POD (The Pattern Universe) by Tobias Roote Read Free Book Online Page A

debris could knock one or more workers off the surface, so it was very dangerous work. The higher classes worked inside.
    The ship had become accidentally trapped which, unfortunately, disabled its shields and cloak, leaving it at the mercy of the Shadow-ship that flew to intercept it. After being threatened with disintegration, the being had managed to transfer itself by unknown means, to an area below the palace which housed Nubl relics of times long past.
    Discovered by the clones working in their museum, it was quickly cornered. As soon as it was understood the intruder was a biological being, the area was closed off and the warrior clones moved in to finish it off.
    By chance, one of the sentinel clones had access to one of the relic machines that identified the being as the hated enemy of the Nubl, the Jenari. At that moment the Queen, who had been following the scene with mild interest, became animated and excited. It was no longer a minor issue, the Queen now took control.
    They were summoned to bring it to the Palace. Its fate would be meted out by the Queen's hand. They forced the being to accompany them by jabbing it with their electrical prods, the usual tool of the warrior clones when bullying and chivvying the workers.
    The Queen waited impatiently for their arrival in the throne room. Summoning the group to her, she looked at the being that had been the ancient enemy of the Nubl; it was silver-skinned, her memories did not recollect its colour being so. She quickly decided the matter was irrelevant and approached it with such ferocity that it caused the Jenari to step back in fear, directly into the prods that forced it to a halt, its pain evident. She sneered in arrogant satisfaction.
    The Queen surveyed the living creature with the accumulated disgust born of millennia. It was an abhorrent thing but was the first Jenari being discovered for many thousands of years. All hives believed their greatest enemy had been eradicated. Yet, after aeons of thinking them to be extinct, here stood one, perhaps even the last.
    The Queen opened her neural channels deciding to broadcast to all her clones and drones, the visual and sensual experience of having this, their greatest of all enemies here, at her mercy. She would allow them to share and savour the experience for it was one that would be forever remembered.
    The excited feedback at the anticipation of killing a sentient, caused the black tar-like venom in the Crystal Queens' Jew-claw to pump prematurely to the surface where the lethal concoction bubbled precariously at the very tip.
    The long unfelt ecstasy almost caused her to rush, potentially diminishing the rare thrill of talon sinking deeply into flesh; of watching while her poison caused unimaginable agony while burning through flesh, reducing everything it touched to acrid embers.
    She extended the claw malevolently toward the open and inviting throat of the being's silvery skin, now beaded with perspiration and fluttering with tension. The dark viscous globule, falling prey to the asteroids gravity, slid down the side of her talon, dripping ominously onto the collar of his grey jacket. The burning hiss of acidic corrosion created noxious fumes as it instantly dissolved the fabric.
    The silver being’s nostrils flared, reacting to the fumes. His body desperately attempted a flight response to the threat of imminent extinction which screamed for him to run, but the thrall of the Crystal Queen held him. Instead, he tottered, back and forth, on the tips of his toes as she toyed with him, willing him onto her waiting talon.
    Fighting all the way, his will finally succumbed. He leaned forward to impale himself on her expectant claw. Then just as she felt her approaching climax, his presence shimmered, faded. Then, with the sound of air popping from the inward rush of air racing to fill the vacuum, the alien disappeared.
    The thwarted Queen, seeing him disappear before her very eyes and inadvertently transmitting