[opening theme music playing]
[electronic warbling]
[ethereal music playing]
[rumbling]
[electronic trilling]
[in alien language] We shall miss your conversation
on the rest of our voyage, Dr. Afriel.
[in English] And I yours.
Our exchange of information has been extremely valuable to me.
[in alien language] Humanity is the kind of race
we enjoy doing business with.
Young, eager, flexible.
But we do not understand the profit you seek in studying the swarm.
They are merely well-organized animals.
[in English] Hmm. Well, we humans learn wherever we can.
[alien] Dr. Afriel.
[electronic trilling]
Per our transit contract, we shall return in 600 of your days.
[ethereal music continues]
[gurgling]
[squelching]
[ship rumbling, pulsating]
[rumbling]
[creatures trilling, warbling]
[woman in English] Dr. Afriel.
Welcome.
Dr. Mirny. An honor to meet you.
And I you.
It's good to see another human face.
And please, call me Galina.
[creature trilling]
- [groans] What? - Don't be alarmed.
It will convey your pheromones to the queen.
Otherwise, you might be considered an invader and killed.
I followed your study of the Swarm with tremendous interest, Doctor.
But I had no idea you'd learned to communicate with them.
Not exactly.
[squelching]
[Galina] I found no Swarm castes that use language,
but several symbiote species still do.
I call these springtails.
I believe they were once a spacefaring race
who discovered the Swarm and were absorbed by it.
But now they are little more than parasitic savages.
So far, I've identified 15 unique symbiotic aliens
living among the hundreds of specialized castes native to the Swarm.
Various strains of nutrient-rich fungi are the hive's main food source.
Since our basic biochemistry is similar, it's perfectly edible.
[creatures trilling]
[creature clicking]
I've learned to solicit food with a pattern of reflex tapping.
[tapping]
Fermentation in the worker's gut...
[gurgling, retching]
...adds nutritional value.
Makes it taste better too.
Mmm. It's wonderful. [gulps]
[creature lowing]
Tunneler.
It can take us further into the Nest.
[Afriel exhales sharply]
[grunts]
[tunneler lowing]
[creatures trilling]
The queen.
[ethereal music swelling]
[Galina] Heart of the Nest.
Whatever caste of worker is needed,
she can create it.
The entire Nest is a wonder of genetic automation.
It is truly amazing.
[creature clatters]
[Galina] Warrior caste. Very deadly.
[tense music playing]
[creatures warbling]
[Galina] But only if you mean harm to the queen and her eggs.
Dr. Afriel, I think it's time you told me exactly why you're here.
As you've discovered,
the Swarm is a near-perfect organic system.
With a resource like this, we can bring order to the chaos of human expansion.
We must harness its power.
Exploit it, you mean.
If order is what you want,
look around.
It's always warm, it smells good, and there's plenty of food.
This Nest has been here for millions of years.
Who will remember humanity in even a thousand?
Even though I won't live to see our race triumph,
it's enough that I can foresee that day.
Arrogance.
[tense music playing]
These creatures are primordially innocent, Doctor.
They should never become pawns in some power struggle light-years away.
[Afriel] But we only need the genetic information from one egg.
With that, we can grow our own queen.
Her offspring will build a new nest.
They would be useless
without the Nest's pheromones to control them.
Mm. Artificial vein.
This slipped past the Investor quarantine.
Inside is a selection of the Swarm pheromones we synthesized
based on your samples.
If these work, we could control millions of workers.
Armies of warriors.
- You are planning to breed a slave race. - We could...
You said yourself, they aren't sentient.
They're organic machines.
It's not as if they'd be staring up at the stars pining for their freedom.
[inhales deeply]
It's true.
Whether they work for us or the Swarm will make no difference to them.
And that is the beauty of the idea, Doctor.
[sighs]
As long as no harm comes to the Nest...
I'll help you.
[squelching]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Galina] We'll need to test the synthesized pheromones
with a series of trials.
[creature trilling]
[Galina] First vial contains the most basic pheromonal commands.
A simple grouping stimulus.
But to work most effectively,
the pheromones need to be combined in a chemical program.
Gather, then dig.
Grow food here, then harvest.
- Or retrieve one fertilized egg. - [creature warbling]
[ethereal music playing]
[Galina] We humans are not so very different.
Adrift on ancient chemical tides.
Submerged in the warm ebb and flow
of life.
[whooshing]
[springtails screeching]
[creatures trilling]
[in alien language] What is it?
Food-giver no good. Not feed.
Take me to her.
[suspenseful music playing]
[springtail trilling]
[creature roars]
[growls]
[creature snarls]
- [shrieking] - [squelching]
[intense music playing]
[creatures screeching]
[Afriel pants, grunts]
[roaring]
[Afriel grunts, groans]
[air hissing]
[creatures growling, warbling]
[creature trills]
[roaring, warbling]
[Afriel grunts, groans]
- [bones crack] - [screams]
[Afriel grunts]
- [creature roars] - [Afriel yells]
[creature roars]
[squelching]
[Afriel groans]
- [grunting, straining] - [intense music swelling]
[creatures trilling]
Come on then, you mindless motherfuckers!
- [creatures screeching] - [Afriel screaming, grunting]
[music fades]
[ominous music playing]
[creatures trilling]
[squelching]
[Afriel gasps]
[moaning]
[Galina moaning]
Galina?
[gasping]
[Galina] I have no name,
but you may address me as...
[squelching]
...Swarm.
[sinister music playing]
[heaves, retches]
[Swarm] I am one of its castes.
My specialty is intelligence.
We... we mean you no harm.
We seek only knowledge and...
[Swarm] You sought to breed us.
Use us.
But your crude experiments
triggered certain genetic protocols,
and I was born.
I am only a few weeks old,
but I have millions of years of racial memory.
You are clearly an intelligent being.
Surely we can find a way to...
Please, Doctor, I'm just a tool.
[breathes raggedly]
One the Swarm has used to deal with threats like yours many times.
Through her memories, I understand your race.
An especially vigorous one.
I expect they could be here,
competing with us within a few hundred years.
Hmm. It will be sooner.
Perhaps.
But on the timescale the Swarm operates,
your race will soon be gone.
If... if you intend to destroy us, we will...
[yelling, choking]
Most likely, you'll destroy yourselves.
In... intelligence...
[inhales deeply]
...is not a winning survival trait.
[exhales, breathes heavily]
Consider the scavenger feeding on your vomit.
Two million years ago,
its ancestors made the galaxy tremble.
When they attacked the Swarm,
we bred smarter, tougher versions of their own race to fight them.
Our nests were the only world they'd known,
and they fought with a fury and inventiveness
we never could have matched.
It is an excellent strategy.
And the two of you make a perfect breeding pair.
I would never betray my race.
I will kill myself.
In which case, I would simply clone you and raise the children myself.
Bothersome.
And so I offer you a choice.
Remain an intelligent living being or...
[gasps, moans]
[squelching]
[yelling, gasping]
...real ugly events...
[gasping, retching]
[sighs, chuckles]
So,
do you accept my offer, Doctor?
I accept your challenge.
We won't become parasites.
Humans are different.
Of course you are.
[squelching]
I'm glad I won't have to absorb you.
I would have missed
your conversation.
[music fades]
[electronic warbling]
[closing theme music playing]
[music fades]