The Admiral gave me a look of sheer disbelief. “Tides are caused by gravitational forces,” he said, in a carefully polite voice. “Waves are mostly caused by the wind. The stronger the wind, the bigger the waves. The sea is quite rough at the moment, but it gets much worse during storms. You shouldn’t go too near the water then, because there’s a risk of unexpectedly high waves, and hurricane force winds can cause a storm surge.”
“Rothan warned us about storms,” said Lucas. “Are we likely to get any of those soon?”
“Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement monitors the weather and issues storm warnings,” said the Admiral. “Yesterday’s forecast predicted at least seven days of clear though windy weather, followed by a high risk of storms, so I sent the fishing fleet out to take advantage of the clear spell.”
He paused. “We’re following the curve of the Tropics beach, and flying over the river mouth and boatbuilding centre. You can see Harbour coming into view ahead of us now.”
I wedged the side of my head against the window, trying to get a better view. Tropics region had been fairly flat, but there was an area ahead of us where hills reached down towards the sea and …
I frowned, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. The sea curved sharply into the beach at one point, and the grey huddle near the middle of the curve looked like closely packed houses, but what were the thinner, grey lines that stuck out into the water? Was that a wall? Why would people build a wall that stretched out into the sea?
The Admiral answered my question before I could ask it. “With the fishing fleet still out at sea, there aren’t many boats moored inside the protective seawall.”
I gazed down at boats that seemed like toys from our altitude. The wall suddenly made sense to me. It protected boats from strong waves. I studied it again and saw there were actually two walls, one reaching out into the sea on each side before curving around to almost, but not quite, meet each other. The gap was obviously to allow boats to sail in and out of the seawall.
“You sent the fishing fleet out yesterday morning,” said Lucas. “Does that mean they sailed after the latest incident?”
I noted that Lucas was using the word incident rather than murder. He’d also been avoiding giving any details of the attacks. That made sense given everyone in our unit was listening to this briefing. Lucas wouldn’t want to horrify our maintenance and cleaning staff by describing details such as how Juniper’s arm had been injured in a woodworking machine.
“Yes,” said the Admiral grimly. “Other incidents have happened when the fleet was out though, but it’s difficult to decide innocence or guilt based on that. The traps are usually set up well in advance.”
There was a moment of silence. Our aircraft were losing height now, so the houses, the seawall, and the boats seemed to be growing in size.
“You said that the fishing fleet sailed yesterday morning and are still out at sea now,” said Lucas thoughtfully. “I’d assumed they’d go out to sea each morning and come back each night.”
The Admiral shrugged. “The fleet often just goes out for a single day, but there are advantages in sometimes making longer trips.”
Lucas nodded. “So when will the fishing fleet return?”
“I don’t know,” said the Admiral. “They’re provisioned for ten days, but I don’t gamble with my people’s lives. If Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement issues a storm warning, I’ll order the fleet home.”
“Storms are dangerous for fishing boats then?” asked Lucas.
“Oh yes. Our boats are designed to weather storms if necessary, but you should never underestimate the power of the wind and the waves. Better to heed a storm warning, and have the fleet run for safe harbour, than risk the sea taking its toll of lives.”
I could hear a dark note in the Admiral’s voice, which hinted he was remembering times when the sea had taken that toll. I was glad I wasn’t reading his mind at this moment. I had strong reservations about how Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement used its power, but their storm warnings clearly provided a vital service to our sea farm, and presumably the sea farms of other Hives as well.
“You can see the Haven ahead of us now,” said the Admiral, in a brisker voice. “It’s the larger of the two hills. We’ll be flying round to the coastal side to land in the aircraft hangar.”
I looked at the larger hill and saw something odd about its grassy slopes. There were some rectangular, shiny areas on the side facing the harbour, and one massive shining sweep near the top. I glanced down at the houses again, and saw the figures of people standing in front of them and staring up at us.
The ground suddenly seemed real again, rather than a distant, map-like image far below me. I closed my eyes and grabbed hold of my seat. I told myself that the aircraft window was in theory big enough to fall through, but it was solid glass rather than a hole, so I was perfectly safe. That argument didn’t work, of course. It never did. Whether I was on a ladder, or in an aircraft, made no difference. Logic was helpless against my fear of heights.
I tried reaching out with my telepathic senses, intending to take refuge in the thoughts of Lucas or one of the Strike team, but sensed the scattered minds below. I’d never tried reading the mind of someone on the ground when I was in an aircraft. I tried turning my act of cowardice into something useful, and reached out towards one of the glowing minds of strangers.
There was that peculiar shape, taste, sound that belonged to sea farm minds, and then I touched the surface thoughts and saw the view through the person’s eyes. They were looking up at the seven transport aircraft flying low overhead. Higher in the air were dozens of fighter aircraft.
… we said that we couldn’t wait around for Sea Farm Security any longer. We said that however much we loathed nosies, we needed their help, and we needed it now. The Admiral swore he’d go to the Hive himself, and bring nosy squads back with him, but I never expected …
… so many aircraft that they’re like a cloud sweeping towards us, their engines roaring like storm winds, and …
The levels of thought below that were filled with warring emotions. Fear, awe, and a joyous rage. The rage won, and all the thought levels abruptly merged into one.
Whoever you are. Wherever you’re hiding. Whatever your reason for attacking us. Look at the sky now and see that our Admiral has brought a hurricane down upon you. You’ve hidden in the shadows terrorizing us for months, but your rule of fear is about to end. The telepaths have come to hunt you down!
Chapter Twenty
We landed in an oddly shaped aircraft hangar that could barely hold our seven bulky transport aircraft, and the voice of Gold Commander Melisande spoke on the crystal comms.
“Tactical Commander Lucas, do you wish the fighter wing to do anything further?”
“I think we’ve already made a suitable demonstration of power by flying over all four regions of the sea farm,” said Lucas.
“In that case, the fighter wing shall return to the Hive,” said Melisande. “Should you require air support at any time, the coastal patrol base will have fighter aircraft on standby to assist you. I wish you good fortune in your investigation.”
“Thank you, Gold Commander,” said Lucas.
There was a short pause before Adika spoke. “I can see a dozen people in the aircraft hangar waiting for us, at least two surveillance cameras, and a surveillance drone.”
“We’ll have to start our act as soon as we leave the aircraft then,” said Lucas. “Everyone needs to remember I’m the fearsome Tactical Commander, Amber is a mere interpreter, and the nosies are real telepaths. Address me as ‘sir’ and cower if I yell at you.”
“There’ll be surveillance cameras in the lifts and possibly on Level 10 as well,” said Adika. “We need to keep up the pretence until we reach our base corridors and I’ve confirmed they’re clear of spy devices.”
“Amber will need to wear her interpreter’s headband,” said Lucas.
“Oh yes.”
I reached under my seat and brought out the silver c
irclet that Liaison had designed for me to wear when I was acting my interpreter part. It had started out as a plain band of silver, but Liaison had added some electrical components and a short antenna to one side. The idea was that I used it to hear mysterious, inaudible communications from the nosies.
I put the headband on carefully. “How do I look?” I asked nervously.
“You look perfect,” said Lucas. “Forge, are you and the other two volunteer nosies dressed up yet?”
“We just need to put our masks on,” replied Forge.
“Make sure you test the mask acoustic distortion systems are working properly,” said Lucas. “We don’t want any nosies accidentally speaking in an ordinary human voice. Pilot Ralston, are you listening in to the crystal comms?”
“Yes, sir,” said a voice that was familiar from our trip to Hive Futura.
“Ralston, how is your husband?” I asked.
“You remembered about his accident, Amber?” Ralston sounded startled. “He’s in a lot less pain now and has moved on to the next stage of physiotherapy.”
I smiled. “That’s very good news.”
“Ralston, all seven transport aircraft will need to fly down to land on the beach next to the Level 10 exit,” said Lucas. “The plan is that we’ll spend a few hours unloading supplies from the aircraft and getting our base corridors organized. I’ll then take Amber, the Alpha Strike team, and Forge in his nosy costume down to the seawall. We’ll be meeting the Admiral there and making a live broadcast to the dataviews of everyone at the sea farm.”
Lucas paused. “As a safety precaution, I’ll want all the transport aircraft to remain on standby at the beach until we come back from making the live broadcast. The aircraft can then return to the Haven aircraft hangar.”
There was a cough from Ralston. “The Haven aircraft hangar is very small, sir, so we only leave our aircraft there in special circumstances. The Gold Commander’s orders are that we should station ourselves at the coastal patrol base, and keep at least three transport aircraft at launch readiness throughout your mission. In an emergency, we can be with you in five minutes.”
“I still think it’s an unnecessary risk to make the live broadcast from somewhere as public as the seawall,” said Adika. “Anyone nearby will come and see what’s happening.”
“There is usually a small audience for the broadcasts,” said the Admiral.
“And that audience could be extremely hostile,” said Adika.
“Which is exactly why I’ve agreed to do this,” said Lucas. “Our first priority here has to be to establish the general mood of the sea farm people. We can cope with hostility while we’re hunting down our target, we can deal with the occasional aggressive individual attacking us, but if we’re facing mass crowd violence then we’ve no choice but to abandon our mission. We came here to rebuild the trust between the sea farm and the Hive, not destroy it by engaging in pitched battles with the local population.”
“I’m sure my people are far too sensible to attack those who’ve come to help them.” The Admiral’s words were reassuring, but I didn’t like the doubtful note in his voice when he said them.
“I hope you’re right,” said Lucas briskly. “You can open the door now, Adika. People on Aerial one will disembark first, and then Aerial three through seven. Once we’re ready to move, we’ll get our nosies and their guards off Aerial two.”
Adika went to open the door of our aircraft and look out. “The steps are already in place. The Admiral is in command of the sea farm, so he’d better lead the way down.”
The Admiral nodded and headed for the doorway. The moment he appeared at the top of the steps, everyone in the aircraft hangar eagerly gathered to welcome him back.
The rest of us followed the Admiral down the steps. I saw a weird, grey metal contraption, about the size of someone’s head, hovering in mid air near the doors of the aircraft hangar. I assumed that was the surveillance drone Adika had mentioned.
Lucas coughed. “We need the aircraft hangar doors closed before people disembark from the rest of our aircraft.”
One of the Admiral’s welcoming committee was tapping at the same sort of basic dataview that I’d noticed the Admiral using. The man looked up from the screen, glanced at Lucas, and pointed at the nearby wall.
“The hangar door control is the red button over there.”
“You’re suggesting I should go and push the button myself?” asked Lucas acidly.
“My people wouldn’t dream of being so disrespectful, Tactical Commander Lucas,” said the Admiral hastily.
The man who’d pointed out the button looked nervously from the Admiral to Lucas and back again, then sprinted off to close the hangar doors. The rest of the welcoming committee busied themselves pushing sets of steps up to the other aircraft doors. There was a rush of people disembarking, and Megan hurried up to Lucas.
“Is everyone ready to move?” asked Lucas.
“We’re just getting another powered chair off the aircraft, sir,” said Megan. “Nicole has her personal chair with her, and I’d got one ready for Zak, but I noticed Buzz is limping. Her injured leg has got stiff and swollen from sitting still during the journey, so I think she should use a powered chair to reach our base corridors.”
This was an example of Megan at her best, tirelessly caring for others. I remembered my resolution to praise her and spoke without thinking.
“That’s a good idea, Megan.”
“I know it’s an interpreter’s job to talk, Amber,” said Lucas, in a disapproving tone, “but you don’t need to talk all the time.”
I cowered. “Sorry, sir.”
Eli arrived with a powered chair, and Buzz gave him one of her generous smiles before sitting down in it.
“We’re ready to move now, sir,” said Megan.
“Amber can fetch the nosies then,” said Lucas. “I hope the journey hasn’t put them in one of their difficult moods.”
I frowned fiercely in concentration, and reached up to make a fine adjustment to the antenna on my headband. “They sound a little … restive.”
Lucas sighed. “You should have travelled with them in Aerial two, Amber.”
I pulled the wounded face of an underling unjustly accused of neglecting her duties.
“You specifically told Amber to travel in Aerial one, so she could join in the planning meeting, sir,” said Megan.
Lucas gave her a withering look, and then scowled at me. “Why are you still standing here, Amber? I ordered you to fetch the nosies.”
“Sorry, sir.” I hurried up the steps to the door of Aerial two, and knocked on it. “Is everything all right?”
The door opened slowly, and one of the Beta team looked out. “The nosies aren’t happy,” Jalen hissed, in a deliberately audible whisper. “At least, I think they’re not happy, but it’s hard to tell.”
I went inside the aircraft, and saw three nosies standing waiting in the aisle. “Which of you is Forge?”
“Me,” said the lead nosy, in a distorted voice that was totally unrecognizable as being Forge.
I wondered if we should add something to the nosy costumes, so I could tell them apart, but decided it shouldn’t matter for the trip to our base corridors. Lucas had wanted us to have three nosies on display when we arrived, to make the point that attacking one of them wouldn’t halt our investigation, but only Forge should be playing the part of a nosy in future.
“Be very careful going down the steps,” I said. “When I dressed up as a nosy, I found it hard to move in the trailing costume, and tripping over would ruin the enigmatic act.”
I studied the rest of the Beta Strike team. The nosy squads that patrolled the Hive usually consisted of one nosy and four guards in blue hasty uniforms. Lucas and Adika had decided that both the Strike teams should openly wear heavy-duty combat armour while we were here, rather than either dressing as hasties or wearing standard mesh body armour under ordinary clothes.
The result, three nosies in their weird grey
masks and clothes, accompanied by a mass of bulky men in darker-grey combat armour, intimidated me, so it would hopefully deter the people of the sea farm from attacking us.
“Half the guards should follow me out of the aircraft,” I said, “then the three nosies, then the rest of the guards.”
I went back out of the aircraft, down the steps to the ground, and turned to watch the others. It didn’t matter if people noticed I looked worried. An interpreter’s job was to decipher the strange phrases of the inhuman nosies and persuade them to brave the horrors of Outside. Anyone with a job like that was going to look worried most of the time.
All three nosies reached ground level safely, and I led our party over to the main group of our people. I was unnerved to see a tubelike object attached to the closest hangar wall was turning to point at me. Adika didn’t seem concerned by it, so I guessed it was only a surveillance camera turning to keep me and the three nosies in view, but I was glad both Lucas and I were wearing our mesh body armour under our clothes.
“We’ll move to our base area now,” said Lucas.
“I’ll escort you there and make sure you have everything you need,” said the Admiral.
He led us out of the aircraft hangar, along a corridor to a bank of three lifts, and pushed some buttons. “Our lifts aren’t as big as the ones in the Hive, so it will take a few trips to get everyone down to Level 10.”
I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye, looked around to see what it was, and gulped. The surveillance drone had followed us from the aircraft hangar.
Adika went to stand menacingly in front of it, and drew his gun. “Whoever is controlling this drone has precisely thirty seconds to move it away from us, or I’ll turn it into scrap metal.”
The surveillance drone startled me by dropping to the floor, growing eight legs, and scuttling away down the corridor. Even more disquieting was the way it casually ran up the wall as it went round the corner.
I shuddered. As a child, I’d loathed the nosies that patrolled the Hive spying on people. Now I was experiencing exactly the same emotions about the surveillance drone. Would everyone feel like that? Was I reacting especially badly because a surveillance drone had no mind for me to read, while others would find the impersonal nature of electronic devices reassuring?
Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3) Page 19
