by Andrew Gates
“Kho Jallah,” he said, leaning down to meet the small creature’s eyes. “I know what your vision means. It is the manifestation of the queen’s fears. Whether she intended to tell you this or not, the queen has shown you how to defeat her.”
“What?” Jallah asked, a look of utter confusion across its face.
“If my vision can come true, then so can yours,” Ikharus said. He stood up now and received his scepter again, feeling its power in his grasp. “Destroy the mind, destroy the Hive,” he said aloud this time. He glared into the creature’s wide eyes. “The vial is the key.”
Chapter Nineteen
Queen
Dr. Sanja Parnel
Babysit the humans. That’s the job he gave me. Babysit the goddamn humans.
Sanja let out a huff of frustration and balled her hands into fists as she glanced at the Supreme Chieftain. The leader of Kholvaria, or what was left of Kholvaria, spoke expressively at a table across the room, accompanied by Vylan, Jakhu, Ukhrani, Saratti and two honor guards. They were the only Kholvari present anymore. The other Kholvari had either already gone to sleep for the night or were somewhere else in the facility on guard duty.
Most of the other humans had already retired for the night too. Only the boy, Jallah, was still awake. Sanja had last seen him wandering Korgo’s halls a few minutes ago, staring down at something in his hands. Sanja did not know what the boy could have been staring at, but she assumed it must have been some sort of personal memento from the station, a trivial trinket that represented something important from his old life. Whatever it was, she didn’t ask, and she didn’t care. Emotional bullshit wasn’t worth her time.
For the last several hours, Sanja had seen to it that the humans were watched after and taken care of. Ikharus had, for lack of a better term, made her a glorified babysitter. When they first arrived, that meant making sure everyone had a bathroom break. One by one, they each went to relieve themselves, with Ikharus himself interrupting the whole thing right in the middle. After that, Sanja showed the humans to their rooms and then to the mess hall with Evirak’s help. Then she sat around making sure everyone was alright.
I am a goddamn babysitter. I am so over this shit.
Part of Sanja wanted nothing more than to stand up from her lonely seat, walk across the other side of the mess hall and join Ikharus and the others at their table. But deep down, she knew they would reject her if she did. They would tell her to go back to her seat or to find something else to do. Facing that disappointment would only make her angrier than she already felt.
While she sat around with nothing to do, Ikharus and the other Kholvari discussed important matters like the war. It was not fair. None of it was fair. She had just as much right to be in those discussions as any four-legged, split-jawed, wide-eyed crab monster. He hates me, Sanja told herself as she stared at Ikharus from across the room. She sighed and turned away. But that doesn’t matter anymore. Soon I will be rid of him. Soon I will have the power to be unstoppable.
She unclenched her fists as she let out a breath.
The Hive. That was her mission now. The Hive held the ultimate power in the universe. Compared to the Hive, Kholvaria was nothing. Somehow, someway, the Hive was to be her new ally. Sanja would see to that, no matter what.
And she already had a plan in mind.
Ikharus stood up from his seat now, prompting those around him to suddenly rise to meet him. Sanja turned her head to watch the action. The Kholvari bowed to their leader, then slowly walked toward the exit. They passed by Sanja on their way out.
“Kal Sanja,” Ikharus said as he walked by, acknowledging her for the first time in hours.
“Your Majesty,” she responded, nodding to him but remaining in her seat.
“We shall retire for the night. Perhaps you should do the same,” he responded.
Sanja subtly nodded.
“Thank you for your concern, Supreme Chieftain, but I think I would rather stay up a bit later.”
“Very well. There are soldiers standing guard across the facility to keep you safe. They shall be up all night in shifts,” Ikharus explained. “Find one of them if you need anything.”
“Will do. Thanks,” Sanja said back, waving to him.
Ikharus nodded, then turned and continued toward the exit. His entourage followed behind until Sanja was completely left alone.
She let out a deep breath and looked down at the packaged food on the table before her. It was some sort of crusty cookie-like pastry. Since this secure underground hideaway was intended for spontaneous but long-term use, all the food here was prepackaged and full of preservatives. She wondered how long this cookie had been here in Korgo.
Sanja quickly ate the remaining bites of the pastry, then balled up the wrapping and stood up from her seat. She walked to the nearest disposal capsule and tossed the wrapping inside. The vacuum suck initiated and the garbage disappeared from sight.
She stood still by the disposal capsule for about a minute until the footsteps of the Kholvari faded away. After a few more seconds, it was completely quiet. Finally, she was all alone.
Sanja smiled and turned to face the exit. It was time to enact her plan.
They’ve gone to bed, she thought with a grin. She eagerly rubbed her palms together. Now, this is my chance.
Sanja recalled hearing Vylan mention that there was a hangar here in this facility somewhere, but she did not know where to find it. In the few hours she had been here, Sanja knew where to find certain key rooms like the command center, the relief room, the sleeping quarters and, of course, the mess hall. But she did not bother looking around or exploring anywhere else in the facility.
She only needed one ship after all… and she knew just where to find one.
Sanja made her way to the mess hall’s exit and activated the door. It slid up and she peered down the hall, checking both left and right. There was nobody in sight. Perfect.
Keeping her footsteps quiet, Sanja tiptoed into the hall toward the command center. Whenever she made a turn, she was careful to check her corners first in case a guard was out on patrol in this area. She only encountered two along her walk. Both times, she simply waited for them to turn down the next corner before quickly dashing along. Nobody ever saw her.
After a few minutes of sneaking around, Sanja came to the command center. She peered around the corner again, assessing the scene. A black-armored guard stood still by the sealed exit to the desert. Shit, she thought to herself. That was just where she wanted to go.
Sanja glanced at the control panel by the guarded exit door. All she needed to do was get to that panel and get that door open and she could be back outside… with a perfectly good spaceship parked right out front.
She pulled her head back into the hall again and thought about her situation. Unless there was some sort of backdoor she did not know about, that door was her only way out. She thought about her options for a few seconds and examined the area around her. There was a small crate to her right, about the size of one of the block-like seats the Kholvari used as chairs. Sanja did not know what could be inside, but she figured it was worth a look. She slowly and quietly lifted the lid off the crate to find that it was full of wires and electrical equipment. She smiled as an idea came to her in that moment.
Quietly pulling out the equipment, she stuffed it behind the crate, out of sight, until it was completely empty. She then swung her legs over the rim and sat down inside of it. She pulled the lid on top, just to make sure she was able to sit inside while it was fully closed. It was tight, but it worked. Sanja grinned again, held this position for a few seconds, then popped back out.
She lifted a piece of the equipment from the pile, a small metal ring, and held it in her grasp. She stared down the other end of the hall, away from the command center, waited for a few seconds, then tossed the metal ring as hard as she could. Just as she hoped, the ring hit the ground with a loud clunk.
“What was that?” the soldier asked from the next roo
m. When nobody answered, Sanja heard the soldier take a few steps in her direction. “Hello? If someone is there, reveal yourself.”
After a few seconds of silence, Sanja lifted another metal ring and tossed it down the hall again. The impact created another loud clunk, this time prompting the soldier to leave his station.
“Hello?” he repeated, walking forward.
Sanja crouched down low into the crate and slid the lid on top. She quieted her breathing and remained as still as she could. She listened for the footsteps as the soldier moved closer, closer, closer, then right past the crate. With the equipment hidden behind the crate, the soldier would not notice anything out of the ordinary unless he stopped for a moment and studied it. But the soldier did not stop. He continued along down the hall.
When Sanja heard the footsteps turn around the corner, she quickly popped up from the crate and peaked out. Sure enough, the soldier had moved down into the next hall. Seizing the short window of opportunity, Sanja hopped out of the cate and carefully placed the lid back on top as if nothing had disturbed it.
Tiptoeing as quickly as she could, she hurried into the next room. Moving past the dusty monitors and equipment, Sanja arrived at the control panel by the exit door and pressed the button she had seen Kozakh press when they first arrived. Sure enough, the door opened, just as she hoped.
With the door now open, a wave of hot desert air poured into the hideaway. Sanja placed her arm before her and progressed forward as a wave of dust entered her lungs. It was nighttime now and the world was completely dark. Only the glimmer of the stars above provided any illumination. Though the air was still warm, the ground beneath her feet no longer scorched her skin.
Sanja turned to face the outside of the facility door. There was another panel here. She pressed a similar-looking icon on the panel, prompting the door to quickly shut. When they had first come to Korgo, only Ikharus could activate this door. It seemed that security measure had since been disabled. Sanja smiled as the door closed. She had made it outside and nobody had seen her. It was perfect.
A wave of excitement and relief overcame her. She took a deep breath, then gazed up at the endless ocean of stars above. She closed her eyes and held out her arms, feeling the warmth of the air around her. After a few seconds, she reopened her eyes and slowly made her way up the cavern.
It was hard to make anything out in the darkness of night, but as she approached, Sanja was able to see the silhouette of the transport against the night sky. The vehicle was still parked exactly where they had left it. She walked up to the side she remembered being the rear and stopped before it. She felt around the outside of the ship for some sort of control mechanism to lower the door.
Feeling around in the darkness, Sanja pressed on anything that felt like a button, twisted anything that felt like a knob, pulled anything that felt like a lever. But nothing moved. Dammit, she thought.
After several minutes, Sanja located some sort of reader on the side of the ship. The circular ring was not unlike the same type of ring she had thrown down the hallway to distract the sentry. Suddenly she recalled seeing this technology before. This ring was some sort of scanner that read chips installed in the wrists of Kholvari uniforms.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Sanja muttered to herself. She took a step back and looked up and down the dark metal vehicle. “I have to use one of those uniforms to open the ship.”
She cursed herself for being so stupid and slapped herself on the head. Of course, I need some sort of ID to open it. What the hell was I thinking? She had foolishly rushed into this plan without the right tools.
Sanja took a few steps back, then turned to face Korgo’s entrance. She stared at the dark crevasse in the ground and thought about her options.
The first option was to sneak back into Korgo, hope the guard was not standing there when she came back inside, somehow steal a glove from a Kholvari uniform, then come back out and use it to lower the ship’s ramp, and on top of that, she had to hope that whichever Kholvari she stole the glove from even had access to open the ship at all.
That seemed impossible. For too many reasons to count, the first option was way out of the question. Accomplishing all that was like hitting a moving bullseye from a spaceship traveling in the opposite direction. Sanja sighed. That meant she was going with option two.
The second option was to tamper with the sensor until it granted her access. It was not a very original plan and she knew it was a longshot, but it had worked on the FEC, so she figured it was worth at least an attempt here.
She was about to feel for the sensor again when a voice suddenly called out from the distance.
“Who goes there?” a Kholvari voice asked.
Sanja nervously turned around. She could see the silhouette of an armored soldier against the starlit sky. The soldier walked along the top of the crevasse, quickly approaching the ship.
Sanja did not know there were any soldiers stationed out here. She assumed they were all inside. As she watched the dark blur move across the desert, Sanja suddenly thought of a third plan. She grinned.
The third option was the simplest of all: trick this moron into opening the door for her.
“It’s me!” Sanja replied, not bothering to hide. “It’s Kal Sanja!”
“Kal Sanja?” the soldier repeated in a surprised tone. He was nearly on her now, just a few steps away.
“Yes! Sorry if I snuck up on you. I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said, acting apologetically.
“No apologies needed, Kal Sanja, but I am curious to know why and how you are here,” the soldier said as he stopped before her.
“Oh, Kho Kozakh wanted me to fetch something from the ship. But now that I’m here, I can’t seem to get inside,” she responded, trying to act both innocent and confused.
“That is strange. Why would Kho Kozakh send you on such an errand without additional instruction?”
“Not sure,” Sanja said, shrugging. “All he said was to take his glove, but I didn’t see the point. It obviously wouldn’t fit me and it’s not like it’s cold out here! Not sure what I would need a glove for.”
“Ah, at last, I see,” the soldier said, letting out a long sigh. “You misunderstand the purpose of the glove, Kal Sanja. You see, he was offering it to you to access the ship, not to keep your claws warm.”
“Oh, like a key?” she asked.
“That is correct,” the soldier replied, nodding.
“Damn. I wish I knew that. Now I have to go all the way back inside.”
The soldier shook his head.
“Do not bother. I can assist you,” he said.
The guard started to walk forward. Sanja stepped aside to allow him to pass. The Kholvari held his left claw against the sensor and, just as she hoped, the ramp slowly began to lower.
“Thank you!” Sanja said, spinning around to face him.
“Do you know what you are looking for?”
“Yes. He said it was in the cockpit.”
“The cockpit? How strange. Only Kal Ukhrani was in the cockpit.”
Sanja shrugged.
“Well, he said it was there,” she replied, playing dumb.
“Did he say what it is?”
“Some kind of techno-mumbo-jumbo. He said it was about this size, shaped like a circle.” Sanja made motions with her hands and made it up as she went along.
“Hmm. I am not sure what that could be, but if you are to find it in the cockpit, you will need my access again. Allow me to help you,” he suggested.
“Oh, that would be great!” Sanja replied.
As soon as the ramp was fully lowered, the soldier walked in. Sanja followed right behind him. They navigated through the dark interior of the ship until they reached the cockpit door at the front. The soldier held his wrist against the sensor again and, like last time, the door began to open.
This time, Sanja was not as slow to move. She darted inside, then quickly spun around and pressed an icon on the door controls,
shutting it behind her. Clearly it did not require a special glove to work from the inside, only the outside. She assumed that must have been an emergency precaution.
“Hello? Kal Sanja? You have shut the door!” the soldier cried out from the other side.
“What happened? I must’ve pressed something by accident!” Sanja said, playing dumb.
“Do not worry. I shall open it again,” the soldier replied, calmly.
The soldier tried to open it again, but Sanja quickly shut it once more. Each time the soldier activated the door, Sanja pressed the icon over and over, keeping it closed.
“There is something wrong with the door!” she lied. “It keeps closing! It must be damaged! Oh no! Am I stuck here?”
“You are not stuck, Kal Sanja. I will get help. Stay where you are,” the soldier said, before turning and walking away.
Sanja heard his heavy footsteps as the guard went down the ramp and back outside.
She grinned and turned to face the controls. Fucking idiot. She pressed a few different buttons. Nothing happened at first, but then she spotted a large lever in the darkness.
“That looks important,” she said as she pulled it down.
Suddenly the lights came on and the hum of the engine powered up.
Now that she could see, this was about to become a whole lot easier. There were two big blocks that stood before two sets of controls. A set of levers and petals stood before the seats. Sanja sat on the nearest block, the one on the left, and spread her feet out as far as they could go. The ends of her toes just pressed against the petals as she grasped the levers in both hands. The controls were obviously built for someone two or three times her size, but she made it work.
A blank monitor stood at the center of her dashboard. She pressed a small circular icon next to the monitor and it suddenly glowed bright. Several shots of live camera footage took up the screen, each displaying the ship’s rocket thrusters.
“Here I go,” she said, grinning.
Sanja pressed down on the lever in her left hand. There were three levers in total, one on the left and two on the right. This lever was a bit smaller than the other two, which made her think it provided a different function from the others. As she moved the lever down, the sound of the engine grew louder. She quickly pulled the lever back to its starting position, worried that the ship would suddenly take off.
