Kalsa Warrior Korak had been on Entrance Duty for the last 15 hours. She was sick and tired of it, but she was due to finish in a few minutes. She’d arranged to spend an hour with her best friend Talok, also the leader of Group A-L, her Kalsa regiment. They’d been meaning to get together for weeks, but pretty much every Kalsa Warrior in the nest had been worked to near death lately. Why? Queen Tayra was in one of her bad moods. Again.
Finally, the bell sounded and Korak could finally relax. Immediately, she was met by another of her regiment, good old Levuk. But Levuk had a horrible look on his face, as horrible a look as a featureless Vohra could have.
“Levuk, what’s wrong?” Korak immediately picked up on her friend’s uneasiness.
“I… I don’t know how to say this…” Levuk leaned against the wall. He’d raced up to find Korak, hoping to be the first to find her. “It’s about Talok…”
“What about him?” Immediately, Korak started to worry. Talok was one of the best-behaved Kalsa Warriors in the nest. Apart from a single incident a few years back, Queen Tayra loved him. Because of Talok, every Kalsa Warrior got an extra three hours off last Macromera.
Levuk started to tear up. “He… Tayra… She…”
“Calm down, Levuk. Look at me and tell it to me straight.”
Levuk couldn’t help but start crying. “SHE MADE HIM TURN. SHE GOT BORED AND ANGRY AND…” The green Vohra burst into tears. Korak didn’t need to hear any more, she knew what had happened.
“B-but Talok wasn’t due to go Varga for another twenty years…”
“She got bored…” Levuk whimpered between rubbing his eyes and sniffing. “Her last few Varga pets didn’t please her so she just grabbed him and injected him with the hormone serum and oh gods it was horrible…”
Korak slumped down next to Levuk. She wasn’t crying out loud, but inside, she was heart-broken. The plan had always been, in twenty years when she was due to become a Vayra, Talok would be by her side as her Varga, not as a mindless beast like most Varga, but as her rightful partner. Her pain was interrupted by the sound of others arriving.
“You heard?” Gasik shouted as she ran towards them, followed by the rest of the regiment. With Talok out of the picture, Korak was now the new leader of their regiment.
Korak nodded. Something inside her snapped. So many years, so much torment. She’d lost so many of her friends because of their pathetic, ill-tempered queen. After wiping the tears from her eyes, Korak stood up to address her regiment. They all waited eagerly, feeling the exact same way she felt.
“Brothers and sisters…” Korak paused. She knew that it was her duty to get them all back on track and back to work, but she couldn’t do it. She’d had enough. “Seal every entrance and exit. I will call a meeting with Groups A-K and A-M. It is time to end our queen’s tyranny.”
Korak watched as the faces of her fellow Kalsa Warriors lit up. Without hesitation, they raced off, doing as their new leader demanded.