Laapis

Researching the Queen Mother has turned out quite tricky. But it’s nothing Laapis cannot handle. As one of the tow High Stewards of the Leviathan, she has access to all knowledge gathered by Menkarkind. But as valuable as this knowledge is, she has to keep in mind that it might cause her downfall if she should disappoint. The First Steward is, after all, known for his eagerness to protect the Empress. One mistake, no matter how minor, is enough to get him to investigate. The only lucky thing is the fact his workload even exceeds Laapis‘ so he needs a while to get to everything.

Content and eager to prove her worth as Second Steward, she begins to sift through the material provided to her. Yet, before she can settle into her usual workflow a wrench in the form of a chat-client is thrown into it. Knowing that ignoring it won't make it disappear, she opens the application and is greeted by Maurus‘ handle.

captivatingContour CC to tirelessToiler TT

CC: hey there, Shark!

TT: This better is important. Also, do not call me Shark. How often do you need me to remind you?

CC: would I ever bother you for something unimportant?

TT: Yes. You annoy me quite regular. Yesterday, if I remember correctly, at least thirty times. Thirty times over insignificant things, mind you.

CC: yet, you found them funny

TT: I have to admit, I chuckled.

CC: for real?

TT: No. You have to stop these shenanigans and get to the point. What is so important, that you have to bother me now? I hope for your sake it is something pertaining to my open cases and not something like this stupid video you sent me yesterday.

CC: it’s important

CC: I’ve recovered the data of one of the fragmented logs of the Starblazer

CC: it seems they had a murderer on board who has a thing for painting with blood

TT: One of the crew?

CC: I highly doubt it…

CC: see for yourself

captavatingContour CC is sending file „Starblazer-Log2102.res“

CC: message me back once you’ve read it

CC: you know the password already

TT: Don't test my patience.

captivatingContour CC ceased communication with tirelessToiler TT

Since the file is rather large and needs some time to download, Laapis decides to go back to her initial task: The research considering the Queen Mother. Most of these documents are about the suspected biology and rumoured nature of Queen Mothers along a Frell Belden‘s The Biology and Sociology of our Species and the second of the two last remaining copies of Scrollweaver‘s Historia Menkar, a heavy book detailing nearly the whole history of their species.

While she skims through them, using a fast reading technique taught to all Menkar in higher positions, she feels a little weird considering those books aren’t meant to be read by anyone. Marconite Avarion has restricted this knowledge to avoid uproars among the every increasing Menkar population. After all the Empire needs to remain stable, considering the conquest of the whole universe is still in full swing.

Despite Laapis is only allowed to look for clues about the Queen Mother, she can’t help herself but read also other parts of the books. The most interesting to her being part where that Menkar are no natural occurring species. As Scrollweaver states, Menkar were first created in laboratories by other beings, who came to Cetus from a different planet. Little is know about those beings and the only remaining artefacts are located within the underground laboratories left by them, which aren’t accessible anymore.

Despite the questions arising from this fact, Laapis sees it as nothing more than a point of trivia. Still the knowledge itself makes her feel somewhat strange. A strangeness only kept in check with the dignity of a High Steward, who wants to keep her life. Keeping her life will be also easier by starting to read the parts she actually needs.

„Well, if this isn't going to be a dry read…“, she muses aloud.

The first read is an excerpt from the fittingly titled essay Queen Mother — A Sociobiological Assessment by Frell Belden, who which had been once included in The Biology and Sociology of our Species but has be redacted by the First Steward.

—

[…]

Interesting to note is the time from the hatching to the Circles of Morphlinghood. During this time a Queen Mother won't be different from any other Menkar, being it a young Empress, a Drone or just a Terrestrial. The only ways to spot one are to see her bleeding or to get a look into her eyes, which, as far as history is concerned, have always been black. Yet this also showcases a rather curious connection to the Ferals, an underdeveloped subspecies of our kind. Like a Queen Mother their blood is black, which opens plenty of new, fascinating and no doubt essential questions. Yet those questions still need answers as of writing this biological assessment on the Queen Mother and will not be further detailed.

As ordered by the Empress to spot a Queen Mother Aquatic Drones are expected to inflict a single small nonlethal cut on every hatchling approximately two to three days after hatching to check for the blood-colour. This has proven time and time again to be the safest way to find the Queen Mother before she reaches Morphlinghood. To make matters even easier a particular date has been designated for those checks to make sure our Empress will reign supreme.

But beyond this knowledge, all that will be further written down here cannot be seen as verified fact but should be regarded as assumption based on Frell Belden‘s work. Only the tests conducted with the Queen Mother's pheromones should be considered verified.

[…]

Luckily, there is one written account of a Queen Mother reaching the end of her Morphlinghood within the central-unit-database.

As much as it was a blunder on the part of those responsible, it is an opportunity to find a few answers to these age-old questions, as the Queen Mother in questions was about fifteen Solar Circles of age when she was killed. Tests on her corpse have shown pheromonal glands not unlike those of a common female aquatic Drone. Those glands, upon further inspection, proved to create a unique cocktail of different chemical compounds endorsing calmness and protectiveness in Aquatic and Terrestrial Drones alike. The same effects have also been observed in Terrestrials, whereas they lack the heightened sense of protectiveness towards the Queen Mother or the object/person emitting her pheromones.

Further, tests with those compounds have show that the pheromone works better if dissolved in water or sprayed as an aerosol.

Physical symptoms of the Queen Mother's pheromones are as follows:

— small amounts: happiness, lower blood pressure, a slowed heartbeat, heightened fertility in male aquatic Drones

— medium amounts: cheerfulness, dilated pupils, slightly slurred speech, a sense of connectivity and belonging, over all lowered aggressiveness unless the object/person emitting the pheromones seems to be in danger, temporary infertility in male Aquatic Drones (10 to 20 weeks), minor seizures in about 1 of 100 individuals

— large amounts: states of prolonged euphoria, hallucinations, sudden spikes in blood pressure, heart palpitations, convulsions, nosebleeds, permanent infertility in male Aquatic Drones, major seizures on about 1 of 10 individuals, temporary and permanent brain damage in those afflicted with seizures

[…]

—

„Very Interesting…“, Laapis muses and puts the essay away. „Although it's not a surprise that her pheromones seem to be the key to her success…”

The Queen Mother‘s ability to make Drones act docile towards her and aggressive towards those that mean her harm and considering that the numbers of the Cult of the Pale God have vastly increased over the last few Circles, clearly show that there ought to be a Queen Mother with them. This also means that her protectors ought to be Drones and that they merely shelter her due to her pheromones. If there could be a way to counter the pheromones, it might turn all followers of this cult against her, eliminating her and the Cult itself in the process.

A diabolical grin plasters itself across Laapis’ face as a plan forms in her head. A method, which might turn the problem of this and future Queen Mothers into a liability. Immediately Laapis sends out a request to the Science Unit of the Leviathan, explaining in short therms her plan and requesting them to mix a pheromone to counter the Queen Mother.

For a few moments, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. A moment later she reaches for the bottle of water she always has beside her desk. She opens it, takes a sip and splashes some water into the Gill-Protector. It is always nice to ease the dry feeling of her gills.

Next, her gaze falls upon the blinking application of the chat client. The download has completed five minutes ago. With a sigh, Laapis closes the chat client window and opens the new file on her desktop. The password prompts makes her hiss through clenched teeth before she enters her nickname. Without another prompt the file unpack.

The first thing she notices is the number of images underneath two documents. Although her curiosity is awakened, she keeps herself from looking at the images first. It isn’t a good idea to look at them without context.

First, she opens the medical report. As she reads through it, she opens the images that are named in the text while she continues. Although she has seen plenty of post-mortem and medical reports in her twenty-five Solar Circles she has to admit that the way this unfortunate Menkar has been killed is beyond her comprehension.

She is a fan of decapitation — easy, clean and certainly fast. But this Menkar has been cleaved open like a nailwalker in a slaughterhouse. Yet it is certainly likely he was still alive a couple of moments afterward since the heart had remained undamaged. Frowning and pulling her glasses up she closes the medical report and the images linked to it.

Last but not least she opens the report of the crime scene. She just overflies the initial report and skips straight to the images. Out of a particular fancy, she opens all five high-resolution images at the same time. For a moment the computer freeze, then as it unfreezes, it is her turn to freeze.

Maurus

He has waited at last an hour impatiently for Laapis response. The moment the chat client pops up again, he jumps right into the conversation.

tirelessToiler TT to captivatingContour CC

TT: Have you shown this to anyone else?

CC: Divine-Lettering and the names, right?

CC: I had the same reaction

CC: for a moment I even thought my heart stopped

CC: and no, I’ve not shared this death sentence with anyone since on the Leviathan are more than enough people able to read Divine-Lettering

CC: I’m not that stupid

TT: Sometimes you give me plenty of reasons to believe otherwise. How is this possible?

CC: don't know

TT: Fucking shit. Have you checked the other names?

CC: it seems I’m a little ahead of you

TT: Just tell me what you have found and quit fooling around.

CC: since there have been so many names used I tried to make sense by looking at the context as well as who those names belong to

captavatingContour CC is sending file „NameList.doc“

tirelessToiler TT is idle

As he waits for Laapis response, he takes another look at the list. He cannot help but notice how his gut start to hurt, which is never a good sign. After a little less than three minutes, she is back.

TT: Interesting. Some of them seem familiar, not regarding our own. Have you already researched if some of those names belonged to Menkar enlisted on the Starblazer?

CC: and again I’m a little ahead of you

TT: Stop this foolery and tell me already.

CC: sorry but the whole thing makes me queasy

CC: having death breath down your neck does this to you, I guess

CC: but back to business

CC: according to my findings Nethra Sunaru, Respin Gloomer, Serfin Vadias and Topasa Aricci were stationed on the Starblazer and as much as it seems like a coincidence they are our deserters

TT: It hardly seems like a coincidence to me. Perhaps they are even involved in the murder.

CC: it's certainly plausible but this isn’t everything

CC: some of the other names on the list should ring a bell or two

CC: they're Tuonis Junpid, Yagari Velten, Tarrat Sarpam and Urania Fahara

CC: all four of them once belonged to the same crew

CC: they vanished with the first prototype Flare about 2000 Solar Circles ago

TT: The Time-Bomb Incident. I remember learning about it during my cadet days. It is said they have vanished during the test run of the Flare because a Singularity Bomb went off on a nearby ship, taking the Flare and the other ship into a time-ripple.

CC: all true

CC: but I’ve found out that they have returned about two Circles ago and went straight to the Cult of the Pale God

CC: naturally the Solar Fleet and the Cetusian Fleet have already conducted their searches and tried multiple times to apprehend them but never succeeded

CC: in my research I found out that Tuonis Junpid is the captain of the small Flare fleet the Cult is rumoured to possess

TT: This looks like we have found a substantial conspiracy. But what about our names? What is this supposed to mean?

CC: I don’t know beyond the fact that I’m not so fond of it.

CC: if this is to make the rounds among the Fleet we’re faster executed than you can curse all of this to the Void

TT: We need to investigate this charade immediately and most importantly as secretive as possible. Have the life-ships landed on Cetus yet?

CC: I’ve no such information seems they’re still somewhere in interstellar space…

TT: Good. Pack your stuff. We are going on a field mission to officially investigate the possible involvement of the Cult in the destruction of the Starblazer. Make a report to the First Steward and the Empress but do not mention that our names are involved. Give her only the minimum of necessary information. But remember to sound believable.

CC: you sound as if you’re about to betray her

TT: Shut your mouth, or I’m going to cut your tongue! Just get going! We meet in two hours at the hangar. Be punctual, or I fly without you.

CC: just kidding

CC: about the betrayal thing I mean

CC: I’m on my way!

tirelessToiler TT ceased communication with captivatingContour CC

Although the situation is dire, Maurus manages to smile. The thought of not being alone in this makes everything rest a little easier on his shoulders. But he cannot deny the anxious feeling biting down on his insides. There is no way to sugarcoat it. This is a death sentence. If not for their names being connected to a conspiracy than for them keeping information from the Empress.

Hastily he throws a few crucial things into his hyperspace-bracelets while he sends the already prepared report to the First Steward of the Leviathan. All the while he thinks about his and Laapis future and how it may turn out.

I do hope we get out alive and in one piece, he thinks and leaves his office with the suspicion that this is the last time he'll see it.