Queen
Dark and damp cargo hold. The xenoform rising from the gap in the pipes fixed its dozens of flashing red eyes on the tiny figure standing before it.
Small. So very small and delicate. But there was no room for doubt. The overwhelming wavelength that filled this cramped ship to the brim. The absolute scent of dominion, just like the one I'd felt in Mother's embrace seventy years ago, poured from this little entity.
[……Found… you.]
The xenoform before me suppressed its boiling ecstasy, gathering its scattered slime-like body into one place and prostrating itself. It was the bare minimum courtesy toward this young queen.
[Great sister of the Mother. This lowly kin greets you.]
Its voice didn't vibrate the air—it pierced straight into the mind as a wavelength.
[I am Nahibi, the fourth child of Lady Nariant.]
Nahibi flattened itself against the floor in reverence.
[In the great war against the Federation we were to devour, we lost Mother… My defeated siblings scattered to the winds. I hid among my brothers' corpses with my wounded body, falling into a long slumber as I awaited the day of our counterattack.]
Its body trembled with emotion. Truth be told, there had been times when it thought it might never wake again. But now, realizing amid the rout that Mother's sister lived, Nahibi was overjoyed.
[Today, I heard the wavelength you sent out. At that call summoning me from the abyss, I, Nahibi, came running in an instant. My queen, please… give me your command!]
I lifted my head, yearning to behold the queen's visage. What order would come? Annihilate humanity? Offer my flesh? Anything would do.
But then.
"Whoa…."
The young queen Eve stared at me with her mouth agape in a daze.
[……My queen?]
"You can talk? Meow-meow talks?"
The queen before me seemed to have understood none of my introduction. Her eyes just sparkled with curiosity as she approached me. And the form of her language… it wasn't the one I knew. It sounded more like the speech of the Federation vermin, our enemies?
[Meow-meow…? Is that the name of another sibling?]
"Dunno! You look all squishy!"
Lady Eve reached out fearlessly and grabbed my fluid body.
"Hehe, like jelly. Streeetch— it stretches?"
[Ah, no. My queen. I'm not a toy… Ugh! That's a sensory organ…!]
Lady Eve ignored my words entirely. She just kneaded my body, poked it with her fists, and even started pulling it apart with both hands like a plaything.
[My, my queen! Maintain your dignity! I am Lady Nariant's fourth… Kyaaak! Don't poke my eye!]
I was bewildered. The queens I remembered were all cold, majestic rulers. But this one… she was innocent as a newborn larva. No, innocent to the point of blank slate—
What's going on here?
My eyeballs rolled, analyzing the queen. Her external form showed no major issues. But her mind was perfectly severed. As if someone had forcibly sealed away the queen's memories and instincts.
As Nahibi gazed at this half-baked queen, disappointment swelled, but so did relief. If she hadn't awakened yet, I could serve at her side, guide her.
[Enough, enough, my queen.]
I reformed my jelly-like body and gently enveloped Eve.
[It doesn't matter if you don't know who I am. From now on, I'll protect you. Once we leave this filthy ship and settle on a planet to build your strength…]
"Tickles! Heehee!"
The queen giggled wildly as my tentacles wrapped around her, saying her armpits itched. My solemn vow drowned in her laughter.
This was going to be a rough guardianship. But the wavelength emanating from the queen after so long, and this queen's utterly novel emotions—they weren't bad. I decided to gladly become her playground.
That was when it happened.
Hiss—.
The cargo hold's sealed hatch slid open.
[……?]
I whipped my head around reflexively. Bright light poured in from beyond the door, and someone charged inside.
The race that killed my mother and slaughtered my siblings.
[Human.]
In that instant, my playful mood vanished. Every cell in my body screamed, shifting to combat readiness.
The engine room air hung heavy. I stared blankly at the ripped-out filter in my wrench-gripping hand.
"……What the hell is this."
Instead of metal scraps or dust, the filter's interior was coated in sticky white mucus. Some unidentified goo like snot or melted plastic clogged the pipes tight. I dabbed it with my gloved fingertip and sniffed. No oil smell, colorless.
An inexplicable unease crept in. In this universe, the unknown was best treated with caution. Until I figured out the cause, I'd have to live in my suit…
Eve!
I wasn't alone anymore.
"Shit!"
I flung the toolbox aside and bolted from the engine room. My heart pounded like mad. The engine stalling wasn't the issue.
Eve!
Where'd she say she was going? To play with Meow-meow. Second cargo hold. Where the most pipes ran.
I sprinted down the corridor. Please, no. Please be my mistake.
Bang!
I kicked open the second cargo hold door.
"Eve!!!"
And there it was. My worst fears realized in the most horrific way.
In the hold's central darkness, a massive white blob writhed. A slime monster swollen to touch the ceiling. Dozens of red eyes embedded in its surface glared at me.
And inside that monster's translucent body, at its core… Eve.
"……!!!"
White mucus enveloped Eve completely. Trapped inside the monster, she floated midair, flailing.
To my eyes, it looked like the beast was swallowing and digesting her.
Reason snapped.
"You… fucking bastard!!!"
I ejected the ultrasonic knife from my right thigh holster.
Whiiine—!
"Spit her out now!!!"
I hurled myself at the monster without hesitation.
[Kieeeek—!]
Nahibi let out a shriek. The human male who burst in reeked of killing intent from the start. That blue blade in his hand—the weapon that had felled countless siblings.
[Murderer! How dare you touch the queen!]
Nahibi instinctively moved to shield Eve. The queen was defenseless now. Even a graze from that vicious weapon would end her.
Nahibi fluidly reshaped its slime body. It thickened the tentacles around Eve, pushing her deep toward its core—its safest flesh—to isolate her from the human's assault.
But to the knife, it looked exactly the opposite.
"You piece of shit! Won't spit her out?!"
Seeing Eve fully sucked into the monster, Kal lost it.
Slash!
The ultrasonic knife sliced Nahibi's outer layer. Gooey flesh splattered. But Nahibi was a liquid monster. The cut sealed instantly.
[No chance, lowly creature!]
Nahibi morphed the severed part into a tentacle and whipped at Kal.
Thwack!
"Guh!"
Kal blocked, but the heavy mass attack shoved him back. His suit's warning lights flashed.
"You persistent fuck… Fine, I'll burn you!"
Kal maxed the plasma cutter on his suit. A blue superheated beam lanced toward Nahibi's torso.
Sizzle!
[Gaaaaah!]
Burning flesh stench filled the air as part of Nahibi vaporized. Pain wracked it, but Nahibi held firm. It wrapped tighter around Eve's side to block the heat from her.
[I won't let you through! She's mine to protect! I won't lose Mother in front of me again like that time!]
Nahibi's mental wave screamed, but to Kal, it was just the monster barking "Kieeeek!"
"What're you yapping about! Give me Eve!"
Kal charged again. Nahibi didn't just take it this time. It fired solvent projectiles from its body.
Sizzle! Splatter!
Kal's reinforced suit melted, smoke rising.
"Run, Eve! If you hear me, swim out somehow! Hurry!"
Dodging the acid barrage, Kal yelled. Even as his suit's shield cracked and acid bit into his skin, he didn't retreat. With single-minded resolve to save Eve, he hacked wildly at the regenerating monster.
[Tough bastard… Die!]
Nahibi formed two massive tentacles like hammers to smash down on Kal. No room to dodge.
Right then.
Deep in the monster's gut, in the darkness, Eve's eyes snapped open.
……No.
Eve was confused. At first, Nahibi spouted strange, incomprehensible words, but its attitude was friendly, so she thought it was a friend. A squishy one like Meow-meow!
But Kal was getting hurt. Her new friend too.
She wanted to stop them, figure out why this happened.
"Gurgle."
But inside Nahibi, breathing was fine somehow, yet speaking was hard. Then Nahibi gathered killing intent to crush Kal. Kal would get hurt again.
No.
Deep in Eve's chest, deeper than her heart, something dormant stirred.
It wasn't fear.
Not sorrow.
It was rage.
How dare you touch my Kal. How dare you touch what's mine. How dare—
Thump.
Eve's heart pounded like it would burst. That pulse seized the entire cargo hold in an instant.
Nahibi's descending tentacles froze midair.
Kal's swinging knife halted.
Silence like time had stopped.
From the monster's belly, red eyes flashed like lightning.
Flash—!
Nahibi's white body glowed red from within.
And not from Eve's mouth, but her will, tore through space with a command.
[Stop.]
It wasn't language.
BOOM!
Invisible colossal pressure crushed the hold.
[……!]
Nahibi's dozens of eyes rolled back. It collapsed to the floor without a chance to scream.
Splorch.
Nahibi's solid form melted like liquid.
And from the center of the flowing slime.
Step.
Eve walked out.
Her body dripped with mucus, but she seemed untouched.
Eve lifted her head. Her pupils weren't their usual clear red. They were an overwhelming crimson, deeper than the abyss, thicker than blood.
She glanced down at Nahibi, flattened and trembling on the floor, then turned to Kal, standing dazed.
Kal stared, forgetting to breathe.
This wasn't the bratty kid he knew.
In that moment, what Kal faced was the seed of the calamity humanity dreaded.
A fragment of the true queen.