Al said, “Oh you’ve done it now. Excuse me while I go hide.”
“You big sissy.”
“Shut up, Fly Girl.”
Tag looked at Matt and said, “What’s going on here?”
“I’m having a conversation with the Eight Leg Commander of the mother ship. It seems that he has had an epiphany about life and death since his Nest Mother has just consumed eight million ships just like his. He seems to know that he’s next. I was telling him how we are angry about all the civilizations he’s destroyed and he asked if I consumed protein. I told him yes but not intelligent beings. He asked me to please explain the difference and I really didn’t know how to answer him. Do any of you have a suggestion?”
The five looked at Matt like he had three heads. “What possessed you to open a conversation,” Danielle asked?
Al said, “That Eight Legs started it; he opened all his ports inviting us to kill him.”
Tag said, “If you don’t mind, Al. I would like to hear Matt’s ideas.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I’ll shut up.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Ok then. I’ll keep quiet.”
Matt laughed and said, “I’d give up if I were you, Tag.”
“You better listen to him, Your majesty.”
Tag looked at Matt and he said, “That was Melanie’s ship, Fly Girl.”
“Oh, alright, this is an open conversation.”
“So how do you explain the difference,” Al asked?
“Before I even get into that, I want to know why we should communicate with him under any circumstances.”
Matt smiled and said, “Tag, look at that ship and tell me what your sense of danger tells you.”
Tag closed his eyes and felt no danger then opened them, “You’ve made your point but I still see no reason to talk with our enemy.”
“I didn’t see anything else to do. If I destroyed him when he opened his doors then my ships would not get the practice they need. I thought I’d ask him to close them so we could destroy him later.”
Danielle started snickering and soon everyone started laughing. Finally Matt asked, “So how do I tell him the difference?”
Twig looked at him and said, “From the perspective of the one being consumed there is no difference.”
Matt’s face lit up. “Thanks, Twig. I think I have an answer. Is it alright to continue my dialogue?”
Everyone looked at each other saying nothing. Al piped up, “I know ya gotta be curious about how these creatures think.”
Tag sighed and said, “Go ahead.”
Matt turned and looked at the huge ship on his display, “I think I have an answer for you.”
“Did it take that long to figure it out?”
“Quite honestly, I had to ask for help. The main difference between consuming lower life forms and intelligent life forms is the amount of pain endured by knowing what’s coming. Intelligent life forms suffer much longer and much more intensely anticipating their death. Kind of like what you’re going through now.”
There was silence and then the Ship’s Male thought, “I think I can see what you’re saying. There is also the struggle to survive that places intense pressure on those being consumed. I am sorry for what pain I’ve caused. Even if a meal tastes better, that doesn’t make it right to cause that kind of torment. I’m sorry I bothered you. I don’t blame you for not wanting to assist us.”
“What were you thinking we could do to help?”
“My former commander, before he was consumed, thought you had a way to hide a planet. If you did possess that kind of technology, I would want to try and get you to hide us when the full harvest starts.”
“When you opened your ports, did you believe that we could destroy your ship?”
“I believed you have a way of destroying our ships. I didn’t know if you could destroy one this big.”
“We are going to stop your species from consuming us. Can you just sit by and watch us destroy those of your kind that are coming?”
“We have sat by for millions of years and watched our leaders destroy millions of us. Watching you do it wouldn’t be much of a change. If you were going to be eaten by some members of your species, would you worry about whether or not they were killed when they came close to where you were hiding?”
“You don’t understand; I intend to kill every member of your species and stop this killing of intelligent life.”
“Do you think you can do that?”
‘I don’t know, but I intend to try.”
“Can’t say that I blame you for that, however, what if my children and I agree to never consume another intelligent species. Would that remove us from the list of those you intend to destroy?”
“Damn if I know. That’s a question that I would need to take up with my leaders. However, how could I trust that you would keep your commitment?”
“Well, that’s a tough question. From what you’ve just told me I can assume that you can destroy my ship even if my ports were closed?”
“I really think we could and I was hoping to give it a try when you came here but with your ports open it just wouldn’t allow us to try our best weapons on you.”
“My but you sound like someone I might recognize. Perhaps you’re not so much different from us as I thought.”
Matt flinched at the observation and immediately felt a sense of guilt. He didn’t want to but he was starting to like this Eight Legs.
“However, the only way to see if we keep our promise is to just see. A person who is facing death will promise everything. We aren’t facing it at this very moment so our promise might have more weight than the moment just before your best weapons hit my ship.”
Tag was shaking his head. He was trying not to smile but wasn’t being successful.
Sprig thought, “Could the rest of your species resist consuming intelligent civilizations?”
“You sound different from the first being. The answer to your question is no. They cannot nor will they want to resist changing their eating habits.”
“What makes you and your children different?”
“After our last harvest we were not successful in gathering a good meal. We went hungry for a long time. That’s why we were sent here first. I think that lack of a big meal has made a difference in us. The time we’ve spent chasing you around several systems has also thinned us. I can sense my children and they, like I, don’t have the insatiable hunger for intelligence that others of my species possess. I don’t know how to answer your question except to say that we can harvest life forms that are not intelligent for our meals. I am the surviving leader of my family and my children will follow my orders. That’s how we are made. My connection to the Nest Mother died with my Supreme Male; she no longer has any control over me.”
“I don’t understand what you mean by control?”
“The Supreme Male of each family has total control over every member. They are chosen by the Nest Mother and when they are selected she downloads into them a compulsion to give her all that they learn. The Supreme Males do this by downloading a copy of everything the children gathered during the harvest. The Supreme Male also puts that compulsion into his children so that they will surrender their harvest when ordered by him. There is no choice; we are compelled by forces we cannot resist when those orders are given.”
Matt thought a moment, “So why are things different for you now?”
“Because the Nest Mother consumed my entire family with all of the Ship’s Males and the Supreme Male. The compulsion placed in me by my ship’s former commander which came from the Supreme Male ended with the death of the Supreme Male. The Nest Mother consumed my family’s Supreme Male before my ship was taken. I have looked at my data banks and I cannot find anywhere in our history where that has ever happened. Usually every ship is downloaded, or consumed if punished, after the harvest is completed so that all ships are present. My ship is the first ship to ever be completely free of the compulsion passed down by the Nest Mother. I can feel it and so can my children. We are, for the moment, free.”