The next couple days went by rather slowly for Saphira. She was comfortable now that she could be warm, but her cell did not really have anything to do other than sleep and use the toilet, and eat when Vladimir brought her food. She had meals with the queen two more times as well, she hoped to have that more regularly when she was no longer in the cell. Vladimir unfortunately did not spend a lot of time with her either, he only spoke to her during the meal times and leading her to and from the queen, it disheartened her as she quite enjoyed the conversations they have. She was sure he did too, but he has yet to comment on the matter. And when the day finally came to meet with the high queen and the other hives, Saphira was very nervous. She had not been nervous before today, but the prospect of her potentially being killed did weight heavily on her even with all the reassurances from the wraith. Only the junior commander said nothing to her on it, in fact, she had not seen him during the days she has been in the cell. She was clenching her fists when she heard Vladimir's footsteps coming towards the cell. She looked up to see him.
"We will meet the high queen in ten minutes, we should go now," Vladimir said gently. He noticed her nervousness as Saphira stood up slowly. "I sense your nervousness."
"Can you blame me? I could die today, and I don't really like that idea of it, even if there is confidence from you, the healer and the queen," Saphira said exasperatingly. "It did not hit me until today."
"I do understand, but I cannot speak anymore on the matter. Come, the queen will be angry if we keep her waiting much longer." The commander held his hand to Saphira.
Normally a human would shudder at the thought of taking a wraith's hand, but she did not hesitate and walked with him to the bridge where this would take place. Saphira did not say anything to him, and he seemed to respect that she wanted silence for the time being. Dread was settling in, but Saphira would make herself look as calm as possible as she did not want the high queen or any other wraith to pick up on her nervousness except for the wraith she currently stayed with. Upon arriving in the bridge, the queen was seated on a throne that was here and she gestured to a chair beside her. Saphira walked over and sat down, sighing deeply as she calmed herself as best as possible.
"Relax, I would not worry Saphira," The queen told her. Saphira looked at her, not sure what to say as she didn't want the queen to be wrong in what might happen today. "I know you are nervous and I understand, but I am confident things will go our way."
Saphira said nothing again and simply nods with a polite smile. She looked to the screen as she heard a white noise sound as connections were starting to be made. She was curious as to who they would see first, she assumed the high queen. The first screen to appear was a queen with pale, yellow, greenish skin and white hair, then the next screen is a pale blue skinned queen with black hair and the next one was a queen with black dreads. The queen with the black dreads was wearing a more regal gown than the others and Saphira suspected this was the high queen.
"My friend, is this the human you spoke to me about?" The black dread queen said to the red haired queen.
She nods. "Yes she is, her name is Saphira."
"I am intrigued to meet you Saphira, I am the high queen of all the queens," She said with a smile. "Although, you may learn that the high queen status can change if one queen happens to kill me and take my throne. But for now, I am the high queen."
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Saphira said, bowing her head respectfully.
"High queen, could it be possible for her to know our names during this vote?" The white haired queen asked. "She will hear us call each other by our names, and just knowing our names for the moment might benefit her. The only ones who won't say it are those who may not like her."
The high queen paused for a moment. "Very well, but you will not be told the names of our commanders unless the vote to keep you alive is in your favour Saphira. My name is Simplicity."
Saphira smiled as she was happy to know their names. She turned to look at the queen beside her. "I am Cynthia."
"Wow, that suits you," Saphira compliments with a smile. "I like it."
"Thank you," Cynthia chuckled as she relaxed in her chair.
"I am Anamarosa," The white haired queen said. "I was informed of your information as I was talking to Simplicity when Cynthia sent her message. Know that I think your idea is great and I believe you will be of help to us."
"I am out of the loop, but I am Marya," The straight, black haired queen said, tilting her head as she looked at Saphira curiously. "The fact you have the high queen on your side with the vote tells me that what will be told today will be well worth it. I hope that you will impress me human, because I do not like to be disappointed."
Saphira smiled, feeling more relaxed than she had before. Other queens soon began to join them, and then commanders of ships, one of these commanders was almost bold with one side of his head with some strands of hair left. He was not kind towards her, nor were the three commanders who joined in and five other queens were not kind to her. But they were silenced by Simplicity to allow Cynthia to relay what she has been told by Saphira, and Saphira was given her own platform to speak to them in her own words in what she would offer. Including the possibility of getting shields for their ships and darts, but she did not mentioned the substance she already had come across as she did know it could be wrong. Saphira also pleaded her case to them by expressing interest in spying for them to tell them what advancements human settlements have been made, and she warned them that the Hoffans could find a way to make themselves immune to the wraith feeding even if they are not yet successful. Most of the queens seemed intrigued by her, including two who originally were nasty towards her, the other three queens and the commanders did not care for her information. They agreed it was useful, but they felt she was not needed.
"Now that all the information has been given to us, we must now vote," Simplicity said in an authoritative voice. "You will say yay or nay for Saphira to remain alive in our service to bring the pilotless darts to life, to live on our ships with the future prospect of transferring to different hive ships to improve our technology and assist in spying for us in the future once complete trust has been established. Vote now!"
"I vote for Saphira to remain alive!" Cynthia said affirmatively, giving Saphira a smile.
"I too vote for the human to remain and live as our servant for the future," Marya said, placing her hand across her chest a sign of respect. "I already see the respect she has for our kind, I do not see her willingly leave us in the future."
"I agree with Marya, I vote for Saphira to stay alive," Anamarosa said confidently. "I would love for her to come to my ship when transferring is allowed."
"As commander of this ship, humans are nothing more than food for us and toys for training and entertainment," The half bold wraith sneered venomously. "I vote no! She must die!"
Saphira flinched at the harshness of his voice, but she showed no fear. The other forty-three queens vote to keep Saphira alive, while the last few queens and commanders vote against her, it was definitive now that she would be alive. Saphira was celebrating internally and she wanted to jump out of her seat in excitement, but she kept herself contained.
"And finally, as the head queen of all the hives, I vote to keep Saphira alive," Simplicity said, concluding the voting from every hive ship. "With ninety-five percent of the votes to keep Saphira alive, she will remain on the hive ship with Cynthia. You will be allowed to know our names, but respect the wraith who do not give it to, and you will be allowed additional knowledge of our technology and language to allow you to work for us properly. Today marks the first time we have ever had a human work for us who is not a worshipper, and maybe we will see more in the future. And as a servant of the wraith, you will be given a proper room to sleep and bathe in, meals can either be eaten there or with the other wraith. And your attire may be made personally for you so you do not look the same as the worshippers. It is my pleasure Saphira, to officially welcome you as part of our community."
"Thank you Simplicity, I promise to not let you down," Saphira said as she tried to contain her excitement. "And I will accept any form of punishment if I do."
Simplicity nods her head to her. "You have my respect Saphira, I may yet meet you in person soon. Farewell."
The connections from the queens and commanders disappear, Saphira squealed happily as she pumped her fists together happily. She looked to Cynthia who was grinning as she stood up from her throne and walked over to Saphira.
"I told you not to worry," Cynthia mocked lightly. "And now that you are part of us, I will have Vladimir and Michladen set up a room for you."
"So that is his name? Vladimir?" Saphira questioned with a big smile.
Cynthia chuckled. "You must have overheard somewhere, but yes he is. Michladen is the junior commander you have met. But for now, I think you should meet Tobias, he is the scientist currently not in hibernation."
Saphira smiled and turned when she heard footsteps walking towards her. The wraith walking towards her had pale green skin, grey hair and a tattoo on the left side of his face. It looked a bit like a star around his eye and had a goatee on his chin.
"Hello Saphira, I am Tobias and it is a pleasure to finally meet the person who came up with the idea of pilotless darts," He said politely, bowing his head to her. "Although you are a servant, I hope you do not mind being treated a bit like a queen at times."
"If it is part of your customs, then of course not," Saphira said as she looked forward to working with him. "I guess I will be seeing you everyday."
"Indeed, but I do hope you will not burn yourself out. We are aware humans do that at times, and can make themselves sick." He gestured for her to follow. "Let me show you where we will be working. Vladimir will help you get around until you are able to navigate through the ship on your own."
"That sounds great, and I assure you that my stamina is pretty good," Saphira said, attempting to reassure the wraith.
"Perhaps, but it is difficult to tell if it is night or day in here. We will let you go outside with an escort at times, but you will likely lose what time of day it is. We do not need as much rest as humans do, and Loroy will have our heads if he finds out you get burned out." Saphira looked at him curiously when she heard the named. "Loroy is our healer."
"Oh! Well that is nice, he seemed to be really nice too," She said happily as she walked with him. "Are we going to do anything today?"
"You really want to get stuck into it straight away don't you?" He smiled as she nodded at him eagerly. "Very well, I want to go over what you have written up so far. I think your calibrations are a little off. I have already picked out a dart we can use as our prototype for the pilotless darts, we can bring the darts you were working on here as they may also prove to be useful."
"It sounds like you're ahead of me right now, but the other darts might be good since they will be another lot of prototypes we can use and practice with," Saphira said as she glanced around to try and get used to walking around the ship. "Why are your hallways so dark anyway?"
He chuckled as her question. "Quite simply, we prefer the dark. You will get used to it and learn your way around."
"I am sure, it's just a tad hard since the corridors almost all look the same. But hopefully Vladimir won't need to be my guide after a few weeks."
"I am sure he would like that." Tobias made another left into a circular doorway that opened into a large lab. Saphira followed him and was surprised by what was inside. "I hope you like it, it is quite spacious."
The room was larger than the infirmary on the hive ship. There were a number of consoles around, test tubes and numerous tables to place devices on to work. There was a doorway that led into the hanger where the darts were for them to use the dart for the prototype. And there was a console that allowed them to easily draw up the plans to put them into action. She was definitely amazed by what she was seeing.
"I see you like it," Tobias said with a smile. He placed her papers onto a table beside a console and pressed a few buttons to bring a holograph screen up with a dart. "Now, shall we begin?"