Strange Harvest

Part VI: Lotus

The crumpled bodies of crimson lotus wasps were strewn everywhere across the underground roots below me, some of them wounded or twitching their death throes. My helmet lights reflected oddly off their skin, casting an iridescent glow on the silver steeloak wood all around.

Looking closer, I realized that although they basically looked like pigeon-sized versions of wasps from Earth, their bodies were covered in thousands of tiny, interlocking scales. And where I expected to see the bulging, featureless eyes of insects, instead the lotus wasps had violet pupils with vertical slits, looking almost reptilian.

Among the cluster of dead wasps, I saw my first octopider. About twice the size of its slain enemies, the creature's teardrop-shaped abdomen seemed to make up most of its mass. The mottled blue corpse lay stiff and bloated, two hairy front tentacles still wrapped around one wasp's crushed neck. The other six legs and much of its body seemed to be protected by a hard, black material, but its underbelly was soft and exposed—a weakness the wasps had exploited ruthlessly, based on its wounds.

I stepped past the many blank, staring, alien eyes with the scream beam ready. The steeloak roots ahead seemed to have grown into natural arches that almost looked like doorways. A glowing thread on my display showed me the path Mueller and the others had taken to get to the hive itself, right through one of these misshapen entrances. When I got closer to the opening, I picked up faint voices on our common channel and hurried deeper into the nest until the audio cleared up.

"...damn shame..."

"Not a total loss. We just... whatever we can..."

"...she's not here... without permission..."

"—can't just leave it!" Clearer now, I could hear Chavos arguing with Mueller. "Let's wait for Goldwater. Even if the queen comes back while we're in here, we can still—"

I cut in, asking, "This is Jackson, can you guys hear me?"

"Yes. Jackson, stay where you are," Mueller immediately ordered, and I stopped in my tracks. "Can you still contact Goldwater from there?"

"I don't know. Hey, Goldwater?" I attempted. "Goldwater, come in. No, she can't hear me."

"Keep trying. Climb back up to ground level and tell her to park the Packhound at the entrance. Bring the fabricant back down with a couple of kegs once you reach Goldwater. The octopiders retreated back down below. Must have gotten in through an aquifer or something. The hive's already been partially destroyed, but we can still salvage a lot of this honey. And be careful. The queen's not here—either she's dead, or she escaped during the attack. But if she got out, she'll be back soon, and she's not going to be happy we're here."

"Queen, huh?" I swallowed and turned back the way I came, toward the door-like root archway. "She, uh... any bigger than the others?"

I had only just asked the question when the answer rounded the corner ahead.

The lotus wasp queen's brilliant scarlet scales scattered my helmet lights into a rainbow aurora around her. She stood on six legs, nearly as tall as a man, but with a long, segmented body dragging behind her unlike the warrior wasps I'd seen. Her four black wings spread out from her body in an instant and shook in a threatening flurry. Vivid, marbled purple eyes with reptilian slits locked on to me. Fearsome serrated mandibles opened and shut with an audible snap.

I froze in terror. She moved without hesitation.

The queen closed the distance between us instantly, charging at me and raising herself up to ready her stinger. My mind blank, my body unresponsive, I couldn't even breathe as she thrust the massive, curved needle at me. It struck my suit, slid between two segmented armor layers at my midsection, and bit into my flesh just above the navel. For a heartbeat of shock, a numb warmth spread out from the wound, and everything seemed to hold perfectly still.

Then, the queen twitched, what felt like a barbed hook sliced into my guts, and I suddenly snapped out of it, screaming in agony over the common channel, "She's here—!"

She dropped me and I fell backwards slowly in my nullsuit, drifting, realizing that the tingling sensation spreading from the sting was paralysis. I could feel her venom spreading through my veins, a dead burn on its way to my heart and brain.

"Stung me..." I managed to slur, my tongue thick, lips losing feeling. "Help. Help me. She—she..."

The queen pushed past me, knocking me away, and skittered further down toward the other harvesters. I wanted to warn them, but couldn't speak. Couldn't think. My body relaxed, and then I... I fell into myself, sinking and sinking into darkness until I could just see a round hole of light above me and nothing else. I hung onto the idea that I had to get back there, but I found it difficult to keep the thought present, and decided to close my eyes. That's when the visions started, distorted and swirling in my mind.

I was her. The queen. It started with birth. She—I—woke in darkness, a tiny cell, without sight, without sound, without thought. Just hunger. Blind hunger, searching for an end. My—her—body bumped against something soft, and I began to devour it whole. Ravenously, gluttonously, I consumed it all. Satisfied after I finished, I was overcome by exhaustion. Sleep took me.

***

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