Chapter Sixteen — Part 1

The Persimmon set down two hours early on the deserted world of the Scandivats. The air was bone numbingly cold, so we voted to stay aboard ship. They’d taken their agriculture with them, leaving massive tracts of land to erode from the elements. The Scandivat race had become such an integral part of the planet around me that it was dying without their presence. I said as much to Captain Reed, worried for the planet’s future.

He clicked his tongue. “The Scandivat race would never violate a world like this. Something terrible must’ve happened. Our race genetics and consciousness must’ve changed drastically.” He looked around him. “The heart of the colony is, no, was, thirty clicks magnetic north.”

He led us back to the Persimmon, watching every shadow. The planet felt all but lifeless. Small bushes, a few herbivores, maybe the occasional predator. Nothing that seemed threatening to humans or our Scandivat friend.

Kotian looked at me, his heart aching. “I’ve never felt a planet like this one. If it wasn’t for the atmosphere, I would think we were on Lotil.”

Lotil, the lifeless moon of Friol, was a burned out cinder floating in space.

“This must be what a world becomes when it has no Forever Child guarding it.”

We stepped into the Persimmon and flew under Captain Reed’s direction. I caught my breath when I saw the size of the colony. Massive hexagonal slabs thrust skyward, jutting out of the ground. Like spires or turrets of a castle, they were dull gray, made of stone paste. Much like concrete, only coarser, we had to tune our sensors to its odd chemistry. The spires were connected at various points by irregular, twisting tubules that proved large enough for the Persimmon to fly through.

“Oh, my Goddess. Why is it so large?” Kotian asked.

Captain Reed answered from memory. “It was determined by the third Central that we would need to focus our species in one place if we were to survive and protect the resources of our world. One hive, one colony, one relatively small area of ecological destruction. We grew ninety percent of our food within the colony itself. Hunters, who had originally sought out food beyond the hive, were reassigned to structure and order the mindless worker classes.”

As we flew closer, we found an entrance to the center of the colony, and the Persimmon flew in through it. Bodies lay decomposing at the gates, skeletal remains ripped apart by scavengers from beyond the colony. Captain Reed was neither upset nor surprised.

“The Guardians are the simplest of our race. Being designed for one purpose, they had to rely on Feeders to take care of them. They kept intruders out of the colony, but once assigned to guarding an entry, only death will remove them from their post.”

“Sounds like a horrible retirement plan.” Kotian said.

“Their brains are simply plotted for the sole purpose of brute force defense from the predators that still roam our planet. Because of the simple structure of their brain, they weren’t true sentient thinkers such as myself. They also live less than a decade, making their life span significantly shorter than the centuries I’ll live.”

“Barbaric yet functional.” Kotian said. “I like it.”

We flew on for hours, Captain Reed setting the course. We flew deeper into the colony, using artificial light to guide us. There was no light in any of the chambers or halls, and sonar and radar weren’t entirely reliable.

“My goodness, how did your people see in here?”

“Fire moss were kept healthy and in abundance. Though not true members of the Scandivat race, they were valuable assets to the hive. We fed them nectar and they emitted light for us to see by. They were undoubtedly harvested and taken with the colony when it left.”

The colony ended abruptly, opening into something none of us expected. We were at the edge of a crater that extended a half-mile deep into the rock of the planet and two miles in every direction. “Was this here last time you visited, Captain Reed?” Tiffany said.

“Of course not, the Hive was complete then.”

“Does anybody have a clue as to how we determine the age of this crater?”

The Persimmon answered. “I’ve studied the sensor readings closely, and by accessing the database, I’ve concluded that this can be the result of only one type of incident. This crater is the result of a natural thermonuclear detonation.”

“What do you mean, natural?”

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