In obedience to the Commander's order, the head of the institute began to open this gate.
"These are all the hive-race corpses sent to our institute in the past. Because our purpose here is the study of the interstellar hive-race, and we require that every place send over all the various captured hive-race units. But in truth a great many are gravely wounded after a battle. Sent here, they are half dead already, and before long they give up the ghost altogether. Add to that the hive-race that die in our experiments. So a great quantity of hive-race corpses has come forth. These corpses are hard to deal with for the present; and to throw them out as space junk outright would not be seemly. So we store them all here, awaiting later handling." As the head of the institute explained, the great door opened wholly.
This was an exceedingly vast storeroom.
When Zhao Chen walked in at the door, the head of the institute very thoughtfully handed him a face-mask besides.
"The smell within is somewhat heavy; when you come out you must all change your clothes, and be disinfected," said the head of the institute, putting one upon Hive Princess as well, and one upon herself.
And followed Zhao Chen in.
The three of them stood upon a stairway, with vast space overhead and underfoot alike.
And within this place were heaped great quantities of hive-race corpses, some so maimed and broken that their original shape could no longer be made out.
Zhao Chen looked round about; there was nothing of value.
And he made ready to turn and go.
But having walked a few steps, he found that Hive Princess still stood where she was.
"Little Bug, let us go back."
He called once, and Hive Princess gave no answer.
"Little Bug?" Zhao Chen walked over and called again.
Only then did he find that within her face-mask, Hive Princess's face was already streaming with tears, enough to blur the mask.
Hive Princess simply took the mask off outright; her face all traced with tears, she pointed at those corpses. "They say… they want to go home…"
Zhao Chen looked at Hive Princess in astonishment. "Go home? Didn't you say you could establish no connection with them? How is it you hear their words now, and they are dead, besides?"
"Little Bug does not know. Little Bug only hears that they want to go home……" Hive Princess said in a small voice.
"But… this… how are they to go home?" Zhao Chen said helplessly.
"Can you give them all to Little Bug?" Hive Princess asked with great care.
Zhao Chen thought a moment, and said, "You must first tell me what you mean to do."
Hive Princess opened her mouth, and seemed not to know how to put it.
She simply jumped up onto the stair-rail outright, then spread both arms, closed her eyes, and faced the sea of corpses opposite.
From somewhere upon Hive Princess there came forth things like dandelion seeds, one after another, drifting toward the sea of hive-race corpses.
When these dandelion seeds settled upon the sea of corpses, they very soon became brown fruits.
These brown fruits, before long, split apart.
And out of them crawled small bugs, one after another.
And these small bugs began to eat the sea of bugs, their bodies growing at a speed visible to the eye.
Zhao Chen saw with his own eyes one small bug that had been no bigger than a thumb-joint become, in a bare ten minutes, the size of a small car.
This speed of growth was too terrible.
"What is this thing?" Zhao Chen was astonished past measure.
"This should be a hive-race spore." The head of the institute at his side had already begun to record all this, and analyzed it besides out of her own experience.
"A hive-race spore?" Zhao Chen could not help recalling the hive-race spore virus that had brought bad memories before.
At that time the Doctor, relying upon this virus, had spread it directly through scores of star systems, so that the people of scores of star systems became hive-race, a thing that might be called the world's end among men.
"This is one of the ways the hive-race breed. When we dissect and study those Hive Motherships, we find that some of the higher-grade Hive Motherships have within their bodies a spore chamber set apart, just as the ovary is with the women of our Human Race. There they store great quantities of these hive-race spores; and once they meet with an environment fit for breeding and growth, they put these hive-race spores forth. After a hive-race spore is born, it eats the food about it, and makes itself grow and evolve without cease. Those interstellar hive-race swarms we met with before could expand without cease by just this means. Once come to a planet, they breed without cease in this way," the head of the institute explained.
Zhao Chen knit his brows slightly.
Then what was Hive Princess doing this for now?
After about ten minutes, Hive Princess opened her eyes again.
She came back to Zhao Chen's side and pointed at the scene before them. "This is what I meant to do. These small bugs will eat up these corpses, and become big bugs. And then these big bugs can return to our home, which is the same as bearing the hive-race dead home. We of the hive-race have a belief: the death of the body is not true death. The kindred will eat the bodies of kindred already dead, and carry their will onward. I too will bear them home!"
"Which is to say, then, that you can control them?" Zhao Chen asked.
Hive Princess nodded.
Another thought sprang up suddenly in Zhao Chen's mind.
"Let me ask you. Suppose that you were given a greater number of such hive-race corpses. Could you turn them all into normal hive-race under your control?" Zhao Chen said gravely.
Hive Princess thought a while and said, "There should be no problem. Those bad little bugs outside, Little Bug cannot control. But the little bugs here, Little Bug can control."
"Go and arrange it at once……" Zhao Chen looked toward the head of the institute beside him, and at once charged her with another experiment.
The content was very simple.
It was to put a bad little bug to death outright.
And then bring it before Hive Princess, and let Hive Princess try whether, using the corpse of this creature that had been a bad little bug, she could breed hive-race under her control.
The whole experiment went very smoothly.
The new hive-race bred out were wholly under Hive Princess's control.
And they had none of that blood-thirsty, cruel manner of before.
When Zhao Chen and the rest walked before several great flesh-grubs like tanks, these great grubs even shrank together in their timidity, with not the least intent of attacking.
For this, Zhao Chen arranged besides for some other people to make trial.
Whether they walked up before them, or touched them, the creatures showed no ill will whatever.
They were, simply, as two different bugs from those cruel interstellar hive-race swarms!
With this much verified, that plan in Zhao Chen's heart might be counted the greater part accomplished.
Zhao Chen and Hive Princess, having cleaned their bodies, came into a room.
"Little Bug, I have a matter to talk over with you."
Hive Princess looked at Zhao Chen in doubt.
"Didn't we agree before to work together? Don't you wish to return to your own homeland, and take vengeance upon Order? All this needs strong fighting power. You have seen it yourself; my army is at war with Order now. Are you willing to give your ability for this? I shall help you build a hive-race fleet of your own!" Zhao Chen stared at Hive Princess, and spoke out his own thought!