Kalpana and her sisters stood in a corner of the palatial and fantasmagorical dance hall. Sipping on a wine born from a bottling and fermentation of those precious feelings of first love during the summertime. They were surrounded by all manner of beings. Some of them were humanoid, some of them were not. Some of them were corporeal, some of them were not. There were three-headed giants in tribal robes, and anthropomorphic geese in tuxedos. There were also whirring clouds of things, and pulsating balls of light, that could be seen wearing tiaras and bow ties. Beings like the harvesters, who were a mixture of humanoid and insectoid were just more faces in the crowd.
Kalpana looked around and was a little surprised to find that she and her sisters weren’t the only non-immortals present. Mortals like them were definitely in the minority, but there were a number of Saints, Sages, Ancient Archmagi, Dimension-hoppers, and the mortal spouses and/or pets, and/or servants of the immortals, present at the gathering. All of them keeping themselves, all of them watching the big boys gathered near the center of the dance hall. Buzzing about like a disturbed wasp nest.
Actually, Kalpana wasn’t entirely sure if she and her sisters still counted as mortals anymore. They weren’t quite in the same weight class as the main gathering, but between the resources present on the multitude of Harvester homeworlds, the resources that Jack and Jill lavishly just sort of threw at the Harvester whenever they found something that they thought the harvesters could use. As well as the precious, arcane, knowledge available to the Harvesters thanks to their nearly-unfettered access to the Empty-Archive, they were definitely no longer what they once were.
In truth, the Royal Council and Council of Queens were still mulling over what all the changes they were experiencing as a race, would and should mean. First off, even if they weren’t “undying” all Harvesters were currently biologically immortal. Immune to the effects of time, extremely resistant to damage, and all but invincible against poison or disease.
Adult Harvesters all underwent a refinement of their body and spirits to maintain a level of parity with their new patrons. After all, if they were to be subordinated, it’d be no good if they were useless. Thus even the weakest harvester drone was at least at the Saint-Rank. The evolution of the queens and the outlandish improvements to the colony's diet meant that Harvester pupas hatched with cultivations in the Legendary Rank and then naturally advanced to the Saint-Rank as they grew up.
It had been an exciting couple of centuries for Kalpana. Once upon a time, these kinds of species-wide changes would be a big deal, requiring lots of discussions over whether the world they were in could sustain that new version of their race. Now such concerns were quickly resolved with their patrons throwing large, lush, fertile, planets at them like it was going out of style and the harvesters themselves expanding their knowledge of space manipulation, habitat engineering, and terraformation.
The changes came so fast, and were overwhelmingly beneficial that Kalpana and others of the Royal council who were too bogged down in other work, legitimately just had to set up a newsfeed on the Empty-Network’s Application because the colony-wide psychic network couldn’t keep up. The Harvester race had changed so dramatically that there was talk of changing their name. If there were any other harvesters left in their original homeworld, and they came across Kalpana’s colony it’d be a bit like the first upright ape, coming across a star-man. The harvesters of the past and the present-day harvester were only shallowly and faintly similar to one another. The name “Empty-Harvester” was being tossed around quite often.
Kalpana’s attention moved towards the center of the dance hall, where Jack and Jill were being mobbed by hundreds of high-ranking immortals. Any concern Kalpana might have felt initially was quickly resolved as she watched how the two, handled the crowd. Like two mighty war-ants corralling a crowd of dim-witted and docile aphids. Kalpana found her heart pounding as she looked at the two.
Part of this was Harvester-Instinct. The colony’s desires continually flowed through Kalpana in a very visceral way. Back in their original world, people mistook colony-culture as merely being a highly regimented version of regular culture. There were even a few idiots who tried to depose the Harvester royalty in the favor of something more democratic. Not realizing that killing all the royals in a colony would just turn the nearest soldiers or drones into royals to make up for the lack.
They didn’t understand that the colony was in some ways closer to being a full organism than the individuals that made it up were. The different types of Harvesters weren’t like the castes of other cultures, they were more like the cells and tissues in a body. A drone held no more desire to be a soldier, or royal, than the cells of one’s kidneys held a desire to become part of one’s heart, or brain tissue.
Similarly, every Harvester was greatly affected by the Colony’s desires and needed. Even the Queens and royals were not immune to this, though they held a stronger ability to resist colony imperatives, and an ability to guide Colony agendas. Right now the Colony as a whole, was quite literally in love with its new patrons. They went from barely surviving on a cold isolated rock, to having over 1200 planets to do with as they want. More planets than they currently could fully inhabit, with some of those worlds just serving as storage spaces and automated farms.
They were stronger, they were smarter, and thanks to the surfeit of resources, reproduction was at an all-time high. A high that ordinarily would be unsustainable without all the space and food available to them. Their colony would soon be an eternal one. The Harvesters were so much better off, that the Colony’s hatred for the mad queen that had gotten them exiled to the chaotic sea, had largely been diminished if only because they likely would never have come into contact with the two eldritch beings if they’d been allowed to stay in their original world.
People like sweet, salty, and umami because those foods tend to be filled with energy and nutrients that are beneficial to them. People hate bitter and sour because those foods were generally poisonous, or detrimental to them. Relationships held more nuance but the same principle held true, one was likely to grow fonder of the things that were good for you and made you feel good. The two immortals had proved to be beyond beneficial for the Colony as a whole and thus the Colony itself had become their most ardent and sincere supporters.
Kalpana as an individual was also finding herself growing increasingly fond of the two. They’d started off as scary strangers, but through their interactions, she’d discovered that these two mind-breakingly powerful, utterly terrifying beings, were actually quite personable. They were kind, they were reasonable, they were friendlier than your average honey-hound. One was a domineering goofball, and the other was a bit reserved, but filled with nothing but sweetness and thoughtfulness.
Even without the Colony’s input, Kalpana would find herself having thoughts. To make matters worse, Jack had approached Kalpana with an offer that was almost a little too tantalizing. One that would potentially result in the biggest change for the colony yet if it came to fruition. If Kalpana said yes, what would follow would be a series of talks, and small private get-togethers with Jill and Jack. A gentle courtship that would eventually end in marriage.
