The Hive Engineers

by Emilia Zeeland

  “Let’s finish this.” Alec pulled the colorful lever toward him and the ship lurched forward, destination Earth.

  On the trip down, Yalena rehashed most of what had happened to her and the others to Eric. She buzzed with nervous energy. Jen was somewhere down there, with only a preliminary version of the serum to defend her. Nico and Sibel were completely unprotected. So were all the clones. And the Fians hadn’t even poked their noses out of the high cloud of dust caused by Farsight’s crash in the desert.

  “Maybe they’re hurt,” Eric said. “Or dead.”

  “I wouldn’t bet on that.” Yalena’s thoughts carried her through all the times Felix had played them. Intercepting Veronica’s ship. Attacking on Mars. The trap he’d laid for the commander and Dana. “Felix has surprised us time and time again.” She stilled her leg, stopping the nervous tap. “Did Vero, Ronnie and Nicky say anything else to Jen?”

  “There wasn’t time,” Eric said.

  Eric looped Yalena into his channel with Jen. From Jen’s body cam, Yalena could see Nico hunched over a round device with its lid off, tinkering with the inner wiring. Jen was talking to Sibel, who wasn’t in view, probably sitting by her side.

  “I got caught before I could see Felix’s entire plan for turning Earth into another Nova Fia,” Sibel said. “I know he’s used the injections on the clones, but that can’t be his plan here. He’ll have some sort of a device to disperse Novofex. You two need to be ready to activate your RWD to stop him before that.”

  “That’s why we’re here,” Jen said, forcing her voice to remain calm.

  Yalena struggled for a second, mouth open as if to tell them she was there, but she couldn’t bring herself to jump in.

  “There might not be time to get out of range,” Sibel said.

  “I don’t intend to be out of range. I intend to be the one to activate the device.” Yalena could imagine Jen’s face, as stoic as it was angelic. It reminded her of that other strength her friend always showed. Not in fighting or flying, but in never hiding in denial. Never taking the easier path, if it wouldn’t be right.

  Sibel’s voice still carried disbelief. “Even if your friends don’t get us the working serum in time?”

  “When we left, that serum wasn’t even ready,” Jen said. “This was always the plan.”

  Her words made Yalena’s stomach feel tight, like a fist carved out of stone. She hadn’t been able to give them more time to prepare. All she’d sent was bad news. She wanted to say she was sorry, but she swallowed the words.

  Then, the Berry’s screen flashed with a blast in the view from Jen’s body cam. The explosion sent the metal doors of the lab flying to the sides. Guns raised, ready to fire again, a group of Fians stormed the room.

  “You didn’t think we’d leave the system without an alarm, did you Sibel?” one of them called.

  Sickening bile rose deep in Yalena’s throat as she recognized the voice. It was Hayden. The man who’d captured Sibel and vowed to Yalena that she’d be next.

  “She’s not alone!” another one shouted. “Human intruders!”

  Blood turned to ice in Yalena’s veins. Earth was growing in front of her with every second, but she was too far away to help. Painfully far away.

  Jen turned to Nico, allowing Yalena a quick glimpse of him closing the lid over the RWD. Luckily, he slipped it into his pocket before the Fians could see it.

  “Bring them to me,” Felix’s voice buzzed from the comms of the strike team.

  Hayden walked in. Sibel jumped ahead as if to fight him, but she was too weak. He twisted her hand behind her back and pushed her to the floor like it was nothing. Sibel grunted, and another Fian pulled her up and ushered her out.

  Jen stood frozen. Perhaps she was holding her breath, aware of Eric watching this play out. Hayden reached out a hand that blacked out the body cam.

  “Jen?” Yalena said with a trembling voice, but it was too late. With one last flash of light and sizzle on the line, the connection was lost.

  The sounds of a fist banging against the metal desk was the only thing coming from Eric’s comms.

  “Eric?” Yalena’s voice was strained. “We’re going to get them back.”

  “How long until we land?” Eric asked, but it wasn’t a question meant for Yalena.

  Sutton replied quickly, “About fifteen minutes. All we can do is watch through Bako’s eyes now.”

  Yalena opened a holo screen to project the view Alec’s Berry was now streaming. The cloud of sand still swirled around the crash site, where Farsight had probably dug out a crater the size of a small meteorite. Through the thick cover of the grayish dust, Yalena couldn’t make out the ship, the army or any of their weapons.

  “This is useless.” She felt like smacking something, but the colorful restraints holding her in place were the only option, and it wouldn’t even have an effect. “Something must be going down. We just can’t see it. Whatever Felix is planning must already be happening and we’re sitting here blind.” Her chest rose with shallow, quick breaths. “We need to get there now.”

  She wasn’t sure if she’d mentally sent an image of the place to the scout or if he’d seen the holo screen himself, but when she threw a quick look back at him, his eyes weren’t fixed on the lab table anymore. With a painfully slow blink, the scout closed his eyes, and then Alec swore.

  “Oh man, what the hell?” Suddenly, Alec fell silent, his eyes dancing in their sockets like he was dreaming awake. “Oh, oh that’s...holy stars.” He shook his head, as if to return to the present moment and his normal vision. “I know how to get us there fast.”

  Yalena didn’t ask questions. Alec jumped into action, flicking through the holo screen settings of the ship, turning and clicking pieces into place. Only a faint hum alerted Yalena that the ship was changing, molded by the update in its settings.

  Alec shot Yalena a sideways glance with a wolfish grin on his face. “I never thought I’d get to do this.”

  “What exactly is this, mate?” Blaine asked from behind them.

  Alec’s warm brown eyes sparkled with excitement. “Speed of light travel.”

  Chapter 36. The Crawlers

  Speed of light travel cut their trip from an hour to what felt like seconds. For such a short trip, the distortion between their time and the time that passed for everyone else on Earth was negligible. With a wicked U-turn, Alec landed the Sleeping Giant outside of the parameter that had been secured around the Fian ship. The silent engine expelled hot air, forcing the dust cloud around it to disperse. When the gate fell open, Yalena stood at the rim of the ship, sleeve to her mouth so as not to breathe in the dust.

  “Eric, we’re here,” she said into Alec’s Berry.

  She jumped down into the soft sand, her shoes sinking into it a little. Despite the dusty storm, her heart swelled with the feeling of being back. Back to a world she’d fought so hard to defend.

  “What? How?” It was Heidi who answered and then whistled. “Some friend you’ve got on board. Can I borrow his ship sometime?”

  “Stay put, we’re almost there,” Eric said over her. He sounded terse, or possibly blinded by panic about Jen being captured.

  “Hold on,” Jea said. “I detect movement.”

  Yalena strained her eyes against the settling dust, but she still couldn’t see anything. “Where?”

  “Miles away,” Jea said, stunned. “Look at this—down by the river. It’s a Fian ship.”

  “How did they manage to get all the way there?” Heidi huffed.

  “Must be some sort of stealth tech of their own,” Eric said.

  “We need to check it out,” Cooper said. “Heidi and I will take two Bluedrops and intercept it. The rest of you, go and inject all of our people with the defense serum.”

  Yalena slipped the Berry into her back pocket. Two figures approached them, growing more defined in the swirl of dust with every step. One was tall and broad-shouldered—the posture of a Martian—but Yalena focused on the other. R
ed, bushy hair made the woman’s head seem bigger, especially compared to her twig-like body. Yalena wasn’t fooled though. That woman could strangle someone with her feet, while blindfolded and with her hands behind her back. And for lack of a better word, to Yalena, she was ‘Mom’.

  Adeline ran toward her. “Yalena?”

  They crashed into an embrace. Adeline pulled out of it, lifting Yalena’s chin in both her hands. “Are you all right? I was so worried.”

  “Me too.” The truth of that statement ached in Yalena’s chest. She’d been so obsessed with getting here, but now, more than ever, she couldn’t ignore all she stood to lose if they failed to stop Felix.

  Yalena reveled for a moment in the loving look in Adeline’s green eyes before they widened in shock.

  “Oh.” Adeline showed a very rare lapse in her ability to speak. “Are they...?”

  “Fians, yes.” Yalena threw a quick glance behind her, where Stanley stepped away from the group and approached them. “Ade...this is Stanley. My father.”

  Stanley took Adeline’s milky hand into both of his gently. “I always wondered what happened to my daughter. How she grew up and who got to watch her do it. From what she’s told me, I think she lucked out. Thank you for being there when I couldn’t. Thank you for helping her grow into the fierce young woman we know. Thank you forever.”

  Adeline’s cheeks flushed pink at the unexpected kindness. “I take it you’re on our side.”

  That’s Ade, Yalena thought. Always suspicious.

  Yalena let Ade grill Stanley, knowing there’d be no way to prevent it, and she approached Bako instead. He was greeting Alec, hands clasped as the Martians leaned in and, at the same time, gave each other a quick pat on the back.

  “You’re alive,” Bako said to Alec.

  “It’s not so easy getting rid of me.” Although Alec was laughing, Yalena couldn’t help a sigh of relief. He wouldn’t have lasted too long back on Nova Fia or on the Sleeping Giant. Bringing him home let her heart touch that elusive feeling of safety at least for a moment.

  Then, she walked away from them, marching into the cloud of dust.

  “You might not want to get too close,” Bako called after her. “In case the RWD goes off.”

  Yalena coughed away the dust sticking to the back of her throat. Conscious of someone standing beside her, she turned around.

  Alec slipped his hand into hers. “We’re going to get them back.” It sounded like a vow he was making to himself, rather than an attempt to console her. Yalena gave his hand a squeeze, but she was lost for words.

  Then, from the gray cloud, only pierced by rays of sunshine here and there, a familiar voice said, “Don’t shoot.”

  Yalena’s sharp intake of air sent her into another coughing fit. She fought to recover, tugging the sleeve of her top into her palm and holding the fabric over her mouth and nose.

  The figure of Veronica’s clone grew more defined with every small step she took toward them. “Yalena? It’s Vero.” She was holding a laser gun, but her fingers were off the trigger, demonstratively showing she meant no harm.

  “Nobody shoot,” Yalena called back to those behind her.

  The same figure, wearing the same face, popped behind Vero again and again. There were dozens of them. Hundreds, or perhaps thousands. Their guns remained held up, ready to aim.

  “Do not fire,” Vero said again, and Yalena finally understood. Vero hadn’t meant it at the humans. She’d meant it at the clones. “This is not our fight. This planet...it’s full of those like us. And the masters want to turn them all into the same monsters they are. They want to do to an entire planet what has been done to dozens of us in the tests. They have no right to do this.”

  “Lay down your weapons,” Yalena shouted, as loud as her hoarse throat allowed. “No harm will come to you.”

  Vero threw her laser gun to the ground, where it landed in the sand with a soft thud. Yalena beckoned to her and she ran straight up to Yalena, who couldn’t help but embrace her.

  “The clones need to evacuate the parameter we’ve secured around the migration ship,” Yalena said. “We don’t have enough of the serum to inject all of them. Tell them to run. Now.”

  They turned back to back. Yalena found Bako and then shifted her gaze to Adeline. “The clones are like children. They know nothing of our world or the Fian world. We can’t hurt them.”

  Bako and Adeline nodded, then repeated the message into their comms to their teams.

  Yalena whirled around again in time to hear Vero repeat her speech to the rest of the clones, but they remained in position, guns at the ready. Too much military training would do that to them, Yalena thought. Could they even conceive of a realm of safety? Of choices?

  “We’re not going to die for the masters,” a clone said. She threw her gun on the ground and ran out of the group, passing Yalena and Vero.

  “That was Ronnie,” Vero whispered to Yalena.

  “Everyone, let’s go,” another clone shouted. “We don’t need to follow the masters anymore.”

  “And I guess that’s Nicky?” Yalena smiled at Vero, while Nicky ran past them as well.

  And that set off the wave. Laser guns were dumped into the sand, where they slid over each other, as the clones took off at a run. The movement of hundreds of feet raised the sands again, like a herd of wild animals running through the savanna.

  Vero tugged at Yalena’s hands, making her face her. “They won’t all follow. These are the outer ranks. The ones treated as disposable by the Fians. The closer you get to the mother ship, the closer you’ll be to those loyal to Felix.”

  Yalena tried to swallow despite the dust scratching at her throat. “We’ll try not to fight them.”

  “No,” Vero said. “That’s what I mean. You won’t be able to avoid fighting them. You shouldn’t let them sneak up on you.”

  Yalena tried to confirm or nod, but her neck felt stiff.

  “And did you disable the other ones?” Vero asked.

  Cold paralysis spread to Yalena’s extremities. “What other ones?”

  “The crawlers,” Vero said. “We were briefed before exiting the ship. There are eight two-person vehicles meant to dive into the sand, digging through it to go under the established parameter.”

  Yalena’s stomach clenched and pulsated with her heartbeat. “And go where?”

  “Eight different locations, all close to natural water basins.”

  Yalena gasped a loud gulp of dusty air. “Novofex. They’re going to disperse it.”

  The pained expression in Vero’s eyes told her it was true.

  Yalena fumbled with her fingers for the Berry and dialed. “Heidi? I know what that movement Jea detected was. It’s a vehicle called a crawler. They’ve used it to go under the parameter, so we wouldn’t see them. That’s how they’re going to disperse Novofex.”

  “Got you,” Heidi said. “We’re almost there.”

  “Wait,” Yalena warned, so Heidi wouldn’t drop the connection. “There’s eight of them headed to natural water basins. You need to stop them all.”

  “Er...” Heidi stuttered. She added the others to the line. “We need some help tracking a total of eight crawlers about to disperse Novofex. Cooper and I are en route to one.”

  “Sutton and I will map the area to see where the others will resurface,” Jea said.

  “What is it?” Bako’s booming voice said behind Yalena.

  “The fight with the clones was meant to be a distraction,” she replied. “The Fians are about to disperse Novofex elsewhere. We need teams to cover more ground and stop them, wherever they pop up.”

  “We’re on it,” Bako said. With one long look he evaluated the way Yalena stood rooted in place. “You go. Save your friends.”

  The hot air from an incoming ship swirled around, tangling Yalena’s hair. It was an Eagle with the STAR Academy logo. When the gate lowered, Eric and Jea jumped out. Jea threw a bag of the serum guns into the sand and shouted. “Everyone, inject
yourselves now.”

  Eric ran to Alec and Yalena. He halted briefly, struck by seeing Vero, but he then gathered Yalena into his embrace. It was stiff though, and instead of relief, Yalena saw only tension in Eric’s eyes.

  “Inject yourself with the serum. Now.” He sounded frantic to Yalena, but she didn’t say anything. She knew that feeling all too well, the splinters of terror that dug deeper and deeper until you knew the one you cared about was safe.

  “Eric.” She tried to instill all the certainty she could muster into one simple sentence. “I’m going to help you save her.”

  A shudder seemed to go through Eric before he issued a quick nod. He signaled to Yalena and Alec to follow him to the bag of serum guns Jea had dropped. Eric grabbed the first gun in reach and injected Alec, but when he recharged to take a serum vial for Yalena, a three-clawed alien hand swatted the gun away.

  Eric stared at the scout, his breathing shallow. “So that’s him?” he uttered at last.

  “He won’t hurt you,” Yalena said firmly. “And he’s right. I probably can’t have that serum.”

  Eric narrowed his eyes at her.

  “I’m not entirely human,” she answered the implied question.

  The scout let Eric go and brought his other hand in front of them. The claws opened to reveal a vial of purple serum. Yalena didn’t have to ask for confirmation.

  “He’s done it,” she whispered. “We have a serum for the Fians.” She hesitated for a second, looking at the Scout. “Will it work on you?” The image of blackness, of nothingness, flashed inside her mind. “I take that as a ‘no’.”

  As the scout walked off to inject the Fians with the new serum, Yalena wondered how much of his behavior was his, how much he had his own thoughts, not dictated by the Queen. He’d helped them enough today. They couldn’t let him die.

  Jea was typing on her tablet, tracking those that had already been injected. Eric gave Yalena a headset with a glass piece over the right eye, showing her all the people that remained at risk. Yalena saw her own name at the very top with the comment “Serum won’t work.” Below that was Jen’s name, tagged with the statement “Old version of the serum. Needs to be re-injected.” There were more names down the list—Nico and Sibel, as well as “The Alien Scout”, written exactly like that since no-one knew if he had a name. She only quickly saw the names of Stanley, Natalia and Blaine, but they disappeared as the scout injected each of them with the Fian version of the serum.