Queen of Jarilo

"A clerical error, then?" Chopra asked as he turned to his fellow captain and shot him a questioning glance.

"A simple lack of foresight, I think. If the charter is to be overruled, only the Admiralty can give the order. They aren't here, we are. I see no choice but to accept the terms of surrender. I will send a message back to Fort Hamilton of course, but it may take some time for them to deliberate and send a reply back."

"At least Walker brought us some useful intelligence," Chopra mused. "If what he says is true, if the Bugs are not a unified empire but rather a collection of warring factions, then sectioning off and reclaiming contested systems will become much easier."

"We've been fighting under the false assumption that the different Bug colonies would reinforce one another," Stavros grumbled, beginning to pace around the bridge. It was empty of crew for the moment, he had cleared them out so that the two captains could have some privacy while they discussed these sensitive matters. "The battles themselves would not have been any easier or any less costly, but our overall strategy has been flawed from the start."

"Well, you are fleet commander, Captain Stavros. What are your orders?" Chopra asked.

"Walker is our only line to this mysterious Queen. We have to release him, let him return to the planet and relay our decision to her. The medical staff had a look at that...organ that was grafted to his body. Its roots are deep in his brain, you'd need a team of skilled neurosurgeons to even attempt to remove it, and even then the operation would risk permanent brain damage."

"Do you think it's influencing him?" Chopra asked, "controlling his mind in some way?"

"The doctors assured me that's not possible. It isn't linked to the areas of his brain that are associated with cognitive functions or reasoning, just the ones that deal with smell and taste."

Chopra walked over to one of the vacant consoles and took a seat, removing his white cap and setting it down on the bank of buttons and displays.

"And what of the situation on the ground?" he continued, watching Stavros pace up and down in front of the large window.

"Delta was wiped out, but the other bases are more or less intact. We still have a significant presence on the surface, and we've begun reinforcing and resupplying. If the Bugs do decide to turn on us, we'll be ready for them. They're still confined to the valley as far as we know, and we intend to keep it that way. The terms of the surrender don't say anything about letting them expand their colony."

"And let's say that this all works out," Chopra mused as he leaned back in the padded chair with a creak. "Do you think that a single citizen in all the united colonies will come to start a new life on a planet that's infested with Bugs?"

"They live on Hades, don't they?" Stavros replied. "There are colonial outposts on Kruger III, where almost nothing will grow, and all you can see for miles in every direction are fields of mud. You come from Mars, where there's no air, and you can only live under the cover of the domes. Jarilo is a rare prize, it's a second Earth. They'll live here, and I don't think that having some six-legged neighbors will dissuade them."

"I guess if we can get along with the Borealans, then maybe we can share a planet with a few Bugs," Chopra laughed. "But personally I'd take the crowded domes of New Chennai over having Bugs in my backyard."

"A backyard, in New Chennai?" Stavros said with a smirk. "Now that's more of a fantasy than humans and Bugs living in harmony."

***

Walker stepped off the landing ramp of the dropship, breathing in a lungful of Jarilo's clean air. It was pine fresh, he picked up scents and qualities that he had never been aware of before. It was a beautiful planet, and at least for the time being, it was safe.

Delta was now bustling with activity. Engineers were hard at work repairing the damage that had been done over the last few days, fixing the massive doors at the entrance and rebuilding the ruined prefabs. The bodies of friends and foes had been cleared away, either burned in the case of the Bugs, or brought back to the Thermopylae for a burial at sea in the case of the Marines. There had been catastrophic loss of life on both sides, but now the war was over. The UNN had accepted the Queen's surrender, and all hostilities had ceased.

Not only that, but Walker had requested that the Jarilo hive be allowed to join the Coalition on the condition that they would share their technology and information with humanity. He had not asked the opinion of the Queen yet, but in her mind their two peoples had become one, and he knew that she would not object to the idea. A medical revolution might not do much to console the families of the dead, but it would ensure that their sacrifice had been for something tangible. Perhaps someday soon there might be Bug Workers on the Pinwheel, healing wounds and curing disease with their advanced knowledge of biology and genetics.

As he left the landing ramp and made his way towards the exit, he was stopped by a tall figure who blocked his path.

"The moment you leave a Bug jail cell, they put you in a Navy brig. Kind of ironic, wouldn't you say?"

"Kaz," Walker said, smiling up at her. "Sorry I couldn't stick around, I got whisked away the moment I landed on the Thermopylae. Seems the Captain wanted to know where I had been for the last several days."

"And why you can talk to Bugs?"

"That too," he chuckled. "Walk with me."

He continued on his way towards the exit, Kaz lumbering along beside him, keeping her gait slow so as not to out-pace him on her long legs.

"So, looks like you ended a war," she said. Her tone was aloof, she was making light of the situation, and Walker couldn't help but smirk at her. "You've been a stone-cold killer since the moment I met you, Walker, didn't take you for the kind of guy who would be breaking bread and building bridges."

"Someone had to do it," he replied. "Just so happens that fate chose me. Or the Bugs chose me, either way."

"I can't deny that you likely saved every man on the ground. You certainly saved my ass, along with Gamma squad and my scout team when you showed up here. We were out of ammunition, minutes away from being overrun. If you hadn't turned up when you did..." She looked up at the treetops, the pine needles blowing in the breeze beneath the azure sky. "Man, I dunno."

They reached the main entrance, and Walker stopped, turning back towards her.

"You're not staying, are you?" Kaz asked. That much was obvious from the massive rucksack that he was carrying on his back.

"No, I can't. I'm the only guy who can talk to the Bugs. I've been given permission to stay on as their ambassador. Their hive isn't far from Delta, I'll be traveling to and fro quite a lot I'd expect. If you're stationed here, I'll check in on you from time to time. Maybe we can share a few drinks."

"I'm in the Navy," she replied with a grin, "who knows where they'll be sending me next. Do you think this arrangement is going to work out? Sharing Jarilo with the Bugs, I mean. The Marines seem happy that the fighting is over, but..."

"There's a lot of bad blood," Walker confirmed. "There's not a man here who hasn't lost a friend to the Betelgeusians at one point or another. You and me included."

She nodded solemnly, and he gave her a pat on the thigh.

"Chin up, Kaz. It has to end somewhere, and if we don't end the cycle of violence then who will? If not here and now, then where, and when? Don't worry, you're not out of a job. There are plenty of other hives out there. This war might be over, but there are others to fight."

"I feel like you're sacrificing yourself," she said, averting her eyes. He had never seen her so timid before, it was unlike her. "You don't have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, you know. It isn't your responsibility alone. Can't they get some scientists down there, build some computers that will translate their language so that you don't have to leave?"

"In time I'm sure they will," he admitted, "but my connection to them goes deeper than that. I'm responsible for them now, and I'm the only guy that can do the job. I'm going to live with them, learn from them, I'm going to teach them and I'm going to help others to understand them. You act like I'm leaving forever," he said, his voice taking on a reassuring tone. "I'm not their prisoner Kaz, you'll see me again soon."

He took her furry hands in his, and she looked down at him with her amber eyes.

"You're the best friend I ever had, and you're the best damned spotter I ever served with."

"And you're my pack," she replied, trapping him in her huge arms and lifting him off the ground. She hugged the air out of his lungs for a moment, then set him back down, clearly blinking back tears but trying to look tough.

"I'm quite privileged," he said, turning to leave. "I've been a member of the Marine Corps, a Borealan pack, and now a Betelgeusian hive. Seems like everybody wants a piece of me."

She waited until he had reached the treeline on the far side of the muddy clearing before shouting to him.

"Don't be a stranger!"

He turned to wave to her, then disappeared into the forest.

***

<YOU HAVE RETURNED.>

Walker stepped through the massive doors that concealed the Queen's chamber, the guards no longer wary of him. He was a part of their hive now. The Queen was suspended from the ceiling, sitting on her gigantic egg sack as dozens of Workers milled about around her, stacking the football-sized eggs that she produced against the walls.

"The UNN accepts your surrender, and I've requested that you be allowed to join the Coalition. The merger of our two hives is complete."

<I AM RELIEVED, WALKER. THE FUTURE OF MY HIVE IS SECURED.>

"There are a couple of conditions, however. They don't want you expanding your colony beyond the valley, at least for the time being. Territorial boundaries will be drawn up when they've been able to gauge the colonial interest in the planet, and you'll be expected to respect them. They also want you to share your wetware with their scientists, your knowledge of genetic engineering and your biological technology. It will benefit them greatly."

<NATURALLY. WE ARE ONE NOW, WHAT IS OURS IS ALSO YOURS.>

"They'll be sending some human scientists into the hive to study how you live and to gather information. I gave them strict instructions not to bring any weapons into the colony. Please instruct your Drones and Pilots to leave them be and let them do their work. They aren't dangerous."

<UNDERSTOOD. I HAVE BEEN SEQUENCING YOUR GENOME OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS WALKER, YOUR EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY IS FASCINATING.>

"You can tell that just from my...DNA?"

<OF COURSE. I HAVE ALSO LOCATED GENETIC MARKERS THAT CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO THE NEXT GENERATION OF MY OFFSPRING, AND I HAVE DEVISED A PLAN THAT MIGHT MAKE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN OUR TWO HIVES EASIER.>

"Oh? What's that?"

<YOUR GENOME CALLS FOR A SERIES OF MUSCLES AND ORGANS THAT FACILITATE COMMUNICATION VIA SOUND WAVES. I CAN REPRODUCE THIS CONSTRUCT, AND THE ASSOCIATED LOBES OF THE BRAIN, WITHOUT COMPROMISING THE OVERALL INTEGRITY OF MY DESIGN.>

Walker knew that they were practically wizards when to came to genetic engineering, but she talked about creating an entirely new creature like she was refitting a ship. Could it really be so simple for her? Was it just a matter of splicing a few genes here, editing a chromosome there?

"So what you're telling me is that you think you can create a Bug that can speak as we do?"

<IT SHOULD NOT BE DIFFICULT.>

"Well that's good to hear, it will make integrating you into the Coalition a whole lot easier. If people can actually talk to you, they might not be so fearful."

A translator caste, that would go a long way towards lightening his workload.

<WHAT HAVE YOU BROUGHT WITH YOU?>

She was looking at the sizable pack that was on his back, and he turned around to show her.

"Just some creature comforts. If I'm going to be staying here for a while, then I'll need a change of clothes. I'll also need few dietary supplements to keep me healthy, a way to wash myself, and to keep clean. I also have some blueprints for you, I'm pretty sure that your Workers can build them for me. Just some furniture, chairs and desks, that kind of thing. You can make them out of resin or packed dirt, doesn't matter."

She cocked her head at him, her pheromones indicating confusion. Of course, she didn't know what he was talking about, but he was here to teach as much as he was here to learn from them.

"I'll need a chamber of my own so that I can have a little privacy, it doesn't need to be large. Something the size of my holding cell will do fine."

<YOU SHALL HAVE WHATEVER YOU DESIRE, WALKER. YOU ARE THE FATHER OF MY CHILDREN NOW, THEY ARE YOURS TO COMMAND.>

It wasn't exactly as lavish as the Pinwheel, but at least his quarters would be larger than those that he lived in on the Thermopylae, and it was a damn sight better than using rocks for pillows out in the bush.

He realized that his dreams had been realized, in a strange, roundabout way. He had wanted to study the flora and fauna of this spectacular planet, and now he would have all the time in the world to do so, completely of his own accord. Once the Queen managed to birth some translators, he could cart some Workers around with him, have them lug his gear and help him in his work. He could bring Drones to protect him from the planet's more hostile predators and to help him catch specimens for study.

The UNN hadn't even begun their colonization efforts yet, and it would be months before rival scientists were wandering the woods. There was a whole planet of new discoveries ripe for the taking, not to mention the wealth of new information that he could glean from the hive and its alien inhabitants.

He felt like Darwin setting foot on the Galapagos islands for the first time.

<WHAT HAS YOU SO EXCITED, WALKER?>

He realized that his excitement was leaking out of his pores, the Queen smelling it on him as she watched him curiously.

"There's no reason to delay," he said. "Let's get started."

THE END