Hive (The Color of Water and Sky Book 4)

by Andrew Gates

  “Uh, I don’t know,” Jallah said.

  “We’re using a cable to stay in place,” Ophelia explained. “It’s not long enough to get us to the door.”

  “Shit,” Dan muttered.

  “Stay calm,” Grey said.

  Jallah was not sure if that comment was directed at them or at Dan.

  “Okay guys,” Dan said after a deep breath. “How are you guys oriented?”

  “We have our backs to the floor, our feet to space.”

  “So the door is above your heads?” Dan asked.

  “That’s right,” Margery answered.

  “Are you able to flip over?” Dan asked.

  “Uh… not really. Not without letting go of each other,” Margery said.

  “Okay. This will be easier to do on your bellies, but we’ll have to settle for doing this on your backs then. Here’s what you’re going to do. Ophelia is the one holding you in place, right?”

  “That’s right,” said Ophelia.

  “I want you guys to climb on top of Ophelia like a tower. You wouldn’t have to let go of each other to do it.”

  “I think we can do that,” Margery said.

  “Good. Do it.”

  Jallah was first to move. He shuffled around along the floor until he was on top of Margery, then Margery moved on top of Ophelia. After about a minute, they were in position. Each of them were now holding onto the legs of the person above them.

  “Done,” Margery said.

  “Good,” Dan replied. “Now Ophelia, you’re holding onto a cable you said, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “When I say so, I want you to push yourself up from the cable in the direction of that door. Be careful not to touch the floor behind you as you move. If you touch that floor, you’re going to rebound in the opposite direction. Do you understand? Do not touch any surface.”

  “We got it,” Margery said.

  “Yep,” added Ophelia.

  “Okay, when you’re ready, push off,” Dan said.

  Ophelia took a deep breath, then pushed.

  The trio moved slowly up through the hangar, or forward, depending on the perspective. Jallah leaned his head back to get a look and realized how close he was to the floor. He quickly pulled his head back again, right before the back of his helmet would have collided against the surface. So close, he thought.

  After a few seconds, they reached the door. Jallah reached up and grabbed onto a rounded edge. It was tough to get a grip, especially with one hand already carrying the vial, but he managed.

  The other two collided against him and almost bounded back, but Jallah held them still in place, preventing them from going anywhere.

  He let out a deep sigh of relief, honestly impressed that they had gotten this far.

  “We did it! Now what?” Margery asked.

  But before Dan could even answer the question, the door opened on its own. Since Jallah was holding onto the door itself, he began to move with it. He quickly wrapped his hand around to the inside and pulled himself in as the door moved. Margery and Ophelia, still connected, moved with him.

  As soon as they all passed through the threshold, the door suddenly closed on its own, trapping them inside.

  And then they began to fall.

  What is happening? Why am I falling? Jallah wondered.

  It was slow at first. But they were definitely moving toward the direction of what was meant to be the floor. Their bodies pressed against it now, not rebounding like before.

  Then a faint hum emanated from the room and Jallah realized that this room was slowly starting to pressurize.

  “We’re in!” Margery said, the first one to push herself up and stand in the proper orientation.

  The other two followed suit. They were all standing now on their own two feet. At first the gravity seemed to be much weaker than Jallah was used to, but after a few seconds, the opposite was true. The gravity felt stronger.

  “What happened?” Dan asked.

  “The door opened all by itself and the room on the other side pressurized,” Margery explained.

  “It must be an automated feature. The queen wouldn’t willingly let them in like that,” Grey muttered to Dan.

  “I agree,” he said back to his brother. “I’m guessing the queen still thinks we’re all dead. She probably doesn’t even think to look for any of us.

  I hope it stays that way, Jallah thought. He did not like the feeling of the queen inside his head.

  The three of them took deep breaths and stood still for a moment. They needed a minute to rest and get their heads straight. Transitioning from zero gravity to higher gravity was not easy on any of them.

  After they had some time to get oriented, Jallah wiggled his legs and arms and looked to the others. They all nodded back to him.

  “We’re ready,” Margery said over the comm. “Where do we go now?”

  Dan was silent for a moment, but when he did speak, there was a tone of uncertainty to his words.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Kal Ukhrani is trying to get as much data on the ship as she can, but I’m not sure how helpful it will be. Honestly, if I were you, I would start wandering around. Getting to the queen’s ship was the hard part. You’ve done that. You’re inside. Now you just need to find her.”

  “Got it,” Margery replied with an exhale.

  “You’re kidding, right? This ship is huge!” Jallah said.

  “You heard the same thing I did, Jallah,” Margery retorted. “Let’s get walking.”

  “How about we start by moving forward? If I were the queen, I’d be deep in the middle of the ship. That is my bet,” Ophelia suggested.

  “Good as any plan,” Margery replied.

  One step after another, the trio moved on through the ship. The clean metallic floor shimmered in the light and clanked with every footstep. For minutes, the group walked through the ship and, not once, encountered another living creature. It was as if the entire Hive was devoted to the battle outside, with not a single one staying behind. Jallah wondered how often the drones even came inside. Perhaps it was common for them to spend days at a time inside their fighters.

  As Ophelia suggested, the trio just kept walking straight, deeper and deeper into the ship. They did not know if they were on the right track or not, but so far nothing was shooting at them, so Jallah did not mind. They passed up and down ramps, through doors and through halls both narrow and wide.

  While they walked along, Jallah felt his face grow itchy. He wanted to scratch it.

  “So… this place is pressurized now, right? Does that mean we can take our helmets off?” Jallah asked, hoping the answer was yes so he could scratch his itch.

  “It’s pressurized, but not with oxygen, remember?” Ophelia said. “It’s methane. We can’t breathe that.”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “So keep your helmet on,” Ophelia continued, pointing to him.

  “I got it, I got it. Sorry I asked.”

  More minutes passed. Eventually the trio approached a door, but this one was not like the rest. It was easily three times the height of the others. There was something strangely beautiful about the sheer size of it all.

  “Uh… guys, what does this mean?” Jallah asked as he beheld the sight. He stopped far enough away from it so that the sensors would not cause it to open.

  “What are you guys seeing?” Dan asked.

  “It’s another door but it’s way bigger. It looks… important,” Jallah explained.

  “Could that be it?” Grey asked. “The queen’s chamber?”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Dan said.

  Jallah gulped. He figured that would be the answer.

  He turned to each of the girls, who now stood on either side of him. Their pale faces both showed signs of anticipation and worry.

  “You ready?” he asked them.

  Margery nodded and held his hand.

  “Ready,” said Ophelia.

  And just like t
hat, they stepped forward and the door opened.

  Walking through the threshold of the doorway, the trio found themselves upon an elevated platform so far above the floor that Jallah could not see the bottom. He felt a shiver run up and down his spine and grasped Margery’s hand even tighter now. Looking up, Jallah realized that the ceiling was just as far away. It was as if this massive room stretched the entire height of the queen’s ship and this was its core.

  “Jallah,” Margery muttered, squeezing.

  He looked forward and nearly stopped in place. His jaw dropped.

  They were not alone.

  The platform continued until it formed a ring around an enormous beam of powerful blue light. The beam of energy must have been early two meters across and continued vertically up and down through the entire room.

  And just before the beam stood a darkened silhouette against the blue.

  At first Jallah could not tell whether it was moving forward or not, but he then noticed that it was not only moving but sprinting right toward them with a furiosity unrivaled. The creature was a lot like he had seen in his dreams. It resembled a jellyfish, with a thick sack on top and numerous long tentacles protruding out from underneath it, which it used to quickly move across the floor.

  “Oh my-” Jallah started.

  “It’s coming! Move!” Ophelia shouted, slowly backing up.

  Jallah was thankful that Ophelia was thinking clearly. He was so in awe, he could hardly think. He backed up too, but the alien was too fast. It moved forward like a predator pouncing on its prey.

  “HUMANS!” the creature cried out, its voice powerful in Jallah’s mind. This time the connection was sudden and it felt far more powerful than before. It practically crippled him to hear the word.

  Jallah dropped to the floor, careful not to fall from the ledge. The pain was so great, he opened his palms and the Metamorph fell from his grasp. It clanked onto the platform, the vial unbroken.

  “What is happening? What did you do?” Dan asked in a shocked voice over the comm. “The drones just changed course! All of them! They’re heading into the hangar. I repeat: the entire swarm is entering the hangar!”

  Before Jallah could make sense of anything, the jellyfish-like creature slammed against him, plowing him up into the air and then back down a few meters away. His body hit the platform with a thud. The blow had been considerable. He reached for his ribs, wondering if they were broken.

  “Jallah!” Margery shouted.

  Jallah looked up and saw Margery run to his aid, but the tentacles wrapped around her leg and dragged her back, forcing her face to meet the metal platform with a thick thud. Fortunately her helmet seemed to be intact, but with an impact like that, Jallah wondered if she was still conscious.

  Ophelia ran for the Metamorph, hoping to pick it up, but the monster grabbed her the same way it had Margery, though Ophelia managed to place both arms before her helmet, blocking her head from impacting the floor the way Margery had.

  “Humans,” the creature said again.

  Jallah’s head pounded. By the way Ophelia and Margery immediately started squirming in pain, he assumed they were hearing the voice as well this time.

  At least Margery is still awake, Jallah thought.

  “Guys, talk to me. What is happening?” Dan asked.

  “We… we… here,” Jallah responded, doing his best to form words through the pain.

  “Do you have eyes on the queen? Do you see her?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Jallah said. “But… we dropped the vial.”

  “Did he say they dropped the vial?” Grey asked.

  “Get it. The swarm is on its way to you. Get it now! Break it!” Dan said.

  Jallah wanted to shout, “I’m trying!” but he knew it would do no good. He slowly did his best to stand up straight as he faced the queen.

  “Queen,” he said, hoping to get her attention.

  “Jallah Sane,” the creature replied.

  Jallah did not care about the pain anymore. Though it permeated his body inside and out, he knew that his pain was only temporary. But death… death would last forever.

  “I must say, you are resilient. I thought I destroyed you when I sliced your ship open. Imagine my surprise when you three walked in just now.”

  “Stop this, Queen. Please, stop this now! Let go of my friends. Stop the drones. Please!” Jallah pleaded.

  “You try to negotiate again! Did you learn nothing from the last time you tired this feeble strategy?” The queen passed over the vial and stopped before it. Jallah could not tell where the creature’s head was, but he imagined that she was looking down at it. “Is this your weapon? Is this the tool you thought you could use to destroy me?”

  Jallah’s eyes grew wide as the queen casually kicked the vial off the ledge and down into the deep pit below. It dropped and dropped and dropped. The Metamorph was gone. He could not believe it. All this work… for nothing.

  “No!” he shouted as loud as he could. “No! No! No!” He was angry. Everything he had done was building to this moment and in an instant, the entire plan had fallen apart.

  “You thought you could destroy me? You are a fool. No enemy can destroy me. I am a queen! I may have failed to destroy you the first time, but I will kill you now.”

  With those words, the queen tossed both girls down directly onto the ramp so hard that Jallah could hear bones snap from where he stood several meters away. There was no doubt in his mind that they were both seriously wounded now if they hadn’t been before.

  The queen bolted forward at top speed. Rather than back up this time, Jallah stood his ground. He had nowhere to go and nothing left to lose. This was it. This was the end.

  As soon as her tentacles were close enough to touch, Jallah darted forward and punched at her. The queen’s tentacles maneuvered their way around Jallah’s fist. He missed her entirely as her numerous limbs clasped around his body instead.

  “What do you plan to do now, boy? Strike me to death?”

  Jallah squirmed in the creature’s grip, unable to break free. He shoved and kicked and butted with his helmet but nothing worked. He felt the tentacles tighten around him. It was just like his dream… no, not a dream, a prophecy.

  He could see what the dream truly was now. Everything had been real the whole time. The tentacles coiled around him just as he remembered and the blue light… well it wasn’t quite as he’d imagined it, but it was there, different form or not.

  He knew how this dream ended. The vial is the key. Those were the words. But the vial was lost. He had no key. He had only doom and defeat.

  Jallah heard a faint beating of drums in the distance. It started quietly, but then grew louder and louder. He wondered if it was his own heartbeat. Drums. Why am I hearing drums? I must be going crazy. So close to death, I’m hallucinating.

  He gasped for breath, but the tentacles were too tight around him. He could not breathe. Nothing entered his lungs. He would surely suffocate.

  The beating of drums grew louder and louder and Jallah soon realized that the noise was coming from the door he and the others had entered through. He did his best to face that direction in the tangle of tentacles, though he could not get a very good view. But he saw enough. The massive door slowly opened and an army stood on the opposite side.

  Not drums, he realized suddenly, marching.

  More jellyfish creatures entered the room, too many to count. They took up the entire platform and the room behind it, anything in visible range. Dan was right. The swarm had arrived.

  This is the end. This is it.

  Just as Jallah was prepared to close his eyes for good and accept defeat, a faint curl of white vapor suddenly swirled through the air beyond the tentacles. Jallah could not believe it. Vapor. The air.

  Metamorph.

  The vial cracked on its fall. Of course it did! How could I be so stupid? I can still win this. I’m not done yet! Jallah mustered all the strength he had left and kicked harder than he ever kicked befor
e. The queen roared and released her grip, finally giving Jallah an opportunity to breathe. He let in the oxygen from his suit, savoring the air in his lungs, then rolled across the ramp, trying to stay clear of the queen’s tentacles.

  He popped up a few meters away and faced the queen. She was not like she was before. Instead of composed and ready to attack, she now moved sporadically, twisting and turning this way and that.

  Jallah recalled the old video footage and the way the ancient boy looked when he first inhaled the serum or the way Soh Saratti reacted when he had done the same. The queen’s convulsions were all too familiar.

  It’s working, he realized. Lord Beyond Both Seas, it’s working!

  “Margery, Ophelia, get up!” he cried out.

  They were unmoving on the opposite side of the queen.

  “Get up!” he repeated.

  When they did not move, he darted forward, stepping around the queen who seemed to pay him no mind during her spasm, and met the two girls. They clung to the metal floor on their chests. He approached Margery first and placed his hand on her back.

  “Margery?” he said.

  “Jallah,” she replied, struggling to lift her head. “What is happening?”

  “It’s working!” he said excitedly, “but we can’t stay here. We have to go!”

  “It’s… it’s wha-?” she asked.

  “Can you stand?”

  “I… I can try. It hurts. Everything hurts,” she said.

  Margery struggled to move. Jallah grabbed her by the arms and pulled, assisting her. Once her back was vertical, she seemed to do much better. She stood on her knees, then came to her feet. Once standing, she pressed her hands against her spine.

  “Aah, my back!” she cried out.

  “We don’t have to go much farther. Just hold out as long as you can,” he said.

  Jallah moved to Ophelia now and placed his hand on her left shoulder.

  “Ophelia? You okay?” he asked.

  “My arms! I can’t move my arms!” she said.

  “Then I’ll help you.”

  Jallah lifted her up by her shoulders, then she stood up by herself the rest of the way. Ophelia’s arms dangled before her body like floppy branches. They must be broken, Jallah thought.