Chapter 220: A Strategic Retreat
The four Saalistaja males braced themselves as the Istar creatures across from them sniffed the air. Surprisingly, they didn’t attack the males. Instead, they turned around to the fourteen smaller bunnies. As if sensing danger, the young Istars darted away, but they were too slow in comparison to the newly created queens.
There was a squeal of fear as one of the bunnies was captured, the dagger-like claws of the queen piercing its tender skin. Its front and rear legs continued to pump, even as blood was pouring out of its wounds.
Opening her mouth, the queen simply dropped the bunny inside of it, quickly cutting off its protests. One big gulp and the Istar monster was looking around for a second tasty morsel.
"I have never been one to run away from an enemy," said Tha’juen as he slowly started to back up. "But I do believe in strategic retreats."
Au’dtair grunted in agreement, and the four males slowly backed away, their eyes never leaving the two threats in front of them.
The hatch door made a slight sound as it opened up, but the creatures were so focused on trying to hunt down the other bunnies that they didn’t even notice the males leaving. When the door once again closed, Au’dtair let out a low sigh of relief.
"None of that is part of the documentation left regarding the Istar," said Ye’tab as he and the others spun around and bolted for the lift. Midnight should have brought Mei Xing to the command bridge, choosing to make that the muster point.
There was still an injured queen somewhere on the ship, so that meant three queens that they knew of were alive and kicking against the four of them. The odds were definitely not in their favor.
"Does that mean that it simply wasn’t recorded? Or was it recorded, but someone deleted it?" asked Au’dtair as the lift closed and started to go up toward the command deck.
"I don’t see any signs of tampering," admitted Ye’tab. He was busily typing something onto his wrist unit, his mind going in a hundred different directions at once. "But that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have been done by someone that knew what they were doing."
"And how many people would be able to pull that off?" demanded Da’kea, not at all happy with how things were going. He had no idea that that was how queens were created. But now that he did, he couldn’t stop seeing it.
"Me," admitted Ye’tab, lowering his arm and looking at the males around him. "From what I can see, I would be one of the few, if only, people capable of manipulating the archives to that extent."
"Then that means that no one really knows how a queen is created," mused Tha’juen. He didn’t know what was worse, not knowing and still releasing those things out into the world or deleting the records before doing it.
"Mei Xing," said Au’dtair, his head snapping up. "Midnight said that she seemed to mention something about rules. Rule number two: don’t get wet; rule number three: don’t feed after midnight." Pulling up his wrist unit, Au’dtair looked at the time displayed on it.
12:30
"It is after midnight," he grunted in confirmation.
"I don’t know what happens when they get wet, but given the consequences of what happens when rule three isn’t obeyed, I am not about to throw water on them," chuckled Tha’juen. He was actually enjoying himself.
It was one of the first times that others had invited him on a hunt for no other reason than because he belonged. Usually, they just wanted him to hunt down the harder kills and let the others take the credit for it.
"Maybe Mei Xing will be awake right now," suggested Da’kea. "She seems to know more than the rest of us about the Istar; maybe she will have some insight into how to kill them."
The other three grunted but remained silent, everyone lost in their own thoughts.
-----
"Good morning, sleepy star," said Midnight as I stirred awake in his arms. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember how I got in them, but based on how my body was feeling, it must have been quite the party.
"Morning," I croaked, my voice clearly rusty from lack of use... and dehydration. And what was that smell?!? "What happened?"
"The Istar bunny," answered Midnight, his voice coming out in a low chuckle.
"The Easter bunny? Is it April already?" I asked as my ears rang in time with my heartbeat. "Wait... Istar... Sha Shou," I muttered, trying to open my eyes. However, they felt like they had been glued shut by something. And the more I started remembering what happened before I passed out, the less I wanted to remember exactly what was acting as glue. "I need a shower."
"Coming right up, Star Shine," said Midnight happily. He picked me up like I wasn’t the grossest thing in the world and carried me out of wherever I was down the hall and into another room. "Why is everything so dark?" I asked. I mean, I knew that my eyes were still closed, but I should have been able to see something through my eyelids.
"No idea," admitted Midnight. "Sha Shou isn’t responding."
"That’s weird," I said as I could feel the soothing warmth of a shower pouring down on the two of us. We were still in our bullet-proof suits, but that was fine. It would be enough to just rinse off right now and then scrub myself clean once I got back to Jun Li. "Is Jun Li in the system?"
"I am," replied Jun Li, coming in through my earpiece. "And it seems like there was something where you were that prevented technology from working correctly."
"Like a jamming signal?" I asked, more than a little happy to hear Jun Li. I was worried that the poison in my system had done something to the implant, and that was why I couldn’t hear him before. But to know it was simply because of a jamming device, then that was a lot easier to deal with.
It also might explain why Sha Shou wasn’t replying.
"I—yes," said Jun Li, clearly looking up my reference. "Exactly like a jamming signal."
