//------------------------------//
// Chapter 017: Securing the Colony 
// Story: Starcraft: Queen and Country 
// by Wanderer D 
//------------------------------//


Starcraft: Queen and Country
By Wanderer D
Chapter 017: Securing the Colony





2504, Koprulu Sector, Planet Agria █

The screen in Ariel's lab lit up, and a decidedly uncomfortable-looking Protoss appeared on it. What exactly made her look uncomfortable wasn't clear. Perhaps it was the slight shift from side to side before gathering herself into a militaristic posture. Or perhaps it was that she had stared off to the side as if to confirm that she was indeed transmitting.

"This is Executor Selendis. Your expansion has been noticed, Young Queen, and we have come to purge you from this part of the universe." She hesitated for just a second. "I have replied to your request for additional information for our approach. When we arrive, you will feel our wrath. Anan pokahl."

Ariel gulped, glancing at Sweetie Belle, who shook her head sadly. "Well, we figured they would only be confused by the voicemail only so long. But seriously, what a stick in the mud."

"Sweetie—my Queen," Ariel gritted through her teeth, "the Protoss have a long tradition of destroying any zerg they find. My—our colony here will be completely obliterated by them unless you destroy them first!"

"Yeah…" Sweetie sighed. "That would be a problem. Unfortunately Kerrigan is currently occupied, and I don't want to distract her… that and I am supposed to join her soon. This is not something I should ignore. I don't really want you and Suzie to die just due to association."

Ariel stared at her.

"Okay, or the colony," Sweetie granted, "but I do have my favorites and I'm not going to pretend I don't!"

Ariel rubbed her temples. "Why—okay, no. That's for later. What do you intend to do about the army of Protoss approaching us?"

Sweetie stared at her. "I… you know, I haven't had tea in a while."

"You what?"

"I feel like tea, I'll go get some tea… or since I'm a queen I should have someone bring me tea? I should have asked Twilight what princesses do, but I never really thought I'd be one."

"You don't have a plan?!"

"Fine, let me ask my queen." Sweetie closed her eyes. 'My Queen, an army of Protoss approaches Agria.'

"I am currently in battle and unable to send more forces your way, Sweetie Belle. Take this as an opportunity to prove yourself to me and learn more about our enemies. Deal with them."

Sweetie sent a general feeling of understanding the orders and accepting the challenge before smiling with the confidence only the clueless could muster. "I guess we'll wing it."

"Queen or not, I swear…"

"Don't worry, if this works out, I get the feeling Kerrigan might do it for you."





"Executor, we are receiving a message from the Zerg."

If Protoss rolled their eyes, she would have. "We have already replied to their voicemail request."

"This is a live transmission."

Selendis straightened. "Patch it through."

The Zerg Queen on the screen was indeed the one that had sent the messages earlier. Selendis studied her as the queen studied her, each measuring the other as was appropriate before battle. Again, the immediate lack of violence or threats threw Serendis off. By now, Kerrigan would have attempted some sort of mockery or provocation.

"Greetings, Selendis," the young queen said, her eyes sparkling with an unknown glint. "I am Queen Sweetie Belle, welcome to Agria."

Even before being turned into a zerg, Selendis had never encountered Sweetie Belle's species, which made reading her even more difficult. The tense aggressiveness of the common zerg, or even the predatorial silent threat of Kerrigan was not present in her. Or if it was, it was very well hidden.

"If your intention is to mock us with your greeting—"

"Oh! Not at all," the queen interrupted, "my sister was very thorough when I was growing up, teaching me to welcome guests properly. I was just doing that. Do pardon me if that was not the way to do so for your people. The only other Protoss greeting I know is well… I simply didn't think you'd take it at face value from me if we just met."

"You know a Protoss greeting?" Selendis repeated. "How would you have learned this? Who could have taught it to someone such as yourself?"

"Rude. Are you implying I am unable to learn new things just because of how I look?" Sweetie asked, raising an appendage to her chest and shrinking back a little, as if she had been threatened.

"I—" Selendis had never seen a zerg like this. She glanced around and saw one of her templars shaking their head disapprovingly. 'What is happening here?' She straightened out. "That was not my intent."

Sweetie smiled, unfolding back into a more casual look. "I'm glad. No true friendship can exist without understanding!"

"Friendship?" Selendis asked, not liking where this was going.

"Yes!" Sweetie nodded firmly. "For friendship is Magic! And as Princess Twilight Sparkle taught me, it starts by understanding each other, or trying to."

"Is that another zerg?"

"Oh. No." The zerg queen's strange ears bent back and she leaned a little to the left, looking down. "No… that was… my sister's best friend, back in my original world."

Selendis nodded. "Understood. Regardless, Queen Sweetie, I am afraid that you are mistaken, I am not here in search of friendship. I am here to purge your planet."

Sweetie tilted her head. "Why?"

"It is the only way to stop infestation. Everything must be purged, or you and your world will be a threat to Protoss—"

"No we won't."

"...to Protoss… what?" Selendis could already feel a headache coming. Why was she even talking to this zerg?

"Because we have no intention of invading Protoss space at all!" Sweetie said, smiling. "That, and this world's infested have already been contained and shipped to Queen Kerrigan. Everyone that remains is terran or zerg."

"What do you mean terrans?" Selendis asked.

"Um, have you scanned Agria?"

If she were human, Selendis would have snorted. "Doing so would have immediately alerted you that we were planning to attack."

"So instead you left us a voice mail?"

The silence on the bridge was palpable.

Since she was only transmitting her image from the chest up, and the rest of her body was out of sight, Selendis slowly curled up her hand into a fist. "Yes," she forced out.

"Well! That was very nice of you!" Queen Sweetie complimented her.

Which didn't make Selendis feel any better about it. But she had done what she had done, and by the Khala, she was going to go through with the whole thing.

"Why don't you do that now?" the zerg offered. "We already know you're here, so you might as well see for yourself what I mean."

Selendis didn't trust this queen, but she nodded to one of her templars to do so.

"Executor. There are terran colonies in this world… unmolested. Nearby groups of zerg have settled into self-contained areas, and the two groups seem to interact somewhat, but we do not detect any known strains of infestation."

Selendis didn't trust this. She needed more information. "What are you planning?"

"Look," Sweetie continued, "my first friend in all of this strange universe I've found myself in, is a Protoss. Granted, he hasn't stopped by since I was turned into a zerg, but I hope he realizes I'm still me." 

"You cannot hope to convince us to spare you with such an excuse," Selendis replied, narrowing her eyes when Sweetie chuckled. "Do you find this threat amusing?"

"No, no… it's just, I was just remembering what that protoss said to me, he said: 'You must not give up hope, for it is a force that can lead you to many places. It will keep you strong, and help you in the most dire of straits.'" She shrugged. "It's just… such a nice thing to say to a lost traveler. His words helped me keep my sense of self while the Terrans did this to me."

"Terrans did that to you?" Selendis asked, taken aback. She had assumed… this needed to be reported.

"Yes." Sweetie straightened up. "And as you can see, despite the hate that I should feel for this species, I have endeavored to make it possible to coexist. My Queen is at war with the Terran emperor, Mengsk. I support her, but I do not believe in hate, all-consuming anger, or that peace even with those that would normally rather see us burn is not possible."

Selendis leaned back. The Khala offered no answers to this. The intent was clear to destroy all zerg… but it had not always been so. Alliances had been built before, although inevitably betrayal would come. Somehow though… "I want to believe you," she admitted, "despite the past history of our people. But I see no reason to do so."

Sweetie tapped the tip of her appendage to her chin, seemingly in thought. "Your main concern is our invasion of Protoss space, correct?"

"Among other things," Selendis said, "such as purifying your world of infestation."

"Well, as you can see and you have scanned, there's no risk of the infestation you've seen before happening here."

"That's a lie."

"Okay, that's a lie," Sweetie acknowledged. "There's always risk, I suppose, but I give you my word that this colony will never create the infested you need to destroy." She seemed to shiver. "I was too close to becoming one when I was turned. I hate bringing such a fate to anyone."

"So what do you propose?" Selendis asked.

"Well, why don't you set up a base here or nearby?"

Selendis stared at the queen, unsure if she had heard right. "You want me to do what?"

"Set up a base to keep track of us," Sweetie repeated. "It doesn't have to be here in Agria if you feel that would be a risk to your people. We have scythes and serrated teeth, I get it. It's kinda scary. Just understand that Mengsk has promised to cleanse this system of all alien influence, so you might be targeted as well."

Selendis gave Sweetie a look. "Terrans will never be able to take us down."

"Yeah, I've heard," Sweetie said, nodding. "But I can offer you something even better… if you do agree to work with me and leave a garrison to protect Protoss space… and this world too… my zerg will protect your garrison from any outside force that attacks it as well. And I will let you know in advance if our situation is to change."

"Are you offering an alliance?" Selendis asked, aghast. "What could you possibly—your queen would never…" She fought the instinctual urge to drag a hand down her face. It would be undignified.

"Well," the zerg queen admitted, flinching a little and looking away guilty, if Selendis had to guess, "she said to me: 'Deal with them.' And uh, well, she didn't specifically order me to use violence."

She fought it. She really did, but she couldn't help her own laugh when more than one of the many tense protoss in the bridge practically snorted. Quickly recovering she spoke again, but this time she couldn't help being less aggressive. "Your Queen is not going to be happy about this."

Sweetie shrugged. "Probably not. And I'm sure I'll be punished… but I would never forgive myself for putting the people and yes, even the zerg, that trusted me to make this world work out in danger if I didn't even attempt to stop needless killing."

Selendis nodded. Having a garrison created here would allow Protoss forces to grow relatively quickly. There was no need for immediate violence, and they could supervise this new queen's actions without fear of reprisal long enough to have a force too strong for Zerg or Terran to take down easily. "Very well then. I shall deploy a garrison to one of the nearby moons. Be warned that once they are there, they can summon the Golden Armada at will."

"Do you promise they will not attack us and respect the lives of every sentient living on this planet as long as we have a non-aggression agreement?" Sweetie asked, all seriousness in her demeanor and tone.

"As long as they make no move to invade Protoss space or attack us, and you give me your word that any infested that appear are dealt with appropriately… the Khala will permit this."

Sweetie nodded. "Then I need to make sure that everyone here knows what will be happening. Thank you, Executor Selendis. En taro Adun."

Selendis was taken aback by the words, but she could sense no mockery in Sweetie's words, even though she didn't seem to understand what the words themselves meant. "En taro Adun, Queen Sweetie Belle," she responded as goodbye as the transmission ended.

The bridge was entirely quiet for a few moments before Selendis said aloud what everyone there was wondering, "Did I really just broker a peace treaty with a Zerg Queen?"





"Discord and Celestia on a romantic date, that was scary!"

Ariel was still staring. She looked down at her hands, noticing that her knuckles had turned white with how hard she was gripping the table. Slowly, she forced herself to release it, and took a deep breath. "I can't believe you managed to do that."

"Me neither!" Sweetie Belle's wings were buzzing. She shook her head and started pacing. "Something else has to be going on… do you think—"

"That you have some sort of unknown power?" Ariel interrupted. "Never mind. Stupid question. I am quite certain of that being the case. There's a passive effect you have on those that meet you. I do not think it was an intentional result of the experiments that were done on you, or even Queen Kerrigan's changes." She paused. "When I think of Gallus, I think I also sensed this… on a smaller scale."

"Maybe it's just something natural to the people of my planet. But that's not important right now… I need to think back on the conversation before Kerrigan finds out and kills me." Sweetie sighed. "Alright, so… I promised Selendis stuff I probably shouldn't have."

"Yes. You did."

"But on the other hoof, they'll protect our planet and by extension you and Suzie…"

Ariel raised an eyebrow.

"...and the colonies." Sweetie added. "So that is covered. Now I need to head out to meet my Queen."

Ariel walked over to Sweetie, placing her hand on the young Queen's shoulder. "Are you going to be alright?"

Sweetie sighed. "I don't know, but I did what I could… I didn't exactly contradict my queen's orders but… I know this is not what she meant. I'm just trying to be a good queen. I'm not Twilight Sparkle, Celestia, or hay, even Luna. I guess I could have started a fight, but I don't want you all to die without trying to prevent it."

"I know," Ariel said, leaning down to give her a hug, which Sweetie carefully returned. "Be careful."

"Thank you," Sweetie said. She pulled back and nodded to two nearby zerg to approach. She leaned her horn to Ariel's head, surprising her, but she held herself in place as she felt the strange psionics of Sweetie's so-called 'magic' and suddenly… she could feel them. "I'm going to leave two bodyguards with you. This is Snips." She motioned to the Hydralisk. "And this—" she motioned to the Roach "—is Snails. They will be your backup while I'm away. Through them you can calm down the nearby zerg if there's any problem."

Ariel's mind wasn't exactly overwhelmed, but the alien presence in it was… disturbing. She realized then that she could also feel Sweetie, who smiled at her. "What… did you do?"

"Well, you're my right hoof Terran," Sweetie said with a grin, which Ariel noticed now didn't seem as remotely threatening as it had just a few minutes earlier, despite her knowing that her Queen wasn't trying to attack her.

"Am I…"

"More zerg than earlier?" Sweetie asked. "Yes, a little. But you're not exactly infested, you just had unused psionic potential. I don't think it's ever going to be as strong as some of the Terran Specters we have heard about, but it is enough to communicate with your fellow zerg."

"I—"

"The change will eventually happen," Sweetie reminded her gently. "You count me as a friend, and the feeling is mutual. I think of you as my voice here… you should start thinking of yourself as zerg as well, even if you're still… mostly Terran."

Ariel took a shaky, deep breath, but nodded. "This is… harder than I thought it would be. Even something so small…" She shook her head, standing straighter and managing a trembling smile at Snips and Snails. "I'll be okay." She gulped. "Where will you be going?"

"The last message from my Queen included instructions to head to Char," Sweetie responded. "I'll go there and join her. A big battle is brewing… and she'll need my help."

Ariel nodded. "Fair enough… good luck, my Queen."


End Chapter