This was the throne room of the Great Coordinator Palace of Urus. A massive queen sat enthroned among cushions on a gigantic amber seat. Her shell oscillated between brown and dark blue and from her enormous yellow-striped abdomen, eggs were occasionally expelled into the attentive hands of the nursery workers. The back of the room was entirely given over to the larvae that crawled in all directions. Since the eggs were taken to other rooms and there were not that many larvae, one could assume that they were noble larvae.

  When one entered the room, on the right and left, hundreds of good-sized alcoves stretched up to the ceiling. The majority were occupied by princes and princesses of all ages. The oldest were closer to the queen. A noisy hubbub and strange smells reigned in this place. In fact, there were strange smells everywhere in the palace, but here they seemed richer, more varied.

  The leader of the soldiers who had escorted them announced their arrival before the sovereign:

  “You are before Queen Ilena-tar-Yana, queen of the Uruscentre hive and supreme queen elected by her peers for the galaxy of Utela.”

  The hubbub of the princesses, which had been intensifying since their entrance, ceased as the queen seemed to emit a powerful odor. Without being unpleasant to the Hom sense of smell, it seemed to absorb the other odors and calm the agitation of the young creatures.

  The queen's face was much further from humanoid standards than those of the princesses, but her features remained readable, expressing... excitement? The massive figure lowered itself to the height of the Ham, the queen's eight wide-open eyes observing her attentively.

  “Are you,” she asked in a voice softer than her size would suggest, “Sava-Domeria? Or are you her descendant? You look like Sava-Domeria, like she was a long time ago...”

  Sava felt a strange presentiment arise for which she did not see the reason... or maybe she was just a little stressed like any person facing a creature much larger than her and equipped with strong mandibles.

  “I am Sava Domeria, an alpha-level administrative agent. I am indeed the one who is... apparently on a statue, between the spaceport and your palace. I found myself stuck in time until a recent date and my entry into Zcarbb space was a simple mistake: please believe that I had no hostile intentions...”

  But the queen was no longer listening to her, shuddering while her face expressed joy.

  “It really is you!” she exclaimed. “When I saw the report pass, I thought that it was indeed the case! And it is! Look, my children! It was Sava-Domeria, who brought me back to my mother when I was little! Without her, I might be dead and you wouldn’t exist!”

  A gasp like a long “Oh!” ran through the ranks of princesses, the youngest being particularly excited. Sava, for her part, stared in amazement at the queen, as the evidence hit her.

  “You’re… You’re… the little Zcarbb?”

  “Not so little anymore, but yes… Do you remember when I hacked your synthesizer to admire the heart of your ship? Oh, and when you carried me into the air so the ships could see me and not shoot me! The primitives of Urus even made a statue where you can see that… Oh, you mentioned it, so you must have seen it.”

  The queen was joyful and, despite her imposing size and strongly insectoid features, she seemed to have become the little girl of yesteryear again as her memories awakened. Several princesses threw surprised glances at their queen, others stared at the foreign creature whose presence provoked this strange behavior from their noble sovereign.

  “I’m so glad to see you again Sava-Domeria,” said the queen, “it’s been so long… I have my own colony now! And lots of children!”

  With a proud gesture, she pointed to the Zcarbbs surrounding her, with a gesture so wide that she probably counted the millions of commoners outside as well.

  “I even have many daughters who have their own colonies! And I’m the one who represents all the colonies in this galaxy! Well, it’s true that the other queens weren’t very interested in the position. They were almost relieved that one of us would volunteer to take on this role. It’s true that interacting regularly with those of your species is deeply disturbing: none of you are normal and you have delusional and incomprehensible ideas.”

  Ilena-tar-Yana, as she was now called, said this without malice. She clearly didn't feel like she was insulting anyone, but was simply stating what she considered facts. The Zcarbbs probably considered other species as strange as they were considered by others.

  “So?” the queen asked. “What happened to you all this time. You haven't changed... Is it because of the strange products you call cosmotics? Or have you really been stuck out of time for a looooong time?”

  A little princess then shouted, “Yes! Tell us a story!”

  Immediately, about twenty of the youngest princesses stood up and clapped their hands in rhythm. Making their abdomens wiggle, they sketched a dance step to the side while singing:

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Tell us a story! Tell us a story!”

  The Queen’s stern head immediately turned towards the troublemakers who immediately assumed an air of completely guilty innocence, quickly sitting back down and pretending to look away. It was obvious that Ilena-tar-Yana knew who the culprits were.

  One of the smallest had not noticed what was happening and was spinning around while continuing to sing:

  “Tew us a stowy! Tew us a stowy!”

  Suddenly noticing the silence, she got tangled in her own legs in the middle of a half-turn and sprawled on the ground. The stifled laughter of her sisters quickly stopped when the Mother’s gaze fixed on the offenders. When silence returned, the Queen turned her attention back to Sava, vibrating slightly with excitement: she too was waiting for the story.

  So, Sava told the story. Starting with her meeting with Queen Zocco-tar-Julo, mother of this queen, she described her journey. Of course, she didn’t talk about everything. The secret area, in particular, was hastily synthesized into a place where an anomaly in the flow of time, probably due to the mysterious phenomena of the “I” area, had made them lose half a century.

  The story interested some of the nobles, but others lost their concentration. As she finished speaking, Sava clearly heard two little princesses talking to each other, alternating between their incomprehensible language and snatches of administered language.

  “Look, these are the bees I bought through the Network. The seller posted the photos and the delivery should arrive at the parcel relay in a few days. Payment upon receipt. Aren’t they cute?”

  “Absolutely,” agreed her neighbor, looking at the images on the tablet, “but will they be able to survive in your garden? The little creatures are often sensitive to the climate.”

  “Of course: I did some analyses and sent the results to one of the Administration's laboratories. Their conclusions were the same as those of our gardeners: no problem.”

  “It must have cost a lot, right? Why pay for a laboratory in the barbarians, when our gardeners have already told you that there is no problem?”

  “Well, the barbarians are still more advanced on biological issues, and the bees come from them. I may have spent a lot, but I guarantee the future of my bees... When they give new hives, I will give you one if you want...”

  The two princesses quivered with joy and went back to looking at the images of bees... until they slowly realized that they were now the center of attention in the room. They turned their gazes to the queen in unison, with the guilty air of those who knew they had done something stupid.

  “Ugyraya,” said the queen, “Umilano, you are both punished starting tonight.”

  “B... but,” protested the first, “I should receive a package soon! If I am locked in my room without being able to speak to the commoners, I am afraid they will do anything with it!”

  The queen sighed, but she also seemed a little softened.

  “Well, well... then... let's see... Prince Jouy-Toril will take care of the arrival of your... bees? Is that the name of these creatures? And I am making an exception to your punishment regarding everything concerning their care... But I am adding a month of punishment for having bought things from the enemy without asking my permission.”

  The guilty one protested by saying that the bad guys didn’t even know they were selling to Zcarbbs, but quickly shut up: deep down, with the arrangements for her bees, the punishment didn’t bother her that much.

  The queen then turned her attention back to Sava-Domeria:

  “The little ones are sometimes turbulent,” she apologized, “I’m not sure they listened to your story. Anyway… What an adventure you’ve had.”

  The queen tapped away with her large hands on a gigantic keyboard made of iron, gold and amber, consulting large amber screens that floated in the air. Although they had holographic technology, the Zcarbbs seemed to prefer having physical media to view information.

  A worker approached the throne and took out a small memory crystal from a sort of computer embedded in the massive seat. He then approached Sava and handed her the object. With a little hesitation, she grabbed it.

  “I have compiled data that will be useful to you,” the queen explained, “since you have been cut off from the present for so long. I have updated the maps of the border zone, in formats compatible with the administered software. The planet you want to reach is unfortunately located outside the Zcarbbs borders.”

  With a few systems difference, they would have reappeared outside the invaded zone. But a doubt was beginning to grow:

  “Is this system still part of the Administration?”

  “Not exactly. It is a member of the Universal Administrative Confederation. Your Evil Empire has split into two evil factions. Half of this galaxy that is still barbaric belongs entirely to this Confederation. The planet you are targeting belongs to their largest nation: the Orange Empire. We currently have a truce with them, which allows our galaxy to be kept in relative peace, despite the war raging in the universe.”

  The Ham scowled. The Administration had remained the same for millennia… or at least almost a century or half a century, and all she had to do was leave for another half a century for everything to change. She really needed to be able to connect to a Network beacon to update her knowledge of the universe.

  “I think you shouldn’t have any trouble getting in there: even if they are opposed to your Administration, I have heard that non-military agents can still operate there. If you and your crew need anything, I can provide it! Perhaps you want some food? We have plenty of real food, not from synthesizers!”

  The queen vibrated with excitement, thrilled at the idea of ??being able to help Sava-Domeria. Unlike the princesses, she kept her abdomen rigid at such times and avoided moving it too much.

  Oddly enough, the mention of real food made the ears of the two Xerineans perk up and turn their gazes towards Sava, visibly waiting for her to accept the offer. The fear had slowly left them, as the Zcarbbs revealed themselves to be peaceful towards their crew. Lhom, for his part, remained silent, contenting himself with taking notes on a sort of manual writing pad. Probably on paper…

  “I would be delighted to accept this help… Ilena-tam-Yana…”

  “Ilena-tar-Yana! Your species does not have a very good auditory memory: without the help of your electronic devices, you even get names wrong.”

  “I'm sorry...”

  “It's okay: I know you weren't being disrespectful to me. Give that worker the list of what you want... Oh, Sava-Domeria, you can't know how happy it makes me that you're still alive! Of all the servants of the Evil Empire, you're the only one who's a good person!”

  Yes: Zcarbbs also use beauty products, but not to the point of making them a separate category of products. They have a hard time understanding that a good part of the products still sold in the Administration, without going through matter synthesizers, consist of products that have no pragmatic use (from their point of view).