Orchid was panicking. She had no idea how to come up with a name? The fact her mate spawn chose her name so effortlessly must make him a genius! 'Truly worthy to be our mate.'
"Forgive me mate-spawn, Orchid does not know how to create names for you. The entire concept is brand new to Orchid and she wishes not to choose a name mate-spawn will dislike."
I smiled understandingly " It's ok, take your time. I'm sure there's some time to spare before we arrive at wherever you are taking me right now. Speaking of, where are we going?" We had been walking for a while now and were out on the outskirts of the small city. From the looks of it the city seemed newly made. No more than 5-10 years ,well before the hive tore most of it down in its assault, it was small as cities go, It was more of a giant basecamp.
"Orchid is taking mate-spawn out into this world's frontier, away from prey's air defences so a void swimmer can take us back to home space. Only few cities like this one exist on this dwarf planet. We chose to attack this planet for its gasses underground. We concluded the prey chose to settle this world for the same reason."
After the brief explanation on our destination, I continued to ask Orchid a variety of questions such as where is their home planet, about how their gene caste system works, details about the myriad of species that they are etc etc. I was starting to feel comfortable around Orchid, I could tell that despite what their outward appearance may say, the elite of their species was very intelligent. Which brought to one of my final questions about the hive for now.
"Tell me Orchid, your hive's upper elite are technically speaking sapient. Do you not feel conflicted about eating other sapient life?" This question was a serious one. Most of the time when you hear about man eating creatures in science fiction they are usually portrayed as 'evil' and as such I want to hear the hive justification on its dietary behaviour.
Orchid stopped, again, before pondering the question I had. "The hive is one predator mate-spawn. We hunt and consume flesh, plants and all other forms of biomass not out of emotional reasons, as we have observed many from your species do mate-spawn, but out of sheer instinct and necessity otherwise we can't grow and evolve into our truest form."
I took in this information for a second perhaps as a human my bias was at first conflicted by the thought of Orchid and the rest of the hive consuming humans but from their perspective it sort of made sense right? You don't blame a lion's instinct if they kill a human, you may be sad that it happened, someone may even kill it in retaliation but from its point of view it was attacking prey. Nature taking course.
"Your right Orchid, I'm sorry I did not consider the equation from the hive's perspective. I'm only human after all, making mistakes is part of our Nature."
"You need not ever apologize mate-spawn, Orchid and the rest of the hive will never tire of your inquiries about ourself." I was about to thank her when.
*grglglgl*
My stomach grumbled. Now that I think about it, I was only fed once by my mother and that was over 6 hours ago. "Orchid, I need food." I relayed. "No worries mate-spawn. Will regurgitated biomass be sufficient? I have plenty in my stomachs." Shuddering at the thought of 'who' that biomass was once, I slightly joked "Now don't get me wrong, I like human soup as much as the next guy, but I'm an infant human ,which are mammals, and I require milk as its all my current digestive system can handle."
*swoosh*
In a blur, to the left of my head Orchids scythe had just pierced her chitin-plate exoskeleton and into her flesh underneath, ripping out a huge chunk of blue ichor covered flesh from underneath. Before I can express my shock I heard. "No need for worries mate-spawn, due to Orchids new freedoms given by the hivemind, Orchid is now allowed to make gene alterations on herself instead of pre-made alterations in a nest pod. Orchid shall use her reserve of biomass to gene-craft an exocrine gland which will provide mate-spawn with all the nutrition needed."
Orchid proceeded to extend her psionic link out to the hive for a moment before closing it once more and relayed to me "Another freethinker variant has consumed a female human-pray in the city and has processed the information of her exocrines structure which it called 'breast' I shall begin my gene alteration now.
Asking Orchid to turn my papoose sideways with the flat side of her other scythe so I could watch the process, I was mesmerised. The already clotted wound started morphing and transmuting like magic taking a new form. Alas it wasn't magic, as magic is just a word to describe science and other knowledge humans don't understand. Watching the process of the gland being created caused my eyes to shine. 'This, is art. If humans could alter their body's this way, who knows what we could achieve. I decided then and there to learn all I can from my future 'mate; about this wonderful branch of science.
It took mere minutes for a 'functional' exocrine gland to form. The formed nipple was grey in colour and just jutting out of the hole in her thorax's chitin plate functional indeed but rather bizarre considering.
"That was incredible Orchid." I relayed to her. "Your ability to alter your genes in such a way was a sight to behold."
Orchid moved her scythe more, angling me closer to her formed bud. "Orchid enjoys your praise mate-spawn, but you must feed. I implore you" She said, jutting her scythe back and forth in a nudging manner.
'Well here goes nothing.' I thought as I latched on. As the suckling commenced, my subtle unease washed away. 'Not bad, tastes kind of like melted ice cream.' After having my fill, I unlatched and relayed to Orchid. "Very tasty Orchid, you have made yourself an excellent boob hehe."
*yaaawn*
"What a strange day, I feel sleepy. Wake me up when we get to where we are going." I said, shutting my eyes.
Orchid turning back around whispered through the link. "Thank you mate-spawn. Orchid enjoyed the feeling of nourishing you and is glad you enjoyed my taste." Orchid paused, noticing the psionic between herself and her mate had closed off. Opening the main link with the hive as she walked she realised something.
For the first time ever, even with its numbers countless, the hive felt lonely.