Three Day Cafe

Episode 5. Bringers of Doom

"They're basically mutants," Razel concluded, eating bread reminiscent of a croissant.

"So like..." Nathan was about to say, "So like you," but after last night he thought maybe that was insensitive. "Like humans with bee traits?"

"Yeah." She dug into some scrambled eggs with a fork. "Their appearance is bugging me. I'm surprised they stock regular food—"

"Bzzz...excuse me. You require more water and signaled an information delivery." A bee man in a crisp, buttoned waiter suit the color of the sun suddenly spoke up. He walked to their table.

"Oh. Thanks." Razel warily watched the waiter pour water in her glass. "Information delivery?"

"You are wondering about the history of Sivax. I will feed you with condensed information," the waiter said. His voice was gravelly in addition to making "zzz" noises. "We maintain farms for feeding transitory immigrants. The Hive provides military arms and mechanical skill such as mech-building and hover-welding. Immigrants come for these resources and Sivax's location near trading outposts. The Hive came into being with the First Queen and Eight Sub-Hives."

Razel made a shooing motion with a hand. "Okay, great. Can we eat—"

The waiter droned on, neatly replacing Razel's empty coffee cup with a new one. "After the Hive received news of a rumored illegal experiment succeeding, it attempted to replicate the anonymously leaked results to enhance the worker bees. Replication of Lab Experiment 03-RAZ physically enhanced the speed, strength, and communication of workers to previously unseen levels."

Razel suddenly stiffened. She clenched her fist with the fork tightly and blinked several times, breathing in and out slowly. Her other hand reached down to her belt and fingered her knife, tracing the familiar grip of the hilt.

Nathan frowned. "You ok—"

"Shut up." Her voice was a savage whisper.

The bee man took Nathan's empty plate. "This new power lead to increased conflict with our neighboring planet, Boreal, for many years. The Hive wishes to expand its control to the planet's Free Lands. Recent tensions have caused war between us. Enjoy your food."

The bee man walked off as suddenly as he had appeared.

"I didn't ask for a lore dump," Nathan muttered. "Sorry, Razel."

"Forget it." She calmed herself down and glanced at the other two.

DiMaggio was glaring at his mutton chop. "Where's the lamb sauce?" he roared. "Do the chefs here have their heads between sliced bread?"

"Quiet," Razel hissed at him. "Stop drawing attention to us."

Razel was uneasy. The breakfast area was full of other customers, more or less human. There were native Sivaxians, a lot of people with crab arms, some men and women in dark armor with neon purple or green hair, plain-shirted people with fluttering insect wings, and a woman like Layla with pink head-tails wearing a shimmering starlight dress. They chattered to one another and did not pay attention to the table hosting a screaming chef and a killer criminal.

Oni had Nathan's hat but had to bend her face down and eat food from her plate like a pig, lest she be seen. Oni did not seem to mind, but Razel did not feel good about that. She could remember bits of royal table etiquette from childhood, and Oni was breaking pretty much every one.

"Very tasty! Slave like it very much!"

What Razel noticed the most was the waiters. Wherever they moved, whatever they did, their large, kaleidoscopic yellow eyes glowed with flickering light. It was a quick movement, and those without sharp senses like Nathan were probably oblivious to it. Some parts of the eyes glowed, and some did not. It was like they were forming a pattern, a nonverbal language directed to no one. Razel was not sure what they were saying, or who they were speaking to, but it was disturbing her greatly that no one was trying to jump the four of them.