Colonel Bunker turned from the console that she had been staring at for the past twenty minutes after Queen Blue Sun had become a cocoon to view Jack O'Neill coming through the doorway. The colonel had called him in as part of an insurance policy regarding the alien that had made a storage hanger its home, and now they were treading deep into unknown waters with less than a clue of what was going on.
"Reporting in, Colonel." Jack said officially with a salute. Colonel Bunker pointed with her hand to a swivel chair nearby.
"Skip the formalities, Jack. You know this is serious." Bunker replied casually, moving away from the console to the desk in the center of the room.
The 'meeting' was being held in the observation room just next door to the Queen's new hole in the floor. The alien had scorched all of the equipment in the room, save for one barely functioning camera at the far end. It no longer had much of the capabilities it once did, but it still had visual. It was good enough. Joined by Jack was the rest of his team: Teal'c, a man with an almost religious icyness to his demeanor that only served to further distance himself from those he didn't know. To those that he did, he was reliable to a fault, always direct in his mannerisms and held a solid faith in humanity. He was joined by Samantha Carter and a self proclaimed xeno-archeologist named Daniel Jackson. Samantha was Airforce before being volun-told that she would be transferred to Cheyenne mountain, and Daniel was a civillian egghead that claimed to know far more than Colonel Bunker would attribute to the awkward man. They were all cleared by Agent K, so that was good enough for the colonel.
"Take a seat, everyone. We don't know how long it will be until that Queen wakes up and becomes a butterfly." Colonel Bunker quipped, rubbing her forehead from the stress of this new development. When everyone had taken their seat, she continued with her rushed briefing. "Not thirty minutes ago, Queen Blue Sun went into the testing chamber to continue her 'demonstration' of Changeling excavation and construction methods. Science is still going over just how the energy field she produces is able to make a material as strong as 'Dirsime' without any kind of metals, but that isn't why you're here." She then turned to face towards the blackened view-port and placed her hands on her hips. "In there is a whole can of worms that nobody else wants to open..."
"So you're going to send us in, I take it?" Jack inquired, shifting in his seat to get a better view of the scorched window.
"What about those kids that the Queen befriended?" Daniel asked, leaning forward in his own seat. "Wouldn't they have a better reaction to the Queen when she 'wakes up'?"
"I'm not putting civilians in the line of fire on a hunch, Jackson." Colonel Bunker quickly replied, turning from the window towards the group. "We don't have any knowledge about alien lifecycles; unless you'd care to share your vast knowledge of the extra-terrestrial with us."
Daniel put his hands up in open palmed defense, leaning back in his chair. "Hey, It was just an idea..."
"Do we know the alien's intentions? What was its behavior before entering this cocoon?" Teal'c asked, his arms folded across his chest.
"It seemed caught by surprise, almost panicked." Bunker explained, moving towards the meeting table. "I don't want to take any risks that the alien coming out of that cocoon isn't the same one we've known the past week." She added, placing their hands on the table and leaning in. "We definitely need to handle this as delicately as possible, or an alien queen going on the offensive is going to be the least of our worries with Agent K watching over this entire operation."
"I haven't seen Agent K in a while; Where has he been all this time?" Samantha Carter asked with an interested tone. "Last I've heard of him, he was going to investigate some disturbance out in the Nevada desert?"
"As always, anything that Agent K does is classified." Bunker replied, though quickly held up a hand to preemptively hold off the protests that would claim that was just an excuse. "Classified means I don't know, Jackson."
"So what do you want us to do with 'Queen Bug' in there?" Jack asked, pointing a thumb towards the general direction of the cocoon past the observation window. "I don't think I have a can of Raid large enough for that thing."
"All you're going to do is remain on standby incase things go wrong. We're simply observing for the moment, so don't jump the gun." Bunker replied with a bit of annoyance. "Shooting the Queen is an absolute last resort option."
"What of the eggs?" Teal'c asked, pointing to the four glowing orbs that shimmered in the camera's view. "Do we know anything about them?"
"We know they glow." Jack snarked.
"Again, next to nothing." Bunker responded while choosing to ignore Jack's comment. "If the Queen is anything like the species on Earth, if we so much as breathe on those eggs there will be hell to pay. Stay away from them."
"What are we bringing with us; weapons, scanning tools, a notepad?" Daniel wondered, a bit excited and nervous at the idea of entering into the 'hive' of an alien queen.
"Standard kit along with a new drone that Shen cooked up just for this situation." Bunker replied with a smirk on her face. "I think the old engineer was getting upset with Queen Blue Sun's energy interference on his equipment all the time. He was more than ready to give it up for a test run when I asked."
"What does this drone accomplish?" Teal'c asked.
"It's basically a gigantic Tesla coil on treads. Shen was hoping that it would have a high enough energy capacity to at least stun the Queen long enough to restrain her, though what we'd need to do that with exactly, we have no clue." Bunker explained.
"Indeed..." Teal'c replied with reserved concern.
As if the fates had convened to interrupt their briefing, the audio feed from the testing chamber came to life with filtered sounds of crackling. All five humans in the room turned or swiveled towards the camera in alarm and witnessed the outer shell of the Cocoon beginning to fracture.
"Well, Colonel..." Jack said with unease while getting up from his chair, "Time to greet the new Queen."
******
I blinked multiple times as I realized that I was awake once more. Looking around, I saw I was still inside of my cocoon. I raised my hooves towards my face and found that they had changed. My overall form appeared to be very thin, if my chest and abdomen were an accurate judge. My bulky form as a Proto-queen was all but gone, only the chestpiece remaining of my carapace with a more refined and elegant tone to its arrangement. My legs were long and thin, my mane more flowing and elegant. My horn had changed as well, though not by much. It also seemed that the Cocoon was bigger. Did that mean I had shrunk, or that the cocoon had grown as I was re-assembled?
Swimming around as much as I could in the cramped space, I found that my wings had become smaller as a result of my thinner form. It was probably because they didn't have to lift so much weight now, I suppose. Floating onto my back, I found that my midsection was roughly half the size as it was before. To use a human comparison, I had been built like a 'tank' before. Now I had all the regality of Queen Chrysalis yet with my own... features.
I tapped on the side of the Cocoon, noting that the shell had become far softer than when I was a Proto-Queen. Running my holed hoof along the inside I felt tiny cracks and weaknesses in it. With enough force I could easily break free of this cocoon, but at the same time I needed to better understand my new body. The tight space didn't help much for self exploration, but my hooves were able to note that my shell had become more angular towards the rear. My mane was now down my neck instead of being short as before, and my eyes had changed as well.
As it turns out, tapping a hoof into my eye was now painful. I decided to find out what else had become more fragile in my Queenly form, starting with running my hooves along my horn. Unexpectedly, I found something else atop my head that for some reason I hadn't been expecting.
A crown.
It was a part of my body now; coming from the top of my head with four small glowing orbs that shone with a blue-purple hue at the crown's tips. I was able to tell by somewhat painfully flattening the crown towards my forehead enough to see them. Looking around more at my own body, I noticed that the chitinous plating around my hooves had disappeared, along with the shoulder and flank armoring as well. It was only the chest piece that remained, adorned with a center glowing spot in the shape of a diamond with four orbs around it in different sections.
"Oh no, my eggs!" I yelped, suddenly remembering that they were exposed as long as I remained within the Cocoon. I pressed against the wall, used to my body hardening spell automatically activating to get through anything it came into contact with. To my surprise, I no longer had that ability.
"Come on! Get out of my way, cocoon!" I strained, pushing with all my might against the wall of the cocoon I was trapped in. I tried using my magic to call the hardening spell to myself, but my horn only sparked and died from my starved state.
"No, no!" I panicked, pushing harder against the wall with my hindhooves using the other side of the cocoon for leverage. "Let me out!" I yelled.
******
"More activity from the test chamber, Colonel Bunker;" Chief Engineer Shen reported from his technical console. "High spikes of energy."
"From the queen, or the eggs?" Bunker asked over the radio, her electronic voice coming through the speakers.
"Both, it would seem. Audio clips we are de-scrambling seem to identify that the Queen is in distress, and the eggs are reacting to it." Shen explained, growing nervous as more cracks appeared in the cocoon's wall. "Is your team ready?"
There was a pause over the radio, and Shen witnessed even more cracks appearing around a specific part of the cocoon.
"They're on their way. Give 'em two minutes, tops." Bunker finally replied.
Shen shook his head while staring at the video feed, glowing blue lines radiating out from the cocoon on the camera's video feed. "You had better be faster than that, Colonel..."
******
"You won't keep me from my drones, Cocoon!" I shouted, my anger with the cocoon mounting as I desperately tried to use my magic to break through the outer shell. My limbs were weak from starvation; my magic pathetic compared to what it had once been.
Open, you cursed cocoon! I shouted in my mind, too busy gritting my teeth and fangs together with effort to verbally berate the inanimate byproduct of my own biology.
Just after I had shouted in my mind, I felt something answer in reply, causing me to pause. I blinked with confusion, drifting lazily in the blue-purple goo of the cocoon to focus. I felt four distinct flames just barely out of reach, moving closer to my cocoon... and they were growing brighter!
*******
Jack held a hand to the radio clipped to his tactical vest. "This is Jack. Activity with the cocoon has stopped..." He paused for a moment before adding, "I've got a bad feeling about this..."
Jack O'Neill and his team stood on the edge of Queen Blue Sun's small hive, their P-90 SMGs pointing towards the cocoon that had stopped moving around like a bag of cats suddenly. The drone that Shen had provided waited somewhat noisily behind them, scanning around with a flashlight on a remote-control arm to provide light.
"Orders?" Jack asked into his radio.
"Keep away from the cocoon, watch what it does. If it looks volatile, get the hell out of there." Colonel Bunker replied via radio, the sound of the device echoing in the test chamber with an eerie quality.
"Right... watch it, she says." Jack snarked, adjusting his aim towards the center of the cocoon.
******
The flames... stopped?
I furrowed my brow in confusion. The flames weren't the same as they had been before... They were Red at the front, with a blue, purple and white flame behind the first one. I tried to sense their intent, but that too was weakened from my starved state. I couldn't feel the emotions that the flames outside of my sight had, and this was worrying me. They were far too close to my eggs...
Not wanting to risk harm coming to my drones, I redoubled my strained efforts to break free of the cocoon. I launched myself with my hind hooves towards the small dent I had been making with my forehooves in the wall, hoping that it would eventually crack open.
*******
"Jack, we have new orders." The voice of Colonel Bunker announced with very obvious anxiety.
"What is it, Colonel?" Jack replied.
"You need to get one of those eggs." Bunker replied seriously.
A chill went through Jack as he turned towards his team, all of them exchanging very concerned glances. Jack pulled the radio closer to his ear with his free hand and asked, "Say again?"
"You need to get one of those eggs, and put it on the Drone." Bunker repeated. "I've tried warning them, but it's out of my hands."
Jack bit his lip, looking up at the one working camera in the room. "You're absolutely certain about that?"
There was a tense pause as Jack and the team awaited Bunker's reply.
"Doesn't that seem wrong to you?" Carter asked, "It's like taking a mother's children away..."
"We do not often get to choose how events unfold, Samantha Carter." Teal'c replied.
"That doesn't mean we have to kidnap alien babies because somebody told us to!" Daniel protested, lowering his weapon towards the floor.
"Look, I'm not big on the idea either." Jack replied, also lowering his weapon. "If we have to, we'll make up an excuse. I'm not about to piss off an alien that's bigger than I am and that can melt through shielded equipment with a thought."
A very loud, wet crack came from the cocoon, causing all of the team members to point their weapons towards it reflexively. Backing away, Jack called in again on his radio.
"Colonel, we've got a problem here!" He urgently warned.
******
The flames! They weren't Soft, Timid, Rough or Stern, no... They were Jack O'Neill and their team! It took me too long to realize that fact, and now I had put my drones in danger because of it!
I used my magic and my anger to bash into the cocoon's wall, fracturing it and splintering the internal carapace. They wouldn't have my drones!
******
Colonel Bunker looked on with horror at the video feed from the camera for only a moment before springing into action. "Jack, get your team the hell out of there, now!" She shouted, already moving with a security detail towards the Test chamber's blast door.
*******
"Yield to me!" I shouted, my own desperation combined with the fury of my drones being endangered giving me the strength to break through my cocoon, chipping it away blow by blow. It was buckling; breaking!
With a final desperate breath, I summoned all of my will and anger into single spell directed at the weakened cocoon's walls, shattering the prison that kept me from my precious drones. Blue-purple goop gushed from the shattered cocoon, spreading out in a thick slime across the Dirsime flooring as I fell to the bottom of my cocoon.
I looked up from the jagged lip of the cocoon's bottom to see that all four of my eggs remained exactly where I had laid them, the Dirsime securing them from being taken while I had been trapped. My mane was soaked and across my face, though I could see through the darkness with my horn set alight by my magic.
Pushing myself unsteadily from the slick floor I carefully stepped out of the cocoon, dripping ooze all over my body as it ran down my carapace onto the pool of goop below me. Looking at my reflection in the Dirsime walls, I saw that my eyes had become glowing orbs of magical power from my anger, causing me to back away from my own reflection with a startled yelp. I slipped in the goo, falling on my flank with a soggy splash, and decided that I had completed my duty of protecting my eggs; the flames of Jack's crew having long escaped.
Now only the fatigue of escaping my cocoon and my own starvation had caught up with me, and I collapsed sideways completely, falling asleep.
******
Jack and his team had just barely made it into the sealed airlock before a deep explosion of energy rocked the facility, staggering them.
"The hell was that!?" Jack yelled, recovering his footing.
The other side of the airlock quickly opened, revealing Colonel Bunker and a small security detail at her sides. "Jack, you need to see this."
Bunker left immediately without another word, which forced the team to make haste to catch up with her. Rounding a concrete corner, they walked into the main observation room where Engineer Shen was waiting. He simply pointed to the video feed, an image frozen on the screen.
"That," Shen explained in a scolding tone, "Is why you do not mess with a Queen's eggs."