Chalen's Return

Word Count: 1667




Chalen beat her leathery wings slowly, hovering a few hundred feet above the nectar ranch. The central hive stood  as she remembered; a large dome structure dominating the amber colored fields stretching out to the horizons beyond.

Nothing ever changes, she thought.

Chalen shifted her balance and beat one wing slower to push herself into a dive. The warm atmosphere of the planet rushed past her smooth featureless face and she tucked her tentacles close to her body to gain speed as the ground rushed closer.

At the last possible moment she pulled from the dive and beat her wings strongly to land feet first in the warm soil before the entrance to the hive.

“Greetings sisters,” she said sarcastically. “It’s so nice to see you.”

Around the entrance  20 junior queens regarded her coldly. Each an identical copy of Chalen but for the scars she carried at the base of her scent emitters. Each perhaps 5 feet tall with a  black stalk for a body carrying 6 multipurpose tentacles covered cape-like by  two draping leathery wings.

The creatures stood in a semicircle before the closed door of the hive.

“So Chalen,” said one of her sisters. “How is it going with your  hive?  Your drones making good decisions?”

Chalen closed the shields on her ears and tried to block out the shrill piping that raced around the semicircle.

“You know what happened. But thanks for asking. It makes me feel so welcome amongst all my dear sisters.”

The first speaker was about to reply when the door to the hive opened and the queen-mother emerged followed by two  drones.

The  junior queens prostrated themselves in the amber dirt. A complex pattern of high and low pitched piping ran about the group.

“Greetings my daughters”, said the queen-mother. “I’m sure you must all be wondering why I have gathered you here in this unprecedented reunion.”

“The simple truth is, my time is close and soon I will fly off into the hills of the unwanted lands. But before I do, I wish to talk with each of you and advise you as best I can so that your own hives can grow as large and successful as this one has been throughout the many seasons.”

“Majesty,” said Chalen. “I don’t belong here. I have no hive nor place here amongst you all. I ask your leave to go and return to the forsaken lands.”

“No Chalen, you may not go. It is to you most of all that I would speak. The queen-mother opened her scent emitters and an orange misty haze spread over the assembled queens.”

Chalen felt her will soften as the queen-mother’s scent wafted pleasantly through the air.

###

The emerald light of the noonday sun  swept through the crystal dome at the top of the hive; bending, refracting, and splitting into the colors of the spectrum.

Chalen and the queen stood alone in the throne room, save for the drones guarding the clusters of eggs laid on the geometrically tiled floor.

“You know why you’re here, don’t you Chalen?”

“No, majesty.”

“You’re the only daughter I have without a hive Chalen.”

Chalen remained silent for a moment.

“Mother, don’t split the hive again. I won’t let any drones follow me ever again. The last time was...”

“I don’t intend to split the hive Chalen.”

Chalen’s head spun as the queen-mothers meaning overwhelmed her, threatening to destroy her sanity, her reason. “No, you can’t be serious.”

“All my other daughters have successfully established hives of their own. You are the only one available to command this hive.”

The lip-less slit that served as Chalen’s mouth opened soundlessly, revealing a double row of jagged gray teeth.

“Mother, I won’t.” Chalen’s fore tentacles touched the scars at the base of her neck. I destroyed that drone and every other that has served me since.”

It had been the morning of her thirteenth birthday. The day on which she was to open her second set of emmiters and become a full fledged queen. But before the ceremony she had wanted to be alone. Away from the drone that had always accompanied her.

“Go away,” she said.

The drone stood still, regarding her impassively. Standing there, leering at her with the blank look it always carried.

“I said, go away. Be gone.” She opened the slits at the base of her neck and the orange haze of the persuasion pheromone floated out and filled the room.

“Be gone,” she said. More forcefully this time.

The drone remained motionless.

“I said be gone.” Chalen open the second set of slits and felt pain as the protective membrane that had covered them ripped and a purple trickle of blood ran down her stick like torso.

The room filled with a purple haze, the visual counterpoint to the pheromone of command. The chemical hit the drone and its impassive face came alive. It’s body began to shake.

The drone extended it’s defensive tentacles. Two large claws erupted from their ends. Chalen watched in horror as the  drone turned the claws upon its own slender frame and stabbed again and again and again.

“No.” Said Chalen. She released more of the purple haze into the room in great billowing clouds.

The drone stopped, then collapsed, a stream of purple blood flowing from its body onto the floor beneath it.

“No. No. No, Chalen screamed. Her own defensive claws emerged from her tentacles and she felt pain as she began to tear uncontrollably at her scent sacks.

The Queen’s voice interrupted her memories, startling her back into the throne room.

That’s not what really happened Chalen.

“What you mean mother. Of course that’s what happened.”

“The fault was mine Chalen. I never should have let that particular drone serve you. It was always, troubled shall we say.”

“I ordered that drone to watch you, guard you, never leave your side. When you ordered it to leave it couldn’t deal with the conflicting orders. So it left the only way it knew how.”

“The drone was defective from the start Chalen. I should have destroyed it, but you seemed so fond of it, I couldn’t. The queen-mother reached out and touched Chalen’s twin scars. If I had foreseen the results, I would have destroyed 1000 drones to spare you that pain.”


###

The twin moons of Praxis reflected the stars green light on to the amber bushes of the field. Chalen stood alone, breathing in the coppery scent of the nectar buds waiting to be harvested and feed the hive throughout the season of darkness. I should have never returned she thought.

Feet crunched on gravel. Chalen turned and smelled the unmistakable perfume of her mother and saw her approaching through the labyrinth of  bushes, followed by her drones.

“Chalen. I’m sorry, but you need to realize that it’s for the best this way. This is the way it’s always been.” The smooth featureless face of the queen-mother bobbed in a circular motion on her elongated neck.

“Why? Why does it have to be this way? Why can’t you inject the royal jelly into another egg to make another princess and simply let me go. Surely you must see that I will never be fit to be a queen.”

“I’m too old to make another princess. I’ve drunk too deep of the royal nectar and can no longer make the royal jelly.”

Chalen looked to the guards behind her mother. “What about you?” Chalen looked to the other guard. “Or you?  You both had your turn guarding and nurturing me. Don’t tell me that either of you think I will ever make a good queen.”

Silence reigned and the drones remained motionless.

“You have an opinion. Say something. Say anything. I’ve seen what drones can do when they stop blindly following an odor.”

The two guards behind the queen-mother looked at each other, the multifaceted eyes on their faces glowing brightly. Chalen stepped into the chest of one and began to pound with her left tentacle.

“You guarded me for four years. And then you just tossed me aside when your turn was done. Meanwhile your precious queen sits back on her throne in the hive delirious with nectar and laying eggs. Who was supposed to teach me how to be a queen? You?”

“Chelan. Stop beating on my drones. I won’t allow it.” The queen-mother opened two small slits at the base of her neck and released a golden haze into the air Chalen had never smelled  before.

Chalen stopped beating on the drone and dropped her tentacle to her side. A large purple welt showed on the tube-like body of the larger drone.

Chalen tried to move her arms to strike the drone again, but each time she tried her will seemed to melt away. “Mother what’s happening?”

“You forced me to release the imperial perfume. You will never be able to strike that drone again. The effect is permanent.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You will dear. When you are old and able to produce the imperial perfume yourself.”

The queen-mother rose to her full height and the slits of her scent emitters  grew to round circles.

Chalen’s heart beat faster and an uncontrollable shudder wracked through her stick like frame.”Mother, please, no.”

“I’m sorry dear but your wishes just don’t enter into this. You will be queen of this hive. Your place is to command and command you shall. There is to be no more discussion.”

Her mother’s perfume came in great billows from the scent glands, and a larger quantity than Chalen had thought any queen could produce. She felt her will slip away and heard herself say: “Yes mother. I will be queen. There is to be no more discussion.”