Queenscode

She opens the sequencer, and searches out a small vial from among hundreds. Blackness oozes within: tiny clumps of locomotive organisms, barely visible to Rook’s surgical eyes. She had to take a sample from a facehugger once, and she can’t look at it without thinking of the snap of the noxhydria’s fingers.

She calls this variant the “Queenscode.” It’s the same editor organism that Blue applied to the rat, but with some switches flipped inside the Hox genes. She’s only made a small modification, but it’ll change the entire outcome.

She hopes.

Plagiarus praepotens has proven a pain to edit. It’s in the nature of the organism to create monsters, and her mimic samples often regress to their original code through a process Blue doesn’t yet understand. The more Blue plays with it, the more she comes to believe it didn’t evolve naturally. It bears some biomarkers that imply domestication.

Someone has been tinkering with this organism, and she can see why. Within its potential lies another creature, larger than the drones—something she hasn’t yet seen. Perhaps they reproduce through alternation of generation, like moon jellies or moss. Given the nature of the eggs, Blue is betting on a queen of some kind.

***

Alien: Into Charybdis, Interlude: Blue