Colonies of U'u'kata

Chapter 16 - An Understanding of Insects

"I've always wondered how they can sit comfortably with those," Thenta said, looking across her at Kovich.

Kovich shrugged. "They sit just like everyone else," he said with a sigh.

"What I think is interesting is that not all Tilith have the same wings," Cali said, leaning forward and gazing at the shimmering membranes of Xal-ii's wings. "On the planet my people are from, there are butterflies and dragonflies. They are completely different species of insect. Xal-ii has Dragonfly wings so when he flies he'd be fast and highly maneuverable. But I've seen others with butterfly wings."

"Yeah, the ones with the big floofy wings, I'm guessing those are your butterflies, they all came from nobility. The others, like Xal-ii here, were a worker and warrior class. They don't care much about those classes anymore. Not since their planet became uninhabitable due to pollution. When they all had to head for the stars to survive, they were forced to work together and see each other as equals. There's still a royal family, but they're more figureheads than anything," Kovich said with a huff. "I heard the royal prince ran off with a group of pirates and never came back and the princess is sterile so... I guess that will be the end of the royal Tilith family."

"That's... sad. Did he run off with the pirates or was he kidnapped for ransom?" Cali asked.

"Oh, believe me. He ran off. I heard he and the captain of the pirate vessel were childhood friends."

Cali nodded and leaned back against the cold, stone wall, feeling the vibration through the stone, and just breathed. She took in lungful after lungful of air that smelled of water, blood, and something sweet.

"I'll do it," she finally said.

"Do what?" Thenta asked.

Looking up at Kovich, she said, "I'll go into the nest. But I need to know what I'm looking for and I need to see one of these knife-wings up close so I can get an idea of what they are."

Kovice nodded.

"I found part of a building about a mile down that tunnel there," he said, pointing. I don't know what it was once but I found a stash of Koli tech on a shelf, including a sonar mapper. But there were no power modules, which makes sense because the knife-wings would love Koli power modules. They're soft and the electricity inside would be... exciting. They would have taken the modules to their nest. You'd just need to get in there and find them. We need at least two of them to get the mapper to work."

"So, someone was down here trying to map the tunnels with... Koli tech? What's Koli?" Cali asked.

"You don't want to know," Thenta said with a shiver.

"Why?" she asked, looking at him and frowning.

"The Koli are a bad experience," he said.

Kovich snorted. "Just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean the Koli are a bad experience, Thenta."

"What happened?" Cali asked.

Thenta gave a snort and shook his head, folding his arms across his chest.

"He tried to get frisky with one, but the Koli like to get frisky in pairs and it was just too many tentacles for him. Wasn't it, Then?"

Thenta snorted and made a rude gesture at Kovich.

Cali's eyebrows rose. Tentacles?

"It wasn't the tentacles, you idiot slag. It was the eggs. I can handle tentacles but no one likes eggs laid inside them. For a week I was—"

"Woah! No. TMI there, boys. I'd rather go play with the knife-wings than hear the rest of that story," Cali said, pushing herself to her feet.

She paced away from them and grimased as she pushed her fists into her lower back to relieve the dull ache taking up residence there. Her mind trying to fill in the blanks left by what Thenta didn't get to finish saying. Finally, she turned back to them and looked at Kovich.

"I, uh, I was in a scary place and you knew what to do and... thanks," she said.

He nodded, fixing her with his electric blue eyes. "Are we good then, you and I?" he asked.

Cali nodded and scrubbed a hand over the back of her neck. "Yeah. I think we're good. I just... for a moment there I was back in that camp with everyone looking down at me and talking about what they were going to do to me and—"

"I never would have let them do any of that," Kovich cut in.

"I know that now. It's just... um, well, I'm a scientist so I'm at least smart enough to know that trauma can cause post traumatic stress disorder and that's what I'm dealing with and though I say we're okay now, for all I know it could come back and I could have a panic attack all over again. Just... so you know. I don't know how Uu'k'asht minds work but things like that leave something of a scar on human brains that doesn't just—"

"It's okay, Cali," Thenta spoke up. "We call it battle sickness. Our people experience it too."

"Okay, so... what's next? We go to this buried building?" she asked.

"Yes, we go to the buried building. After sparkles here wakes up." 

***Thank you for reading! New Chapters every Sunday, Holidays, and sometimes because I feel like it***

PD: 3/9/2025