Brood

Excerpt: Over the next several hours I flitted from colony to colony scanning the crowds and calling his name. I knew he’d never hear me over the music already playing in some of the gatherings. But making discordant sound kept me focused and suppressed my inner urge to join the drumming rituals. The local nectar was equally seductive. I sampled just enough to sustain my strength and then moved on.

Enrique and Susanna, I hope you’re getting to see all of this, I thought, as I soared over plush fields of green and flower blossoms bursting with colors so beyond my experience I couldn’t give them a name. I spied a few creatures I suspected were would-be predators. A slow-moving armored vehicle with one passenger lurked on the ground below me. He was investigating discarded exo-suits and gobbling up the remains of poor souls who, like me, encountered difficulty removing their protection. But unlike me, their struggle had been too great and now they were part of nature’s banquet.