“I’m recommending that we quarantine this planet,” Beth said. “We just don’t know enough about that electromagnetism. Look how it affected Bill.”

“My report says the same thing,” Bill said. He hoped that would keep Galactic away. He wished he could see Earl again. Maybe in a hundred years the whole planet would be playing bluegrass if Earl kept switching bodies.

“We put Bill back under sedation. He’s dangerous. You know, he told me this crazy story that we were all in danger of switching bodies.”

Bill tightened a string. “Crazy.”

“He was a nice guy.”

“What’s going to happen to him?” Bill asked.

“I don’t know. Psychologists on Earth will check him out.”

“You know, Beth, I’m thinking of retiring. I’m going to go to school. Maybe I’ll get a graduate degree.”

Beth cocked an eyebrow. “I didn’t know that interested you.”

Bill picked up the banjo and plucked a few chords.

“What is that song?” Beth asked. “It sounds familiar.”

“The Ballad of Jed Clampett. It’s about a poor old country boy who becomes rich beyond his dreams after he finds oil on his land.”

“Sounds like a fairy tale,” Beth said.

Bill laughed. “Yep.” He adjusted another string and started back up.

Whisper

YELLOW-SPOT-ON-CEPHALOTHORAX TOUCHED her Queen’s antennae with her own, and felt the surge of { } coursing through and down her body. The two parted and stood still for long moments, enjoying the bond they’d just shared.

The Queen’s upper hands palsied about and Yellow-Spot couldn’t understand what the Queen was trying to say. She looked at one of the Nurses caring for the Queen, who said, “I think the Queen means to ask you how your stay with the gods was.”

Yellow-Spot’s heart ached, seeing her Queen in decline. When the gods had taken

Yellow-Spot those many moons ago, the Queen had looked so young and vibrant. Further sorrow filled Yellow-Spot because of what she was about to do. She lied, “It was wonderful.” It was horrible, witnessing the hateful machinations of these gods. “I learned to understand their strange god-speak.” That much was true.

“Gods! They aren’t gods,”said the demon voice in Yellow-Spot’s mind.

“Be quiet,”she replied back in her mind. Her hands faltered, trying to find her train of thought again. “They told me I was divinely chosen to understand them …”

“Why would the gods choose not to be easily understood?”

“… and I feel honored and humbled that I can tell everyone finally what they are saying.”

“It’s all lies! They’re not gods at all. Why don’t they look like us? Where’s their Queen? Why do they kill each other? How do they { }? They eat so funny.”

Yellow-Spot smoothed her left antenna to distract from any yellow or green her color-face might be showing, betraying her smell of agitation. What she wouldn’t give to stop this demon in her mind.

“Wonderful,” the Queen said. “They will be at the New Queen choosing ceremony. Correct?”

“Correct, my Queen.” Yellow-Spot could barely speak, the sense of betrayal so palpable.

“Why don’t the gods give the Queen everlasting life?”

Yellow-Spot ignored the voice, took a deep breath. “My Queen, the gods request a Drone.” Her legs almost gave out. The betrayal, even though she wasn’t sure what she was betraying. “Why am I taking a Drone?”she thought-asked the demon.

As response, { } surged through her. Though the monster in her mind had no physical existence, it somehow was able to give her { }. “Do as I say and all will be answered, and you shall feel the everlasting { } of a Queen.”

“Curious,” the Queen said. “The gods are mysterious. I will receive your Taste and give it to one of the Drone Nurses. When you require it, your Drone will be waiting.”

The Queen’s Nurse gave Yellow-Spot a Paste-berry. Yellow-Spot bit into the fuzzy skin, cringing a little at the bitterness. She hated eating this kind of Paste-berry, but it was necessary, as this variety added more of her Taste into the Paste.

A few moments later Yellow-Spot regurgitated the berry into Paste. The Nurse collected it for safekeeping.

The Queen said, “I grow tired. My days are numbered and I shall soon go to The Heavenly Colony. Is there anything else to discuss before I retire?”

“Yes, there is.” Yellow-Spot stared at her hands, surprised she’d said anything.

“Do it!”the demon commanded. “Tell her the truth!”

The words came to her fingers as if unbidden. “The gods aren’t true gods.”

The Queen’s color-face was the green of confusion, but she didn’t say anything.

“I mean … maybethey aren’t gods. Forgive me. I have misspoken.”

The Queen moved forward till their antenna almost touched. Her palsied hands said,

“How do you mean?”

“Do it!”the demon goaded.

Yellow-Spot loosened her fingers to speak. Perhaps she could feign blacking out. But no; the Queen might simply request the information after she pretended to wake. She said, “Perhaps they’re not gods at all. They look nothinglike us. Didn’t the gods make us in their own image?

They’re missing two arms, for one thing. And their skin is soft and squishy like a Drone or newly hatched larval person, or an animal like a razor-run. They have only two eyes. Their ears are on top, not on the abdomen the way proper ears are. They have no antennae. Their eyes and ears and mouth are on a bulb supported by a thin stalk atop their body. And their size … gods are supposed to be larger than us. These gods are the same size, if not smaller. And most of their body is furless, and not in the vibrancy of our golds, and blues, and reds, and greens, and-”

“Interesting idea,” the Queen interrupted her. “But wholly incorrect. Come, let’s { }.” Their antennae touched and Yellow-Spot felt the { } course through her. The air filled with the smell of the Queen’s love. The Queen fed Yellow-Spot Paste, and Yellow-Spot Tasted the blissed music of the entire colony in the { }. She wanted it to last forever. Yellow-Spot slumped and collapsed to the floor, drunk with { }.

Yellow-Spot woke with the sun glaring in her eyes. She sat up and nearly bumped the top of the cell she lay in. She scooted out and looked around. Drones. Larvae. Cocoons. The nursery.

She must’ve been carried from the Queen’s dome.