“Oh no!” Lekla said, the depth of her distress permeating our mental connection. “She’s resting at the lowest levels. It will take time to reach the surface. We must hold them off.”
“There are too many,” I replied, my guts knotting painfully. “I’m on my way down. Where’s Daeko?”
“In the training room, on the twelfth level basement,” Lekla responded.
“Get him to the back entrance,” I ordered. “I will go for the Queen.”
“Understood,” Lekla responded.
I ended our link, grateful that the Elder Kryptid female kept her composure despite the terror I could feel from her. My begrudging respect for the Nursery Worker grew another notch as it wasn’t fear of her own death that drove her, but the future of the colony. I then sought my sister again as the lift reached its farthest destination on the eighth subfloor.
The ‘lights’ on the ceiling pulsated, indicating the alarm had been triggered. The reddish-brown color of the organic floors had also turned black to announce the presence of intruders within the facility but not yet on this floor. Once they reached it, the organic membrane would turn increasingly bright shades of yellow the closer it was to their current location.
“Lanam, take Daeko, Lekla and as many of the rebel leaders as you can to a shuttle, and go,” I mind-spoke to my sister. “With luck, you might have ten minutes to take off, but aim for five. The General’s troops are at the main entrance. I haven’t seen any spy drones yet, but expect that there will be some.”
“Understood,” Lanam said, her voice thick with worry. “I’m already on the move with Daeko. Lekla and Toksi have picked up the frozen embryos and are right behind us. The other Workers are taking what sensitive data they can, and destroying the rest.”
“Good. You know where to take them?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“All right. Be safe, Sister, and may the Maker walk with you,” I said.
“And with you, Shuria. You better get your ass back out of there,” Lanam said.
I gave her an affectionate psychic nudge then disconnected from her mind while racing down a series of tunnels leading to the other hidden lift. Even as I entered it, I made peace with the fact that Xerath wouldn’t make it out. Although the Workers had already called all the main lifts to their lowest levels and disabled them, the General had many ways of bypassing such inconvenience. His one-meter long ground bees, the size of a dog, could pierce through a floor in a couple of minutes.
Exiting on the twenty-second subfloor, I was faced with the most organized mayhem I’d ever seen. The Workers were systematically destroying anything of value that couldn’t be evacuated. Some were distributing cyanide pills to those who wouldn’t escape, and others were setting up detonators in the organic membrane lining the walls. They were configured to spray up to three discharges of acid upon detection of Soldier DNA.
Weaving my way through the masses, I raced to the third hidden lift to try to reach the Queen’s Chamber. Normally, a fourth one would get me to my final destination, but I’d hoped Xerath would meet me on the thirty-fifth subfloor. It had been a gamble hiding her so far down, but it had been our best chance of avoiding deep scan detection. And for nearly eight months, it had worked. If only we’d had four more months…
“We’re on the twelfth floor, at the hidden lift, on our way to the surface,” Lekla suddenly said in my mind. “We can hear the bees on the floor right above us. Where are you?”
“Still too far down,” I answered, “We won’t make it out in time. You leave at once with Daeko. You hear me?”
“What?! I can’t leave the Queen!” Lekla exclaimed, shock and suspicion oozing through our link.
“Yes, you can, and you will. Lanam will see to it,” I snapped. “Khutu will NOT harm Xerath. She’s perfect. He will want her for himself. Daeko he will kill without hesitation. So, go. I will look after the Queen.”
“Shuria… She’s our greatest hope. Please don’t—”
The abruptness with which our link was severed was either due to too great a distance or more powerful psychic disruptors being brought in by the General’s troops. Either way, our fate was sealed. The hovering platform of the lift stopped on the thirty-fifth floor. As soon as the white membrane that served as the door opened before me, the frightened gasps of the Queen’s escort resonated in the room.
“Shuria,” Xerath breathed out.
Although clearly relieved, the Queen was doing an admirable job of appearing poised and in control, unlike the terrified Workers surrounding her. Xerath’s eyes widened, and she gave me a confused look as I walked out of the elevator instead of urging her inside.
“We’re not making it out,” I said in an apologetic voice. “The Soldiers are already down to the twelfth subfloor. We could try to run through the tunnels to an adjoining building, but the Scout Flies will be upon us before we can get very far.”
Xerath recoiled and stared at me with disbelief. As I spoke, fear, outrage, then suspicion flashed over her regal features in quick succession.
“You came all the way down to keep me hostage until he comes for me?” she hissed.
Her lances began protruding from her forearms as she initiated the shift into her battle form. Despite their almost palpable fear, the Workers took defensive positions in front of their Queen.
“Peace, child,” I said in a harsh tone. “You know better than to try to fight me. Even with all these Workers’ assistance, I would defeat you. If that had been my goal, we wouldn’t be talking right now. We have little time, so I need you to listen carefully.”
Just as I spoke those words, the lights overhead began pulsing a bright red, indicating the Soldiers had already reached the twentieth subfloor. How the fuck were they moving so fast?
“As you can see, we are out of time,” I said, forcing myself to rein in my own fears. “You are a Queen. The most perfect Queen to have been raised on Kryptor in decades. Khutu will want you for himself. He will not even remotely think of harming you, quite the opposite. Do not antagonize him. Do not fight him. Play along.”
Xerath opened her mouth to argue in outrage, but I didn’t give her the chance.
“Do not argue. There’s no time. Thank the Maker, you are still a child. He will not touch you,” I said forcefully, while tapping some quick instructions on my armband to connect to the internal camera network of the hive. “For all his faults, Khutu will not mate with a child, so there are no risks of him ruining you until you’ve blossomed. Buy us time. You still have four months before you reach full maturity. I will call on the Xian Warriors to help us rescue you.”
“How will you get me aid when you’re trapped here with us?” Xerath asked, fear and a sense of doom creeping up on her harmonious features.
“I’m a Mimic. They will not catch me.” A quick glance at the interface of my armband showed them only two floors above us. “They’re almost here. Take her to the Gathering Hall at the back. Receive him as a Queen with poise and confidence. I will be among them, shifted. I pledge to help you reign on Kryptor with Daeko, and I will die making sure of it. Trust me.”
She wanted to argue, and plead, but the sound of bees already digging above us prompted us all into action.