The Spider Queen

Sophie maintained her posture and kept the aliens on their knees. The mental image of a bloodthirsty lunatic needed to be burnt into the mind of every survivor.

This was the first opening act that was crucial in the outcome of the negotiation.

Intimidation was not as simple as merely threatening harm.

No… she needed to go further. She … would show them…

Why they should fear the predator.

The remaining crewmembers were shown the enormous gap in strength between the two parties.

With a casual punch, Sophie could split their bodies in half. In a blink of an eye, she could mercilessly tear their corpses into fleshy chunky of meat.

Even plasma rifles were useless against her sharp reflexes.

Still… even trapped rabbits would dare to bite when faced with a merciless hunter.

Sophie released her killing intent for a few minutes and then abruptly withdrew her bloodlust without warning.

The next step was unpredictability.

Sophie knew that her intentions and goals must remain a mystery to the survivors so that they constantly worried about her next move.

"Get up," Sophie expressionlessly ordered.

Her words had an immediate effect and even with trembling legs, the survivors desperately tried to get back on their feet.

Many were still suffering from the aftereffects of being subjected to immense force and took a few minutes until they could stand upright.

Sophie did not relax her posture and stared into the eyes of each survivor in turn.

One by one, she observed every minute detail from the stripes on their uniforms to the injuries on their bodies.

The entire time, she did not say a single word.

Tension filled the air as the survivors glanced at each other nervously.

The most important rule of any negotiation was to never speak first because it was a sign of weakness.

The party that spoke first would lose momentum since the initiative would be in the hands of the opposing group.

Sophie was prepared to maintain this uncomfortable silence until one of the survivors could not stand it anymore.

One minute passed…

Two minutes passed…

Five minutes passed…

Time seemed to stretch to a crawl as Sophie's face displayed no hint of emotions which was in direct contrast to the survivors whose expressions showed various states of panic.

"What… what… do you… want?" a nervous trembling voice came from the back of the room.

A barely noticeable smile flashed across Sophie's face as she realised that the bait had finally been taken.

She took a quick look at the brave survivor who spoke up and saw a slender male dressed in a long brown robe with the symbol of the sun painted across the back.

There was also a belt attached to the lower half of the robe that contained various metalloid devices which Sophie assumed were tools.

Sophie narrowed her eyes as several guesses about the survivor's occupation flashed across her mind.

Engineer, technician, or maintenance worker…

"What is your name?" Sophie whispered in a quiet tone.

Her voice while soft, echoed through the holding room as the other survivors moved away from the unlucky alien.

"Pirene… I… I…" the alien stammered as an intense feeling of fear rose up in his chest.

The bloodthirsty monster was now looking directly at him with those terrible eyes.

"Relax," Sophie chuckled lightly.

"I appreciate someone with such… bravery."

Her calm words seemed to have the opposite effect as Pirene noticeably tensed up. This was precisely what Sophie was hoping for.

The next step of her psychological tactics was quite difficult, but it was a necessary evil.

Social cohesion disruption.

How could there be a mutiny when the survivors began to fight among themselves?

How could alliances be formed when trust was destroyed?

Sophie did feel vaguely uncomfortable about what she planned on doing next but at this point it was too late.

Or maybe she was just making excuses to calm down her guilty conscience.

It may sound cruel, but she valued the lives of herself and Lily more than the hundreds of aliens who had died on the starship.

"There is no need to hide anything," Sophie turned away from Pirene and focused on the rest of the survivors.

"I have quite the… hunger….and certain needs…. certain… urges"

"This may be a long trip, but I can assure you that at least half of you will still be alive by the time this starship reaches its destination."

"Who lives and who dies will be entirely up to my will… or should I leave it to you?"

Sophie frowned and pretended to think deeply. This was all part of the act since she did not intend to kill any of the remaining survivors unless it was absolutely necessary.

"I require two meals today…. decide amongst yourselves who I will take," Sophie bared her fangs and grinned.

"Do not worry… I will reward all of the individuals who physically subdued the sacrifices with fresh food, water and maybe even a new room."

She could see the turbulent emotions displayed on the faces of the survivors as they realised what was happening.

They did not dare to attack her, so the only solution was to pick two survivors and send them off as sacrifices.

But the question of who would be chosen was bound to sow chaos.

In addition, Sophie had offered generous rewards that could only be claimed if the survivors took an active role in restraining the two that were chosen.

People are selfish.

No one truly wants to die.

These were the two foundational truths that Sophie had learnt after her experiences on both planet Calypso and since being teleported to the Unova Syndicate.

To treat all the survivors with the same level of cruelty would lead to a feeling of dissatisfaction towards her.

That is why she needed to fracture the bonds between them.

Sending off your own colleagues to 'die' would break any sort of unity.

It was funny in a dark sort of way. Different groups in society can be united around a common suffering until one group is treated marginally better than the others.

Then just like animals… they turn on each other.

Of course, Sophie hoped that these aliens had a similar mentality to humans otherwise this tactic was unlikely to work.

"You have five minutes to decide," Sophie growled darkly and left the room. She closed the metalloid door and left the survivors to fend for themselves.

It would be easy to use her enhanced vision to spy on the movements of the survivors, but Sophie intentionally did not bother.

There was no need to witness the ugliness of society when individuals are faced with the threat of death.

The door closed with a dull clang and the survivors glanced at each other with unknown emotions hidden in their gazes.

Although they tried to conceal it, each survivor had the same thought.

I must not be chosen!