They Answered The Call

Republic Hive World

TOI-700 d, 101.4 light years from Earth

Emily tried to ignore the tugging on her shirt as she continued to use her hands to turn the 3-D scan image floating above her desk.

The tugging became more insistent, and she sighed with frustration as she turned to confront the source of the distracting annoyance.

“Miss Zelda, how many times have I told you not to disturb me?” she asked sternly as she stared into the large, black eyes of the offender. The worker drone stared back at her, not understanding what she was saying, and tugged on her shirt one more time before turning to face the exit.

Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Emily turned back to her side and tapped on the desk panel, the 3-D image pausing its rotation as she continued to input commands to save her progress.

Satisfied that she had backed up the data, she finally stood up and stretched while eyeing the drone, who was still patiently waiting for her. After she worked out the knots in her back, she stepped beside the drone and held out her left hand.

The drone turned slightly to look at her again before taking the proffered hand into one of her delicate claws and started walking towards the exit with Emily in tow.

Despite holding hands with Miss Zelda numerous times, Emily still always felt a thrill shoot through her whenever her hand clasped the drone’s. She was living the xeno-entomologist’s dream of being here within a Hive, and she always made sure she never allowed herself to forget that.

Miss Zelda made sure to keep the proper pace for Emily as they made their way down the short tunnel, the drone having learned and remembered to move at a certain speed from long experience.

As they reached the end of the tunnel, Emily heard baby Ito crying and resisted the impulse to let go of Miss Zelda’s claw and speed walk the rest of the way. Doing so would cause Miss Zelda distress, something she had learned when she and her family first came here six months ago.

Miss Zelda led her into their living quarters and let go of her hand as soon as they entered it, hurrying towards the playpen in the middle of the chamber. She picked up the stuffed Jaleeni toy, Ito’s favorite, from the floor and carefully presented it to him.

Ito’s face was red and wet from crying, and he screeched as soon as he saw Emily, taking his hands off the top of the playpen and holding his arms up to her. Miss Zelda continued to try to present the stuff toy to Ito, who ignored the bribery attempt and started screaming even louder for his mother to pick him up.

The drone flinched at the increased noise and moved closer, using her antennae to gently stroke Ito around the head and shoulders to calm him down. It helped a little bit, and Ito had stopped screaming by the time Emily finally reached him.

Emily couldn’t help but smile at the cuteness overload of watching the drone trying to soothe a human baby and smiled as she leaned down and picked him up. Ito stopped crying immediately, gripping her tightly around her neck as he buried his moist face into her shoulder.

She walked over to a nearby chair and sat down in it, the drone following closely behind her. As soon as she had reseated baby Ito in her arms, Miss Zelda scurried off and returned with a cloth, using it to gently dry Ito’s face off.

Emily let Miss Zelda do what she wanted, not wanting to distress the drone by preventing her from caring for the baby. Ito had quieted down by now, and she pulled up her shirt to let him feed. Miss Zelda took her claw away and watched Ito suckling on Emily's nipple.

Emily, no longer creeped out by Miss Zelda watching them breastfeed, looked into her eyes and smiled as she thought of the unusual circumstances of Miss Zelda becoming the nanny of baby Ito.

They arrived six months ago when Emily and Owen volunteered for the opportunity to live within the Hive.

The government asked for scientists to go to the Hive and study the psychology and physiology of the Insectoids, and after discussing it, they both put their names on the volunteer lists.

Considering their prior experiences, the liaison was surprised they were willing to go live in a Hive and seemed reluctant to even give their offer the due consideration it deserved.

They managed to convince her that those prior experiences were a benefit, not a detriment, and they were finally selected along with another two dozen scientists for the study mission.

They did have some residual apprehension when they arrived and were among the millions of drones, but that quickly went away as they threw themselves into their research and took advantage of the opportunity.

Aurora was a gracious host, and she did everything she could to make them feel welcome and safe.

Anything they wanted was provided, and Aurora made both worker and soldier drones available for study, as well as herself and her daughter. Aurora and the young queen were deeply fascinated by the baby, as well as any worker drones that came across Ito.

Two months after their arrival, Owen had been in another part of the Hive, and Emily was working in the lab chamber next to their living quarters. All the excitement and long hours of researching and experimenting finally caught up to her, and she had fallen asleep at her desk.

She had only meant to rest her eyes, but she fell into such a deep sleep she did not register Ito loudly crying for her as her exhausted mind tried to grab some much-needed REM sleep.

She woke back up to the annoying alarm of the hemolymph centrifuge machine indicating the cycle was done. She ran the short distance to the living section in a panic when she realized she could not hear Ito crying or babbling.

She burst into the chamber and froze at the sight of a worker drone standing less than half a meter away from Ito. The drone was touching Ito’s head and face with its antennae, and Ito was smiling and cooing as he held onto the top of the playpen.

He was clumsily trying to grab the slowly moving antennae with his tiny, pudgy hands, and the drone must have sensed her presence because it suddenly turned and looked right at her before skittering to the side of the chamber.

It bolted out of the chamber before she could react, surprising her with its speed. She ran to Ito and picked him up, inspecting him closely to ensure he was unharmed. He was fine, laughing happily at her as she looked him over.

A deep shame for falling asleep and ignoring the needs of her baby came over her, and she took to bringing the playpen with her to the lab to prevent such an occurrence again.

About two hours after she had returned to the lab, she was looking into a subatomic microscope when she heard sounds from an approaching group outside the lab. She turned to face the opening, annoyed at the interruption.

Two menacing combots came into the lab, scaring both her and Ito as they searched the room with pale green scanning waves before stepping to the sides of the opening.

Aurora then came in, followed by the young queen and a worker drone that trailed them. It was obvious the drone was terrified and did not want to be there. It was trembling, and all its legs were twitching spastically as it tried to make itself as small and unobtrusive as possible.

The queen raised her two claws in salutation to Emily and didn’t even bother to wait for her response to the gesture before making a beeline to the playpen, where Ito was still eyeing the combots with suspicion.

From a waist strap with a small, leather-type satchel, the queen withdrew several small items and held them for Ito to look at, holding it close to his eyes. Emily saw they were chess pieces, and she remembered Bandit telling her the queen was obsessed with the game when they first arrived.

Aurora addressed her with sign language, and Emily activated the translator device on her lab coat, unsure of what the hell was going on. After the holograms appeared, Aurora signed again to Emily.

Emily looked at Aurora in confusion, not understanding why she wanted her to punish it. As she looked at the terrified drone, she recognized it as the same one she had seen before from the unique marking in between her eyes.

It was an elongated yellow Z shape, and if it weren’t for that marking, Emily would have never been able to tell which drone was in her quarters from the quick glance she had of the drone before it fled from her.

All the worker drones looked the same until one learned how to tell the minute differences in the patterning of their exoskeletons. Looking back at Aurora, Emily thought quickly as she responded.

“Hive mother, I thank you for honoring me with your presence and your concern for my baby. No harm was done; I think the drone heard him crying and was curious. How did you know it was this drone?”

Aurora eyed her for a few moments before responding, and Emily wished Insectoids had facial expressions so she might pick up on emotional and visual cues in situations such as this.

Aurora stopped signing and waited for the translator to finish conveying her thoughts to Emily. When the words stopped, she began slowly signing again.

Now understanding what Aurora was truly asking of her, Emily made herself straighten up as she looked Aurora in the eyes with a steady gaze before responding.

“I do not wish for the drone to be punished, and I do not wish for it to be culled. Please, Hive-mother, spare the life of the drone and allow it to stay with me. I will be queen-mother to it if you accept my proposal.”

Aurora watched the holograms as they translated Emily’s words, and she could swear she saw a glimmer of relief or happiness in Aurora’s eyes as she realized Emily had understood what she was really asking.

Aurora was asking Emily to spare her from having to cull the drone, and she trusted Emily enough to make the right decision when offering for her to decide the appropriate punishment.

“Thank you, Hive mother. I will care for your drone like I care for my baby. I have all I need for now.”

Aurora then turned towards the cowering drone and stared at it for a few moments before making a barely perceptible movement with a claw. The combots activated and left the chamber, Aurora following them out.

The queen left the baby and stopped in front of Emily, giving her salutations with both claws again before leaving the chamber to catch up with the Hive mother.

Emily watched her leave before looking at the drone that was left behind. It was no longer trembling as badly as it was before, but it still had a nervous disposition now that it was alone with Emily and the baby.

Emily went to Ito and picked him up, looking at the drone and wondering how she was going to explain to Owen they now had a drone living with them. She noticed the drone was focusing intently on the baby, and she decided to try something.

She sat down on the floor and put Ito on his belly, and he immediately started crawling towards the drone. She let him do so, carefully watching the drone to see how it would react.

As Ito worked his way towards it, she looked at the bright yellow Z on the top of its head, and the name Zelda came to her immediately. It seemed perfect—an odd name for the new odd member of their small family.

“Zelda.” Emily called out to the drone softly, testing the name out. The drone was still staring intently at the baby struggling to reach it and did not acknowledge the noise Emily had directed at it.

Emily felt there was something missing—that the name itself wasn’t quite right.

Ito finally reached the drone, and he giggled as the drone pointed its antennae at him, tasting the air around the strange small creature in front of it as they moved around slowly.

A sudden inspiration seized her, and she blurted it out. “Miss Zelda! Do you like it, Miss Zelda?”

The drone paid her no mind as it brought its antennae closer to the baby, finally working up the courage to touch Ito with them.

The scientist aspect of Emily was fascinated by what she was witnessing as the drone gingerly ran its antennae over the baby’s head and face. It reached out a claw slowly and lightly touched the top of the baby’s head with it before withdrawing the claw in a blur of motion.

It took the claw that touched the baby and put it within its two mandibles. Emily saw the mouth cilia squirming around the claw as the drone tasted the scent of the baby.

The drone looked around the chamber and then gazed at Emily for a long time with an intense stare before it moved towards the playpen.

A couple of stuffed animals were on the floor, and it carefully picked them both up before going back to where it was before in front of Ito.

It put the two stuffed animals directly in front of baby Ito and watched him try to grab them. Seeing that he was not able to reach, the drone used a claw to push them both close enough for Ito to take into his tiny hands.

He giggled happily as he grabbed the stuffed Jaleeni and started chewing on its muzzle while babbling. The drone seemed utterly engrossed by what was happening as it continued to watch Ito.

Emily the mother felt her heart melting as she realized that Ito had just made the first friend of his short life, a worker drone named Miss Zelda.

Snapping out of her trip down memory lane, Emily shifted Ito slightly. He had grown considerably, and her arm protested holding the heavy baby within them. It was almost time to start weening him off the breast, and Emily felt a deep sadness at the thought.

Trying to push the sadness away, she focused on Miss Zelda, who was still staring at them both as she waited for Ito to finish feeding. Emily had been surprised at the intelligence and mimicry abilities of Miss Zelda, and her most recent scans had confirmed her suspicions.

The worker drones had a capacity for intelligence that far exceeded their current abilities, and she wanted to know why they had been intentionally dumbed down to the state they were in now.

The extra organ on the side of their brains that the queens accessed to increase their own processing power had been purposefully isolated from the drones. The question was why and how. What purpose could that have served?

This could only be achieved with genetic engineering or a well-planned breeding program that spanned many, many generations of drones.

Owen had come to the same conclusion as she did, and they found the revelation disconcerting, to say the least.

Emily had been trying to gather as much evidence as possible to prove her hypothesis before bringing the issue to Aurora. She did not think Aurora would lie or try to avoid the question, but she wanted to be absolutely sure she had all the facts before broaching the subject.

Miss Zelda turned suddenly and skittered over to the playpen before returning with another stuff doll that was almost as big as Ito. Emily thought she was going to try to get Ito to play with it, but her mind was blown by what happened next.

Miss Zelda placed herself in a half-sitting position, resting on her abdomen as she used her two thorax legs to cradle the toy. She placed the muzzle of the stuffed toy against one of the small vestigial silk glands on her thorax, and then she began to rock slightly as she stared at Emily.

She’s breastfeeding the toy, Emily thought in shock as she stopped the instinctual rocking movement she always did when feeding baby Ito.

This was beyond mere mimicry, and Emily the scientist watched what was happening in front of her with calculating eyes as the drone looked down at the stuffed toy, caressing the top of its head just like Emily did to Ito.

“What happened to you, Miss Zelda?” Emily said quietly as she resumed rocking Ito, feeling a deep sadness for Miss Zelda and all the other worker drones who had been stripped of their intelligence and capacity for emotion in the past.

Emily’s sadness turned to anger as Miss Zelda continued to rock and caress the stuffed animal as if it were her baby. She felt a bond of motherhood with the childless drone, as if Miss Zelda was a woman that wanted children but was unable to have them.

She felt her anger turning into resolve as Miss Zelda shifted the toy to the other gland, just like Emily did when giving the other nipple to Ito.

She had not done that yet, so Miss Zelda did it all on her own based on her observations of past events, a sure sign of intelligence. She activated her wristcom and set it to record. She wanted Owen’s thoughts on what was happening and would show him as soon as he got back.

If he came to the same conclusion, she would confront Aurora and demand to know why the worker drones had been denied their individuality and bred to be docile slaves to the queens.