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Guest Ni'auqe

The Waiting Game

One of the male Eratians let out a loud cry of frustration, causing the female across from him to give him a look of distaste in her golden eyes.

 

"Calm yourself, To'rin," she ordered, closing her eyes once more. "You will not be fed, regardless of how much you complain about it."

 

"Why not?" he demanded, pointing a clawed finger in the direction of the Al-Ucards across from their cell. "They were."

 

M'ria followed his gesture to the equally pale, but very different prisoners, and let out a long sigh. "Their needs are not as refined. It is not as different to feed the Al-Ucard. Anyone can offer a few pints of blood." She smirked, for a moment more pleased than usual that their own physiology did not allow for such things. "Well, most of us."

 

"Surely they have slaves which could service our needs," the male suggested. "Those guards, perhaps..."

 

"Are free." M'ria stood, stretching slightly. "You do not seem to understand the ways of this... Federation. They do not keep slaves. They are too allowing for such things."

 

He snorted. "Only prisoners for other species, then?"

 

A shrug. "I would not have expected them to do otherwise. If, in our fight for freedom, we were given a choice between risking ourselves and aliens we did not know, would we have granted sanctuary to them?"

 

"Of course not." He smirked. "But that doesn't mean we can't take advantage of the situation."

 

M'ria grinned. In spite of his lack of patience, To'rin had been her second since the beginning of the Eratian involvement in the Al-Ucards' rebellion against their former Scorpiad masters. Even before that, the two Eratians had worked together beautifully. With she as queen and he as one of her trusted commanders, they had organized great expeditions to cull the subject worlds of the Scorpiad Empire, harvesting the succulent lifeforce of the fearful natives who had to be reminded of the might of their overlords.

 

If their cause succeeeded, they would be doing the same thing, but it would not be for the glory of the Scorpiad. No. The Eratians would be a sovereign power in their own right, and the food they harvested would be taken in their own names, for their own needs and pleasures.

 

Of course, neither M'ria nor To'rin would likely see that day. The hive-ship which she had commanded in the resistance was gone, along with the rest of the crew that did not occupy the cells on this Federation ship. M'ria had expected to die at the end of the battle, but the Scorpiad had other plans for the survivors, if they could be called that. It seemed to raise false hopes to think of themselves that way when their deaths had merely been delayed for a short time, not avoided.

 

On the other hand, their recent twist of fate still had the potential to yield fruit. These Federation-drones were not Scorpiad, and they lacked the experience handling Eratians and their Al-Ucard allies that the arachnids had. A misstep could be easily taken advantage of; she suspected they could be more susceptible to the blood-drinkers' power of suggestion than the Androcot or Leiri.

 

"You're right," she finally answered her second. "Of course it doesn't."

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