It was a risky plan that was unlikely to be successful. Their plan A.
First they planted a scantid aboard a derelict vessel then activated the distress signal—hoping the battle-frigate would detect it.
Selene then followed the battle-frigate closely enough to control the scantid, but far enough not to be also detected. Which was fairly close thanks to the Sequesters anti-detection systems.
All she had to do then was patiently wait until the scantid was left relatively alone—then had it create a miniature nursery. Melting the wall of it's containment cell.
Once it was free she guided the scantid through the ships ventilation system. Following a blueprint she had in front of her provided by the resistance. Eventually it reached the airlocks and allowed Preston's operative to enter the ship.
He'd latched on when the battle-frigate stopped to pick up the scantid, using his cloaking abilities to conceal himself from detection by the ships exterior scans.
From there Selene's participation was minimal. She just had the scantid leave the ship through the airlock and picked it up later.
But from what she was told the operative went on to hack into the ships security cameras and searched for captain Hyrax's location. During that process he noticed the major and changed his target.
Once he'd taken out his new target he used explosives to leave the ship. He was picked up by The Sequester and dropped back off at the resistance vessel.
Selene explained all this to Raymond as per their agreement to discuss any seedy military actions she did.
..He was surprisingly receptive to it. Only he was disheartened that it was the major. But Selene was too. At least their relationship was mostly professional. She was a good woman but Hyrax wasn't that bad a guy either.
They returned the majors body to the hive and began the conversion process. Just as the resistance resources arrived on Endelon 2.
While the hive grew—so did the colony. The Zykra burrowed deeper caves with wide open chambers for a variety of future purposes. The colonists dropped off trailer-like living spaces and harvesting equipment. Machines unfolded and expanded to mine metals and refine gases from the planet.
All the while the cocoon in the center of the main chamber got larger. Illuminated by the natural light above, she could see the silhouette of a petite asian woman within. Changing more each day.
They made more Zykra. Scantids and munlocs. They began to prepare to travel to a planet nearby to really begin building up their forces. But they had about two hundred or so Zykra in total on hand. Mostly scantids, but two dozen or so munlocs as they were slightly more costly to make.
In the mean time Selene got Zephyr and Danny their pay, and more official positions on the Sequester. Zephyr would manage the ship and Danny would be the mechanic. Doing things they did before Selene had taken control of it.
Her dad would disappear for awhile every so often to help out Preston. Mom and Camden would visit Selene sometimes to check up on her whenever she was in the Sequester.
Life was starting to have a sense of normalcy to it. Peace. A daily ritual.
Wake up, shower, eat, draw, check the Masuka cocoon, sleep, repeat.
Until finally the day came when the new Masuka would emerge. Two weeks since it began growing.
The top broke open emitting steam into the chamber that began to hover near the floor—filling the room. Then it folded open like a flower. With fleshy petals that separated and sprawled out in different directions.
Revealing Masuka standing. Eyes closed. Arms folded and held close to her chest.
She had light green skin.
Slighty darker green scales framed the edges of her body. Like around her face, clavicle, elbows and hips. Her straight shoulder length hair now had a purple sheen to it. And she had two thick antenna's that curved backwards down the length of her back like pigtails, or horns. Her fingers nails were jet black.
Besides from that she seemed relatively herself. A slightly Zykra version of herself—which Selene hoped for.
Dr. Bryant and Selene waited with the other Zykra around the room. Over a hundred eyes looked at Masuka expectantly as the mist gradually cleared.
Selene stepped forward with a blanket and draped it around her.
"..Are you okay? How are you feeling?" she asked.
Her eyes opened then. The iris's were like a vortex of purple surrounding black pits. Slightly glowing. She scanned the room quickly, her eyes flashing with one realization after another. And after a few long moments the short 5"1 woman looked up at Selene with a plain expression.
"What the hell did you do to me?"
Selene flinched and took a step back; "I needed a commander for my Zykra..."
Masuka scanned the room once more before scowling at her; "I remember being on the frigate... What happened?"
"I had a telepath use cloaking abilities and kidnap you. It was supposed to be Hyrax but we accidentally came across you... Sorry." it was a longer story than that obviously, but they would have time to talk about the details.
"I feel... Things that don't make sense." she said after a moment.
Dr. Bryant approached; "You're likely sensing the will of the Zykra around you. Ms. Carrington here is your queen, and these strange feelings are likely loyalty and affection for her. It's perfectly natural—like a familial bond."
"I thought you two were resistance members. That's what Luan and said."
They exchanged a glance at that. Dr. Bryant shook his head; "The resistance are purely a means to an end. Selene will be the one who rules once we defeat the Protectorate. She was assimilated by them to lead and rule the system on their behalf."
Selene clarified; "I'm not sure what things will be like then. All I know is that if I don't rule in some sense that the Zykra will genocide humanity instead."
"And you want me to be a general? Against my own army?"
"Well... Yeah? Even if you think the Protectorate is great as is—the Zykra don't care. This is the only way to preserve any aspect of humanity."
The tiny green woman had a pouty, slightly disgusted expression as she looked at her hands and body. She picked at the bit of green scales that accumulated towards top of her knee.
Dr. Bryant spoke then; "You're an Aboleth. That's the human name for this variant I've chosen. Created using the body and memories of major Masuka. To direct the Zykra in Ms. Carrington's absence. Or to aid her in battles. To fulfill a tactical advisory role."
"I have a lot of questions." she said flatly.
Her stoicism was impressive. Needless to say Selene was surprised by how well Masuka was handling this. Maybe it had something to do with how her own emotions were a bit muted in her Zykra form. Maybe that's how it was for her.
"Sure, of course. Whatever you want Masuka, I just—"
"Don't call me that." she said interrupted. Pulling the white blanket Selene had draped over her closer before looking up at Selene; "Call me Aboleth. I'm not Masuka anymore... I don't know how, b-but I can sense the truth in what you're saying. That if we don't do this—than the Zykra will anyways. And it'll be worse. But, I hate this weird compulsion to like you."
"I can't change that.. I don't think. How could I make it up to you? For all this?" Selene asked. Gesturing to the room around them.
"I can't blame you, of course you would choose me to lead your army. Just... Don't question my decisions. I can tell already it would cause annoyingly confusing feelings. Despite knowing that I am far more knowledgeable than you about battle strategy... I'll need a human aide too. Someone like this guy who can interact with humans on my behalf. I can't change like you apparently can."
Selene was fine with that.. She earnestly wanted Masuka to be as independent and herself as possible, and maybe the Zykra genome was picking up on that.
"Yeah, whatever you want. We'll find someone we can trust and—"
"And I need clothes. A uniform like my old one. If we're going to be running a Zykra / human faction in competition for control over the sector against puck and the resistance, we'll need uniforms anyway. Green, judging by the aesthetic of this hive."
'Wow, she sure has a lot of ideas.' Selene thought, the corners of her lips twitching upwards.
"We'll talk more after we get you dressed. Just know that whenever I'm not around—it'd be nice if you could keep the Zykra behaving themselves around humans."
"I'm not an idiot Selene. You don't have to say the obvious. I get it... Just assume I already know before you give any 'orders'.. I'll make a list of stuff I want, but I expect a degree of autonomy when it comes to the Zykra. For example, I'll begin battle simulations. Testing different strategies to use against the Protectorates armed forces. We'll need access to every one of these... 'Variants' as feasibly possible. For example-" she looked to Dr. Bryant then. "What was that giant flying variant capable of warp travel?"
He swiped a hand across his tablet a few times and showed it to her. An image of the massive Zykra they saw on Lamda that day.
"A Caasiok. They are a cornerstone to Zykra forces for inter-planetary travel. You will find that they are quite formidable and more than a match for the Protectorates own battle-frigates. Ku'senai has informed me greatly about them. But birthing such a creature would require a great amount of biomass. We'll have to find another world to do so, less we want this world to be blanketed in chitinous growths."
Aboleth nodded. "Very well. Let's travel to this other planet then. We need one as soon as possible. Also—will my ability to command be affected by great distances?"
"Very astute major- Aboleth." he corrected himself quickly.
"There is another Zykra variant that is used to transmit and receive commands across different worlds. Psyphera, I've dubbed them. We can create it now using our current stores of biomass."
Aboleth looked towards her then.
"-See to it Selene, I assume that's what that acid bath over there is for?"
Selene's brow twitched. "Who's the queen here?" she grumbled before going over to the pool.
She raised a hand above it.
After a quiet moment a larvae splashed out of it and curled around her palm. It's tiny face looked towards her with gently twitching antenna.
She carried it over to the biomass stockpile and said; "Psyphera", imagining the sort of creature Dr. Bryant described. It dropped and burrowed into the pile of animal bodies and brown slime.
"Anything else?" she asked Dr. Bryant. "I wanted to spend some time with Camden today. I promised I wouldn't be a stranger."
"That should be all for now, thank you Ms. Carrington. I will catch Aboleth up on the events up until now and see to her requests. We will need to transfer her to another planet using the Sequester once the Psyphera is birthed. It'll likely be tomorrow night."
"Sounds good to me..." she went to leave but stopped. She turned to face Aboleth again; "A lot of this Zykra stuff is a secret Aboleth. So if you could avoid walking around the colony that'd be great."
Aboleth glared at her as her response.
Selene harumphed and left the hive then. Transforming back and dressing in her normal clothes.
She had wanted Masuka to retain some sense of self and her old personality, but that was before she was reminded of just how much of a brat she was.
Oh well. It was nice to have someone else fidget over the Zykra related details of her life for once. Uniforms... for crying out loud. It's not like they had a lot of human members... What other crazy ideas would she have?