The Hive Engineers

by Emilia Zeeland

  “Let’s fry that monster ship,” Josie said, although her voice caught a little.

  Sutton turned to Cooper, eyes wide with denial. “They can’t. It’s not worth it.”

  Cooper’s face was flushed with tension. “Chris, you’re at twelve percent charge. You need to break the link now if you want to make it back.”

  “I don’t know about making it back, but we’ll make it down.” Chris’ tone wavered only a little. “Everybody, hold your positions.”

  Through Chris’ body cam, Eric saw Chris’ entire Bluedrop shake violently, as Farsight pushed through the network of linked Bluedrops.

  Cooper banged a fist against the high table in front of him. “Damn it, Chris. It’s now you choose to play the hero?”

  “I guess so,” Chris said. “You know it’s the right thing to do, Commander.”

  Eric didn’t think he’d heard anyone call Cooper ‘commander’ until then. Despite having earned the title, it still felt like it belonged to someone else. Cooper banged against the table again and Eric had to still a breath. For a moment, he was back on that asteroid, with the loud sound of oxygen streaming in and out of his helmet, as the seconds dragged out before the explosion. Before dust fell like snow in outer space. Before his dad was gone.

  Eric pulled himself out of the memory, although the red numbers 0:00 were still burned into his vision.

  Heidi had rushed to Cooper’s side and, one hand on his chest and one on his shoulder, she seemed to be holding him in place. Or holding him together.

  Cooper’s voice was rough when he spoke. “Bako, do you have a parameter secured?”

  “Not a soul in range and a Martian ship at every mile,” Bako said. “As soon as that ship comes down, we’ll be on it.”

  “They will have thousands of clones,” Eric said.

  “I think we can handle them long enough for your girl to deploy the RWD.” Bako’s accent sounded thicker than usual, probably out of nervousness. “We’ve got Earthling forces to help us.”

  The sound rustled like he had passed the headset to somebody else.

  “Eric?” the unfamiliar voice of a woman said. “My name is Adeline Russo. Bring those bastards down. We’ll keep them in range of the RWD.”

  Eric’s heart leapt. He was torn between thanking her and asking how she’d known to come to their rescue, but any words he had for her were drowned in the pain of guilt. He had no news to bring her. No news of Yalena.

  “Bluedrops are at six percent charge,” Heidi said.

  “Hold...your...positions,” Chris said through a tight snarl.

  Sparks flew at different parts of the network of Bluedrops, some caused by shifts in position, some by the painful pressure between Farsight and the linked ships.

  “Jen,” Eric called out. “Get somewhere safe. The ship is going down.” He believed it for the first time as he said it. “You need to get yourselves strapped in for impact.”

  “This way,” one of the Veronica doubles said.

  Through Jen’s body cam, Eric saw them lift a shaft up and start climbing the ladder inside. Farsight creaked like the ancient vessel it was. Eric stared, unblinking, as it slowed.

  “Keep pushing,” Josie squeaked on the line.

  “Bluedrops are at three percent charge,” Heidi’s voice was a faint croak.

  “Jen, there’s no time,” Eric shouted, panic causing his heart to slam against his chest.

  He saw a quick view of the lab Jen, Nico and the clones had climbed up to. To his relief, it was empty. The clones ran to a bench with security belts, but he never saw if they managed to secure themselves.

  The explosion of Farsight’s first engine created a wave of fire that swallowed the Bluedrops at the corner of the screen.

  “Keep...formation,” Chris shouted. His breaths sounded quick. Then slower. Slower. The Bluedrops’ power was down to its last percent. “Pilots, eject!” Chris shouted, but electricity crackled, and no Bluedrop lids could be opened. Then, his voice dropped to a whisper. “Ladies and gentlemen, I salute you for your service.”

  The Bluedrops’ charge dropped to zero at the same time as Farsight’s second engine burst into flames. The ship was dead, falling fast to the ground. Below it, dozens of Bluedrops dropped, weightless.

  Down. Down. Down.

  Like the blue tears of sacrifice.

  Like fallen toy soldiers.

  “No!” Sutton wailed. Tears streamed down the sides of her face as she slid off her seat and crumpled to the floor. “Josie, no...”

  Each Bluedrop fell into the desert sand with a faint puff of smoke, before the shadow of Farsight, so close to the ground, obscured everything else from view.

  “Bako,” Cooper said hoarsely. “Incoming. Get ready for the sand wave.”

  With the views from all the Bluedrops having gone dark, the only visual feeds that remained were those from Bako’s ship and Jen and Nico’s body cams. Eric quickly glanced at the screen showing the view from Jen’s body cam. She seemed to be sitting down, hands clasped in front of her body, partially obscuring the view as she braced for impact.

  The Fian ship crashed with a loud thud, causing a wave of sand that rippled out like a tsunami. The nose of Bako’s ship rose, showing a view of cloudy skies above through the thick cover of a sandstorm. Still in shock, everyone watched the Martian ship regain position and the dust start to settle.

  Sutton’s breathing rasped in between her cries. Eric forced himself to look at her as guilt burned him from inside. Heidi rushed to her side and drew Sutton into a hug the Moonie didn’t fight. They rocked together—an image that would haunt Eric for eternity.

  “Do you get it now?” Heidi’s voice was barely above a whisper, but it jumped out against Sutton’s pained wails. “Everybody loves somebody. This isn’t personal. It’s not about our family. We’re just the soldiers, who live or die for the innocent lives on that planet.” Her arm split the air to her side, pointing at Earth through the view screen. “We die for them. We bear the loss, so they don’t have to. We shield them, because there’s no one else to do it.”

  Chapter 23. Injection

  Eric kept the view from Jen’s body cam on his tablet as he and the others stormed down the corridor. She was moving, but she hadn’t yet replied.

  “Jen?” Eric asked again. “Are you all right?”

  “Fine,” she groaned. “We’re fine.”

  “There’s a parameter secured around the crash site—wide enough so that the soldiers surrounding you are out of range for the RWD. The army will keep the Fians in range of the device.” He paused, before addressing Nico. “How long do you need to calibrate the RWD for deployment?”

  “About fifteen minutes,” Nico said.

  “But we need to get all of the clones out first,” Jen said. Despite sounding rattled from the crash, she remained firm. “Tell those at the parameter to let them pass. Felix will no doubt send them out at the front line. Our forces shouldn’t engage.”

  Eric was torn. He owed so much to the clones—the very chance of ending this war—but the opportunity to strike was now. “I’m not sure there’s time. We have to take Felix and the rest out as soon as possible, before they’ve had a chance to retaliate.”

  “On it,” Nico said.

  Stubbornly, Eric vowed not to let the sacrifice of all the Bluedrop pilots be in vain. They had to hit now. Fast and hard. Mercilessly.

  Then his eyes fell on a tube of sickly green fluid at the corner of the screen. “Jen, turn back.”

  “What?” She twirled around, confused.

  “There,” Eric said. “Stop.”

  Jen must have seen it too, because she approached cautiously. “Holy stars.” She ran to the human-sized tube of murky green liquid. It wasn’t empty. Inside the fluid, a woman’s body floated. “She must be unconscious,” Jen said. “Or...”

  Eric’s throat throbbed painfully. Please let it not be Yalena. Please let it not be her.

  The body floated in the liquid, dark hair swirl
ing around the thin figure. Through its cover, he barely made out the glint of a purple complexion.

  “It’s Sibel!” Jen squealed in terror. “Oh my God, get her out of there. Nico, we need to get her out.”

  She ran around the tube, hands gliding down its smooth surface as if searching for an off-switch where there was none.

  Nico came into view, leaning in. “The glass is thick. I’m not sure we can get her out without hurting her.”

  Jen shook so hard, Eric was growing dizzy. “We can’t leave her in there. What are they doing to her?”

  “We don’t know,” one of the clones replied. “We’ve never seen what masters...Fians do to each other.”

  One of the other clones leaned into view as well. “It must be something that keeps her under.”

  Jen was mumbling unintelligibly to herself. “We need to get her out and inject her with the serum. Has Jea finished the final serum?”

  Suddenly aware that he stood rooted in place in the middle of the corridor and not on the Fian ship with Jen, Eric willed himself into action. He sped to the hangar to find Cooper, Heidi, Sutton and Jea in front of an Eagle ready for take-off.

  “There you are,” Cooper said, but Eric turned straight to Jea.

  “Is it ready?”

  She issued a short nod. “I’ve got hundreds of vials.”

  Jea lifted the gun in her hand higher, so he could see a line of about a dozen amber vials where the clip would normally fit. She then jammed the gun against Sutton’s exposed shoulder and pulled the trigger. Sutton’s expression changed in pain for a short moment before returning back to a calm indifference, which only the weight of a recent and unprocessed loss could impose upon a person. A mask Eric knew all too well.

  “All right, listen up,” Cooper called out. STAR Academy students, Unifier, Moonie and Earthling pilots that hadn’t been in the Bluedrop squads huddled together. “When we get to the ground, you’ll get a gun each, and your task will be to tag every last one of our people with the serum before the RWD gets activated by Jen and Nico. Nico will set it off with a minimal radius, but we need to give him enough time to calibrate the device. And in the meantime, I doubt the Fians will go down without a fight. Our troops may have to engage with them, which means anyone might find themselves in the RWD radius when it goes off. So, inject everyone with the finished serum.”

  “Here, put these transmitters on,” Jea opened a box of earpieces, each one attached to a small visor covering one’s right eye. “We’ll stay connected throughout the attack and the visor will show you who of ours has already been injected and is therefore safe.”

  Eric found his voice at once. “Add Sibel to the list of people to be injected. Jen and Nico found her trapped on board.”

  Jea’s mouth fell agape. “I’m not sure the serum would work on a Fian. It’s certainly not been tested against their DNA.”

  “What about all the clones?” Sutton asked, breaking the painful silence. “They’re human and they helped us get Jen and Nico on board Farsight. We can’t leave them.”

  “Our troops on the ground have orders not to shoot them, but to take them out of the RWD’s radius,” Cooper said. “I’m afraid any of them who haven’t evacuated by the time the RWD is activated will be lost.” He paused, then went on in a quieter voice. “I’m sorry. There’s just too many of them to inject, especially if they don’t cooperate.”

  “Ronnie?” Eric called out, after swiping at the tablet to get a view inside Farsight again. Hers was the first name he recalled.

  “Yes?”

  “We need the three of you at the front line,” Eric said. “Lead the way and surrender. Cross the parameter established by Earth troops. They will not harm you, but you have to convince the rest of the soldiers to follow you. Can you do that?”

  “Er...”

  He knew he was asking a lot of her, but there was no time for a better plan. “They’d never act against the Fians unless they see someone else do it first. Show them they don’t have to die for Felix. Show them they have a choice.”

  “A choice,” one of the other two clones said. “I like that.”

  Through Jen’s body cam, Eric saw the three of them squeeze back through the trapdoor, leaving Jen and Nico alone. The two of them were still frantically examining the tube trapping Sibel into the green solution.

  “Nico, get working on the RWD calibration,” Cooper said. “We need to make sure it won’t exceed the radius you gave us before.”

  Jen panted, aghast. “We can’t just leave her inside this...thing. Get her out, Nico. Help me get her out.”

  “She’s panicking,” Sutton said, although it didn’t sound like she meant any offense. “You should have never sent her.”

  Eric swallowed to chase away the scratchy sensation at the back of his throat. Perhaps Sutton was right. But Eric had seen Nico’s dedication to Jen—he knew Nico would take over if Jen couldn’t bring herself to activate the device in the end. Nico would sacrifice his soul for her. It was the reason Eric couldn’t have punched him in the gut for kissing Jen.

  “They’ll get it done,” Eric whispered, to Sutton as much as to himself.

  What still worried him was whether that early version of the serum would be strong enough to protect Jen when the RWD went off.

  “Jen, listen to me,” Eric said. “It’s going to be all right. Think. If you were a scientist and you wanted to create that tank, how would you open and close it?”

  But before Jen could reply, Nico swung a heavy metal tank, probably containing anti-breach insulation foam, and targeted it at the tube. It let out a hollow clang upon contact. Desperately, Nico banged it against the tube again and again, until the glass cracked—first in a single hairline fracture, but then it splintered and grew out like a spiderweb until the entire thing shattered.

  The view went dark for a moment, as Jen shielded herself with her arms on instinct. When she moved again, the room came into view—Sibel’s body sprawled across the floor, soaked in the green liquid. She coughed and gasped for air.

  Jen fell to the ground and cradled her, supporting her head so she wouldn’t choke. “It’s all right. We’ve got you. You’ll be all right.”

  “What’s happening?” Sibel croaked after another coughing fit. “You’re...Yalena’s friend?”

  “Jen,” she said. “We’re on board Farsight, which has crashed on Earth. We sneaked on board to take Felix out and found you.”

  Unsteadily, like a newborn deer, Sibel wriggled out of Jen’s grasp and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. “You can’t just take out Felix. He has a plan. If he’s already on Earth, it’s too late.” Her dark eyes bore into Jen with the faint, dying glint of submission. “This world is lost.”

  “Not if we activate this,” Nico said. “It’s a radiation wave device that will create a wave strong enough to kill at the molecular level.”

  Sibel peered at him and the RWD in his hands. Nico didn’t wait for Sibel’s reaction, but found a corner of the room that hadn’t been splashed in green gunk and started calibrating the device.

  Jen helped Sibel up onto her feet. “What did they do to you?”

  “Felix knew I was a traitor. He kept me prisoner for a while...” her voice grew weaker. “Until one day he needed a test subject. He was testing a solution meant to introduce Novofex into a new world and make it Novofex-dependent forever. Like Nova Fia.”

  “Why test it on you?” Jen whispered.

  “He wanted to know it would work—but also that it would be safe for Fians.” Sibel coughed again, before she scrambled to stand up. “Felix plans to turn Earth into another Nova Fia. That’s what I tried to warn Yalena about.”

  You have no idea what’s coming. The warning from the message Sibel had sent through Lexa made Eric’s blood turn to lead in his veins. His entire body pulsated with his heartbeat. “Why?”

  Sibel wiped away the green liquid sticking to her face, still panting as if re-learning how to breathe. “We believe there’s a
nother party at play.”

  “Another party, meaning...” Jen stuttered.

  “Yes, meaning exactly what you fear.” Sibel’s chest rose with the air trapped in her lungs. “And if our calculations are correct, they’re coming.”

  Eric ground his teeth so hard he could have chipped one. An alien race coming for them. And Yalena was still out there...somewhere.

  “Well, we’ve been through enough without having to witness that.” From the way Nico’s British accent jumped out, Eric could tell the pressure had gotten to him.

  But in a sense, he was right. The Fians were about to change Earth irrevocably. Now was not the time to hypothesize what else might be out there. It was time to defend their home from an imminent threat.

  “Jen,” Eric said. “Get Sibel to the clones—they’ll lead her out. We’re coming down to you. Don’t activate the RWD until we get there with the viable serum, do you hear me?”

  “I hear you,” Jen said. “Hurry.”

  “Just hold on.”

  Eric jumped on board the Eagle, last one in the line that quickly stormed in. They had barely had enough time to buckle themselves in when Heidi slid into the first pilot seat and took off. A part of Eric wanted to protest, to ask Heidi to stay behind, but he knew she’d never back out now. And Jen needed them to hurry.

  Through different connected lines on his comms, Eric switched between channels to Bako, Adeline and Jen, but there was no news of the Fians or their next attempt at attack. The quiet was terrifying. Deafening. Deadly. The illusion of calm before the storm.

  “What’s that?” Cooper’s voice broke Eric out of his downward spiral. “I’ll be damned.”

  A swirl of purple hue grew from a dot into a dazzling circle. The kind Eric had only seen once before.

  “It can’t be,” Eric whispered, and yet he knew what it was. A wormhole.

  The ship that popped out of the wormhole was oval with a bluish glint to it. Eric didn’t have to guess to know it wasn’t man-made. No human or Fian could have crafted a ship that seemed to have been molded out of a material he’d never seen before. And it just so happened to pop out from a wormhole that hadn’t been there only a minute ago.