The Would-be Queen: The Zerot Infestation, #6

By A K Lambert

Audacious Teens Space Opera at its best.

The fate of Earth hangs in the balance, as does the release of the Zerot from its authoritarian dictatorship.

Two bitter enemies realise only they possess the knowledge and the audacity to prevent a war that will destroy the Milky Way.

They must strike the unlikeliest of alliances—one where, in the battle of good versus evil, good must become evil.

 

The Would-be Queen - Verified Amazon UK Customer
Wow what a series. From the start of book 1 Princess Grace of Earth to the final word of the 'Authors witterings' of book 6 The Would be Queen, I have been eager to read the next page/paragraph/chapter. They are what I call 'I don't want to put you down' books. Hence I have found myself reading to the early hours of the morning and missing my bus stops (several times).
Mr Lambert's universe, worlds and characters lead you through battle scenes, developing love stories, devastations and humour to the point where you have no idea where or how its all going to end.
The whole series is a great read even if you are not a Science fiction fan.
It is a shame you can only give 5 stars maximum.
Really need more books from you Mr Lambert

An Amazing End to the Series- UK Amazon Customer
This is the sixth book in A K Lamberts epic sci-fi series, this whole series has had me hooked from the start, with well written and endearing characters that you come to know and love.
The author has created a vast and amazing world which I found myself getting lost in.
As well as an exceptional storyline, the attention to detail is one of the defining points of the whole series, from the character development, to side storylines, to the description of space battles, not just the action and story but the science behind it too!
After 6 books of ups and downs, and twists and turns, the end of the story left me feeling uplifted and happy and I would recommend this book and series to any fellow sci-fi lover out there.
A great read!

An Interview with the Author

Q. What makes the Zerot Infestation Series special?

A. It's a mixture of things, really. It is the book I've always wanted to read. The villains behave in the same manner as the Japanese Giant Hornets (now they are nasty pieces of work). I wanted to create a unique story, which I believe this series is. You won't see "If you like so and so, you'll love this" because there is nothing else like this.
My hero in the first chapter of Book 1 thinks "And what could she, a ten-year-old girl do anyway? Leave the war to the adults." Unfortunately, as she grows up, she finds herself dragged into the forefront of the war and an unseen, colossal galactic confrontation.
But the best thing this series portrays, so I'm told, is my vivid/weird imagination. (I've also managed to rewrite history in a couple of places, which is well cool!)

Q. The series targets Teens & Young Adults.

A. Yes and no. I was never impressed with bad language, graphical sex or overly explicit violence in books, so the series is written with Teens & Young Adults in mind, with a feel-good factor. But this isn't just for kids. The Zerot, and especially Birjjikk, are despicable and their exploitations aren't shied away from.

Q. Is the series complete?

 

Yes, with two further stories, set in the same universe, on their way.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: A K Lambert
• Release date: May 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223851158

Book preview

PROLOGUE

An infestation of Japanese Giant Hornets can be avoided altogether if the hornet queen can be trapped before they even begin building the hive.

An alluring trap is needed, allowing the queen’s entry without an exit, capturing her, and ensuring a slow and painful demise.

The threat is eliminated before it can ever establish.

There were but three truly advanced races at the dawn of this segment of the universe. The Bellagarn, locked into an inter-sex adaptational race that would eventually lead to a division of the genders for the foreseeable future: the Larna, on the point of finally escaping from the shackles of a thermal electromagnetic radiation locus that had stunted their development: and the Phantern, building evermore fantastic structures while seeing imaginary adversaries behind every passing meteor.

Eventually, the three species passed through the growing pains of their evolutionary puberty, with the next billion years heralding a semblance of calm, allowing other species to populate the local galaxies. Eventually, the Phantern's paranoia resulted in the entrapment of the Larna in a never-ending negative realm and the annihilation of the female Bellagarn. The Phantern could now focus with impunity upon their ultimate delusion, manipulation of the joining of Andromeda, Triangulum, and the Milky Way, by unleashing a weapon to end all weapons.

They were seemingly unstoppable, but no one had told this to an Earthly Princess or a Would-be Queen.

‘Is it from them, again?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where are they now?’

‘Approaching the galaxy. I have sent them our coordinates’

‘Are they still on time?’

‘According to my predicted timeline, they should be here in plenty of time.’

‘It is should now? It was will before.’

‘I’m doing my best.’

‘Still not looking forward to meeting them?’

‘In my position, would you be?’

PART I

ALIGNMENTS

Galactic Timeline

CHAPTER 1 - THE GREAT ENLIGHTENMENT

The Great Enlightenment

The Galactic Guardianship Order

THE CAST:

Rama Galafall of the Larna,

Freemin-Be of the Phantern,

Regent Hobert of the Bellogorn

Xtrava of the Krumpleton Regem

150,000,000 years ago

A great week—the greatest in the galaxy’s history. A week when all the sentient worlds of the Milky Way’s Forthern Wormhole Stream would become protected from natural disasters. 

Rama Galafall had drawn the Alpheratz system to carry out the Galactic Guardianship Order, to witness the activation of the false moon placed around the second planet identified as PXF44835—a world already having oceans teeming with life and its lands harbouring a diverse range of living organisms. A ceremony on a small number of the moons would see a Larna and a guest of honour—a Bellogorn in most cases—joining a Phantern, with a Krumpleton Regem overseeing.

The Larna’s plan was simple. Life in any form was precious and deserved the chance to develop unmolested by rogue meteors or asteroids capable of creating an extinction-level planetary disaster. Their false moon would oversee the Alpheratz system attending to any foreign objects on questionable trajectories. This system already had two moons and the false moon would be twinned with the smaller one.

The plan was simple, but the scale on which it would be carried out was monumental. Within the space of two solar standard days, ten million moons would be activated, officially heralding the end of the infancy of this part of the universe and the beginning of a new era. This era would see life creation on a scale hitherto unimagined.

It may have been the Larna’s plan, but it needed help from the other ascended species to make it happen. The Phantern would build the moons. The male Bellagarn, now wanting to be known as the Bellogorn, were building the communication systems to monitor each world as it fumbled through its evolutionary pathway. The female Bellagarn had nearly completed their massive data storage facility, named the Records of All, to document the history of the galaxy’s development. Finally, the newly ascended Krumpleton Regem would act as arbitrators to ensure the project complied with the directives of its original charter. 

‘What I didn’t appreciate was the sheer size and complexity of the internal workings of a moon,’ said Rama Galafall. They had left the Inner Crust transport hub a while ago and though their transporter was quite fast, had only just arrived at the massive energy collectors. ‘So much equipment to power a weapon to break up meteors is beyond my comprehension.’ He knew a little more about the workings of the false moon than he let on, but it was polite to feign some ignorance to allow the Phantern chance to explain everything.

‘Everything you have seen so far has the sole purpose of getting the moon here,’ explained the Phantern, not sitting down but hovering, its wispy tail looping around the seat, with glowing head and arms raised above the others. ‘The main drive systems are now redundant and have self-decommissioned, never to be used again. Instead, there are much smaller auxiliary systems capable of minor adjustments to its orbit around the planet.’ Freemin-Be now spoke directly to the Bellogorn, who he knew had a keen interest in the engineering aspects of the false moon. The moon’s mass and distance away from the planet are individually tailored to suit each star system. It should stay exactly where we place it. The auxiliary systems are a backup only.’

Regent Hobert, whose massive frame took up all the rear portions of the carrier, nodded in agreement, his head moving up and down by simply flexing his thick lower tentacle legs but his stork eye remaining perfectly still. ‘A marvellous feat of engineering, Freemin-Be.’

‘It gets interesting from here as Xtrava guides our vessel through the collectors to the central crystal,’ said the Phantern. 

‘These marvellous collectors allow the two-way passage of energy,’ Freemin-Be explained. ‘Energy from the sun is gathered and stored within them before being transferred to the outer part of the crystal, continually maintaining optimum levels. Then, the energy flows in the opposite direction to the weapon turret in an intervention event, targeting the rogue space debris.’

Xtrava added. ‘And with a net-zero energy impression—no additional energy is required apart from that borrowed from the system star.’ The Krumpleton Regem’s shimmering golden scales still covered the former aquatic creature’s body, with gills down each side of his head and body slowly pulsing open and closed. 

‘Most impressive,’ stated Rama Galafall.

‘Agreed,’ added the Bellogorn. ‘I suspect the energy required to destroy a large asteroid warrants the vast size of the equipment we see.’

‘Indeed. We will now pass through the ring of smaller globes, which radiate to or absorb from the crystal depending upon the flow cycle. A flotilla of dignitaries will join us for the last part of the journey.’

The flotilla of dignitaries was for show only. All agreed that more pomp and ceremony were required to mark the occasion, but with so few ascended species, there was no one else to ask. The Schumberlay and the Qai were nearly accepted but not quite there. The flotilla, therefore, consisted of strangely designed vessels operated by Seneschal—with an entirely darker mandate.

The Great Enlightenment was the name of the switch-on ceremony happening all over the galaxy. Within a few days, all the false moons would become operational, throwing a warm, protective blanket around the many fledgling species of the galaxy. The champions of the project, the Larna, and an honoured guest, the Bellogorn, would enter the crystal to initiate the ceremony. 

The last part of the journey between the energy collectors and their destination proceeded slowly, with little for the dignitaries to focus on except the gradually increasing size of the distant crystal. Eventually, the configuration of the magnificent edifice became clear. 

Freemin-Be explained the crystal structure was integral to the smooth control of the energy flow paths, needing highly organised molecular arrangements at an atomic level. The centre of the network comprised solid diamond—the most organised of all substances.

He didn’t explain the diamond’s real purpose—forming an offset sinusoidal frequency, causing a time and temperature invariance. Or the surrounding polycrystalline membrane that would contain the violent storms that were an essential part of the darker process. The outer part, forming the most of the structure, was made of amorphous—a form of glass—and was structured to give the imposing stalagmite protrusions, shooting away in every direction. When the time came, these would colour the world through each phase shift and release the storms, creating the rapid cooling effect that would ultimately trap the Larna. This procedure could only happen in the Antumbra, though—so there was still one more delicate operation to perform.

The transporter landed on the central segment of the crystal structure, next to the Main Control Room. Freemin-Be alighted first.

‘Rama Galafall and Regent Hobert, enter the Control Room and begin the Great Enlightenment,’ Freemin-Be announced. The look between the Larna and the Bellogorn was one of pride as they entered and took up their positions, unaware of the silent locking mechanism activating. 

The Seneschal guards of honour positioned themselves in perfect equidistant positions around the crystal before projecting a combined force field that encircled the crystal structure, the transporter, and themselves. They then launched a second one, precisely placed within millimetres of the first. Finally, one of the Seneschal approached the wafer-thin force fields and inserted two probes delicately into the space between them. One tested the residual vacuum within and the soundness of the structure, whilst the second injected antimatter. Soon a perfect ring of the dangerous material surrounded them. A small light illuminated the virtual controller in Freemin-Be’s hand, with a countdown initiated. 

Perfect, he thought. Everything is ready.

The first Rama Galafall or Regent Hobert was aware of anything untoward occurring was the black void about them now full of stars—the false moon had disappeared. They didn’t know they were in the Antumbra realm or being tugged into the planet’s atmosphere by the Seneschal’s vessels. More pressing was the subtle darkening of the room’s ceiling. The view of the stars had disappeared again, and there was a faint shimmering effect.

‘What is happening?’ asked the Bellogorn.

‘I do not know,’ replied Galafall trying unsuccessfully to get up. Regent Hobert was also trapped, and not even his colossal strength made a dent in the invisible bindings. ‘What is the meaning of this, Freeman-Be?’

But the Phantern didn’t reply.

The crystal walls were taking on a pink hue and slowly turning red.

‘Freeman-Be?’ the Larna pressed as the red turned to orange. ‘What is happening?’

Still no reply.

The Bellogorn was first to note the order of the colours as the orange changed to yellow. 

‘It is a black body locus. The yellow is turning whitish, with just blue to go.’

‘They are mimicking the phase shifts that afflicted our planet during our infancy,’ stated the Larna, ‘but we have been immune to these effects since leaving our triple star system. So I don’t know what they are trying to achieve?’

The white phase soon turned to blue, with the hitherto eerie silence broken by the low rumbling of some nearby machinery. Storm-like conditions appeared below the ceiling with an unseen force trapping it. The colours of the locus quickly changed back through their sequence—blue to white, yellow, orange, and red.

Regent Hobert marvelled at the light show that almost certainly resulted from a rapid cooling effect. He turned to Rama Galafall to expand on what he thought was occurring, but Galafall had gone. In his place was a pathetic-looking creature with grey mottled skin, thick spiky hair, and bristles. His smile exposed tombstone teeth with wide gaps between them. The creature looked up amiably.

‘Hello. Who you?’

The final action was their transportation from the crystal prison to the planet’s surface.

Hobert soon realised that Rama Galafell had reverted to a former version of himself from early in the Larna’s evolution. It would be a while longer before he realised the crystal structure was set to operate on a planetary scale, and with each phase change, the Rama’s advancement would be significant. Only during a short blue phase would the Larna know who the Bellogorn was. He would also become aware of his trapped brethren scattered around the Milky Way. 

The years passed, and the Larna watched their Bellogorn friends grow older in every negative world—they had long since limited their age to five hundred. They would all eventually die, leaving their race in danger of extinction, so the Larna devised a plan to save them during the few short hours available during the blue phases. All the Bellogorn needed to do was work out the engineering to achieve it.

All over the Milky Way’s Forthern Wormhole Stream, ten million moons were supposed to have activated, with five per cent containing a crystal structure and a Larna. The few Larna left scattered around the Local Group of galaxies were mercilessly hunted down by packs of Seneschal.

The Phantern’s moon project would now lay dormant for one hundred and fifty million years until the distance and alignment of Andromeda and the Milky Way were optimal for their plan to work.

SanralS Plate

CHAPTER 2- COUNT BARRACK

Count Barrack

The Full Picture

THE CAST:

Ken, Rase, Count Barrack, Lady Metalinda, The Diaquinto, Campo

Lady Metalinda, at the doorway of the DM laboratory, just caught the end of Rase’s potential discovery.

‘Get it out, man,’ said Ken.

‘The Sanrals Plate. I know what it is,’ said Rase

‘Calm yourself and tell us,’ said Barrack.

‘It is a schematic. A technical schematic of a false moon.’

She moved slightly further into the room and found a seat. No one had noticed her. She watched Barrack closely; he was unmoving, with only his tentacles seemingly caressing elements of the floating three-dimensional depiction of the Sanrals Plate. She had never seen that look on his face. To her, it appeared as though he was seeing a piece of rare artwork for the first time.

‘Go through your thought process, Rase, my friend,’ he said, not taking his eye off the slowly spinning plate.

‘Replace the three-dimensional image with the two-dimensional plate adapted to monochromatic colour interpretation,’ Rase instructed Brendan, the ship’s IA. ‘Notice the outer ring of clockwise arrows, universally accepted as a representation of the colours of a standard rainbow. Now look at the inner anticlockwise arrows, showing the colours that match up with….’

‘A black body locus,’ interrupted the Count. ‘The colours from Grace’s time in the Antumbra.’

‘Yes,’ confirmed Rase.

‘So that would indicate the entire centre of the plate is the Antumbra.’

‘Yes, Grace’s floating crystal.’

‘Oh Rase, what have you done, my good fellow.’ Count Barrack turned to him, a broad smile on his face. ‘Brendan, the three-dimension plate, please.’

The swap over was instantaneous.

‘A moon shows up, goodness knows how long ago, and positions itself exactly at the point where it will create a perfect eclipse with the system sun.’ Barrack’s demeanour had now changed to his familiar one, full of confidence. ‘What happens next, Rase?’

‘I’d assumed the Crystal structure is transferred to the Antumbra, similarly to the workings of the Boron Teardrop?’ suggested Rase.

‘I’m sure that is what happened, my good man. But, with the boundary of the Antumbra here,’ Barrack stated pointing to the ring of small globes between the two sets of rotational arrows, ‘rather than the periphery of the crystal, which is how the Boron Teardrop works. It all makes perfect sense. Once in the Antumbra, manoeuvre the crystal structure down into the planet’s upper atmosphere, and it is trapped there forever, creating the colour phases.’

Em was so happy to see the Count back to his confident self now that Rase had found the missing piece of information he had been desperately seeking. 

‘What? I can do that, but why don’t you ask him yourself?’ Ken was talking with the Diaquinto.

‘No, I’m happy with you asking. I know it goes against your new protocols. Brendan, please display all the Diaquinto.’

Five opaque images appeared, spread around the small group, with Brendan using a poetic license with their placement.

‘Frontal, ask,’ instructed Ken.

‘Count. The cyclic black body radiation appears identical to the conditions that trapped the advanced race in the Grablic story of the Sun-chaser City, be they the Larna or whoever. Wouldn’t you agree?’

‘I certainly would, my little friends. Invite them to the planet, trick them into the Antumbra, and they become trapped the next time a storm occurs. A dastardly plan,’

‘We agree, Count, but it is difficult not to be impressed with the ingenuity of such a plan,’ commented Pariet.

 ‘How many planets are involved? Some stories mention millions,’ said Occi.

‘Why not try to capture them on their home planet?’ asked Ken. ‘And this is me asking.’

‘I am beginning to believe this is a small but clever part of a much greater plan,’ said Count Barrack. ‘Rase. Tell us what else you have discovered about the Sanrals Plate.’

‘I considered the possibility of channelling antimatter within the moon’s centre to the attached sphere and that the symbol wasn’t an hourglass but a blackhole.’

‘That solution has a technical elegance to it,’ said the Count. ‘Antimatter is syphoned from the Antumbra through the inner boundary ring and fed into giant gas condensers. Small volumes of grey matter are then piped to the external sphere, weaponising it to possess a sufficiently large payload to create a stable wormhole. But for what ends?’

‘We have come across stars that have significantly shorter lifespans when close to singularities,’ said Pariet. 

‘Placing a stable black hole close enough could limit the sun’s ability to create nuclear fusion,’ mused Barrack. ‘It will rip hydrogen right off the star, and pretty soon, only the core will remain.’ 

‘Isn’t that what I just said, Count?’ Pariet’s avatar stood and smiled just as Grace would.

‘That is what you have just said. I’ve just added a smidgeon of engineering detail.’

Lady Em was proud of Barrack. He was holding centre stage but acknowledging all around him.

‘So, the triangular shapes are propulsion units, Rase?’ asked Barrack.

‘Yes, directional and rotational,’ he replied proudly.

‘You will go down in history, my friend, as the one who solved the Sanrals Plate.’

‘But how long will that history last?’ asked Campo, speaking for the first time. ‘The Zerot battle cruiser has just unloaded a spherical-shaped object. Is that the pimple about to be attached to the moon and weaponised? How long will this system survive? Weeks, months, a few years tops? The moment the blast occurs, life here ends. And what about the many millions of other star systems about to be extinguished? The Phantern cannot hate the inhabitants of the Milky Way that much to enact such an elaborate plan. Isn’t the Triangulum galaxy big enough for them?’ 

Campo was developing another level of maturity and, so Lady Em thought, sounded more like the Count than ever.

‘Triangulum? Dark matter?’ Barracks mused. ‘It is all about the dark matter!’

He spun through a full circle, looking to see who may understand. 

‘It is how dark matter influences gravity. Oh, my word, it is so clever.’

‘Tell us,’ shouted Ken.

‘They are trying to avoid a catastrophe that won’t happen for another three billion years.’ Barrack composed himself. ‘Sorry, let me start from the beginning. We all know that the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are slowly moving closer together, trapped in each other’s gravitational pull.’ The Count noticed Em for the first time and smiled at her, ‘well, most of us know. A casualty of the merger would be Triangulum, a satellite galaxy of Andromeda that is likely to clash with the Tigratterella primordial black hole, devouring many of its star systems. The Phantern must have calculated that extinguishing many of the Milky Way’s stars will alter the gravitational pull sufficiently to save their galaxy.’ 

‘Why don’t they move? It’s what we did when faced with the demise of our system sun,’ said Campo. 

‘And look what that did to us, as a species,’ said Lady Metalinda.

‘Who knows the thinking of an ancient, ascended race,’ said Barrack. ‘Maybe they expect to live forever. Brendan, please forward this narrative to Prince Ventar on Earth. They will all want to know the secret of the Sanrals plate.’

CHAPTER 3- VENTAR AND THE KIDS

Ventar and the Kids

First Contact

THE CAST:

Prince Ventar, Major Tang, Gordon, Festig, Nigel

Lord Al, Putri, Budi, Maria, Kabul,

Gordon, Festig and Major Tang had compiled a list of Earth-based groups monitoring the surrounding space, ranging from NASA to independent commercial operations. They had been on Earth for a couple of weeks but couldn’t agree on a recommendation for the Prince. Ventar, now free of his official duties with various Earth governments, knew what he was looking for and thought it best to go with a small non-commercial group. However, the name caught his attention from the outset and ignoring the recommendations from his little task force; he decided to try them first.

Ventar was never a fan of stealth, so when he decided to ask the Fear Basket for assistance, his first thought was to materialise directly into their headquarters with his hood up to add a touch of flare. Upon his arrival, his limited vision picked up three children around a computer console. No noise accompanied his appearance; only the girl on the far right noticed him in her peripheral vision.

‘Who are you?’ she asked.

‘My name is Ventar,’ he replied, slowly lowering his hood. ‘Who is in charge here?’

The sight of a real-life alien appearing out of nowhere stunned the room, with the constant chatter from morning to midnight slowly dying away. Of course, everyone had seen the aliens—it was why they looked to space rather than their typical Earthly pursuits, but never in a million years did they expect to meet one. And one that was a boy no older than them.

‘Right at this moment, I am.’ A boy of similar height and skinny build approached from behind. ‘I’m Budi. What are you doing here?’

‘I am looking for help,’ replied Ventar. ‘Help to find people who may be hiding in the space above us.’ He extended his arm around the room, his robe sleeves hanging majestically down. ‘By using this equipment of yours. Haven’t you got a grown-up in charge?’

‘Do you believe we need a grown-up in charge of us?’ replied Budi defensively. ‘You don’t seem to have a grown-up?’

‘My big sister keeps an eye on me. Grace, you may have seen her on your media.’ Ventar put both hands on Budi’s shoulders, looking at him squarely. ‘I didn’t mean to offend. The very reason for choosing you is your age and the flair and imagination that comes with it. I am twenty, and I think I have a degree of those qualities.’

‘I am nineteen.’ Budi looked around at the imploring eyes of everyone, willing him to help the alien boy. ‘Ok, what do you want from us?’

‘We need to find a particularly villainous alien that we believe is orbiting Earth but keeping clear of our means of detection. I’m hoping some of your search methods may be unanticipated and help find her.’

‘A female villain?’ stated a tiny girl that could have been no more than eleven or twelve. ‘Yay! Go girl power.’

‘Putri!’ Budi tried to give the girl a withering stare, but it was much too animated, and she just gave him a big false smile back.

‘Tell him,’ she said.

‘But we need to speak to Lord Al first.’ Budi implored her.

‘A Zerot? We’ve already found her,’ she continued.

Budi turned away in disbelief, arms held high as though he was seeking divine intervention.

‘They are brother and sister,’ said a boy next to Ventar. ‘They are always like this. I am Kabul. It’s