The Conquering Queen

Chapter Three - The Belly of the Beast Pt. 1

(I have used pictures #1, 2, 5 & 7, hopefully noted in a slideshow to your right.)

Ancient Mycenia had become a civilization of secrets. That is what had angered the God.

Beyond that, Billie couldn't remember the old stories. The meaning of the old myths had always been obscure to her - the tale of Sunguur the Trickster stealing fire from Etnastus and turning it to gold one flame at a time. King Monaa and his robe of jewels, misremembering their pattern and exploding in a ball of flame that ate his entire kingdom. The silver web of Ansii which grew too vast and trapped the stars themselves. The message that the survivors had taken away after the Scattering had been, clearly, that the ancients had hoarded too much knowledge and that Etnastus had risen to take it back, returning the encrypted secrets of creation to flame. Etnastus had swallowed the largest and richest cities of Mycenia, targeting the great spiral school at Alexarna first. The sky-borne conch which housed the pinnacle of Mycenaean learning had come crashing to earth in a conflagration which had devoured the entire province. From fire knowledge had come; to fire it had gone.

But the ships which had escaped Mycenia and scattered to the stars had taken what they could with them. They had to - without the infobot net, the swarms could never have been coordinated. The secrets locked in the impossible minds of their tiny metal companions were lost, but the infobots could propagate themselves. If Etnastus wished for humanity to remain ignorant of the secrets of creation, he had nothing to fear from them now.

Perhaps, Billie thought, he feared the infobots instead. She had briefly considered ejecting Shoo from the ship as a sort of peace offering to the God, but then they would be blind, dumb, deaf and lost. No, the Council of Queens, in their wisdom and foreknowledge, had the right of it. Humanity was vast, spread across countless stars. A Pythian swarm drawn from even a fraction of the colonies would be the fiercest weapon they had ever wielded. Better to build and to fight than to flee, guessing at the inscrutable motivations of a God.

"I have a message from the Queen's Forum of Dyme!" Shoo declared. They had spent the better part of the last three hours formulating a battle plan, shuffling grums in formations over the surface of a squat wooden table. Not knowing what they would find in the Dyme system, Lady Dappolla had insisted they work with the worst-case scenario: handfuls of half-breed drones. Even these they could not be sure of, if the Queen's Forum on Dyme didn't heed their warning. Now we'll know. Billie's nerves were frayed.

"Let's hear it," Dappolla demanded. Titus stood at attention, ever-ready. Theo crossed his arms over his chest and raised his chin as if this were the first fight of the battle. Billie hoped it wouldn't be.

"Lady Dappolla Zangold, this is Duchess Hermiona Ribbonsby, Chair of the Queen's Forum of Dyme." The voice which emanated from Shoo was deep and wavered, suggesting a very old woman. Perhaps she is very wise, Billie hoped. "We have received your warning. Our swarms have been scrambled -" The entire crew shifted and sighed as one, releasing their collective tension. "- and the swarms of Olenia and Morvi have informed us that they come to join us. When the Anger arrives, we will be some ten phalanxes. I hope-" Here the old woman's voice cracked. "-I hope that shall be enough. Our drones are young, but the new generation shows promise. The new brood are nearly three-quarters the size of full-blood Pythian drones-" Theo snorted and turned away in frustration. "-and those from Olenia are said to be almost as fast. We have formed a shield wall in preparation of your arrival, but any tactical information you can get us-"

"A shield wall six-hundred strong?" Theo laughed incredulously, talking over the Duchess's closing remarks. "And half-breeds? Etnastus will punch through them without so much as slowing. They need to widen, we need Daena's Net -"