The Lost Swarm

by Vaughn Heppner

  “I’m sure it does. Now, tell me Sub-Commander, why are your ships blocking my flotilla’s passage?”

  Tabanus Lex clacked the pincers of his two front legs. “You are surrounded. You will surrender immediately and prepare for boarding.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.”

  “Then, I will order the ships to open fire and you will die.”

  Drakos shrugged. “We all die eventually. The glory is in going out with style and courage.”

  “Your meaning is nonsense. How can dying here and now serve your hive?”

  Drakos eyed the Swarm creature. Tabanus Lex must have fought in the Alpha Centauri System, and in all the other battles before that. He would understand the difference between superiors and subhumans. This was a game. Was the Swarm creature attempting to stall, or did it really think that superiors of the Throne World would surrender?”

  “I suggest you relay a message to your supremacy,” Drakos said. “This is a priceless opportunity for him and…for your hive.”

  “State your message.”

  “I will, to Supremacy Thrax.”

  “He has ordered your surrender or destruction. There will be no further talk.”

  “Don’t you want your hive to live?” Drakos asked.

  “It is alive, as we are here.”

  “That isn’t the question I asked.”

  “Then, I do not understand you, mammal.”

  “That’s my point,” Drakos said. “I’m offering Supremacy Thrax the opportunity to grow larger than the Imperium back in the Sagittarius Arm.”

  “That is impossible.”

  “It is for you now,” Drakos said. “That’s why my offer is so unique. If you kill me, you will kill the information I offer.”

  The image wavered as Tabanus Lex disappeared from the main screen. In the creature’s place was a new monster. This one looked like a giant praying mantis, with dangling tools and weapons clinking from a harness attached to his abdominal region.

  He clicked his pincers impatiently as a translator box blinked on his thorax. “This is Supremacy Thrax Ti Ix. You are a golden-skinned devil, a New Man in the mammalian idiom. State your purpose. Afterward, you and all your New Men confederates will die.”

  -11-

  Drakos hid a secret smile as he bowed his head toward the so-called Supremacy Thrax. “Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, Commander Thrax.”

  “Sub-Commander Tabanus Lex has given you my new title. It is imperative that you use it.”

  While keeping his eyes on Thrax, Drakos walked backward until he reached his command chair. He sat down and rested his left ankle on his right knee.

  “Is that meant as a sign of disrespect?” asked Thrax.

  Drakos thought about the translator box. According to his intelligence file, didn’t Thrax know the Human Tongue? Drakos believed so. Thus, Thrax surely used the translator box in order to enhance his royalty or status among the listening bugs.

  “I am unused to such disrespectful behavior from a mammal,” Thrax said, perhaps growing impatient. “Therefore—”

  “Supremacy,” Drakos said, interrupting the bug. “No disrespect is intended.” That was a lie. Many of his actions right now had a disrespectful intent. He was Lord Drakos of the Throne World, one of the highest-ranked superiors. A mere bug, a hive creature, could not compare to him. He was here to use Thrax, not play servitor to a murdering insect, no matter how many attack saucers the bug commanded.

  “You have a strange way of convincing me of that, human.”

  “We are…different species, Supremacy. Perhaps we seem strange or even offensive to each other. That does not mean we cannot assist each other in achieving our greatest goals.”

  “You expect me to believe that you’re here to aid me?” asked Thrax.

  “I’ve searched for your whereabouts a long time.”

  “The scout craft was the first of your ships I’ve seen.”

  “The scout did not belong to me.”

  “Who, then?” asked Thrax.

  “Star Watch.”

  The giant praying mantis-like creature clicked his pincers, which seemed like a nervous action. “You guided Star Watch to my hive?”

  So, Drakos told himself. The hive is in this binary system. How very interesting and useful to know.

  “Star Watch wishes to thwart me,” Drakos said. “Thus, they want to destroy you before we can ally.”

  The pincers clicked again. “The Throne World and Star Watch allied against the Imperium. You assisted the Imperium’s enemies and helped destroy the Conquering War-Fleet 1,021. How can you possibly think that I will believe you wish to aid me now?”

  “Times change,” Drakos said. “Besides, I have intelligence data concerning you and the Imperium hierarchy. The Imperium did not and does not love Commander Thrax Ti Ix.”

  “I am Supremacy Thrax Ti Ix. I will not remind you again.”

  Drakos dipped his head. His approach wasn’t mere arrogance. To come pleading to Thrax would only invite ruin. He needed Thrax to believe he had more power than he did. This approach would help Thrax believe that, and that would help convince the bug to throw his fleet into the fray for him.

  “Supremacy, the Imperium invaded Human Space with great mass, this Conquering War-Fleet 1,021. It is my understanding that you gave the Imperium Laumer Point and hyper-spatial tube technology. Without the technology, the Imperium could never have launched the Conquering War-Fleet 1,021 at us.”

  “What of it?”

  “Did the Queen reward your effort?”

  On the main screen, Thrax drew up to his full height. “Do you think to question me as if I’m the scum of the stellar lanes?”

  “On the contrary, Supremacy, I had hoped to show you that I have done my homework. I had hoped by this demonstration to show you that I understand the gross injustice the Queen of the Imperium and the Builder of the Dyson Sphere have put upon you.”

  “That is ill-considered,” Thrax said. “I have built a new hive. I rule supreme in this part of space.”

  “Let us put aside then the injustice of the Imperial Queen toward you. You’ve hit the key point. Have you really built a new hive, Supremacy?”

  “Do you dare to address me as a liar?”

  “On no account, Supremacy,” Drakos said. “I realize you have a built an outpost and placed defensive installations around it. I realize you have likely kept your attack saucers in good repair. Does that make a hive, however?”

  “I know you humans. Do not think I don’t. I was born on the Builder Dyson Sphere of which you speak. I understand what the Builder did very well. I destroyed him, after all, with a carefully laid long-term plan. Then, I used his high technology and offered the Imperium greatness. In their conceit, they relegated me to an insignificant position. That is why their invasion failed.”

  “Oh?” asked Drakos, to stall and think. What was the bug trying to tell him?

  The pincers clicked and clacked in agitation. “I rule here,” Thrax said at last.

  “Yes, but does that make your world a hive?”

  “You are testing my patience, mammal. You live this moment at my suffrage. One word from me and your six paltry vessels are destroyed.”

  Drakos sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

  “What is that?” Thrax demanded, “Another disrespectful gesture?”

  “No,” Drakos said, regarding Thrax again, thinking as fast as he could. “I’d thought you would understand what I’m trying to say. Surely, you understand that once the darter returns to the Commonwealth—”

  “Darter, what is a darter?”

  “The scout craft your laser turrets failed to destroy.”

  “More insults,” Thrax said. “Don’t think I don’t understand your slurs. Yes, the laser turret failed. The darter fled—ah, now Star Watch will send a fleet, yes?”

  “Star Watch has to,” Drakos said. “Humans fear the Swarm. They fear what you will do.”

 
; “But I plan nothing against them.”

  “What about the future?” Drakos asked, finally seeing how he could convince Thrax.

  On the main screen, Thrax leaned back, eying Drakos with obvious ill intent. “Say your words. You clearly have some hidden meaning.”

  “Indeed, I do, Supremacy. It is the reason I have taken so much effort to find you. You call me a New Man. In reality, what you mean is that I am superior to the submen that rule Star Watch. I, and those like me, have become greater. How did we achieve this?”

  “I grew up on the Builder Dyson Sphere. The Builder modified humans, turning them into what you call Methuselah Men. Two of those genetically manipulated your kind, turning regular humans into New Men, greater men.”

  “Exactly,” Drakos said, no longer crossing his legs but peering at the giant bug.

  “What does that have to do with me?” asked Thrax.

  “The Builder not only modified humans, but Swarm creatures as well. You and your hybrids are the product of that.”

  “This I know, and this I despise.”

  Drakos tried to keep the excitement from his voice. “In the interest of helping you, may I know why you despise this?”

  “I am different from regular Swarm creatures,” Thrax said coldly.

  “You are better,” Drakos said.

  The pincers clacked. “Yes. Perhaps that is so.”

  “How can you possibly deny it?”

  The praying mantis-like eyes fixed on Drakos. “How is it you can know our secret? That is what you are saying, I think.”

  “I deduced your secret logically, Supremacy.”

  Thrax bobbed up and down, finally saying, “We have no queen. We are sterile.”

  “Thus, you are a military outpost that will only survive for your lifetime. After that, you and all that you created here will perish. Is that a hive, Supremacy?”

  “No,” Thrax said.

  Drakos hesitated as elation filled him. Here was the moment he had dreamed about for so long. Here was the instant that would change the destiny of Lord Drakos. Here was the moment he would turn from being a fugitive to becoming the greatest conqueror ever.

  “Supremacy, what would you do if I told you I could give you a queen?”

  Thrax grew very still. Then, a sense of great menace radiated from him. “You wish to supplant me with a Swarm queen?”

  “No, Supremacy. I mean to give you a different kind of queen altogether. This queen would not rule as the Queen of the Imperium does. This queen would breed and produce Thrax offspring to populate the universe. I would teach you how to remain alive for century upon century, with these new subservient queens doing your bidding as you conquered a greater Imperium than the present Imperium.”

  “You speak as if there would be billions, even trillions of these soldiers.”

  “That is so, Supremacy.”

  Thrax shook his praying mantis-like head. “How is this possible for a New Man?”

  “Ah,” Drakos said. “That is the question, is it not, Supremacy? It is possible. I have the answer. All I ask is that you do me a slight favor in return.”

  “What favor?” asked Thrax.

  “Perhaps this is the wrong time and place to discuss that. Perhaps we should return to your…outpost, remaining hidden that way in case other scouts or starships appear.”

  “You will surrender, then?”

  “No, Supremacy, but I will come as a guest, provided you can give me the proper guarantees for our survival.”

  “What guarantees do you desire?”

  Drakos nodded as a feeling of greatness spread throughout his person. This was going to work. He could sense it. He had logically deduced Thrax’s great need, and he had just as logically determined the answer. Now, it was simply a matter of implementing the plan, and staying alive as he did.

  “I’m waiting,” Thrax said.

  Drakos began to tell him, wondering if the bug was wise enough to see that this was the opportunity of a lifetime, and for a new era.

  -12-

  Over three hundred light-years away, Mary O’Hara chafed in her new surroundings. Back on the island, she had been free to do as she pleased. Here in the spaceship in Earth orbit, she felt hemmed in and claustrophobic. Scientists studied her, likely to determine if she was secretly controlled or not. She had grown weary of them, even as she was grateful that the Lord High Admiral was searching for a cure. He needed her. He had told her that Star Watch needed her.

  Mary sighed as she knitted a woolen hat for Captain Maddox. Most of all, he needed her. She could sense it. Was that so strange, really? She didn’t think so.

  She sat in an open room with soft sofas and a holo-drama playing to the side. She was the only one in here. She didn’t watch the drama, although she listened to it from time to time. It was an ancient drama about times in Old England after the First World War. It was about the aristocracy upstairs, and the servants who lived downstairs. It was quaint after a fashion. Mary would get angry with herself for paying it far too much attention. It wasn’t reality, but a soap opera. Of course, that meant that people watched and liked it, as most people enjoyed soap opera dramas. Even the former head of Star Watch Intelligence did.

  Mary sighed, setting the knitting needles and partial woolen hat onto her lap. She could feel the constant vibration of the starship’s engines. It was a prison ship, in the end. The Lord High Admiral had told her—

  The hatch swished open and two hard-eyed security men stepped into the chamber. Mary examined them. These two were in their early thirties, and they had the feel of men who would murder their mothers if their commander gave the order.

  The Lord High Admiral stepped into the chamber next. As he did, the two security men put their gun hands on their holstered weapons. Whom did they fear? Her? That was preposterous.

  Tall, old Cook in his white admiral’s uniform eyed her from the hatch. “Brigadier, would you come with me, please?”

  “Admiral,” she said, not moving from her sofa. “Why do you bother with my title? I’m not on active duty.”

  The white-haired admiral stared at her. There was something about the scrutiny that disturbed the former Iron Lady.

  Mary sighed once more, putting her needles, ball of woolen thread and hat aside. She stood. She wore a nice yellow print dress with flat-soled shoes. It was a simple outfit.

  “I could use a uniform,” she said.

  The admiral did not smile or nod. His two goons continued to watch her.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  “I want to talk to you,” Cook said.

  “So talk. What’s wrong with this place?”

  “Don’t make me order these men to frog march you.”

  “Oh, very well,” Mary said. “You’re making a production about something. I hope it’s worth it to you. I’m sick to death of my confinement. Maybe you should just let me go back to the island.”

  “No,” he said.

  Mary fluttered her fingers and smoothed her dress. She had gained weight on the spaceship. She didn’t exercise as much as she had on the island. Someone at her age really needed to keep fit. She made a mental note of that, determined to keep fit. Who knew, maybe she could do a Captain Maddox and take over the spaceship. Now, wouldn’t that be something?

  As soon as she reached the admiral, the two goons sprang into action, surrounding her.

  “This is a formality,” Cook said. “Please don’t resist.”

  The goons frisked her. It was quite indecent of them to do that to her.

  “Really, Admiral,” she said. “I must protest.”

  “This is a formality,” he repeated.

  “Who insisted on this? Stokes?”

  “She’s clean,” one of the security goons said.

  “You can follow,” Cook told them.

  The bigger of the two goons nodded curtly.

  “Come, Brigadier,” Cook said. “I’m in something of a hurry.”

  “Oh my, a hurry,” she sai
d sarcastically, following the admiral as he exited the chamber. The admiral walked quickly, and she had to trot to follow. The two security men easily kept up behind her. Yes. She was going to have to exercise more. Why, back on the island this pace would have been nothing. It was strange how quickly one fell out of shape, especially at her age, maybe at any age. The human body was made to use, and worked best when active.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “Shut up and keep up,” the admiral said over his shoulder.

  Mary might have huffed and puffed at the indignity of the answer, but her old Intelligence mind began clicking. What was going on here? The admiral was up to something. That was obvious. She needed to decipher his actions. The two security men…

  Maybe somebody or a powerful group of somebodies did not like the Lord High Admiral keeping her on the spaceship. Maybe Cook had to keep those powerful people at bay regarding her, and he did that with these two security men. They had not spoken to her or hardly looked at her. They treated her as a dangerous terrorist. Well, by golly, maybe she was dangerous. She knew more secrets than anyone, and she knew how to run the best Intelligence organization in the universe.

  The pace soon began to tell on her, unfortunately. She was gasping and worse, sweating.

  Mary forced herself to increase her pace until she walked step for step with the old gentleman of Star Watch. He gave her a side-glance, said nothing, but there was something that felt like satisfaction from him. Had he wanted her to catch up like this?

  They entered a lift that took them down to a hangar bay. An armored shuttle waited.

  Mary halted, looking carefully at Cook. “Where are you taking me?”

  “To my flagship,” Cook said.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Don’t you trust me, Brigadier?”

  “Do you trust me?” she asked.

  He almost smiled. “You wouldn’t be here except for me. You’d be in a much worse place than the island you keep talking about.”

  “What’s on the flagship that isn’t here?”

  “Wait and see, Brigadier. That’s my advice to you.”