Hues of Living Green by Russell Hemmell
This story originally appeared in Alien Dimensions #12
The battle was over.
Nobody was standing, not even the winners. The terrifying battalion of Mantises had retreated to celebrate the victory, and only the vanquished remained on the ground – or what was left of them, a carpet of wings and limbs drowned into a pool of green blood.
It was not a carnage more gruesome than others she had witnessed in the past, but she was feeling worse, Ranya admitted. No matter if she was the one coordinating war operations, that time had been more difficult. Probably because we had never confronted an enemy like this. Strong, brave, almost majestic. They didn’t deserve to be attracted to the trap the Makaras envoy and his soldiers had set up for them – the very reason they had drawn silicon-based, nefarious creatures like the Mantises into their own conflict in the first place. Ranya sighed, remembering the strange story of a total war among different races of the same clade of species, more vicious than humans and far more powerful. Yet, and nothing strange about that, at war they were because of humans, who had put that riotous bunch one against the other.
Why? Ranya didn’t know. Her species or not, humans were a source of endless surprises for what she was concerned – probably because she had spent so little time around them. Had she not lived with the Mantises since her childhood? Not that I’m sorry. For what I’ve seen, humans are no better than the sorority, with an interesting difference: silicon-based organisms don’t even pretend to be moral. The word itself doesn’t exist in their communication system.
#
The green palace was standing by the cliff overlooking the river.
Empty. Silent.
Just 24 hours before it had been teeming with life, populated by those same creatures now lying on the battlefield. The freest people in the colonized galaxy, probably, bending in front of nobody and living for the pleasure of life itself.
Ranya walked through the palace’s courtyard, observing the simple artefacts of their culture, unsophisticated compared to many of the species she had to approach acting as a Speaker for the Mantises, but so essential and unpretending that she couldn’t avoid finding them attractive.
She saw a few musical instruments, abandoned on the ground when everybody has flown outside for the fight. The Mantises not only had exterminated the enemy, as it was to be expected: they had also destroyed and eaten the contractors, who had the ill-advised idea to employ them. She had warned them, though, hadn’t she not – that was something to be taken into account. How can you trust a species you don’t understand and that’s not even based on your same biology? Not everybody had made that mistake, though: the envoy had got away, leaving the rest of his people to their fate. Sneaky bastard.
A noise attracted her attention and she turned into the stables’ direction.
This place’s supposed to be empty.
As she walked in, she saw him. One of the enemy younglings was lying on the floor. His wings were damaged and he seemed unconscious. How old can he be? Six, seven winters maybe. Difficult to give an age to another species, Ranya mused. She had noticed that the young ones, apart from the obvious difference in physical size -the adult males were almost seven feet, while this one was about five-four –had wings of a paler shade of green, while grown-ups were sporting a dark green, almost black color.
She had thought for a moment he was dead, but his wings were trembling, producing that rattling sound she had heard from outside. She could see he had been secured to the stables’ mural with a massive chain.
Is he a prisoner? Everybody else had taken part to the battle, nestlings even younger than the one she was looking at.
If the sorority finds him-
She approached, knife unsheathed, ready to act before her vicious sisters could devour him, after having played cruel games with his living flesh. But when she knelt down and put her hand on his neck, the boy opened his eyes and looked at her. If she had expected a frightened stare, she didn’t get any. His green-ocean eyes were cold and unwavering.
Ranya lowered the knife. As anything important under the starry sky, decision was the matter of a fleeting instant.
“Don’t do anything stupid if you want to live,” she said, smashing the chain with a heavy stone. She helped him on his feet. “You can’t fly in this state, but you can walk, right?”
“Why?”
“Not now. We need to leave -fast,” she replied, grabbing his arm and pulling him away. “The sisters may come back.”
#
“You can stay here as long as you want.”
Ranya had medicated the youngling’s left wing the best she could. The wing’s upper bone, the one near the spear, was broken; having blocked it with an iron bar, however, she had good hopes it would heal. After all, his species was known to be a tough one to beat and even tougher to kill – who better than her that has fought against them a mortal battle knew?
The kid kept staring at her and Ranya shivered. Nothing strange, the envoy’s people had called for the intervention of mercenaries as scary as the Mantises to fight against this little boy’s Clan. Even young and wounded, there was something in him scary. Maybe it’s the fact that he doesn’t know fear even though I’m convinced he can technically experience it -unlike the Mantises, who only act on instincts.
“Nobody will search for you here – not one of us, at least,” she continued. “We’re moving South – toward the woodland area.”
“So, you’re occupying this planet. I thought they had shipped you only for the kill and the mopping.”
Ranya could not avoid smiling. “Yes, but since nobody remained to fly us back-“
“Not true, but that one got away. That’s why there’ll never be peace between us and the Locusts.”
“Locusts?”
“This is how we call the Makaras,” he sneered. “They abandon their own without a blink. Wingbearers will die many times before leaving even a wounded one behind.”
Why are you here then? Ranya looked at the kid, at his eyes full of contempt. “As far as I had understood, humans were responsible for the war between you and the Makaras. That was what the envoy hinted the first time he came to see me.”
“Nah. We had been at war before– say, whenever our paths have crossed. The only thing humans have done is put us again in the same system and profit from our mutual loathing.”
Ranya shook his head. “Things are more complicated than that. On this specific point, the envoy was right. Humans are more vicious than you, when it comes to genocides.”
“Why so?”
“Because differently from the Makaras, you or even us, the Mantises, they’re wired for sentiments like guilt, regrets or compassion. And they manage to override them in a blink when it suits them. Anybody able to do that is mortally dangerous.”
The boy remained in silence, then shrugged. “I’ve never dealt with humans myself. I’ll take your word for it.”
“Here.” She took her cloak off and covered him. “You’re going to be fine –just don’t venture near the woodlands. We’ll probably stay over until somebody comes here to hire us for some other missions. A month, a year – who knows.”
For the first time since she had met him, the boy smiled. “Oh, I’ll venture South.”
“I do hope not.” In an unexpected élan, Ranya ruffled his long black hair in an affectionate gesture. “Farewell, kid.”
“Goodbye, Mantis.”
#
The planet was a good place to live. The Hive had settled into the woodlands just beside the lake. It had been six months already, and the leaves on the trees were turning into a golden-brown hue, but Ranya had learnt to enjoy that dry, chilly weather.
Mantises were not fussy when it comes to feeding, she thought looking at two of the sisters eating river mussels. Everything alive would do actually, even though the sheer excitement of a fight always suits the sorority better. After all, what evolution gives you two sets of rotating blades and armored exoskeletons for, if not a massacre?
She joined them on the lake’s shores, looking at her own reflection on the lake’s still waters. Ranya was used to her nakedness -when there were only the sisters around, she didn’t need any dress. It was different with the others, which, however, always failed to tell she was human. She sighed. Only gender-biased people unable to look with attention can believe I’m one of Mantises in their humanoid form. They just perceive us all as green-haired, leggy females, but no details. And yet, my colors are paler than theirs, my skin so delicate in comparison.
Ranya observed the terrain. The planet was also good for the sisters to lay eggs and complete a full cycle before moving again. The decision had taken place in the hive, where no words were spoken. After all, as Ranya knew, a discourse was a feature only required by the interaction with other species, one she was assuring with her presence. Mantises’ hivemind made it superfluous.
But not there – in the grasslands. The grasslands were the perfect environment for a process delicate for any living being. She was going to do a scouting mission and communicate her findings for the perfect spot to the sorority.
A solitary cricket flew by Ranya’s head. As fast as a chameleon, she stopped it in mid-air and mindlessly devoured it.
#
Eggs laid and buried into the terrain, the Hive had slid into a state of semi-hibernation. Winter solstice was coming, and the planet temperature had dropped several degrees below zero. Ranya ventured outside the Hive only during mid-day for feeding and slept the rest of the time. In similar situations, her sisters didn’t need anything from a carbon-based organism like her. She could rest and enjoy the relative quiet before the next storm.
Which came before she had imagined.
In the middle of the night, when all Mantises were lying down in their slumber, the attack came, as sudden as a lightning in the sky.
Unknown rays launched from a few weirdly shaped, double-pyramidal vessels started pouring down over the Hive’s external structures, corroding the steely combs and liquefying the nested alveolus of the core that the Laborer’s had edified over the months. There was only one bio-chemical agent, among millions, known to be harmful to the silicon threads of the Hive, Raika mused while getting ready for the fight, and it was a well-presented secret, one that the enemies had never been able to find. Probably because nobody survived against a confrontation with a Mantis battalion, and even less people endowed with some degree of scientific awareness to learn about it. The sudden awareness somebody had found out Mantises’ only weak point was more than astonishing for her: it was terrifying.
She steeled herself against the worst, and took her place in the Hive’s battle asset, calling the sorority into combat status.
The sisters awoke in a shriek immediately after, following Ranya’s leads. Forward-rank soldiers quickly shifted into their insectoid form, raising their rotating blades and going outside in between the rays in war formation. But there was no enemy on the ground to confront and fight, only a hellish rain of deadly hits and scorching blasts.
Look look look.
Locate the source of attack.
Regroup and fight back.
From her protected position, Ranya could only watch the carnage powerless to make a difference, even less guiding her sisters as she always did. Today we die, she realized. She covered her ear with her hands to avoid listening to the collapse of what had been her whole universe, eyes shut in refusal, incapable of moving. But when the Hive’s internal cells began crumbling down, air-suspended skeletons melting under the rays’ corrosive action, she went outside too, using the severed elytra of one of the sisters to protect herself from the rain and trying to attain an elevation point for a better look at the battlefield. Before she could reach the summit of a tree area, however, she was violently thrown to the ground and kept down there, unable to move. She was only able to turn her head, enough for glancing at her assailant. And she shivered. A demon-like man held her on the frosty terrain, his two-inch nails ready to sever her neck.
Them.
How is it even possible they are still alive? We have killed and destroyed everybody in the Green Palace.
She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. But the fatal blow didn’t come.
She remained like that for what looked to her an eternity and then, when his captor released the pressure, she stood up.
What she saw made her breathe stop for a moment.
What the hell is that?
The Hive had been completely burnt down to ashes by a strange-looking, double pyramid rotating vessel that was still hovering above her head. Dead sisters in their Mantis form were covering the ground – blades, elytras and severed insect limbs everywhere on the ground. Not even the cocooned eggs had survived – the terrain where they had been buried was scorched and overly unmade. She could glimpse at the silver of broken egg shells surfacing from the ground.
The stronghold we had attacked was not the only one on the planet. The envoy’s intel was flawed, she thought, or – Ranya raised her eyes again at the spaceship – this is somebody else. The one the sorority had destroyed was not a starfaring population, of that she was sure. They had to belong to the same species, but different Clans. I guess they didn’t like what we did to their brethren.
There were still a few killings going on in some peripheral areas of the battlefield, but most of the Mantises lay dead. That had been a perfect operation with an even more astute strategy. They might well not be the same enemy whom the Mantises had confronted and killed in the action of the past Spring, Ranya decided, but they had been able to find out both the sisters’ only weak point and the best moment for their attack– the hibernation period, when all the Hive defenses were down.
Otherwise they’d have never been able to take the sorority out, spaceship or not, deadly chemical weapons or not.
Ranya didn’t even think of trying to escape. She remained seated, observing with dry eyes the annihilation of what had been her world. She was alone once again, in a universe deaf and blind to living beings’ concerns.
Something caught her eyes.
Among dozens of fearsome winged creatures with scaring blades for nails and mighty bodies, one walked into her direction. He had the same long black hair and chiropteran wings, but he was not a grown man like the other.
The kid.
Their eyes met, and she could read some nasty amusement in his stare. He made a gesture to the one that was guarding Ranya, and the man left, leaving the two of them alone.
“Told you we would see each other again.”
Even though less than a year had passed, he looked older than the child she had saved. He was not an adult yet, but he could pass for a teen, and now they were the same height.
Their ageing process must be different from humans – and faster.
“Clean job,” she said, looking around. “From a professional to another, I’m impressed.”
The kid laughed. “We’re not mercenaries, and no soldier either. But I had some reckoning to do here. Sending your Mantises to keep company to the Clan you had dispatched.”
Ranya didn’t bother to mask her surprise. “Wasn’t it your Clan the one we exterminated?”
“No – they were just fighting our same war. My brother and I were there to discuss alliances.”
Ranya’s mind went back to the conversation she had with the Queen’s envoy, and the insistence to have what looked to her an insignificant target totally exterminated.
“Yes,” the boy said catching her stare. “I’m the brother of the Chieftain you’ve killed in the first attack, the strategist that has kept the Locusts’ Queen in check for so long – to the point that she needed you and a well-set trap to take him out. But this time she bit more than she could chew. Retribution will follow. This is just the beginning.”
“Her envoy suspected it, this is why he left before you came back.”
“Her envoy is smart, and you know why? He doesn’t belong himself to the Queen’s kind.”
“He doesn’t?”
“No. Locusts are not that subtle.” The boy helped her on her feet.
“How do you know all these things?”
“I’ve already told you about my brother. You shouldn’t be surprised.”
“This is why he tied you up when we assaulted the stronghold during the last attack. To avoid you joining the battle – and fighting back.” Ranya shook her head. “It was a hell of a gamble. We could have found you anyway. I could have killed you.”
“Everything is a gamble.”
“And you weren’t happy to oblige, either, for what I remember.”
“Obviously not.” He pulled his long hair back and fixed them on top of his head with what looks like a silver stiletto. “But I understand better, now that I’m the new Chieftain.”
“You – a kid?”
“A kid that has just exterminated your Hive –and you’re supposed to be the best mercenary units of this galaxy. Good enough, don’t you think?” He handed her a cloak to cover herself – one she immediately recognized.
“Do I need to wear it?” she said, putting it on.
“No, it’s for your own comfort.” He laughed. “We don’t eat enemies’ flesh –another of the Locusts’ enchanting traits. Moreover, we’re not visual. Seeing you undressed doesn’t trigger any kind of reaction in our brain, no matter if we’re compatible mating-wise.” He pulled the hood over her head. “Relax. Nobody’s going to even talk to you if you don’t want to.”
“You’re not going to feed on me, or use me in any way,” Ranya said, with a puzzled tone. “So why have you kept me alive? You don’t owe me anything.”
“It’s not for gratitude.” He laughed again. “This is a human reflex, and humans we’re not. You are.”
Ranya blinked.
“Yes, I’ve known since the beginning,” he said, caressing her cheek in a way she couldn’t tell it was reassuring or menacing. “If any, I was surprised you’ve survived among them, their Speaker or not.”
“I still don’t get what do you want from me,” she said.
“To be for me what you’ve been for the Mantises. My key to another species’ hivemind.”
“For what I’ve witnessed so far, you have no need of anything to deal with my sisters.”
“It’s not them I am talking about,” the kid replied. “I’m interested in humans.” He walked away from her a few steps, his eyes fixed into the skyline, as if he was chasing something beyond the cloud. “You were right in one thing: your species started this war that’s consuming mine.”
Ranya remembered the Makaras envoy’s words. “Divide et impera,” she murmured.
“Yes,” the kid nodded. “But this comes to an end now. You’ll help me understand how the human mind works,” he said, “and find the right allies against them.”
“Do you think I can really adapt to live among you as I had with the Mantises?” Ranya said, pointing at his wings. “After all, I could pass for one of the sisters myself. Not the case here.”
“You won’t need to be with my kind. Culture is more important than nature for evolved species. More – culture becomes nature for them. Even for humans, whenever in their short history they managed to reach some sort of evolved civilization, which is no longer the case now.” The boy smiled. “You will see: there’s more diversity in our Clans than in any of the planets of this galaxy – accepting as brothers species so weird-looking you might even doubt they’re alive. That’s where our real strength lies.” He took her hand. “My name’s Karelhein. Welcome to my world.”