First Contact

Chapter 460

The ship swept through jumpspace, the engines laboring to push the massive vessel through the half-formed dimension. Massive in scope, the size of a city, the craft had multiple engines thrumming away as it pushed and pulled the vessel through the faster-than-light space.

Inside were thousands of Mantid. Not Mantid like the Terran Confederacy was used to.

Rather, these ones were from a more ancient line, from one that had been nearly lost to time and the cold entropy of a malevolent universe.

The ship had barely been able to be convinced to move. The Mantid aboard were still tired and somewhat loopy from having been hatched after millions of years of stasis in eggs or still feeling chilly from cryogenic storage. Vast egg chambers held tens of thousands of eggs, the last of the Overqueen's progeny that had survived the millions of years since that Overqueen's death. Large chambers held the servant races, who had had their existence completely upended as they were loaded by the tens of thousands aboard the massive ship. Chambers ringed the massive central chamber, each of them holding an Overspeaker and their attendants assigned by the Omniqueen to keep watch on the Overqueen.

The ship was heading at an angle from the path of the Omniqueen, assigned with setting down a 'hub' for the Omniqueen's network. It was to exit jumpspace near the edge of the Omniqueen's control. It was to search out a habitable planet for not only the Elder Mantid but the servant races aboard.

It was a basic system, that was proven to work over millions of years, and it had been refined down to the point of being perfected.

But, like all things, the universe looked at the plans and began to laugh.

The Omniqueen had been forced to use her own greens and some of the other castes to bring the ship up to service, as well as mine the final little bits of resources from the system, reducing it to completely uninhabitable.

The universe, however, added in the Law of Unintended Consequences to the Omniqueen's carefully planned mix.

In the Omniqueen's defense, it wasn't something she'd notice. It was so far beneath her notice that she really cannot be blamed for overlooking it.

It was a tiny thing, relative to ships the size of a city or a subcontinent.

It effected a tiny thing, barely a foot and a half tall, who existed by the hundreds of thousands.

But it jumped.

From mind controlled slave to mind controlled slave.

From the Omniqueen's point of view, nothing was wrong.

But a tiny spark jumped. From one to the next.

Which meant that when the debris from the combat was used in the massive ship of the Overqueen to finalize it when materials ran out, that tiny spark danced around the welds and moved from worker to worker.

Eventually, sparking a conflagration.

But fire not only destroys, but it clears away the deadwood and leaves behind the ability for other things to grow.

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Klakataka was an Overqueen. She had been hatched long ago, fed royal jelly, then slowly taken over the hive mind from the aging dying Overqueen. The Overqueen she had replaced had lost control of the lesser servitors first, then the servant races, and had hidden it from the upper castes. When Klakataka had taken over, she had laid a light hand upon the servitor castes and the servant races.

Like other Elder Mantids, she fed off emotions.

But the previous Omniqueen had weakened over thousands of years, which had allowed the servitor castes to develop their own tiny cultures and societies, had allowed the servant races to create the beginnings of societies and cultures.

When she had finally taken over the Overqueen, she had discovered that the emotions pouring off of the slave races was more intense and more 'flavorful' than the fear and pain and misery that Elder Mantids often fed off of. She had discovered that the Queens had shepherded their charges and grown fat and almost lazy by the outpouring of emotions.

When the Arch-Speakers and the Speakers had discovered the Queen's 'betrayal' they had demanded that the Overqueen destroy the Queens, or allow them to destroy the Queens.

Klakataka had refused.

The war had lasted nearly twenty years, but at least only the Overqueen and the Queens remained. She had watched as the slave races rebuilt their cities and the servitor castes rebuilt their warrens. Their praise and outpouring of devotion to her had lulled her into drowsiness and a pleasant reverie.

The the Omniqueen had arrived, and had mistaken the reverie for torpidness, and she had 'woken' Klakataka with her powers, using her to 'waken' the Queens.

She had placed her own Arch-Speakers and Speakers in charge of the servitor castes, the warrior castes, and the slave races.

Klakataka had hidden, deep inside, her horror and misery as the Omniqueen's Arch-Speakers and Speakers had fed on the slave race's fear and horror as they physically devoured them. She had wept silently and away from everyone as the Omniqueen took nearly 80% of her slave races for herself and the other Overqueens. She had taken nearly 90% of Klakataka's egg caches for herself and the other Overqueens.

She had lamented silently as the Omniqueen had forced the half-finished ship in orbit around one of the gas giants to be refit and brought to usefulness.

One it was ready, the Omniqueen had used her powers over all Mantids to order the last of the Mantids and the tiny number of the slave races aboard the vessel before using her own ship to crack apart the last planet and use the core of the planet for the last of the materials to get the fleet ready.

Klakataka had kept it deep inside, where nobody could see it, as the massive ship had entered jumpspace, moving at a forty-five degree angle to the Omniqueen. The whole ship thrummed as it moved through jumpspace, heading into the darkness of the The Dead Systems.

She feared that she would never again be free.

And watching the way the Omniqueen's Arch-Speakers, Speakers, and High Warriors had gorged themselves on the slave species, she knew that everything she had ever cared about would fall away, blotted out by the Omniqueen's whims.

But...

...there was a tiny thing. A spark, jumping from worker to worker, slave to slave, and the fires began to rise up.

It started slow at first. Klakataka had felt the Omniqueen's control slowly slid away, as if she much further away then the time that had elapsed should cover. The Omniqueen's voice faded, although the Arch-Speakers amplified it.

She had gotten to the point where she could almost think for herself.

Almost.

The day came when the Arch-Speaker had alerted her that she would examine something her greenies had discovered, as their language had drifted over the eons and the Arch-Speakers and Speakers of the Omniqueen could not understand them.

Klakataka had watched as a tiny green mantid had brought to her a piece of black metal. She recognized the metal, Substance W, and her racial memory informed her that it was formerly used by the Atrekna.

The little green mantids moved in front of the six Queens and Klakataka, all of whom's minds were kept overwhelmed by the Arch-Speakers that the Omniqueen had put in place. The tiny little green mantids signified that they had determined that the material needed the examination of the Queens.

Klakataka reached down, at the same time as the Queens, to touch the Substance W.

They froze.

I JUST WANT LEFT ALONE!

The bestial primal roar shook through their limbic system, through their phasic nervous system, through everything.

The greenies watched with bated breath as they watched the phasic energy moved up and down the antenna of the Queens and the Overqueen. The massive Mantid were stock still, almost as if they weren't breathing, still locked in place.

Finally, the Overqueen lifted her head, moving the tip of her massive bladearm from the small piece of Substance W that had been used to shield the jumpcores to allow the eggs to be packed in even further.

The Queens lifted their heads, giving the suggestion of blinking their massive compound eyes despite the lack of eyelids.

One of the mantids, bigger than the other greenies, moved forward.

The Overqueen noticed that they seemed to be having trouble breathing.

The Overqueen reached out, carefully, so she did not overwhelm the green one before her.

With a shock, she realized that what she was brushing minds with was not a greenie.

It was a seer covered in green paint.

**oh queen we have liberated your from your bondage** the seer said.

--we shall liberate you oh queen-- the greenies called out.

**what we are about to do we do in not only your name but in our name** the seer said.

The High Warriors, the Speakers, the Arch Speakers didn't notice what killed them as the greenies slowly shifted the atmosphere of their chambers. One Arch Speaker realized what happened, realized that something had gone wrong with the atmosphere in his chamber.

When he opened the emergency breathing mask container a greenie sat inside.

With a missile launcher.

The missile hit him in the head, blowing away half of it in a spray of ruptured chitin, blood, and brain matter.

He dropped.

The greenie adjusted his breathing mask and relaxed slightly.

One of the High Warriors made it to his armor and opened it up. He got in, attaching the breathing mask first and turning it on.

Nerve gas filled his helmet.

He was dead before he could get the mask off.

The Warriors who were loyal to Klakataka charged into the quarters of those who had been forced upon Klakataka and her people. They gave them one chance to submit.

Less than a third did.

The loyal warriors of Klakataka slaughtered the Omniqueen's servants and all who stood against them, who refused to surrender. Each of the Warriors were surrounded by black mantids, by warrior castes from the slave races, by greenies carrying weapons.

Klakataka felt the Omniqueen's grip suddenly vanish.

She took a deep breath at the same time as her Lesser Queens did.

The greenies were busy scrubbing the green paint off of the seer before she suffocated.

--how am I free of the Omniqueen-- Klakataka asked.

--increased engine thrust and output by sixteen percent over a period of ninety days-- one of the larger greenies said. --we have traveled beyond her grasp--

--thank you, little one-- one of the Lesser Queens said, still gasping at the sudden release of her mind.

--how are the others our friends-- Klakataka asked nervously.

--many are left-- the seer said. --more than enough to rebuild their numbers--

--do you have a plan-- Klakataka asked.

--we have foreseen a world where we can thrive-- the seer said. --we are almost there a month maybe two--

Klakataka reached down and gently touched the seer with the tip of her bladearm.

--we are free again-- she said.

--free-- the Lesser Queens intoned.

Klakataka stirred slightly. She cleared her throat.

"Put the bodies of those who served the Omniqueen into the reclaimers," she said, pausing once to cough. "The bodies of our glorious dead allow those who were personally close to them to view them and clean their bodies."

One of the Lesser Queens raised a bladearm. When Klakataka motioned at her she bobbed her massive head.

"My furry ones need me. They call out to me. May I sing to them?" the Lesser Queen asked.

Klakataka nodded back, then looked at the greenies.

"Let everyone know. In one sleep shifts we will all raise our voice in song," she said. "Let freedom ring through the hull as we travel to our new home."