Dark Intelligence (2015) by Neal Asher

Author:Neal Asher [Asher, Neal]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781597808248
Google: oy-6oQEACAAJ
Amazon: 1597808245
Goodreads: 22859850
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published: 2015-02-02T11:00:00+00:00

THE WAR: RISS

It was always like coming home, because this was the place she was made for: the odour of decay on a seashore, the clattering and bubbling of prador speech and the constant background rumble of their hard armoured feet traversing the corridors. The spatters of green blood on stone signified the casual violence of the hierarchy and, as constant background, she could hear the hiss and rumble of heavy hydraulics and the sounds of other positively antediluvian machines. These were all the sights, smells and sounds of a prador dreadnought. Coiled in an alcove, she was loaded with limeworm eggs and concealed by chameleonware. She’d located one of those hiding places second-children used if they wanted to avoid a cracked shell from any passing first-child. Here Riss, assassin drone, Special Series Seven, awaited the arrival of her first victim.

It had been surprisingly easy to get aboard. Something major had happened in the Prador Kingdom, which was causing disarray out here on the front. Three prador capital ships had abruptly retreated from Polity forces that they could’ve easily overcome. They’d now gathered to orbit this system’s single ice giant, as something about said major event had called for a mandible-to-mandible meeting between the three father-captains. Their security had been almost non-existent, contemptuous, even. It had therefore taken little effort for Riss to attach herself to a shuttle, slipping inside the ship where the meeting was taking place. Riss had some interest in the events that had led to this meeting, but her main focus was on her mission. Her awareness was taken up with the tight gravid feeling of her meta-material body, and the urge to relieve herself of that feeling by depositing her millions of parasite eggs amidst as many prador as possible. Until that moment, she kept them warm, alive and cosy in a special container inside her, in her womb, her children …

Such was the frantic activity aboard this ship that it wasn’t long before a second-child—a nicely healthy specimen with just a few healing cracks in its shell—felt the need to dodge into the alcove to avoid two first-children facing off in the corridor. Riss uncoiled as the second-child backed towards her, raised her cobra head and darted forwards. She brought the underside of her spread hood down onto the young prador’s shell. It was done gently, almost caressingly, but the sticky lower surface adhered to the carapace. She then squeezed just a few hundred of the microscopic eggs into a pressure chamber at the base of her collimated diamond ovipositor, hooped her body up into a loop, and drove in the long thin spike. She precisely targeted a juncture between one back limb and the main body. With a minor convulsion, she injected the eggs, then immediately flipped herself away into the back of the alcove, ensuring her chameleonware was still optimal even while she revelled in a feeling that was almost … orgasmic.

The second-child whirled round, its claws up and snapping at the air.

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