A strange picture plays inside Captain's head during their time in Hyper Sleep, or hibernation as they call it. Dangling their arms on cables that are attached to the ceiling of the ship they call theirs. Its dark with the occasionally blue, yellow or red light from stars that pass by too close to the ship--but it doesn't burn them. Even though they don't know what UV rays are, they know they can burn and found a way to make themselves not burn in space.
The picture has a green digital lens, peering into some sort of future event, possibly the present, they're not sure. Must be the Queen sharing what she saw. She only shows it to trusted workers. Has something worried her? It shows them planets that are lush with resources. Plants, flowing water, lovely and dangerous minerals--it almost would make them drool if they had saliva, but they are not Queen. Queen succumbs to this stuff and it almost got Captain.
Something else shows however. Captain was about to open their eyes, but luckily they believed a little more to see this continue. It shows them that all those planets have life, intelligent life. For a normal human descendant that would be wonderous news, but not for Captain. Captain's eyes open fully as a human descendant--a child-- smiles towards them and reaches out his hand.
So that's why she shared it with them. Captain drops from the dangling wires onto the now cold metal floor with a thud. The other thousands of workers are asleep, all dreamless sleep. Not a single worker can dream unless given exclusive permission by Queen as she has Prophet. Its become some sort of clone for her. Captain walks towards his station and notices countless lights flickering across the screen--they pick up their speed.
These lights are worlds that they have depleted and conquered, a prize the Cravers share with a source of pride. But they are all dimming--they're...coming back to life?, "What is this? What's going on here? they mumble under their breath.
Captain slams the communications button to contact the Queen, once. They need to keep composure, she can't know they are feeling their software speeding up. If it keeps up they'll be paralyzed from the legs down. Unable to move. 'Connecting' in their native language is what Captain is seeing, waiting patiently trying to slow down their information. It finally shows her hologram on screen.
"What is it, Captain? I assume you saw the dream of Prophet?" Queen asks. Her yellow and black eyes looking straight into Captain.
"Very much so, Queen." They say, trying to connect the right words together to say what they want next, "Did you see the ending, Queen?"
Her eyes quickly brighten, loosening the restraints of the constant scowling squint she presents, "Yes! More conquering to do! This is wonderous news!"
"If I may, Queen." They interrupt to their immense displeasure, "Its not wonderous news. It is a cause for worry."
Her eyes brighten again, but differently. Her eyes go back to their menacing scowl of disdain. Queen's voice lowering ever so slightly, "Oh? And what do you mean, Worker."
"I apologize for the interruption Queen, but it was necessary. The creatures on the other side of this hypergate travel have a massive military presence. And I don't know their capabilities."
Queen looks away--her face is battling for emotion. One moment she grits her teeth, another moment her eyes turn white and shake, but after all of that her set emotion is that she looks back at Captain with a sense of conflict in her mind, "Captain, you've proven stellar on your combat prowess. Countless engagements only won because of your intervention."
This is unexpected. For Queen to mature this much in only two hundred years. Captain exhales deeply and now its their turn to prove themselves capable. They kneel and punch the metal grates to catch her attention, "What would you wish for me to do, your Highness?"
Queen's face settles and calms, a bright idea enters. Her eyes bring back their usual glow finally taking caution however, "What would be your best suggestion, Captain?"
Captain looks up, "It would be a difficult task, but its not impossible." He stands and looks her dead in the eyes, "We. Make. Allies."
True. Certainly their military might is great. Their plans flawless, never have lost a war after getting their bearings in space. That's their programming from Creator. But defecting that programming? Making allies? They've never done it before. There was no need. This opponent will truly test their persuasion skills, for these creatures to have all these planets working in harmony they must be extremely diplomatic--extremely persuasive.
Queen crosses her arms, nothing like this has been done before and frankly are they even good at it? "What makes you so sure this would work? What could possibly have happened to make you say something so drastic. Impossible even."
"Queen." They get in close to the screen, "The conquered planets. They are dimming. The ones we left un-crackered, are coming back to life."
This time for sure they'd get her and it did. Her eyes are white, blood draining from her systems and muscles, "Are you sure? Why didn't you say this in the beginning?!"
Captain sends her the information from the ships data, "Because I wanted to let you down easy. This is a serious matter, and you need the context."
She looks at it and her blood runs cold. She freezes for a second and the chair heats her up enough to not get frozen, "Allies would make us stronger you think?"
"I know it will. The planets coming back to life means whoever these creatures are they've established communications with them. Once they find out what we are capable of, there's no telling how far they can come in only six months. How many allies they could have come together--" Captain clenches their fist, "And annihilate us."
"But we have others having had conquered other nebulas already, we can bring them in!" She says hurriedly.
"But they have a new queen under new rules, Queen." They retort. "We'll still have to establish communication and who knows how fast they can come give us aid."
She grips the chair furiously and stands quickly, "But we ca-"
"Your Highness!" Captain raises their voice, the spikes on their back pointed and then calms down quickly, "We must attempt new connections. Of course we can ask the others for help. If they join, that'll be most optimistic. But look how we are. Persuasion isn't the best skill we have. What makes you think they'll listen to us?"
Queen ponders. Her eyes moving between the screen and the workers making their efforts known. Building powerful lasers, fixing and upgrading shields, piloting the ship. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath--then gazes back at Captain, "Enact your plan, Captain. Bring us allies and make more persuasive clones. This colony rests upon your success." Her usual green or red light on her forehead blinks a new color, a cyan blue. "Please. This colony means everything."
Captain's heart beats a little faster and gives a curt nod to Queen, "As you command."