Eat, molt, grow. It's food was brought to it by workers. It heard them and their constant output of designations keys and coordinates. It however, only knew one message "hunger, hunger, hunger" it called out constantly. Harvesters brought the food was still. The newly emerged nymph heard it's heartbeat and dove for the meal. Its mandibles bit in tasting and nipping at it. It was of adequate nutrition for this stage of it's development the young Drauver knew. Complex mouth parts gnashed flesh, lapped blood and ground through bone. Other's like itself tried to eat the cadaver, but this one stung at them with it's bristles and bit at them until they left for other bodies.

After a day it felt it's shell thickening and disks shifting and changing. It molted and nothing much changed. It consumed the casting. Sound receptors worked more efficiently. There were 20 other nymphs like itself, but they had made themselves weaker and smaller by sharing. Body scrunching and releasing pulling forward towards the nearest cluster of mindless feeding hatchlings. Unconcerned with the siblings in the way the larger nymph bit in wounding several others and ingesting one smaller one that had only just emerged from a host. Another twitching body had just been set upon, and again the larger nymph attacked the food and inadvertently cannibalized more of its brood-mates.

Another day of molting, and layer after layer it shed. This time when the molting ended and it emerged small black compound eyes could see. Legs had not yet fully emerged, just stumps. Now it began to have a knowledge of the world around it beyond food, it had a designation and it's location. It was Iklinini this was how it thought of itself. Now somewhat aware it saw the others now for the first time. They were small, half it's size not even having molted yet.

More food was needed. A larger Dauver entered carrying 13 bodies of food between it's massive mandibles. Each body was roughly the same size as Iklinini by length, but much skinnier. The drone dropped a body and scuttled forward stopped and dropped another. Iklinini moved faster towards the drone, lurching it's upper body and head up grabbing onto one of the foods. The food was held fast, but the immature Drauver was determined and hung and dangled from the body. It used it's 2 front nubs to latch on and began to eat while the body was still fresh and held high above the others.

Iklilini ate and felt the body loosen from the mandibles after a fourth had been consumed. It inched it's way to the top of the mandibles of the drone and began eating at all of the heads of the food. Crunchy fatty nutrients. This was definitely the most desirable parts. The humming from the drone changed as unfeeling eyes reported the abnormal behavior of the young Drauver.

"Designation harvester. Nymph maturation matches cross contaminated. Advise.", it stated after screeching its identity song and position. An ultrasonic whine returned. Iklilini did not understand this yet, but the harvester turned still holding onto the foods. It did not care that the drone gave erroneous data. The food was secure for it's consumption while it carried the gluttonous youngling.

* * *

Small bits fell through the halls but a majority was consumed. The new chamber was larger had other's the same size as Iklinini, but they were all stationary and there were no bodies of food in here. The nymph decided to imitate those around it and entered a trance as it digested it's previous meal.

After growing through several moltings the nutrient had been depleted with its increase in size. No more food bodies have been brought. Iklinini needed more. Still it waited placid still. They were alive it could tell, spiracles expanding and contracting with their breathing.

It heard the heart beats first. The others stayed still. Iklinini didn't understand but held as the food bodies walked in. They had sagging skin and bones protruding. They sat in a ring eyes downcast. Once the last had started to sit the impatient bug leapt worming it's way forward using the short legs to improve its motility. The others remained. This did not bother the greedy thing.

Iklinini trilled in excitement as it attacked. Too much time had passed since it ate. The bodies saw the worming bug coming and it heard the hearts throbbing, bursting with sustaining liquids. One tried to run, but tripped over another food that was less fresh. Iklinini attacked and fed. The feeble swats and noises the others made were largely ignored. The stinging quills kept it's most sensitive spots safe. This was more vigorous food and exited the bug.

A shrill trill came. Mother issued that they could feed now. Confusion. Iklinini was already eating and so ignored it. The happily feeding nymph had eaten two of the foods before noticing the wall of nymphs drawing closer. Were they waiting for that sound? Iklinini continued. By the time the call to stop eating came Iklinini was sated. Still that last noise was simple, and the others stopped eating. More foods?

* * *

It took a 2 more molting cycles and much experimentation before Iklinini was able to imitate the message. The expenditure was worth the benefits. After learning these 2 phrases Iklinini listened more and heard the constant stream of orders. Rather than starving the other nymphs Iklinini ordered the drones to bring more food. Iklinini molted again and she emerged.

The mimicry was a useful tool and had helped it grow, but there were new signals indicating Iklinini's subversion had been discovered. The encryption for the signals had changed. Iklinini left. In the night she listened and heard the now foreign hum. She traveled to the its destination looking for another hive. She found the peak of the dome and began chewing through it. It took some days before she was able to enter and begin again. It was quick enough to find one of the chambers where all the external orders issued and listened and her mind indexed each sound. It helped that the messages around the hive were fairly consistent. She just needed one.

Her size had increased and fitting through the entrance to the listener's chamber had become more difficult. Still Iklinini squeezed her way through silently. She listened and mimicked the listener. The male relayed data and the local key's pattern did not change enough for true security. There. She issued an order to the listener to stop its function and to hibernate. At the same time she began relaying the same data that the listener had been. She then began relaying a queen key change to propagate through the hive. To prevent discovery she ensured all of the old keys and orders continued to be exchanged as before. Still this small hive would follow her now.

It was time for her final molt and she molted for the final time. The warm dry met her long dripping wings. Iklinini spread them and allowed them to slowly beat and dried as the new queen settled into the first of her hives.