Disclaimer: Not mine. Although in my deepest dreams and desires, I would take them home and take good care of them. And, call them George.
Warning: Violence, mature themes and language.
For All the Marbles
Prologue
Company Comes a Knockin'
Beautiful. Simple elegance. From the designs; to the day; to the potential outcome; it was…no, it is and shall be perfection. Amazing what a lone dart with a lone warrior could do when given enough time. The information he compiled was extensive, maybe even considered stimulating.
Looking up into the expansive sky, she took a big breath into her lungs. She was unaccustomed to planetary atmosphere. The air held familiar and unfamiliar scents: sweet botanicals, burnt timber, animal sweat and more at which she could only guess. The breeze picked up tendrils of her amber hair as she exhaled.
The plans would take her hive to the pinnacle of her kind's hierarchy instead of the bottom where they floundered. And why not? They had survived when so-called greater hives had fallen victim to herd animal tactics. She would bide her time. She would find ways to cull and to stay hidden until that time was right. She would lead. She would feast.
They escaped from the debacle of invading the Lanteans city. One of the not so fortunate hives passed the information on to her at the last possible minute. She was supposed to transmit it to another more important Queen. As if.
With the tension between the hives escalating, she decided to keep the information for herself. With such important plans entrusted to her, they were what she needed to pick her hive up from the cesspool that they had languished in since awakening. In order to survive, her hive had succumbed to humiliating tactics like scavenging. Besides, it was her kind's sovereign right to feed, not to pick up the scraps left behind by others. In their possession was something to change all of that-- everything in a fingertip's grasp.
In the sunshine, footsteps approached from a large house that hid a treasure underneath it- a treasure to help with the schematics. The treasure held treasures. It was a fortuitous happenstance to find this little ball of mud. Moreover, it had yet to be culled. They searched many systems for an appropriate planet and here it rotated just waiting for them. Everything they needed with just a few revisions and updates, a true bounty of possible flawlessness. Fate favored them.
"Human, where did you get these?" She held up a nylon backpack and a small rectangular monitor. She admired and basked in the defiance radiating from the animal. Even lower creatures carried self-importance occasionally.
He stood between two of her drones matching their height and size easily. He appeared poised, as if this was just any other day. His pride expressed through his posture, which remained straight and tall.
"I picked them up at a bazaar on Staz. Where they obtained them from, I don't know. Of course, you can't ask them, can you? That planet's been culled." He held his head up and with his genteel voice, addressed her directly in her tangerine eyes.
Too bad pride was a sin.
"You lie human." She walked in a circle around him. "Try again." She ran a finger down the side of his fleshy face and reveled in his fear, anxiety and boldness. "Where?" Her voice became insistent, hypnotic.
"A booth on Staz," he gasped adamantly.
Her head bobbed back and forth mulling the answer over. "Very well then, I'll ask your offspring." She slammed her hand into his chest. The animal's eyes popped out of its head with the threat and sunk back in with the feeding. She felt him scream out of pain and fear for his daughters, the rush of life and emotion succulent. When she released him, dust kicked up from the previously manicured grounds as his husk collapsed to the earth.
There was always a price for pride.
She walked over to the first daughter in line. The child stared at the corpse with tears in her bright, delicious, brown eyes. She did not even need to ask the question. The child was speaking before the dust settled.
"The Atlanteans were here."
"Osy! That's enough!" One of the other offspring scolded her sister in a high-handed voice. It was the eldest if she had to make an assumption.
She gave a skeletal grin as she relieved the scolder of her life. "Go on," she smoothly commanded Osy while her hand drained the soon to be corpse.
Yes, she thought as the child continued to explain with tears streaming down her graceful face, possible flawlessness.
She dropped the body to the ground.
Only time would tell.
----------------
A/N: As always, I invite you to leave feedback. Hit, miss or say what?