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"I'm sorry, babe," Tony said, giving her hand a comforting squeeze. He glanced down at the blonde beside him. "What about Perl's mom?"
Kelli turned back to make sure her friend was still unconscious. "Trixie used to offer to help pretty girls when they got into debt... if they worked for her to pay it back. She told us that Perl's mom paid off her debt, then left Karron with a trader; apparently the guy didn't want to be saddled with a four-year-old kid, so her mom abandoned Perl."
Tony knew he shouldn't be surprised, but it still came as a shock. "She really left her daughter behind in a brothel?"
Kelli let out a sad sigh and shook her head. "One of the older whores got totally shitfaced one night and told me the real story. I won't go into all the details, but basically Perl's mom tried to help another girl escape from Karron. Their plan went wrong and she was killed as a lesson to the others."
"That's fucked up," he said with a grimace. "Does Perl know the truth?"
The brunette looked downcast as she replied, "I didn't have the heart to tell her. She grew up hating her mom; Perl would've fallen apart if she knew what really happened. If she found out while we were still with Trixie, she might've ended up getting herself killed trying to get revenge. I thought about telling her when we were sold to Pitbull, but you can imagine how sympathetic he would've been with a heartbroken whore."
Tony stroked the blonde's hair. "For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing."
"She's been looking out for me for years," Kelli said, glancing back mournfully at the pale girl. "I just wanted to keep her safe."
He was about to reply, when he spotted the clinic down the street. "There it is!"
She whirled around and cheered, "Yeah! We made it!"
They rolled the cart right up to the entrance of the clinic and Tony was relieved to see that it hadn't been looted or destroyed. "I'll bring Perl in, you start looking around for meds."
Kelli nodded eagerly as she slid off the trailer and hobbled towards the entrance. Glancing inside, her eyes widened when she saw the shelves full of small medicinal bottles. "They've got loads of stuff here! There must be something that can help her!"
Tony scooped Perl into his arms and groaned with the shooting pain from his wound as he carried her into the clinic. He remembered there being a couple of treatment rooms at the back, so he walked past the shelves of contraceptives and ointments, heading straight there before he passed out. Choosing the closest of the two rooms, he walked inside and carefully placed Perl on the examination table, making sure she was comfortable.
"The pharmacy terminals have still got power!" Kelli called out, her excited voice echoing eerily in the deathly quiet clinic. "I'll check the holo-net, see what I can find out!"
"That's great, babe," Tony replied, wincing as he reached for a pile of blankets. "Me and Perl are gonna have a rest."
He covered the blonde in a blanket to keep her warm, then glanced around the treatment room. The previous occupant had knocked over a cup of coffee in his haste to flee, leaving an ugly brown stain across the white surface of the desk. Tony couldn't help wondering if the doctor had managed to evade capture by the Bugs, but realistically, there was almost no chance that he'd escaped. Pulling the cushions from the padded chair, he tossed them on the floor, then grabbed another blanket and slumped down on his makeshift bed. He tried to ignore the throbbing ache in his back and closed his eyes, feeling an all-pervading sense of weariness overwhelm him. Yeah, he just needed to rest for a few minutes...
Kelli tapped the holo-net icon on the interface, then frowned as a blank screen appeared with "No Signal" flashing in ominous red lettering. She tried it a couple more times and got the same result, then called out in frustration, "The holo-net's not working, Tony! I can't get a connection..."
There was no reply, so she hurried over to the door he'd disappeared through. "Tony, you okay?!"
She found him lying on the floor under a blanket, his eyes closed and face twisted in pain. Kelli rushed to his side to check on him and sighed with relief when she saw he was still breathing. She wanted to shake him awake and ask what she should do next, but it was obvious he was suffering and she didn't have the heart to disturb him. Besides, Tony wasn't able to read, so trying to figure out what medicine to give the two of them was always going to end up being her responsibility. Nibbling her lower lip, she took a pensive glance back at the door, then let out a nervous sigh.
"Please don't let me fuck this up," she prayed quietly, rising to her feet and limping back to the pharmacy.
***
Mateo took a furtive glance over his shoulder at his father, who stood on the Command Podium, eyes riveted on the Tactical Map. This was the first time he'd ever seen the man in live combat and he felt a surge of pride as he watched him in action. He knew his father had served as a tactical officer before becoming a captain and it was thrilling to watch him come alive in the heat of battle.
"Saito, cover those fighters," Captain Jack Fernandez ordered, highlighting a trio of rapiers desperately dodging streams of green neutron bolts from several drones.
Lieutenant Akari Saito nodded, switching targets from the waves of Kirrix strike craft rushing towards the battle. Her almond eyes narrowing in concentration as she opened up with the Damocles' defence grid and Gatling Lasers along the flank of the cruiser whirred to life, spraying a storm of orange laser bolts across the wake of the Terran fighters. The drones had no choice but to dive through that deadly hail and glowing holes were blasted through their light armour, shearing off wings and penetrating hulls. The rapiers waggled their wingtips in thanks as their pursuers were eviscerated by laser fire, freeing them to chase after targets of their own.
"Nice shooting," Jack said with an appreciative nod, his eyes flicking back to the battle line of Kirrix capital ships ahead of them.
The eight remaining drone carriers were slugging it out with the wall of Federation battleships, a lethal lattice of lurid green neutron beams criss-crossing the orange of the Terran lasers. He winced in sympathy as the Kirrix focused on the Attis, overwhelming its protective field with an unrelenting hurricane of neutron fire. Their beams gouged ugly welts across the grey surface of the battleship, cutting through metres of thick titanium armour plating. The Tactical overlay flared with light as the forward power regulator on the Attis' starboard flank exploded, knocking out power to that quarter of the ship.
"Webb, cover the Attis as it withdraws." He glanced at the Kirrix battle lines. "Cap four has lost its shields; try to aim for their upper neutron beam array, we've got to reduce that incoming fire!"
"Aye aye, Captain." Lieutenant Commander Nick Webb replied, twisting the weapon controls and bringing the Damocles' battery of six Heavy Cannon to bear on the fourth drone carrier.
The barrels lurched backwards with the force of the recoil as the Damocles pumped a salvo of high-velocity shells towards the insectoid behemoth. A split-second later the barrage struck the Kirrix flank, the rippling explosions leaving massive craters in the drone carrier's armoured hull. When the debris from the blasts had cleared, it was clear that the six shells had landed just awry of their target, causing no major damage.
"Two degrees to starboard, elevate three degrees!" Jack barked, staring intently at the expanded holographic representation of the ochre capital ship.
Mateo held his breath as he waited for the Heavy Cannons to reload, the Damocles' primary gunner adjusting his aim accordingly. The seconds counting down seemed to take an eternity, until finally the cruiser's main guns thundered out another salvo. Those rounds hit with devastating effect, landing square on the drone carrier's upper Neutron Beam array, the ensuing explosions shearing through metal and twisting barrels, wrecking the entire weapon battery.
"You've still got it, Captain!" Webb said with a broad grin.
Jack allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction, but it was wiped away a moment later as the battered drone carrier switched targets. Eight neutron beams from the lower array blasted the Damocles, plunging the cruiser's shield status from bright green to dark red.
"Engines full reverse!" he ordered tersely, locking eyes with his son for a split second.
Mateo felt a surge of panic as he whipped around to face his station, realising that if the entire Kirrix battle line decided to follow the drone carrier's lead, the Damocles was mere seconds away from annihilation. Clenching his teeth, his hands moved over the Pilot's console, reversing thrust to the engines and activating all the forward retro-thrusters. The Damocles began to withdraw from the phalanx of cruisers, but it felt like his ship was moving in slow motion.
The drone carrier fired again, neutron beams scorching through what was left of the cruiser's shields and melting deep furrows across the bow. There was an explosion as the Kirrix lacerated the Damocles' hull, making the ship shake violently.
"They took out our forward Beam array, Captain!" Chief Engineer Butler called out in warning.
The fleet interface crackled, Admiral Zelig's concerned face appearing in front of Jack. "Get the hell out of there, Fernandez!"
***
Zelkrixa gnashed her mandibles in her grief, shambling around the nest chamber as she tried to find some way out of this disaster. All her children manning the Fertile Dream had been extinguished, snuffed out of her mind as they choked to death in space. The only survivors of her brood were the precious grubs accompanying her in the nest, who had ceased their joyful chirruping, too frightened by the Broodmother's cries of loss.
She tried to reach out to the Hive Mind, but they had gone mysteriously silent after that brief moment of contact. Zelkrixa craved their calm guidance at this time of greatest need, but instead she found herself alone and defenceless in her immobilised hive ship. Even her partner, Ujarax, had gone silent, the Hive Lord sharing her grief before being cut down in a shocking instant. With the guardian of the impregnation chamber slain, she knew that the Progenitor beast must be stealing away their cargo of hosts, even those filled with her unborn young.
This raid into Terran territory had started off so wonderfully, yielding an overwhelming haul of hosts for a new generation of children, but it had now turned into a horrific nightmare, the death toll almost beyond her comprehension. As she was lamenting their loss, Zelkrixa heard the big doors to the rear of the nest slide open and she whirled around to confront those who would threaten her beloved grubs. Her black compound eyes locked on the white-armoured Terrans that strode fearlessly into the room and she hissed at them in fury, claws rearing back to strike as she charged towards them.
The female simply raised one of her slender arms and Zelkrixa saw a huge glowing hand appear, the glowing ethereal fingers opening wide as it moved to grab her. To her astonishment those transparent digits felt as strong as a Hive Queen's grip and they clenched around her torso, trapping her arms and lifting her from the ground. Her legs flailed aimlessly in the air as she was hoisted aloft and the Broodmother felt a surge of terror as she realised she was now completely at this murderer's mercy.
That was when she recognised them for what they were... the Progenitor beasts!
***
John leaned on his sword as he studied the floating Broodmother. The Kirrix monstrosity looked absolutely furious, its seven sets of limbs thrashing wildly as it tried to escape Alyssa's clutches.
"Can you maintain that telekinetic hand while you're spirit walking?" he asked, glancing at Alyssa.
"Yeah it shouldn't be too hard," the blonde replied confidently, her cerulean eyes glowing with a brilliant white light. "It'll be like when Irillith immerses herself in the cyber-realm, while still talking to people on the Bridge."
John adjusted his grip on the hilt of his sword. "If it gets loose, I'll keep you safe."
"My hero," Alyssa said with a fond smile.
The room was silent apart from the Broodmother's hissing, the huge insectoid gnashing her mandibles together as she fought to free herself. John remembered the eerie chirruping he'd heard the last time he'd been in a Kirrix nest, so he glanced at the hexagonal alcoves lining the walls, only to find hundreds of tiny compound eyes staring back at him. "The grubs... they're watching us."
Alyssa turned to look at them, her eyes darting along the rows of Kirrix young, until the movement of automated chitinous arms caught her attention. They were still dropping slivers of flesh into the nests for the grubs and she felt a wave of horrified revulsion as she remembered exactly what they were eating.
Her open fingers tightened into a claw, the telekinetic hand mirroring her movements and making the Broodmother shriek as she was slowly crushed by overwhelming force. "I want to kill this evil fucking thing so badly..." she muttered through gritted teeth.
"Easy," John said placing a calming hand on her shoulder. "Remember how many lives are at stake..."
Closing her eyes, Alyssa inhaled deeply, then slowly blew out her breath. "Alright, let's get this over with."
She focused her will inward and peeled her spirit form from her body, stepping clear of her physical presence as she shifted her consciousness into the Astral Plane. The Broodmother loomed above her, its inhuman features twisted into a hideous snarl as it railed against its telekinetic confinement. Alyssa ignored her natural instinct to keep well clear of the massive creature and tilted her psychic hand, turning the Kirrix around so that she could reach its head. It rotated as if in slow motion, then she placed a hand on its chitinous cranium and began her telepathic assault.
The alien felt her intrusion into its mind and staged a desperate defence, putting up a surprising amount of resistance. A couple of months ago, when Alyssa was still a fledgling psychic, that would have been enough to frustrate her efforts. However, a relentless series of psychic battles had honed her will, sharpening it into the deadly instrument it was today. Alyssa focused her mind into an eldritch spear and lanced into the Broodmother's subconscious, shattering its innate defences and piercing Zelkrixa's mind.
She felt herself being sucked into that disturbingly alien consciousness, her perception of the Astral Plane shifting to reflect her new surroundings.
*MY BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN!* Zelkrixa shrieked in anguish, her inconsolable cry of grief howling through the Broodmother's mind. *THEY'RE DEAD! YOU KILLED THEM ALL!*
Wincing in the face of that deafening cacophony, Alyssa waved a hand and summoned a psychic hex-shield to surround her. *Yeah, well you started it,* she muttered, as the mournful wailing was muted to an eerie whisper.
Glancing around, she realised just how very different a Kirrix mind was to that of a Terran. Facing her was a monolithic wall of hexagonal memories, each pristine recollection neatly slotted into place in perfect symmetry. That alone spoke of a very ordered mind, but there was more to Zelkrixa's subconscious than that. Scattered behind Alyssa was a haphazard mass of much vaguer memories, the edges to those recollections faded and indistinct.
She walked over to the closest one and brushed her hand over the surface, sensing the memories contained within...
~~~
Mewling chattel stumbled through the hive ship, droplets of water running down their small faces as they were herded onwards by drones. They took one look at Zelkrixa as she scuttled out of the nest to observe them and shrank away from her, trying to flee in their terror. Her troops shot a couple to restore order, the small creatures' agonised cries making the others huddle together for comfort, their expressions twisted with fear. Zelkrixa glanced over them with disinterest; after all, these two-legged lifeforms all looked largely the same to her. Their only purpose was to feed her beloved children, and for that reason alone, she conceded that they weren't totally worthless.
~~~
Alyssa yanked herself back from the memory, feeling a surge of hatred welling within her. She wouldn't treat an animal the way the Kirrix handled their prisoners... but what made it so much worse was that these were Terran children! For all Zelkrixa's wailing about the death of her drones, she'd hadn't shown the slightest bit of compassion towards the sentient species she'd eagerly sacrificed for her own young.
*You're signing your own death warrant,* she snarled through clenched teeth as she shied away from the rest of the vague memories.
Striding over to the wall, Alyssa brushed her fingertips over a hexagon, letting herself experience one of Zelkrixa's sharp memories.
~~~
A drone wiped the red gore from the newly-birthed body of a tiny grub, revealing the lustrous texture of its soft ochre-hued carapace.
*So beautiful...* Zelkrixa crooned, caressing the firstborn of this clutch and making it wriggle happily.
The grub's black compound eyes opened for the first time, quickly surveying its surroundings before looking up at the Broodmother and joining the melodic chorus for food. Zelkrixa scooped the newborn up and carefully deposited it into a hexagonal alcove, then watched fondly as a tendril of meat was dropped into its open maw. Mandibles gnawed at the flesh, the grub chirruping in delight as it savoured its first meal.
~~~
Alyssa lurched back out of that sharp memory, shuddering with revulsion. While she'd been observing Zelkrixa's memory, she had experienced the Broodmother's elation and sense of joy at watching her offspring eat. Lip curling in disgust, the blonde clenched her hand into a fist and placed it against the wall of memories, briefly tempted to smash every one of these foul recollections. She channelled her will, spreading out her senses to briefly touch on all the memories in range. A flood of fleeting images flickered through her thoughts, identifying the focus of each one: grubs, grubs, drones, grubs, Hive Lord, drones, drones, grubs, Hive Mind...
She pulled back and looked up at the imposing wall. It was now clear to her that the Kirrix only cared about interactions within their own species; everything related to dealings with the "chattel" got dumped and sidelined into the memory wilderness behind her.
Alyssa shook her head in disbelief. *And I thought Weber was xenophobic...*
Striding over to the sharply-defined hexagon that she knew contained an interaction with the Hive Mind, she opened her hand and placed it on the glowing surface. The pull from the memory was insistent, drawing her inside as if eager to share its story.
~~~
*Zelkrixa, our dealings with the Terran pirates have borne fruit,* Krinava the Hive Queen declared, her voice vibrant and full of hope. *The treacherous fools have gladly sold out the rest of their species for mere baubles and trinkets. We now know the location of all the most populous Terran worlds along the border.*
*So we are to begin a grand harvest?* Zelkrixa asked, her heart lifting with joy.
*Soon... we are gathering our forces in preparation and will probe for weaknesses in the Federation's defences,* the Hive Queen replied. Krinava's voice took on a deep timbre, echoing with the combined weight of the Hive Mind. *You will have the honour of joining us as we gather up a multitude of hosts for a whole new generation of children.*
~~~
*There you are...* Alyssa said with a grim smile of satisfaction.
