A few hours passed by in painful repetition. The psionic agitator would attack my mental barrier close to shatter point then heal it. I could feel my defence getting slightly stronger each time like how a blacksmith would temper a sword with heat. It didn't take long until I could feel a slight change. There was a strange sensation that suddenly appeared whilst another attack was reigning down on my mental barrier. It felt like a muscle that was currently relaxed waiting to be tensed. I focused on that feeling and 'tensed' that 'muscle' all of a sudden the attack which would have cracked my defences suddenly stopped, no, it was still attacking but now my defence was strong enough to keep it out just to check i stopped 'tensing' for a moment and the cracks began to grow again so i 'tensed' once again.
"Very well done Apollo-mate." The agitator commented. "You have managed to awaken your active defence, now this one can increase the power of the attacks. at this rate there should be no problems when conversing with the queen brain."
Washing away any thoughts of hubris in my accomplishment with that statement, I took a short break for food. "This is going to be a rough week." I mused before carrying on.
A week later.
The training was going well, my mind's fortification has come along rather swimmingly. The psionic agitator, who would not let me name her for some reason, had told me that I was ahead of schedule and should be able to converse with the queen with only a minor headache with long exposure.
Orchid and I were now standing at the translucent flesh part of the ship as according to her we were about to leave the Psionic tendril and enter Hive-space. A myriad of emotions were passing through me. Excitement and trepidation being the predominant among them. Excitement over the fact that I will see a new way of life with a collective that loves me unconditionally and the knowledge I will have access to there. Trepidation over the unknown. what Orchid and the agitator have told me have only scratched the surface of knowledge about the hive.
Feeling my emotions through the psionic link Orchid stroked my face while saying "Be at ease Apollo-mate Orchid promises only one thing all of this, all that is us is now yours as well." she gestured outside. as she did the ever changing exterior of the psionic branch disappeared and what greeted my vision left my mouth agape. hundreds, no thousands, no tens of thousands? ships uncountable greeted my eyesight from tiny drone ships around a meter long to 16km Hive ships with looming presence.
"So many." I said, pointing out the obvious. with this many ships taking my home star systems should be no problem why haven't they? feeling my emotion mostly confusion Orchid explained "all these ships are to fight our many wars in many galaxies and star systems the ones the hive has sent to your home galaxy is but a scouting force and will remain that way for at least a few centuries" "but that matters not for look over there, that is home nest world."
Looming 'below' the ship is a planet roughly 10x larger than my old universe Jupiter. Massive conical spirals erected out of its crust alongside massive volcanos spitting lava jutting over its surface. The planet looks barren but can evidently support some form of life as the hive originated from here and can still survive on the planet meaning some form of oxygen production must take place.
Upon descent into the planet's atmosphere, I felt something. A connection, something was watching me carefully. I could feel its desire with every second we got closer to landing. However I was currently unable to focus on the presence as all of a sudden I felt as though someone dropped a ton of bricks onto my body. The gravity of the planet was 5 times heavier than Earth was and 8x than apollo-minor. I strained my body, but could do nothing. I could feel my already weak baby bones starting to strain. Orchid was panicking through the link but I couldn't focus on it as I knew if nothing changed I would be crushed soon. That's when it happened.
In the depths of my Mindspace of my Psionic origin whirred to my struggle. Most often in the midst of death does your potential begin to work its hardest. The first time to attempt to escape death it activated my first psionic ability, telepathy. Now it responds to my will once again and my second psionic ability thrums to activation.
As the ship was being communicated to proceed back into space the pain I was feeling suddenly stopped. "huh" I relayed out "APOLLO-MATE" Orchid screamed out into the link "don't worry hold on the ship will enter back into space again soon. we didn't think about gravity repercussions as we have not had those troubles in millennia" interrupting Orchid before more explanation I assured her "No orchid I'm ok now I think a new Psionic power has manifested itself in lieu of the close call."
"Orchid still thinks we should stay in space now until the agitator checks your condition till then-" Orchids link suddenly cut off for a moment before she reconnected "Orchid has been informed that shall no longer be required, the queen bore witness to your Gyrokinesis manifesting and has deemed you are safe for planet entry.
On planet entry 2: electric boogaloo I no longer felt the pain I had the first time it was like a film of power passively coating my body. I felt heavier than I was before as my new power didn't seem to be able to fully counter gravity's effects more like counteracting all the negatives the planet's gravity was having on me and keeping the non harmful and beneficial. With proper training of this power in the future I have an instinct that I could make myself have neutral buoyancy on any planet but that's a long way off.
Upon landing the quiet ship roared to life. for most of the two weeks it had just been myself, Orchid, the psionic agitator and a few silk drones to fix my papoose every now and then. Now however thousands of chitinous bodies zoomed around with purpose coming and going with biomass and proceeding to leave the ship. shortly after Orchid and myself followed suit.
We landed next to a 250 meter tall cone structure with a spiral wrapping around its body till the top. a blueish energy would pulse along that spiral and disperse at the top. Walking whilst walking towards it I asked Orchid if these spires do anything to which she replied "yes these spires distribute oxygen to the surface when needed most of the planet's oxygen is created underground by microorganisms of the hive that feed off the volcanic fumes of the planet." I looked at the spire in fascination. A truly alien way to produce oxygen, I love it!
After entering its base and traveling 20 miles almost vertically down through tunnels, that presence which has been watching me was growing to a point I was practically inside of it. After a few more turns through tunnels here and there I was brought to a gargantuan room easily 150 meters tall. Although compared to human standards the room seemed bare to me, I could tell that every single detail in this room from the carvings in the walls similar to those on the spire we entered and the places certain pillars were placed, were all there with purpose. but the grand size of the room didn't take away from what was inside. Along the walls were 30 colossal hive bodies with a hunched size of 20 meters these bodies made what the humans called Orchid a basilisk queen guard a joke. they have 2 legs that are digitigrade like an animals their torsos covered in thick white and red exoskeletons and four arms which are shaped into ornate curved swords.
These towers of chitin didn't make a noise nor made any movement at our arrival I wanted to ask Orchid what they were but Orchid was relaying worry through the link apparently even the rest of the hive doesn't enter this room "The queens guardians are not linked with the rest of the hive as they have anti-Psionic abilities rendering all psionic abilities useless" she paused a moment "when a member of our hive loses all its psionic abilities they go feral and are unable to re-join the hive and must be eradicated so out of precaution no being enters. if Orchid was still linked to the hive fully Orchid would have been a victim of their ability."
After passing the last of the guardians I asked Orchid who calmed down a little "why would the queen want something that could remove Psionic powers so close? it seems hazardous." Before Orchid could answer, a sultry voice oozing power entered my mind.
"BECAUSE MY MATE, MY GREATEST STRENGTH IS ALSO MY GREATEST WEAKNESS HAVING MY POISON CLOSE MEANS ANY ENEMY REACHING ME HAS TO TASTE IT FIRST."