Page 108 of Stripped By the Alien

The Inquisitor notices immediately. "Chief Harrower," he says, "you have spent your entire life preparing for this sort of discovery. The Queen entrusted this mission to you because she believed you capable of placing the Brood above yourself, the way we all must."

I see what he's doing now. Instead of attacking me directly, he's reminding Krix'vorr who he's supposed to be. Which is probably more effective.

For several seconds nobody speaks. Then Krix'vorr slowly turns toward the display again. The planets shine above us: rich, vast, important, everything a Chief Harrower could ever dream of.

And somewhere inside that system Sophia isn't waiting for a rescue. She must feel completely hopeless. I suddenly understand that neither of us is going to win this argument today. The knowledge leaves me exhausted.

"I need some air." The statement doesn't make much sense aboard a living spaceship, but nobody comments on it.

I turn and walk out. Nobody stops me.

I don't go back to the cabin immediately. Instead I wander through the Beast's corridors while anger and fear compete for space inside my head. The living walls pulse around me, carrying messages through the ship's body, and every reminder of where we are only makes it harder to think.

Eventually I hear footsteps behind me. Familiar footsteps.

I don't stop or even slow down, but Krix'vorr catches up anyway. For a while he walks beside me without speaking. The silence lasts long enough that I begin wondering whether he'll say anything at all.

"I haven't abandoned Sophia," Krix’vorr finally rumbles.

I keep walking. "It sounds as if you have."

“It may still be possible to rescue her when we Harvest this solar system.”

“She won’t be here then,” I snap. “She’ll be delivered to her new owner.”

He reaches out and gently touches my shoulder. The contact that normally feels comforting suddenly feels complicated. "I don't know how to choose between those duties."

The honesty takes some of the anger out of me. Just enough. I look up at him. For the first time since finding Sophia's location, he looks tired. Emotionally tired. Like the weight of the decision is already pressing down on him.

"I don't know either," I admit.

The corridor falls silent again. Something has changed. A crack exists now where there wasn't one before. And neither of us knows how to close it.

31

- Krix’vorr -

I go back to the command chamber and spend a long time there, just studying the Gzet hub. I could admire it for days, just circling above it and seeing all that’s soon going to be ours. All this will belong to the Swarm, and we will Harvest it.

It will be the greatest Harvest of any Brood, ever. We will all be legendary, worshipped for as long as we live, richer and greater than any Brood has ever been. With resources like this, our Swarm can grow so big that we can start to Harvest other Broods, as well. And soon there will only be one Brood left: mine.

“The immensity of this is hard to grasp,” Sris says, sitting on my shoulder. “Nobody has ever served his Queen better, Chief Harrower. The Gzet planets are the fattest prey the Swarm has had.”

“The Harvest should start right away,” I state, strangely uneasy despite the great success. “Perhaps Nora’s friend won’t sell at this first auction and she can still be rescued when we come here again, with the Swarm.”

“Perhaps,” Sris says. “And perhaps she will tell you the location of the Earth, so that you can present that, too, to the Queen. The next Queen, I mean. For a later Harvest. But of course you don’t strictly need this new female when you already have one in your ship. Indeed, in your cabin.”

“I will suggest the Queen not permit travel past the minefield,” I state. “We won’t need Nora’s homeworld now.”

“Not for this Harvest, no,” Sris agrees. “But what about the next one? Well, I won’t go on about it. Perhaps you will leave the discovery of Nora’s homeworld to some other Harrower. You certainly don’t need it.”

I straighten up. “That’s right, I don’t. And perhaps the Brood also doesn’t need it. I’ll be in my cabin.”

I walk out of the command chamber. All the talk about Earth makes me want to speak with Nora again. I’m sure she’ll understand when I explain it properly. She’s a pilot and knows not to take silly chances. And attacking the Gzet now would be a brainless risk. Rescuing a captive from the Gzet’s own hub would obviously take a whole fleet and many of my kind.

She’s remarkably bright. She will understand.

The membrane opens, but there’s no Nora in my cabin.