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The Galactic Coalition was a paper thin network upheld by the Gray and the Abyssal, two advanced alien nations that had found common ground in their love of knowledge. One could also call them the Cosmic Denominators, or the Galactic Council, or a variety of chemical compounds that were really difficult to translate into any auditory language, let alone Eternal English that lacked clicks, howls or even so much as real volume. They might just as well be called the Very Important Squishy Heads, according to Odygos.
Eliath thought this was silly. Virtually every species was squishy to him and they all had varying degrees of importance based on that — namely, how likely were they to threaten the hive?
Since Sarah's departure, Eliath had been slowly introduced to the squishy city and all its squishy complexities. Hguthreeit had casually announced to the city that the guard now actual real xenomorph and that anyone who had a problem should suck it up, lest their squishy selves be assaulted with invisible things like laws and Kirindi's disappointment.
Eliath didn't understand half of that and hated that he had to.
In the wilderness he could just kill anything squishy that so much as looked the wrong way to the sisters. Over time, the dinosaurs learned to stay away. In here, the squishy would not stay away when he killed one of them. They'd come back later with weapons and a plan, going either after him or worse, the sisters. In here, creatures came to each others aid even when not member of the same hive, or any hive at all. Absurd but true. He could handle a mob, but there were consequences.
Anything he ruined required a payment, for example. If he could not provide it, they would turn to Kirindi and make her provide it. His instincts had nothing to say about that, other than the command that he was to keep Kirindi alive and in the best possible condition. The alive part he had covered. The condition part ... did that mean he had to help her avoid unpleasant situations?
It didn't make her feel well when she was apologizing and working to repay.
On one claw, maybe it would be the best condition if she learned not to care for things not part of the hive.
On another, they needed to survive for the sake of their Mother and for that, they had to understand this world and paying heed to the squishy ones was part of that.
Metaphors were easier for him and one that Eliath had picked up from Jake was "you're in way over your head", which he had used on Shadhahvar failing to operate a so called microwave. Odygos had somehow understood that very same thing.
Stupid Odygos and his curiosity had a purpose after all.
There were a mass of other things Eliath was not allowed to do for reasons he didn't grasp.
He was not allowed to gather hosts in preparation for Mother's arrival.
He was not allowed to enter certain holes in the wall that fit the description of building, unless given explicit permission or having a good reason, like suspicious activity.
He was not allowed to give personal interpretations of suspicious activity.
He was not allowed to violently make anything organized move out of the way.
He was not allowed to interpret that command to only apply to direct contact with squishy creatures.
He was not allowed to lose blood on anything prone to melting, which was nearly everything.
At least to that, there were exceptions. Acid was an acceptable way to cease further violence and open locks, which he needed right now.
Eliath was sent here to investigate something being transported without permission. One of Hguthreeit's subordinates had determined this through some convoluted calculation and Eliath was to smell it out. He'd been given a sample at Hguthreeit's base, it was some sort of resin.
Find it, retrieve bit for evidence, call in reinforcements. Got it.
The cave he had melted himself a way into was dark, dry and muted. The entire place was stacked with crates of all sizes, full of subtle scents. Systematically, he crossed the place to find that one among hundreds.
He sensed Odygos enter, but didn't pay him much heed. In fact, he actively tried to ignore him. His stupid brother was way too interested in trivial details like the content of the crates even if they did not include the target material. He was not worth paying attention to.
At least, not until one of the crates came hurling down. Eliath barely managed to jump aside before the crate and its content shattered on the floor.
Atop the stack sat Odygos, hissing contently. Silently, he asked Eliath whether he felt annoyed.
Oh so yes.
Yes because this was pointless behavior, because it made things difficult, because it wasted time and most of all because somehow, Eliath hadn't seen it coming.
Odygos gleefully told him he couldn't notice his specific intentions telepathically because his mind was just too crude. To cement that, Odygos' tail launched a piece of rock. Eliath already stood against a wall of crates and was frankly too irritated to climb up. He lashed the rock away with his tail and shrieked.
Odygos turned tail and ran, not afraid in the least, just careful.
His brother was vexing, aimless, Eliath decided. So why did he get along better with this situation?
Worse yet, Karga'te agreed with Eliath on that opinion. Being on the same line of thought as that worthless-should-be-kicked-out-and-killed was now classified : annoying.
He was left with the broken material. Odygos was gone. Eliath would likely be blamed for this. Kirindi would be made to clean it up.
That would be annoying to her and not well.
Eliath hesitated, still lingering with his thought about whether she should learn to ignore it. Could she even do that? He was not built for this type of thought. Odygos was not either, but he was flawed, it was a side effect. His Mother wanted free thinking servants exactly because her own children couldn't think like that, not without risk to her. In the perfect world, there would be only the hive, no pointless complications like compliance to anyone else's plans and no free thinking drones.
Yet he was also told to keep Kirindi well.
Eliath got up, collected the pieces of scattered crate and rock and spent half an hour carefully gluing them together with a resin of his own making.
Then he continued searching for that other resin, succeeded and reported.
Hguthreeit sent in his own servants, who turned the place upside down, smashed a lot more crates and statues and gave Eliath his first feeling of futility.
Far away, Odygos mocked him.
Fine.
He sought out his brother, asking for explanation. Odygos took this as a cue to join him all the way, which he did by running up while Eliath crossed a roof's edge and bumping him.
Eliath instinctively latched onto the rock with three clawed limbs, avoiding a fall. Odygos found the fourth set of claws around the lower end of his head, the circle talor partially driven into joint of his jaws.
Would physical corrections work, if mental ones were useless against Odygos' defective behavior?
Odygos froze, but only briefly. As he shook off Eliath, he snickered and was satisfied with Eliath grasping the concept of threat before actually resorting to action. Likewise, it was great Eliath was now understanding that brand of frustration born from being put in place. Supersonically cheering for mental advance, he darted out of reach.
Eliath thought Odygos should be feeling that like he was put in place, but couldn't avoid that he was hopelessly behind on everything and Odygos had just pointed out he was already starting to adapt into the world of the squishy.
Odygos didn't leave much time for contemplation and launched in a tale of addictive poison and money and things other than truth, as well as how this related to not needing to worry about wrecked property in the illegal resin case and other vague concepts. The reason behind it all stayed vague.
There had to be reason.
Kirindi was occupied elsewhere with her sister, but now he felt her call ease in and offer to explain.
That was an odd concept, especially since she offered with a sense of keeping him out of trouble. That was his job towards her.
Odygos suggested they all get together now. Eliath thought it pointless, they could communicate from a distance. Kirindi though agreed with Odygos, there would be less distractions at home and a chance to use the computer. She apparently found it difficult to relay specific images to Eliath and she needed them to explain the city.
He took off.
Odygos gathered up some items had had placed at the other edge of the roof, and caught up bipedal. The items were almost certainly not natural material. When Eliath wondered how this was in line with the order to not claim anything from the city, Odygos said he had been offered the material in a social ritual deemed apology. It was a legit trade : in exchange, he would not wreck the trespasser's rampaging beast anymore. Trading was totally allowed.
Once they ran out of flat roofs, the brothers cantered down the streets. Eliath tried to fight against the distracting glee Odygos got from seeing everything fearfully move aside. Whether anyone feared him was irrelevant to him as long as they didn't get in his way, he didn't want to care through Odygos.
At this point, Odygos launched one of his most bizarre thoughts at Eliath.
Here they were, walking down a street and the creatures around them were wrong to be afraid of them. Wasn't that just cheap and pathetic? Not for the creatures, for them as Mother's children. They were the strongest species in the universe and children of the greatest Mother, yet here they were, subject to the rules of these Not So Important Squishy Heads. Odygos was fully aware of how wrong this was, yet he was fascinated.
Eliath had no concept of cheapness or disgust, but Odygos did and that seeped over into Eliath. He found it a fitting concept for what they currently were : children of the oldest Mother of the galaxy, yet not conquering or building a new domain. For Odygos, this opinion was not strong enough to compete with his fun, but Eliath found it increasingly obnoxious and unpleasant. Especially now Odygos pointed it out.
Somehow, this all would help the restoration of his Mother to power. They needed the cooperation of the city, so it all had purpose. He didn't need to care for how this situation might appear to either himself or outsiders. All that mattered was the call of his Mother.
Nevertheless, it would be great if Odygos would just stop bugging him about squishy trivialities.
Karga'te and Kirindi could shut off their deepest mind from others. Kirindi had done it for months to keep Karga'te from finding out about her hive, but she said it had only worked because Karga'te never dug around in her mind anyway.
Eliath wanted to be able to do this too; Odygos and his constant experiments with mental diversity should not get in the way of his duty. Individuality was not for the drones and warriors, but today, it might be hist best defense against further mental decay.
Kirindi told him Odygos wasn't so wrong with his explorations, but also agreed Eliath should stay himself ... odd, he hadn't thought of this as a matter of staying himself ... just a matter of distractions.
She offered to teach him how to seal off. The start was made easily by her, he had no idea how, but Odygos was suddenly more ... distant.
She struggled for a moment to find the right mental wall for Eliath, then she asked him what he thought about this place and his role. He alone, not Odygos, not what he believed Mother would say.
Simple.
This place was pointless. It could only serve as a tool for Mother to wake and grow strong. They needed the androids for that. Their duty was simple as that, protect the hive as far as necessary, the rest just did not matter. Maybe as hosts.
Behind the wall, Odygos wondered what would happen to all the squishy stuff here. He didn't like the idea of them all dying out and being replaced by anything remotely like his brother. Plus, wasn't the wormy thing awesome? Sure, weak in the flesh, but its psychic grip on this city was remarkable : so much different things, yet so much control. Wouldn't that be fun to keep around?
They're not worthy paying attention to, Eliath returned calmly.
Odygos silently laughed at him. If they were not worth understanding, then why did Mother need creatures like Kirindi and Karga'te? They could do things Mother's children could not. Hive members who could be individuals and queens over all sorts of creatures, without becoming mothers and threatening Mother. Shouldn't they use that to rule?
Eliath didn't care. Anything within the wall had no instincts for this.
At this point they physically reached the edge of the active market and came closer to the pillars, where private estates were located. The majority of these had belonged to rich business folk to stay in, so many of them were empty for years. Those that weren't were evacuating right now. The district was silent save for such bursts of evacuation activity.
Their encounter with these panicked departures were their first encounter with fear not directed at them. The fear they had for humans was a different one from which they held for the xenomorph.
Eliath didn't care definitions and went on, but Odygos stayed a little while to observe the creatures from a distance. At one point, he even approached them and decided to help them clean out their hive.
Stupid. They obviously didn't want the help, but off course that only served to entertain Odygos. Let's play empty the hive chambers as quickly as possible, then watch the hive members try to make sense of the mess that the content had turned into.
Karga'te had returned yet when Eliath arrived in their new hive chambers. Eliath ignored him and his tell tale irritation, but found it difficult. He was designated as a dominant mind in the hive, after all. That, and the sight of Karga'te peeling his helmet off the wall; Odygos had crafted the thing onto a statue like carving with resin and acid.
Karga'te wasn't sure of Odygos' administrations on his armor, especially since Odygos insisted he not use a helmet. Mother's kind relied on an exoskeleton for stability, while yautja had an endoskeleton. Only the head was the exception for the yautja, consisting of hard shell with only mush within. Therefore, he could at least leave that uncovered and let the echo senses develop there. Eliath momentarily paused to affirm the logic of this, then passed on.
In their room, Kirindi and Ti'chai had gathered around a holographic projection. Holographic images were difficult to perceive to Eliath, since he didn't have any eyes. He could make out shapes and colors to a degree, using sensors on the front of his head, but interpreting those was nigh impossible if there was no echo resonance or magnetic field.
For this reason, Kirindi was copying shapes of the hologram with the use of bendable metal rods and piece of cloth. Using these, she went on to explain about a hierarchy that involved abstract powers like money and social standing and property and more. Something as simple as knowing who was in charge of what could mean the difference between victory and loss. Knowing who the leader of the Auton was had helped, right? There would be many more situations like this in the future.
What she taught him felt pointless and abstract and irritated him. Not only that, it felt contrary to his nature itself. All decisions belonged to Mother, yet here he was, learning to juggle information so he could make them on his own.
Not right. Right.
The only thing that made sense was that Kirindi was here and he was keeping her in a well state, like Mother told him to, for the sake of the hive. Everything else didn't.
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After a lot of arguing with himself, Karga'te had decided to try on the adjusted armor. The thing fit perfectly, weighed only a little more and ... he hated to admit, but there was nothing he could say to the detriment of the work, save for how freaky it looked. Odygos had even colored separate parts differently, for as far as his xenoresin allowed.
How that drone managed to understand yautja and armory are so bloody well was a mystery when at the same time, he'd accept a bribe without even realizing it.
Odygos entered some time after Eliath and was confronted with Karga'te leaning against the nearest wall. Odygos still carried the fruit and got a sudden psychic wave of wrong from Karga'te.
"~ That was not a legit trade, that was a bribe. You're not supposed to get anything in return for stopping what worm guy tells you. You're being paid by not being killed, got that? Don't ever do that again. ~"
Odygos got it. Right. He hadn't played by the rules.
Deciding to take it into stride, he sat down and and started ramming his tail on the floor. Karga'te would have ignored it earlier, but now he reached out telepathically and tried making his confusion apparent. Odygos showed him an image, colored, that he had taken out of Shadhahvar's head.
"~ Second, stop mindreading Shadhahvar. She's a bad source of information. You are not a dog. ~"
Odygos countered that the concept of dog hardly had anything to do with species, according to those movies Shadhahvar had seen.
"~ That's just her stupidity interpreting things and that's exactly why you should quit using her as source. ~"
Odygos took note and promptly decided to tag his entire list of sources according to credibility while figuring out credibility it itself, simultaneously launching into an exploration of the axis of truth, lie and anything in between. Karga'te tuned out quickly.
The moment he was no longer directly linked to the drone, Odygos turned around and entered the main room, where Kirindi and Ti'chai-di had moved to build some weird structure. Eliath was still in their room, trying to make sense of some abstract stuff. Whatever went on in Eliath's head there was like being burned, so Karga'te tried not paying attention.
Odygos inspected the structure for a moment, then handed his bribe to Kirindi. After all, it wasn't anything he needed to eat himself.
Kirindi eagerly accepted, shoved one piece into her mouth and confirmed with bloated cheek it wasn't anything harmful. Then she helped her sister eat, who had trouble handing small objects with her bony hands.
Right then, Eliath's awareness blared through the hivemind with something that Karga'te could only describe as a bizarre mixture of off-envy, confusion and territorial aggression aimed at Odygos.
It was Eliath's job to attend to Kirindi, not Odygos, and Eliath could not place Odygos' action in his limited understanding of the world beyond leave my job to me.
It was childish, it was feral and it happened so quickly neither of the drones was prepared. Eliath burst into the room and shoved Odygos into the nearby elevator. Since said elevator was currently not up and in fact closed with doors that were not acid proof, the collision was loud, bloody and resulting in a huge drop for Odygos, with more acid upon arrival at the bottom.
Kirindi shrieked, Eliath startled as if waking from a daze, a far away Sarah launched an assault on Karga'te to stop lazying off and take control. He felt Sarah reach Eliath too, but couldn't feel clearly what it was, only that it was not pleasant and elicited a low hiss from the warrior. There was an enforcing echo to Sarah's presence that lingered even when her voice faded; Karga'te guessed the one named Lemura was in league.
Eliath still stood before the elevator door, increasingly puzzled with himself. Suddenly he turned and cantered out of the room. Reluctantly, Karga'te dug into the warrior drone's mind. He was met with the tell tale hostility against him, but also with a lot more.
It was like someone had taken the basic building blocks of a sapient mind, carelessly tossed them in a bag and now that bag had been opened and shaken onto a floor. There was no map on how to put the pieces together.
"~ What just happened? ~" he sent to the far away presence of Sarah and her side of the hivemind.
It took a while before a clear answer came.
Odygos wasn't the only drone who was being affected by the strange birth circumstances. Sarah theorized that due to Syvé's nature, her children were inherently different and needed psychic and genetic guidance during their early days, yet Syvé was unable to give this to them now.
That was why she had never tried escaping Enigma II by letting any of her offspring gestate. Without proper guidance, the same things that made her children stronger than ordinary xenomorph turned them too chaotic when left unsupervised. How this unfolded tended to depend on the host and the circumstances around birth. Odygos and his relatively harmless curiosity was an exception to the norm.
Whatever the case, the Auton better not find out about this. They'd draw the wrong conclusions.
Eliath was moving to the bottom of the elevator, feeling neither regret nor satisfaction at his own actions. He was just going on instinct in retrieving a member of his hive who was needed to defend the rest of the hive.
Every time one part of his mind fired off all that did not make sense about him throwing around his hive member, it bounced off of agitation and knowledge of Odygos not acting like he should. Intersecting this all were gaps where his mother's call should ring, a murderous instinct silenced by one of the few orders she had left him with and a growing individuality that whispered him things different from both his instincts and his Mother. Whenever those whispers didn't meet direct resistance, he would follow them.
Sarah again told Karga'te to take up dominance. They needed guidance, however flawed it would be.
How was he supposed to do that?
Improvise, Sarah replied.
"~ Odygos, Eliath, throwing is not to be included in the same action as interaction with your brother. You don't throw other people's property at each other and you don't throw each other at other people's property. Oh, and just for your information, if it's part of this planet, it's not your property. ~"
Ti'chai-di let it slip by accident that Karga'te had once thrown Hguthreeit out of a window.
"That was different, he wouldn't have left a big acid splatter that could kill bystanders."
Odygos agreed with a pained, wordless afterfeeling. Playing by rules good.
Eliath did not deny the order, but did not affirm it either. At best, his response could be translated as sure, for now.
Peering down the elevator shaft, Karga'te caught glimpses of a bleeding Odygos stumbling away and people running away screaming.
The longer Karga'te focused on the drones, the more disturbed he was by them. Brothers, yet no care for pain or suffering of their sibling. Odygos at least felt somewhat betrayed by Eliath, but Eliath himself was just blank on this terrain.
He looked at the sisters, who had stopped building. Kirindi had stood up and came to stand at his side. The only reason she hadn't followed to help Odygos was that she couldn't do much without her sister, who would have significantly more trouble going down.
"~ Kirindi, you need to figure out what exactly he thinks protecting you means and .. do something about this. ~" Karga'te waved a hand vague at the wrecked elevator.
She was a tittle hesitant. Not out of fear for Eliath, but for the chaos she'd find inside. Part of that chaos involved a death wish to many things she didn't want to see die or be destroyed.
"~ Alright, ~" she nevertheless told her father.
"~ For all his talk on me not belonging in this hive, he's bloody screwed up himself. ~"
"~ Kainde Amedha weren't meant for anything but survival and the hive, especially not for ... for ... ~" She struggled for the word, but the closest yautja equivalent was too different from the human one. Karga'te had never objected to her learning language and knowledge from the Auton, but he hadn't cared to himself. "~ Personhood, ~" she decided on.
In response, Karga'te showed her a little of a long ago memory. Someone had already explained that concept to him. She was right.
"~ You should teach him about that too. ~"
"~ I may? I would, but I thought you did not want him to become smart. ~"
"~ The smarter he gets, the better he'll be at killing me. He might just figure out there are indirect ways. Still, at least with logic, he'd be predictable. ~"
"~ Eliath would kill everything for the sake of the hive, you only a little more eagerly. If he learns more, perhaps he will see you as less of a threat. ~"
Karga'te scoffed, but nevertheless gave her a soft push forward. "~ Just go already. ~"
Smiling, she nodded and ran off. Ti'chai-di, still the same as always, slowly stood up to follow.
Karga'te sank on the nearest chair.
Who would have thought that thinking intensely for a few minutes could be more exhausting than fighting a few hours straight?
Sarah's mind reached out again, somewhat comforting, as she explained that for humans, the brain used up about twenty percent of daily energy despite only weighing less than two percent of the body mass. Similar as yautja were to humans — on the scale between human and xenomorph at least — he could expect a similar percentage to be true. She told him not to worry though, once Syvé was awake and their transfigurations would be complete under her guidance, it would all become easier.
Transfiguration. Pfffft.
Then again, it would too late too turn back. Had been too late for many years now.
Throwing up a wall against Sarah and anyone else, he wondered what his brother would think of this all.
He shrugged it off quickly. Nra'tex-ne was just going to have to tolerate it. It wasn't like he ever had imagined they'd go back on the same Path anyway. Nra'tex-ne would return to being an honorable hunter because that was who he always had been, while Karga'te would stay with Kirindi, Ti'chai-di and freedom. Even if that meant being part of a Kainde Amedha hive. Well, as long as he wasn't brainwashed.
He couldn't tell whether his emotions were being manipulated to feel safe. It might very well be, since he found himself remarkably at ease about being Kainde Amedha himself.
Kirindi flat out told him that yes, she was offering him a sense of calmness and he was accepting it openly. Was it wrong?
He decided that in this case, it wasn't. In fact, he could think a lot clearer than when he was angry. How long had it been ago that he really had thought about his brother as anything more than a painful, fleeting quest?
Feeling at ease didn't drive away doubts entirely. Him deciding this was alright could also be an effect of the hive's influence.
Again Kirindi affirmed. It was a combination of telepathic soothing and his growing understanding of the hive mind. There was a limit to the influence though. It could only altered the energetic side of the brain, the physical side was still there. That was after all why something like hive rejection couldn't easily be countered.
Good enough, Karga'te decided as he laid back with his arms behind his head. As he stared up at the ceiling, which was taking a distinctly hivelike appearance, he realized he hadn't even felt any need to use sounds for communication.
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