Waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat was something that hadn't happened to Gera in a long time.
Back when he lived with the swarm, he had always found it difficult to sleep soundly. Not only did he have to remain constantly vigilant against the ostracization of his brothers, but he was also often forced to wait until the other insects in the nest had fallen into their slumber before he dared to steal away and scavenge for scraps of food.
During his time on the raider ship, sleep had become an even greater luxury; every opening and closing of the hatch was accompanied by memories of pain.
But ever since meeting Sakti, he had been able to curl up in a strong, steady embrace and sleep until dawn. He didn't have to worry about his next meal, he wasn't woken by hunger, and he didn't have to fear the harm that could arrive at any moment. The female’s tail-whip would coil around him, and sometimes, even while asleep, Sakti’s arm would unconsciously pat his back in a drowsy, mechanical, yet endearing attempt at comfort.
This time, when he woke, he felt a long-forgotten rapid heartbeat and an indescribable sense of panic.
Reflexively, he reached out to touch the empty nest beside him, only to remember that his mate was still drifting through space, away at war.
After sitting in a daze for a moment, the male climbed out of bed, quickly tidied himself, and pushed open the door of the nest.
The habitat sector was very quiet at night. Occasionally, a patrolling squad of females would pass by, and the defensive measures remained fully operational. Gera walked out, wandering as if to dispel his lingering anxiety, setting Qiming to standby-follow mode. By the time he realized what he was doing, the Great Information Nest was already standing before him.
The massive structure loomed in the night, its dome lost to the darkness. Those gnarled, intertwined tendrils were tightly retracted against the outer wall, but they began to slowly unfurl as the male approached.
The former King had used this terminal—which linked all deep-space communications—as a mental power amplifier and a stepping stone to open pathways. Now, the Nest instinctively sought a dominant host who met its mental standards. Whenever the white insect drew near, it would rustle and shake, displaying an almost joyful emotion.
As he entered, soft, deep-red filaments wrapped around the male’s body like a lingering embrace, offering gentle caresses just as they once held the interface bolts.
Strictly speaking, the Great Information Nest was an incomplete, defective product. Consequently, it wasn't as rigorous or precise as the Data Firmament, nor did it possess a clear self-awareness like a starship. What it displayed was more akin to a biological instinctive reaction.
Gera secretly called it the "Puppy Nest." It was like a little dog that loved to lick and fuss over its owner.
Before this, he had always used the Great Information Nest for data collection and maintaining deep-space communications, but now, another of the Nest's functions was about to be put to use.
During the era of the Kings, even if the swarm was scattered across half the galaxy, the Broodmother could quickly locate and find her desired target to issue a call. He didn't need to issue a call; he just wanted to "look" at the other from afar. He wanted to see if his beloved mate was safe and sound.
As his hand brushed against the soft outer wall, Gera realized that once any creature touched the concept of "power," it became very difficult to give it up.
Once, the male could only curl up in a tiny nest, terrified by the storms of the outside world. He hadn't understood what was happening, nor could he fathom how all those grand, earth-shaking events converted checks labeled "suffering" into reality, distributing them equally among every life too weak to resist.
So, in the beginning, he couldn't understand Sakti's actions. He had simply obeyed the training and study plans the other had set for him with mechanical docility, secretly hoping to work hard enough to become a qualified candidate for a mate.
But the human saw further and more clearly.
The male, who had first successfully piloted a mecha and traced the Great Information Nest, had tasted sweetness for the first time. Back then, he couldn't yet understand that the things he had never touched—authority and information—were emitting a dazzling, intoxicating scent. All the females had long ago tasted such delicacies; they were drunk on them, fighting and killing to acquire more.
Yet the males still pinned their hopes on the threads of love and indulgence that fell through the cracks of fingers, hoping for the scattered scraps of pity from the swarm and their mates.
Survival was a struggle for dominance.
The fixed portions of power and resources dictated a zero-sum game. The best outcome was to reach a relative balance, but that was as difficult as ascending to the heavens. To this end, some humans donned the shackles of order and sought lengthy procedural justice to restrain the rampaging power of the strong and give the weak room to breathe.
But the opposing fact was that most creatures were more likely to flock toward immediate interests that directly affected them. Compared to investments that took a long time to yield results, required high initial input, and benefited the entire swarm, they preferred short-term returns. They would even go as far as damaging the swarm's interests to elevate their own social standing.
Take Kleiman, for example; his wavering, irreconcilable, and contradictory emotions were the result of a constant conflict between instinctive egoism and acquired altruism.
Most of the strong and the weak viewed the act of inflicting harm and providing healing from different perspectives. For the former, this behavior provided the feedback of emotional value that pleased them. Breaking something and then mending it was, to them, like an investment process—no different in essence from shorting a stock and then buying the dip. Saving others was one of the fastest ways to harvest a sense of self-meaning and a feeling of control.
Thus, from a downward-looking gaze, even the harmful parts became pitiable and lovely, allowing the cowering fragility and powerless struggles to be displayed to their heart's content, as if the victim deserved a salvation falling from the sky.
The latter, however, were far more tragic.
Those in the position of the weak often based their fantasies of such miracles on the assumption of how they would want to be treated after suffering similar harm. They didn't think that being harmed and then healed was an interesting process; no creature liked pain. They simply had no choice.
Once, Gera hadn't understood the Core Species' words. Qiming was so beautiful, yet his mate called it "the key to Pandora's box."
Until he took full control of the Great Information Nest.
Sakti had given him a pair of steel wings and a fledgling desire.
Back on the energy planet, Kai had been more than respectful but lacking in obedience. No matter how cautious he appeared on the surface, the fundamental difference could not be hidden—no matter what difficult command the black Core Species issued, the other would grit his teeth, swallow his blood, and do his utmost to achieve it. But if Gera dared to issue a command in the same manner, that slick middle-grade insect would likely laugh it off and try his best to steer the conversation away.
But now, Kai's attitude had changed.
Facing the holder of the Great Information Nest, the middle-grade female showed submissiveness, just as he submitted to Sakti in the same manner. The taste of power was better than fine wine, better than blood, better than anything in this world that drove people to madness. If one could not remain sober enough, it was easy to lose oneself within it.
The crimson Nest retracted its endless tendrils, tightly embracing the male lying within the interface bolt. The Nest could feel joy and jealousy, just as it would instinctively call out to those of the same origin before its death; its most basic reactions could not be hidden.
The long-absent compatible host made it happy. Every time, it would longingly push all permissions before him, even eagerly guiding him into the pathways of the ruins.
But it seemed the white insect didn't like that part.
The Kings of past generations had all loved the ruins. Only this new one was different.
This conclusion puzzled the brainless Great Information Nest for a while, as it didn't know what to show him to win his favor. Fortunately, this time, its master had a new request.
In the current era, where Kings had been extinct for over a dozen Great Cycles, it had been a long time since any insect had witnessed the full liberation of the Great Information Nest. The young cubs of the new generation couldn't even imagine what it looked like when a Broodmother established a complete mental link with the swarm.
This resulted in the Nest, which was parasitic upon the ruins of an ancient Royal Nest, being used as a shared information database and deep-space base for all swarms, yet no insect could bear the massive mental load required to do more. The few remaining functions were far from enough to trigger its maximum efficiency.
Until this moment.
Just as when Gera had first fully unlocked the Nest's permissions, the synapses and nodes lit up from the bottom layer in cascading waves, and all the tendrils draped down. The thing that looked like a normal building during the day completely let go of its inhibitions, perfectly matching the evaluation Sakti had given when he first witnessed the Nest on the verge of disintegration: "From a distance, it looks like a planet in space has grown hair, and those hairy tendrils are crawling all over the surface."
There was a fruit in the Old World called *Nephelium lappaceum* that had a similar appearance. The difference was that a proper fruit wouldn't dance in wild joy, swaying like a patch of seaweed in the current.
The male, attempting this operation stealthily for the first time, was not very skilled.
When the black Core Species had fought Katra, Gera had unconsciously dragged at the other's spirit. He had also tasted stray memory fragments during Sakti's subsequent coma, and he had been alerted by the massive mental fluctuations when his mate encountered the Red Tai Sui.
But searching for a hazy, singular target across such a vast distance of deep space was an incredibly difficult task. Gera's body was far from the level of a King. Even if his mental power was exceptionally outstanding, the hardware difference still meant he was worlds apart from a Broodmother.
After twenty micro-cycles of trying with no progress, the male could feel the rapidly accumulating redundant pressure rising steadily. This made him loathe his own body with a sense of frustration. From birth until now, his frail physiological condition had felt like an added curse, dragging him down, pulling him in the opposite direction of the sky, and causing him to fall into the mire.
The Puppy Nest tried its best to cooperate with him, but to little effect.
However, in the next second, a sliver of the pressure was diverted away.
"Over here, over here!"
Several small compartments at the base of the Great Information Nest lit up. Sitting in a secondary interface bolt was a light-brown, middle-grade male.
Gera, who had been too focused, didn't even know when the other had quietly slipped in.
Xiao, who had run out in the middle of the night without sleeping, looked both sleepy and dazed, but he still cheerfully waved at his favorite white insect.
"My information linker received an alert saying the Great Information Nest had suddenly started running, so I came to take a look!"
The short-wing's little tail wagged furiously as he quickly adjusted himself into a more comfortable linking posture, helping Gera share the massive load.
"I sent messages to the others. Some are willing to come and help; they'll be here soon."
He didn't ask why the other had activated the Great Information Nest alone in the dead of night, nor did he ask what the other wanted to do. He simply sought help from the rest of their companions at the first opportunity.
"We're here to help you!" Xiao said happily.
***
