“We have to check every one of these holes, guys-don’t forget!”
“Terrific.”
“Move! Let’s do it. And go easy on the flames.”
“Alert!”
“Soldiers!”
“Exoseg Gigantic Soldier…”
Someone let loose on xmax auto. I turned and found myself shoulder to shoulder with Warhound and Deadeye, just behind Snow Leopard, Coolhand and Psycho guarding the tunnel. The chirping rose in intensity. Closer! Closer!
“Xmax, gang!”
“Ten, sir!”
“Xmax auto!”
“Try and stop me!”
Smoke and flame, slowly clearing, and Exoseg Gigantic Soldier appeared, huge and black and horrible, twitching downtunnel, antennae cracking. Two, three…more! Pausing, for just a frac. Magnificent, perfect creatures, perfect killing machines.
“Die, you slime!” Snow Leopard, Coolhand and Psycho fired and a phosphorescent orange glow outlined them, crouching, molten statues of gold. They sent bursts of flame after the xmax blasts.
Sweety squeaked in my ears. I could not understand a word.
Dragon had me by the arm, and Deadeye danced hysterically around us, pointing into the nutrition chamber.
Priestess stood over one creature just past the treecat, her E pointed down, the light triggered. Deadeye raised his stabbing spear and shakily pointed it out to me. Priestess made a trembling gesture toward the creature with her free hand, and turned her face away, abruptly. I cautiously approached and I saw it. Eyes, open and staring. A Sunrealmer boy, covered in slime and filth, as still as death. The eyes were glazed, motionless, the eyes of the dead, the boy caked in congealed blood and covered with debris. Long dead, he had to be long dead.
Sweety spoke. “A Taka child,” she informed me. “The boy appears to be paralyzed. It is probably intended as food for the exosegs.” The boy could only stare blindly into our light, helpless and hopeless.
Deadeye lifted him off the floor. The boy was covered with filth and sores and rot, a lifeless corpse, surely, the arms flopping loosely, mouth gaping. Priestess cradled his head, pressing a biotic charger into one arm.
His eyes flickered. A spark, still alive, in the dark. A human heart, beating, alone, in the house of the dead.
No longer alone.
Ironman fired down the corridor, holding off more exoseg soldiers.
Snow Leopard reported our find. “…Beta. Repeat, one Taka recovered from the hive, alive. Exos are attacking. We could use some bodies to search the hive. Where’s that probe?”
“Beta, Command. Confirm you…”
Search the hive! We wouldn’t be leaving any time soon. But I didn’t mind, not any more. Perhaps there were more Taka to be found. No, there was no rush.
Numb, we watched as the smoke cleared ahead, Snow Leopard and Coolhand on my left, Psycho on my right with his Manlink, and the rest of Beta close behind us. We stood in a fighting circle, surrounding Deadeye and the Taka boy. The writhing heart of the hive burned brightly. The dismembered bodies of an army of exoseg soldiers surrounded us, burning at the edges. From time to time someone snapped off a burst of laser, or shot a fireball into the quivering dark, or blasted some movement with x. Exhausted, silent, and covered with filth, I could barely see out of my gore-smeared faceplate. There was no more emotion left.
We had fought our way into a large chamber, now veiled with smoke. We peered around cautiously. Past the dead and dying exoseg soldiers, the chamber was filled with Breeder males, motionless, all on their backs, legs upraised like tree branches. They appeared to be dead, lined up in orderly rows.
“What’s this?” Ironman asked shakily.
“This is the nursery,” Merlin replied. “And these are the breeder males-performing their last function.”
“What’s the last function?” I asked.
“Look out!” Psycho warned. Three strange-looking exosegs scuttled along one wall and disappeared into the dark, clacking their mandibles. With narrow waists, long legs and large heads, they appeared quite formidable.
“It’s all right,” Coolhand said. “Those are the females. They won’t hurt you.”
“The breeder males mate with the females here,” Merlin said. “It happens quickly. As soon as the egg is fertilized the breeder tries to separate and escape but he usually fails. The female uses a barb on her thorax to inject him with a powerful paralytic agent. Then she injects the fertilized egg into him. The breeder is dragged into the nursery with the other doomed males and is kept alive until the pupa develops and eats its way out, killing the host.”
“That’s the way these things have sex?” Psycho asked. “I think I prefer our own method!”
“I don’t know,” Priestess said thoughtfully. “Making the male carry the baby has a certain appeal.”
“The pupa develops into breeder, neuter or female-probably depending on what the hive needs. There’s not so many females.”
“What about the Soldiers and Dominants?” I asked.
“They’re a separate exoseg species. They all cooperate for…”
“Cut the chit-chat,” Snow Leopard demanded. “Those females are still in there, I can hear ‘em. Let’s burn it. Just burn it all.”
We all fired, a firestorm, a holocaust, and the last three females died almost instantly. We watched them burn without emotion. Maybe that damned noise would stop now.
In the long still hours of the dead of night, we gathered around the tacsit monitor in the squadmod, drinking dox. A faint green glow and the muted peeping of the monitors served as backdrop to hushed conversation. Priestess and I had the duty. Snow Leopard, Psycho and Dragon had bedded down in the lounge, but Coolhand, Merlin, Warhound and Ironman were still with us. I was hoping they would go to sleep so I could be alone with Priestess.
We had all cleaned up, but sleep was not easy with all those images from the hive darting around inside our heads. I had spent a long time in the shower trying to scour away the exo filth. Of course, I had been in armor while in the hive and nothing had touched my skin except my own sweat, but I still felt filthy. It had been that kind of place.
Coolhand had played a sad, lonely tune on his lektra but now he stopped. The quiet intensified the memory of the horror.
Priestess’s silky dark hair was still wet from the shower. She appeared fresh and innocent and her eyes could change a man’s life. She seemed completely unaware of her own powers.
“How’s the survivor? The boy?” Merlin asked. No one mentioned the fact that the boy had been the only survivor found. There had been enough bones and remains to fill a thousand nightmares.
“Back with his people,” Coolhand replied. “Deadeye says it was quite a scene. He escorted the kid back to the village unannounced, and the whole tribe went into shock. They’d already done the death ceremony.” Coolhand thought it all faintly amusing. As a matter of fact, Coolhand found just about everything faintly amusing. He took life very calmly.
“How is he mentally?” Merlin worried about the boy. Merlin always worried about something.
Priestess responded. “We identified the paralytic agent used by the exos, and countered it.” She paused to sip her dox. “Deadeye said he was in the hive about a week. It’s incredible how he survived. I can’t imagine what he ate, or drank, or how, as he was paralyzed. I don’t think I really want to know.”
“I think I would have freaked in a few hours,” Merlin said. “I almost lost it when those Scalers grabbed me, and they were humans.”
“It’s funny,” Coolhand said. “His people were so glad to get him back, yet they were planning to send him back to us. They said he belongs to us now.”
“He’s yours, Priestess,” I said. “You got your wish. Didn’t you want a Taka man?”
“I wanted a man, not a boy!”
“Deadeye followed orders and wouldn’t tell them who it was,” Coolhand said, “so we don’t have to worry
