They Answered The Call

Eleani System, Earth year 2173 A.D.

The human scientist was sleeping at her desk when a strident alert pierced her dream, startling her awake. She lifted her head and stared at the screen as she barely registered the data. She was just about to press the next specimen icon when she saw the neural tissue.

Still fighting off the last vestiges of sleep, she jerked out of her seat and ran towards the table the corpse was on and adjusted some parameters, looking at the diagnostic screen as it confirmed the findings.

“Hoo, oh boy.” She muttered excitedly as she keyed the communicator. “Owen, get down here now!” she yelled as she moved the scanner arm back over the head of the corpse. A few seconds later, Owen came running into the lab, out of breath.

“What is it, Emily?” He gasped out as he quickly started absorbing the data that was displayed on the screens. “Oh.” He whispered to himself as he tried to calm himself down. He looked over the scan results again slowly and confirmed what he was seeing.

Emily pinched the neural tissue display and flicked it onto the large holo screen on the lab wall, and they both gasped as details started popping up. The scanner continued its deep scan of the insectoid head, making thrumming noises as it moved all around.

It showed a 3D representation of a folded brain with six lobes that rotated, while other screens showed nanoscale slices from the side and front as more information appeared on the screens. “This must be a queen. Look at the density of the cortex and the size of the mushroom bodies.” Emily's fingers typed furiously on the virtual keyboard while continuing to change perspectives as she analyzed the brain structures.

Owen nodded in agreement and tapped an icon on a screen that showed a brain organ that was listed as uncategorized. “I bet this is the command/control organ that allows them to control the drones.” He looked at Emily, smiling. “We are going to get a Nobel prize for this.”

The next day, Owen and Emily were standing nervously in front of a conference table as they waited for the attendees to find their seats. Admiral Thompson waited till everyone found their seats and then looked at the scientists and nodded that they should begin.

Emily took the lead and started the presentation. “I am Dr. Emily Ariti, and this is Dr. Owen Masiello. We specialize in entomology, the study of insects.” She looked at Owen, and he started flicking scans onto the holo screen on the wall from his data pad as she continued speaking. “We believe this specimen we retrieved after the battle is a queen, and these are the scan results that are being displayed.”

She paused as the Eleani delegation murmured while the humans just sat there waiting. She waited for the attendees to stop talking before continuing to speak. “I can see from your reaction that this has never happened before, so I will continue the presentation.”

Over the next two hours, both Emily and Owen took turns as they went over the scans and presented their evidence and why they believed this was a queen. They highlighted the differences between the brains of the suspected queen and the drones and outlined their theories about how the queens controlled their drones and what kind of command structure would exist.

When they finished their presentation, it was an Eleani neuroscientist who asked the first question. “What kind of intelligence are we talking about here? These scans show that the cortex is highly complex, and the folds coupled with the six lobes show a highly evolved capacity for thought and information processing.”

The two scientists looked at each other quickly before Emily answered. “Based on our findings, we can confidently say that the queen has the processing power equivalent to twenty human brains, possibly more.”

There was a stirring at the table as they absorbed her response, and she continued speaking. “Everything we have seen shows that the queen is a highly intelligent organism, with the same capacity for emotion, imagination, and rational thought as us. This, coupled with her enormous processing power, has helped to answer some questions we had regarding how an Insectoid hive species has developed the ability to create a technological civilization such as theirs.” She looked at Owen and nodded to him.

Owen started flicking scans of the drone brains on the holo screen and highlighted an organ that was offset from the drone brain and connected by a thin tube of tightly twisted filaments. “Initially, we thought this organ was how drones received instructions, or maybe even possibly was an unused vestigial part of the brain since it is not part of the brain structure itself, much like our appendix. However, the sheer density of the neurons inside of it makes little sense for both explanations, unless you throw a queen into the equation.”

Owen started becoming excited as he continued to talk. “We now think that this serves a function much like an external data port the queen can access to increase her own processing power or to activate it and allow the drone to engage in complex tasks normally beyond their abilities. Factor in the ability of this organ to serve both purposes over millions of drones, and now you could problem-solve and engage in complex tasks on a massive scale with a queen overseeing them.”

Owen flicked some research papers onto the holo screen and highlighted some parts as he continued speaking.

“We have long theorized on the probability of a sapient insect species for hundreds of years. Even the simple insects of our world display intelligence and sentience, but we have seen no evidence of sapience. Several theories have outlined how an insect species might create a technological civilization and achieve spaceflight, though the odds are almost impossible because of many factors.”

“There are three main theories on how this might be possible. First, the insect civilization develops sapience and then slowly advances over millions of years because of the tech tree bottlenecks they would experience since so few of them are capable of intelligent thought and invention.”

He paused, holding up a hand with two fingers extended before proceeding.

“Two, that they come into contact with another species, and either through uplifting or exposure to alien technology, they gain a jump start in technological ability and continue to innovate over millions of years.”

Owen paused again and added a third finger to the hand he was holding up.

“Three, that the queens themselves achieve a level of intelligence and capability that far surpasses that of individuals of species that have an advanced, technological society. This superintelligence, for lack of a better description, would allow a species that only has a few thousand such beings to invent and innovate rapidly despite there being so few of them.

It took humanity almost 100 cycles and the involvement of tens of thousands of scientists working together to create the first successful fusion reactors. If one queen put herself to the task with a few million drones and activated their extra brainpower capabilities, it might only take her 50 cycles, even less if another queen was involved.”

Owen finished speaking and stepped back next to Emily, nervously waiting for questions.

It was Admiral Thompson who spoke first, rubbing at his temples as he organized his thoughts. "This is not good. You are basically telling us we are fighting a species of super-intelligent wasps with absolute control over trillions of drones. What effect will this have on our war effort moving forward?" He asked as he unhappily eyed the two scientists who had just dropped a huge crap sandwich on his already overflowing plate.

Emily answered first. “Admiral, we cannot accurately predict what they will do next or what effect our victory will have on their tactics. I can tell you that there is no doubt in my mind that the queens have learned from the battle and have probably already run through millions of permutations, much like your AI wargaming does when you run simulations.”

As the human and Eleani observers started nervously conferring among themselves, Owen stepped forward and pulled up the scans of what he suspected was the command/control organ and highlighted it.

“I would like to add something if I may,” he said, getting their attention. "I believe this organ allows them to communicate with and control the drones, and I suspect it is also the source of their telepathic abilities. There have been no recorded communications or even signal emissions from their ships that would show that they talk to each other. They must be speaking to each other with their thoughts."

Admiral Thompson put up his hand to silence the observers as they responded with questions and waited for them to stop talking. “What are you proposing, Dr. Masiello?" The admiral asked, looking at him intently. Owen looked back at the scans, thinking for a few moments, and then turned back around to face the admiral.

"I want to capture some live drones and a queen and bring them back here for study. If we can figure out a way to disrupt the communication between the queens and the drones, we can severely disrupt their ability to function and basically decapitate their command-and-control abilities.”

The Admiral sat back and stared at the scientists as he thought about the ramifications this would have and the dangers of attempting a recon and prisoner snatch in insectoid territory. As all this new information threatened to make his mild headache turn into a migraine, he decided and pointed at the two entomologists.

“Continue your efforts and keep me updated, no matter how small or trivial the information may seem. Submit all requests for whatever you need to my office, and I will approve it immediately. Thank you for your informative and in-depth presentation. Are there any saved rounds?” He asked, looking around the conference table.

There were none, and he stood up, pressing the holo recorder save icon now that the presentation was over. He walked over to the two scientists and shook their hands as the observers exited the conference room.

When everyone had left, he smiled at the two nervous scientists and simply said, “Well done, doctors. Here is my private comm node. Please use it if you need me or run into any problems.” Owen took the comm node with a sheepish grin, while Emily just stared at the admiral with barely concealed adoration.

After an awkward moment of silence, the admiral clapped his hands and, in a lighthearted tone, said, “Well, what the hell are you still standing here for? Let’s get to work!” He smiled to himself as he watched them hurry to the conference room door, and they both tried to get through it, bumping into each other and dropping data pads.

He turned away to save them from the embarrassment of realizing that he saw them and keyed his communicator to a dual frequency. He requested the commanders of the Recon and Pathfinder regiments meet him in the wardroom for lunch in 30 minutes.

He laughed to himself while he left the conference room, as both commanders had constantly complained for months about how their men were going soft with nothing to do on his ships. Maybe a prisoner snatch mission on the surface of an Insectoid world will finally shut them the hell up.