Warrior Chronicles 3: Warrior's Realm (25 page)

“I suppose, sir. Had you done that, we would have died off in ten of your years anyway,” Heroc said. “The war would have been costly to both sides, but ultimately, only the planet you have ceded to us would remain.”

“Why is that?”

“Only our queens lay young. As it is, the queens are all on our homeworld now. If you do not allow them to lay, their origin planets will die off anyway.”

“What is your lifespan, Heroc?” Cort was suddenly very interested in what the former Cuplan had to say. An idea was forming that might help resolve the matter without more death.

“The very old live to be perhaps twelve of your years, General. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t understand. The Blatterians have a lifespan of thirty to forty human, uh, my years. Why is your lifespan so much shorter? Aren’t you closely related?”

Heroc was hesitant to satisfy the question fully. She knew the answer, but to divulge it would admit that her own kind could be just as gruesomely brutal as the humans could be. Even toward their distant cousins, the Blatterians. “General, based on what I know of the differences between our species, I believe it is because of our prolonged exposure to radiation. Our species is more robust, but shorter lived. When we lost contact with Lap’s people, we were...left to our own devices. We made do with what we were afforded by our home planet, but it was a hard fought life.”

“I want to revisit that, but let’s finish our first topic. Are you telling me that there is no way for your species to reproduce without queens?”

“That is correct.”

“Other females cannot have young, then?”

“All females are queens, General.” Heroc was surprised that the Cort knew so little about her species. From what she had learned during her time with Kim, General Addison was the type to know his enemy. “All eggs are male. One egg from each brood is treated with additional secretions from the queen. It will then develop into a female, and become a queen in her own right if she is chosen. If she is not chosen, she may not be asserted to, but she is still a queen.”

“LIke royal jelly, then.”

“I don’t understand that term.”

“Nevermind,” Cort said. “About the queens. Are there more of them out there that can be used to repopulate the species?”

“I cannot be sure, but it is my understanding that all queens were gathered by Cupla. Had I not been taken into custody, I too would have been in the group that you captured.”

“Of course. You are a vagabond queen, aren’t you? What does that term mean?”

“Vagabond queens are queens who leave their homeworlds, either to another empire world, or in my case, to a non-empire world.”

“I think I am beginning to understand. Are there other vagabond queens?”

Again, Heroc was unsure how to answer. If she told Cort the truth, she would be condemning more planets to death. If she did not, she may be condemning her entire species to the same fate. Ultimately, the species had to come first, though. “There are,” she said, looking down.

“That’s a problem, Heroc. I thought I had a solution to the problem, but if there are other queens out there, I cannot take a peaceful step. Where are they?”

“What are you going to do to them?”

“Heroc, we are back to square one. I want to know where every queen in your species is. If I do not, I will be forced to destroy the H’uuman Empire. If I can bring them to your new homeworld, I will. If they resist, I will kill them.” Cort leaned forward on his elbows and stared at the bug-like creature before him. “This is your last chance, Heroc. If I find out later that you hid one single female from me, egg, juvenile, or adult, I will have to destroy your entire species.”

“May I communicate with H’uum?”

“Of course. After that, please join me in our home for supper. Kimberly knows you are here and wants to spend time with you.”

What is wrong with this species? He promises to destroy my entire race, then invites me to dine with his family.
“I would be delighted, General.”

--

Kim answered the door and put her arms around Heroc in a brief hug. “Heroc, I’m so glad you are here. Wait until you see little Dalek! He’s growing so much.”

Bane and Coke sniffed Heroc’s body and nuzzled against two of her thighs. “Hello, Kimberly. I have missed our walks. I hope we have time to take one while I am here.” She looked around and saw that Cort was not in the room and added, “I have a thousand more questions about your mate. I do not understand him.”

Kim laughed and said, “Neither do I, Heroc. Neither do I.”

After kneeling to greet the wolves, Heroc stood and entered the home she had spent so many hours in. “Is the General here?”

Before Kim could respond, Cort entered the room with Dalek in his arms and said, “I’m just
Cort
here, Heroc. Even when there is tension between us.”

“Tension?” Kim asked.

“There are more queens out there. Heroc told me this morning.”

“Oh, no. Heroc, you have to turn them over the Ares Federation. You
have
to. Without your queens, we only have one option.”

“So I am led to understand, Kimberly.” Turning to Cort she said, “I have the information you have asked for. H’uum is sending messages to the worlds that they are to deactivate their defensive networks and turn all queens over to you.”

“How many are there?” Cort asked.

“We have three million lives on four hive planets. There are two hundred vagabond queens there.”

“Thank you, Heroc. I know to you, that this probably feels like another betrayal, but you have saved your species again. I doubt that is much consolation, but it is true.”

“I asked you once before, Cort, please do not kill our queens.”

“Is there a way for me to be certain that there are not more queens out there, Heroc?”
Other than Bazal and brain surgery.

“Hey,” Kim said. “I know you two need to talk about this, but let’s put it away for now. This is my family time, I’m starving, and I have to feed Dalek soon.”

“I am not family, Kimberly,” Heroc said.

Cort spoke before Kim could. “You most certainly are, Heroc. When I fell in battle, you were the one who stayed with Kimberly and comforted her. She’s told me that she could not have made it those dark days without you. You will always be family.”

Heroc regarded Cort for longer than was politic. “I am honored. But I am also confused yet again. I hope that my time is measured long enough to understand you completely, Cortland.
But perhaps I understand you a little more. Family is all that matters to you, Cortland. How can you protect me while fighting my species? You did nearly the same with Speral, didn’t you? It’s loyalty. Of course, I should have known this sooner. You are driven by loyalty. To you, Cortland, every debt is a blood debt.

Heroc became lost in the moment as the train of thought followed its natural path. Kim wondered at her silence. “Is something wrong, Heroc?” she asked.

“What? Oh. No, Kimberly, nothing is wrong. I just had a bit of an epiphany, I suppose.”

Kim looked at the taller female questioningly. “Do you care to share?” she asked.

“Perhaps later. I am still realizing the extent of it.”
Your mate is torn within himself. Loyalty. This is why he didn’t keep his promise to destroy us all, isn’t it? Because I am family to him, so he wants to show his loyalty. Now I have to find a way to help him, and to help my people at the same time. That is what he meant. He truly doesn’t want to kill us. I haven’t been able to accept that, but it is true.

“Okay, let’s eat then,” Cort said. “I have something special for you, Heroc.”

“Really? I am intrigued, Cortland.”

“We brought Terran bees, a kind of flying insect, here to help with the pollination of non-native plant species. The honey they produce is spectacular. I believe you will love sweetwater made with it. I also have some to send back to H’uum.”

--

“Did Cortland really mean what he said about me being a part of your nest, Kimberly?”

Kim and Heroc were walking around the observation platform above the stockade structure. They had walked the path many times in their friendship, each six-kilometer plus circle cementing their bond even further. Cort had suggested they all go, but Kim nixed that idea, saying it was her time with Heroc, and that Cort should take the wolves and Dalek for a walk. While Cort capitulated, Coke did not. He was behind Kimberly happily following the two women.

“Of course he did. I am alone, Heroc. What was left of my own family died on Earth when Atlantica fought Speral’s people. You were the only one here for me when I thought he was dead, so you are family, and you always will be.”

“That was my epiphany. I realized that he was torn between fighting my people and protecting me.”

“He was, and still is, willing to kill the rest of your species, but he desperately wants to find a reason not to. He is very good at war, but he does not like it, Heroc.”

“He is a strange man.”

“You know his past. It is unlike anyone else’s. I think it gives him a unique and demon-filled perspective.”

“Demon-filled? What does that mean, Kimberly?”

“His past haunts him. I don’t know if you can understand it, but he also carries the burden of every single being he has killed. I mean that literally. Sometimes when I look into his eyes, I can see the souls of every life he has taken. And sometimes when he doesn’t know I am watching him, I see the pain he feels.”

“Even the way he looks now? Since his face was damaged?”

“
Especially
now, Heroc. His old face was aged. His new one is young, like mine. But his eyes are so old. Even having lost my husband, and being raped on Mars, I cannot fathom the depth of his pain.” Kim held up her left hand. “This ring was his mother’s. She died of an illness centuries ago. Just a few years later, he took it from his sister’s lifeless hand. A few years after that, he took it from his wife’s dead hand.”

“I do not understand that kind of grief. For us the individual is but a part of the whole.”

“I am not sure that is true. You understand it enough that you were able to comfort me when I thought I had lost him.”

Heroc reached out with one of her upper arms and touched Kim’s shoulder. “You needed me.”

“Heroc, we are going to be married. Will you be my maid of honor?”

“I do not know what a maid of honor is, but I will happily do anything for you.”

--

The next morning, Heroc was back in Cort’s office. “Can you speak for H’uum on state matters, Heroc?”

Heroc was sipping warm sweetwater. “Yes. So long as I do not betray his empire, H’uum will agree to the terms we negotiate. But I do not understand. We are hardly in a position to negotiate. You imprison us.”

“We will get to that, Heroc. Right now I just need to know that H’uum will trust the terms you agree to.”

“He will, Cort,” Heroc said as she added more of the hybrid honey to her cup. “Cortland, if you offer him this honey, he would probably agree to any term you demanded. It is exquisite.” Her mandibles stretched and twisted in a way that Cort had come to recognize as a smile.

“Heroc, you will always have the honey available to you. But by your reaction, I suspect it could become a trade commodity. With both your people and Lap’s.”

“You will trade with us? The Collaboration will never allow it.”