The Call of the Swarm

by Melani Matejak

  Right from the start it became clear that there would be complications.

  On their very first venture with a new company while Eeols quested over the burgeoning landscape, Wa 17 slowly buzzed near Xe.

  “You do understand that you were allowed to join us only because there is a shortage of Scouts.” He grinned at him. “Seriously, you don’t deem yourselves equal to real Troopers?”

  “Results will show,” answered Xe in a calm tone.

  Wa 17 grunted, twisting his face in a scornful way, and flew off.

  Xe shook his head. He was hard to provoke, but the majority of his friends weren’t and he worried what the whole situation could turned into. He knew everything would be fine as long as hot heads would stay close to him or Commander Ce, or at least to Commander Wa 48, the Scoutmaster of Wa 17’s Scout unit 7. But such surveillance was not possible all the time.

  Buzzing softly, the company landed onto the wide clay plateau. It was overgrown with Farra plants vast groves sprawling monotonously to the horizon. There was no wind to disturb the still metallic herbage, and just an occasional Flea Beetle would zoom around now and then carried by its tiny fan.

  “Come over here, Troopers,” summoned Commander Ce. “Check this out.”

  He pointed to a huge trunk of a toppled Farra plant lying on the ground. Its fall obviously didn’t happen recently as the stalk was rusted, and it lost all its twigs and leaves leaving only a decaying log. The Scoutmaster indicated a big dark hole. The log was clearly hollow on the inside, likely all the way through.

  “See these chops right over there on the gap edges, Troopers? Any idea, what those are? Traces of a Smaller Millipede jaws, that’s what.”

  He smiled lightly as his startled listeners sprang away from the log on that word.

  “No danger, Troopers. The Millipede is not inside. This lair is long abandoned.”

  He walked up the log, patting his palm against a number of small holes running through it; barely visible among remnants of flaking bark they seemed like a mere woodworm to an inexperienced eye. There was also some sawdust piled in rusty heaps on the surrounding ground.

  “These are the creature’s lurking holes. Keep in mind, Smaller Millipedes may attack from anywhere along the log, tearing off a piece of its rotted side to jump out. Thus, the entire length of the log must be considered hazardous.”

  “Have you ever seen a Greater Millipede, Sir?” interrupted Go, not picking the best moment for digression and not being aware of it as usual.

  “Let me finish, Go 83. As I was saying, objects such as this,” he knocked lightly on the log, “are ideal for Millipede lairs, and you must be cautious whenever seeing one. Treat every toppled plant trunk as being infested until you check it and make sure it is not.”

  His Scouts nodded.

  “And about the Greater Millipede, very rare, that one. Nobody in the Swarm has encountered it for many years. And although somewhat larger, it’s actually much less dangerous than the Smaller Millipede as it’s not so aggressive and doesn’t possess blasters.”

  He elbowed the log. “But this is the point, Troopers. The Hunting Flies, even though the most common of hostile beings, are by no means our only foes. I got the impression that you are concentrating too much on them alone.”

  “We hate Hunting Flies, Sir,” snarled Da, and the whole unit nodded in agreement.

  “It’s not bad to be on guard for them, but there are other kinds of nasty creatures you have to lookout for too. Understood?”

  “Yes, Sir,” replied the young Troopers unanimously.

  This talk about the Millipedes unnerved the Scouts a bit, but no threat showed up for the rest of that morning and they settled down again. Flocks of disturbed Flea Beetles were the only creatures moving in the silent Farra groves. Soon the gathering swarm one arrived and Scouts remained with it in the safety of the multitude. There was no need to look for a second pasture. The whole unit stuck with Commander Ce until dusk and that eliminated the possibility for a potentially explosive situation with Wa 17.

  The next day unit 33 served their old party, the scouting company number three, and it actually made Xe feel good. Although that company wasn’t prestigious, he was surprised how fast time passed when he was surrounded by familiar faces.

  Two days later, unit 33 had to return to company one.

  As the scouting company landed to explore the first potential pasture, Commander Ce was called away to join a lengthy discussion among the Scoutmasters and his Troopers stayed alone. Having a bad feeling, Xe placed himself at the head of the unit where he had the best view. It wasn’t long before Wa 17 noticed an opportunity to make his move, picking on Go.

  “What, back already from company number three?” he said in a falsely concerned voice. “I guess they kicked you out as you were performing below their pitiful standards?”

  That was total nonsense, as somebody found to serve sub-standard in the smaller accessory swarm couldn’t be transferred to the principal one by any chance. Yet unsurprisingly, Go didn’t think twice before she burst into anger.

  “You one-!”

  Fortunately, Xe was there to hold her off, and with Trooper Wa 9 from unit 7 turning up instantly and dragging Wa 17 away, two steaming Scouts have been successfully separated before any harm could be done.

  The flower field currently under inspection consisted of a plant Eeols called the Pletoriam. Its red blossoms provided sweet nectar of the best quality, and it really was a shame that the blooming season of this gorgeous herb lasted so briefly. The Commanders decided to summon the gathering swarm one here, and once its huge numbers spread over the feeding area Scouts could relax for a while.

  That meant Commander Ce was at liberty to give his Troopers some more lectures, and he started by leading them to the strange vertical pits yawning in the patch of the bare ground.

  “These are dugs of the burrowing Trap Door Spiders, Scouts. You can see the pits are deserted and therefore easy to spot. That’s not the case with inhabited pits, but by watching carefully you will still be able to get through their camouflage.”

  He eyed Te, who was playing with a piece of a red floral petal. “Stop it,” the Scoutmaster said sternly, and Te promptly dropped the piece and looked down.

  “Besides, Trap Door Spiders are rare, as they live exclusively in this blue clay.”

  After several more lectures, Commander Ce left again to discuss some matter with two other Commanders. In the meanwhile, unit 33 joined the Watcher patrols making their rounds.

  Buzzing around, Xe ran into Scout Za and halted, glad to meet his friend again. “Hail, Trooper! Long time no see.”

  Za’s Scout unit had been temporarily assigned to company four so they lost contact for a while. The last time they talked Za was still a Starter, but he was promoted the same time the rest of unit 33 did.

  The young Scout chuckled, being in a good mood as usual. “Good to see you too, Xe.”

  There was some new feature on him. Za’s helmet appeared to be slightly indented and partly discolored, with a subtle crack running along his right temple.

  “You had some unpleasant encounter?”

  Za nodded. “Very much so. I stuck my head in the mouth of a Common Rocky Grabbing Fly. It ambushed us down by the Black Soils Area, but we saw the Fly jumping out and fired in time. The creature was practically dying when it took a bite of me. Not much damage done except my headpiece was squeezed a little.”

  “The Common Rocky,” said Xe sympathetically. “What was it like inside the Fly jaws?”

  “Have no idea. I passed out momentarily as the bug stumbled on me.” He adjusted his visor. “I guess there is no point thinking further about it. A waste of time, my Scoutmaster has said. Are you hungry? Fellows from my unit are about to have a meal, so you could come and join us.”

  “Gladly.”

  Prattling lively, the group of Scouts ascended the nearest flowering plant. Plushy Pletoriam blooms had between four and eight elegant nectar containers
concealed in the fuzzy ball of red petals, and delighted Eeols drew out shiny tips of feeding nozzles from their wrists. A few were first flushing excessive water out, as nectar contained too much and the surplus had to be pumped back from nozzles after digestion. Xe recalled how boring that was and how it was driving him mad in his early days, as honey brewing forced Internals to flush over and over again.

  Xe also quickly discovered that the Trooper emptying the container with him knew one of his Internalhood friends.

  “XeraB2222? How could I not know him? Funny name, you must admit. And funny fellow, too; always ready with jokes and laughs. He’s become a Gatherer and a Trooper by now. Everybody is fond of him.”

  But their conversation was interrupted by some howling from the outside.

  Not losing a second, Xe swiftly leapt off the flower, activating his air-screw shortly before hitting the ground.

  There was a crowd amassing some distance from him with dozens of Flyers who were shouting and bellowing. He was too far away to distinguish any words, yet when the young Scout buzzed closer he recognized several Troopers from his unit.

  “What happened?”

  In the middle of the yelling crowd scuttled Commander Wa 46, dragging Da and Pa 2 by their pole arms. Both had their hand spikes out and were sprayed by yellow Eeol blood.

  “What happened! That idiot has gotten his, that’s what happened!” growled Da in response.

  In the background there was bloodstained Wa 17 balancing with difficulty on one leg while holding the injured leg lifted and dangling. Others from his unit were giving him a hand to walk as he apparently had some problems with his flying gear too.

  Oh no, thought Xe, I have forgotten about that damned Wa 17.

  Now it was too late to mend the situation. The rest of unit 33 was already at the spot of the incident and engaged in fiery quarrel. The Superiors had to get involved, solving the issue by suspending both unit 33 and unit 7 from duty until further notice.

  “Not fair,” whined Go in a low voice while they were flying back toward the Hive escorted by five large Gatherer units.

  Xe kept his mouth closed. He figured that was the smartest thing he could do right now. Nobody was telling them anything and he didn’t know what was to come out of this. Commander Ce was not there with his Scouts, but neither were any Was. It seemed that Commanders of their escorts were instructed to bring problematic units home separately.

  When the small party reached the Hive, the Gatherers simply turned and buzzed back to the pasture, leaving unit 33 all alone in the practically vacant Central Chamber.

  After staring at each other for several moments, bemused Scouts opted to look for some comfort in their personal quarters. They picked Da’s and Pa 2’s sleeping chamber, which was built for six occupants and therefore the most spacious of their rooms. There each Scout hit some handy piece of wax rubble.

  “And now what?” Pa 2’s voice was quiet.

  “We wait for the verdict of the Superiors,” said Da with resignation.

  “Wa 17 deserved it. We did what had to be done.”

  “Deserving or not, you shouldn’t act this way,” Xe noted darkly, shifting on the wax piece and contemplating the situation. “What a mess. Why didn’t you call me when Wa 17 had gone rattling?”

  “We didn’t want to bother you,” said Pa 2. “Besides, the two of us were perfectly able to take care of him by ourselves.”

  Xe just groaned on that statement.

  The unit kept talking, but it was futile to try to guess their Superiors’ decision. The only thing certain was they all would be angry at them, and Xe was starting to get a headache. Waiving off his friends, he chose to retreat to his place.

  As it was early afternoon, the green-glowing hallways looked drearily empty. With nearly the entire force of Flyers out at work, the only figures passing by the young Scout were occasional Internals and their Masters, and he didn’t like the Hive that way. Eeols enjoyed vast and stirring masses of their own kind; sometimes it would get tight and cramped to live like that, but it was their stuff nonetheless.

  Arriving at his quarters, Xe was surprised to find it occupied. Xe 73 was there sitting motionless in one corner, and it was unclear what he was doing there at this time of day. Was it possible his roommate had earned his suspension today as well? Curious, Scout rushed over to him, but as their eyes met his voice was stuck in his throat.

  His friend’s stare was glassy, and as his head turned black eyes looked not at Scout but through him. “Xe 83 is dead,” he said quietly in an odd voice which didn’t sound him at all. “Our Xe 83 is dead. Slaughtered by the Long-Legged Grabbing Fly.”

  Xe trembled. It had to have happen just after unit 33 was sent home. He sat down next to his shattered roommate. “That’s terrible. I’m so sorry.”

  The young Gatherer had an absent stare. “I always thought we were perfectly safe when amidst large numbers of our fellows.”

  Xe used to believe it too. He shuddered again.

  “But the numbers didn’t matter. Foul bug struck the flank of the gathering swarm, making a dash out of some thick foliage. In a blink of an eye, no longer than that, it took a bite of her and vanished back into the vegetation.”

  The Gatherer paused.

  “I held her head in my lap while one Commander was trying to stop the bleeding, but all three of us knew it was in vain. I’ll never forget the expression on her face. She smiled painfully at me and whispered, ‘So, this is goodbye then.’ And after those very words, our fine Eeoless was gone. She died in my arms, Xe 97.”

  The young Scout was silent, not knowing what to say to console his friend.

  “They took her body to the Gorge. I was sent back here to recover. Xe 1 is somewhere fetching me nectar, or honey, or water… I can’t remember any more.”

  Damn Flies, though Xe, if only some would come in range of his blasters! No matter how much he dreaded the ravenous monsters, he was now hoping there would be loads of Flies crossing his path.

  He made an effort to be strong for Xe 73. “A sad and awful tragedy, but life goes on. In time, we’ll get over it,” he reassured his friend, wishing he sounded more certain.

  The next day in the Central Chamber, after the sleepless night, Xe felt horrible.

  Loss of Xe 87 hit him hard. He was so fond of that dear babbling Eeoless and couldn’t believe he wasn’t to see her ever again. How was that possible, anyway? Just the previous morning all four roommates had left their sleeping chamber together, chattering and laughing as always, and by present morning she was gone, nothing more than dust. Death was such a weird thing. Was he going to die soon? He shook his head forcefully to get rid of such unpleasant thoughts.

  The Central Chamber was half-empty as it was well before dawn; too early for Morning Rally. Yet all Scouts of unit 33 were awake and on their feet, clustering around Xe without a word. Their spirits had settled and hot heads cooled, and now they were starting to feel the burden of quilt. Anxious over the yesterday incident, the Scouts were already depressed enough and Xe chose not to tell them about his roommate’s demise. Furthermore, this whole quarrel now seemed very stupid to him; surrounded by hordes of blood-thirsty monsters, they were fighting between themselves? What was the point in that?

  But all the unease and distress the unit 33 had undergone was nothing in comparison with the embarrassment they had to face once their Scoutmaster appeared.

  “Not the way I taught you, Scouts!”

  Commander Ce looked more than angry. He really detested the disruption of unity; and they have done worse than that.

  “Picking a fight, Scouts? Causing disarray? How dare you! Not to mention the disrespect of Superiors and the general lack of discipline. A shameful conduct! Appalling!” He was marching up and down their line, the young Troopers drooping in front of him. “You didn’t bother to think of what the other Commanders would say? Our Mission Commander? The Supremes?”

  Naturally, this was not just about his personal opinion. As their c
ommanding officer, Commander Ce was responsible for his Scouts and he was given a hard time too, having to do a lot of explanation to the Supreme Command regarding the demeanor of his Subordinates.

  “We are sorry, Sir,” muttered his unit, looking down.

  “You two troublemakers!” Scoutmaster’s eyes lashed Da and Pa 2, making both to recoil. “Trooper DadoY3961 and Trooper PagaN4782! Step out! You two cooked this up, didn’t you?”

  “It was not us who started…” Pa 2 stammered out, but Commander Ce gave him a sharp look, and he shut up instantly and lowered his head.

  Da was mute as a rock. He gazed down in deep shame, pursing his lips tightly.

  “The worst thing is that you two had the gall to shout at Commander Wa 48! That presented you in particularly bad light before the Supremes.”

  “In the heat of moment, Sir.” Xe tried to defend his friends. “We are all aware it was wrong and are ready to apologize.”

  “That won’t be enough. There are even requests to ban you permanently from serving in company one.” Commander Ce crossed his arms. “However, it’s no secret that the other Scout, Trooper WakaU4017, had a part in this, and not a small one… I’ll see what I can do.”

  Faint sighs of relief rose from the unit. “That would be great, Sir.”

  “The decision of Supreme Command will come in a day or two, maybe three at the most. In the meantime, you are supposed to be disciplined, but I got you a reprieve because I didn’t want you to miss this.” The Scoutmaster gestured behind their backs.

  Puzzled, Xe peeked over his shoulder, and gasped; so did the rest of the group.

  There was a giant figure clad in gold, standing by the opening of the Main Tunnels.

  The time has come for Kings to be born.

  Hidden in the underground, deep within the Hive belly, there was a special nursery called the Royal Room. It was not attended by Internals but by the Queen’s Servants. At that place the royal brood was nurtured; the young Eeol Kings and Queens, the future parents of new Eeol Swarms.