“Oh.” Next time I caught myself wishing that I hadn’t been born a telepath, and could have the ordinary peaceful existence I’d always expected, I would have to think about Melisande and remember that my life was easy in comparison to hers.
Lucas studied my face. “There’s something troubling you about Melisande. If you have any reason to doubt her trustworthiness, you must tell me right away.”
I flushed. “It’s not that Melisande isn’t trustworthy. It’s just … Well, when I saw her mind, I couldn’t help thinking that she would be a far better girlfriend for you than I am.”
Lucas’s eyes widened and his voice rose in disbelief. “You’re feeling threatened by Melisande?” He shook his head. “You’ve got this situation backwards. It shouldn’t be you that’s feeling threatened by Melisande, but me. She’s attracted to women not men, and she’s clearly intrigued by your telepathy. When she said that she liked you, Amber, she was making the statement that she’d be interested in a relationship if you were.”
“What? Oh.” I blinked. “I didn’t go deep enough into her mind to hit any sexual imagery. Well, if I was attracted to women, and if I wasn’t already in a relationship, then I’d be interested in Melisande too. Neither of those things are true though.”
Lucas smiled. “I’m relieved to hear it.”
I went back to thinking about the other people in my unit. Megan, Adika, Lucas, and Hannah all knew Hive Futura. They’d been there with me when I had my initial training as a telepath. The Alpha Strike team hadn’t been to Hive Futura, but they had been in an aircraft with me before, and I was sure the Beta Strike team could cope with this trip as well. I was worried how the rest of my people were feeling though. They’d never seen an aircraft before, but now they were about to step into one, and fly through the nightmare terrors of Outside to long abandoned Hive Futura.
I closed my eyes and reached out with the telepathic sense that gave me such a different view of the world. There was the bright glow of Lucas’s mind next to me. I couldn’t resist taking a moment to admire the brilliance of it, and was instantly drawn in by the bewildering number of thought levels. The highest levels of Lucas’s mind were usually pure analysis, free from emotions, but now they burned with fear for me.
I have to be right that going to Hive Futura will help Amber, because I’ve no idea what else to …
I hastily moved to lower levels, and was startled to see images of Olivia. Lucas hadn’t visited her himself, but he’d watched recordings of all Penelope’s conversations with her.
… the Jupiter personality wasn’t just openly admitting guilt, but offering details to prove it, as evidence in support of the argument that Olivia should be reset. Jupiter was very careful not to give us any information that could lead us to Mars though. An echo personality with this strength of mind is unprecedented, so …
Next came several levels that were checking through the preparations for this trip.
… can count on Megan to have thought of all the …
… enough power cells to …
… would just take one missing connection lead to mess up the …
… plenty of time to get things sent after us if …
Below that, fear and anxiety ran wild again. I left Lucas’s mind and touched the clarity of Adika’s thoughts. He was torn between amusement and irritation that Lucas still hadn’t told him what he thought Mars was planning or how he intended to deal with it.
… agree that we mustn’t pile more pressure on Amber, but I …
… his meeting with his Tactical team went on for …
… Buzz is right. I can’t talk to Megan yet. We’re all too on edge about Amber’s condition at the moment. Me, Megan, Lucas, everyone. Once Amber has done whatever telepaths do to clean their minds of the lingering slime they pick up from their targets, I can discuss future plans with Megan, and then …
The lower levels of Adika’s thoughts suddenly filled with a fantasy image of Megan that made me urgently leave his head. I hovered in the dark void between minds, thinking through what I’d just seen. Adika had reacted so calmly to the news of Megan’s planned baby, that I’d assumed he’d accepted their relationship was over, but I’d been wrong. I hoped he wasn’t going to try to change Megan’s mind, because she was unshakeably determined to have her dead husband’s child, and any argument would just cause yet more trouble between them.
Adika had said that he’d talked some things through with Buzz. I was reassuring myself with the thought that she’d have warned him against doing anything unreasonable, when I remembered Buzz had a history of trapping attractive young men in lifts with her.
My imagination conjured up a surreal image of Adika trapping Megan in a lift, and I moved on to a cluster of minds further back on the express belt. These were the Liaison team, tightly grouped around Nicole, their thoughts flashing bright with emotion.
Either the Alpha or Beta Strike team would go out with me on every emergency or check run. Sometimes a member of the Tactical team went along with us on a check run to talk us through the background details of the situation. No Liaison member ever joined us on a run though. They did their support work from the safety of our unit.
This time was different. This time they weren’t watching others go out to defend the Hive. This time they were going too. Lucas had told them they were needed to support their telepath through a crisis, and hinted that the Hive had some great need of their help too. They didn’t know why that meant them going to Hive Futura, or what they would be required to do when they got there, but whatever it was they were fiercely determined to do it.
Further back still were the members of my unit who weren’t on operational teams. The people who worked in our medical area, did maintenance work, ordered supplies, and carried out the thousand and one jobs needed to keep our unit running smoothly.
I touched the thoughts of one of the maintenance workers. She was thinking about all the times the unit speaker system had started its distinctive warbling at night, and how she’d wake up, lie in her sleep field, and listen to the words that followed. All the times it had happened during the day, and she’d paused in her work to watch the people running in response to the calm, computerized voice.
“Unit emergency alert. Unit emergency alert. We have an incident in progress. Operational teams to stations. Strike team to lift 2.”
Sometimes it was the Alpha Strike team going out with Amber, sometimes the turn of the Beta Strike team. Either way, she could only wait until another voice spoke over the unit speaker system. This one would be a human voice, usually Lucas, but occasionally Megan or Nicole. Whoever it was, she’d hold her breath as they started talking, waiting to see if they would say the words she wanted to hear, the words that all those waiting in the unit wanted to hear.
“Amber and her team are back in lift 2 and on their way up. Everyone is fine.”
She’d relax again after that, listen to the unit gossip about what had happened on the run, and be happy again until the next time the warbling came. She’d never thought that the day would come when the unit speaker system would call people to the lifts, and she’d be one of those responding. Today was that day. Today she wasn’t waiting helplessly in the unit. Today she was heading out with Amber and both the Strike teams. Yes, she was near the back of the line, and carrying her toolbox not a gun, but it still felt good.
I moved on to another random mind. This one was a technician, his hand adjusting the crystal unit in his ear, trying to get the unfamiliar thing in a comfortable position. His mind was troubled with thoughts of Outside, and memories of the Halloween tales he’d heard during his childhood. Lucas had given everyone a talk the previous evening. He’d promised them that they’d get into the aircraft when they were inside the Hive, and get out of the aircraft inside Hive Futura. They wouldn’t be Outside at any point. The technician hung on to that thought. He could cope with anything else, but not being Outside with the hunter of souls and his demonic pack.
I drifted across more groups of minds. They were ordinary members of the Hive, not selected to go into danger like the Strike team, but they were all filled with a mix of valour, fear, and determination. They’d been offered the chance to stay in the unit if they couldn’t face going to Hive Futura, but none of them had taken it. I was incredibly proud of them.
I opened my eyes, and discovered Lucas was smiling at me. “Is everyone all right?” he asked.
He’d obviously noticed I had my eyes closed, and worked out what I was doing. “Yes. They’re being amazingly brave about this. I didn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“That when I’m out on a run with the Strike team, you make an announcement over the unit speaker system when we’re coming home.”
He laughed. “Of course you didn’t know that. Everyone else in the unit has been through the suspense of waiting for our people to come back from a run, even Adika has let Rothan and the Alpha team go out on an occasional simple check run without him, but you’re out there every single time.”
“I’ve never thought of that before.”
A couple of minutes later, Adika gave the order to jump belt. I saw large signs announcing this was a restricted Hive Defence area. Adika led the way through open doors into the chill air of the cavernous aircraft hangar.
I paused as I saw what was ahead of us. Piles of crates, in colours varying from reassuring green to worrying black and red stripes. Beyond them, a row of seven massive aircraft waited to take us to Hive Futura.
Chapter Thirty-three
I turned to Lucas. “I know there are over a hundred people in the unit, but do we really need seven aircraft?”
“We’re not just taking people, but a lot of equipment as well.”
The Alpha and Beta Strike teams were already leaping into action, seemingly competing to see which team could load heaps of crates into the aircraft cargo bays fastest. Megan and several of her Admin team started organizing the rest of the unit members into groups.
“The aircraft are designated as Aerial one to Aerial seven,” said Lucas.
“Let me make a wild guess,” I said. “We’ll be travelling in Aerial one.”
“Yes, we’ll be in Aerial one with Adika and the Alpha Strike team. I’m sure the Beta Strike team will complain about being relegated to Aerial two, but they were recruited and went into training several months after the Alpha team, so they’ll have to accept taking second place for a while yet.”
Lucas led the way over to the centre aircraft, up a narrow flight of steps, and in through the door. I chose a window seat and watched the busy activity outside. I saw Nicole was manoeuvring her powered chair cautiously up a ramp to another aircraft door, with the Liaison team following her.
A thought occurred to me and I turned to Lucas. “I hope the other aircraft have their windows covered. The Alpha and Beta Strike teams should be able to cope with the view of Outside, but it would terrify the rest of the unit.”
He smiled. “Aerial three through seven have their windows covered.”
“Good.”
A sudden burst of heavy footsteps and chattering voices came from behind me. The Alpha Strike team were boarding the aircraft, and Eli’s voice rose above the others.
“It’s not surprising that the Beta greenies shifted more crates than we did. There are twenty of them on the Beta team, and only eighteen of us. They had Forge helping them as well, while Rothan is still in the Fire Casualty Centre.”
The Strike team members found their seats and sat down. I looked through the window again, and saw the doors of the other aircraft were closing, and the steps were being shifted to the side of the hangar.
Lucas’s dataview chimed. “We’re ready to leave.”
The hangar doors opened. There was a faint vibration as our aircraft’s engines started, and then it moved Outside and up a slope to a flat area surrounded by trees. The sound of the engines abruptly increased, and we lifted up into the air.
I looked out of the window beside me, and saw the trees were growing smaller and smaller. I’d conquered my terror of the Outside and the Truesun, but I still suffered from my old fear of heights. I knew it was impossible to fall out of a reinforced glass window, but still instinctively tensed.
“All right?” Lucas held out a hand towards me.
“Yes.” I held his hand gratefully. “Weirdly, I’m only nervous when we’re taking off. Once we’re high in the air, everything below us looks so tiny that it seems unreal.”
I turned back to the window. It was a bright but cloudy day. Our aircraft was hovering above an untidy expanse of pine trees, but over to my left was an area of grassland that looked far neater, and had some paths crossing it. That had to be one of the Outside country parks.
The Hive promoted the myth of Outside being a nightmare place, where the Truesun blinded you during the day, and demons hunted you at night. I understood why the Hive did that. It wanted its citizens to think of it as the only safe place in the world, so they’d never consider invoking their right under Hive Treaty to move to a different Hive.
It seemed inconsistent that the Hive would also provide free access to Outside parks, but it wasn’t. A small minority of people had a psychological need for more space and contact with nature than they could get in the Hive’s parks and beaches. The Hive dealt with that in the same way as it dealt with all the varied strengths and weaknesses of its citizens, by accepting their innate differences and channelling them into something that benefited the Hive.
Those who needed access to Outside were allowed it so long as they kept quiet about their shameful activities, and they provided a useful workforce for necessary jobs Outside the Hive.
I studied the country park for a moment, trying to see if any people were walking through it, but then something in the sky caught my attention. One of the other aircraft was flying on that side of us. A second appeared, and a third. I turned to look at the windows on the opposite side of our aircraft, and saw the other three aircraft were flying beside us on that side. I was reminded of the way the Strike team clustered around me during an emergency run.
“Lucas, are the other aircraft positioning themselves to protect us?” I asked.
He peered out of the window. “Yes, they’re going into a defensive formation around us.”
I frowned. “Why are they doing that? No other Hive would dare to breach Joint Hive Treaty by sending aircraft into our territory.”
Lucas smiled. “Our pilots are from Hive Defence. It makes sense that they’re paranoid about attacks by other Hives.”
I sighed. Yes, Lottery would select Hive Defence staff with an innate distrust of other Hives, and their imprints would contain information that encouraged their suspicions.
The note of the engines changed, and we started moving faster, the other aircraft holding the defensive formation on either side of us. I heard an excited cry from somewhere behind me.
“High up!”
There was a burst of laughter from the rest of the Alpha team. I laughed myself, but instantly sobered up again. Lucas’s theory was that my mind had dealt with target echoes before on our long camping trip. He thought that once I was free from the tumult of a hundred million thoughts, my mind would cleanse itself of Mercury’s echo. I fervently hoped that was true.
Right now, the clamour of the Hive mind was still close beneath us. I stared out of the window at the ground below. The Hive was originally built with most of its levels underground, and the rest sticking up above the surrounding countryside, but later it was covered with spare soil and rocks. We were currently flying over the flat, conifer-covered area above the Hive, but would soon reach …
Yes, I could see it now, the steep slope in the ground that meant we’d reached the edge of the Hive. Beyond it, a river weaved its way between some low hills.
I closed my eyes on that view, and looked at the world with my telepathic sense instead. The great roar of a hundred million people’s minds was behind me. Ahead and on both s
ides of me, was only a gentle rustling sound, made up of the thoughts of animals and birds.
On the telepathic level, things were much quieter now. Had my mind already driven out the invading influence of Mercury? No, I could still feel his alien presence in the corner of my mind.
I told myself that I shouldn’t expect this to work so soon. The Hive was still too close, too noisy, too distracting. I waited until it was further away, checked for Mercury again, and found him still with me. I waited, checked, waited longer, and checked yet again. My unwelcome passenger was still there.
I was getting tense now. That probably wasn’t helping. The colour, shape, texture of Lucas’s mind was radiating anxiety from next to me, and that definitely wasn’t helping. Minute after minute passed by, and the Hive grew more distant and faint until I couldn’t sense it at all, but Mercury was still in my head when I heard the sound of the aircraft engines change.
I opened my eyes, looked out of the window again, and saw our aircraft was slowing and losing height. I’d been unconscious from sedatives when I flew to Hive Futura after Lottery. When I flew back to the main Hive, I was conscious but terrified of the Truesun, so all the aircraft windows had been covered.
Now I had my first view of Hive Futura from the air. Like the main Hive, it had been buried in soil, so it was a vast, flat-topped hill sticking up above the surrounding countryside. The pine trees covering it were like those at the main Hive too, but there was one difference that surprised me.
“Lucas, why is Hive Futura square rather than oblong?”
“The main Hive was originally built as one square zone, but was later extended on the southern side, gradually adding the extra nine zones we have today. Hive Futura was built as one square zone too, with the idea it would be extended in future as well, but that never happened. The main Hive population dropped and Hive Futura’s population was reabsorbed. Hive Futura has been abandoned since then, but basic maintenance is carried out in case it’s needed again.”
Defender Page 28
