Horizon Beta

by D. W. Vogel

  “None of this could possibly be what our ancestors intended,” I said. “And once we get our people free, we’ll have our chance to farm. We didn’t start this war, but one way or another, we’re going to end it.”

  Chapter 36

  Noah

  By the time the pollen thinned in the air, we were on our way back to our Hive. Enough of the red dust still blew around to obscure our trail, which should buy us a few more days, but the Queen’s scent was powerful. Even over the haze of pollen, the enemy Soldiers would find us soon.

  We had buried most of the tools we found in another trench dug by our Diggers on the near side of the Forbidden Zone. Enough pollen mixed with the dirt they filled in that we hoped our scent wouldn’t be more prevalent there than anywhere else. The Hive would know we’d been there, no doubt about that. But they couldn’t possibly anticipate Lexis’s plan.

  The next three days were a frenzy of activity. Lexis supervised the distillation of more explosive powder. More ‘Mites arrived, drawn from all around to commune with our Queen. We didn’t have time to give them all names, and it didn’t matter.

  Most of them wouldn’t survive the battle.

  The odds were against us. Everyone knew it. But we had to win. Without the people living in the bowels of the Hive, our numbers were too small. Even if those of us on the outside found somewhere safe to live, there weren’t enough of us to carry on. In another generation, the only humans alive would be the Hive’s slaves, living in ignorance. We didn’t even know how many females and babies there were in the dark tunnels of the old Hive. But if we didn’t rescue them, our survival wouldn’t matter.

  Kinni came into my room the night before I left on my part of the mission.

  She flopped onto my bed next to me and I scooted down to give her room. I still had no idea what to make of her. Nothing in my upbringing prepared me to talk with a girl. She was part of our Hive now, and her scent soothed me, but she still made me trip over my tongue sometimes.

  “So is it like this forever?”

  I knew what she meant.

  “For me it was a little different. I didn’t get the oil right away. I shared her blood when she was sucked onto my belly.” I rubbed the soft round scar on my belly, remembering the joy of having her as part of me.

  She nodded. “I didn’t understand. Thought you were completely mental. All I saw was a squishy maggot.” Her eyes dropped in shame. “I couldn’t imagine what could possibly make you risk your life for her.”

  “But you were all willing to. Even before you joined the Hive for real.”

  “It’s different.” She stretched out on my furs, kicking me in the shin. “We needed a Queen so we could try to make a safe place to life. It was just about survival.” She nodded toward the open doorway. “Still is for them. But for me . . .”

  I understood. “You would die for her. For any of us. Because we’re a Hive.”

  She squirmed at the word. “Of course. And I can’t explain it. Dad’s been asking me questions since it happened. ‘What does it feel like? Can you hear her in your head?’”

  “There’s no way to explain it to anyone that’s not part of it.”

  From down the corridor, we heard the sounds of voices and the clicking of ‘Mites as Lexis and Mo made their final plans.

  “I thought it was some kind of weird mind-control thing,” Lexis went on. “It seemed so creepy to me. Like she had part of your brain and was controlling you.”

  I smiled. It might look like that to an outsider.

  “But it’s not that,” she said. “Not at all. I’m not controlled. She’s not in my head. It’s just that . . .” She searched for the words. “I love her, I guess. Not like I love my dad, and Lexis, and all the other people here. It’s different. It’s like she’s part of my body.”

  A soft snort escaped my nose. “And you’re part of hers. We all are. And each other, too.”

  She looked at me, and I looked away. She was part of my Hive. But she was still Kinni.

  “You really think they’ll come with you? The people in the big Hive?” she said.

  I tugged at the bottom of my shirt. Human clothing still felt strange and scratchy. “They’ll have to. Once I tell them the truth . . .“ I trailed off. Would they believe me? What if they didn’t?

  “They think we’re the enemy,” she said, echoing my thoughts. “This whole thing hinges on getting them out of that Hive.” Her fingers picked at the furs that made my sleeping pallet. “And not just the women and children.” She looked straight at me. “A lot of us are going to die to give you this chance.”

  I wanted to protest that it wasn’t my chance. It was all of our chances. Our only hope. But she was right. All of Lexis’s planning was to draw the Soldiers out of the Hive and give me time to convince a bunch of clueless humans that everything they thought they knew about themselves was wrong, and they should follow me out of the only home they’d ever known. Leave the relative safety of the Masters’ protection and hike out into a dangerous world. If we made it out and got them up into the mountain, they’d be safe. And the next pollen storm, Lexis and her explosives would bring the Hive down. We would build our own Hive near the ocean, and our Queen would produce our own Soldiers to defend us from any distant Hive that might someday try to attack us. But if the humans didn’t believe my story, all the people and ‘Mites providing the distraction would be fighting and dying for nothing. We would not escape this without heavy casualties. For our Queen and our future, we had no choice.

  “Lexis has it under control,” I said, hoping it was true. “Once I get the people out, she’s got a bunch of the explosive ready to bring down the mountain pass behind us. By the time they get it dug out to come after us, it will be time for the next pollen storm. And that will be the end of them.”

  She sighed. “I hope you’re right.” A lock of her hair fell into her face and she shoved it behind her ear, changing the subject. “So they kept you apart, right? Older guys working and the young ones separate? Women and little kids on their own?”

  I nodded.

  “Did you know the younger boys? Were you all together?”

  I shrugged. “We were kept in age groups, but I saw the younger boys. We all had jobs to do.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “Did you know . . .“ She stopped and sighed. “Their names were Grant and Joey, but of course the bugs wouldn’t know that. And they were just babies. So who knows what their names would be if they lived.”

  A Soldier limped by the entrance to my chamber, missing a leg from the top joint. We had been extracting their venom for days, planning to coat the weapons we had and the pitchforks that waited for us in the Forbidden Zone. The Soldier paused, feelers waving, before lurching on down the tunnel.

  Kinni continued. “I have two brothers. Had them, anyway. Twins. They were just babies when your Hive killed my mom. We think they took them, but . . .“ Her eyes dropped. “They were twins. Maybe identical, but all babies look alike.”

  I thought for a moment.

  “How long ago?”

  “Nine years.”

  I thought about all the younger boys that had crowded around to hear my Ranking. That day seemed ages ago. Queen’s Service. How proud I’d been to win the highest honor. And how stupid. Kinni’s hair was long and yellow, unusual for our people. Most of us were varying shades of brown. I searched my memory of the afternoon I’d stood so tall in the sunlight.

  “I think they’re there,” I said. “Two boys that look just alike, with hair like yours. I didn’t know their names.”

  Her face lit up. “Grant and Joey. Doesn’t matter what the bugs called them. They’re my brothers.” She gripped my arms, staring straight at me.

  I couldn’t look away.

  “You have to bring them out, Noah. Promise me that no matter what else happens, if you can’t get anybody else to come, promise that you’ll bring my baby brothers out of that hell. I want them back. I want th
em to be part of our Hive.”

  Brothers. I knew what the word meant. And with a start, I realized the Hive was probably full of my brothers. All the boys were taken from the Mothers’ Hall when we were very small. I now knew this was so that the original mothers couldn’t pass on the knowledge of what had happened. They did this right from the beginning, and by the second generation, no one was left in the Hive that knew what they had done to us. Maybe the girls that stayed with their mothers had passed the story down, but they were never allowed out of their tunnels. And the boys that were chosen as Caretakers and went to live with them were never allowed out, either. Once the Masters pulled us from those chambers, we never returned. How many of the men that toiled for the Hive were my brothers or uncles? Did I have more brothers even now, working as hard as they could to please the insects that had stolen their heritage?

  Chen.

  They’d taken him to be a Caretaker, to live with the women and babies.

  Maybe Chen knew the truth.

  I couldn’t imagine the anguish. When they dragged him down away from the sunlight for the last time, he would have had no idea. Did the women in that dungeon know? Had they kept the knowledge of what humans once were alive down there, powerless to escape? Would it be worse if they knew, or if they shared the ignorance of the boys that served the Hive, working ourselves to early death for the Masters that had made our whole lives a pathetic lie?

  I looked at Kinni. She had lived her whole life free, running from camp to camp, watching for the one mistake that would doom them all. She had never known safety. But she had always known freedom.

  And me? I had been safe, to a point. Living in a Hive, even a sick, putrid one like the one I’d grown up in, was safer than anywhere else in the world. We did what we were told, and we paid for that safety with our lives, but if we could only succeed . . . I pictured it. A brand new Hive, led by our perfect Blue Queen. ‘Mites and humans living together, working for the good of the whole. Each of us would toil for all of the others, and we would have plenty to share. Our Soldiers would keep us secure from invaders. Our Diggers would burrow deep into the ground, and our Builders would make great, circling towers into the sky. All around, humans would dive, and clean, and . . . No. Not just the roles given to us by the Masters. No more Runners, pushing themselves to early deaths under an unforgiving sun. No more Divers like Miguel, so eager to please his overlords that he would swim beyond his strength and drown, unmourned by the creatures whose approval he died for. We would create things, like Lexis and her explosives. We would write things with juice on bark so that our stories would never be forgotten. And we would make the Hive better. Stronger. Smarter. We could all do it together.

  I smiled at Kinni, full of the wonder of my dreams.

  “I promise. No matter what, I’ll get your brothers out.”

  Chapter 37

  Noah

  We all trooped out together.

  I led our ragtag army of humans and ‘Mites, walking next to Mo on one side and our Queen on the other. She was growing fast, and was almost as tall as me now when she stood up on her hind legs. In the early morning, we all received her blessing, anointing ourselves with the pure blue-scented oil from her head. She had learned a lot of words, clicking along with me and the others who knew the shared language. But we didn’t need words. We were bonded together from the sharing of my blood. I was hers and she was mine, and with every step we took toward the hateful ground of our enemy, the anger inside me simmered hotter, blue-purple waves flowing behind me.

  They wanted to kill her. And for this reason, I wanted to kill them.

  I wore only the pants I had been given, with the machete belted around my waist. Bare feet slapping against the ground, I plowed toward my destiny.

  On the top of the mountain pass, we parted ways.

  My mission was a solo run. The path to the underground river where I would swim into the hated Hive lay farther away to the south. Once I dropped into the water, I would make much better time than the crowd of fighters who were heading to the plateau on our side of the Forbidden Zone. By the time I emerged in the subterranean pool, the enemy Soldiers would be streaming out of the Hive, drawn by the smell of our Queen. The Builders and Diggers left behind wouldn’t fight me. Neither would the humans. Some of the men might be pulled into the battle, but we couldn’t help that. There would be casualties today. Lexis had seen to that.

  We stopped in the pass.

  I looked back at the line of people and ‘Mites. This was our future. We had already proven it could be done—humans and insects living together, working together. Our Blue Queen didn’t care which species we were. Every member of our Hive was hers, even if the other humans besides me and Gil and Kinni didn’t feel the bond like we did. If we succeeded today, we could make it work. But so much could go wrong.

  Mo startled me with a hug. “We’re all counting on you, Noah,” he said. “Please, please bring back my sons.”

  Kinni must have told him.

  Lexis gave me an awkward one-armed hug. “You can do it. We’ll keep them busy.”

  I nodded. There wasn’t room for the rest of the people and ‘Mites to cluster around me in the narrow pass, and I was just as glad. Too many hugs would throw off our timing. I didn’t want a hug from Gil, though my feelings about him were much kinder since the Queen had made him her own.

  The Queen approached me.

  “Goodbye,” I clicked. In reality, the human/insect language was far too simple for a concept like, “Goodbye.” What I really said was, “Eat well.” But she knew what I meant.

  She touched me with her soft feelers, and exuded her warm scent. Her head lowered and I took one last touch of the precious oil, rubbing it on my chest where my heart fluttered at her affection.

  I would do this for her. For Chen. For Kinni and for Sunshine. I would do this for all of humankind, and all the ‘Mites who would come after us.

  The sky was clear blue as I left the group and jogged toward destiny.

  ***

  The recent pollen storm had washed away all the scent trail leading back to the river’s entrance. I was guided by the deeper smell of fresh water and wet rock. No trace remained where Sunshine had waited for me the last time I made this swim, but I recognized the little cove. The rocks were slippery as I clambered down to the flowing river. Tiny lizards and thousand-legged worms scuttled out of my way. One large rock jutted out over the current. This was where Sunshine had pulled me from the water, nearly dead. Today I was alone, but a member of a Hive was never truly alone. I felt them in my heart. They were counting on me.

  Cold splash into the water. Today it would be a one-way swim. By the time I arrived in the Hive, the Soldiers should be gone. I would rush to the Mothers’ Chambers and find all the women and children. They, along with any other boys and men we could convince to join us, would follow me out of the Hive and around the Forbidden Zone to the south. We would travel up a different pass higher in the mountains and await the other humans in a safe cave, too high for ‘Mites to follow. Our ‘Mites would return to our fortified Hive, and once the women and children were safe, I would join them and the other fighters. Lexis had a plan to detonate her explosives and cover their retreat, but if the enemy found their trail, we would hold them off until the next pollen storm drove them back home. Then we would bury them forever with one final blast. Our Queen and our people would be safe.

  With one deep breath, I dropped beneath the surface. The current pulled me along, and my mind quieted in the easy flow. Left. Right. Center and down. I paused in sunlit pools to suck in air, and grabbed at the rock ceiling for gulps of breath in tiny columns of light, pressing my face into little crevasses and clinging to the stone. Left. Left.

  As I floated, I thought about what I might say to convince the captives who didn’t even know they were captive. How could I possibly distill what I’d learned into something that would fit in the short time I’d have to make them understand
? What if they were too afraid to follow me? What if they thought I was lying, as they’d been lied to their whole lives? What if they didn’t want freedom?

  All too soon I was there.

  The moment I broke the surface of the river inside the Hive, I was overwhelmed by the stench. Yellow and filthy, the air choked me. How had I lived here my entire life and never realized how rotted this place was? The old, sick Queen’s stench was everywhere. My mouth filled with a wash of saliva and bile filled my throat. I gulped with a grimace, climbing out of the pool. The smear of my Blue Queen’s oil had almost completely washed away in the river, and my heart ached for her healthy, vibrant scent.

  Steady. Don’t be overwhelmed. Make sure it’s time.

  I closed my eyes and breathed in, sniffing and listening. The smell of alarm was everywhere here, and the vibration of hundreds of Soldiers on the move told me that our challenge was being answered.

  Wait. Give them time to get out.

  I counted backwards from a hundred, one number for each breath. By the time I reached one, the scuttling above me had quieted, and the stench of Soldiers had begun to clear. The Hive was nearly empty of the ‘Mites I once called Masters.

  It was time to rescue my people.

  Chapter 38

  Noah

  Up and up, through tunnels I once knew only by sight. I breathed through my mouth, but it didn’t help. The yellow, rancid smell of death crept into the back of my burning throat.

  Get the people. And get out.

  A few ‘Mites skittered around the corners, but by scent alone I knew they were Diggers. They all tried to crowd me, feelers waving at my chest.

  I must still carry a bit of her scent.

  None of them tried to stop me, and I pushed through them, clicking “Come. New Queen.” I didn’t know if they would join us, but any who didn’t would be killed when the Hive collapsed next pollen time.

  We wove up through the Hive, an ever-lengthening parade with me at the head. Together we became one of the thousand-legged bugs, flowing toward the Mothers’ Chambers.