Chapter Fourteen
The Hive wasn’t a very good travel companion. I sat in the cargo hold for a few days without holding a substantial conversation. It seemed like everything ran on autopilot while we traveled. The members that I saw moved like their feet were encased in lead. Their heads hung low, and their antennae barely moved.
I found some kind of single player card game buried in my suit’s programs. There was a tutorial that explained how to play by simple visual mechanics. It helped alleviate the boredom of either pacing around the cargo hold or trying to strike up a conversation with The Hive, but after near nonstop playing it too grew tiresome. The cargo hold started to feel like it was a prison.
On the third day of travel the member that brought me my dinner had what could best be described as a bounce in its step. It moved with purpose, bee-lining to me when it came through the door. It handed off the food pouches without fumbling, antennae moving in a fervent manner.
“We’ve dropped out of FTL,” said the member as I ate. “We picked up Braxa’s ship but no Kaur.”
I nodded and slurped my food. It didn’t taste like anything and had the consistency of a well mashed banana. The Hive told me it was a simple nutritious paste it kept on board ships in case a species needed sustenance.
“What about the heavy particles?” I said.
“Their volume has increased,” said the member. “We’re confident that Kaur is going to be coming through.”
I felt a tingle travel up my spine like someone ran an ice cube up my back. It made me shimmy in discomfort. After all of this effort in order to find the colonists and we were one step away from the goal. The whole situation though seemed like the dog that chased cars; what would it do once it finally caught one?
“What’s Braxa doing?” I said.
“Sitting there,” said the member. “She’s broadcasting a looping message towards the source of the particles. Would you like to see it?”
The Hive didn’t wait for my response. It already knew that I did before I could vocalize it.
A small video popped up in the corner of my HUD. I enlarged it to see Braxa from the waist up in freeze-frame. She stood alone in front of a bulkhead that could have been almost anywhere on the ship. Her uniform looked ceremonial with large epaulets and medals hanging from her chest. It was definitely not the one I’d seen her in before. I started the video.
“Terran Colonists,” said Braxa. Her voice was even keeled and as calm as I’d ever heard her. “I am General Braxa of the Vantagax Republic. You have entered into disputed territory. The Republic wishes you no harm, but we shall know your intentions.
“If you have sided with The Confederacy you have declared war on the Vantagax Republic. If you refuse to side with the Vantagax Republic you have declared war on the Vantagax Republic. If you decide to join us,” said Braxa as she held her arms out wide, “the Vantagax Republic welcomes you with open arms. I await your answer.”
The video looped and began again. I stopped it and closed the window.
“So you’re at war with the Vantagax Republic, eh?” I said.
The member nodded. “This ship is unable to stand against Braxa’s current ship. We will stay silent and out of the way.”
A new video feed appeared in my HUD. I opened it and saw Braxa’s ship. A fortuitous angle had a moon behind the ship, the moon’s planet behind that and the system’s star glowing behind all of them. Nothing appeared to be happening.
“How come Braxa’s not picking us up?” I said.
“I am proficient in cyber warfare,” said The Hive member. “There is remnant programming from our earlier encounter that hides my ship from Braxa’s sensors. It isn’t foolproof. If they looked hard enough they’d see a dead spot in their sensors, but I’m counting on them not looking.”
The member’s antennae were going crazy. The little creature wobbled and fell to one knee. Before I could help it stood up but held its head.
“I think,” it said, noticeable hesitation in its speech, “I think something is coming through. My connections are being interfered with.”
I tried to concentrate on the video feed and The Hive member at once. “Are you going to be okay?” I said. Being adrift in a ship I couldn’t control with a brain dead crew didn’t seem like a very appealing situation.
The member nodded and said, “I’m feeling the tapping on my shoulder again.” It turned and had to steady itself by using a nearby cargo container. “I have duties to attend to.” The member stumbled and dragged its feet as it walked, keeping one hand along a vertical surface at all times before it left the cargo bay.
My heart pounded in my chest. The beating in my ears drowned out any other noises. I forced myself to breathe. The muscles in my neck and back tightened and ached. My hands were balled into fists. My toes curled and gripped the inside of my suit. Time continued to move at a snail’s pace. The seconds dragged on stretching into minutes. I focused on the video feed trying to will Kaur to come through.
A crackle of lighting erupted past Braxa’s ship, emanating from an area of empty space.
I peered closer. My eyes narrowed into a squint. I couldn’t zoom in on the feed, so I had to be content with what I had, but I had definitely seen something.
Another crackle.
This one was larger. It spider webbed out from a central point. The feed zoomed in, so The Hive must have seen it. Braxa’s ship didn’t move.
The crackling started to radiate out. Its tendrils reached in different directions. Some jumped out and hit Braxa’s ship, arcing along the surface. They didn’t move from high point to high point; they moved as a living entity exploring an object.
The central point of the crackling began to expand. A single dot started to blot out the stars. The crackling pulled it open. The darkness of the point was the complete absence of light. It seemed to suck up any illumination that went near it. The world around its edges lost any color and turned shades of grey before being snuffed out. It filled me with a primal fear that I had never experienced before, but I couldn’t turn away. Something in the back of my brain told me to run. It told me to turn and not look back. Get the hell out of there and never return. This was a most certain death.
I fought back the urge and stared in rapt attention as a ship began to emerge bit by bit from the darkness, but it didn’t come from darkness like something coming out of the shadows. There wasn’t a gradient where one started to see the object, and it became easier to see as it issued into the light. When the ship came out it came from the flat blackness like a curtain parted just enough to see it come from backstage.
The ship looked like nothing I’d ever seen before. It had lumps that looked like growths protruding off the sides. In some places there was the obvious structure of a Terran ship, but in others it had angles and degrees I didn’t think were possible. Pieces of it waved together like seaweed in the ocean’s currents. Some pieces darted out independent of anything else, curling its end, grabbing. After it had fully emerged it dwarfed Braxa’s ship. In all of the pictures that I’d seen there were no colony ships that large.
Smaller ships shot out from the black portal behind the flagship and zoomed in long, lazy arcs as if they were recently freed dogs let out in the yard. One was snagged by the flagship and pulled in. It was slapped onto the side and disappeared into the structure. Clouds of small, shuttles zipped back and forth. Pinpoints of light showed where they ran into each other and their reactor material ignited.
The Hive zoomed in on a few of the smaller ships. They didn’t have the growths or the protuberances to the degree of the largest ship, but their shapes were still off in a way. Sections jutted out or inward in ways that should have made them structurally unsound. I didn’t know how they were maneuvering.
The ships are alive.
“What?” I said. “How do you know?”
They’re biological ships. They’re probing, looking for susceptible minds. Combine that with whatever is still on the other side, a
nd it’s taking all of my willpower to hold them at bay.
“How are they alive?” I said.
The Hive didn’t say anything for several beats.
I don’t know.
I stopped focusing on the video feed of the ships. Something was tickling at the edge of my consciousness. It felt like my inner voice trying to get my attention. It poked at me and prodded. Something had to be said if only I’d listen. There were important things I needed to give my full attention to. The ships could wait. Braxa could wait. I needed to confront the situation right now.
Come back!
I focused on The Hive’s voice. It was a life line in the thought storm. I let out my breath and gulped. It had been so easy to give in and listen. The thoughts seemed like my own even when I knew they weren’t. They’d been so insistent and urgent that they needed to be attended to. I knew what was going on and had almost fallen down the rabbit hole. It must have so easy for Kaur to get in over her head.
“Thank you,” I said and focused back on the video feed.
Find something to concentrate on that isn’t your own thoughts. At first it’s like a bad song; they’ll be stuck in there. You won’t be able to get them out. Easy to slip away.
More ships had come through the portal. The larger ones hovered around the flagship. The smaller ones continued to roam around. The shuttles circled and buzzed around Braxa’s ship. None of them had ventured out to where we sat watching.
The looping video feed of Braxa’s demands ended. Another feed popped up. It was Braxa dressed in the same uniform. She stood at some kind of console with another crew member sitting to her left. He punched at something in front of him that was just off camera. His gaze darted from his work to the camera and back again in rapid succession.
Braxa cleared her throat. She puffed out her chest and ruffled her feathers. With a quick shake they sat back down again before she spoke. “Terran Colonists, you have entered into disputed territory. I am General Braxa. As acting representative of the Vantagax Republic I demand to know your intentions.”
Nothing seemed to happen. Braxa stood still and straight. I could tell her mood soured from the look on her face; it was the same one I’d seen firsthand before. Her beak clacked just enough to be heard on the feed. She opened to speak when the lights on her ship went out.
Shouting and confusion reigned over the feed. The commotion overwhelmed the microphones at times, creating a high pitched whistle of interference. Someone had found emergency flashlights and was shining them around. The cones of light played quick snippets out of the dark of terrified faces and crew members running to and fro.
The feed went down.
Braxa’s ship has lost power.
“How?” I said.
I don’t know. They’ve sent out a distress call. I’m sending all information I have to the Confederacy.
A new feed appeared on my HUD. It expanded to full screen and popped to life. I squinted, trying to make out what it showed. It looked like fog or smoke rolled across the screen. A yellow light flashed once every few seconds just off camera. The sound of something dripping onto metal echoed around the video room.
The view shifted and blurred as the camera was turned. My inner ear went haywire, and I felt sick to my stomach as I watched the feed. The tapping at my brain had begun again when the feed went live. I tried to focus on what I watched to block it out but at the same time I noticed a deep, constant hum resonating through my body. It wasn’t part of The Hive’s ship. The video feed seemed to emanate it.
The camera stopped moving and focused on a figure from the waist up. I gasped then snapped my mouth shut hard enough that my teeth clicked. It was a human.
Its body was gaunt: all skin and bones. When it moved I could see tendons pulling and dancing under the pale hide. Symbols were etched into its face and down its neck. They bled and wept yellow-brown, chunky fluid. Its head was shaved with bits of scalp peeling off like old wallpaper. Ears were bloody stumps. Eyelids forced their way over cloudy, yellowing, dripping eyes every time it blinked. Its mouth looked soldered shut: lips melted together into an angry, infected mass of flesh and pus. What had once been clothes were now tatters that looked fused to scarred flesh.
“I am Admiral Kaur,” it said. Her voice, wet and phlegmy, came over the feed, but how she spoke I didn’t know. “We have come to pay our debts.”
Kaur’s appearance made me nauseous. How someone could survive in that state and be functional confounded me. I imagined the smell she gave off, and it sent another wave of nausea through me. It took looking away from the feed plus all of my willpower to not vomit.
“We have come through the Veil to free our benefactor’s kin,” said Kaur. Her eyes didn’t look at the camera, yet I could feel her gaze boring into me. It burned in my chest and seared into my thoughts. “If you stand against us your reward will be endless suffering for the pleasure of our benefactor. If you stand with us,” Kaur said, her cheeks crinkling into what I guessed could have been a smile, “your reward will be the pleasure of endless suffering for our benefactor.”
Kaur’s feed closed, and the external feed from The Hive’s ship popped up again. Kaur’s shuttles began to land on Braxa’s ship. Some impacted into the sides. They came in hard and fast without trying to pull up for a landing. Tracer fire arced from Braxa’s ship, but most shots missed their targets, speeding out into endless space. The occasional shuttle was hit but the larger ships looked unaffected by the fire.
“I thought Braxa lost power,” I said.
They’re using other means. While their energy weapons won’t work manual gunpowder fired projectiles will. It’s the last gasp of a dying ship.
As we watched, Kaur’s flagship began to move. Its tendrils reached out, extending as they went. They curled around Braxa’s ship and tightened. Shuttles that had landed were crushed or brushed aside. The tracer fire, less numerous in volumes than before, concentrated on the giant ship. The tendrils began to pull in Braxa’s and crush it. Like an aluminum can it began to bend and warp as the tendrils exerted their force. The tracer fire didn’t miss Kaur’s ship. It impacted but had little effect. It left scar marks on the metal and seemed to be eaten up by the biological parts.
Escape pods jettisoned from Braxa's ship. They were set upon almost immediately by buzzing swarms of shuttles. Some of the pods were destroyed. Others were gobbled up by larger ships capturing them within gigantic open maws in their hulls that must have been cargo bays at one point. I didn’t want to think too long about what they held now.
One pod headed straight in our direction. A group of shuttles caught up with it and began ramming into it. One struck too hard and spun away, shedding parts and pieces as it went. I could see the passengers flash frozen by the vacuum as their remains spun out of view.
The pod wobbled on its course. Another shuttle slammed into its rear. The front of the shuttle crumpled, and the craft veered off in another direction without correcting its course. Another shuttle fired a laser into the side of the pod. The beam arced then came out the other side, traveling down the length, cutting the top of the pod away from the bottom. The pieces separated, and I saw several small figures attempt to escape their craft. They were set upon by tethered figures from the shuttles.
You have to leave.
I continued to watch the feed. The tethered figures pulled their captives back into the shuttle which then veered away and headed back to the main colonist fleet. Braxa’s ship was nearly consumed by Kaur’s. It was being taken apart and attached to the side of the flagship where the growths had already begun consuming it and making it part of the overall structure. A single source of tracer fire continued in futile effort.
You must get on an escape pod.
“Why?” I said. I was enraptured by the happenings on the video feed. My voice sounded like I spoke in a dream coming from somewhere other than myself.
A sharp pain stung my hip. I tore myself away from the feed and looked down. One of The Hive’s membe
rs pulled back and hit me again in the hip.
“What?” I screamed. The Hive annoyed and distracted me. I had to watch the feed to see what happened. The Hive had diverted my thoughts from Kaur. That mustn’t happen.
“Focus on me,” said the member.
I squinted my eyes and concentrated. For the first time I noticed the hum had continued after Kaur’s feed went down. My head felt cleared. I’d given in; I’d listened to my own thoughts instead of blocking them out without realizing it.
The member motioned for me to follow it. It moved with stumbling steps. At times it would lurch to the side then have to steady itself. It reminded me of a drunk trying to walk.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“I’m losing my control,” said the member. “Kaur’s fleet has turned from Braxa’s ship and crew. She knows we’re out here.”
The member pointed to a door. It fell backwards onto its rear and used its back to lean against the wall. The door slid open when I approached it while the member fell over on its side.
Hurry. There are pods big enough for you.
A way marker popped up on my HUD. I leaned down and went through the door. The passageway could have held five of The Hive’s members standing side by side, but I had to crawl on my hands and knees. My video feed showed shuttles and a few of the larger ships racing towards us. Kaur’s ship continued to meld Braxa’s onto its structure.
The Hive’s member lay on the ground along the corridor. A very few pushed themselves down the hall using the wall as a support. I rushed past them knowing that they were as good as dead.
I have to go. If I hold on any longer I’ll be consumed.
The Hive sounded tired and strained. I wasn’t positive, but it felt like The Hive had left. It felt like there might have been an empty spot where it had once been. I knew that our connection had been severed.
I scrambled around a corner and crawled as fast as I could. Members lay on the floor without moving. My breathing came in ragged gasps as my muscles burned. The assist from my suit still didn’t let me move as fast as I wanted. The shuttles continued to close in as I stumbled into the escape pod.
The Terran Representative Page 10
