Selene started to wake up again soon after they had merged.

  Scantid senses were sharper than human ones, but the telepathic connection all Zykra shared was on a whole 'nother level. Instantly the entire colony stirred, sensing her presence.

  The tiniest scantid awakened within Aboleths command chamber; she was lying in some darkened corner.

  It was a wide-open place with many platforms elevated at different levels. Connected by different bridges and stairs made of organic material like muscle or chitin.

  Aboleth tilted her head at the tiny scantid.

  "My... Queen?" She asked.

  Selene only stared at her.

  Now that the change was more permanent, the essence of who 'Selene' was, was inside this scantid. And so was the seat of her power. The whole of her telepathic abilities existed within the miniature scantid.

  Aboleth was in shambles. Her psionic signature was cold and calculated. It was almost entirely Zykra-based. Only a flickering candle of humanity burned within her. Selene felt immense sadness over this but reminded herself that she could change her back.

  That's what she should focus on now.

  Changing the swarm back.

  Of all the things she sensed, though, she didn't sense Dr. Bryant aboard.

  Selene broadcasted her thoughts into Aboleth's mind.

  "Where is Dr. Bryant?"

  "Dr. Bryant left the swarm yesterday, Your Majesty. He seemed upset when I ordered him to cease our smuggling operations."

  Why would he leave? Did he have to deal with it personally then? Maybe he'd come back soon; she had to get to work.

  "Bring me Evo."

  She could have summoned him herself, but she wanted to test Aboleth's loyalty.

  Selene also wasn't used to communicating this way. Her telepathic abilities have grown enough to make it possible, but it wasn't the same as speaking. She understood now why it wasn't fun to talk to encephalons—she could damage her own Zykra's minds if she weren't careful.

  Aboleth nodded. "Very well, I'll summon him for you."

  Her general called the Mothman to the chamber. While they waited, Selene offered to play tic-tac-toe by scratching a grid with an 'O' inside it. But Aboleth humored her by randomly scratching X's.

  He arrived soon after.

  "Yes?" The evolutionist asked, looking up at Aboleth. His low voice echoed in the large chamber.

  "The queen requested your presence." She gestured to the scantid.

  He looked from the scantid to Aboleth.

  "...Aberrant scantid. General confused."

  Selene closed her multiple sets of eyes and focused.

  It was easier to 'occupy' her swarm than communicate with them telepathically. The tiny mothman's Zykra essence reacted to the process instinctively, automatically entering a state very similar to sleep as she took direct control of him.

  "...Evolutionist?" Aboleth asked, noticing his posture just changed.

  He looked to her, then walked over and hugged her serpentine lower half. Aboleth was going to push him away when she sensed the subtle change in his psionic signature.

  "Sorry for everything. You worked so hard."

  This voice was very deep.

  The way the insectoid mouth moved was also a bit different, but it wasn't difficult to adapt to. Navigating the minute differences between Zykra variants was second nature to her, but that's typically been the case.

  "I exist to serve, your majesty. May I ask, why is your essence inside of that scantid?"

  Selene looked up at Aboleth with the mothman's bulbous eyes.

  "The resistance threw my body into a star, and the guy who made the Zykra tried to bribe me. I said no, and then Pipsqueak sacrificed himself for me. Now I need to make a new body."

  Aboleth just stared in confusion. Likely connecting the dots of everything Selene just said.

  An infested human walked into the chamber. Half of her head was shaved, and she had dark green eyes.

  "General, we were wondering if—"

  "-Hello. What's your name?" the evolutionist asked.

  Jade looked at the moth. Then back to Aboleth.

  "-If..." Jade continued, ignoring the tiny moth. "We could requisition some things from the doctor."

  Aboleth looked to her and shook her head. "He's currently unavailable."

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "I'm sorry I turned you into a Zykra against your will."

  Jade flinched. When did the moth get so close to her? The tiny mothman was standing next to her now, looking up at her in some form of admiration or affection.

  She didn't think the evolutionist had such a hand in her transition; he just curated the process. The queen was the one who really infested them. In either case, why would he apologize? That wasn't a very Zykra thing to do.

  She shrugged.

  "That's alright. It grew on me." She gestured to her exoskeleton.

  The evolutionist's antenna flicked to the side in surprise, then he pointed to her. "Ha… A joke, because you know... It grows on you, like literally." He rubbed his hands together nervously. "Get it, Aboleth?"

  "I do, your majesty."

  Jade's eyes widened in surprise.

  "Your Majesty?" She said incredulously, turning to fully face the moth.

  "I had my essence transferred." Selene said.

  "I-I don't understand."

  "...My body was thrown into a star?"

  ...

  Jade looked to Aboleth for explanation, who sighed.

  "It seems that our more sapient Zykra aren't fully aware of your return, your majesty. Perhaps you should announce yourself?"

  Just then a gust of air pushed out from Pipsqueak's body. The psionic signal rerouted through the psyphera on the ceiling and broadcast across her entire swarm.

  Yeah, I'm back.

  It was her voice. They knew intrinsically. Layered in different octaves, but clearer than before.

  There was a loud roar across the caasiok, a chorus of different chitters and guttural growls. She felt many tens of thousands of Zykra minds reaching out for her. Mostly scanties.

  But about 1,000 or so infested were thrown into a panic about this.

  "How!?" Jade asked. Not understanding the source of the relief and joy she felt. The infested hadn't been around long, and for most of that time Selene had been captured.

  Selene answered through the evolutionist.

  "I don't have time to explain it a thousand times."

  The moth moved towards a chitinous table on the platform and climbed on top of it clumsily. Then she turned and addressed the Zykra, which were now flooding into the room.

  "You all can probably sense that things are different now."

  Aboleth nodded. "I do. Your connection to the swarm is stronger now, though your current body seems unable to utilize your full capabilities."

  "Yeah..." The moth stammered. "It'd be nice to have my body back. I think I have a plan for that, but in the meantime, I'll probably borrow an infested one."

  Jade stepped forward at that.

  "My name is Jade Ortega, your majesty, and I'd be glad to help."

  "Well, since you gave your consent, it'll only be for a little while..." the moth's low voice responded.

  Selene reached out to the familiar human mind near her, fused with Zykra essence similar to hers. But just like Aboleth, Jade's humanity was almost completely snuffed out; it was as if her soul was hollowed out and replaced with Zykra stuff.

  She would have to change the infested humans to be more like their original selves. It was the least she could do. Thanks to Pipsqueak's mutation, it shouldn't be that difficult. The aberrant essence was already causing the Zykra to be less domineering, causing each to act more like creatures and not mindless machines.

  In any case, Selene took control of Jade's body.

  "-The others. Where are they?"

  Aboleth's expression shifted to concern again.

  "I assume you mean your human allies. Raymond and Danny have been infested and sent to infiltrate the resistance as recruits."

  That sounded familiar; maybe Aboleth mentioned that sometime when she first began using Pipsqueak as a long-distance radio.

  "...And Zephyr?"

  "She's likely—"

  "Dead. Damn it. I remember now. It's coming in flashes... Memories of what the other me did. That bitch."

  Her excitement to fix things was fighting against her regret of what she's done.

  This was working; that's all that mattered. Selene was herself and in control again; she could figure the rest out as she went. First things first.

  "Start changing the infested to be more like how they were before infestation. That includes you, Aboleth."

  She leaned against the chitin table as Jade and the evolutionist fluttered across the chamber. Likely ordered by Aboleth to begin the conversion process.

  "Are you alright, Selene?" Aboleth asked, in a manner that sounded like forced sympathy.

  "I'm just sad about the state of things. Where are we? In the outer rim?"

  Aboleth shook her head.

  "We're beyond it. Any time I try to establish a world within it, the Protectorates' IBT division prevents me. They've grown quite formidable in your absence."

  Selene sighed.

  "So we're far away from other people. And we need to get my friends back from the resistance. But let me guess, they have no way of contacting us? They're too far for our psyphera network to connect?"

  "Yes, we planned for them to establish contact with us once they've acquired sufficient influence within the resistance."

  Selene clapped Jade's hands together.

  "Okayokayokay—we can work with this. I need to let my family know I'm okay, so send an infested with the proper camouflage to Endelon 2, and—"

  "Your family is no longer on Endelon 2. Our hive there was also purged. It has since been abandoned by the resistance, and the colony is no longer being built."

  Damn. She really liked that place. But she could re-establish it pretty easily.

  Aboleth spoke quickly again.

  "Forgive me, Selene, but in your current state you are weakened and vulnerable. If the scantid's body is destroyed, who is to say what will happen to you? Our priority should be altering it to be better suited for you. At least until we find a way to restore your original appearance."

  Selene didn't like hearing that, but it was clearly their largest obstacle. It's just that after weeks—months—of being constrained within her own dreamscape, unable to affect anything, she wanted to focus on something other than herself or her state of being.

  But Aboleth was right. This was extremely risky. Pipsqueak's body was adorable but fragile as hell. And it's currently the seat of all her power. If she used more than a fraction of her strength, it would pop like a grape.

  And she couldn't keep using Jade like this either.

  "I'm assuming since the Zykra went out of their way to assimilate me, we can't just grow me a new body, right?"

  The evolutionist answered this eagerly. Like a person who is overly passionate about a hobby and they finally got the opportunity to talk about it.

  "Assumption correct. Telepathy source irreplicable. For full potency, progenitor genome required. Power inherited. Not replicated."

  That's why the Zykra couldn't just make an army of telepaths after assimilating just one. Something about telepathy came from something that the Zykra actually couldn't replicate.

  She had a feeling that was the case, but never had to articulate it until now.

  Selene pushed off from the table and walked across a narrow bridge towards a hallway. The spine archway above her was pulsating with different colored lights.

  "So I'm one in a trillion. Guess we'll have to find another way. Let's get to the nursery for now, get this over with... We'll give me an upgrade, and you'll be first in line for the conversion process. I need my advisor back."

  "Of course, your majesty," she said. "I only worry that I will be less effective in my service to you while weighed down by my human weaknesses. In fact, the previous version of myself came very close to betraying you due to her familial connections."

  "I don't blame you; I considered betraying people often for the sake of my family. I owe all of the infested humans a lot. We'll work out a plan to make my swarm a bit better suited for humans, and hopefully that'll keep them from betraying me right away."

  They entered the nursery, and the evolutionist met them. Selene made sure to be very specific about the changes he was going to make to the swarm going forward and what to prioritize. Efficiency wasn't their only goal any longer.

  If the swarm were more human, they would lose more battles, and then they would lose more battles.

  Some burdens were just worth carrying like that.

  Behind the Chapter...

  <<<>>> SHOUTOUT SECTION <<<>>>