Chapter 129: Chapter 124: Awakening

The young drone woke up, for the second time in its life.

Of course, it had technically been much more often than that, and it hadn’t really woken up that first time, either. That was just what it felt like.

It had simply been performing its duty. It was smart enough to know that it was drawing close to another small growth in strength, and it had been a little excited about it. There wasn’t much else to get excited about in its life. It almost always got food, it had shelter and the company of its siblings, and it performed its duty to the Hive. Occasionally, it had the chance to see Mother-Queen-Hive and feel her presence in its mind. It had been the strongest of its kind in the Hive, and probably the smartest, too.

And yet it had still been so dumb. That was what waking up had shown it - how much it was missing, how much context its life held that it had never realized. The drone wouldn’t have even understood the term context, even if someone had tried to explain it. It hadn’t really been aware of itself. Not really. It had barely been an individual.

For a short, terrible moment after waking up, it felt alone. It felt like it had been forced to become an individual, taken away from the warm blanket of its previous life, and cut out of the Hive. But then, it felt the presence of others. It felt the psychic link that connected their Hive. It was still there, it was always there.

Then the sensation changed slightly. A new presence had come into focus. Or, rather, one that was always there. The personal attention of the Hive Queen settled on it.

The drone froze. It hesitantly sent a questioning feeling into the psychic link. There was a momentary pause as Queen-Mother-Hive clearly directed her attention elsewhere for a moment, dealing with something in her physical surroundings. Then the focus returned, and the drone felt a sense of reassurance.

It relaxed slightly and stepped forward. It could smell the hive around it and the other drones close by. Of course, it was in the section set aside for those undergoing Evolution. Somehow, it knew about that concept as well, now. Clearly, it had gone through Evolution — and that had granted it the knowledge?

It remembered the blue screen. The System message. At the time, it had been very confused. It had been able to read it, somehow, and even understood its meaning. But it felt a lot surer about … everything, really, now.

The door into the room opened and a few drones came in. The drone recognized their scents easily. But it didn’t pay any attention to them, just to the presence it could also sense approaching.

It didn’t know why she came personally, instead of just using the psychic link. But it wouldn’t question Mother-Queen — Regina. Hive Queen Regina.

“Hello there,” she said softly as she passed the doorway and stepped forward.

The drone blinked. “Hello,” it said. Then it paused. It hadn’t paid it too much attention until now, but its body had clearly changed. Probably because of that Evolution thing. It was pretty sure it hadn’t been able to speak that well before. It hadn’t been one of the ones chosen to speak words for the Hive Queen underground, but it was fairly sure it wouldn’t have done any better than its fellows.

“How are you feeling?” Hive Queen Regina asked. There was something a bit weird in her tone and the way she held herself.

Awkwardness, it realized. She was feeling awkward. It helped that it could still sense her through the psychic link. It just didn’t know what to do about that. What did one do to reduce its Queen’s awkwardness? Was that even something it should try?

Those thoughts went through its mind very quickly, before it replied. Obviously, it had to answer and couldn’t let thoughts like that delay it. “I’m feeling fine.” It hesitated, trying to find the right words. “I feel like I just woke up. Except it’s not like really waking up. And I’m not sure how, but I know a lot of things now. Things I didn’t before.”

“Yeah, you’re not alone with that,” Regina answered with a resigned frown.

“You can say that again,” one of the others muttered. Tia, the Drone Combat Engineer, one of the most senior important drones in the Hive. It had worked under her before, though it didn’t expect her to remember. The … sapient (?) ones rarely cared about which particular Swarm Drones they had assigned. Why would they? It didn’t really make a difference.

“I’m not sure how things are going to be different for you,” the Queen continued. “Considering you had a life before this, and weren’t just born with this knowledge in your head. At least, I assume so. Of course, it was life as — well, a non-sapient.”

“Is this wrong?” it asked. Usually it would be more hesitant at asking a question of Queen-Mother, but it needed to know. “Is it bad that I’m like this?”

“No,” she replied. She took another step forward and rested a hand on its shoulder, above its right upper limb. “I knew something like this was going to happen. It wouldn’t be your fault, either, but this is just the way the System works. Or maybe the Hivekind.” She paused for a moment. “You’ll be a valuable contribution to the hive. We’ll need to test a few things, of course, but do not doubt that. Someone with the traits and advantages of the Swarm Drones but the intelligence to put them to use properly.” Then she smiled slightly. “I’m also happy to meet you.”

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“Good.” It breathed out a sigh of relief, which was kind of a weird sensation if one really thought about it. It had needed to hear those words. Its Queen thought it was fine, maybe even good, so that settled it. The drone would live up to her words. Right now, it just took a moment to enjoy its Queen’s touch.

"Alright.” The Hive Queen looked at a few of the other drones, and it could faintly sense something passing between them, although it wasn’t privy to the contents of the exchange. But most of them turned and left after that.

The drone turned its attention to one of its fellows, the War Drones. It stayed in the room, and it now realized that the drone was here so there would be a pair of eyes and ears watching over those undergoing Evolution. So the Hive Queen could look in on the location anytime she chose.

The newly awakened drone hesitantly reached for the other drone’s mind, while it also offered a brief greeting through its body language and subtle variations in its scent. The other drone — a young one, still not past its first Evolution — cocked its head slightly and returned the greeting, but it was different. Then its mind yielded to the drone’s, and it suddenly sensed it a lot better. It even sensed echoes of what the smaller drone was seeing, hearing and smelling. And it realized that the drone was — not waiting for orders, exactly, but ready to receive them.

The same way the newly awakened drone itself had reacted often enough. Towards the important drones, the bigger and stronger ones who were, as it now understood, intelligent people, unlike the Swarm Drones.

It felt briefly disoriented. Experiencing something like this from the other direction was just weird. And it felt like it was missing something. Usually, interacting with another drone like this would have brought a feeling of comfort, of camaraderie. Now, it was more than that, but it also wasn’t that. It felt confused just considering it.

"There’s one thing we should probably clarify first,” the Hive Queen spoke up again, causing the drone’s attention to snap back to her. “Do you already have a name? Do you want to choose one, or do you want me to choose for you?”

The drone froze. It hadn’t even considered that, and it didn’t know what to answer. For a moment, it was paralyzed by uncertainty. But then it realized that this made the answer obvious. “No, I don’t have a name, my Queen.” Shouldn’t she know that, anyway? “And I don’t know how to choose one if I had to. I would … be very happy if you gave me a name, Mother.”

Regina nodded, not showing much of a reaction. “Alright. I’ll give it a bit of thought.”

The drone relaxed, feeling relief sweep through it. “Thank you, my Queen.”

“Okay. Via, let’s get our new friend some fresh air and see if its - I mean - their -“ She paused and looked back at the drone. “What pronoun should we use? I mean, I’ve been calling you all ‘it’, but …“ She looked faintly embarrassed, the drone realized. “That might not be appropriate.”

“I don’t think calling Swarm Drones ‘it’ is a problem, my Queen,” it responded.

She nodded, her body relaxing slightly. “For Swarm Drones in general, alright. But sapient ones might be a bit different. We could stick with ‘it’, or we could use singular ‘they’. Or if you want, you could choose to use ‘he’ or ‘she’, too. I’m pretty sure you’re still basically asexual in the biological sense, but that doesn’t have to mean much. Not like anyone’s going to complain.” She seemed to consider for a second. “On second thought, if someone does complain about something stupid like what pronouns we use, they can go to hell.”

“Oh.” The drone hesitated for a moment, trying to think its way through that matter. It could understand the Hive Queen, perhaps in part because it still got something from her through the psychic link. “I think I can either stick with ‘it’ or choose a gendered pronoun if that makes things easier. Using ‘they’ feels like it might cause confusion, especially with the psychic link connecting our minds, anyway.”

Regina smiled. “That’s about what I was thinking. Using ‘it’ for a person feels a bit weird, personally.”

“Then I can use ‘he’ or ‘she’.” It shrugged. It didn’t really matter. “What name might I get, my Queen?”

“I was thinking I might invert the usual pattern,” she replied. “Maybe a masculine name with two syllables or a feminine with one. So, say, Eli. Or Lyn. Or … Kit.” Her lips twitched slightly.

“Kit.” The drone tried that out. It sounded nice enough. “Okay! Thank you, Mother!” It paused and frowned, something else it couldn’t have done as well before. “That could be a feminine or masculine name, right? Then I’ll go with ‘she/her’.”

Regina smiled. “Good. Can you show me your status, Kit?”

The drone nodded, and made its - her - status visible to the Hive Queen with a focused thought. She immediately noticed that the new name had been filled in.

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