The Hive Engineers

by Emilia Zeeland

Yalena breathed noisily as her eyes shut completely. In front of them, the shape of another girl slowly emerged. She was blonde, angelic even, but Yalena’s heart filled with the bitter taste of stale contempt. This girl had been the source of all secrets.

  Yalena shook her head in the darkness, wishing to chase the image away. Her head felt heavier still and she could no longer lift her eyelids, not even a millimeter.

  Darkness reigned again. For how long, Yalena couldn’t tell.

  And then she gasped awake.

  Bleary-eyed, she scanned the small room she was in. It was plain white—a hospital room with monitors and equipment that looked to be from a good hundred years back in time. Almost expecting to find Veronica there, Yalena shuddered, feeling alone. Exposed. Defenseless.

  Something felt stuck at the back of her throat, but she was too wary of making any sound to clear it. Yalena raised her head slowly, then supported herself on her elbows. A prick at her wrist drew her attention to the systems she was hooked onto. The chunky, old-fashioned screens showed readings of her vitals. The results looked better than she felt, but Yalena didn’t disconnect the wires just yet.

  Her eyes darted to the corners of the ceiling. No surveillance cameras. None that she could see anyway, though with the primitive level of tech in this place, she’d be surprised to find a microcamera. Still, the systems might alert whoever had brought her here, so she stayed put.

  Slowly, she stretched her legs. The pang of the piercing pain in her knee came back to her, but it was a memory. Only dull itching remained. Perhaps she was still on painkillers.

  She removed the bedsheet in one swift movement. The stitches had left an ugly, scaly scar on her knee. It made her want to barf.

  Barbarians. Primitive apes.

  If that was the best they could do to close the wound, she doubted they’d done much better in fixing her knee.

  Yalena pursed her lips to stop herself from groaning.

  She had to get out of this place. With a few heavy breaths, she prepared to bend her knees. No more than the dull pain appeared. She sat at the edge of the bed for a minute, legs hanging in the air, trembling as they brushed against the icy floor.

  Cringing, she tried to stand.

  One foot forward and she wobbled like she’d missed a step. Yalena steadied herself by clasping for the bedside monitor. Something felt wrong. Her breaths quickened in her panic.

  Her balance was off. She transferred her weight onto her left side, then relaxed and stretched her right leg. After a few repetitions, the stretch seemed to help a little, and Yalena’s stance became more stable. She still cringed at the ugly scar on her knee, but so long as she could walk, she owed someone her thanks.

  Then, it all came back to her.

  She’d asked Alec to go. Hopefully, he had.

  And there had been a crash, too, leaving Dave’s body under the hoverbike. The image of Natalia falling on top of the pile like a rag doll made Yalena feel pins and needles all over. Was Natalia even alive?

  With a stale taste in her mouth, Yalena unhooked the needles and wires from her wrist. She advanced toward the tiny wardrobe in the back of the room, trying to ignore the little crackling sound the bones in her knee made from time to time. Harder still was getting used to her wobbly, offbeat walk.

  But she couldn’t waste any time; she would work her knee in eventually. If Felix hadn’t killed her with his special forces, then he must have other plans for her. Plans she didn’t intend on sticking around for.

  She pulled out a fresh uniform from the wardrobe, helmet and gloves included. No one could see through the reflexive visor, so she’d be able to keep a low profile wearing this. Unluckily for her, as soon as she’d put the uniform on and sealed the helmet tight, the door slid open silently. Two soldiers in uniforms identical to hers stood there.

  “Good to see you’re awake,” a woman said.

  Yalena stared at her helmet until her eyes throbbed, but it was in vain. She could never distinguish her features.

  One thing was certain though. These soldiers had no vibe. Or if they had one, they hid it better than any Fian she’d met before.

  Yalena cleared her throat, buying time to pick her words carefully. “What about the others I was with?”

  “One escaped, one dead...” the reply was almost mechanical. “And the last one...damaged.”

  Yalena’s ears rang. Natalia. “I need to see her.”

  “You’re still weak. It’s probably best to keep away. She’s a very unusual product. Unstable. And violent.”

  Yalena felt a tiny flutter inside her. Natalia must still be herself.

  “If you take me to her, she’ll calm down,” Yalena said, fighting the urge to plead.

  Weirdly, her faceless captor nodded. The two soldiers made way for her. One wobbly foot after the other, Yalena walked out of the room. The windowless corridor on the other side wasn’t a straight long room, but instead it seemed to curve in. They must still be inside the cave network of tunnels.

  “Who should we alert now that you’re awake?” the woman asked as she and her partner walked a few steps behind Yalena, as if out of respect.

  All Yalena could do was hope a tremble in her voice wasn’t going to betray her. “No one yet. I need to get up to speed first.” Perhaps she was pushing her luck, but if they hadn’t told Felix yet, she’d have to use it as best she could.

  “Forgive us for the confusion,” the faceless woman behind the helmet said.

  Yalena turned with a few small steps, careful to keep her balance.

  “We didn’t realize there was a master among the four of you. You were all dressed as products. We only found out you have master DNA during the surgery.”

  Yalena’s stomach churned. Masters and products. Fians and their brainwashed, genetically engineered soldiers.

  Startled by the silence, the woman behind the helmet continued. “You’ll be happy to know we started PD processing while you were recovering.”

  Yalena’s throat tightened, but she’d have to find out what that was later. “Good,” she forced the word out.

  After another few minutes of tiresome walking, she halted in front of the room the soldiers indicated.

  “Be warned, this product is different,” the woman said again.

  “I know,” Yalena turned back to her. “Get this door opened.”

  The soldier punched in the password on the door monitor. Inside, Natalia sat cross-legged on a white stretcher. Her black hair was unruly and fell in front of her face in tangled knots. She didn’t even flinch, eyes fixed on an invisible object in front of her. Then, Yalena realized why. Natalia was strapped into a white straight jacket.

  Dread pooled in Yalena’s stomach. She had to let Natalia know she wasn’t one of the soldiers, but the Moonie winced as Yalena neared the bed.

  Earlier, Yalena had thought it would be a bad idea to toss her disguise, but the soldiers seemed to listen to her, to obey her as a Fian. So she undid the lock on her helmet and took it off. “Nat, it’s me.”

  Natalia’s face contorted into a series of involuntarily trembles. “It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s all not real.”

  “Untie her,” Yalena said to the soldiers, but they didn’t move. “I said, free her.”

  “She’s dangerous,” the woman’s voice finally said.

  “Not to me.” Yalena placed a hand on Natalia’s shoulder, making her squirm away from the touch. “It’s all right. It’s me.”

  Natalia’s black eyes fixed on her, like she was deciding if Yalena was real. “Yalena?”

  Yalena squeezed Natalia’s shoulder for a second, then hurried to free her from the straight jacket. Natalia moved her arms carefully for a second. With a pang deep inside, Yalena realized she had no idea how long Natalia had been in these conditions. She helped her up and off the bed. Natalia didn’t let go of Yalena once she was on her feet though. Instead, her nails clawed deeper at Yalena’s elbows.

  “Hey, it’s all right now,” Yalena sai
d. To her surprise the relief she felt at finding Natalia alive dulled her sense of panic for the moment.

  Natalia was shaking. “D-Dave... He’s dead. And Alec?”

  “Escaped,” Yalena mouthed to her.

  Natalia’s dark eyes darted to the soldiers behind Yalena. “They’re brainwashed. They make no sense.”

  Yalena glanced back at the door, where a few other soldiers had joined her welcome committee. They must have been Natalia’s chaperones. Another tremble transferred to Yalena from Natalia’s hands.

  It also allowed her not to feel too awkward to attempt to soothe her. “We’re going to be fine.” Yalena wanted to explain, to let her know that Fian blood had saved them yet again, but she couldn’t do it in front of the soldiers.

  Natalia shook her head as her whole body trembled. “They kept asking me what series I am. Then, they stuck me in here for two days, three maybe.” Her eyes swam with angry tears. “They carried Dave out in a body bag. And I saw you fall through the glass rooftop.” She was stuttering until her throat caught. “I thought you were dead. I was alone with them. I couldn’t fight my way out.”

  Her breaths sharpened as she took in the wall of soldiers at the door. “Don’t let them come near me.”

  As if on cue the soldiers circled them.

  “She needs to come to the lab for phase PD,” the woman’s voice said again.

  “Do you approve?” another soldier asked, but her voice sounded the same.

  Yalena whirled around, trying to pick the first soldier she’d spoken to out of the group, but her eyes were met with black reflective helmet visors all around her.

  “Don’t let them take me,” Natalia cried. Her piercing voice grew louder the closer the soldiers came to them. “You can’t touch me!”

  Yalena’s insides twisted like something alive wanted to stretch. Natalia’s panic attack was transferring onto her. “Helmets off!” she screamed. “All of you. Now!”

  The closest soldier moved first. After the unclasping sound, she removed the helmet. The face beneath it blew the air out of Yalena’s lungs in one swift blow. She’d stared at it before, into the countless pictures on Lexa’s frame. She’d memorized every detail of her face, each of her poses and smiles.

  “Veronica?” Yalena’s voice was a weak whisper left without an answer.

  It couldn’t be. Even Felix couldn’t raise the dead. Yalena had to still be dreaming or hallucinating. She looked at Veronica more intently. Her face was still so young, too young in fact, like she’d aged backwards, but it was impossible.

  A second later, the two soldiers behind Veronica unhinged their helmets and the soldiers waiting outside the room did the same. One by one, the helmets came off.

  Behind each of them had been hiding the same pale face, the same warm brown hair.

  It was Veronica.

  They were all Veronica.

  Yalena’s cheeks burned hotter with every booming pump of her heart. “The son of a bitch...he cloned her.”

  Chapter 8. Moon in My Hand

  Clones.

  Yalena breathed in sharply. Cloning humans had been forbidden in the near worlds as soon as it had been made possible, but that didn’t mean the Fians felt bound by any such law.

  The blood streaming in Yalena’s veins was boiling. She wanted to hurt Felix, to make him pay for playing God, for the gruesome vengeance he’d inflicted upon Veronica even after her death.

  “Mistress?” One of the Veronicas snapped Yalena back to reality. “Do you confirm the new product is safe?”

  The use of that term ‘product’ made her stomach turn. Of course, they thought Natalia was a clone. They’d never seen any other kind of a human.

  “She’s fine,” Yalena said. “She’s...” she dragged out, searching for a way to keep Natalia near. “She’s my assistant on this mission.”

  After a moment of confusion, the clone asked again, “Shouldn’t we proceed with the PD stage for her then?”

  Yalena’s head pounded as she desperately searched her memory for the previous use of that abbreviation. It was when they’d mentioned Dave. She couldn’t say ‘yes’. “I need you to show me your progress on the PD stage of the other one.” Her tongue felt stuck to the roof of her mouth, as if to prevent her from speaking more. “And she’s coming with me.”

  She glanced at Natalia, who cleared her throat. She finally let go of Yalena’s arms and quickly changed into an identical soldier uniform.

  When they walked out of the room and continued down the winding corridor, Natalia kept close at Yalena’s side.

  “Your assistant? Really?” she whispered, suddenly sounding a lot more like her usual sullen self.

  “I got you out of that room and the restraints, didn’t I?” Yalena panted, struggling to keep up with the soldiers’ pace.

  Natalia’s dark swollen eyes studied her unsteady walk. “Did they beat you at the knees?”

  Yalena groaned quietly. “I got injured on impact, but it’s good to know they didn’t manage to break your delightful spirit.” She cast a reluctant half-smile at the Moonie.

  The soldiers halted in front of a set of double doors. One of Veronica’s clones entered a security code, while another gave the report.

  “I think you’ll be pleased with the progress. We used the latest tech optimization sent by the masters to grow products to full size in just a week. See for yourself.”

  Natalia and Yalena shared a horrified look. Before it could register with the soldiers, Yalena marched through the doors as soon as they opened. They led to an all-white spacious lab. At its center, a cluster of five oval cells glistened under the focused bright light. They were about two meters in length and seemed to be full of a milky liquid.

  “Leave us,” Yalena said without eyeing any of the clones in particular.

  They hesitated for a moment, but then shuffled out of the lab.

  Yalena’s heart boomed as a premonition of what she was about to see. Shoes squeaking against the glossy floor, she moved closer to the nearest cell. She had been wrong. It wasn’t full of a milky liquid. It was opaque white.

  When she placed her palm on it, fingers spread wide, it blinked and turned translucent. Dave’s body floated inside, only younger. Still growing. Yalena removed her hand like she’d been burnt. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor, her entire body shaking.

  “What did they do to him?” Natalia squealed. She rushed to the other cells, touching them to activate the screen. “No, no, no.” Each of the cells revealed another copy of Dave’s body. “They’re monsters. They’re sick.”

  Palms on the glossy floor, Yalena stared down at it with terror building inside her to a crescendo. Bitter tears stung in her eyes. She let them fall, squeezing her eyes shut so the tears streamed down her face. But Natalia grabbed her and pulled her up violently.

  “You!” she screamed. “This is all your fault. Again. You’ve lost every single person on our team. You let us get eaten by dinosaurs. And you got Dave killed. You let them clone him. You got me locked up. You’ve sent Alec who knows where. You’ve completely screwed us time and time again.”

  The words burned in Yalena’s chest like she’d swallowed fire. Her eyes throbbed, but Natalia only seemed to draw more power from Yalena’s pained silence.

  She shot each word out like a dagger. “You’re never going to get this right. We put our lives in your hands and you blew it.”

  Yalena shook. She’d tried to keep it together, to make the right choice at every turn, but each hand life dealt her was more treacherous than the last. There was no right way. There was no single thing she could have known would make it all better.

  She forced her hands out of Natalia’s clawing grip. “Stop it. Just stop.”

  Natalia balked at her, speechless.

  Yalena’s chest swelled painfully as her breathing hitched. “I know you’re freaking out. I know you’re afraid, but don’t you dare lash out at me.” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t care. “Don’t y
ou think I hate this? Don’t you think it makes me sick just as much as it does you? Well, it does. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. None of us could have seen it coming. This,” —she raised a trembling hand and pointed to the cluster of cells— “This is the horrid price we paid for knowing what we know.”

  Natalia’s shoulders twitched, like a new wave of disgust had washed over her.

  “Not knowing would have cost us more,” Yalena told her through chattering teeth. “We were preparing for a Fian army, but we’re going to get a human one.”

  Suddenly, Sibel’s warning flashed in her mind with new force and a new meaning. Yalena finally understood.

  “That’s what Sibel meant. This is a human army, even if they’re clones. And they bear her face—the face of the bravest woman since Cara White. We could never fight a legion of Veronicas. And now, a legion of Daves, too.”

  Anger stirred in Yalena’s chest. “Felix knows us, knows our weaknesses. He was going to use this army to completely baffle us, make us second-guess any strike, render us defenseless, because we wouldn’t fight innocents, who have been brainwashed by him to believe they’re products and not human beings.”

  Natalia’s body stiffened. “They’ll do this to me.”

  Yalena grabbed Natalia’s hand a little too forcefully, to make her meet her gaze. “No, they won’t. This ends here.” Yalena took a few rasping breaths, her mind spinning in all directions. Connections she hadn’t immediately seen snapped into place. “Don’t you see? Because I’m Fian, they do as I say. I’m ‘mistress’ here.” The word tasted foul on her tongue. “I’m going to stop whatever they did to Dave and I’m never letting them touch you.” She let go of Natalia rather abruptly and whirled around, eyes scanning the lab in a new way—as the shell that was keeping a very vulnerable weapon in place. A weapon that could just as easily become hers. “I’m going to turn all of these clones against the Fians, by the very means of my Fian blood. I’m going to take this army away from Felix.”

  Natalia blinked fast at her, eyes swimming with a glimmer of hope.

  “Don’t you see, Nat?” Yalena put all her resolve into convincing them both. “I’ve got this moon in my hand.”