“What’s going on, Talok?”
Nineteen Vahla gathered around their temporary new boss. As leader of the Vahla, Talok was next in line when it came to running Vohra Nest 3730. But this was an unnatural situation for all involved. Normally, whenever a queen died, a new one would be sent within twenty four hours, especially in nests that generated supplies for other nests.
“I… Uh…” Talok sighed. His first words as leader were the opposite of inspiring. “As you all know already, our Queen is dead. This has caused telepathic disruptions, and is the reason why I am calling you all here, while the rest of the nest goes to sleep… I’ll be honest with you. We are all Vahrga right now. We are all in a bad place.”
“Why?” Korok, one of the younger Vahla, asked. He had been at the front of the disaster, pulling his fellow Vohra from the wreckage and getting them to safety. “Are we being punished for this accident?”
“Yes, we are!” Lefak shouted. “We get given faulty equipment and when it blows up in our eyes, we are to blame!”
“How?” Korok was confused. “Are they… abandoning us?”
Talok nodded. “We get one last ship of food supplies, and that is it. The nest is being shut down.”
“Are there any plans being made for us and our fellow Vohra? If the nest is being shut down…” Korok hesitated. “Surely we will not be abandoned.”
Gelek, one of the older Vahla, simply growled. “They are not sending anything. This food ship will last us for a month, enough to try and get as many Vohra out of here as possible.”
“How are we going to do that with no transport ships?” Lefak interrupted. “The ships we have here are not designed to carry Vohra, no more than four at a time, and we have three thousand Vohra we need to relocate! This is assuming that other nests will take sec-used Vohra! They certainly will not take all of us Vahla.”
“There has to be somewhere we can go…” Gelek grunted. “Why would the Top Queens leave us completely alone?”
“Because…” Lefak didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know. Maybe it IS some sort of punishment, simply for not pulling our weight. Maybe they will change their minds. Only the Dark Lord knows. And we all know that the Queens have completely shunned our beliefs in favour of a new goddess…”
Nivak, the eldest Vahla of the nest, had been sitting in silence this entire time, listening to his younger siblings.
“They want us dead.”
“Pardon?” Talok turned to face Nivak. “Dead?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because we no longer serve them as efficiently as they want. That is all. They do this all the time. Other nests disappear, no one notices, no one cares. We are all replaceable.”
Talok sighed. Everyone knew that Nivak was right. But he didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t want to fade into obscurity.
“Then we do something about it. We… I think we have to reach out. Outside the Vohra… Maybe… trade with other species…”
Gelek tutted. “No one will do that! Where do we even begin?”
“We could…” Talok hesitated. “We could contact the Dessaron… They always said they’d help anyone…”