Dawn by M.B. Wood

Author:M.B. Wood [Wood, M. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WordFire Press

Even though Nah-Kih strived mightily to forge a consensus, the Hive-Mothers soon reverted to their quarrelsome ways. A few tried to short-change their contribution to the effort and some tried to profit excessively from their construction activities.

I, Kot-Nih, saw much of this first forelimb. Indeed, the burden of feeding the workforce at the asteroid manufacturing center soon became onerous. Levy-workers had to be diverted to food production. As a result, the size of the planned fleet was reduced, not once, but twice.

It was about then Nah-Kih got plans for new weapons from the archives beneath the Shrine of the Mother, weapons from the dark ages of destruction, weapons of fearsome design. She persuaded the head priest this was acceptable since it was only for the holy war effort. The conservative Hive-Mothers believed this was nigh on heresy, and by comparison, the crimes of Suh-Joh appeared less vile.

Even with levy-workers assigned to food production, hunger stalked Hool. The ancient curse of raiding—the practice of taking food and servants by force reemerged. At first, the Coven of Hive-Mothers took action against the offenders, but as hunger increased, the raiders soon learned to destroy their victims’ hives, thus leaving no witnesses to their crimes.

With fear of destruction uppermost in thought, a smaller hive moved from the surface of Hool out to the manufacturing asteroid and took over a partially completed ship. They moved into the one of the larger battleships, and once ensconced, they activated its weapons and defied any to remove them. Of course, no one could. Yet, an odd thing happened as a result. You see, with the discipline of a hive, the battleship’s completion moved forward at a faster pace. There were more workers available than needed to complete the ship they’d taken over, so, the ship-hive earned supplies by supplying its excess workers to other craft under construction.

The unexpected success of the first ship-hive takeover prompted others to do the same. Some of the hives that followed this example were not so small and were not fleeing to escape certain destruction. Ambitious Hive-Mothers who had spoken of their desire to start a hive on the Water-Gem world led those who took over other ships. Their action, it was clear, was to ensure they would get the first pick of the best locations on the new world where they planned to set up their new hive.

Since I did not travel with the fleet, I view images from the records in the archives. Even those poor holo-images conveyed the size of the holy fleet. There were those who spoke in awe of the assembled might of Hool, and likened it to the restoration of the greatness of Hool to the levels seen in its glory days. It must have been a sight to be seen.…

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