Chapter One Forty Back at Telna
Anai stretched as she slipped out of her seat. She’d been at the Telna Outpost for the last few days, while the Collective worked on her ship. The narrative of the mission was largely worked out, which meant she was largely waiting for the moment they got sent back. Turning from the viewport she started walking to the door, when it suddenly opened, “Anai I wanted you to meet your counterpart Qeina.”
Anai paused and looked over the other female. She was a bit smaller with large swollen breasts, currently exposed to the air. She smiled, “They’ve been working on your boobs?”
Qeina nodded, “Yep, you too?”
“Sure did, I don’t know what they did but I figure Reyna here will tell me when I need to know.”
Reyna interjected, “Now that the two of you are together, we should make sure the two of you know what you are supposed to be doing, once back in Federation space. Given the narrative, it wouldn’t be too unusual for you two to meet.”
“Oh? Some kind of plan?”
Reyna nodded as she took one of the seats nearby, “Yes, sit down while I tell you about it.”
She took a seat on the floor and Qeina joined her. A moment later they were given a rundown on the narrative and what they would be doing. For what reason she didn’t know and they were told nothing of what the Collective would be doing in the meantime.
Yia stepped up to the crib. At the moment she had Fourteen with her to look after. Fifteen made great progress during the previous week and now it was Fourteen’s turn for the procedure. Yia smiled as she looked in on the girl, as she lay face down in the crib, a mask giving her a special mix of air, while her back lay open exposing her spine. Several devices that served to provide a steady supply of medicine were attached to the exposed spine.
Taking a moment to check the results, she smiled. Happy to see the procedure was going to plan. With that in mind she gave the girl her next scheduled injection, just before a couple of her drones arrived. With their assistance, she was able to install an extra implant over the wound. A simple flap of artificial skin that could be opened and closed when required. It would serve to protect Fourteen’s exposed spine for the day. Something she did for Fifteen while she had her for a week, as well. It was better than just healing the wound, when you needed to keep working on it that was.
Of course the spine alterations were quite needed for the future of these two young girls. She knew Ruya would thank her later for this, but right now she might not be ready for it. If they were any other infant maybe, but she was just so attached to them that a little bit of short-term harm for long-term gain would just be too much for the young mother. Make no mistake, Sister Ruya was their mother more so than Ruya’s Auntie was. Just as she had told Ruya the other day the woman had only carried them, but by every measure Ruya was their mother.
With her spine no longer exposed, she picked the infant up and headed out of the room. Where her nursery drone joined her a second later. Yia handed the little one over to the nurse as she started her morning rounds. The nursery drone walked with her as she headed down the corridor to greet the Junior Princesses.
Reaching the door she peeked in to find the six of them were sitting down around a low table and playing a card game. It was not one created by the Collective, rather they first assimilated it when they encountered the Red Dawn Empire, her species was the ruling faction of that civilization. Not that the Red Dawn was much to talk about, it may have called itself an Empire, but it was small. Three hundred inhabited starsystems, across two hundred lightyears of space. The ships of the Empire were also slow, limited to about twenty times the speed of light and their premier rival the Imperium of Viosha wasn’t any faster. The two civilizations had fought some thirty wars with each other and both had absorbed smaller powers within the five hundred lightyears across the region that they shared.
Both civilizations also had limited contact with more established and powerful civilizations like the Titari Federation and the Efiri Interstellar Union. Not that either power had much interest in the region. Limited resources and the local powers had little to offer. Yet this card game had variants played by both powers and was even found in the Federation. The collective was becoming increasingly interested in its origins. Especially after assimilating the populace of SRA-223, known to the locals as Su’nar. The planet was home to a young civilization that hadn’t discovered space flight, but it came to the attention of the Collective due to a number of ruins on the surface that pointed at previously hosting a far more advanced civilization.
The Collective was actively studying those ruins, and had found the game was also in play among the natives. A game the Collective believes may have originated with an ancient faction. Su’nar was clearly once a prosperous core world roughly a million or so years ago. Even today it was marked with the crumbling ruins of the past, yet some technology remained. Some of which was already being applied to Collective technology. The ancient nanites found still active and maintaining some of the ancient tech were of significant use to the collective. Allowing them to make better ones.
As for the game, it seemed the juniors were enjoying it. It did make them think about their moves, as it did require some thought. The game had some powerful cards in it that could change the course of the game if they were used right.
One of the girls declared, “I play Formation of the Abyss. For the cost of ten thousand of my lifeforce tokens, all cards currently on the field, in our hands or in the discard zone are banished to an extradimensional realm. For every card destroyed in this manner you lose two hundred and fifty lifeforce tokens. I may now draw 12 cards, and every unit card I draw is automatically summoned to the field regardless of requirements. For every card previously destroyed they gain five hundred weapon rating points for this turn only, after this turn they will lose three quarters of their strength for the rest of the game. I count sixty-nine cards destroyed, that means you lose 17, 250 points.”
Her opponent groaned, “No fair! A card that powerful totally wipes me out!”
The girl next to her playing a different game with another girl commented, “Why do you think I didn’t want to play against her life gain deck. I hate dealing with that card.”
Yia recalled it was one of the more powerful cards in the game. Its power grew with each turn the game was played, but it required ten thousand lifeforce tokens to activate. With the standard ruleset players started with ten thousand lifeforce tokens, which meant that if you didn’t increase your lifeforce you would automatically lose upon playing the card. Since one of the win conditions for the game was to reduce the opponents lifeforce to zero. That particular card did bring some questions to the collective, those ruins on Su’nar had made a number of references to an extra-dimensional plane referred to as the Abyss. The plane had been referenced in other ruins as well, and even by groups that seemed distantly related at best.
Nothing that Yia felt the need to think too deeply about, she had other concerns. Her nursery drone handed her Fourteen at that moment, “She is fed now, shall I return to the nursery?”
“You may go,” she replied, dismissing the drone. An action that drew the attention of the juniors. “Yia!”
They rushed her and soon noticed Fourteen, who they began to coo over. She was really cute and what girl didn’t like a cute baby? They were very fun to play with, and nursery drones helped by taking care of all the maintenance for her. No need to clean up after them and they certainly helped with the feeding. Although she knew some princesses enjoyed nursing their kids, she didn’t know any that liked to clean up the messes a little one makes.
She smiled as she watched them play with little Fourteen. One of them had just found the ‘zipper’ and exposed her spine when she was informed by her connection with her drones that Ruya had just arrived. She’d been coming over on occasion lately. Her smile deepened, “Sister Ruya is here, you six better be on your best behavior!”
Squeals rippled through the crowd, as the girls really liked Ruya. She took advantage of that to keep them on track with their studies and behavior. Afterall time with Ruya was basically a reward. “We’ll be good girls!” promised their defacto ring leader.
“I suggest you close up fourteen, it’s not good to have her spine exposed when we ain't working on it.”
“Right, you heard the Mistress girls!” said their cute little leader as her sisters started zipping the wound closed again.
A few minutes later, Ruya joined them. Yia smiled when she saw that she had brought little Fifteen with her. Ruya smiled, “Yia, how’s Fourteen doing?”
“Oh, I just introduced her to the Juniors. They were cooing over her until you got here.”
She looked over to see them playing with her. One of them had found a rattle, which was attracting the attention of the little one. The girl giggled as she tried reaching for it, only for it to be moved out of the way, rattling the whole time, which only made her giggle more and try harder. Yia smiled, that girl seemed to take it as a challenge and was enjoying it. Something she hoped the girl kept, motivation like that was to be treasured.
“Looks like she is having fun.”
“You can trust them to watch Fifteen for a bit, while we catch up. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Ruya fidgeted, “Um, can we talk elsewhere?”
“Sure, sure, girls could you take Fifteen for a bit?”
One of them walked over, “Sure, we can watch her! It will be fun!”
“If she gets hungry or has an accident you can call a nursery drone over,”
“Alright!”
The pair walked off to another room. Where Ruya slumped heavily into a seat. Yia could see something was up. This wasn’t a pleasure call not at all.
Yia settled into a chair. So what has you so bothered?” she inquired.
Ruya mumbled for a moment before saying, “Um, well, I, um, well... I bled into my bed last night.”
“Oh? Congrats, but haven’t you been going through puberty for a while?”
Meekly she nodded, “Yeah but other than the growing breasts it didn’t seem...”
“Ah and R23-G told you...”
“I need to have babies,” she interjected while nodding.
“No need to get too hung up over that. Just because you can have them now, doesn’t mean you should. Wait till you are ready.”
“Um, how will that even work?
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“Um, don’t I have to bring an intact male to my bed?”
Yia giggled, “Oh right, you think you need a male? Hmm I guess now would be a good time to get pregnant. Come I’ll show you how it’s done. There are several ways to do it, mind you. If you don’t mind donating an egg, I can show you my preferred method.”
Ruya blinked, then frowned, “Um? okay?”