Spore-Priest Kresh

Kresh is a spore-priest of the Eighth Lung, a small sect that holds the spore-clouds to be the real minds of the Collective, and the captains to be their hands. The orthodoxy calls this heresy. The orthodoxy calls most things heresy. Kresh has been censured four times for preaching it in front of hatchlings, twice for refusing to kill an opposing cloud after a duel went the cloud's way, and once for speaking a leader's molt-name on an open channel at a rival's funeral.

The Communion Bloom's spore-vents are set in a ring, and they throw harmonics when the ship fires that the rest of the Collective finds unpleasant. Kresh says the harmonics are the cloud singing, and that the cloud is choosing targets. The gunnery officer, in this account, is a polite facilitator. The Collective stopped sending hatchery assignments. The Bloom has spare spore-stock and time. It is listening for offers.