A StarCraft: Elizabeth Story

By Violetlight

Disclaimer:I don’t own StarCraft, although I really wish I did. But Treine, and Basilisk brood are my creations, so please don’t use them without my permission. Thanks.

Chapter 1: Beginnings

The first thing I remember in my long life is a sound, a gentle even pulsing, a heartbeat. Opening my eyes for the first time, I found myself in a warm, comforting place. All around me, I could feel the warm, carapaced bodies of others like me, curling around me in welcoming comfort.

Welcome, my daughter. The voice is just as warm and comforting as my surroundings. I hear other voices offering their welcome, caressing me with the sound. It’s not really a voice, speaking a language as Terrans or Protoss would understand it, but rather feelings, emotions I can understand, even so soon after my birth. In these first few moments of life, I know all that is necessary for me to know – that I am surrounded by my father and brothers, and I am happy.

For the first little while, I’m not sure how long in time as other races measure it, I had no real duties. I stayed with the Overmind in our burrow, pressed up against his warm, worm-like throbbing mass for warmth and comfort while my brothers looked after the Hive, bringing food and water to our parent and to me. I wanted to go out and help them right away, but they assured me that even though physically I was an adult -- my “birth” had been from my chrysalis, I had no memory of my larvahood -- I was still too young to leave the Hive. I trusted them and I obeyed. Patience, my child, the Overmind would tell me, in that gentle, fatherly way of his.

Although we usually refer to the Overmind as a “he”, he was actually a bisexual being, both father and mother to the Zerg, just as the Xel’Naga made him. That was one of the things I learned in those carefree days, about the creatures that had created and nurtured our father, only to drop him harshly off onto the planet Zerus below with no explanation, no excuse offered. Just abandoned like a forgotten toy. Our father created the first of us, his cerebrates, to try to cure his loneliness. “Cerebrate” means a lot of things to us, child, friend and companion but mostly “end to loneliness”. Even at the beginning, I remember the anguish the abandonment caused our father, especially since he could still sense the Xel’Naga telepathically, in their great ships high above the jungle planet, safe from all the malevolent animals that threatened us, and my brothers and I sensed it too, through our connection to him and I hated the Xel’Naga for it. In retrospect, however, we should thank our creators. It was this hatred for them, this desire for revenge, that spurred our species to greatness.

In my first days, my duty was to learn. I listened intently to my father’s stories, and strengthened my connection to my brothers, telepathically watching as they worked, my mind linked to theirs so intimately it was like I was working myself. They didn’t mind, they wanted to teach me. There was quite a lot to do, with maintaining our burrow, hunting for food and avoiding the larger predators, of which there were quite a few.

My favourite time, however, was when my brothers returned home from their labours at night, and curled around me. We were all small and insect-like, with three-segmented bodies, six legs and antennae sticking out of our heads, not unlike the Terran insects called “ants” or “termites”. The jungle got cold at night and we would huddle together for warmth, for comfort, for the sheer fact that we were Zerg, the only thinking creatures on this world. It was then that they would speak to me.

Treine they called me, their word for contented peace, for relief. My very presence after a hard, terrifying day, made them happy. However, they were not without their motives.

My brothers seemed especially interested in the fact that I was female, a term I didn’t really understand at the time. We’re still not sure why cerebrates ended up being differentiated into male and female, unlike our parent – it was probably due to the meddling of the Xel’Naga. Competition for mates, I would later learn, is a source for strife among other species so they probably thought they could keep us weak by causing the same among us. Other species, however, are not mentally linked as intimately as we are. Whatever the reason, all I knew in those innocent days was that there was a slight, almost unnoticeable difference in my body from that of my brothers, but one my brothers were always interested in. They would race to get home, to be the ones to lie closest to me, to touch me. After the first couple of days, the eldest and strongest of my brothers, the best hunter, from which he got his name – “Daggoth – to hunt”, was always the first one back to the Hive.

“Treine…” he started as he took what he came to see as “his” place next to me, his blood-red legs entwining with my black ones. That was another odd thing: we all were born with different coloured carapaces. Daggoth was red, I was black, Zasz was orange, and so on. It was another pathetic attempt at separating us into factions, I suppose. The Xel’Naga just didn’t understand that Zerg defined Unity.

“Hi Daggoth,” I smiled, my mandibles resting slightly apart. I nuzzled into his touch, enjoying how his legs rubbed against mine. “That fuzzbug you brought home was delicious!”

“I caught it especially for you,” he told me, and rubbed his antennae gently against mine, causing a tingle to go through my whole body.

“But Daggoth, Nargil tracked the fuzzbug, and Zasz and the others helped you kill it. All of you caught it for the Swarm,” I corrected him.

“But I was thinking of you.” Daggoth replied, his middle legs stroking the underside of my thorax. “I was thinking of you when I sunk my mandibles into it, when I tasted its blood. When it ceased to be a fuzzbug and became part of the Swarm!” As said this, his feet rubbed my sensitive underside and I gasped as one of his feet found what he had apparently been looking for, the little hole near the base of my abdomen, the one part of me that was different from my brothers. His foot almost curiously circled the edge of it, a physical pleasure so different, but so much better, than anywhere he had caressed me before. “I am the first-born, the Hunter” he breathed, “so you are mine.”

I didn’t understand. “Of course I’m yours.” I told him, thinking he meant that I was his sister, his kin, connected to him as we were all connected to each other as Zerg.

That wasn’t what he was referring to, as he removed his leg and, a little too roughly for my liking, flipped me over onto my back. He bent over me, his breathing hard, I found it exciting, but at the same time frightening. Then I felt my other brothers’ connection with us, and the Overmind’s gentle encouragement. Their reassurances made my fears evaporate; after all, we were all Zerg. No harm would, could come to me. So I relaxed, and wrapped all six legs around Daggoth’s back, pressing him against me, inviting him, accepting him. He growled with desire and I gasped as I discovered for the first time the difference between my brothers and I, as his male part plunged into my female one, a painful ecstasy.

My first mating was exquisite in its contradictions, painful and pleasurable, fearful and desirous, exhausting and exhilarating all at once. When Daggoth finally slid off of me, his legs still wrapped around me possessively as he slept, I felt so happy, so complete, revelling in the pleasure we had shared with each other and the entire Swarm, but at the same time, I felt nervous. Then I felt the Overmind’s comforting mental touch. Yes, this was a turning point in my life, but a good one. Sleep, he told me, soothing my troubled mind. When the sun rose and my sleepy, satisfied brothers awoke, I would finally be able to take my rightful place in the Swarm.

I didn’t know it at the time, but had been a test. Facing Daggoth with courage and acceptance proved I was ready to face the world. I had conquered my instinctual fear of mating by trusting in the wisdom of the Overmind. I could do the same against outside threats.

Tomorrow, I would leave the Hive for the first time.