"I've got a bone to pick with you, Vathris."
The captain of the Asphodel sighed, and turned to face Holly. "Come in, why don't you," he said dryly.
"You never said the Asphodel's guns worked. I thought they had been fried by the crash, but no! You let us risk our lives going out there!"
"It wasn't up to me."
Holly hesitated. "What do you mean?"
"Sit down," said Vathris. She did so, and looked at him expectantly.
"Asphodel was equipped with prototype CPSCs – Charged Plasma Stream Cannons. You saw what they were capable of just now. Unfortunately, they drain huge amounts of power with each shot – when this crate was fully functional, in order to keep our power plant out of the red, we would be firing one burst every thirty seconds. And that was with all three power cores working."
Holly stared. "You said that two of the cores were reduced to scrap by the crash, and the third is at half-effectiveness. Yet you were able to fire three blasts…"
"T-T. It's infiltrated the computer and power systems, and transmits energy directly to our systems. Without that, Asphodel would be just another wreck."
"So why the hell didn't T-T give us that power immediately? Why didn't you tell me about this before?"
"Because…" Vathris sighed. "T-T wanted our friendly neighbourhood hive dead. Too 'unpredictable'. It doesn't tell me much about the rest of its 'minions', but I suspect that it had implanted a chip of some sort in the Queen of the attacking hive, and got it to attack. The thing sent me a message directly after you left to defend the ship – it wanted us to stay out of it, the Asphodel would be left alone by them.
"But it was too late then, of course," he continued. "You'd already left, and if I recalled you, it wouldn't look too good, would it? Most of the Charonites, even if they were threatened by those Aliens, wouldn't want to leave them unsupported, would they? You owe them too much."
"You got that right," replied Holly. "They saved our butts at least three times!"
"Precisely. I couldn't do anything. So I explained the situation, and T-T decided that it was a choice between losing 'H-Raphael' and the crew of the Asphodel becoming 'unstable'. It decided on the former, and provided the power for the CPSCs."
"You should have told me about it, though. You would have kept it from me that the hive had been wiped out, and you could have prevented it!"
"Look around you, Holly," said Vathris sadly. "Look at the crew. Look at the ship itself. You saw what happened to the Charon when T-T got tired of it. If I don't keep it sweet, we're all dead.
"Unfortunately that's not the end of it," he continued. "T-T's problem with the hive isn't over. And since we scuppered its original plan, it'll want us to finish the job. As far as I can see, we've got only two options."
"If you're suggesting that we kill them ourselves –"
"If I thought that was the best option, I'd have recalled you and the Charonites be damned. But it is an option. The other…"
Holly's eyes sparkled as she saw where he was going. "It's ready?"
"As ready as it'll ever be. This isn't a decision to be taken lightly, Holly. If there's any doubt –"
"Vathris, I've been waiting for this for four years. Even before then, it must've been somewhere deep inside me. I ran out of doubts a long time ago."
The captain of the Asphodel smiled. "It'll take a while to fully generate the required code, but when it's ready… it's all yours." She stood up, ready to leave. "And Holly…"
She turned. "Yes?"
"Good luck."
Memories flashed before Othar'a. Faint memories as a mere suckling. Leaving home for the first time. Going to a kehrite for the first time. Learning to use a knife. Progressing through the different weapons of the hunter. Seeing the kainde amedha for the first time. Joining a hunting ship with Kal'Arak'e to see the universe. Seeing oomans. Learning about all the many races of the galaxy. Taking the Kainde Amedha Chiva, and coming away from it with two kills. Feeling the bite of acid as the Elder marked her. Deciding to stay with the Hunters instead of taking a background role, like many females did. Making her first Hunt with her brother as free-ranging warrior. Meeting an Elder of the Tjau'ke Thwei. Hearing about this planet. Persauding Kal'Arak'e to join her coming here. Seeing the strange crashing ship. The puzzle of the pyode amedha and kainde amedha's alliance. Getting sent out on the Zazin Tjau'ke Chiva. The drone coming closer. Blackness…
The images stopped. All that was left was blackness.
"What is this?" she asked, and was surprised to hear her own voice.
"A bridge," answered something. "A bridge between our minds." It was silent for a moment. "Your species is so different to anything that I've ever encountered. Your memories are so… for want of a better word, alien."
"Who are you?" she demanded. "Show yourself!"
"That would serve no purpose," it replied cynically. "Here, there is no such thing as sight. But I can show you my memories, since you showed me yours."
Images flew again. But they were very different – the colours were strange. The blurs of memories of sucklinghood were replaced by faint glimpses of oomans, and then finally became clear. Fear, everything was fear… everywhere, the kainde amedha flickered on the edge of mind or vision. A concept of a planet infested with the creatures flickered in her mind, but was swept aside as the surroundings changed. White, pristine rooms… laboratories, perhaps? An ooman coming close. Injecting something. Skin changing from ooman pink to kainde black. Limbs stretching. Claws growing. A tail forming. The world changing in appearance. And words flowing into the memories, not coming from sound, but… she realised that they were the voices of the hive. Meeting an ooman female. Getting released. Finding the hive. Releasing them. The battle to escape the facility. The journey across the infested cities. Tricking the computers into loading the hive onto a ship – she spotted the lines of the ship that they had seen crash. Changing the coordinates of the jump. Leaving hibernation. Releasing an ooman to open the stasis chamber. The awful battle to stop its mind from acknowledging the sight of the hive. Failing. Watching a drone kill the ooman, and the guilt of failure. Hiding in the air vents. Realising that it had all gone wrong. Revealing themselves to the oomans. The uneasy alliance. The gambit of travelling through the nebula. The crash on the planet. The battles against the local fauna. The loss of the ship. Meeting new oomans. Going to another ship – the one that the Elder had warned them to avoid. Fighting against other kainde. Their destruction at the guns of the ooman ship. Rushing here. Seeing two yautja and another drone. The yautja coming closer. Blackness…
"So now you know something of what I am. And what my companion is."
Othar'a took a deep breath. "You've been through a lot…" She paused. "I don't know what to call you. Are you pyode or kainde?"
"You've seen my memories – you should know that even I don't know the answer to that. Just call me Shadow. Come, withdraw from this contact. We need to help your brother."
The blackness took texture, and turned into the round cranium of Shadow, and the strange shapes of the hive.
"Thank you, Shadow," she said quietly. "If you can help him…"
>We'll do all we can,> said Shadow. She jumped in surprise – from his memories, she had assumed that they could only communicate through a direct link.
>I don't think it's serious,> said another voice. She remembered it from Shadow's memories – once an ooman named Kail, now a drone named Spiketail.
"You can speak to me now!"
Shadow mentally shrugged. >Presumably something to do with knowing how your mind works. In theory, I suppose that that means that all kainde amedha, as you call them, can communicate with any race if they have used a mental link like that. We can do it with humans due to having been the, I suppose.>
"But what about your companion?"
>I'll explain on the move. As Spike said, a Queen's spit isn't serious, but we shouldn't stick around here.>
With the casual strength of the Aliens, Shadow hoisted up Kal'Arak'e's limp body, and moved towards the exit.
>You should have seen it when we shared memories, but they did flow quite fast. It's for much the same reason that drones don't have names.>
Othar'a blinked. "But you have them."
>Yeah, well, we're different,> said Shadow. >Human mind stuck inside a drone's body – the result is that we're closer to a Praetorian than a drone. All drones are… how do I put this… they're almost like they're all one organism. What one drone knows, another can learn in a split second through the same mental link that allows us to communicate with the entire hive. Drones don't have names because they might as well be all the same. What one knows, all usually know. Do you see what I mean? Even the basic mindset is the same.>
>Whereas a Praetorian,> continued Spiketail, >has an independent mind. They have personalities, and are better thinkers than drones. Those qualities are… preparations, if you like, for Transforming into a Queen. Under normal circumstances, if a Queen dies or a new hive is formed, it is a Praetorian that undergoes that change.>
"But there are records of basic drones undergoing the change into a Queen," objected Othar'a.
>As I said, under normal circumstances. That will only happen if there is only one drone in the hive. If there are several drones (at least four), they can use a virus similar to the one that facehuggers use to implant embryos to change a victim into a Praetorian egg. If there are fewer than that, they cannot create sufficient amounts of the virus to cause that change. One drone will begin to mature mentally – over a period of a week, it will develop the same mental capacities as a Praetorian or Queen. Only then will it Transform.>
"The I'ka'ga'ku would be in ecstasy if they were hearing this," commented Othar'a. "That delay was something that they could never explain. This is the process even in hives that have not been… enhanced?"
>We're not really that different from a normal hive,> said Shadow. >The scientists who fiddled with the genetic code couldn't make any drastic changes without worrying about affecting the whole system – and with a system as delicate as that of an Alien hive, that's a big danger. This is a good place.>
The Yautja looked around in surprise. She had been so engrossed in the explanations that she hadn't noticed where they had been going.
>Come on, up the tree,> said Spiketail, leaping onto the trunk of a huge gnarly one. >You can climb, can't you?>
"Of course," she replied, faintly stung by the comment. "It's an essential skill!" With a jump, assisted by the awu'asa, she landed on a low branch.
>If that's the best you can do…> said Spiketail with a laugh. With that, the drone was climbing at a rate of yards per second, the claws and basic strength of the Alien from sending her disappearing into the canopy.
ASPHODEL COMMAND VATHRIS CONFIRM TRANSMISSION
TRANSMISSION CONFIRMED
INITIATIVE ASPHODEL 7-BETA ANALYSED
CHANCE OF SUCCESS: 90 PER CENT
ACCEPTABLE RISK OF INTERFERANCE AND FAILURE
CALCULATION ENDS
>You took your time,> said Spiketail with a laugh. Othar'a flicked open her wristblades, and waved them threateningly at the drone.
"For your assistance in the hive, and for your offer of help for my brother, I consider you a friend. Don't push your luck, kainde amedha."
>Stop posturing, Yautja,> the drone returned. >We would have slaughtered you last time if you hadn't shoved that combistick against my head. Besides, it's two against one. Do you really want to find out the result of that?>
>This is the point when if we were all human, I'd be thinking that males are supposed to be the ones with testosterone,> said Shadow amusedly. >Come on now, stop baiting her, Spiketail. We're better physically, and they've got the gadgets that even the odds. Let's just leave it at that, shall we?>
"Better physically?" snarled Othar'a.
Shadow sighed, and reached out for a nearby branch. It was nearly a metre in diameter, and looked fairly solid. With a small effort, he snapped it off. >Any questions?>
Spiketail sniffed Kal'Arak'e's arm. >As I thought. The acid gave him a nasty burn, and the neurotoxins shut down his nervous system. Nothing permanent, just enough to cripple an attacker and knock them out for long enough to get webbed and implanted. He'll be up and about in an hour or so.>
>Then I'd better get back to the Asphodel. See how things are going there – I left the moment the attackers had been fried. On second thoughts…>
>What?>
>Look, I'm not sure I like the idea of you two being stuck here together. Maybe you should go, Spiketail.>
Spiketail hissed in faint amusement. >All right. See you later, my 'physically inferior' friend.>
Othar'a leapt to her feet with a roar of fury, but her tormentor had vanished down the tree.
>I think she actually likes you,> commented Shadow. >I haven't seen her this playful since we were back on Earth.>
The Predator cocked her head at him. "She's got a funny way of showing it," she grumbled, but there was a faint Yautja grin on her face.
"This section is off-limits – emergency repairs have resulted in Level 1, Sections 4, 5 and 6 being flooded with radiation."
Holly smiled at the ingenuity of the defence – no-one sane would go hunting in the old cargo bay if it was flooded with radiation. "'What I do not believe in cannot hurt me'," she replied. "753 Gamma. ID Holly Chance."
"This section is off-limits," the computer repeated as the lock opened. It slid shut behind her, and she looked around the Aladdin's cave of technology.
Strange devices littered the room, but what interested her lay at the far end of the bay.
"Welcome, Holly Chance," said the computer monotonously as she touched the controls. "Please verify yourself."
"ID Holly Chance, 753 Gamma," she repeated.
"Thank you. This terminal is at your disposal."
"Access file VF912-Beta."
"Accessing."
"Assemble basic carrier from DNA sequence E512-Lambda."
The screen lit up with a sequence of DNA. It dropped back, and was joined by another strand. More sequences came together as the computer accessed, confirmed, and locked into place each strand. The sequence abruptly became even smaller as the sequence reached the edges of the screen.
Holly watched the process, mesmerised. How long she stood, she had no idea.
"Sequence complete," said the computer finally, dragging her back to reality. She sighed. Why did such a mundane voice accompany such a wondrous process?
"Analyse DNA sequence D537-Gamma, and confirm that all stages are capable of locking into DNA sequence E512-Lambda."
"Analysing."
The DNA sequence again began building, but this time it came in several different lines, each connected here and there to the next.
Such complexity… yet according to the scientists who had worked on this sequence, its simplicity was miraculous. Chimera sequences were so rare, and usually the creatures that used them were simple in the extreme… but not here.
"Analysis complete," said the computer, and again she cursed the lack of emotion in the voice. If a human were speaking instead of a computer, surely it would show the awe that this process demanded? "All stages are capable of locking into sequence E512-Lambda."
"Lock stage 4 DNA from D537-Gamma into the carrier."
"Initiating coding."
Both DNA sequences appeared on the screen, and one of the branches of the second sequence split off. It slowly began deconstructing, and swarmed over to the first. Branches split off the carrier sequence as it converted into a Chimera.
Again the branches of the original sequence split, but this time they swarmed into join directly onto the Chimera's branches.
It was like a dance, she mused. And like all dances, it had a finale…
"Coding complete."
"Produce a sample of the new DNA sequence capable of converting a human body."
"Producing… sample complete."
A small container ejected itself from the computer.
This was it. The aim of this entire basement project.
The retrovirus was ready.
She reached out for it, and felt something drop onto her hand. She recoiled in surprise, and felt the object.
It was a sticky, glue-like liquid.
As the recognition clicked, a dark, clawed hand reached down and snatched the canister.
>Planning to undergo a few changes, were we?> asked Spiketail coldly.
Yes, I'm evil to leave it like that. Sadly, if I'd carried on, this chapter would probably have doubled in length… as a bit of preparation, you may want to re-read chapter one of Hades…there's a little clue in there…
Oh, and the letters in front of the various files and DNA sequences are a litte 'thank you' to some of you kind people who keep reviewing. Sorry if you're not all in there - not enough sequences... but thanks to all of you!