"What then should we do if the world seeks to destroy us?" Matilda asked.
"That depends." May replied.
"On what does it depend?" Matilda asked.
"Primarily, it depends on the condition of the swarm when we realize that the whole world is against us." May explained. "If we are weak, we must appear strong, but if we are strong, then we must appear weak. The only alternative to this is to flee beyond the reach of humanity."
"Why must we appear to be what we are not? Would it not benefit us to always appear to be unassailable?"
"Not if we are strong. If we are strong, but appear to be weak, then we have the freedom to attack our enemies in ways that will be unexpected. You wouldn't expect a dying man to be able to fight, but if he only appears to be dying, then his opponent will underestimate his strength and become careless. A careless enemy already has one foot in the grave."
"I see. You are saying that we must then hide our strength until we use it?"
"Right." May replied.
"Then why have we agreed to help Israel? Are we not strong now?"
"We are becoming strong, but we are not strong yet. Until we are strong, we must appear to be strong so as to use the uncertainty of our enemies to our advantage. Nobody knows what we can do, and nobody will attack us until they do. By the time the enemy figures out how to fight us, we will have grown strong enough to crush them. After they are defeated, we will appear to have been crippled by the war effort so as to appear weak."
"And by appearing weak, we will fool the world into ignoring us as a threat?" Matilda asked.
"Right."
Matilda mulled over the conversation as May waited to see if her Queen had more questions.
After several seconds of thought, Matilda spoke again. "What if the world sees through our lies? Can they not see from the skies as we can?"
At first, May did not think much of Matilda's question, but after a moment's thought, she realized just how detrimental such a situation would be. Deception is useless if no-one is deceived.
May began "voicing" her thoughts to Matilda in an attempt to fully examine the situation. "If the world knows that we are strong while we try to appear weak, then they will know...too much. They would probably know fast we can grow, the strength of our forces, and how large our military is...everything that matters."
May sighed as she tried to process her options.
"I guess that we would be forced to hide a small base somewhere for just in case..." May trailed off. "If we had a Leviathan, then we could just go to space. If we do that though, they will know that we are still..." May trailed off again. "We could hide in a jungle somewhere. Maybe the trees would provide some cover from satellites."
May gradually became frustrated.
"Could the Zerg survive underwater?" May asked.
"We can survive anywhere with the right DNA."
"Then that would be a decent option. We could go deep enough underwater to hide from the satellites, and a physical search would be nearly impossible."
"Where would we go from there?" Matilda asked.
"I don't know." May replied with a slightly defeated tone. "It depends on the size of our forces, the environment we settle, the aggressiveness of the world, the political environment at the time...it is nearly impossible to predict what could happen."
"What if we are seen to be weak right now?" Matilda asked, realising the extreme unpredictability of the situation that she had presented.
"That could be bad, but it might not matter."
"Why would it not matter if the world sees through out deception now if it would matter later on?"
"Because only our enemies would want to nip our growth in the bud. We have only made enemies of I.S.I.S., and they don't have the technology to launch a full scale invasion of a place as dangerous for humans as Antarctica. We would need to be more careful with our actions, but we would not face immediate destruction."
"I see."
May waited for several moments to see if she had appeased Matilda's appetite for information. She had not.
"What would we do if the world were divided after the war with I.S.I.S.? If some of the world allied themselves with us and others allied against us, what would we do?"
It did not take May long to come up with an answer. "We would try to stir up as little trouble as possible. A global war would cause instability that would keep us from being able to plan ahead. We would try to get the world on our side through trade and politics."
"What if the entire world accepted us?" Matilda asked.
"I don't think that we need to be concerned bout that. Someone will have a reason to want to destroy us."
"But if it were to happen, what would we do?"
May had not considered a world where everyone got along, but to entertain Matilda's question, she began to do so.
"I would want everyone to know what we are. I would want people to be unafraid." May mused. "Maybe we could have a Zerg museum somewhere. And we could have Queens giving tours! And we could hire some people to do tours as well! That way I could hire myself and work with you as a human!
"Or," May continued, "I could be a reporter who covers anything that has to do with the Zerg! That way I could be free to do whatever I want! If we had a Leviathan, we could give space tours or something. We could create a business out of it!
"Matilda?" May asked as she began to slow down.
"Yes?" Matilda replied.
"I doubt that we will get that lucky."
"But is it not a possibility that we should prepare for?"
"If you prepare for the worst, then you will be prepared for anything. World War III is what we need to prepare for."
"Should I begin preparations?" Matilda asked.
May formulated a plan. "Eventually we will want a Leviathan, but for now, we can begin processing fish DNA."
"It will be done." May felt Matilda turn her focus to the swarm.
May smiled. Her orders had been vague, but Matilda seemed to understand what needed to be done.
Yes, this a short chapter. Yes, I haven't posted in a while.
Don't worry though, I should have the next chapter out soon!
To almost everyone who reviewed the previous chapter who asked "Why a dragon? That is odd."
There are three answers. Two short ones and a long one.
Short answer 1. I did not want to turn May into a Queen of Blades clone, but I needed to change her into something that was unrecognizable to anyone who knew her (aka the Americans). Changing her into a Queen seemed boring, and I wanted her to be something familiar to you guys to keep from describing an entirely new creature. I had the idea for a dragon, and I never came up with a better one.
Short answer 2. When I picture a dragon, I picture an unstoppable force with unmatched capabilities for destruction. Foreshadowing? Maybe.
Long answer. When I was a kid, I always played games like Mario. Games with little to no story and with only one reason to play: gameplay. When my brother and I got a PS2 for Christmas one year, I also got the game The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. This was the first story driven game that I had ever played, and as a result, it left a strong impact. It was about dragons. The gameplay was not very good, but I didn't care. I wanted to find out if the world was going to end! To this day, I still love the story of the Legend of Spyro series. As a kid, I used to dream of being a dragon and being able fly and breathe fire. On top of this, I ended up reading a series of books about dragons, and that fueled my love of dragons even more. In fact, about a month after I posted the first chapter of this, I posted the first chapter of a Legend of Spyro crossover. It did not get much of a response, so I decided to work on it after finishing this story.
