on a lark | Glowfic Constellation

"Okay." Back out of the tunnel.

The desert continues to be hot and sandy. The Hiver doesn't seem to mind. It walks to the edge of the little orchard and sits in the shade of a tree and points.

The thing it points at is a low, wide shape making its way towards them, kicking up a fair amount of sand along the way.

Okay, that's soon enough that she won't be sunburnt. "How long will the trip to the princess take?"

"I've never ridden one of these, but they're fast. Probably less than a tenth of a day."

"How long are days on this planet?"

Its units of time don't match up to hers, but they mean "19 hours, 7 minutes."

"Okay."

The big hovercraft thing continues to hover towards them. It's getting close now.

"How did you get here, anyway? If you were always on this planet, the surveyors would have found you. If you came in a spaceship, the satellites would have found you."

"Oh, I'm not very big, I'm easy to overlook," she says. "Gosh, that's a big thing. How does it float?"

"Something with magnets. I'm not an engineer. There is metal under the sand, it pushes on the metal to fly, but it can only go so high and only where the metal is."

Hovercraft thing tilts backwards as it comes close, slowing down. When it lands, a much bigger Hiver leaps out of a window, lands deftly, and asks, "Greetings, worker. Little one, you are the visitor?"

"Yes," she says, looking up at it but not backing away to make that any easier.

The big one steps away. "I will lower a ladder for you. The Princess would like you to come with us, Rt'zlt. Another is being sent to take over your duties for today."

"Thank you," says, apparently, Rt'zlt.

Down comes a rope-and-wood ladder.

"Thank you," says the visitor, and up she clambers.

There are bolted-down chairs and benches in wildly varying sizes inside the thing. The big guy goes to one with controls in front of it. The hovercraft turns around and sets off after everyone is seated.

It's pretty fast. Neither of the Hivers try to talk to her.

That's okay. She watches desert go by.

They pass a lot of cropfields, a few Hivers, and a few buildings sticking up out of the sand.

After a while the worker asks, "Do humans not have princesses? You seemed interested, as if the idea was new."

"Humans do have princesses, but I haven't met one before."

"Everyone in our hive meets the Princess when they are born and when they are dedicated, even if they never do again."

"What's dedicating?"

"When we are old enough to understand things, we are ceremonially given the tools for the job we were assigned at birth. Not all stay in the same job forever, but all at least start in a predetermined place."

"Humans don't do that. They pick jobs later on," she says authoritatively. "Without a princess nearby to help."

"Are all humans good at the same jobs? I could never be a Warrior, no matter how much I desired it. I am simply too small. Warriors are made on purpose."

"Humans can be bigger or smaller but you can't guess from looking at a newborn one, or get them that way on purpose."

"Hivers are made. I was made small and with good endurance, to be a worker. Warriors are made tall and tough and strong. Scientists are made smart. The idea of a hive without specialized roles is strange to me."