Chapter 67
Amie watched from the gift shop as the first groups of hungry campers arrived.
It was late afternoon by the time the first procession finally appeared. These were not bugs who had prepared for a long trip or were used to traveling far while hunting. What she saw were the ordinary campers of Stella Lacus, many exhausted after going so far. And these were just the bugs at the front. Even if she couldn’t see them physically, she could imagine many more behind them, scattered up and down the freeway.
She was not alone in the gift shop. Marcus had joined her, now that the immediate steps they could follow to barricade the burrow were over. There was no chance they would get a vault door over the entrance in a few more hours. Amie hated to gamble—that maybe Albrecht would come up with some eleventh-hour strike against her.
Amie’s true body was still hidden away and would remain that way until the initial danger had passed. Even if the director didn’t try anything, there was still a chance one of his last few remaining soldiers would. Pachu'a had not returned from his trip and had no radio to send messages.
“You took no lives,” said Natane, joining Amie from behind. She had told all bugs to remain inside the sheltered section, except the orange ones with their relief supplies. Amie still held her portion, or what was left of it after healing so many. She could think of few better ways to spend those resources than saving many lives. “Yet you took prisoners. Those who came were not prepared to fight?”
She closed the blinds, tail whipping violently back and forth behind her. Maybe she shouldn’t have lied to Tailslide. She would feel a lot better with at least one pony around that she could trust. Having someone to relieve a little of her tension wouldn’t be so bad either. Her real body was not getting any less desperate for affection when locked in a room.
“One of them attacked me, but I was faster. The others realized I had them outmatched. They saw the weakest campers in Stella Lacus and thought they were a helpless crowd, instead of potential warriors. No one had to die.”
“No?” she repeated, voice mocking. “So now you have captured prisoners willing to strike against you, whispering discord and disunity to your ranks. They will be free to gather a following of like-minded bugs, then move against you when you are least expecting it.”
Marcus glanced at Natane, then back to Amie. He whispered, though in the close quarters of course they would all hear. “You brought someone back to lecture you?”
“I expected slightly less lecturing,” Amie admitted. “But yes. She is wise, and I appreciate any wisdom she has to share with me. You will treat her with the respect of a visiting dignitary. And I know you didn’t get any last time, but she’s the one to thank for both shipments of food.”
The color drained from Marcus’s face. He bowed awkwardly to the orange bug, then backed away. “I think I should be… back by the door. Sorry, Amie.” He darted off.
The first bugs made it into the parking lot. She waved for the orange bugs to stay in place, supplies and all. “I don’t want you out in the open. I’ll bring them in here, and you can feed them. Remember there’s a thousand bugs here, so be conservative.”
Si'tsi grunted in response. She had perched up on a counter of stuffed toys, posing in the fluffiest of the bunch. Native animals, wolves and deer mostly. It would’ve been cute if Amie wasn’t so tense. “If you say so. I can tell you’re not gonna break your promise. Not that I thought you were. Green, not blue. It isn’t your fault your colors look the same when it’s dark.”
Amie emerged in the parking lot. She was still playing the black unicorn with a green coat, tall and mature as she had learned ponies could look. Even the older campers would be longing for their parents by now, even if they never admitted it.
She wanted to make sure the orange tribe didn’t have their emissaries murdered. It only took a few seconds with the new arrivals to tell that they had no intention of violence. They came from cabins all across camp. In a few seconds of conversation, Amie gathered what they had come for. These bugs were the bravest. They wanted to see if she would really do what she said. If they never came back—their friends would know.
She made sure they were all fed. She sent them in one at a time, that way she could speak to the others about any bugs who were getting weak and lethargic, or having trouble speaking. She took down each cabin and description where a camper like that was staying.
“I need you all to listen to me,” she told them, as soon as they were all fed. “Your friends who get like that—it is very important that whenever this happens, you tell me immediately. If I get them treatment, I can stop them from going comatose and ending up in the multipurpose room. Once that happens, they might never wake up. But catch it first, and we can save them. Do you understand?”
She got many nods. Full bugs were more willing to listen, and more attentive to her. A few had even stolen plush toys from the gift shop, tucking them under wings or legs. She pretended not to notice. “You could give us more food,” someone suggested. “If it’s so important, you shouldn’t just take their names. You should feed them now.”
“I will feed them tonight,” she promised. “Find out if there are more and get word to me. You can tell your counselors I’m using frequency 31.”
Despite the urgency of the situation, none of those bugs had come. At least—none came in the first wave. As she sent away the first group, another, larger group broke from the trees. Almost as though they’d been waiting there the entire time, to see what she would do. Only this one had over a hundred bugs, led by many of Amie’s colleagues. The ones who weren’t brave enough to stand up to Albrecht.
No, she had to tell herself. Some of them are barely more than kids themselves. We’re not old enough to fight a tyrant. They were just helping the way they knew how.
Most of these bugs carried nothing—but a few had backpacks. “Everyone line up by cabin!” she called, as they approached. “Like we’re having an assembly. I don’t want too many bugs inside at once. We’ll take it slow.”
Mona approached from the crowd, disregarding the instructions. Her own group was with her now, though not following just behind. She didn’t have a yellow sash like the other counselors. Because of course they had replaced her after she “died.”
“You woke me up,” Mona said. “But now you’re taking over Stella Lacus. Is that it? Albrecht was right all along?”
She shrugged her wings—or tried. Amie was a unicorn, so didn’t have them right then. She almost transformed to get them back but resisted the urge. The fear she felt from these desperate bugs did not need more fuel. “I have powers he doesn’t. I’m going to use them to feed Stella Lacus. There’s no time to prove my innocence or turn myself in and wait for his decision. We need food now. We’re just lucky that changelings can go awhile with little to eat, or it would already be too late.”
It was already too late for dozens of bugs. By the time power was fully in her hooves, it would probably be too late for another dozen more at least who slipped through the cracks.
Mona moved closer to her, whispering into her ear. “Albrecht did it on purpose. He rationed the food you brought to last months. He was protecting older kids, and adults. This was triage, to preserve the camp as long as possible. No one wanted to do it, but no one could come up with another option. There was so little.”
Amie’s stomach twisted in her gut. It didn’t help that she was hungry all over again, the gnawing that came from wanting something physical. No wonder the orange tribe kept at least a little food all the time—queens needed it. Or at least her body did, for reasons that could not possibly be egg related.
“If survival costs our humanity, we shouldn’t survive. We’re better than that, Mona. And I think you are, too. You were in that hospital; you gave your food away.”
It wasn’t a question. The bug started to weep, strangled. “I couldn’t watch it happen. Not to my girls. They didn’t ask for this.”
Amie patted her shoulder. “Stay here. I’ll protect you.”
The next few hours went like the ones that came before. Amie waved bugs through in groups. A few arrived with hostility churning away in their guts, mostly other counselors. Amie kept their cabins back, calling the others up enough for them to see that she was serious. They could hate her if they wanted, but Amie would see them fed.
Another two dozen or so bugs asked to stay with her, and she sent them on to Marcus further inside. Some were volunteers, others were helpless. Most were horrifyingly weak, even the volunteers.
Mona’s whole cabin decided to stay, along with the nerds and geeks from the robotics cabin. Many of them seemed to already know about her magic, from bits and pieces whispered by Amie’s own messages.
It was dark by the time the traffic stopped flowing, and the last bug vanished from the road. She left a drone with instructions to watch and report, then finally retreated back inside.
“How much is left?” she asked Si'tsi, who was at that moment gathering up and sorting metal containers.
“Without knowing what my master has left? I have half of what I carried. All of what Natane brought is gone. And then there is the sum that you ingested.”
“I couldn’t tell you in Drachma, but I think I used about a third of it to heal all those bugs and feed my campers. Or are you going to complain that restoring workers doesn’t count as a proper use of your donation?”
Si'tsi stiffened, flipped her satchel closed, then hopped down off the counter. “No, queen of another tribe. You are a creature of honor, and I was wrong to suspect otherwise.”
She nodded. “And are you a creature of courage? I have an assignment for you, if you are bold enough. If you aren’t, I can give it to your teacher on his return.”
The bug puffed out her chest, spreading both wings. “I am the bravest hunter in all of Sonoma!”
A few minutes later, she vanished into the night, carrying a single jar of glamour, and a list of the cabins with bugs who would soon suffer the “souldeath.”
It was mere minutes later before a drone sprinted down the tunnel, calling in a wordless screech. Amie hadn’t even made it to the propane lamp to see how her bugs were doing inside, but she made it back out. Just in time to see Pachu'a enter the parking lot, leading another dozen or so bugs behind him. From the sorry smell, she could infer his mission was a success.
“I saw my student flying overhead,” he said, the first to step into the gift shop. “You did not goad her into risks, did you?”
“No. Just more humanitarian relief. What happened up there?”
“We did,” someone said. She didn’t recognize them, though from their age they were clearly an adult. Wait, was that—the network nerd guy! She should remember his name.
“This bug said you sent him to feed us. And we all heard the radio… seemed like joining up with the girl with food made sense. God knows Albrecht didn’t need me anymore, unless I was setting up a tracker to figure out where you were hiding. Idiot.”
Amie waved them inside with one leg, beaming. “You’re all welcome here. We need all the help we can get.”
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Well, at least the orange bugs are keeping their word, even if they disagree with Amie's plan.
And tbe camp is finally saved! Here's hoping Albrecht admits Amy is better for the camp.
Things are going well but we'll have to see how Albrecht reacts.
Hail Amie, Queen of Stella Lacus.
nice chapter
Nice to get some more hard evidence on Albrecht making immoral decisions, but at the same time I have such a hard time just condemning him for most of them. Pretty much everything he has done still has a thin veneer shielding it or could feasibly been done out of desperation rather than malice. It mostly just comes down to the fact that we have seen and heard a lot of bad results, but do not have a lot of information on the camps status as a whole. We are getting a lot of that now though and I imagine a bunch of things will be cleared up soon.
Disclaimer: I am doing this mostly because I enjoy analyzing the thoughts and scenarios that lead to a character's decisions. The world is not black and white and having a 'villain' like this can be very good for a story.
Claim Amie is a murderer: We know she isn't, and he probably didn't try very hard to investigate, but we do not know whether he has seen proof she did not do it. Especially since she hid Gale's body. If we get confirmation that he believes she didn't do it and said nothing, then it will be wrong. Maybe he realized that the death was from a spear and Aime could not have done so, or maybe he rationalized it and believed she found some tool to do so. We just don't know.
Mistreating Amie's campers: Amie only really heard that from her campers, and children are unreliable narrators prone to exaggeration. Most things they say will be highly opinionated, and Amie saw tons of campers other than her own who were suffering or already dead.
Establishing 'police': Hard to swallow, but this kind of thing can be necessary. People get desperate and unpredictable when starving. Whether this was bad or not depends on what he had his police do, which we have little information on. Need more info to make a decision.
Giving himself more food than others: A small amount would be okay because a leader needs to be well fed enough to be of rational thought to lead. At that point; however, you should probably elevate everyone else to that level. This one we can pin him on.
Rationing in a way that allows some campers to die: This is morally outrageous, especially because the younger children are dying. Let's all agree that none of us are fine with that. But now take a step back and step into his mind.
Food has been running out. You have little idea how to get more because Amie told you what it was, but not much about how to get it. Aime denied your suggestion to train and send out adults to gather more because she wanted to free "her campers" and use them to do it. Winter is coming, which will ensure that you have no chance to continue hunting. The only thing you have to count on is the potential for another humanitarian aid shipment, but that also depends on Amie. In the vacuum of some other option we have no knowledge of he has two possibilities. Give it to everyone and risk the entire camp starving if no more aid comes or ration it to some to preserve a portion of the population. Assuming Albrecht is not truly power hungry it comes down to how much he trusts Aimee. If he truly does not trust her... I can easily see a world where an ex-military officer, used to sending men to their deaths, starts treating this as triage not out of callousness, but desperation. Take the lower risk and save who you can rather than risking everyone. Would probably destroy the man inside.
I honestly hope he can be redeemed here. If it turns out he has just been desperate and untrusting (with a few poor decisions) he will have turned out to be a much more compelling character than if he really is just power hungry.
11588893
I highly doubt considering he could have gotten the healthy to follow her lead and instead was more concerned with his power over the camp. After getting everyone out I would cut him off for a bit just long for him to change his tune. He been making one bad decision after another instead of taking the expert knowledge he rather stay and double down as much as possible.
11588859
no one willing gives up power, especially when they think they are in the right
Not an idiot, but definitely desperate. Where that desperation pointed though is the question...
Eh... I don't know if Amie has the right to lecture Mona like that.
If I remember correctly, she hasn't faced and endured the prospect of starving to death the same way the campers have - certainly not to the same degree. She hasn't had to choose between trying to save some of her kids (at the cost of some of them dying), or trying to save all of them (at the risk of everyone dying). Unless I'm mistaken, even the plot has insulated Amie from this dilemma, because she now has enough food to save everyone.
As long as Amie can provide she will win followers. We can only hope she can establish a big enough operation to feed all the surviving campers.
11588852
They are bugs of honor. Amie's actions might not be to their liking but it's not like their hive is risking much. Their investment is rather small compared to the rewards they could potentially reap.
11588948
I can definitely see Amie's successes somewhat blinding her to Albrecht's situation in the camp. I don't agree with Albrecht's hoarding and rationing system but he's trying to help the camp even if has gotten a little power hungry in the process.
I couldn't help but scoff a little at Amie's quote considering her actions being quite treacherous given her meetings with Albrecht even if those actions are necessary. At the end of the day, a lot of people would've given up some or much of their morality if it means their survival. Amie doesn't realize it yet but she's certainly hardened herself for the sake of her kingdom.
11588898
We can assume all of that (and I fear that you may be right), but we do not know much of anything that Albrecht has been doing recently. He did suggest sending the adults from camp to go out and collect if Aime would tell them how, but she refused and said she would do it with her campers because she did not trust them. He might have done it anyway. Keep in mind that it has not been long time since Amie explained what was going on either. Based on Aimee's accounts of how long it takes to reach certain locations, everything between Pachua delivering the first shipment and now would be approximately 7-8 days if Pachua returned to Agate to find Aime immediately after the drop-off. Not a ton of time to get an infiltration operation going.
I will be very happy if we find out he is just stressed and in way over his head instead of being a dictator just for the sake of it. Almost certainly going to have to fight to get him to step down, but to what degree? I am excited for the next few chapters.
Amie is truly becoming a Queen as of late.
11589031
So if he cared he would get food in them however it took. Why after what he tried with brother and these lies he keeps spouting should she trust him.
So Amie is already winning parts of the camp over. It's going to be interesting to see though how she's going to wrest full control from the director.
Nothing earns devotion quite like a rescue from starvation. Amie is gonna get popular support here big time.
The only question is, what Albrecht will do now. Amie has proven she can keep the camp alive. while his rationing will only last the adults a matter of months. If he has any honesty he'll stand down, though I imagine not without more than a little anger.
Why do I have a bad feeling about this...
Just how large is Stella Lacus, does it really have over a thousand campers? I know the camp owned a good chunk of the mountain but that's still crazy to me
11589308
Not so much "owned" the mountain as "was the only thing built on it". Most of the mountain was empty and undeveloped, other than an old tourist attraction near the base, a gas station, and a few homes for the permanent staff working the camp.
Hopefully that’s not a confession wrapped in an insult wrapped in a vague pronoun reference.
In any case, Amie’s doing what Albrecht couldn’t (though he’d have been hard-pressed to do so.) Now it’s a matter of seeing how the will of the hive pans out… and whether he performs any drastic actions in a desperate bid to retain power.
Albrecht has been too quiet during this. I could easily see Si'tsi being captured and/or harmed by Albrecht or his forces, and for Queen Kaya to decide to react accordingly regardless of Amie's desires to keep this bloodless. I hope that's not what happens.
11589420
But it has ~1000 campers?
Never doubted it. Fly high, Si’tsi.
11589420
wasn't there a library mentioned i thought it would be a small room with some books on nature and camping
11590998
Yes, there's one that's part of the camp.
11590113
Or thereabouts, yes. Quite large for a summer camp, but not the only one of its kind.
Good to see there are some on her side, and that campers are getting fed