?You fucker,?she muttered as she gathered her strength. Then she rammed the metal pipe directly into its thorax. 190

Alan Dean Foster

With an echoing roar it exploded from behind the maze, metal pipes giving way like straws. Fully aroused and alert, it crouched directly in front of her, thick gelatinous saliva dripping from its outer jaws.

She held her ground, straightening. ?Come on, fucker. Kill me!?When it didn’t react she slammed at it again with the pipe.

With a roar it reached out and slapped the pipe away, stood glaring at her. Sweat pouring down her face, she continued to stare back.

Then it whirled and bolted into the darkness. She slumped, gazing after it.

?Bastard.?

Dillon found the lieutenant in the assembly hall, seated by herself in the huge, deeply shadowed room. She sat with her head in her hands, utterly exhausted, utterly alone. The fire axe dangling from his right hand, he walked over and halted nearby. She must have been aware of his presence, but she did nothing to acknowledge it.

Ordinarily he would have respected her silence and moved on, but conditions had passed beyond ordinary.

?You okay??She didn’t reply, didn’t look up.

?What are you doin’ out here? You’re supposed to be lyin’ low like everybody else. What happens if that thing shows up??

Her head rose. ?It’s not going to kill me.?

?Why not??

?Because I’ve got one of them inside of me. The big one won’t kill its own.?

Dillon stared at her. ?Bullshit.?

?Look, I saw it an hour ago. I stood right next to it. I 191

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could’ve been lunch, but it wouldn’t touch me. It ran away. It won’t kill its future.?

?How do you know this thing’s inside you??

?I saw it on the cat-scan. It’s a queen. It can make thousands like the one that’s running around out there.?

?You mean like a queen bee??

?Or ant. But, it’s just an analogy. These creatures aren’t insects. They just have a crudely analogous social structure. We don’t know a great deal about them. As you may have noticed, they don’t make for an easy study.?

?How do you know it’s a queen??he found himself asking.

?For one thing, the shape of the skull is very distinct. It’s backed by a large, upsweeping frill. The beginnings of that were clearly visible in the scanner images. For another, the gestation period for the warrior-worker analogs is quite short, in some cases only a day or so. They mature through their different stages with incredible speed.? She looked rueful. ?Very effective survival trait.