As Vladimir led the way, Saphira made sure to try and make note, the hallways were rather hard to follow for her. She wondered how exactly the wraith got around, it was not like a maze, but it was still a bit confusing as there wasn't anything that indicated one hallway was different to the rest. She had not seen the pods where the wraith store humans to feed on later yet though, she was not sure if she will see them at all. There was a chance the wraith would not show her, but if Saphira was allowed to go around the ship unsupervised in the future, she may find herself there. She was not particularly keen on it as she was not comfortable with that, even if she was okay with vengeance against the galaxy. She did notice he was leading her to a different room that was not the throne room and that made her curious. She did not have to wonder long as the commander led her throne an archway and she saw a dining table that was set with a lot of food. The food was a little strange with meat she did not recognize along with some vegetables that she was not familiar with. There were several guards around the room and the queen was seated at one end of the table. She smiled when she saw them walking in.
"It is a pleasure for you to join me for dinner Saphira," The queen said, gesturing to the seat at the other end of the table. "I hope the food will please your stomach."
The aroma did smell good and Saphira quickly took a seat. She glanced around, noticing that Vladimir did not join them and he left the room without saying much. She was a bit surprised and disheartened as she liked his company, but the queen obviously wanted to talk to her and she didn't want to have company of her wraith with them other than the guards.
"It smells very pleasant," Saphira said with a smile. "May I pile my plate with food?"
"Of course," The queen said with a nod as she filled her own plate with food. "This is not a common treat for us, the food we get the worshippers produce themselves on a planet we keep private from the rest of the galaxy."
"That's convenient, it saves you stealing food from humans," Saphira said as she began to fill her plate with food. "I am glad to eat with company. Will it just be the two of us today?"
"Yes, at least for this time, in the future the commanders may join us if the high queen and the other hives vote to allow you to live," She said with a smile. "I know you are a bit concerned about how it will go, but I have confidence. The high queen was very intrigued by the information you provided, and you will meet them in three days."
"Oh, will we go to a meeting place?" Saphira asked curiously, looking up at the queen.
"Unfortunately, no, the meeting place usually takes place in space and as we do not need to leave the planets at this time we will communicate via our technology," The queen responds as she got comfortable in her chair and began to cut into her food. "I think it is better, that way you are not harmed should the vote does not go in favour of those who would dislike you."
"The healer gave me an idea of who would vote against me," Saphira said as she began cutting into some meat that seemed like poultry. "Would you really have to kill me if I am voted against though?"
"It is hard to deceive the high queen if we do not go through with it Saphira, but I would not be concerned, she will vote to allow you to stay, and I believe most hives will. After all, a human working for us rather than as a worshipper would actually be in our favour anyway, so I do not think they will vote against you. If you were suspected to be lying, then it would be different of course." The queen took a bite of the meat she had cut and smiled, enjoying the flavour of the meat.
Saphira was happy to hear this from the queen, it made her feel more relaxed than she was before. "That makes me feel less anxious now that I hear it coming from you." She smiled as she took a bite and chewed for a few minutes. "Mmm, I am not sure what this is, but it tastes good. Who cooks your food here?"
"I am glad you find the food tasty, and we have some of the lead fighters cook the food as they tend to need something to do when they are not culling a world for me," The queen responds with a smile. "It took a bit of practice of course, but they have managed. And with you here to give approval, I would say they have done very well."
"At least I can assist in some other areas," Saphira said with a chuckle. "I am curious, what is your ships made from? I have never seen anything like them, and I am assuming the material is organic."
The queen was silent as she thought on the answer. "Well, I suppose there is no harm in you knowing about it. Yes, you are correct the ships are organic and are grown from an organism on a specific planet. The darts are the same, but we can create more of them from the ship itself."
"That is actually amazing, I wonder if other creatures in the universe has something similar," Saphira said thoughtfully. "These hive ships and frigates don't have shields right?"
"Correct, the hull themselves are more then enough to withstand fire power. However, we have not been able to find a way to create shields as we would need an organic matter to not only create the shield, but also to power them. And we have not found anything to do that, so for the time being, we have no shields for our ships."
Saphira hummed for a moment as she chewed on the piece of meat in her mouth. She remembers coming across some substance on a planet with an abandoned settlement and it had power radiating from it. It was only dust though, she was not sure if it could be useful. "I may have come across something that might be what you are looking for. I cannot confirm it, it was on an abandoned planet that I came across last year. It was a yellow dust and it felt unnaturally warm for something that should be the same temperature as the ground. I am not sure if it would help."
"It may, it sounds like we need to do more searching of our own," The queen said with a chuckle. "I am pleased with this information, however that will stay with us for the time being. I would rather the high queen and the other hives do not learn about it until we have confirmation on this material you speak of."
"And it may not even be useful to you, so that makes sense. I would hope it would be, but there is no guarantee of course as it just might be a rock that radiates warmth naturally."
"It does mean that is has a type of power though Saphira, even if it is not able to power and create shields, it could be useful for another reason." Saphira did not think of that. "And maybe if it can create shields, but not on a massive scale like a hive ship, then perhaps the darts themselves might be able to have this advantage. It will prevent lose of any future darts."
"I never really thought of that, but I am sure your scientist will figure that out. I hope to meet him at some point, the healer told me I may not get to until I am actually voted to be allowed to work for you," Saphira glanced around, thinking the scientist could walk in at any moment.
"I am afraid he is right, I would rather you both not meet each other even if he is excited to meet and work with you himself," The queen said slowly. "Especially if it is short lived, he understands this and will remain hidden from you for this time. I am confident you will meet him, but I hope you understand."
"I do, I just wish I could meet him before them." Saphira sighed as she continued to eat her fill.
The food was very delicious, a lot of it was food she had never had before and because she did not have food for many hours she ate quite a lot. This actually surprised the queen by how much she ate, at least three plates of food and she drank a lot of water too. Saphira knew the queen was likely to be feeling awkward in seeing her eat a lot, but she reassured the wraith that she normally did not eat this much and it was just because she had not eaten for many hours. She compared it to them not being able to feed for weeks and finally being able to feed on multiple humans, at which point the queen understood. When she finally finished, the queen called for Vladimir to take her back to the cell. Saphira wished she had an actual room instead, though she understood why they could not do that at this time.
When Vladimir returned, Saphira stood up with a huff and rubbing her stomach as she felt stuffed with the food she has eaten. "Thank you for the meal, I do not think I'll need to eat for a while."
The queen chuckled as she stood from her chair. "At least it is a sign you enjoyed the food. You will eat with me again before we meet the high queen, but for any other meals it will be in the cell. I apologize for that, but I do have other things to attend to."
"I understand, maybe the commander here can keep me company," Saphira said with a smirk at Vladimir.
"I am fine with that, commander you are free to keep her company during her mealtimes in the cell," The queen said, looking at Vladimir who bowed to her respectfully.
"Yes my queen."
"And I hope this time, your sleep will not be cold and uncomfortable," She added. "We do not want you to get sick. We do not know what it is like to be sick like humans do."
"Well aren't you just lucky, being sick is awful," Saphira said sarcastically. "And with this robe and a blanket, I will be comfortable. Thank you, your highness."
The queen rose an eyebrow, but said nothing. She knew that the queen was used to being called my queen, but Saphira was not a wraith and simply called her something else. And maybe when she knew her name, she might not need the formalities. Saphira turned to Vladimir who began leading the way back to the cell.
"It seems you and the queen get along very well," Vladimir said, not looking back at Saphira as they walked down the hallway.
"Yes, I think she likes me a lot. I suspect she is happy to get along with a human who is not a worshipper." Saphira covered her mouth to block a burp she felt coming up as they walk as she did not want to be impolite.
"She is, and I am too as we do no have civil conversations with humans very often at all," Vladimir said. "We do have a truce with one world who put prisoners on an island for us to cull. It works for us and them."
"Oh yeah, the Genii know of them and I never went there while travelling," Saphira said. "There is no way off that island once you are there anyway, but there are people from the mainland who travel to other worlds for trade and Genii were an ally to them. I am glad I did not go to them, I think I would be stuck on the island otherwise."
"Indeed, though you would have been discovered eventually so I do not think it would have changed anything other than the circumstance of how you were found. They do put on a good meal with wine though, it is nice. I do not go there, another hive is in a truce with them so we do not deal with them, but we do know of them."
Saphira was curious to know of them, but she would have to wait for that as she was sure there were a lot of wraith she would end up meeting if she gets to work with them. That is when a thought crossed her mind. "One question, if I am allowed to work with you, do I have to stay with one hive?"
Vladimir looked back at her with a confused expression. "What do you mean?"
"Well, what I mean is that what if other hives wanted to talk to me about certain improvements and such, would I live on one hive or move to different hives?"
He pondered on the question for the moment. Vladimir was not likely to have a clear answer, but as Saphira had asked the question now he thought on the best way to answer it. "I think you would, but I am not entirely sure on that answer at this time Saphira. I would say you will remain with us until your project is finished, and then we will go from there. I know that is what will happen at first, and then when you have proven yourself you will have some freedom to move between the hives. And then again when proven your trust worthiness, you will be able to move to any hive that will allow your presence."
Saphira accepted the answer as she knew it could be different to what he was saying. She had no doubt that she could prove to them that she was trustworthy, she just did not know how long she would be given to prove her worth.
"How old are you by the way Saphira?" Vladimir asked suddenly as they turned the corner of the hallway to the cell.
Saphira was surprised by the question. "Um…twenty, why is that important?"
"The queen wanted to know, I am not sure why," He shrugged, huffing a little as he looked at her with a smile. "We know humans live shorter lives than we do, and I suspect maybe she wanted to know in case you were older than you look."
She was slightly offended by that, but decided not to say anything by that. She knew wraith lived a long time and they probably were not totally accustomed to the lives humans lived. "I often get mistaken as younger than I am anyway…but I hope that my age will never be an issue until I am over fifty years old."
"It should not be, but things can happen between now and then," He said as he opened the cell door for her. "I put a blanket in here this time. I do apologise for not bringing it earlier, I lost track when I was talking to the queen."
"It is forgiven," Saphira said before lowering her voice to a near whisper. "Vladimir."
He widened his eyes slightly and she winked at him. He sighed deeply as she stepped inside and closed the door. Vladimir said nothing more as walked away. Saphira watched him leave with a smirk, his reaction confirmed his name to her. She now just wanted to know the names of the other wraith, that way she could identify them properly. There was a chance she won't know them until after the vote, but that did not mean she could not try to work them out beforehand. The wraith were a little careless already and slipping up on Vladimir's name when they assumed she did not hear, and it could happen again.