“Genemother, everyone’s in a panic. Every public Immortal has suddenly disappeared except for you over the last five years. We still are having no luck finding out who or what are hollowing out the ground and carrying them away through those tunnel networks. Somehow whoever is doing this is avoiding capturing or attacking even a single mortal where we can catch them. I can’t believe those insect bodies we’ve found are being controlled and guided by someone. A bioweapon of some sort.”

  “What do you want me to do?” she asked flatly, “I don’t know anything about it either.”

  “We want you to put out a statement. Reassure people that you’re still here. Calm down some of the panic. No mortals have been targeted yet. I’m sure that it’ll be…”

  “Sir!” a soldier burst through the door and saluted in a hurry as Emily and the general turned to him, “Emergency situation, sir!” the soldier continued, “The insect creatures have emerged from the ground. They’re emerging from the ground all over the planet! Millions of them in rural areas. Local forces have engaged them, but they’re quickly getting overwhelmed.”

  “Shit,” the general swore, “Coordinate with them, I want total suppression. Try to find if we can find out whoever’s controlling these things. And where they’ve brought all those Immortals that they’ve captured…”

  He walked out the door along with the soldier as he started to bark orders into his communicator with the other soldier trailing behind him after a hurried bow to Emily.

  Emily quickly picked up her datapad and started looking at the news. There were videos and recordings everywhere. The swarms of ants of various sizes were emerging from massive holes in the ground all over the planet. Covering the surface and marching through the populated areas.

  Emily carefully zoomed in and frowned as she looked through the perspective of a news helicopter hovering over a swarm of hundreds of palm sized insects moving over a city street. All the humans were fleeing in fear into the nearby buildings but the ants seemed to largely ignore them. Instead they methodically split off and went into each building on their own.

  She couldn’t tell what was happening inside, but there was faint screaming and shouting that could be heard as the insects crawled through windows and chewed through the base of the doors to enter the buildings one by one before emerging with a few of them covered in bloody jaws.

  “Oh by Gaia, is that…” one of the newscasters stammered in shock before recovering herself, “And we have… more direct footage of the attacks. It… They’re not being killed? It seems as if, the swarm is… not killing people just yet,” the newscaster said as she looked to the side, “We have some direct footage of their strange behavior.”

  The view was from a security camera above as it showed a large swarm of fist sized ants going from building to building and breaking in. But outside in full view of the camera was a man who had a cane and who had fallen down. He was trying to escape like the others had, but was too weak to stand back up after having fallen.

  The ants descended on him as the front edge of the swarm covered him. He weakly thrashed under the pile of bodies for a few moments before the swarm dispersed again. Emily frowned as she saw the large bleeding bite wound on his cheek, but the rest of his body completely untouched. The old man’s face was sprayed with a thick gunk that he was weakly wiping off as he kept laying on the ground limp as he seemed to take a few deep breaths to recover himself to try to grab at his cane again that was still out of reach. The rest of the ant swarm kept on moving onwards to search the buildings. They parted around the old man lying in the street, parting and walking around him before merging together again as they passed him as they continued moving forward.

  “Yes, we’re getting a multitude of reports,” the newswoman said as he looked off to the side again, “It seems they are giving everyone a single bite and spitting something on them before moving on. A few cities have already pushed back their invasions. Let’s go to New France city for more.”

  Emily sat back and kept watching the news as more information rolled in. The soldiers had defeated most of the groups of ants by now in their respective cities. But everywhere else the ants continued to move across the landscape and through more rural areas unimpeded.

  Why were they doing this? Why the single bite before leaving people alone?

  She suddenly received a call from an unknown number and after a moment answered it. There was heavy breathing on the other side of it.

  “Emily,” Peter Rose’s voice panted from the other side, “We’re under assault, we need…”

  The sound of gunshots on the other side, “We need clearance for a ship launch. We’re getting off of this planet. These damn insects are all over us. Just make sure that they don’t shoot us down. I know you’re with the leader of the planetary military response, or he’s nearby. Our rockets are about to fire now. I’m…”

  More gunshots in the background, “Already inside the ship. We’re about to launch in less than a minute.”

  “I… I sure,” Emily said in shock as she walked outside into the military base and tried to find the general while keeping the call active, “Who’s we? I haven’t talked to you in a thousand years Peter. I thought you were running one of the terraforming projects fifteen light years away.”

  “Well I came back to visit,” Peter said distractedly, “Whatever these things are, they’re after us. After the Immortals. They all went insane after biting Alex and he started healing… More and more are swarming in on us every minute. We’re leaving before they get us.”

  “Okay,” Emily said as she located the general after asking a few soldiers for directions. The man looked up from his planning as he saw Emily on the datapad.

  “I have Peter Rose on the line,” Emily said, “He’s with a group of Immortals apparently. They’re about to launch into orbit. They want to make sure they aren’t shot down.”

  The general paused before nodding and gesturing to one of the men to the side.

  “Get it done,” the man said shortly, “We’re losing a lot of men out there. I need to focus.”

  “Losing men?” Emily said, “Aren’t they not attacking people? Except Immortals I mean?”

  The general turned to Emily and shook his head, “I-”

  “I have to go Emily,” Peter said quickly over the datapad as the rumble of rocket engines roared around him, “Talk to you later.”

  He hung up the call.

  “They’ve been attacking my men,” the general continued, “As soon as we engage in combat they won’t stop until the person who killed one of them is dead. That includes civilians with clubs just as much as soldiers with guns.”

  “Shit,” Emily said, “Must be some sort of self defense response. They won’t stop until the attacker is dead?”

  The general nodded grimly, “Sure seems that way.”

  The war continued for months afterward as the swarms of ants searched the planet and dragged away any Immortals they found and took them underground into their tunnels deep underground.

  Nothing the military did seemed to hold them back for long. No matter what more of the ants seemed to boil out of the ground no matter how many tunnels collapsed or groups were killed. Even the strike teams sent in to reach the center of whatever was within the tunnels failed and were overwhelmed after barely an hour of trying to push inside while having the tunnels collapsed all around them by the swarm of ants around them.

  Everyone was panicked and those who could fled to orbit. Even something as simple as stepping and crushing one of the ants underfoot could be a death sentence as the swarms turned to target them.

  Peter and that group of Immortals he’d been with apparently had left for the newly terraformed planet. Emily was sure that others were nearly ready as well even if there hadn’t been news from the far flung star systems back to Gaia just yet. Each group was crewed by Immortals so they should be able to succeed eventually if given enough time to figure things out.

  As a year passed, things began to grow desperate. The growing swarms of ants covered the farmers field. Any use of industrial equipment risked killing a wayward ant triggering the swarm to destroy the machine and kill the person operating it in retaliation. People couldn’t use ground vehicles or risk being targeted as well.

  The military was barely holding back the areas they secured as they kept getting swarmed by constant waves of the fist sized ants constantly.

  Food began to grow scarce, and while the ants were edible… Killing one obviously led to death. So things grew more and more desperate as time passed and the swarms weren’t defeated.

  All the governments of the world came together and asked for Emily’s help. As the last remaining Immortal, many looked to her for leadership as their governments flailed for control as social order started to break down. It was chaos and anarchy out there as Emily kept her family close in the zone controlled by the assembled militaries of the world to beat the insect hordes back.

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  For the last year Emily had been working on a spaceship with the assistance of the few production centers and cities that were still operational. A ship that was as large as she could make it. But not nearly large enough. Something that could carry and sustain as many people as possible. It had taken a year to construct even with the help of the living habitats already in orbit around the planet. The living habitat was large enough to accomodate more than a billion people. One of the largest habitats ever constructed in space in a very short time.

  But with atomic printers at their disposal and the desperation of an entire planet, they did it. Even now people were being ferried onto the ship from the planet. Her family and museum staff had been first a month ago. So there was that at least.

  Maybe there would be enough room, Emily thought grimly as the rescue ships kept scouting the world for the next two years. The zone of control of the humans over the planet grew smaller and smaller with every passing day. While the ants never directly hurt the humans unless provoked, their presence prevented growing of food in enough numbers. The mass starvation and plethora of deaths from accidentally injuring one of the ants caused the world population to drop massively.

  The rescue ships kept going out and picking up hundreds of survivors at once before ferrying them to orbit to the massive habitat above. Even now the habitat was being refined to expand the amount of living space. Right now it could barely support even a hundred thousand sustainably even if it had room for a billion. Emily was working hard to make sure that number went up faster than the people being added to the ship.

  Then five years later, there were no more survivors. All of them had been wiped out by either starvation or killed by the ants after accidentally killing one somehow.

  The habitat did end up getting filled with a billion people. Nine hundred million, that’s all that was left of the twenty billion that had lived on Gaia only thirty years ago.

  The planet below had been lost. Emily had made sure that samples were taken of most of the local wildlife, but even antimatter bombs and heavy weapons didn’t manage to root out the swarms of ants or wipe them from the surface.

  The massive habitat’s engines activated after the last human they could find was evacuated. The ship would take nearly three years to exit the Gaian star system, its massive bulk taking a long time to move even with the nearly endless thrust from the antimatter engines.

  They had picked another target to resettle at. A planet nearly three hundred light years away from Gaia. One that one of the Immortal terraforming expeditions had traveled to. By the time they arrived there in a thousand years, hopefully it would be ready for them.

  They left the star system with heavy hearts, with their abandoned planet left behind them. Hopefully one day they’d be able to come back to this place.

  Besides Peter’s group, barely a hundred Immortals had managed to escape the swarms and get a place on the massive colony ship. Now it was just her and the hundred others left free among the thousands that had lived on Gaia before.

  However many were from Peter’s group, and the other three hundred or so Immortals scattered in nearby star systems on terraforming efforts, there were only a few of them left.

  But Emily let out a sigh of relief in a way after their ship left the Gaian system. They’d saved what they could. Saved as many people as they could. All the other terraforming efforts had incubation machines or at least the knowledge to build them. No matter what humanity wouldn’t go extinct again even if things went horribly wrong again with the ship.

  She could live her life on this ship. They’d recover from this, just like they’d done from so many other things. Emily would be there to make sure of it.

  — — —

  Sean rushed out of the hospital. Emily’s son Michael was in stable condition and being treated by the doctors. Sean had lingered too long, who knew how Peter or his organization would react to his betrayal of them.

  He quickly made his way to the airport where his stolen plane waited. Everything had been such a chaotic mess that after some brief questioning ‘Malketh’ had been left alone and no one questioned how he had arrived at the museum when he did.

  He quickly climbed into the plane and took off from the airport. He had to get to Orion. If he activated the AI then Orion could dump all the evidence that Sean had collected out into the world where Emily would see it.

  If she would see it.

  She hadn’t known in the future somehow. But maybe he was missing something. He had to try to expose Peter.

  Sean set the plane to crash in the middle of the ocean. He had to override a few of the safety features, but he managed it after a few minutes. He managed to convince the autopilot that there was an invisible airstrip a few feet below the water in the location where he wanted to crash it.

  He put on the parachute and organized himself as the plane flew on autopilot. Every moment counted now.

  When the moment arrived, Sean jumped from the plane and parachuted down over the forest below. He was as close as he could get to Orion’s location without getting spotted dropping in too easily.

  He quickly rushed to the house where Orion was kept shut down and burst inside. He went over to where Orion should be and froze when he saw what was there.

  Or more accurately what was not there. Orion was gone. His AI core and all the equipment that supported him had been removed and ripped out. Packaged and taken away.

  Sean growled and kicked a nearby wall. Fuck! Peter must have tracked him down somehow.

  Sean debated what to do next. He could go straight to Emily and try to reveal all… But he was a wanted man by now. He probably wouldn’t even manage to get close. And Peter or one of his cronies would probably stop him. And without any proof, any claims that he made would be baseless. Emily wouldn’t believe that Peter would be behind anything nefarious unless the proof was ironclad.

  Sean took a deep breath and sat down heavily as he went over his options.

  There was really only one that would work. He couldn’t win and warn Emily about Peter in this time. He already knew that he failed since Emily still supported Peter ever since he’d known her.

  Sean or ‘Malketh’ was here for more information on what really happened. And the only way to do that was to go back to the Den. To get as much information from Peter as possible after he got caught.

  So that’s what he did. He went back to the Den, expecting to be ambushed and shoved into a rocket on course for the sun at any moment.

  But nothing happened. Sean went inside and everything was normal. People said hello, and Sean was allowed to walk freely without anyone shooting him even a second glance.

  “Malketh! What brings you around?” Alex suddenly asked from behind him. Sean jumped and gasped, whirling around to see the man standing right behind him.

  “By Gaia, Malketh. Someone’s jumpy today,” Alex said, “I’m just saying hi. Now as much as I’d like to take some time to chat, we’ve got a meeting. Good thing you’re here actually, we were about to call you in for it.”

  Sean followed after Alex and saw Peter and his right hand woman there inside. Sean searched Peter’s face intently as the man stared back at him with a blank face. Peter smirked slightly before Alex closed the door behind him and shocked the two of them out of their impromptu staring contest.

  “Malketh,” Peter said, “I’m glad that you’re here. We should discuss the consequences of our plan. It seems that things went wrong in many ways. Malketh. You went off to the museum right as the plan was taking place. Why did you do that?”

  Sean hesitated at Peter’s bluntness as all three of the other Immortals stared at him. Staring at him not in accusation but in simple curiosity. As if they truly wanted to know.

  Maybe being blunt would give him more answers than avoiding the topic, Sean mused before deciding what to say.

  “I never signed up for killing civilians. Kids. What the Shadow were you all thinking? I thought the goal was to damage the museum and that was all. That’s what you told me.”

  Alex nodded approvingly as Sean swore by the Shadow. He always approved of that, even he didn’t do it unconsciously when he was angry like Sean did.

  Peter nodded solemnly, “I know. We didn’t either. I’m sorry.”

  Sean opened his mouth to retort, only to pause. What?

  “What?”

  “They went way off orders,” Peter said with a sad shake of his head, “They had their own agenda and went rogue. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. I’m glad you were there to stop them from going further. Well, at least until the rest of that craziness happened. You did well.”

  “I… I did well?” Sean said stunned, the conversation now completely off the rails from how he had been imagining in his head.

  “Of course,” Peter said, “We would never allow such a horrible thing to happen under our watch. Even if you went against orders, it’s what I would have told you to do if I had known.”

  “You… You would have?” Sean said, his brain still having trouble following the sudden shift in the conversation.

  “Of course!” Peter said, “Do you think we’re monsters? I’d never allow something like that to happen. Property damage and general mayhem. That was their orders. That was all. You’re a valued member of our team here. We’re all glad that you were there to try and stop them. Truly.”

  Sean glanced at the other two. The woman was stony faced while Alex nodded encouragingly.

  “Alright…” Sean said slowly, “That’s a little comforting I suppose. So what happens now then?”

  “Well, for now you stay here in the Den,” Peter said, “You’re a wanted man right about now. Despite the tragedy, the plan can still proceed with some adjustments. The Genemother will still go to the Immortal Council and find the patsy that we’ve framed for the whole thing, creating internal division among them. And force her to take drastic action that will weaken her position if she works to fold us into the Immortal Council once we reveal ourselves. You’ll have to remain hidden for now Malketh. Your reintroduction to public life must be handled with some care…”

  The discussion moved on and ‘Malketh’ was treated with absolutely no suspicion or punishment for what he had did. Sean was at a bit of a loss as he left the meeting and sat down in a private area away from everyone.

  Did they really not know? Had the terrorists really gone against Peter’s orders?

  Sean thought for a long while. But what about Orion? Who else but Peter would know to steal him? Hadn’t Peter been the leader of CODA? Of course he’d be a master manipulator and actor. He’d have to be, dealing with politicians all the time…

  Yes, Sean nodded to himself. He wasn’t imagining things. ‘Valued member of our team’. That’s what Peter had called him. Sean realized that that was why they were acting that way. He had context that none of them could even dream of. And even with that, he had doubted his version of events afterwards.

  Maybe they had reason to think that their manipulations would work on him and keep him contributing to the Den.

  And the worst thing was that in a way it had worked. Sean could only play along for now and see what other information he could learn in the meantime. Doing anything else would just be a waste.

  So here he would stay.

  And hopefully find out where they kept Orion. Sean hoped they weren’t mistreating the AI or not treating him like a person.