left alone.
And that means that she’s gone forever.
All the power leaves my body and I feel numb all over.
For the first time in my career, I don’t know which order to give.