Chapter 209: Resurrecting An Old Foe
"I am sure it is," I said, trying to be understanding. But I honestly had no idea what she could possibly mean about an infestation. Did she have a mice problem? Were there mice even in space?
"Well, they first came out of an egg, but it turns out that there are hundreds of eggs down in one of the holds, and then there is a really big one that seems hell-bent on eating her way through the ship...." I don’t think Sha Shou even breathed the whole time she was trying to explain what was going on.
I looked over at Da’kea to see if he understood what was going on. The look on his face was not encouraging. His eyes were wide, and the outer mandibles were clicking in irritation. Every molecule on his body looked like he was poised for war.
This was not a good sign.
Turning my attention to the other Saalistaja males, I noticed that they all had a similar posture to Da’kea. Whatever this infestation was, I don’t think that it was as simple as mice. Besides, all mammals were born alive, so they wouldn’t have come out of eggs.
Chickens? Could there be an infestation of chickens?
"Give us your coordinates," clipped Da’kea. "Do not let anyone else in or out of your ship. Do not go anywhere; just stay exactly where you are. Do you understand me?" he demanded, and even I could feel a shiver of fear crawl up my spine. Well, fear and something else.
"Oh- oh kay," said Sha Shou hesitantly. "Is it bad if I shot a few of them out into space? I mean, it was by accident, but that is enough to kill them, right?"
"No, it’s not. Go back to where you shot them out and see if you can get them back. You must not allow any to escape. Do you understand me? Even a single one is enough to decimate an entire planet. And if what you have said is correct, you have hundreds," growled before he as the other Saalistaja turned around and left the bridge.
I shared a look with Midnight, trying to figure out if he knew what was going on, but he simply shrugged his shoulders.
"I—I’m sorry," said Sha Shou in a small voice. "I didn’t know they were even there, let alone that turning up the temperature would cause them to hatch. I am really sorry."
"Oh, Sweetie," I said. She sounded so lost and alone that I almost felt bad for all the times I wished she would just go away. "It is not your fault. Something tells me that Pahn’thill shouldn’t have had them on board in the first place. You cannot take responsibility for someone else’s decisions. It is not your fault," I continued, trying to assure her as best I could.
"Thank you," she replied. "I’ll go back and try to get all the babies that got shot out of the launch bay. I freaked. I thought they were going to put a hole in the ship, and I didn’t want that."
"It’s all good," I assured her. "We are on our way. Between the six of us, I am sure we can figure things out."
"Six? Oh, you added another one to your harem! Congratulations!"
I blinked rapidly at her term, but I guess she wasn’t technically wrong. But not a conversation that I wanted to have with someone who was only a few months old. No matter how mature she seemed most times.
"Thank you," I said. I got Jun Li to send Raguk a message that we would be a bit late meeting up and that something unexpected had come up. I would still need to get in touch with the Hive, but at least I haven’t had to keep pushing that meeting back. Something tells me the Queen would not be too impressed if I had to keep canceling on her. I wanted to employ her, not be one of her targets.
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"Is it what I think it is?" demanded Au’dtair, leaning against the door frame as Da’kea took one of his spears down from the wall and started to sharpen one end of it. Ye’tab and Tha’juen were there with him, watching the Elder prepare as if he was going on a hunt.
"I have no idea what you are thinking," snapped the Elder, clearly not impressed to be questioned by those he considered to be pups.
"I would be careful," said Tha’juen. He might be the newest member of the group, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t stand side by side with the other males. "We are here to support you the best we can. We are all thinking it. We just need you to say it."
"Yes," hissed Da’kea. "It is exactly what you are thinking. And I had no idea how my female offspring managed to get her hands on the queen and eggs. It is forbidden. Anyone caught would be put to death, no questions asked."
"The ice planet," mused Ye’tab, trying to connect the dots. "Was she going to release them there? They need heat to reproduce. Maybe she was assuming that she could hide them and come back whenever she wanted."
"Whatever her plan was, it doesn’t matter. She is dead, and now we need to clean up her mess before anyone realizes what is going on," growled Da’kea. He couldn’t believe that his offspring was so stupid as to do something like that.
He froze for a second, his brain finally catching on to the most significant issue.
"They are extinct... no one has seen one in thousands of years... so where did she find a queen?" he mused, working through things in his mind. Was this yet another plot of the Alliance? Or was someone from the Saalistaja Elder’s council trying to bring back the old ways, and his offspring supported that idea.
Pahn’thill knew where he stood on the matter. Destroying the entire population of a planet just to have a top predator to hunt was asinine. He would never support that idea and shot it down every time it was brought up.
Sure, there weren’t as many challenging prey around, but that didn’t mean that they should resurrect one at the cost of countless lives.
